Will Social Media Change Your Business Outlook?
Posted by goodmind on May 27th, 2008
One of the most active and lively “web-based” conversations is about the intersecting applications of social media and business. We admit, there’s very little we can add to this conversation that hasn’t already been said on this blog, or somewhere else, especially when Business Week has updated their seminal post “Blogs Will Change Your Business.”
The new version is more aptly titled “Social Media Will Change Your Business,” which is more or less indisputable fact at this point. However, the revised article contains a key revelation concerning companies currently using social networking applications for professional purposes – and using them well for that matter.
Though outward signs of social network use are easily recognized, and anyone can communicate their observation that Company XYZ “gets it” just as easily, no one is actually embracing the bottom up ethos giving executive management Kafka-esque dreams. Basically, even the most authentically enthusiastic advocates of crowdsourcing and the like, wouldn’t necessarily go to the crowd for advice. In fact, it might not even occur to a believer to crowdsource a solution to a personal, or professional problem.
In a rather revealing moment, the authors admit that even their own professional behavior doesn’t yet reflect what they’ve come to know and preach about the professional potential of social networks;
“Even when researching a story like this, it’s easy to fall into old patterns. Let’s see, we thought as we started out: Which top executives are embracing social media? Sun Microsystems (JAVA) chief executive officer Jonathan I. Schwartz is a blogger. What’s he up to? IBM (IBM) set up its own social network for employees, Beehive. It has 30,000 employees on it. We should definitely give them a call.
But hold on. If we’re writing about new networks that extend beyond companies and break down their walls, and if these technologies are often beyond the control of executives, what are we doing calling the bosses? Like many others in business, we have developed top-down reflexes that are nearly Pavlovian. We have to deprogram ourselves.“
Social Media will only change your business if you let it change your business outlook, and incorporate it into your daily business behavior. It’s like trying to lose weight; success is a lifestyle change. Fad dieting will only lead to frustration.
Play Ball! (Among Other Things)
Posted by goodmind on March 31st, 2008
In honor of Baseball’s Opening Day, we thought we’d share our thoughts on Nationals Park, the latest D.C. debutante and the new home of the Washington Nationals. Alleged to be more of a hitter’s park than the former stadium, RFK, it seems more like a gamer’s paradise to us. From the Official website;
“Children also will love the selection of video games available to them. There’s a 15,000 square foot area behind right-center field — which will open three hours before the game — where kids can spend hours playing on Playstation 3, Guitar Hero 3, Gran Turismo 5 Prologue and other things.”
Thought it would be nice to assume some of those other “things” include watching a ballgame, don’t count on it. In addition to being hitter-friendly, Nationals Park was designed to be fan friendly as well. When the starting rotation can’t locate the strike zone, fans at least will have no trouble finding the prominently featured PS3 Zone, or many of the stadium’s other diversions features.
Branded Personalities
Posted by goodmind on February 8th, 2008
After yesterday’s post on Style Icons, we couldn’t pass up the opportunity to comment on this story about Oprah from the Chicago Sun-Times;
“What would it be like to walk into Oprah Winfrey’s consciousness?
You can get close by walking into the new Oprah Store, a mishmash of the star’s sayings, passions, gurus and even her closet, right down the street from Harpo Studios on Chicago’s Near West Side.”
The retail version of Oprah’s closet will have to be archival if it is to be truly authentic. Regardless of her positive social contributions and political influence, we will always expect the Oprah brand experience to involve shoulder pads.
Style Icons
Posted by goodmind on February 7th, 2008
Manifestations of the current cultural fascination with everything celebrity are not limited to lists of the “X” most beautiful people. Even celebrated (current and formerly) tech companies are the subject of retrospective photo spreads, revisiting the evolution of logo design over the years.
Silicon Valley might be more superficial than Rodeo Drive, but honestly, would you buy a Macbook Air with the original Apple logo? Nothing says “thinnovation” like a lithographic print of Isaac Newton. (via Neatorama)
Porn: The Ultimate “Social” Media
Posted by goodmind on December 4th, 2007
Given their line of work, porn stars are susceptible to a number of unfortunate viral “issues.” As a money-making enterprise, the porn industry is likewise susceptible to the impact of viral technological advancements. You can certainly make a compelling case that the internet is a dangerous place for business, and indeed, many already have. Adding fuel to the fire; the amateur hour brought to you by Web 2.0 is now ruining the porn industry. Is nothing sacred anymore?
However, we think its a little, um, premature to accuse amateurs of “ruining” something that rose to popularity through the likes of this guy. You don’t need to be steeped in the historical folklore of the American pornography industry to know that as a form of profitable entertainment, porn has pretty humble, amatuer-ish beginnings.
It might be more appropriate to interpret this phenomenon as the public taking back a lost means of communication and personal expression. The “citizen smut” movement has a nice ring to it.
Additionally, in “researching” this post, we found an interesting article detailing down how porn has gone web 2.0, by borrowing design principles from Digg, You-Tube, and del.icio.us. The Digg model is particularly intriguing, and could definatively measure how important production values and storyline are to a successful porn film. How’s that for a democratic solution to a debate with critical implications for society at large?
The New AT&T’s New Corporate Logo
Posted by goodmind on August 10th, 2007
The fictional Star Wars galaxy is a complex tapestry of interwoven alliances, betrayals and congressional politics. The machinations of the Galactic Empire are really no different than those of certain telecommunications service providers. After countless mergers, acquisitions, and name changes, AT&T Wireless finally killed the Cingular brand, which SBC had previously spent approximately billions building.
We don’t take a position on the government’s predilection to monitor calls in and out of Yemen, but how fitting that after relaunching the “new” AT&T brand, to the tune of another billion or so, a guy with Photoshop can so deftly and devastatingly turn their logo into cultural shorthand for evil.
Headlines Don’t Sell Newspapers
Posted by goodmind on July 20th, 2007
Last Sunday Prince released his new album “Planet Earth” to much fanfare in the UK. Since it was Prince, the quality of the music was probably enough in itself to generate a certain degree of buzz. However, no one in the UK actually purchased the album. A free copy was mounted on the cover of “The Mail on Sunday,” and readers/fans responded by purchasing the periodical in near record numbers.
Sony responded by dropping their deal to distribute Planet Earth within the UK, citing the stunt as a violation of the industry’s copyright-theft/reasonable-use stance. We’re really not all that surprised that a record company would cry foul over music being circulated at no charge, through a newspaper.
If you really think about it hard enough, newspapers COULD become a wacky Napster of the future. If we consider newspapers only as a way of distributing information, then they are inefficient dinosaurs next to electronic means of dissemination. Why not take the seeming disadvantage of physical distribution and leverage it as a hyper efficient physical distribution channel?
The Prince CD is illustrative, but the same technique could apply to samples of toothpaste, snacks or virtually any physical asset. Would people be buying the news or the distributed goods paired with it? Would it matter to the ghost of Mr. Hearst? Perhaps the Bancroft family should reconsider Mr. Murdoch’s offer.
