Linchpin: A Godin Masterpiece

As of today, I am a changed man. I see things more clearly and look at the world through a different lens. All because, I know I am a genius, an artist, a Linchpin. I know that it’s not going to be an easy transition and there will be times where fear and resistance are going to ring through in my lizard brain, but I know I have a unique gift to offer, not only to myself, but to those around me. I vow from this day forward to stand up and stake claim to my future of being indispensable all thanks to the amazing writings of Seth Godin in Linchpin.

With a unique combination of storytelling and fact delivering, Godin elicits the messages that were whispering in my mind, but were afraid to come out. Describing that inside each and every one of us lies a genius in our own right, Godin creates a compelling argument toward greatness and becoming that person we all wish we were; that voice that is whispering wanting to come out; that Linchpin.

Godin turns traditional thinking about career, marketing, and education on its head. The “if I perform at my highest (within corporate culture) I will be rewarded in the long run” mentality is quickly becoming the downfall in our society. There are fewer and fewer great thinkers out there and more cogs in the machine. But Godin believes an artist lies in each of us. This book Linchpin is the awakening of that artist, that genius. He empowers us to speak up in that meeting to make a difference, to voice our concern about a certain strategy, and the tools to deliver on these new found revelations. The difference between you right now and a Linchpin, is the confidence to stand up and the act of delivering.

Overall, Linchpin is an amazing, eye-opening experience that I am going to recommend to everyone from my cousin in college to the CEO of my company. If my entire organization were filled with Linchpins, the world would be our oyster. Thank you Seth Godin for awakening the sleeping giant.

Social Media: 2009 a Year in Review

Last January, I predicted some social media trends that we needed to keep our eyes on over 2009. I wanted to look back and see how my predictions actually held up.

1.    Consolidation – The rise and fall of websites is inevitable. The rush to market for social networking sites has shown tremendous opportunity for success but even more opportunity for failure. Over the next year, we will see only the strong survive. Instead of having 5-10 social sites, users will focus narrowly on 1-3 sites saving time and narrowing opportunities for conversations.

Over the past year, we have seen some drastic decreases in corporate website traffic and an influx of participation on the social sphere. However, this social traffic has been primarily focused on the big players in the realm (ie Twitter and Facebook). A driving force behind the growth of these platforms is the ease of connecting with the multiple groups in our lives.

We are also seeing a few things emerging to further these consolidations. The use of communication portals like Google Wave, Seesmic, etc. where consumers can log into one place and manage multiple platforms. The influx of mobile technologies are making it so users don’t even have to be near a computer to “socialize.”

2.    More Interactivity – Building off consolidation, the strong sites that survive will provide the interactivity the user wants and needs. These interactive features will give brands and companies the opportunities to fully engage in fulfilling relationships.

The interactivity given through these social sites have enhanced personal relationships, enhanced events, and built solid relationships between consumers and brands.

The growth of social gaming and mobile gaming is showing the trend leaning towards the interactivity with not only the platforms, but the stakeholders in which we are connected on these platforms.

3.    Saturated Market – The growth of social media in 2008, is opening a lot of doors for many companies and brands to utilize these social strategies to engage customers. The more brands, the more saturated, the less effective social media will become as a marketing function. Now is the time to get in and engage in the relationship for future interactivity.

Every where you look you see a company’s Twitter and Facebook fan page. It’s becoming more of a marketing need to be on these social platforms rather than their own corporate site. With this trend extending into 2010, we will see an increase in the saturation in multiple markets.

4.    Less Permission – With the saturated market will bring less permission from the user. Less and less consumers will be raising their hand wanting to engage in a relationship. The social media users will become leery of brands “selling” to them in these highly personal spaces.

The few spoil it for the majority. With some companies moving their “selling” tactics from the traditional marketing world into the social world, we are seeing some backlash in consumer perceptions with brands on social media. The “selling” companies aren’t gaining the required trust and permission in the social world to be successful, dampening the power these relationships could be for the rest of us trying to enhance our consumer’s lives.

5.    Big Failures / Big Successes – As we’ve seen over the past few years, brands will continue to be made through social media and fail miserably the same way. Act quickly, measure, and react. Commitment and dedication will be the only way to survive throughout the next year in the social media realm.

We all remember the Motrin fiasco… Many companies have had their own failures on social media, but some have been extraordinarily bad. The Motrin scandal, Skittles, etc. Failure is all about trying and missing some major points. But at least they tried, right?

Now, we have also seen social media work tremendously… Dell just released their Numbers from social media $6.5 million. Amazing… Others include, Ford’s The Ford Story and Best Buy’s Twelpforce. Great examples of great successes.

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There you have it 5 for 5. 2009 was a great year to look back on and reflect. We learned a lot, but nothing more than learning to get involved and engage. Social Media is not going anywhere.

Check back next week for my 2010 predictions. There’s a lot floating around out there, but let’s see if I can get a perfect score in 2010 too!

Revisit: Is Marketing as We Know it Dead?

After previewing the new Alex Bogusky and John Winsor masterpiece “Baked In” I began to think about a previous post I wrote about marketing that I wanted to bring back for the day. So hop in to the “way back machine” and we can travel back all the way to January for the following post. What are your thoughts?

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As we all know there is a transition of power in the business world today. Gone are the days of brands telling consumers what to think and how to act. Gone are the days of running a clever TV ad to increase sales. Gone are the days of multi-million dollar media budgets. With the growth of the internet and various social technologies we have seen consumers becoming more and more educated, powerful, and interconnected. It has gotten to the point where someone with a Twitter account can raise such hell that they can cause a multi-billion dollar company to discontinue a particular ad campaign (sorry Motrin). Consumers now want to be engaged and want to be listened to. They want to build a relationship and expect the brand to be molded to fit into their own personal lifestyle. But how can brands do this through marketing?

The short answer is you can’t. Many companies and brands are flocking to this new found social realm to “push” more messages where the people are, I mean after all it’s worked in the past. But these messages are not being received and are actually pushing these individuals farther and farther away from the company. In his post, “Social Media excels at making things happen indirectly,” Mack Collier discusses this in more detail and states:

“The problem that most companies have with social media is this:

1 - They view social media as being a new marketing channel, when actually they are communication channels

2 - Since they view social media as a marketing channel, they attempt to push marketing messages through these channels

3 - Since they view social media as a marketing channel, and attempt to push marketing messages through these channels, they attempt to directly monetize their social media efforts.”

Marketing, at its core, is the ability for a company to attract, keep, and, maintain a customer as an advocate. So in the new world where the consumer has power, marketers need to adapt to fit into the lifestyle of each individual. No more pushing messages. No more telling people what to think; just good, old-fashioned conversations. Listen, respond, and listen some more. When given an open forum to communicate, people will reveal their souls. When your relationship reaches that point, you have an advocate, the Holy Grail in the marketing world.

No, it’s not a pretty as a clever mass advertising campaign, but its human nature. It’s what we, as marketers should have been doing a long time ago. What are your thoughts?

Are you Half Baked or “Baked In”?

What a Great Ride!

Where is marketing going? Is marketing as we know it dead? What role is co-creation and crowdsourcing playing into the minds of your consumers? How do your customers actually feel about your “brand”? The answers to these questions and more might surprise you and show you how the current state of marketing is not working.

Over the past couple of weeks; I have had the honor to preview the new book “Baked In” by Alex Bogusky and John Winsor or Crispin Porter + Bogusky. It’s been one hell of a ride. Thanks guys for letting me be a part of this.

Bogusky and Winsor are specialists in mind bending, mind freaking ideas that take traditional thought, turn it upside down, rub it in the dirt, and make it shine again. From the very moment I received this book, I knew I was not holding a mere pile of papers, but a pile of ground-breaking ideas; I must take heed.

Baked In isn’t a marketing book per se, but a complete transformational thought of how we all need to build and structure our business models and communication channels. It illustrates how we need to “Bake In” our marketing, advertising, and communications into and throughout our product design, operations and business strategies. This thought ensures a powerful message/story… One that resonates with the consumer by shifting power to the consumer and giving them the platform for loyalty.

The book starts out discussing the current state of business with product development and marketing being two completely different silos within the organization. Within this structure, the Product Development people are creating one story for the product through the development process while the Marketing department is creating a completely different story for the product to try to better integrate it into the marketplace. Bogusky and Winsor outline 4 possible outcomes with this current structure:

1. Product has no story and neither does the marketing.
2. The product has no story, but the marketing makes one up anyway.
3. The product has a story, but the marketing tells a different one.
4. The product has a story, and the marketing makes it sing.

As you can see, there is only one outcome that works throughout the marketplace and organization. This strategy makes the “Product” the single most important marketing tool a company can have. When marketing and consumer interaction and feedback is baked into the product, the customer feels a brilliant sense of ownership and becomes loyal to, not only the brand, but the way the product fits into their personal lifestyle.

The meat of the book is dedicated to the 28 recipes to help companies take a step back and look at their current processes and how to make the shift toward a “Baked In” organization. Each recipe comes with thought provoking examples of current integration and mind freaking ideas of how to incorporate into your organization.

The greatest part about this book is that it not only talks about the social nature of business, but actually involves itself in that same social realm. It’s more than just a static book, but a conversation and collaboration going on right now as we speak. By visiting their blog www.BakedIn.com you can see how conversations are forming around the different recipes described in the book. By simply conversing on Twitter (@bakedin) you can become a part of this amazing conversation. The book isn’t just for us, but the ideas and thoughts moving forward are by us. Learning about “Baked In” is only the beginning, becoming “Baked In” is the outcome.

Bogusky and Winsor have created a masterpiece and have turned our traditional way of thought on its ass. Do yourself a favor… go out, buy the book, and join in the transformation. You risk your future success without it.

Over the next few weeks, I’ll be discussing in detail some ideas about my favorite recipes in the book and will be participating highly on the conversation on Twitter and www.BakedIn.com. I hope you follow along and participate. To make sure you don’t miss a word, simply subscribe to my blog here and follow me on Twitter (@paulmiser). I look forward to making this transformation with you. Let’s get “Baked In” together.