Last week, Anderson’s Independent Mail published a column I wrote concerning Senator Bryant’s response to the SC DOR hacking. Specifically I was bothered with his public response to this avoidable situation. And then Monday evening (1/15/13), he publicly announces his Twitter account had been hacked.
So let’s rewind to 2012. During a breakfast last December, Senator Bryant shared his thoughts about the hacking. Here are his thoughts reported by the IndependentMail.com:
“The security lapses that made the hacking possible are ‘just mind-boggling,’ said Bryant, adding that he and other state lawmakers had no inkling that the Department of Revenue was so vulnerable.”
Well…I wonder if he is starting to realize that hacking, specifically cyber security should be an everyday concern. He seemed a bit concerned with his announcement via Twitter Monday evening. This is the actual text from above:
via @kevinbryantsc – “my twitter got hacked. don’t follow any links in a message from me”
I then noticed I had received a private message from Senator Bryant:
The private Twitter message reads from Senator Bryant: “Did you see this pic of you? lol http://bit.ly/LINK-FROM-ABOVE”
The only way I can receive a private message via Twitter from Senator Bryant’s account…if he is following me and I am following him.
Yep…do you think this is a concern. Well, it should be given his professional and political status in South Carolina. For most of us in the digital space, we remember some famous hackings:
1)NBC News Twitter account hacked with false reports about an airplane attack at Ground Zero, the Manhattan site of the original 9/11 attacks.
4) Finally, who could not forget the BP Oil Spill. Leroy Stick created the fake BP Twitter account and began tweeting responses to the Gulf Coast oil spill. Here is one:
Via @BPGlobalPR – “Not only are we dropping a top hat on the oil spill, we’re going to throw in a cane and monocle as well. Keeping it classy.”
Senator Bryant should not feel alone, there have been an increase in Twitter hackings this new year. I have been advising my clients to make password changes across all digital platforms, from email to social media accounts.
I guess there is a reason why groups like McNair Law Firm sponsor events like InnoVision that focus on the liability of computer hacking.
From events this spring in Columbia like POSSCON 2013 to groups like IT-oLogy, cyber security is a huge discussion in the State of South Carolina. I am hoping these events will eventually encourage government agencies and representatives join the conversation, because the South Carolina’s private sector is screaming it from the roof tops.
It is that time of the year and I hope you are doing well. Just the other day, I had someone ask me if I was sending out another Christmas card with a picture of Rose. I even still see last year’s card still hanging in some of your offices. This thought just makes me thankful for so many things.
I normally write something individualized to each of you, but I felt each you should read the same little message.
I just finished my third year of business and it is because of you, your friendship, your kindness, and commitment to our relationship that I am still able to work side by side with you. I think about three years ago and the journey I embarked upon and here we are doing some fun projects and sharing some great times. Each year we have grown together as my business has grown.
Thank you so much for being you. Thank you for everything you have done to help me become successful. And finally, thank you for supporting this business, my family, and our friendship.
Merry Christmas!
PS…if you would like to see the holiday video many people still remember from 2010…here ya go! http://youtu.be/4PpDFnxfNw0
We must take that risk and create content that has the social share impact. What do I mean…find ways to create and share content that connects with people at their core.
We are so worried about creating messages based on branded research, focus groups, and a lot of high dollar initiatives…when sometime we should let our gut lead us.
Janean Chun of Huffington Post writes, “The Austria-based company, founded by Dietrich Mateschitz in 1984, sold more than 4.6 billion cans of Red Bull worldwide in 2011.”
So what makes a brand like Red Bull financially back an initiative that takes a man into space to jump?
“…power of this marketing event lies in the synergy between the extreme event and the company’s existing marketing message. The jump ‘hits the brand message spot on, which is that Red Bull gives you wings.'”
Catharine Smith of Huffington Post writes, “YouTube’s live stream of the event racked up over 8 million viewers just before Baumgartner took his death-defying plunge.”
According to AllThingsD, “The previous record for a single Web video service: Around 500,000 concurrent streams, which Google served up during the Olympics this summer.”
According to ABC News, “Besides YouTube, the jump was shown by more than 40 TV stations and 130 digital outlets. Red Bull’s Facebook post-jump photo of Baumgartner gained almost 216,000 likes, 10,000 comments and over 29,000 shares within 40 minutes, and half the worldwide trending topics on Twitter were related to Red Bull Stratos.”
I do know about you…but I shed tears when he jumped. Why? I was standing there with him…LIVE. I felt the same emotion I felt when I was watching the landing of Curiosity on Mars. Remember when the whole Mission Control Room cheered out-of-control when they learned Curiosity was safe on the red planet.
Not only could I watch live, but I could interact with my friends and this extreme sports fan base in real time via the #JumpLive hashtag.
It was actually funny…my laptop battery was running down close to the time of the jump, and I was trying to find another television in the house that I could stream YouTube. Rose (my little girl) was watching cartoons in the den where YouTube could stream via my AppleTV. Finally found my back-up laptop charger so I could watch the jump.
As I watched him fall, I wondered…is he alive? No matter if he broke the sound barrier (traveling at a peak of 833.9 mph), I was relieved when I he replyed to mission control while he was free falling.
And when he landed…WE ALL CHEERED WITH FELIX.
Yes, we all jumped up and cheered with Felix when he touched down raised his arms in excitement.
How can we create content, experiences, situations with our audiences that inspire such emotion…and break away from just marketing a message.
Sometimes we just have to jump and take a risk…Felix and Red Bull did.
So Wednesday morning, I received my new iPhone 5 in the mail. I am a gadget freak and yes I upgraded from the iPhone 4s. One of the new features released with the new iPhone (iOS6) is the the Passbook application. This allows you to find businesses that offer incentives to use your iPhone as your wallet.
So I downloaded the Starbucks application and immediately created an account and loaded $25.00, sort of like buying a pre-paid credit card, except using your iPhone. Off I went to carry out my morning errands, and as I passed Starbucks in Anderson…I thought I might have to give this little application a try.
So I walked in and ordered me a Pumpkin Spice Latte with no whipped cream, hmm! It feels like fall outside. When it was time to pay, I asked the cashier, “How do I use the Starbucks application on my iPhone to pay?” She told me to open the application, push the button to pay, and a barcode appeared on the screen. She then used her scanner next to the cash register to scan the barcode on my screen, and POOF…transaction complete.
It deducted the $4.91 from my phone and off I was on my merry way with a Pumpkin Spice Latte. I was so excited, I opened Facebook and checked into Starbucks by writing this status update:
I immediately called my wife to share my experience. After she listened to my gadget success story for the morning, she scolded me and said…”You need to buy local. Stop going to Starbucks and walk across the street from your office downtown and go to Figs. Figs is the new coffee, ice-cream, soda shop downtown Anderson owned locally.
The Digital Divide
Hmm…I wonder, do they have a little application for the phone so I can pay? Do they have a check-in option on Facebook so I can share my love for their store? Hmm…let me go see. So off I went to Figs, and noticed a few things. Great food, great shop, nice ownership…limited social interaction. Well, they are new…but this leads me to my though process. Buying local in socially connected community has a HUGE barrier to cross when competing against big box groups. You are probably thinking…well, tell me something you do not already know.
Ok, back-up…notice what happened Starbucks. They have an app that allows me to use technology to not only purchase with my phone, but they made it easy to take part in the social share. The check-in location rapidly appeared in Facebook allowing me to share my little success with technology.
The digital wallet leading to the social share…big business leads the way in social commerce. So how do the little guys compete? What is going remind me about Figs over Starbucks for coffee (other than my wife screaming buy local)? Figs is kind-of a outlier, they have only been in business for a few months. They are still trying to establish their digital footprint.
So, I took a walk through downtown Anderson and spent some time using my Facebook and Foursquare apps to see if retailers had check-in points established. Most were established including having those check-in points connected to a social outlet like a Facebook page.
But the part that is missing for most of these small retailers is the digital tool for commerce.
Passbook and NFC
Passbook on the iPhone is a brand new concept and Starbucks was one of the first to take part in this concept. Passbook was Apple’s alternative to NFC (near-field communication).
Wired.com states, “NFC chips in smartphones let you pay by waving your device over a scanner at the store. The chip is tied to an app that is tied to your bank account and credit card. Volià, no more cash, no more wallet.”
“Passbook lets you keep in your iPhone virtual versions of some items you might normally carry in your analog wallet or bag: boarding passes, movie and sports tickets, coupons, and gift cards. Passbook stores these items as barcodes, but some wondered if Apple would tie NFC to Passbook to make direct payments possible.”
“While loyalty programs are popular amongst customers and merchants alike – the number of loyalty memberships in the U.S. exceeds 2.1 billion – it’s not clear how effective these programs are. According to a white paper published by COLLOQUY, 17% of U.S. consumers felt that loyalty programs were a “very influential” factor in their purchasing decisions and an even smaller 12% said they “strongly agree” when asked whether it pays to be loyal to a favorite brand.”
So is NFC and Passbook just another coupon”ing” option or loyalty program? Or is the combination of NFC/Passbook concept on your smart phone as a one-stop shop for your to purchase and share with your friends. Connivence makes us happy and we love to share within our social outlets when something makes us happy.
Social Commerce & Economic Development
So how does a small coffee shop in little ole Anderson, SC compete with a Starbucks and their Passbook app? Well…first of all, building these applications are expensive and you have to find a a company that has the experience to build these types of mobile commerce tools. I am not sure if Figs would have the budget to have one of these applications built, and it probably makes no sense for them to do so…especially given small town word-of-mouth always prevails.
BUT…from a digital concept, local business should team up and build one mobile application for those local retailers that can add to the pot. Imagine an initiative in Anderson, SC where a group of local retailers teamed up with the Chamber of Commerce and local Economic Development groups like Innovate Anderson or Upstate SC Alliance to find the funding to build a one-size fits all.
Yes…this would be an economic development tool for small town Anderson, SC. Access to digital tools that not only power commerce but power the idea of the social share, building online reputation for a town trying to attract more growing businesses.
For those who want to read more about developing apps for Apple’s Passbook –> CLICK HERE.
So I am getting ready to make a broad prediction and generalization. As a communicator in the digital/social space, I am surrounded by people predicting that mobile is the future…especially in the social space.
I think that MAPS on a mobile platform is going to be a large part of that conversation. Specifically MAP applications on our iPhones, Droids, etc. MAPS is a game that many tech groups (Apple, Google, Bing, etc.) are investing millions/billions of dollars.
With the release of iOS6 today for the iPhone and iPad, Apple just launched itself into the MAP Game competing with Google. They want to find better ways to connect consumers to local “brands” as a part of their search revenue stream.
I love this article by Entrepreneur.com talking about the competition between Google and Apple when it comes to the MAPs game.
“Expect new ways to market using your location. Apple is already planning a Quick Route function as part of its local search function that can lead customers to stores. Not to be outdone, Google is offering packages for automated business listings, and promotional services as part of its Places for Business product as well as turn-by-turn navigation for bicycle commuters.
And where Google and Apple go, so goes Microsoft. The company announced its most aggressive upgrade to its map imagery in July. This will be offered as part of its MapPoint 2013 software product that ties in not only geographic data to maps, but population information and research content aimed at showing businesses location-based opportunities and marketing trends.”
AND THIS…
“Maps need to become part of your search strategy. Smart businesses will be proactive on how mobile users find and interact with them on maps. Among the new features that businesses can expect to exploit are the expanded role for social content and the ability to offer location-based deals.
Apple’s Maps application is stressing local reviews and search content from Yelp, which announced in June that it will be directly built into Apple maps. Google recently upgraded its Google+ integration for maps with Google Map Maker, which builds local content added by users into its maps. And earlier this summer, Microsoft announced new integrations with Nokia as part of its interactive features on Windows phones.”
And from BBC.com: “As the internet goes mobile, there’s a huge amount at stake for both companies, and maps are a key weapon in the battle to be top dog. The nascent mobile advertising industry is heavily focussed on location based services, so owning the dominant mapping system could prove very lucrative.”
The communicators that will prevail in this social/digital space will be the ones that recognize the power of MAPS, research the impact on their organization’s revenue opportunities, integrate into the communication plan, and be open to innovative third party applications.
So think…how can we as communicators for large, medium, and small organizations think in terms of MAPS to connect with the consumer. How can we leverage these technologies that individuals are using everyday to connect with find and connect with our brand?
Craft versus Service has been a debate and conversation internally I have been exploring during the growth of my business. This is a big distinction in my mind as I think forward. In the service industry, we find ourselves trapped in a scaling cycle of trading time for money…how much work can we (ourselves and our organizations) spend working for billable hours. There are just only so much time in a day, week, month, and year.
So what is the distinction between a “craft” or “service” and how can we find distinction in our businesses. When I think of a service, I think of billable hours. Providing a service that brings value to another organization that warrants billing for that time. I love this definition on desonance.wordpress.com:
“A service is the seeking and receipt of a specific outcome of a customer across a range of interactions and touchpoints over time.”
This article and definition above is exploring the pathways of services when it relates to the customer and the touchpoints/interactions along the way. I look at those toughpoints/interactions as billable time that the customer and the service provider share in an agreement.
So I think through ways to create greater revenue opportunities for service organizations:
1) Increase the billable rate for the touchpoint/interaction
2) Increase the different touchpoints/interactions
3) Increase the size of the organization
This is a time vs. money equation. This is where we can only spend our constrained time trying to squeeze in more hours to churn out more work. So, does this increased work load for small/entrepreneurial service organizations properly provide a service to our customers that is exceptional.
So let’s look at the craft concept.
A craft is a profession that requires some particular kind of skilled work.
I see “craft” as the happy place between “practitioner” of a skill and and the execution of a “technician. These individuals have mastered a skill as technician, can interpret the skill as a practitioner, and have created a crafted approach to delivering a service. This craft, this “art” has only tangible, marketable value via expertise, credibility, and valued results. These practitioners of a “craft” are artisans and have experienced an apprenticeship model perfecting their craft over time.
The craft approach to communication is one that has the ability to create culture and shift thinking. They are leaders in their discipline and take leadership roles in the projects they create. Their craft is not one of billable hours but of final product. Their business model is one of intellectual equity…one that brings expertise to the table.
So where do you find yourself or your organization in this intersection of the “craft” vs. “service” equation?
Yes…I am getting organized and bringing more focus to my writing. I have been really working on the future of my company and the future of my family. As you know, I am having a little girl this coming Fall. With this new addition, I am going to be witnessing some evolution to my business as well. With all these changes and growth in my family, my writing is evolving.
So this is what I am doing. I have three main areas that I am writing:
1) My business blog, which is here. This blog is going to help me tackle and articulate the business and stories of both my clients and the climate my business represents. I will continue to tackle new media, video, storytelling, and emerging technologies as topics in this blog. I will also use this platform to tell the stories of my clients and the surrounding context. It is my belief that I want to reinforce the idea of storytelling and how we can use this practice, and the technology that supports it, to generate natural movements of change.
2) My personal blog, which is located at https://rettewcreative.com/personal-blog/. This blog will be tackling personal issues from my family, becoming a father, and also political/human advocacy issues that are the foundation of my belief system and moral ethic. As a former journalist, documentary storyteller, educator, and as an advocate, I have found myself voicing my opinions and beliefs that necessarily do not fit congruently with my business blog. So I found creating a new space to allow my writing to naturally grow, separating it from my business practices. Sometimes you will see me writing about similar topics in both places, but only when they naturally find a match.
3) A personal journal, which is private place. This is where I am tackling personal struggles and issue that have plagued me from growing up in a divorced family, the death of my mother-in-law, and the miscarriages for three little ones. These were tough times in my life, so finding a place to write privately will be a true platform for reflection, healing, and growth.
These areas of writing are going to help me with a few long term goals that I have on the horizon. I have always wanted to complete a PhD and write a few books. I am going to use these various platforms as places to write and research topics that I find interesting and could potentially bring deeper exploration for academic growth and intellectual stimulation. There are also some documentary ideas in the works that I will be using these platforms to flush out various ideas while generating business plans based on community interest.
Today’s business world has taught me to become organized, especially when it comes to our writing and how we articulate our ideas. This separation is also a test. I am interested in testing some validity in the dichotomy between a blog meant to generate revenue/business development and a blog for creative and passionate inquiry. As my writing has grown, so have my interests. This shall be a fun test!
It was not too long ago that I was in Chicago at SOBCON2011, listening to a great speaker…Tim Sanders. He really has me thinking lately and his book is the next on my list to read: Today We Are Rich.
Sitting in a room of close to 130 people at SOBCON, not knowing a sole, not evening knowing the background of most of the speakers…there were some passionate connections. Tim Sanders is one hell of a storyteller! His story began with a picture, one of his grandmother. His grandmother raised him and she is his inspiration today. He inspired me to think…to dig deep, and find my passion.
Here are the bullet points that I was jotting as he was speaking.
If you take the foot off the gas…you will go sideways.
Have to believe there is enough to go around.
You have a finite mind and use it accordingly.
You should be as judicious on what you put in your mind as you put into your mouth.
What do you park at the front door of your mind? Do you store lessons or successes?
Re-live a high-def experience where you succeeded.
Declare offline zones!
Get up and wait 30 minutes before getting online. In the first five minutes, spend time thinking of two people that you are grateful for from the day before.
Don’t believe your lucky.
Go create a ripple…integrate giving into what you do.
Tim’s Rules
1) Feed your mind good stuff
2) Take care of instrument
3) Exercise your gratitude muscle
4) Give to be rich
Lots of good stuff! Check out Tim’s Book by CLICKING HERE…I am looking forward to starting it!
Recently…I have become increasingly irritated with rubric’s and how-to’s that are consistently floating around the social space. It is driving me up a wall. Most of this is inside the world of blogging and the social space…that we must find a way to create a path for the perfect blog, that we must create the perfect social “strategy”, and there is a formula for social media messaging.
It is my humble opinion that those that are preaching these strategies, rubrics, and methods are in the business for their checkbooks. Each time I watch the tweets come down the timeline, “5 ways to do…”, “how to measure…”, the perfect blog must have…”, it is all about generating revenue for the person writing the posts.
Writing from the heart and creating great content is not “BS”. You cannot put a path to success when it comes to writing, connecting, and building an online community around a social outlet. There is no magic cookie cutter. Anyone that is selling this, pushing this, or tweeting this is selling it to generate their own income streams and not bringing value to this initial open source community.
If you do not have a passion for writing…then while the hell are you blogging? If you do not have a passion for exploring ideas, generating genuine creative thoughts, and connecting with others online…then why are you interacting in the social space.
I have read more and more tweets and blogs screaming to re-define the word marketing in this social space or 3.0. Many of which are searching to create a whole new space based on consumer trends and big company strategies. Why are they are re-defining this…well it is helping them land the next retainer deal, speaking engagement, big corporate marketing gig. But those same folks who surround themselves in chats an online discussions pushing what they deem is innovation…well they are actually trying to put this social space of user created content into a cookie cutter, placing a marketing dollar to each tweet, blog post, youtube video, and Facebook update.
These same “innovators” are actually stifling the social space right back into the same old marketing channels. Each of these spaces are becoming distribution points of corporate generated content specifically geared to track and generate a metric. Why, because the CEO’s and the VP’s of Finance who sign-off on these initiatives need a metric. We are right back where we started when the social space was beginning to appear.
Twitter is now the AP Newswire, Facebook is the new email chain, and YouTube is now our living television set. Just distribution points for those pesky marketers to generate a strategy for ads, product placement, and sponsorships. WTF…hashtags that are sponsored? Great…can’t wait. Sign me up.
“Because hashtags are important, packing tweets with them defeats their purpose. It muddies communication – of all people, Comms peeps should know the vitality of clarity, and the cost of clutter and noise. Why so many Healthcare pros don’t understand such a simple concept is beyond me, but I digress.
I’ve thought to myself: you know, Twitter once had so much promise, and now it’s becoming all serious business and so-called marketing. What a shame. We’ll all lose in the end.”
Thanks Phil, I do not think we will all loose…but there is a big ole shift.
Several months ago, I was talking with a very smart lady, Robbin Phillips after she came and spoke to some students at Clemson. She says it so nicely…(i am paraphrasing): “there is just so much noise out there in this space.” I have to agree.
I blame us…us marketing people have gone out and screwed it up. We had to find a way to put in some sort of cookie cutter system so we can track it and metric the crap out of each profile and communication channel online. Hell, we are even spending hundreds if not thousands of dollars for companies like Radian6. We want to track those conversations. And we will pay top dollar to analyze the heck out of those conversations.
All of this stifles innovation. It stifles passionate writing. It stifles true connection. It prohibits individuals to use places like blogs, YouTube, and other creative outlets to become pioneers. We want each of them to think there is a rubric for using these channels then track the success. Why can’t success be simply creating content, writing passionately, making a cool video. What if the only person that you were communicating to was just one person. If that person read it, listened to it, connected with the message…then led to see life through the authors eyes…then success? Right?
I remember when I was working on my thesis for graduate school and some of the many academic articles that followed. Each person in the academy I spoke too told me that getting an academic thesis or academic article approved was like jumping through hoops. My mother calls it “Hoop Dreams.” Yes…it was almost like social construction of knowledge. My genuine ideas were shaped to meet the expectations of those academic gate keepers whose agenda’s were played out in each word that was written. Some argue this process is necessary to form true scholarship…to meet the expectations of the academic world. I see the value in this process, but I also see the value in allowing true innovative writing and thinking to shine.
The connection here is that regardless where we go, where we write, what we create….someone wants to fit it into a cookie cutter paradigm. The social space is starting to shape-up to be just that. We marketers and new media people are trying to force clients, organizations, and small businesses into a framework that meets the needs of our pocket books. Why not just teach the technology and how them to utilize this framework as a place to share our inner thoughts, a place to express our inner beings.
Content is King. Communities grow as content and ideas are created. In order to connect we must share our thoughts and communicate.
I think there is a true progression in the way people create innovative content and connect through their ideas.
Idea —> Content Creation –> Content Shared —> Ideas Consumed –> People Connect … then the cycle starts over again.
A blog is just a place to hold thoughts. A video is visual representation to share motion, action, sounds that represent our creativity. These are just technological theaters for others to engage with our ideas. If we are thinking, writing, sharing in a way that the people that are truly interested in reading, listening, watching, understanding…then their peripheral vision will disappear and become completely engaged in the passionate content we create!
Can you do it? Can you spend one week not looking at hits, clicks, followers, “Likes”, etc? Can you do it? Can you stop tracking for one week how many people from some geographic location clicked your blog post. Try it…it is liberating.
We have succumb to content creation based on metrics. Yes, all those tracking mechanism we pay for, install, monitor…any thing with numbers. Those numbers influence the content we create. Yes, if we see a post, an update, a spike…then we re-focus what we are creating to try to generate the same if not bigger spike.
How about this, spend a month not looking at these metrics and write, tweet, connect, “Like”, record content that is inspired from within and a community around you. Now some may argue that the community influences the content creation based on the metrics and numbers recorded. JUST SAY NO!!!! HELL NO!!! Lock that idea up for a few weeks.
Have you ever watched the show “Undercover Boss” where a companies’ leadership wears a disguise and immerses themselves inside their company. The purpose is to really see and hear what is truly happening inside the company. Many major company bosses do this to listen inside the community they lead. I like this idea.
What if we as content creators took this approach and immersed ourselves in the places where our inspiration drives our content. Not in the numbers, almost like and ethnographical study. Get away from the blogging, writing, video creation that is driven by metrics and immerse our creativity with the community were are seeking to connect. Listen and engage. Create content with them not for them. Hell, let them create the content for you.
We must challenge ourselves as marketers to step away from the metics and numbers and allow community inspiration drive our content creation and innovation.
