everlastingNow

i’m suddenly surrounded by a gaggle of ‘recovering reporters.’ at least that’s what they call themselves these days and i’m beginning to feel at home (for the first time in a long time). for years i’ve been imploring my clients to fundamentally reorganize and set themselves up as their own version of a publishing organization. meanwhile the publishing industry crumbled around us. it appears this predisposition is now channeling its way by virtue of circumstance into my own experience. a bunch of forty-something guys are now in and out of my office on a regular basis. they use bigger words than i do, spout random philosophy on the fly, and write constantly… as if in the air, just by talking to each other, before the typing begins.

these are the people. the ones who fell out of the old machine and needed to find homes in a new one. we haven’t arranged them fully just yet, but i can feel it forming around me. i couldn’t be happier. i am after all, i am myself a recovering english major.

these outstanding minds are finding their way into new situations all over the place, not just in my business. they’re too smart not to. and the business ‘leaders’ with their upside-down financial models are losing these intellectual capitalists in droves. and losing their shirts in the process. i’m told tribune and others are all but done, short of full liquidation which’ll be a fall-out that washes across us all in what will seem to be fear and upset, but more accurately a rebirth.

one brilliant ‘recovering reporter’ asked me the other day, “what happens when the AP goes under?” i said i didn’t know and didn’t understand why it would. better understanding his point, that in the not-too-distant-future there wouldn’t be anyone ready and able to buy legitimate content (newspapers and other bankrupt patrons), it began to become clear. so i rejoined his question. “the internet shrinks, that’s what happens,” he finished.

no fodder for bloggers to riff on. pundits without fuel for their complaints. and, as i heard recently in a conference for media publishers, a halcyon time for corruption in government. bloggers and twitterers and facebookers are pundits in an ever-expanding economy of opinion, which i would have to predict is the largest bubble we haven’t seen yet. and no one’s really addressing it because we so love to hear ourselves talk. it’s freedom for the ‘common man’, right ashton?

the last papers are trying to organize with each other in order to begin charging for their content online, unraveling one of the most ridiculous business models ever rushed into online: free content for everyone! yay! and 40% margins demanded by shareholders. that didn’t work, but maybe it was just them. well, except for the music industry’s attempt to stop the free flow of music earlier on. oh, and tv trying to control channel distribution… and, well, radio and movies and magazines and books… oh my.

the internet, the Great Leveler, continues to pull business models down. fighting it, we generate fad-based businesses instead (facebook and twitter) and we continue to commit the same sins we did in 1999/2000, minus the foosball tables and in-house baristas. only ten years later, here we are still running at falsely contrived models like youtube (losing money by the bucket-load), facebook (continuing to eat VC cash, most recently contributed by a russian contingent), twitter (still ‘figuring out its business model’ while turning away buckets of cash from it’s false-economy cousin), and the list goes on. meanwhile, those who actually produce wander the planet in search of a safe place to ply their trade.

get ready for a return to news guilds, bands of not-for-profit investigative reporting organizations, a total fragmentation of what we once knew as the newspaper/publishing/media industries. and keep an eye out for the smartest new models rising, like Monocle (www.monocle.com). there is hope. we’ll just have to be a little patient. or, write our way to our own new destiny.

in working with many clients this year, we’ve spent as much time talking marketers down from ledges or away from knee-jerk entries into social media efforts because there seems to be this compulsion to keep up with the next guy (or last guy or that other guy). compounded by the fact that many clients believe social media marketing is free… because the channels are ‘free’ (facebook, twitter, etc.) and the assets we already have are ‘free’ (video lying around, old campaigns or messages yet to be released through these channels)… the net result becomes  a hodge-podge mess that does more harm to a brand than good.

we’ve begun working out some models or ecosystems that help separate the issues and begin solving the problem in a more systematic way and i’ll share that here in a more general sense in a future post. until then, i wanted to share an outline i felt boiled this down nicely based on some work we’re collaborating on with a brand agency partner.

Client Question
How should we proceed regarding social media as part of our digital strategy?

Answer:  Start with Objectives
Use a framework for discussing marketing objectives and address how social media can help achieve these objectives.  The four objectives are:

• Listen
• Talk
• Converse
• Integrate

Of course, these objectives are never mutually exclusive, nor are they a linear progression. However, thinking of them as separate things at least for a moment can help profide insights and clarity that will lead to better reasoned, level headed answers. Here’s some detail on each…

Listen: Use social media to listen to what consumers are saying about you, your brand, your products, or services

• Identify keywords on/in brand, competitors, topics
• Identify channels to be monitored (key blogs, social sites, media sharing sites, etc.)
• Setup tool(s) to monitor
• Refine listening ‘algorithms’ based on feedback
• Consider talk/conversation areas downstream based on findings here
• Integrate reporting between social media, website metrics, and advertising activities
• Identify staff or partner to support listening/reporting initiatives

Talk: Become a credible and visible source for advice and education outside your normal bounds using the web and social media as a platform from which messages are broadcast.

• Identify differentiating topics and align with clearly defined brand goals
• Identify and create ‘personas’ from which messages eminate
• Identify outlet channels (key blogs, social sites, affiliates, etc.)
• Begin ‘broadcasting’ messages
• Calibrate ‘listening’ activities to ‘talking’ activities
• Identify staff or partner to support talking initiatives

Converse: Develop ways to engage select targets in two-way conversations and test alternative messaging/creative/programs using the advantages of social media vs. other media.

• Identify on-brand topics
• Target engaged consumers, advocates, or other customer/persona types
• Identify bloggers, internal staff, pundits, etc. to become the voice of your brand on particular topics or as defined personas
• Identify staff or partner to support and fuel conversation initiatives

Integrate: Support critical marketing initiatives in a more comprehensive, integrated and interactive way to engage targets with existing and yet-to-be-created online experiences.

• Map the online landscape of existing brand properties, complementary properties, social platforms, etc.
• Create an ‘ecology’ of media nodes, identifying strengths and weaknesses, cross-channel feeds, etc.
• Develop roadmap for integration initiatives
• Begin integration initiatives
• Build advanced marketing programs based on integrated capabilities
• Develop advanced reporting capabilities to monitor and maintain the desired ecosystem
• Identify staff and/or partner to support and fuel the desired ecosystem

an exploration of designing moments

 

please let us know what you think about leadership in the design of moment

we’re in a moment that allows for tremendous change. to the dismay of some, it’s in fact demanded of us–how we work, who we work with, and the principles that guide us. having created a platform for new agency/creative thought, i have been speaking on the topic throughout the year. creatives are our new leadership and they don’t seem to fully know it yet.  in anticipation of some of the speeches i’m delivering and as a baseline for shared thought already presented, i have recorded an audio version of this presentation to get the core concepts out. the piece is included here and i welcome any insight or feedback on the topics established. there’s a lot more work to be done and we’re well into it now. as we have pieces and parts to share, i’ll continue getting them out here. for the more traditional impact to my own business, we’ll put out missives at manifest digital’s site proper.

the genie is out of the bottle in terms of changing what an ‘agency’ is. the baggage with the word is heavily loaded and tiresome. i’ve written and spoken on changing the definition of the work frequently already this year. it’s nice to see the big boys coming along (and being called out by their clients). in a recent article at suite101.com, the topic is discussed by the likes of Euro RSCG and was recently a hot topic in Valencia at the ‘Festival of Media’ where topics like the role of media agencies were taken to task and speeches from agency network CEO’s indicated that they didn’t believe that they themselves could figure it out. Topics like ‘reverse internships’ are now celebrated where old talent is being required to sit with newly hired ‘kids’ to help figure out how this how internet thing works. it’s like the thrashing of a dying animal. can you change an agency of thousands with an approach like this?

at any rate, celebrating crispin, porter & bogusky, in some cases ideo, and agencies like manifest digital who are willing to reinvent how the work gets done and thereby completely ignore the ‘rules’ established by old-line agencies (media, ad, direct, digital, content, or whatever), makes for a much stronger solution. and more importantly, one where clients won’t say what could be the most damning thing i’ve seen in print/out loud in a long time:

Becky Saeger, chief marketing officer for Charles Schwab added that “if I were an agency, I would be really worried about being disintermediated,” a financial industry term meaning elminate the middle man. More worrisome, Saeger said: “More and more, agencies are almost in the way sometimes.”

i guess if you’re reinventing the word, you have to reinvent the business trappings around the industry. oh well. good for the consumer. good for the client. good for us.

it’s always fun to see an old model applied in a new way, dragging its legacy label along with it. we’ve waited patiently (a little sadistically) as tv content carriers have struggled with online distribution issues. they have repeatedly erred on using the web only as a promotion or tease vehicle, constantly trying to drive us back to our glowing boxes in the family room. hulu, however, has proven that we can cut the cord. tivo taught us not to be beholden to the time. and webisodes (i.e., web-only content) generally sucks.

As reported in AdAge today, Time-Warner’s Jeff Bewke’s has laid out a vision that should work… and should have enough momentum behind it to shove it through. it’s simple, really. let’s all admit that subscription tv is something we’ve acclimated to… WAY back in the 80’s for goodness sake. now, let’s also admit that the web is just another vehicle for the same channels. and, in break-through thinking, the same subscriptions should hold true. people will pay. and whatever misses might leak through (just like jumping cable subscriptions from your neighbor’s box back in the day) will be a small hitch amidst a far more engaged and willing audience. and eventually even those gaps will be filled. give us what we want WHERE we want it AND when we want it. imagine that. an old media conglomerate coming through with business-minded new media thinking.

thanks, jeff. i’m here to cheer you on and anyone else willing to apply a new model to an old industry in the interest of making future sense of our confused current world. yet another little piece of the economy that can now calm down :o)…

i continue to tell our clients about the irony of the publishing industry. a need couldn’t be any more distinct in the market right now. we all need to be behaving more like publishing organizations, from the individual level all the way up through corporate. it’s all a matter of becoming more responsive and engaged in the conversation your audience may be wanting to have with you.

i have to publish more often and in order to do so i have to setup an editorial calendar of sorts for myself. i have had to align myself with great minds… from which can come great thoughts… through which i can share my own thinking with you.

in the same way, corporations need to be communicating as if they were nimble sentient beings… not cold hulking monoliths that ring hollow when you approach. shifting their behavior is even harder while the requirements on them are very much similar to what they are on the individual… set up an editorial calendar, align yourself with smart people–if not reporters. and get the message out! once out, respond!

guess who does this better than anyone (or any other company) on earth right now. publishers. guess who’s at a painful inflection point right now. publishers. guess why. because greedy business people with upside-down business models bought them up and forced them to perform to standards that make no logical publishing sense. under advertising models that were hyper-inflated and are presented now as if the plummet is a fall from the norm. it’s not. it’s a fall to normalcy. now they’re forced to go through the gyrations of laying people off, becoming for economically ‘efficient’ and the like… all because their ownership structures didn’t allow them to change in the meaningful ways they needed to when they needed to.

moreover, the rest of us need them desperately right now. we need these people to be teaching us how to operate more efficiently in a publishing-driven world.

the old stories about bloggers coming for their ground, undermining their credibility are all bunk. there was never any threat to quality. meanwhile, we’re forced to see the world through the cracked lens of a panicked machine that is fighting for its own life… while it tries to reflect back to us the changes we are going through and what they mean. yay for us… we get further polarizing behavior amongst fox, msnbc, and al jazeera. organizations turning news into reality-show-style entertainment instead the inquisitive real reporting we need. but, before i go too far, let’s not glorify the days of old. any publisher has an agenda. let’s just publish those agendas in the same way any other corporation would.

meanwhile, let’s free up these brilliant publishing minds to do what they do best… and welcome them into our corporate structures as heads of Customer Experience or Corporate Conversation. whatever it is, companies are being asked to do more with less and the answer is right under our noses… in a business that is oddly damaged, but not because it’s systemically flawed. it’s broken because financial engineers screwed it up.

a couple very insightful articles on the same came through yesterday from AdAge. the first, It’s Not Newspapers in Peril; It’s Their Owners is right up the middle of this issue. the second is a bit deeper, but points up an entirely new business model as yet to be implemented but likely to be figured out soon. Making the Case for Micropayments in News is an insightful interview with a former Time editor who is at the center of a lot of these decisions. he even admits some missteps in the early days of his online publishing efforts. regardless, we work with our own clients who struggle with monetizing their highly valued content (gating strategies, subscription models, and micropayments among a handful of compelling new models all under exploration).

the gist of it all is that providing value is still valued. removing the advertising structure that has fueled and biased the models we have to-date is gut-wrenching but also enlightening. who better to get us through than those who have been in the middle of the storm for thirty years but who didn’t drink the financial koolaid of the past 10?

the interaction’09 conference sponsored by the IxDA was held this year in vancouver. it was a tremendous experience on a number of levels and our ability to sponsor was an honor. part of that sponsorship gave us the opportunity to speak to the attendees on the final day for breakfast (and they had to listen because we were buyin the bacon and eggs ;o). this is currently one of my favorite topics to speak on… the fact that we are in a moment of great change and one that should include strong leadership from the design community in order to redefine the world we are in. great design minds have often stepped to the fore to guide us, one of my favorites being Daniel Burnham in the late 1800’s. his leadership after the great chicago fire helped to redefine our city and provide a focus for one of the greatest world-wide events at the time, the World’s Colombian Exposition. it was held only twenty years after 1/3 of the city of chicago was leveled.

we are amazing beings, capable of reinventing ourselves and the structures that guide us when all else appears lost. we are in a moment now where things appear scary and lost. they aren’t. instead, we are in a moment of tremendous change and we need to take the reigns and make that change happen purposefully, artfully, elegantly… so that the world we create on the other side is one of transparency, authenticity, and amazing opportunity going forward.

i’ll continue refining and redesigning this particular speach, but hope you enjoy its current incarnation as delivered at the interaction’09 conference.

best,
–jim

Jim Jacoby, manifest Founder and CXO, Presents “UX Designers as Business Leaders” from manifest on Vimeo.

here we are in vancouver at the interaction’09 conference put on by IxDA. there’s already excitement in the air. (if only we could get our microsoft surface table freed from the tirany of canadian customs). the city has a great vibe and feels like one of those rare places that actually does vibrate in a way. on the flight here i met a gentleman from vancouver who was eager to share some great places to try award winning coffee, amazing sushi, or just chill and watch the planes land in the bay. such a rare treat to find someone excited about their own city. you see the same with chicagoans. not too many others though, at least from the people i’ve been able to meet so far.

on the docket today is actually retrieving our 380 lb. microsoft surface table (fully engulfed in an equally heavy crate), get it set up, assist with further setup on the conference itself, and prepare our group for showing fun new interactions in the design cafe here at the Four Seasons location. conferences are always an energy boost, so i’m excited to get this one under way. watch for pictures, audio, and hopefully video coming through here in the next few days!