creatorbase

Are you really open for business?

Collaborating, loosening the reins on creative control, sharing information, crowdsourcing, automatically extending trust, being exposed to more risks (not necessarily real), and engaging with authentic communications are all indications of openness in business. As your customers, employees and community members in general become more adept at using social and other related technologies (i.e. mobile), they will push you and your business to be even more open. Guaranteed.

Charlene Li, founding partner of Altimeter Group and co-author of Groundswell, recently released her new book, Open Leadership. I was very fortunate to be able to participate in the early stages of her book's development and review, and think it's a must read for anyone who values and understands the currency of relationships in business. Further, if you believe social technologies are changing how we do business then you'll find Open Leadership is a great resource and business-case builder. Here's a quick preview about why Charlene wrote the book and what's in store:

There are many tools and take-aways in the book and online via the open-leadership community. For example, Charlene discusses how all open-driven objectives create common benefits, in that they:

• Remove friction: removing barriers in business, and providing more access to information and people, lowers the cost of decision making

• Scale efforts: a culture of sharing means things spread faster and wider

• Enable fast response: the real-time nature of social technologies means you can respond quickly to needs and opportunities

• Gain commitment: businesses that win the hearts and minds of stakeholders gain business and competitive advantages

For me, this book fits like a glove because I tend to be an open person and prefer to work with other open leaders and practitioners. Close to home, I doubt that I would have landed a dream job this month if both employer and new employee did not share a passion for innovation and openness. 

Try moving out of your comfort zone to reap the rewards of really being open for business.

Online Marketing Summit 2010

This year’s Online Marketing Summit (OMS) was a first for me and I was impressed with the caliber of content, speakers, and participation from roughly 700 marketers. Aaron Kahlow and team did a great job to create a collaborative, educational and open environment that was highly productive and enjoyable. I had the pleasure of speaking on an integrated marketing panel and I also dropped in on a few great presentations. Here's a video clip from Tom Hoehn's session regarding Kodak's social media strategy:

Read the complete OMS review post including more video with Gary Spangler from DuPont and my conversation about social media success with Steve Ennen and Eric Bradlow of the Wharton Interactive Media Initiative. 

Next up in mid April is MediaPost's Email Insider Summit 2010 in Captiva, Florida. I'm going to: co-host a Lyris client and event speaker (Hayle Chun) from NBC Sports & Olympics; moderate the "45 Tips in 45 Minutes" panel with speakers from Barnes & Noble, NHL, eHarmony and Responsys; do some blogging, video, PR and networking. Here's the agenda for Email Insider Summit -- stay tuned for tweets and a review post.    

MarketingSherpa Email Summit 2010

Looking back on MarketingSherpa's fifth annual Email Marketing Summit, I'd say it was a very good event for more than 600 marketers. There were a number of talented speakers and contributors who always make Email Summit a good investment and the Miami setting in January was a nice perk, too.  Here are some thoughts from the event and (4) video clips of conversations with customers and industry leaders. Next week, Online Marketing Summit in San Diego.

 

A conversation with John Mast of Expedia CruiseShipCenters

A cruise on the warms seas with extended stays in a variety of ports; that sounds very appealing right now. My conversation with John Mast, vice president of marketing at Expedia CruiseShipCenters, at MarketingSherp's 2010 Email Summit in Miami is a reminder of how much I enjoy tropical pace and weather.

John presented at Email Summit about his permission marketing strategy including CRM and tri-messaging work. Like many online marketers, John and his team are achieving significant results by integrating email, social and mobile channels to engage and serve on-the-go consumers and influencers. It's all about creating customers for life with memorable experiences. Learn more about the Expedia CruiseShipCenters success story in this brief clip:

Alexis Ohanian at TED on "losing control"

In this November 2009 TED talk, Alexis Ohanian of Reddit describes how losing control on the Internet can be a very good thing for individuals, businesses, nature, society, etc. I think you'll agree that his passion for the topic and youthful delivery is a bit infectious. And in true Twitter-form, Alexis is brief and to the point.

Is there a lesson here for 2010? Perhaps a resolution-nugget? Hint, letting go and not being afraid of the unknown can pay dividends.

Email, social and mobile...

The online marketing space has evolved, and social media and mobile channels present the opportunity for more personal engagement to exist between people and brands. Businesses and marketers need to think beyond a batch-and-blast email marketing mentality to a well choreographed and integrated approach that is in sync with target audiences. 

Social media and mobile channels combined with email marketing can help fuel this shift, enhance engagement, grow customer opt-in lists, and maximize audience touch points. Yet, as noted by Forrester’s David Daniels, “not enough email marketers are integrating proven channels, such as social into their email marketing campaigns.” Likewise, Altimeter Group’s Jeremiah Owyang recently discussed on his blog why he believes that email marketers can no longer avoid integrating social tools. Continue with the post...

Think like a tribal leader to create change.

Seth Godin argues, with a sense of humor and insight that only he can deliver, the Internet has ended mass marketing and revived a human social unit from the distant past: tribes. Founded on shared ideas and values, tribes give ordinary people the power to lead and make big changes. Successful (tribal) leaders today tell meaningful stories, connect people, lead a movement and create change.

I read Seth's book "Tribes" last year during a memorable trip to Tennessee for Thanksgiving with our extended family. This video recorded at TED in February 2009 is a fantastic summary of the book and Seth's ideas on how to lead today... 

Are you leading a tribe? If so, please share your thoughts, ideas and links so others can learn from your experiences.

Does social media create ROI for businesses?

You bet! And I'm counting on this fact, and some factoids from this video and 2009 results at Lyris, for an upcoming presentation. I lead our community practice at Lyris and social media is right smack in the middle of an infusion that includes customer engagement, thought leadership, traditional media, community intelligence, mobility, response management, and brand-building activities and investments. Of course -- analytics, communications, innovation and teaming are required behind the scenes to successfully bring it all together.

If you're having trouble selling social media and networking strategies and programs to your boss or leadership because of a perception that it's difficult to create and measure ROI, watch this video for some ideas and proof points; share with others too...

  

Enjoying time with Lyris customers.

If you have been following my business and marketing-related posts on this blog and Twitter, it's likely you have noticed a few mentions of Lyris and Lyris HQ. With transparency and new FTC rules in mind in terms of disclosure and endorsements, I am a Lyris executive and really enjoy spending time with our customers (marketing peers). Why? Because it's a great way to learn about their needs and stories, get to know them personally, help them reach and serve their customers, and collaborate with them on thought leadership for the global marketing community at large. 

I'm enjoying time with our customers, on social media and in-person, and happy to communicate about them and how teams at Lyris are helping customers be more successful. This recent post and video from Jeff Bezos of Amazon provides some insight into why focusing on customers is fundamental to success; and fun too.

Also, here's a new video that was recorded yesterday at ad:tech NY with Joe Harrell, Director of Marketing and Product Management from the Alliance for the Arts. We're talking about tri-messaging and what this means for Joe's community and members:

Note: This video with Joe Harrell from Alliance for the Arts was recorded at ad:tech NY by David Spark and sponsored by Lyris. Mr. Harrell was not paid by Lyris for his comments.

Tim Brown of IDEO: Apply Design Thinking for Today's Questions

IDEO and Tim Brown are institutions in the world of design and innovation. I say this with much respect and admiration for the Palo Alto, CA based design firm and well-traveled designer. Tim Brown's recent presentation at TED 2009 in the UK is a good, 16 minute overview of how and why to apply "design thinking" for today's tough challenges. Yes, and for those questions that need a creative approach and mindset:

 

Truth be told, I interviewed at IDEO in 1998 during the same period I was interviewing at Sun Microsystems. To this day, the two rounds of IDEO interviews were the most unusual and stimulating I have ever experienced. The questions they asked seemed odd to me at the time. Years later, I realized they were applying a form of design thinking during the interview process -- probing not only to see if I was qualified for the job but also to determine if we were a good fit for their unique culture. 

Long story short, Sun offered me a solid marketing position and salary that I decided to accept. The decision was made because Sun was a more recognizable brand, a technology leader that seemed right given my career path, and the offer was better than the compensation range that IDEO was discussing. More honesty: To this day, I wonder if I made the right decision by going with Sun. No regrets, though. 

Funny thing is I was so impressed with IDEO in general (and my interview experience) that I eventually hired them for an "eBusiness Innovation @Sun" consulting project, including Tim Brown and Tom Kelley; one of the Kelley brothers who actually interviewed me years earlier. I will always remember the thrill I experienced during our one day workshop in San Francisco with a diverse team of Sun and IDEO talent; I want more of that creator juice and experience.

I'm a fan of IDEO because they continue to lead in their industry, they impressed me with their work while at Sun, and I continue to find their ideas, practices and thought leadership timeless and highly useful. So it goes without saying that I will apply their design thinking in a new, creative project I'm leading now with a diverse and talented team at Lyris. More on this another day.