Last week I had the privilege of speaking at the Mashable Social Good Summit. I wanted to share the video with you as many people had requested the slides and hearing the dialogue may help you use them most effectively. My topic was ‘Building a Private Sector Pillar of Social Change,’ and if you don’t have the slides but would like to download them, click here. Each case study is hyperlinked so you can explore them further.
I also wanted to share two more presentations that were very inspiring. One is by Scott Harrison, the founder of charity: water (@scottharrison) who gave a dramatic example of how social media can be used to generate community fundraising and support for a non-profit. The third video features by Alec Ross, senior Advisor for Innovation at the State Department (@alecjross), who explained how emerging technologies are being used to address global crises and international diplomacy. Seen together, the three videos give some idea of how for profit, non-profit and government agencies are using social media to build a better world.
Finally, thanks to Mashable for creating an inspiring day and generating amazing online buzz around critical social change.
Filed under Internet Marketing by on Sep 29th, 2011. 
Ahh, “summer reading” . . .
Who can resist the lure of a good book while sitting at the beach, lounging by the pool or jetting off for a well-deserved vacation?
If you’re like me, though, it’s difficult to leave the office completely behind, and whenever I have a bit of downtime for reading, I like to catch up on business books that can add dimension to my marketing view.
Don’t groan.
Not all business books are the dry tomes we (somehow) conquered in our Intro to Marketing class in college. Many, many are quite enjoyable; they entertain and inspire –even as they educate.
For example, let me recommend three of my recent favorites, any of which would be a valuable addition to your beach bag, pool tote or in-flight carry-on:
1. Switch: How to Drive Change When Change is Hard, by Chip Heath and Dan Heath.
Given the current dynamic of rapidly proliferating channels and variable internal constraints, marketers have no choice but to embrace change. But, let’s be honest: being the change agent isn’t always easy. In Switch, brothers Chip and Dan Heath, present an analysis of why we often fear change and what we can do to modify our behaviors to start moving in a new direction.
As the authors explain:
“In our research, we studied people trying to make difficult changes: People fighting to lose weight and keep it off. Managers trying to overhaul an entrenched bureaucracy. Activists combating seemingly intractable problems such as child malnutrition. They succeeded–and, to our surprise, we found striking similarities in the strategies they used. They seemed to share a similar game plan. We wanted, in Switch, to make that game plan available to everyone, in hopes that we could show people how to make the hard changes in life a little bit easier.”
2. Strategy Maps: Converting Intangible Assets into Tangible Outcomes, by Robert S. Kaplan and David P. Norton.
Strategy Maps evolved from Kaplan and Norton’s ongoing research with hundreds of Balanced Scorecard adopters across the globe, and it’s a book that has truly transformed how I set strategy. Strategy Maps is a toolkit, of sorts, and using the methods described, I find that I’m better equipped to navigate the multi-stakeholder environment that’s now commonplace for me (and all CMOs).
3. Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us, by Seth Godin.
No summer reading list for marketers would be complete without a book by Seth Godin. Poke the Box was released earlier this year. But, my all-time favorite remains Tribes. I come back to this book again and again, whenever I need to be re-inspired by Godin’s unconventional take on leadership. Tribes encourages us to throw away the old rules and embrace the possibilities offered by a new world of engaging and communication.
Remember: Even marketers get to kick back a little now and then. Enjoy your summer. Relax. And, take along a few good books to help re-invigorate your approach. You’ll come back to work refreshed and ready to hurdle the challenges that inevitably lie ahead.
Filed under Internet Marketing by on Jul 22nd, 2011.
Today I attended an event hosted by WOMMA UK which covered the ways that word of mouth is impacting search and looked at how search and social media are overlapping more and more.
Search and social are becoming increasingly intertwined, especially with the arrival of Google+, a clear indication of the search giant’s intention to further develop and improve the social nature of search results.
There are several important areas brands should consider when thinking about how word of mouth affects their performance on search engines. Here are three areas that brands should keep in mind when looking at their social and search strategies:
1. Word of mouth drives search traffic – be ready
- People that “hear” about your brand (online, face to face, or otherwise) will want to search for you, for convenience, for education and for learning about new opinions. This means you need to cater for all the various different ways people will search for your brand and cover all the possibilities that misspellings or misperceptions may cause.
- “Reviews” is a very popular search term, so hosting these on your own site is a great way to generate authenticity and long-tail search terms.
2. Social and your online reputation
- Consider the implications for reputation management. Is “scam” a prominent result on the suggestions for your brand in Google? Nobody wants to see that, but instead of covering it up, ask yourself why this is such a dominant sentiment. Maybe there is a miscommunication and customers are not fully informed as to what your provide? Treat this as an opportunity to intercede and communicate.
- You can be proactive by using third party sites such as Yahoo! Answers, which generally ranks well and gives you a neutral platform to respond to negative sentiment.
3. Conversions and social media
- Retailers – price is no longer a USP. Your customers will be seeking deep content, such as user reviews and friend’s recommendations. It is important for users to trust your site, or they will go elsewhere to research and/or purchase.
- Remember that peoples’ decision making can be rational, but is predominantly emotional. Having social recommendations appear in search results and on page will appease the latter.
Filed under Internet Marketing by on Jul 12th, 2011.
