Author: Dan Blank

Fear, Comfort, and the Future of Your Business

Do you need to change? Does your business need to change? Is success just slightly out of your reach because you are unwilling to question the basic assumptions of how you serve your market?

Often in business, we try to predict the future by looking at the past. And this is why established companies sometimes miss out on innovations. There was a great quote in this week’s episode of Mad Men:

“A new idea is something they [the customer] don’t know yet, so of course, it’s not going to come up as an option. You can’t tell how people are going to behave based on how they have behaved.”

For example, researchers studying the Class of 2014 say that students don’t use email because it is too slow. How could this present day behavior of these students change how we communicate in the future? Companies banking their future on email as the primary communication tool of their market may miss an opportunity because they didn’t even consider that email is “slow.”

Seth Godin talks about how we deal with fear by surrounding ourselves with what is already known:

“A lot of entrepreneurs get an MBA because they are afraid to go out into world without one. They are seeking the reassurance a credential will bring them, even though the cost is huge and there’s no data to indicate that they’ll be more successful as an entrepreneur as a result.”

How much does fear drive your career and business? How many decisions are based on an existing comfort level with the products or services, the sales process, the customer segment? Are new ideas rejected because they are bad ideas, or because they ask uncomfortable questions?

If you wait until you realize you need to change, it may be too late. The New York Times explored this with Netflix:

“Netflix tries to avoid creative destruction by experimenting with new models well before they need to, and well before the old model has lost steam.”

And Mike Masnick picked up on the theme:

“This is, of course, the typical Innovator’s Dilemma, but it helps explain why so few companies are able to survive the innovator’s dilemma. Even if they know about it, they think they can wait. They think that they shouldn’t invest heavily in those new technologies and new markets until there’s a clear path to profitability, or a clear plan for how it “replaces” what’s already there. The problem is that by the time they have the answers to those questions, it’s too late.”

As the media landscape continues to shift, each company, each employee will have to confront their own comfort level with new ideas, with whether the future will look anything like the past.

Let me know if you think I can help.

-Dan

Context is the Future of Online Media

I’ve been noticing something recently: People seem to be MUCH more willing to Tweet about a blog post than to leave a comment on a blog post.

There are likely a variety of reasons for this, first and foremost is that the 140 character limit affords less pressure to say something deep – people can just share a link, and say something like “insightful post!” But in a blog comment, there are unlimited characters, and there is a pressure to say something meaningful.

Below are several lessons for engaging people in online media and communities:

  • Elevate Their Role
    When someone reacts to a blog post, their commentary can be lost, and seen as secondary. It is a reaction to someone else’s lead. When people Tweet about a blog post instead of commenting on it, their role shifts dramatically. Suddenly, instead of reacting, they are choosing to take the lead. They are filtering, sharing, promoting, advocating, and choosing. Instead of being the guy in the crowd listening to someone else on their soapbox, they have jumped onto their own soapbox.

  • Give Them Influence
    When somebody Tweets, they are often hoping to influence their followers. They go from being an “effect” on a blog post, to being a “cause” in their network on Twitter. So many of us want to be a cause, not an effect. We want to drive our lives, and shape our communities.

  • Help Them Build Something
    People are so busy that sometimes they want to feel that their efforts are not just reacting reacting reacting. They want to feel as though they are CREATING. When you post a blog comment, you don’t really own it. You can’t edit or delete it. They don’t really aggregate themselves to build something larger. Sure, some commenting systems like Disqus try to do this, but it’s still not the same level as something like Twitter. When I consider my Twitter account, right away, I see what I have built: more than 5,600 Tweets, not to mention followers or lists. It’s nice to see that all those 140 character updates add up to something.

  • Allow Them To Share With Those Who Matter To Them
    People don’t care as much about a blogger’s audience, as much as they do about their own. Each individual now has their own “following.” This is a dramatic shift that social media has provided us. Even if someone only has 13 followers or 40 Facebook friends or 50 LinkedIn connections, it is their personal community. Sharing interesting commentary to those people is meaningful, and helps them grow those communities.

  • Don’t Interrupt Their Day
    Sharing thoughtful questions or insights is very time consuming. Not just to come up with “a” question,” but a truly insightful one that reflects well on you, addresses a core issue, and does so in just the right way. This is why so many of the smaller social networks failed. Too many try to build online communities assuming that it’s simple for people to ask a question, write a blog post or leave a comment. Really, it’s hard. It causes people to stop and consider, to expose themselves, to invite judgment. Most people avoid judgment like the plague.

Many of these are subtle psychological differences, but they speak to our deeper motivations. These types of things are the keys to helping to grow your community, and to serving those in your market. Let me know if you think I can help.

-Dan

Trish Lawrence Interview – Helping Writers Leverage Social Media

This week, I chatted with Trish Lawrence, owner of Real/Brilliant. Trish is an online strategist who works with writers and entrepreneurs to help them leverage social media.

You can find Trish on Twitter at @TrishLawrence, and her website: RealBrilliant.com

My goal is to share conversations with those doing interesting things in the world of publishing and media.

Click ‘play’ below to learn about Trish’s thoughts on how important social media is for authors.

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A Handmade Thing in a Machine World

There was a curious phrase in the movie The Art of the Steal:

“A handmade thing in a machine world.”

The line was used to describe The Barnes Collection of art, as it was compared to the large institutional museums that we are all familiar with.

This had me considering many of the recent trends in online media. That, while businesses are obsessed with systems – with things that can be managed, processed, and scaled – the following ideas are rare and appreciated more than ever:

  • Authenticity.
  • Local.
  • Community.

This is why the web is empowering individuals. Because many people feel encumbered by the machine.

Why did people react so strongly in favor of the actions of the Jet Blue employee who just couldn’t take it any more? Because many people feel trapped by the systems they are a part of. They want desperately to flex their own muscle, to take initiative, to not have to follow someone else’s rules. What is interesting to me is not the actions that the Jet Blue employee took, but people’s reaction to it.

How are you connecting your brand to your customer in ways that don’t just throw a “product” at a “need.” People often look for deeper connections to a brand. How are you doing that?

This is why social media is revamping how people interact, and how brands reach their audience. Not because it is “marketing,” but because it can allow three things:

  • A more authentic connection to the real people within a brand to the real people in the market they serve. It connects them NOT via commerce, but by a shared interest.
  • It gives people pride and context in their location, allowing them to connect in new ways with people and places that they are surrounded by everyday. It gives them a face in a crowded faceless world.
  • It helps establish and strengthen a sense of community, be it regional or virtual.

A quote I read this morning:

“The world is craving distinction. People are looking for that something a little bit different, that can’t be replicated, and makes us feel special.”
— Emma Bearman

How are you helping others feel special? How are you empowering them to not just to buy a product or consume a piece of media, but to have a unique experience that gives them pride?

-Dan

Are Books, Magazines & Newspapers Dying? That’s Up To You. And Me.

Every day, we choose the future of media, be it books, magazines, newspapers, television, music and the like. Why? Because we vote for it with our actions, behaviors, and purchases.

We are empowered to save media.

Consider this exchange from a recent episode of the TV show Mad Men:

Man: “I’m in advertising.”

Woman: “You’re kidding. It’s pollution.”

Man: “So stop buying things.”

Likewise, the movie Food, Inc described the surprisingly complex system that our food industry has become. The movie concluded with a simple message: that we get to choose the future of our food, because we vote every day with the items we buy at the food store. Do you want food free of pesticides? Simply buy organic. Do you want food that isn’t made by a huge multinational conglomerate? Simply buy food from smaller companies whose practices you prefer.

I spend my days considering how media is changing, how these changes are empowering, and what they changes are destroying. When I wonder if the media is dying, I merely look around my home. I look at my behaviors and actions. Because my life, like all of our lives, are a petri dish of state of media. This is how I interacted with media in the past week:

  • I purchased more than 20 children’s books at a yard sale for $5.
  • I intently read most of the long articles in the most recent issues of The New Yorker and Rolling Stone.
  • I put the most recent issue of Runners World – a tip driven magazine – onto the magazine pile without even scanning through it. (Not a good sign. That pile is a black hole)
  • I returned four books to the library, two were half read, two I didn’t have time to open.
  • I dusted my “need to read” book pile, which currently has about 10 books in it.
  • I checked Twitter, Facebook, and Techmeme.com about 10 times each day. Maybe 20.
  • I reached for my iPad when getting into bed instead of the two books on my nightstand.
  • I spent hours browsing around YouTube on my iPad, sometimes sharing videos with my wife.
  • I downloaded the most recent episode of Mad Men on iTunes ($1.99)
  • I downloaded about 6 Apps to my iPad and iPhone. (all free)
  • I watched one movie on DVD via Netflix and started watching two others via their online streaming service.
  • I bought five used CD’s at a local music store.
  • I downloaded the new Arcade Fire album from Amazon.com for a mere $3.99.
  • I streamed BBC Radio 6 on my computer every day.

What does this say about the future of media that I am building? A few things:

  • Media is interwoven into many aspects of my life.
  • I consume a broad range of media, from digital to print.
  • I create and consume media.
  • The traditional media I consumed was largely free. For the items I did purchase, dollars mostly didn’t flow directly through to content creators or owners.

When I consider the future of books that I am creating, there is a simple fact I need to accept: if my primary source of obtaining books is the library and the second-hand market, then I can’t be surprised if the book industry changes. Because while I have done a lot to embrace books themselves, I have done little to support the organizations that sustain them in my consumption habits. I am not justifying this conclusion, I am simply observing my own behaviors and actions, and trying to understand what they may mean; the effect they have on the world, even if unintentional.

How are you creating the future of media?

-Dan