When I started this blog a couple of years ago, I wanted to focus on the intersection of social media and social causes and how new technologies and services would impact communications strategies to make campaigns more effective. In the beginning, there was a lot of discussion around the integration of social networks such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube but it’s been exciting to see the continued innovation in and evolution of new social offerings such as Instagram, Pinterest that communicators can now add to their arsenal.

Last night at SF New Tech, I came across three new startups that might become the next wave of hot new social tools and nonprofits should take notice:

Citizen Software is hoping to become the salesforce of the nonprofit world by creating a CRM dashboard that allows users to track and manage donor and stakeholder relationships all in one place. Citizen Software Founder and CEO Alan Lewis believes that if they can liberate the disparate data housed in multiple databases, nonprofits can become more efficient and empowered to maximize their ability to raise funds and better nurture donor relationships.

Impact:  Potentially huge as most nonprofits are working with antiquated database systems and struggling to address the change in donor profiles, growing transparency and interaction with donors in a social world, and the constant competition for continual funding.

Tired of switching between multiple social networks, blogs and tweets to track conversations and followers? Engagio aims to create a gmail-like “in-box” for all your social conversations that are important to you. Founder and CEO William Mougayar purposely designed the interface to look and act like gmail in order to facilitate easy adoption and integration with your standard desktop.

Impact: Social ventures could use this tool to consolidate and track all of its social conversations and/or the social conversations of relevant stakeholders, even donors.  Great timesaver for managing multiple conversations on multiple platforms.

mention addresses the ever-challenging task of obtaining and tracking real-time “mentions” of your organization on multiple social networks, blogs and web comments. What I liked about mention was the simple, sleek interface and mobile option (iPhone app coming shortly) and the speed in which the data is delivered. 

Impact: Fantastic tool to access real-time data regarding how your organization is being talked about during a campaign, in reference to an issue, or during a high-profile event. Quick access can help you refine messaging on the spot or become quickly aware of any potential negative mentions that may need to be addressed immediately.

All three of these startups are offering either free or 30-day trials so check them out and see how they might optimize and power your next communications campaign.

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One of the things I love about Twitter is the ability to make connections and meet people with common interests.  Twitter is a great listening tool and if you keep a lookout for people you’re interested in, you’ll find many opportunities to reach out and connect.

Recently Shel Israel, author of Naked Conversations, Twitterville and The Social Beat blogger on Forbes.com, tweeted the availability of his latest book, “Stellar Presentations.”  Being a fan, I immediately took Shel up on his offer and was pleasantly surprised to discover that we were both Marinites.  We ended-up meeting at one of Shel’s favorite lunch spots in Marin and enjoyed a delightful conversation about entrepreneurs.  

Shel is passionate about startup entrepreneurs and has amassed 30 years of experience coaching, critiquing and consulting entrepreneurs on how to make their presentations and storytelling more effective.  He turned this knowledge into a simple, how-to guide for entrepreneurs, but quite frankly, Stellar Presentations is a great, quick read for anyone interested in improving their overall presentation style.

True to his philosophy, Shel keeps it simple and honest, providing tips that can be immediately applied and advice on what he calls the “intangibles” with insider advice that can provide a leg-up to an entrepreneur in successfully positioning his/her business.

As someone who often advises executives and entrepreneurs on storytelling myself, some of the best advice Shel gives is on the topic of personalizing your story.  As Shel comments in his book, “telling a story about yourself that solves a problem others have is very often the shortest distance between you and your audience.” 

Too often spokespeople get caught up in the technology or the marketing of their wares. They neglect to realize that their real job is in helping their audience understand how a new product is going to solve some of their everyday problems. It’s the personal connection that makes an entrepreneur’s dream more vivid, a product more relevant and an offering more compelling.  Shortening that distance between you and your audience is the goal  -- because as human beings, we still yearn for personal connection.  Masters like the late Steve Jobs knew this, but as Shel noted, we don’t need to mimic Steve Jobs, we just need to find ourselves.

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If you haven’t read about Andy Carvin’s amazing work at NPR, you need to.  Carvin is credited with almost single-handedly transforming digital journalism through the one-man newsroom he created to cover the Arab Spring via Twitter.  For his groundbreaking work, Carvin is being likened to a digital demi-god, with fans such as media critic Jeff Jarvis proclaiming, “all roads now lead to Andy Carvin.” The Knight Foundation sees Carvin as an inspiration for next-gen journalism and looking to use his experience to address the ever-growing challenge of telling stories from a constant flow of information.

What separates Carvin from other journalists is his active use of Twitter – he’s not only finding and connecting with news sources as most journalists do, but he’s actually going one step further by vetting sources against his own Twitter contacts, and looking at tweets with a judicious and conscientious eye.  On any given day Carvin could be monitoring as many as 2,000 tweets but he’s found a way to use hard-nosed investigative reporting skills to ensure that the information he’s reviewing is credible and accurately portraying the real-time stories developing on the ground.

With Twitter and other social channels becoming increasingly a part of the new marketing mix, marketers and communicators will face the same issue of grappling with the massive volume of social information that is now available to us on a real-time basis.  We will quickly have the additional burden (and responsibility) of not only absorbing all the incoming information, but also vetting that information to become fast filterers who determine what’s accurate, relevant and applicable in building our stories.

Carvin notes that he’d love to see new technology that will enable automatic vetting and relationship analysis but admits that it’s nearly impossible to duplicate good human judgment.

For marketers and communicators, good judgment requires experience and the ability to cultivate a digital team that not only understands social media and technology, but also possess analytical skills and the discipline to probe beyond the trending conversations.

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Martin Lindstrom, author of the best-selling book Buyology: Truth and Lies About Why We Buy, has a great piece featured in Fast Company today called “The Future of Ethics In Branding.”  He discusses a professional dilemma in where he was approached by one of the world’s largest tobacco companies for a lucrative consulting deal that challenged his own personal ethics.

As he pondered the ramifications of potentially taking on such a project, he made a statement about the lack of ethical guidelines in the advertising industry, noting, “ethics and advertising don’t go together very well.”  I would like to say that it’s different for the public relations industry – but is it? While we pride ourselves on the value of “earned” media based on journalistic guidelines, we are also largely responsible for shaping public opinion every single day.

Shaping public opinion used to be an investment, carefully cultivated messages through announcements and events that built a company’s reputation and story over a period of time.  But with the rapid delivery of news and information now available through the Internet and social networks, public opinion is now shaped almost immediately and that opinion has the power to create revolutions, stop a business decision and damage a company’s reputation overnight.

I couldn’t agree more with Lindstrom’s prediction that 2012 will see the rise of the importance of ethics.  True to his own form, Lindstrom conducted a survey directly with consumers to obtain their own ethical perspectives that shaped a set of suggested ethical guidelines:

• Don’t do anything to kids and consumers that you would not do to your own children, friends and family.
• Every time you launch a campaign, a new product, or a service, secure an “ethical” sign-off from your target group. 
• Develop your own independent consumer panel (a representative target audience) and disclose the perception of the product, as well as the reality.  Let the consumers make the final call.
• Align perceptions with reality.  Your talents might very well lie in brilliantly creating convincing perceptions, but how do they stack up against the reality? If there’s a mismatch, one or the other must be adjusted in order for them to be in sync.
• Be 100% transparent. Nothing less. The consumer needs to know what you know about them. Furthermore, they must be told exactly how you intend to use the information. If they don’t like what they see, they need a fair and easy way to opt out.
• Almost any product or service has a downside, so don’t hide it. Tell it as it is. Be open and frank, and communicate the negatives in a simple and straightforward way.
• All your endorsements and testimonials must be real--don’t fake them.
• Does your product have a built-in expiration date? If so, be open about it and communicate it in a visible, clear, and easily understood manner.
• Avoid fueling peer pressure among kids. Bear in mind you’d hate for your kids to come under such pressure.
• Be open and transparent about the environmental impact of your brand (including its carbon footprint and sustainability factors).
• Do not hide or over-complicate your legal obligations you must place in your ads or on your packs. These should be treated just like any other commercial message on your pack, using a simple, easy-to-understand language.

So how truly ethical have we been and can we be in the public relations industry?  These consumer-generated perspectives should be considered for adoption by not only the advertising industry (where grant it, as a paid media is more sorely needed) but as we look at our own client work as well.

What are your thoughts?  Do you think the PR industry has higher standards or needs to adopt stronger ethics?  I’d love to hear your opinion.

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From the time my two boys were able to walk, I’ve been taking them to our local public library in an attempt to engage them at an early age with the wonderful world of books and reading.  We used to go to the public library every weekend, and literally check out at least 10 picture and early reading books on each visit.  We got membership cards for each child and they loved using the electronic scanner to checkout their own books and use the computer to look up book subjects.

Now that my boys are older and less dependent on me to supervise them in the children’s section, I’ve been able to wander around the library and for the first time in many years, actually see the rest of our public library.  It suddenly dawned on me that for the past eight years, my entire public library experience was shaped solely by the children’s section.  I knew about Dr. Seuss, the rich illustrations by Graeme Base, the Horrible Harry and The Adventures of Tintin series, but I never fathomed to imagine that I could also have access to New York Times’ best sellers.

Ok, I certainly knew the books were there, but only a mother would understand how laser-focused you are when you are caring for a child – you think only of your child’s needs.  Books for yourself, when would you have the audacity to read for your own enjoyment when you have to read to your child at every opportunity to ensure they grow up to pass their SATs with flying colors!

On a recent visit this past weekend, I realized that I never really have to purchase a book again (or that Kindle Fire that Amazon keeps telling me I need)  because I was able to easily access practically every new book that I’ve wanted to read (albeit on a 7 day check-out policy for the latest top sellers).  Not there? Locate the book online and have it sent to your public library – all for a whopping 50 cents per request.  I was giddy just being able to walk out with quality hard-cover books such as Cleopatra by Stacy Schiff, 1Q84 by Haruki Murakami, State of Wonder by Ann Pachettt and Rules of Civility by Amor Towles.

But before you take my advice and re-acquaint yourself with your local public library take note that this privilege is currently at high-risk.  Due to state budget cutbacks, California state funding for public libraries are being cut (in addition to public school funding), which will have a direct impact on staffing, hours of operation and the ability to provide free services to the public.  Something we all take for granted as being available whenever we want it.

Get involved by educating yourself on the issue through resources like the Save California Public Libraries and Literacy Funding Facebook page, the California Library Association and become a donor friend to your local public library.  Our public libraries are more than just a place to get free books, they are an integral part of our communities in building literacy, enabling access to all and empowering minds through knowledge.

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This morning I attended the Silicon Valley Human Rights Conference at the Mission Bay Conference Center in San Francisco.  New York Times Science Writer John Markoff facilitated an intriguing panel discussion on The Politics of Internet Freedom featuring YouTube VP of Communications & Public Policy Victoria Grand,  Broadcasting Board of Governors Chair Michael Meehan, Union Square Ventures’ Brad Burnham, Demand Progress Activist Aaron Swartz and Middle-Eastern Blogger & Cyber Activist Imad Bazzi.

A central theme of the panel discussion was the role of social technology platforms such as Google and YouTube as both enabler and also filterer/editor.  YouTube’s Victoria Grand noted that with more than 3 billion views per day, YouTube has become in many ways the new Guttenberg press.  As such, it’s no wonder that in addition to postings of cute animals and funny videos, YouTube is a critical distribution outlet for human rights groups and everyday citizens around the world who need to get the message out about their cause with visual proof of what is actually going on in highly censored countries.  With more than 600 videos tweeted per minutes and more than 300 hours of video posted to Facebook every minute, getting coverage today can no longer be confined to the limited reach of traditional media.

YouTube’s Grand elaborated on the complexity and weight of responsibility on the company’s shoulders for being the primary channel for so many social issues around the world.  While the company generally believes it is important to allow as much freedom as possible, on a daily basis they grapple with content that may be sexual, religious, political in nature and the impact that exposure may have on a massive level.  There’s no easy fix and each of these situations need to be carefully evaluated and considered for legal, business and political ramifications.

What is comforting to know, however, is that for many of the companies represented here today such as Google, Facebook, Skype and Mozilla there is a conscious desire and intent to have their technology platforms used to better the world.  As Mozilla Chair Mitchell Barker stated in a follow-up presentation “business as usual is not enough and companies need to continue to find new ways of providing access and empowering users.”

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New York Times best-selling author of The Thank You Economy Gary Vaynerchuk sent a video message to more than 150 Washington, DC non-profit leaders convening today for an online fundraising training conference Give to the Max Day: Greater Washington.  In the short video, Vaynerchuk provides some valuable advice on how to be truly effective in using social media to engage influencers. 

Great lessons and reminders for us all on the critical importance of effective engagement:

1. Relationships First

Vaynerchuk points out that in the majority of tweets he receives on any given day, he is directly asked for something from Twitter acquaintances who he does not even have an established relationship.  "Don't pitch me, bro," says Vaynerchuk before we even have a relationship and I know what you're about.  Influencer dashboards and providers like TRAACKR and Klout can identify who your top influencers are, but don't just use these like a press release distribution channel.

2. Understand How to Say Hello

We've lost our basic social graces in the cyberworld and don't seem interested in even starting a relationship.  "We need to understand how to say hello before we ask," says Vaynerchuk. Influencers are repeatedly asked for things all the time which is irritating when the organization does not take the time to truly engage in a meaningful way.

3. Build Context That Matters

Engaging the influencer by providing context over time is key to building a relationship and bringing a more personal relevance to the eventual request.  Vaynerchuk comments that on any given day is besieged with Twitter DM (direct messages) with asks that he has no context as to why he is even being contacted.

4. Consumer B.S. Radar Greater Than Ever Before

Consumer mistrust and skepticism is at an all-time high, so know going into an engagement the critical importance of being authentic, transparent and building trust.  Otherwise your ask is going to look and be perceived like spam or the irritating direct mail and marketing calls you receive at home.

Simple lessons which also have application to the for profit world and influencer engagement overall.

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If you were on Twitter or on any other social exchange today, you might have noticed that Facebook made a significant, "life-altering" announcement at its f8 developer conference today. In his ongoing pursuit to make all of us share more information about ourselves for what Mark Zuckerberg believes will ultimately lead to a better, more engaged and understood society, Facebook is making new changes to its platform in three ways:

1) Timeline - in a few weeks your current Facebook profile will be replaced with a real-time, photo-rich, graphical chronological history of your entire life (on Facebook, that is).  At any given time, viewers of your FB page will be able to see a mini-storyboard of things you liked, photo memories you're posted, news articles and videos you've shared that will add up to creating a more comprehensive view of your life, what interests you and what's important to you.

2) Open Graph - a new application that will take the "like" button to new heights - allowing you to immediately see what social activities your friends are doing and be able to join in and share in the same experience whether it's watching a TV show or listening to music together.

3) New Apps - While social gaming apps like Zynga have always been popular, new apps like Spotify, Netflix and news by the Washington Post will enable richer, shared experiences that will allow you to more deeply engage with friends in your network.

My reaction today was one that left me feeling both horrified and fascinated at the same time. Horrified in realizing that Facebook is becoming the Internet and that very soon, every post and action may become the default and superficial representation of who we are.  Yet fascinated at Zuckerberg's relentless drive and ambition to make more than 800 million people around the world who spend up to 90% of their social networking time on Facebook realize his vision of shared information.

But are we only who we want to be on Facebook?  Studies show that people actually show their true selves on social networks.  For younger users who have grown up with sharing every aspect of every minute of their lives with friends, this question is perhaps irrelevant because sharing is their life.  For more mature users, this will take some adjusting and even as our professional and personal lives becoming increasingly intertwined, some will ultimately have to decide how much is too much.  But Zuck's got that figured out already by saying that users will have control over what they want to share and not share.  And I suspect he'll still find a way to make what we share profitable -  which is why Facebook will continue to dominate as the leading platform for our social lives.

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Today for Coastal Cleanup Day my son and I volunteered a couple of hours to help pick-up trash and debris around the Corte Madera Creek in Marin.  In just a few hours, we collected more junk than we expected, including 173 cigarette buts, 54 candy and food wrappers, 2 tennis balls, a pair of broken sunglasses and a dozen or so party streamers.  Marinites are generally good about taking care of their public spaces, but when you look carefully, it's amazing how much litter there actually is -- and how much of it unfortunately is due to human consumption and waste.

Trash and debris around water ways are especially damaging as the waste is not only harmful to wildlife who either eat or get entangled in things like string, soda can snaps and plastic soda holders but eventually make its way to a final destination - the ocean.  Plastic is the main component of litter and finds its way into the North Pacific Gyre Garbage Patch, a floating dump with more than 7 million tons of plastic, spanning an area at least twice the size of Texas and more than 30 feet deep.

A few things to think about the next time you're enjoying the outdoors:

1. Take a reusable bag with you on your next outdoor hike and pick up litter along the way.

2. When having a birthday party or picnic at the beach or park, encourage guests to help clean up and safely dispose of trash.  Don't forget balloons and streamers which often get left behind.  Kids love to help and by engaging them in clean-up and sorting trash activities they are also learning valuable lessons in ecology.

3. If you have to smoke, please make sure you properly dispose of any cigarette packages and used cigarettes in a trash can.  Don't just leave them on the floor where they are a potential fire hazard and contribute to additional litter along our public walkways.

Coastal Cleanup Day was a rewarding experience to spend some quality family time out in the beautiful outdoors, get some physical exercise, engage with our local community and help make a small difference.  To check out Coastal Cleanup activities in your neighborhood, go to www.healthebay.org/get-local/your-neighborhood.

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LinkedIn added a new feature recently that allows members to add volunteer experience and causes to your profile.  This is really wonderful news because it not only enables you to highlight additional experience  but it also helps validate the importance of giving back to a professional’s overall profile.  The increased transparency and connectivity through social networks like LinkedIn has created an open blending of our professional and personal lives.  And I for one, celebrate this, because donating your skills outside of the workplace and the concept of giving back should make all of us more fulfilled, engaged and committed professionals instilled with a greater sense of purpose.

And why is a greater sense of purpose important? Because today, more than ever,  Americans appear to be feeling less fulfilled in the traditional workplace.  A recent survey by Aflac showed that 77 percent of Americans would leave their current job to become entrepreneurs, citing economic pressures, work politics and/or juggling work/life balance as key motivators.  But the good news is, you don’t need to quit your job to find a sense of fulfillment -- many are seeking and finding fulfillment in volunteering.  According to a recent report by the federal Corporation for National and Community Service, in 2010, 62.8 million adults volunteered more than 8.1 billion hours.  GenXers in particular, contributed more than 2.3 billion hours in what the report calls the “volunteer lifecycle” -- the arc of civic involvement that tends to increase as citizens feel a deeper connection to their communities through personal networks, their workplace and their children’s schools.   This number can only be expected to grow, with Millennials in the workforce who’ve been raised with volunteering throughout their formative school years.

Volunteering today is easier than ever before, and no longer requires you to take an extended period of time off of work or use vacation time to actively get involved.  Many companies now allocate employees a certain number of hours per month for local community service, and there are now more online volunteer “matching” organizations that have figured out how to efficiently incorporate volunteering into a professional’s busy work life.  Two wonderful organizations that I support and that make it easy:

Taproot Foundation – a non-profit organization that makes business talent available to organizations working to improve society.  Taproot currently focuses their efforts for social impact with select metros and typically asks for volunteers who can donate 3-5 hours per week over the course of a six-month project.

Catchafire matches professionals who want to give their skills with nonprofits and social enterprises that need their help.  They match professionals and organizations based on skill set, cause interests and time availability and recently announced their nationwide expansion.

So try volunteering – it’s guaranteed to not only enhance your professional skill set but also improve your professional soul.

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But that’s the hard choices that children and mothers at the “bottom of the pyramid” face every single day.  The majority nix school or even baseline healthcare because of the need to work for literally pennies to feed their families daily.  What’s even more shocking is to realize that in many high concentration areas of poverty such as remote villages in India there is cell phone coverage that rivals what we have here at home. But the brilliant folks at mPowering have figured out that to address some of the biggest challenges in education and health in developing countries, a technology solution is not enough — you also have to understand your users and take into consideration the behaviors and needs of the ultra poor.

Technology can solve so many problems today but remain useless if we forget the human element.  As Katrin Verclas, co-founder of MobileActive says, “the human dimension typically proves harder than app development.” According to a recent mobile industry market study, the mobile app development market is anticipated to reach $100 billion in revenue in less than four years. Today, there are already more than 300,000 mobile apps in the market. It’s also interesting to note that despite this explosive growth, demand for mobile apps is expected to peak in 2013. So while it’s fun right now to check out that brand new app on your smartphone that makes you look skinnier in photos or entertains your cat, consider the potential to develop apps with actual purpose.  Even in this country, if we took into consideration more human motivations and behaviors, we could apply the same concept to reward things of real value – not Groupon discounts or Nike runner’s goals, but how we treat each other, help solve societal issues and become a more benevolent nation.

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Today I had the pleasure of volunteering at the San Francisco Food Bank as part of my company’s Volunteer Day event.  I have to say that while I’ve heard of the SF Food Bank before and the important work they do, visiting the headquarter location and witnessing their operations first hand was quite an experience.  Imagine a huge Costco-sized warehouse filled with hundreds of pallets of fresh fruit, food staples and cans with forklifts buzzing about and a constant whirl of trucks coming and going with either food to be stored or boxes of food being delivered to more than 400 non-profit organizations throughout the Bay Area.

Our volunteer guide, Steve, gave us a quick rundown of the state of hunger in the Bay Area.  While we live in one of the wealthiest regions in the U.S., it’s easy to overlook the fact that hunger is a very real problem in the Bay Area with more than 150,000 people struggling to put food on the table every day.  Through a volunteer workforce of more than 2,000 people – equivalent to 55 full-time employees – this worthy organization is working to provide 88,000 nutritious meals a day and 6,000 healthy snacks to low-income public schools.  The SF Food Bank covers people at 185% of the poverty line – this includes many families that are experiencing economic hardship due to job loss and long-term unemployment.

Today’s team project was hand-packing , weighing, sealing, labeling and packing one-pound bags of brown rice in 15lbs. boxes.  On any given day, the volunteer project can be different, based upon what kind of food donations come in and what needs to get packaged for that day’s shipment.  The work was fast-paced but well-supervised, with several staff available to help direct and answer questions.  One of the most interesting thing I learned was how much the food bank operated like an efficient supply chain.  The food bank is dependent on a steady flow of a well-coordinated volunteer workforce to help quickly sort, package and move food in and out of the warehouse.  The faster the process, the more food that can be accepted, housed and ultimately distributed to more people and families in need.

If you haven’t volunteered at the SF Food Bank yet, it’s a great team-bonding and fulfilling experience.  You can find volunteer opportunities at http://www.sffoodbank.org/volunteer/, donate online at https://org2.democracyinaction.org/o/5420/t/9547/shop/custom.jsp?donate_page_KEY=1974 and also text “EAT” to 50555 to donate $10 from your mobile phone.  I also learned that families can volunteer on weekends as well, with children age 8 and above accepted on Saturdays and children from 4 years old on Sundays.  What a wonderful way to teach children about the importance of giving back during the holiday season.

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via google.com

I’m sure by now you’ve either heard or read about the recent Gap logo fiasco and the company’s failed attempt to launch a brand new, “modern, sexy, cool” logo. Apparently the new logo only lasted less than one week, with consumer reaction so negative that it caused the quick creation of a Gap Logo Twitter handle and a create-your-own Gap logo website calling for the new logo's demise.

Gap’s reaction was to post a message on their Facebook page, acknowledging the public’s concern over its much-beloved logo, and asking fans on the site to send in their own ideas for a new logo. They called this crowd-sourcing but the attempt at assuaging consumer sentiment almost backfired as quickly as the death of the new logo and the ask for logo submissions stopped.

I have to say I was surprised at Gap’s execution and handling of this crisis. Calling for consumer input after the fact doesn’t line up to the true essence of crowd-sourcing – which ironically, had the company’s brand team effectively solicited ideas from the community from the start of the new logo development process -- would have been a far more effective and probably successful launch.

Gap will recover, but unfortunately this incident will live on and will be referenced over and over again as one of the best case studies of what not to do in today’s uber-immediate, social media-driven society.

From my perspective, here are some valuable lessons:

1. Community engagement does not start after something negative happens
A look at Gap’s Facebook fan page and Twitter handle shows that the company has used each as just another marketing/advertising channel to promote sales, contests, new ad campaigns. The request for logo ideas, an attempt at reaching out to the community, appeared to be the first real outreach for input and direct engagement.

2. Social networks are not just promotion vehicles but great listening opportunities
It’s a new habit for marketers to learn, but active monitoring and actually listening to conversations going on within a community provides a real-time pulse-check on what’s top of mind and current sentiment. Had Gap been actively using its Facebook and Twitter handles to actively listen to and engage with its community, they would have received valuable feedback early on in the process that might have resulted in successful adoption of a new logo or at minimum, learned early on in the planning process that consumer sentiment would be against a new look.

3. Your customers want to be part of the creative process
Studies have shown that consumers today want and expect to be heard, and have stronger loyalty to brands that involve and include them. A recent Best Buy study indicated a major shift in the transition of influence from electronics manufacturers to the consumer. Where manufacturers in the past dictated what we would buy, consumers are now in control and will continue to dictate what they want to see in new products. I see no difference in retail and some new online communities are actively asking consumers to determine which clothes to design and stock.

I feel for Gap. I have always had high hopes that they would finally evolve on the social media front and start actively engaging and soliciting input from long-time customers like me. For now, it looks like all I can expect are more discount coupons.

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I don’t often watch talent shows on TV, primarily because I don’t have much free personal time and as a result, I never have the opportunity to get hooked onto or get to know any one particular contestant.  This summer, however,  with time off from work , I managed to watch almost the entire season of America’s Got Talent and ended up feeling empathy for one contestant.  This contestant had been down on his luck for many years and who embodied such humility and love for his grandparents, I couldn’t help but immediately feel a connection with him.  Last night, America selected Michael Grimm, a “boy from Mississippi” who just wanted to win the million dollar prize to help buy a real home for his grandparents who raised him and who lost everything in Hurricane Katrina.

Although I was a fan of Grimm and hoped he would win, I expected America to choose Jackie Evancho, a beautiful, gifted 10-year-old girl with the voice and looks of an angel.  Despite Grimm’s talent, how could America resist voting for a phenom with what the modeling industry would call strong “commercial” (read: marketable) looks? 

The one thing I love about these national voting shows is that the selected winner in many ways, represents the current sentiment in America.  There are some takeaways from America’s selection of Grimm that Corporate America can learn from:

People Seek Connection with Authentic, Real  Individuals:  As people continue to struggle with job loss, mortgage foreclosures, natural disasters and other challenges associated with the economy and/or the impact to the environment associated with climate change and/or irresponsible human behavior, the more they seek and empathize with individuals just like themselves.  Grimm was a perfect representative for the common man persevering through many setbacks and career failures.  Americans are no longer tolerant of jet-setting executives who’ve lost touch with their shareholders, customers and communities.  As we’ve seen with recent corporate executives who have allegedly dealt in questionable behavior – no matter how talented, most Americans now expect and demand executives be held to the same standards as you and me.

Humility and Decency are Rewarded: Grimm is the anti-star.  Throughout the entire competition, he remained true to himself – simple, humble and grateful.  Even when he was announced the winner, instead of grabbing the mic and stealing the spotlight for himself, he immediately talked to runner-up Evancho to ensure she was ok with the results.  I believe that for the majority of Americans, they are over the hype and  the perfectly postured and manicured executives of Corporate America and feel a closer connection to executives that demonstrate humility, hard work and ethical behavior.

Storytelling Now Says Who You Are:  From the very beginning of the competition, Grimm told a simple story – he wanted to give back to his grandparents who had given him so much in his life.  This story immediately gave him a likeable personality and someone who every person in America could relate to.  He never changed his story or his person values throughout the competition and with each performance, despite him getting closer and closer to fame he fundamentally stayed true to himself and authentic. While politicians and  executives have certainly used personal stories about their mother or family struggles to illustrate a point, those values now need to be consistent with the decisions and choices that an executive makes every day.

It’s a stretch to say that a talent entertainment show should be taken seriously by executives.  But it’s nonetheless a quick pulse check on what mainstream Americans value.  I, for one, hope these values continue and that more executives take note of the need for a new humility, compassion and connection back to the common man.

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Some of you know that this year I had some time off which allowed me an opportunity to do some interesting consulting projects and spend more time with my family.  While living without a constant paycheck was difficult, the time off gave me a precious opportunity to really rest, and in doing so, obtain more clarity around what motivates me as a communications professional.  As Seth Godin would say, where did I want to create my art?

So throughout my search to put some meaning and art back into my career, it was critically important to me to find a community of like-minded souls.  I wasn’t even sure if such a place existed, but I knew I needed to join an organization that felt and operated as passionately as I do about people, the importance of a strong creative culture and a progressive, multi-dimensional approach to solving today’s most challenging communications and business issues.

I’m happy to announce that as of tomorrow I will be joining a global communications consultancy that I think fits the bill – Bite Communications in San Francisco.  I’m looking forward to joining a leadership team at Bite that develops communications strategies for some of the largest brand leaders in technology and where I can fully leverage my global PR and integrated marketing experience.

I anticipate still being able to blog about marketing new technologies, social media trends and corporate social responsibility so there will be no significant changes to social persuasion.  I am however, excited about the new experiences that will deepen my perspective on various issues and I’m looking forward to sharing.

 So off I go to create my art…

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Last night I had the pleasure of meeting two artist/entrepreneurs who are doing some exciting work in creating immersive, engaging content for children that will form the basis of next-generation storytelling.  Wallace E. Keller and Valerie Mih are the founders of See Here Studios, and the creators of the first children’s app on the iPad, a 3D book called The Wrong Side of the Bed.

Wallace and Valerie were the featured guests at Play-Well TEKnologies in San Anselmo where they held a special book reading for customers and their children.  Wallace and Valerie also discussed how they transformed The Wrong Side of the Bed (which was originally a print book) into a 3D app and gave the audience a sneak peek of upcoming 3D book apps anticipated for release this September.

I sat down with Wallace and Valerie for a quick chat on See Here Studios:

ckawa: Why did you decide to do a 3D book and format it as an app for the iPad?

seeherestudios: Well, we already had the rights to the book, and when we heard about Apple working to develop the iPad, we knew we had to get the book republished for as one of the iPad apps.  Then we happened to see the Avatar movie and got inspired to transform the story into an immersive, 3D experience.  The Wrong Side of the Bed app ended up becoming the first children’s app on the iPad when it came onto the market this past year.

ckawa: Wallace, as an established children’s book author and illustrator, what are you trying to do differently with The Wrong Side of the Bed iPad app that you couldn’t do before?

seeherestudios: It’s exciting as an author and an illustrator to see how technology can enhance and enrich the storytelling experience.  Books have always taken readers into imaginative worlds, but now with things like 3D technology stories can now truly come to life and draw children into the actual stories they are reading or hearing. With The Wrong Side of the Bed iPad app, we were also able to incorporate sound, so one of Valerie’s challenges was to create a soundtrack for the book that would enhance the storytelling.  The addition of sound also provided the option to hear the book in audio, which we feel was an added benefit for pre- and early readers.

ckawa: What’s next and what can we expect from SeeHere Studios?

seeherestudios: We started See Here Studios a year ago with the vision of creating immersive and interactive children’s books for tablets.  Our goal is to be able to produce at least 1-2 3D book apps each month, and with each one we are trying to incorporate more immersive elements.  For instance, one of the 3D books we are currently working on is a modern interpretation of Goldilocks and the Three Bears called The Three Pandas.  With The Three Pandas we are adding animated elements and touch animation that will allow the reader or storyteller to touch a character and have it come alive.  Another thing we are working on is educational apps as we see a tremendous opportunity to help teachers make complex subjects such as chemistry more appealing and engaging through rich, immersive visual aids.

ckawa: As a new startup, how do you view social media and how are you using social media to help promote See Here Studios’ offerings?

seeherestudios: We’re big believers in the power of social media and are currently using YouTube, Facebook and Twitter as vehicles to reach and interact with our community.  We’ve experimented with Facebook “like” contests, app giveaways and character naming contests.  We’ve also received valuable information from our community on things they like and don’t like and this helps us shape our new creative offerings.

With eReaders and tablets like the iPad expected to continue to gain popularity, no doubt Wallace and Valerie are onto something big.  Just imagine, the next time you read your child a storybook, it may very well be on a digital device and in 3D. 

The Wrong Side of the Bed app is also available for the iPhone and in both 3D and 2D versions.  You can follow See Here Studios on Twitter @seeherestudios and on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/seeherestudios and on flickr at http://www.flickr.com/photos/seeherestudios/.

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via google.com

Last night’s season premiere of the popular TV show Mad Men was aptly called “Public Relations” and focused on a central question which we can expect to play out this season - “Who is Don Draper?” If you are not familiar with this show, Mad Men is a drama about the advertising agency business in the 60s, where men still ruled, women were secretaries and drinking and smoking was everywhere.

Don Draper is the protagonist, a self-made executive known for his creative talent who is brilliant at work but a dismal failure at home. A perfectionist like many talented executives, he prides himself on his industry reputation and his body of creative work and has little patience or time to explain himself or his agency to others who “don’t get it.”

The scene opens with Draper being interviewed by an Advertising Age trade reporter, with Draper being coy and glib, despite the reporter’s pleas to find a story and get a better sense of the man behind the agency. Draper is not amused by the exercise and writes it off as wasted time. Later we find out that the Ad Age profile on Draper is negative, portraying Draper as “arrogant” and “not a very nice guy.” When pressured by his senior management team, Draper takes offense saying, “it’s not my job to tell him my story, my work stands for itself.”

Executive spokespeople from the real world often fall into the same trap – what I’ll now call the Don Draper Syndrome. Proud of their personal accomplishments and their prominent leadership at the companies they work for, they have little patience for outsiders, and dismiss anyone who doesn’t have the intellect to understand exactly what they do. After all, their company is a success, the numbers speak for themselves, the workforce is growing, what other proof could anyone possibly need?

What they need is a story and a sense of the human being in that story. Because at the end of the day, it’s the reporter’s job to give that success meaning, “color” commentary to bring a sense of human-ness to cold numbers and to put context behind a company’s leadership. In short, humanizing a company makes its stakeholder feel closer to, and therefore more invested in that company.

Some executives consider this “soft” or useless small talk that they fear gives the impression of kissing up to a reporter, or worse yet, actually validating that the reporter’s coverage is of importance. But executives today are expected to be more than just corporate robots spitting out perfected corporate key messages. The various publics they serve (yes, serve) want to know that the leader they are putting faith in, investing their dollars with and buying their products and services from are trustworthy and quite simply, likeable human beings.

Certainly there are many talented and competent executives who understand the importance of good storytelling and the ability to create a personal connection with its publics. But it’s important for executives to continually work on improving their public performance in this area. As the Wall Street Journal noted today in a story on BP’s embattled chief Tony Hayward, the modern CEO today demands recognition that a “true leader needs to be able to come from the heart and make people feel there is a connection.”

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While listening to a Justmeans webinar this morning on how to reach stakeholders more effectively through social media, an interesting comment was made by Managing Director Deb Berman, with regard to community trends.  Berman stated that within Justmeans’ own client community (which is primarily comprised of CSR and sustainability leads at large corporations and non-profits), they are seeing a decline in corporate blogging as an outreach tool.

The reason?  Companies are realizing that more and more people are now on social networks and that it’s increasingly hard to draw stakeholders into another conversation.  With more than 400 million people now on Facebook, 75 million on Twitter and 60 million on LinkedIn, it’s easy to see that convincing people to add yet another blog or community to their already crowded personal networks is just not happening.

Justmeans has responded to this need by now enabling members to automatically post updates and distribute information on multiple social networks, including the ability to opt out of posting the update to the Justmeans community.  A smart and handy analytics feature as well works to help members “sell” more social content and distribution to deliver upon the demands for evidence-based ROI.  For any CSR lead and/or consultant interested in reaching almost 200,000 influencers, Justmeans has evolved into a more valuable and centrally relevant community.

And as for corporate blogging, there are various reasons why most companies fail and that the actual number of corporate blogs is declining.  According to the Fortune 500 Business Blogging Wiki, only 79 companies in the Fortune 500 regularly blog as of December 2009, less than 16 percent of the world’s largest companies.

Here’s my take on some of the challenges:

1. Limited resources.  Time and time again I hear clients complain that they just don’t have the resources to devote to blogging and social media.  My response is that Marketing leads need to reassess and reallocate existing resources. 
2. Lack of authenticity.  Many corporate blogs are run by Marketing and/or Communications departments and end up speaking like one.  Stakeholders today seek authentic and interactive conversation with real individuals who can provide a personality and view into a company’s culture.
3. Build it and they will come syndrome.  Without promotion, active outreach and linking to other thought-leaders to engage a community, a corporate blog will end up a lonely island. 

So will corporate blogs ultimately face its demise, along with email and corporate websites?  Will all information, both corporate and personal end up becoming one, open network via Facebook or Twitter?  What do you think?

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via hung-truong.com

Earlier this year, I wrote a blog post about the need for more artists in the workplace. With a recent Conference Board survey showing a 22-year low in job satisfaction, economists are concerned that if we do not reverse this trend, job dissatisfaction will hinder innovation and the ability for companies to be competitive.

With continued layoffs, increased healthcare expenses and corporate trust hanging in fragile balance, it’s no wonder that employees aren’t satisfied and that questioning one’s own happiness and life purpose is on the rise. But is it realistic to expect companies to be solely responsible for making employees feel satisfied and to equate job satisfaction with actual happiness in life?

If you ask Zappos.com CEO Tony Hsieh, he will say yes, and that his belief in the development of a strong company culture centered around core values that give meaning to every aspect of an organization results in not only in profit, but also increased loyalty, job satisfaction and happiness. In his first book, “Delivering Happiness – A Path to Profits, Passion and Purpose,” Hsieh shares both his mistakes and successes in turning the online retailer into a more than $1 billion company in only ten years.

Reading an advance copy of Hsieh’s book was like having a one on one, intimate conversation with one of the world’s most successful and truly progressive entrepreneurs. Written in his own voice, without the use of a ghostwriter, Hsieh takes the reader along his journey from his early start as a budding 9-year-old entrepreneur with a worm box to his Harvard college pizza days to his first venture Link Exchange and ultimately finding his “calling” at Zappos.com. Hseih has a unique ability to express himself in such an open and sometimes vulnerable manner that he makes you feel like you’re one of his friends, sharing in his own personal experience in the search for not only business excellence but also spiritual fulfillment.

While it’s easy to think that most entrepreneurs in technology are overnight sensations, while Hsieh is modest in his tone, you quickly come to understand that this guy is wicked smart. And while most Asian Americans I know are expected to be super smart, not many AAs get accepted to every single top university they apply to – try six, in Hsieh’s case. It’s clear that Hsieh deftly applies his smarts to analyze every single aspect of the Zappos.com business and is one of the few CEOs that actually understand the connection between not only external business drivers, but also what actually drives and motivates people. His approach is holistic, healing and almost Zen, priest-like in a cool David Carradine kind of kung-fu way.

Overall I loved Delivering Happiness and found myself so immersed in Hsieh’s world that I managed to read the entire book in two days. In an increasingly cynical and critical world, it’s comforting to know that there are visionaries like Hsieh who are redefining what it means to be successful. Hsieh reaffirmed my lost-belief that businesses can value people and in doing so, really make the world a happier place.

Disclosure: In writing this review of Delivering Happiness, I received a free advance copy of the book. My statements regarding this book are my own personal opinions and not suggested by either Tony Hsieh or the book publisher.

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