Deborah Schultz

This week's links from around the net

Stuff I found interesting this week

Musing about strategy

yes, JP involve your customers in your strategy - just at the right time - and the right time is organic..;)

This Blog Sits at the: Marketing out of control at FX

This is NOT how companies should respond to the fact that we the consumer do not watch their ads - ew - ugh - yick - phoeey. Thanks Grant!

brand tags

Shall we play a game - fun, addictive and emblematic of howe we define what we think of products, brands and companies.

Google brings Friend Connect to the masses | Outside the Lines - CNET News.com

"As expected, Google unveils a preview of Friend Connect, a way to add social features to a Web site without programming. Will it eradicate the social-networking 'walled garden'? Read this blog post by Dan Farber on Outside the Lines."

One big social ball of yarn....

Crocs (Yes, the Shoes!) Launches Video Network

If you're not at all shocked by the fact that Crocs shoes gained massive popularity in the past two years, ...

Another brand jumps into the fray...potentially interesting

Marketing Is Not A Tax You Pay For Being Unremarkable at Like It Matters

How did I miss my buddy Brian's brilliant post - go read it

I haz a Mine! Let me show you it… : Media Influencer

Project VRM takes off with Mine! I like the name and

Conversation Agent: 1/3, 1/3, 1/3 - Web Presence of the Future

Connecting ideas and people -- how talk can change our lives.

Seeing more and more posts on Tim's "architecture of participation" manifesting in lots of different ways

BuzzMachine » Blog Archive » Ambient intimacy

Ambient intimacy - been a fan of Lisa's for a while.

The question is - in a world of ambient intimacy how do we surface value?

disambiguity - » Ambient Exposure

ambient intimacy, architecture of participation - how do we build tools that enable more than just noise and a distinction that is more granular than the binary connection of friend/non-friend

Business Articles: Connect and Develop: Inside Procter & Gamble's New Model for Innovation - Harvard Business Review

The P&G Social Media Lab is built on this model:

Connect and Develop: Inside Procter & Gamble's New Model for Innovation, by Larry Huston, Nabil Sakkab.

Nomads at last | Economist.com

Techno bedouins: Wireless communication is changing the way people work, live, love and relate to placesâ??and each other, says Andreas Kluth (interviewed here)

Shall we play a game? fun with tags

This is a simple smart and fun.  No, it is not scientific - but it does demonstrate that indeed a brand is what people say it is. It is also, light and fast and easy - yet another important feature of the social web.

Go ahead and play - I know you cant resist!   Kudos to Noah for putting this online.

Snackbyte - social ball of string

Everyone is all 'aTwitter' about Google's FriendConnect  announcement and last week's MySpace & Facebook announcements. I am ALL for open social standards.

However...

More social connections without greater intelligence built in is just gonna be more noise"

or if you prefer an equation:

 

I got my hands full tracking my fragmented world as it is.  Luckily as everyone races to claim the open data, social graph charge, there are those thinking about enabling better, smarter management tools that start with ME - the user/consumer/individual/PERSON. 

Related posts:

Dan Farber, Mashable, RWW, and Charlene Li

Related events this week: IIW,  Data Sharing Summit

 

This week's links from around the net

Stuff I found interesting this week

peterme.com » Alan Cooper Told The Audience What They Wanted To Hear, Not What They Needed To Hear

the dichotomy between design and business in a post-industrial economy - bridges must be built between craft and commerce - this can be done.

I totally agree - just as better bridges and mechanisms need to be built between tech and business to forge relevant relationships between companies and customers in a post-industrial/social web world.

Anil Dash: Not Rude, Familiar

Exactly - New Yorkers are not rude - actually , after living in Sf for over three years - I am more convinced than ever that we are indeed quite friendly and helpful. MOre than most - we have to be as a survival tactic. [yes, "we" - you can take the girl out of NY....]

Customer service via Twitter works for unpopular people too | Webware : Cool Web apps for everyone

Comcast is using Twitter to monitor customer service. And it works!

Dancing With Gorillas: The New Web Era - ReadWriteWeb

The new Web era is about the mainstream. This is when millions of small businesses and digital free agents make a good living by providing better products to ...

Pause for self-promotion

I have been chastised by friends, colleagues and confidants for not posting about recent talks past and future, so without further adieu here is some info on an upcoming talk.  Of course, with my reader's time in mind - it is only fair to also include some additional food for thought.....

I will be speaking at The Cluetrain at 10 with Doc Searls, Thor Muller and others on May 29th in Palo Alto at an event hosted by The Conversation Group, SAP, and Forrester. 

Should be an interesting day focused on both ""you've come a long way baby" and how far we still need to go.

Little did I know when I signed the Cluetrain Manifesto ten [ gulp ] years ago that I would end up being one of its' loudest mouthpieces. 

I took a look at what I posted to the site in prep for this post and I have to say I love my quote from back then and my philosophy still holds.  Good to see I am consistent.

Deborah Schultz, Manager, EC|Solutions, AnswerThink Consulting Group - "Amen! I refer to this as the Dr. Seuss metaphor - 'Revenge of the Whos.'  Gone are the days when all the little Whos in Who-ville have to shout to be heard.  The Web empowers all the Whos...er humans!

It is great to see that ten years later  we now have many new tools and technologies that have moved the Relationship Economy forward.  It is fantabulous that many have jumped aboard - but I also think many have reduced the concepts to mere "new marketing" drivel. At the risk of sounding like a broken record - this is  BIG change stuff not just "chatting with your customers".  It is also frustrating to see how much farther we still need to go.  Today, I feel less like ranting and more about discussing the good stuff, so here are a few good examples: 

• Edgeconomy - the cool, interesting stuff is indeed happening at the edges - are you paying attention?

• Project VRM   - Energy around the power of the individual
  

• Acknowledgement of the importance of both design, craft and [dare I say]  humanity in the post industrial age - ya know the not so concrete stuff around DNA, Whoofie, Culture - call it what you will!

• And for further reading see Brian's nice list

This week's links from around the net

Stuff I found interesting this week

The Social Customer Manifesto: Reaching Out: Four Retail Companies That Are Reaching Out with Blogs and Social Media

Four nice mini case studies on retailers who are trying

twitter.zappos.com

so simple, so easy....putting it all out there.

May 1st - a popular day for the people

It's a popular day this year

[OK - it is probably a popular day every year, but this year I thought to write a post about it, so I could get my lat post with the weekly links image not found off the screen]

Today is RSS Awareness Day - who knew?!   It is also ALL of these days as well [thanks to 10k for doing the linking so I did not have to]

Lastly, it is also Yom Hashoah - or  Holocaust Memorial Day.  This video clip shows how they commemorate in Israel.  I have always wished the US could actually do this for 9/11.  You can fast forward to 1' 35"  - and still get the idea.

Workers of the Web unite

In an effort to allude to the Workers May Day theme, here are some recent Soylent green posts on my favorite theme - IT's PEOPLE, PEOPLE 

[via Chris  - yeah i copied tho whole darn chunk cause I was lazy and did not think Chris would mind]

1) The "networks don't have people...people have networks" concept floated here has become a full-fledged snowball.

• Ross Mayfield - "Here's some related Soylent Green."
• Demian Entrekin - "Individuals create value for organizations through the impact of their Project Network, not through their position in the organization chart."
• David Wallace - "It's about the people, people."
• David Cushman - "When you aggregate personal data in profiles (eg facebook) you risk imposing structural limitations on the conversation and on the way groups form. This leads to severe restrictions on value and growth creation in your network."
• Marshall Lager - "It's why Facebook (for example) has been having trouble - it takes ownership of pieces of you."

2) A point of caution on the "social media divide" from Francine Hardaway (with more here) - "Fellow geeks, we live in a dream world -- a world of Twitter - Twhirl - Friendfeed - AlertThingy - Seesmic. And if you think most people reading this can identify any of those things, think again. Moreover, if you think there's a chance of any of those crossing the real chasm in the next ten years, think again."