The above photo was a long time coming. That was last Friday when finally, after 9 months since we first attempted to meet, Farhan and I finally shook hands. It’s an interesting thing, this photo, and it ties together a few thoughts I’ve been having over the recent weeks on People-to-People which I’d like to share. Continue reading
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xCpViu8kY3o
If you can’t see the above video, click here.
Compelling is not synonymous with what is good. My favourite book, the Bible, records some pretty bad stuff. Bad, but compelling. In business we want to create good experiences. Actually, scratch that – we want to create great experiences. But the reality is that in life, it is often the most distressing bad experiences that compel you the most. Continue reading
Part of my commitment on this blog (and a commitment I require every Like Minds speak to fulfil) is providing IDEA: inspiration, decision-making information, examples, and calls to action.
Today I’m just dishing out some decision making information to assist you in drawing up Social Media programs.
What follows are 4 phases from 50,000 to the ground. Note: this is just what goes into planning. This isn’t even touching execution – it’s just the fore-thought that we go through when we work with our clients and on Like Minds.
Vision, Mission, Objectives. Above the line stuff. This should click into an organisation’s existing vision and then extend into mission and objectives for your Social Media program.
Goals. What are the metrics that your stake holders (whoever they maybe) want to see? Conversions, clicks, signups, sentiment change, intent change. Continue reading
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GlX2kI65Ryg
This melts my heart, and it convicts me at the same time. A 7 year old boy by the name of Charlie Simpson saw the Haiti disaster, aimed to raise £500 by cycling his bike (that would be awesome enough in the first place), and then goes and raises £70,000. You can read it on BBC News here, and give on his JustGiving page here.
You know what my problem is? I’m too smart (or rather too stupid) to just go and simply do what needs to be done.
There’s so much in the world that we can change if we work together and have faith like children. But we’ve got every excuse under the sun. That’s why a 7 year old does Social Media better than the rest of us.
Thank God (literally) for Charlie Simpson. You’re one of my heroes (literally).
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uPYvZZe5-bo
For a long time when it came to consulting in digital marketing, I’d be asked what the best thing to do was to achieve a loose objective, and I’d in turn provide the usual no-brainer advice of giving the voice to the people, providing value, suggesting a permission asset, getting retweets, blah blah blah.
I can’t begin to tell you how many times I’ve failed by having little focus, and and as a result, committed the cardinal mistake of overestimation of participation. The result? Ghost towns. Disappointed. Unhappy investors. This post addresses the latter.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r0h0LlCu8Ks
There’s a great discussion going on right now at my friend Robin Dickinson‘s blog on “Building Relationships: A Question of Quality Over Quantity” (go and read it!)
Today I’m hoping we can pick up on a key topic that has risen from the comments on Robin’s post, mainly about what I guess is easiest to describe as Friendship 2.0. We’ll look at what’s wrong with the current idea of friends, how we misplace confidence in community, and how we can move forward with genuine connections that get things done. Continue reading
Yesterday we went through The Pyramid Of Expectation, and understanding how providing compelling experiences (or failing and providing awful ones) is based on your ability to meet expectations. In actual fact, we discussed that it’s no longer enough to meet customer’s expectations (this is merely customer satisfaction), you have to move into the arena of exceeding expectations (which is customer surprise.)
Today I’m going to layout how to go beyond even exceeding expectations and begin to get into the realm of managing expectations. This is ultimately your ability to control what people expect from you – and controlling those expectations means you are able to exceed them every time.
So first, to refresh your memory and provide a frame of reference, here’s the diagram from yesterday. When it comes to managing expectations, we can do it on all these levels, as we went through. If you under promise and over deliver, you will give customer surprise. It’s a hack job, but you’ll do it. What we need, though, is something more than this, and something which has more sustainability and long term strategy – and we find it is in customer suspense where expectation management really flourishes. Continue reading
So, I made a bit of a mistake yesterday. I wrote a 3,000 word essay on suspense and brand mystery, rolling in far too many case studies, and providing way more content in one post than I’ve said in past times that one should!
I’m going to, instead, start right at the beginning with a basic overview of expectations. One of the central pillars of a compelling experience is that it exceeds expectations. People are pleased, but not really moved, when their expectations are met. If you don’t meet expectations, then you disappoint people and provide a bad experience. But people are really thrilled and motivated to tell others when they’ve had an experience that exceeded their expectations. Continue reading
I spoke a while ago on the idea of what I’m calling ‘brand mystery’ – we looked at JJ Abrams’ TED Talk and Lost, and how he tells a story by suspense. He never provides the complete picture, and this is what keeps you hooked. This is contrary to what one copywriter thought when he said “every advertisiement should tell the complete story” – to which I wholeheartedly disagree. Discovering a brand, and unravelling its mysteries, is such a rich experience (and one that I’ve been enjoy since childhood) that it ties you emotionally into it for years to come. Continue reading