The New Definition of Innovation

By Dan, posted February 9th, 2010 - 01:00. No Comments »

Tags:business disruption Business Transformation CEO community Conversation Conversational Currency corporate creative capital Economic Paradigm economics economy empower finance financial information information social innovation innovation intellectual capital Knowledge Knowledge Inventory money next economic paradigm productivity rate of change Relationship Economy Social Capital social media social web Technology

Innovation is most often defined as a good idea that has a favorable economic outcome – in other words, you know it when you sell it.

I have seen Corporate executives glow red in the face shouting down top talent with an outstretched index finger belching out; “It’s not innovation unless you can show me the money!”

In reality, you can’t see the money unless you can first see the innovation.

Nobody can solve one equation with two unknowns, i.e., what’s a new idea? and what’s an economic outcome? The trick is to identify the new ideas and direct them to the appropriate economic outcome, not the other way around. Many companies live in a silo where many good ideas can’t find a place to be profitable, so they are scrapped. This is not the fault of talent or the idea, but invariably both are lost.

An Innovation economy built on a platform of social media will collect the ideas existing in a community, outside the construct of the corporation, and distribute them to the most worthy economic outcome; maybe a corporation or maybe not – that’s not the point, Boss.

The existing definition of innovation is insufficient for use as a way to identify innovation in the present. There is no way to build an innovation economy upon a flawed definition and unpredictable value of innovative activity. This new interpretation will allow innovation to properly behave like a financial instrument.

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Social Game Changers

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Read more from Jay Deragon on Conversational Currency.

Tags:Advertising advidpath business disruption Conversational Currency economics Innovation Economics Social Capital social commerce social interest social media social Media roi

Everyone is chasing “social” as if it was the cure all and end all. Whether you’re a brand, a non-profit, a politician or a small business the lure of social media is being applied in many different ways.

Over the past several years the stories of how people are using social media has dominated the web and is now bleeding into main stream media. How? People and organizations are creating eye-opening stories about how they applied social media to accomplish an objective. Scott Brown’s win in the Massachusetts senate race is but one example and when you examine the factors that created his win social media stands out front and center.

There are inspiring lessons from the BIG and small stories of how people and organizations successfully applied social media. The irony of these stories is that most people who actually used social media to achieve and objective don’t understand “why” social media actually influenced the outcomes.

Lessons From Use

Social media is in its infancy stages and current usage is organic growth of a message propagated to the masses. A simple message from one person or organization can “catch the crowds” attention in profound ways that previously was not created by traditional media. The lessons from usage illustrate the simplistic yet profound nature of viral communications whose reach and richness has accelerated due to the internet. Some lessons to consider:

Enable consumers and constituents to be the influence, not your ads or your marketing but rather your message that appeals to the masses.
Innovate the message with the medium even if you don’t understand why or how. Barack Obama leveraged social media to get elected into the highest office in the nation. His party doesn’t understand “why” this worked and neither did Scott Brown. All they know is that it worked. Now both parties are jumping into the use of social media but neither understands why or how it works.
Social media reaches outside the traditional market and taps into people who have an affinity to your message, your product/service and you individually regardless of geography or traditional demographics that have defined your market.
Leverage social technology with relevant and relative media. Relevant and relative media is different than traditional media because it is relational rather than institutional. Social technology enables relational media to spread like wildfire because of the distributed power of reaching hearts and minds.

We live in a world of unprecedented change, increasing globalization, and the explosive influence of distributed communications fueld by this thing we call social media. Innovative uses of social media is the central driving force for any business, any cause or any nation that wants to grow organically and succeed in the new economy. This is a game-changing dynamic which will evolve rapidly as will the influence and impact on everything.

The game has just begun. There are no spoken rules rather the rules are hidden in the fiber of human relations and only spoken to the hearts and minds of those participating in the game of change. A game changes when people learn “why” people play the game and not necessarily “how” they play the game today. The rules of the game change when we learn why which then changes how we use something as simple yet profound as the ability to “connect” to and with the human network like never before in the history of mankind. The crowds learning why are the game changers.

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Creating Social Media Value: Part 2 Listening and learning has never before been so opportunistic to…
Is Social Media Shifting? Each of the ten points above reflect current shifts that…
Do You Copy Or Create? To create a new bandwagon requires you to think by…

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Social Media as a Vetting Mechanism

By Dan, posted February 8th, 2010 - 01:00. No Comments »

Tags:Business Transformation community Conversational Currency corporation creative capital credit score development EBay Economic economic growth Economic Paradigm economy facebook family feedback government information Ingenesist innovation Media Political productivity referee Relationship Economy social commerce social media social vetting Twitter United Nations vetting

Where the vetting mechanism fails, the system fails. This has happened in countless instances from the current financial crisis to nearly every product, market, environmental calamity, or political failure in recorded history – the referees who were supposed to keep their eye on the ball, did not. Likewise, where a vetting mechanism is effective, the system is efficient.

EBay does little more than defend the vetting mechanism (feedback system) and entrepreneurs do the rest. The credit score allows companies and people to capitalize and securitize assets. The US legal system keeps the game of commerce as fair as practical. Police officers and school boards keep our society safe and smart. We often overlook the importance of vetting in our communities.

Today, we find severe problems in finance and government and people are investing their knowledge assets in social media as the place to “store and exchange” their present and future productivity – instead of debt. As such, social vetting is taking many different forms to validate, qualify, and quantify those assets.

While the progression may not be noticeable, there will be a tipping point where the medium has built enough trust that it can support a currency. This new currency needs to be only a little bit more “trustworthy” than the currency it will replace. This is the point where knowledge becomes tangible.

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Matrix: Companies Should Factor ‘Social Influence’ into Total Customer Value

This post is syndicated from Web Strategy by Jeremiah. No Comments »

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Tags:Advertising business disruption Business Transformation community Conversation Conversational Currency creative capital Economic Paradigm economics empower facebook google information innovation Media money New Advertising productivity Social Capital social commerce social interest social media social Media roi Twitter

Case Study: An Influential Mom Blogger Caused Mainstream Crises
Popular blogger, Heather Armstrong (@dooce) was dissatisfied with her non-working Maytag appliance. Following protocol, she called their support number, yet her issue was not solved. Stonewalled, she argued/warned the support staff that she was on Twitter, yet didn’t receive special assistance. Escalating further, she then flexed a muscle and told them she had over 1,000,000 Twitter followers –yet the support rep did not budge. Finally, she blogged and Tweeted against Maytag, initiating a boycott by her followers, “DO NOT BUY MAYTAG” and continues to chronicle her experience on her blog. While critics suggest she wielded her power with irresponsibility, the point is moot, what matters is her social influence was not factored into the support triage decision making process –making a minor support issue a PR issue now on Forbes.

Just as companies factor in value of a customers celebrity status, buying power or customer loyalty –companies must factor in social influence or put themselves at risk. That’s right, customers with more Twitter followers are more likely to get better service and support than those that don’t.

Trend: Consumers Becoming Influential Using Social Technologies

Companies Already Give Preferential Treatment To Famous and Wealthy Customers. Companies have given high influence customers preference for years. Take for example, shopping malls in the Los Angeles area have private entry ways for celebrities to enter the mall and receive priorty treatment. Or, how B2B companies cater to their top customers with special event days, golf outings, or other clients with deep pockets. Companies know that not all customers are valued the same, and as a result, treat them differently.
With More Consumers Adoption Social Technologies, the Problem Will Get Worse. The tide is rising, in fact with more consumers adopting social technologies, the amount of voices that companies will need to deal with will increase in volume. Treating each customer with the best possible service and support (Like Zappos unique culture) is ideal –but not realistic. Companies are ill-equipped to support millions of customers in real time on the social web. They must have prioritization programs in place to handle the high risk/opportunity accounts quickly.
Companies Who Don’t Factor In Influence Put Themselves at Risk. Companies can choose to not factor in the social influence of customers, but will be putting themselves at risk. It’s just a matter of time before a company has a social blowup, and by not trying to handle priority customers could cause a small issue to quickly escalate into a larger one. Also, savvy competitors who factor in social influence can swoop and acquire high influence customers from companies that don’t. Your goal, is to stay off this list.

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The Socialization of Email Marketing

This post is syndicated from Brian Solis. No Comments »

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Follow me on Twitter! Become a fan on Facebook!

It seems that everywhere you turn, businesses, media properties, and brands are asking us to connect with them in the social Web. Whether it’s on TV, in press materials, advertising, or email, brands are vying for our “friendship.”

In July 2009, Bill McCloskey in partnership with StrongMail, analyzed the email marketing campaigns of top brands and how they integrated social profiles into the marketing presentation. McCloskey observed that top brands were reviving email campaigns with the inclusion of links to social profiles, specifically Facebook, Twitter, and also MySpace.

McCloskey reported that top brands such as Nike, Intel, The Gap, Pepsi, Sony, HP, Home Depot, Lane Bryant, Circuit City, Saks Fifth Avenue, Polo Ralph Lauren, Lands’ End, and J.C. Penney included Social Media within email marketing messages. As expected, since 2007, the number of email campaigns that contained links to Facebook and Twitter dramatically increased, becoming the two most prominent links integrated in all email marketing initiatives in 2009. As of June, the number of campaigns that included a link to the branded Twitter account grew to 41,399, with 41,052 for Facebook.

As 2009 gave way to a new decade, the StrongMail team published an updated report, “2010 Marketing Trends.” The survey documented that nine in 10 planned to either increase or maintain their marketing budgets in twenty ten (2010). And what was at the top of the list? Email marketing… What was second? Social Media…

Reviewing the list of marketing programs that will benefit from increased commitments, it seems that almost every element for generating presence through outbound and inbound marketing is set to expand this year – and most likely over the next several years. The democratization of media and the equalization of influence require brands to reassess their strategies and objectives for earning attention, steering perception, and growing a community of loyal customers and advocates.

Marketing Programs Expected to Receive Increased Budgets

69% – Email marketing

59% – Social media

42% – Search

28% – Advertising

22% – Mobile

21% – Direct mail

20% – Tradeshows and events

19% – Public relations

While marketers believe that customers will increase their spending in 2010, conservative and skeptical executives are also reducing programs that don’t align with adapted ambitions…

The socialization of email marketing will continue to fuse social networks and the inbox until one day, they become one. After all, email is technically the largest, untapped, social network in the world.

According to the report, over 40% of executives plan on integrating social and email marketing in 2010. How that expands beyond the obvious “follow me” or “become our fan” on Twitter and Facebook intrigues me.

Thankfully, StrongMail asked the question that needed to be asked…

Are you planning to integrate Social Media into your email marketing campaigns in 2010?

27% – Yes, we have formulated a strategy and have already implemented our program

24% – Yes, we have formulated a strategy and are researching tools for implementation

18% – Yes, but we don’t know where to start

11% – No, but it sounds intriguing

5% – No, I don’t see the value in integrating email marketing with social media

11% – I don’t know

4% – Other

Once integrated programs are deployed, measurement dictates the future of our social programming. 42% of executives reported a lift in email campaign performance after integrating social and email, 35% realized zero improvement, and 23% aren’t sure how to measure their results.

Clearly, there is room for growth, education, and evolution. Over 50% of marketers believe they are on the right track and already either have plans to execute or directives to discover solutions to place into effect. But again, simply asking people to friend or follow us is not enough. We must convey a sense of purpose and define and spotlight the rewards for clicking through to our points of designation. There must be life beyond the connection. We must package and deliver an experience, cultivated by a series of calls to action. It is through the definition of action that provides us with the foundation to establish and measure activity.

And as we’re already realizing, traditional email isn’t the only form of “email marketing.” Many service providers are automating the ability to mass-broadcast content to the inboxes of fans on Facebook and followers on Twitter.

With Social Media comes great responsibility…

Sometimes the ability to connect and inspire action is driven less by quantity and cultivated through an informed, targeted, and genuine outreach program where less is indeed more.

Connect with Brian Solis: Twitter, LinkedIn, Tumblr, Plaxo, or Facebook
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The Chicken and the Egg Social Media Conundrum

This post is syndicated from Convince and Convert Blog: Social Media Strategy and Social Media Consulting. No Comments »

Read more from Jay Baer on Conversational Currency.

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There are many ways social media differs from traditional marketing. It’s approachable and human. It’s a two-way dialog, rather than unilateral declarations. It treats the customer as a teammate, rather than a target.

But there’s another big difference. In social media, the audience comes after the message, not before.

Remember that when you buy a print ad, or billboard, or print a direct mail piece, or buy radio time, or banner ads, or bus benches, or hire a skywriter, you are doing so because you have some idea of how many people will see your message, and that they are theoretically folks that give a whit about your company.

Social media is the exact opposite.

Hand-to-hand Combat for Eyeballs

You decide you want to join the conversation on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, your blog or wherever, and you start with an audience of zero. The audience accrues based on the quality and authenticity of your message.

Thus, there are really no shortcuts in social media. Sure, you can produce more content, or tweet about it with greater frequency, or be smarter about SEO, or craftily link your social outposts together. But all of those just make a good social media program better – they don’t guarantee you an audience.

And the more I think about it, the more I believe that’s why some marketers have trouble wrestling and conceptualizing social media. Our attention and loyalties are no longer for sale the way they historically have been. In social media, you can’t open up your Arbitron report and figure out which stations will reach your target audience, and write your check and be on drive time in a few days, distributing your message widely.

As Brian Solis puts it so well, we now earn the relationships, trust, and reputation we deserve.

There’s a lot of people out there trying to figure out how to game the system. How to find the secret social media loophole that enables you to grow an audience like a chia pet without having to work at it. I don’t think they’ll find their magic beans, and I hope you don’t let them keep trying.

Yes, it’s hard. Nobody ever promised social media was easy, just that it was fun, and effective. But, unlike every other marketing tool for the past 200 years, it’s a meritocracy, and that benefits us all.

I just started noodling this concept of audience coming after the message the other day. Will you help me think it through in the comments?

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How Knowledge Assets Live In A Community

By Dan, posted February 6th, 2010 - 01:00. No Comments »

Tags:address analogy asset assets bell curve business Business Transformation Capitalism capitalistic college community Conversation Conversational Currency creative capital Culture Currency degree Economic economics economy everybody Gender included innovation intellectual capital inventory Knowledge Knowledge Inventory loser Media paradigm physical priorities productivity race Relationship Economy social Social Capital social commerce sports vetted winner

Our culture organizes itself around winners and losers. Corporations reflect this competitive nature to the core of their Capitalist doctrine. Sports analogies abound across the enterprise straight through to the HR department always on the lookout for the most amount of superstar for the least amount of money.

Social media has every industry trying to understand the concept of community. Among the most difficult ideas to grasp is that knowledge assets in a community live on a bell curve, not in winner and loser columns. Everyone is an expert at something and nobody is an expert at everything. Someone who is not performing adequately is simply a misallocated asset, not flotsam subject to jettison at the next layoff or outsource “opportunity”.

Like most assets, there is a perfectly legitimate market for everyone in a community – nobody need be excluded, marginalized or laid off. Social Media is turning the tables on the hierarchy and old winners who don’t play by the new rules quickly become the new losers. Maybe we ought to run our economy like a community instead of losing so badly at trying to be a winner.

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Alternate Currencies; Breaking the Monopoly on Money

By Dan, posted February 5th, 2010 - 01:00. 1 Comment »

Tags:alternate business disruption Business Transformation community Conversation Conversational Currency creative capital Currency debt Economic Paradigm empower european facebook fractional reserve gaming currency information innovation bond Innovation Economics Innovation Economy intellectual capital interest Knowledge Inventory managing time money monopoly play money productivity Relationship Economy Social Capital social commerce social interest social web

Hundreds of community currencies are forming across the globe. Gaming currencies are jumping back into reality. Europeans communities are calling for the authority to print their own money arguing that the fractional reserve system is like trying to recover from a war by waging more war (a novel thought).

Few people doubt that the dollar has more than a decade or so of steam left as the interest on debts mythically exceeds the total amount of money on Earth. Yet banks march on, heading straight for the cliff.

Governments are polarized against themselves (and in cooperation with other governments) to solve the problem – except by reducing services to the people. But isn’t this why Governments exists in the first place? Are they suggesting their own elimination? Of course not, so they issue press releases worth about as much as the photons they are printed with.

Meanwhile, corporate media is trying to dominate (and subdue) social media….ultimately, the end game will be the other way around. This short video invites the status quo to look at what people are “doing and saying with their productivity”

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Take Off the Social Media Blindfold

This post is syndicated from Convince and Convert Blog: Social Media Strategy and Social Media Consulting. No Comments »

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Tags:Advertising business disruption Business Transformation community Conversation Conversational Currency empower facebook google information innovation intellectual capital Knowledge Inventory Media New Advertising Relationship Economy social advertising Social Capital social commerce social interest social media social Media roi social web

(Editor’s note; “Social media” means exactly that. As corporations are trying to turn it into ‘corporate media’, the “social” slips away through the cracks…)

Among the many exceptionally interesting data snacks in the recent MarketingProfs’ State of Social Media report is one showing that businesses of all sizes and types are primarily using Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, YouTube, and blogging.

And while it’s on one hand a positive that we’re stating to see some norms and best practices emerge within social media, it’s a tremendous mistake to restrict your social media activities to just the “Big Five.”

There are literally hundreds of other places your customers could be talking about your brand within the social Web, and it’s imperative that you hear all of them. If a subset (even a small one) of your customer base loves Tripadvisor, or Yelp, or FriendFeed, or their Ning group or whatever, that does not make them less important to your brand’s perception than people on Twitter or Facebook, it just makes them a different segment of your audience.

Remember, there is a REASON they spend their time within the social ecosystem on Yelp and not Facebook – because that’s the community they PREFER. And in fact, people that make choices that are less conventional tend to defend those choices more passionately than the “me too” crowd. And, because there are fewer total users, the opinions of any individual are magnified.

Further, regardless of where the content is posted, it will be found and indexed by search engines, becoming part of your brand’s permanent record, like that crappy tattoo of a hummingbird you got in Cancun.

Dear Marriott: Pay Attention

Consider this horrifying example for Marriott. I did a quick check of Google Sidewiki (a plug-in for Firefox and Internet Explorer that lets you comment on Web pages, and those comments are “stuck” the Web page like a Post-It note). I found this solitary post, ripping Marriott for not removing this guy from their email newsletter list. I’m not sure what’s worse, the company not paying attention to secondary and tertiary layers of the social Web and thus not finding this, or knowing about it and not leaving a reply. Either way, their silence is deafening.

Do millions of people use Sidewiki? Not yet, but since it’s a Google project, there’s a fair chance it will take off. And for the people that are already using Sidewiki, doesn’t this impact how you perceive Marriott? And now I’ve shared it with all of you, so a comment on a “minor” social outpost continues to fester, unabated.

I realize it’s a hassle to monitor your brand across all of these places. It takes time. Time you probably don’t have. But you know how municipal police forces crush graffiti problems? They paint over it immediately, wherever it occurs. It’s a lesson that applies equally in social media.

The days of “if we answer back, it just gives them credence” are over. Take off the blinders, remove the earplugs, and defend yourself.

(disclaimer: MarketingProfs is a Convince & Convert client. You might want to read another post that references their data: Crushing the Myth of B2B Social Media)

(for more on Google Sidewiki, read this excellent post by Jeremiah Owyang)

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Video: Balancing The Equation of Global Outsourcing

By Dan, posted February 4th, 2010 - 01:00. No Comments »

Tags:business disruption Business Transformation community Conversation Conversational Currency creative capital data Economic Paradigm economics economy global outsource in formation information Ingenesist innovation Innovation Economy intellectual capital knowledge economy Knowledge Inventory labor money outsource productivity Social Capital social media social web

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The knowledge economy is a completely different asset than the industrial revolution definition of units of labor. Yet, our modern accounting systems and even our definitions of terms such as innovation, work, employment, education, are built from industrial era or military logistic roots.

Modern Globalization is a system – it must be analyzed like a system. Data, Information, knowledge, and Innovation are profoundly related in a system. If you take away one of the components, the others become worthless.

When we outsource our knowledge economy, the innovation economy is exterminated. The Ingenesist project specifies an Innovation Economy built on social media which will capture the knowledge inventory of communities – let’s hope that we have not forgotten how to build an ….

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