130. 1. Get advice and input from experts but design for
the broader community
2. Respond to all feedback, even when you respond
by saying, “No thanks.”
3. Do not take negative feedback personally;
remember that when people give feedback, they
are doing so because they care and have taken
the time to improve their experience.
4. Give credit to those whose ideas you implement;
nothing says “we are open to conversation” better.
131. 5. When you a implement new idea, make sure
that you highlight it, and ask for feedback.
6. Make small, continuous changes rather than
waiting to implement everything at once.
7. Don’t just wait for feedback to come to you, go
out and find it; people are probably talking
about your product elsewhere.
8. No matter how many people like you, you will
always have someone who doesn’t - mind the
haters.
210. 1. Stop moving and look around you until you
see everything clearly.
2. Transfer the knowledge.
3. Every time you feel anxiety, acknowledge it.
4. Define your own measure of success.
5. Get outside of your personal circle.
6. Realize that everything is out of your control
anyway.
7. Have patience.
242. “...compared check-writing and
volunteering to cutting the leaves and
branches off a tree, where the heart of
the business and its ability to impact the
world positively is the tree itself.”
Gary Hirshberg, CEO, Stonyfield Farms
244. not customer-centric
• You do everything you can to • You have a long list of customer
keep your customers on your relations policies. Any exception
website. to those policies has to go up the
chain of command for approval.
• You measure number of visitors
and time spent on your website • You need to create multiple
as whether you are successful. instructional videos so that your
customers will understand how
to use your product.
• When budgets get tightened, you
make cutbacks in areas like
customer service, marketing, • You demand social media
support staff and design. strategies that win over the
‘influencers’ to blog or tweet
about your product.
• You are bothered by a customer
describing your product in their
own words that doesn’t match
your brand.
245. customer-centric
• You send customers to other • Your customers are doing things
websites. with your product you never
dreamed and are posting videos.
• You measure how many people
refer their friends to you as • Influencers are adding you as
success. friends on social networks.
• You let people feed in their • You work with your competitors
content from other sites easily. towards better customer
experiences for all.
• When budgets get tightened, you
tighten operational costs. • You know you compete for your
customers’ attention with
everyone.
• Your only customer service policy
is to do right by the customer.
277. about those rockin’ images:
• Many are from iStockphoto.com (totally cool site)
• except as marked on the photo...
• a screenshot of my friendwheel: http://
apps.facebook.com/friendwheel
• and the logos & screengrabs I stole from all of
the respective sites...
278. some references
• Avant Game: http://www.avantgame.com
• Cruel 2 B Kind: http://www.cruelgame.com
• Microformats: http://www.microformats.org
• OpenID: http://www.openid.net
• Creative Commons: http://www.creativecommons.org
• BarCamp: http://barcamp.org
• Coworking: http://coworking.info
• Ma.gnolia: http://ma.gnolia.com
• Friend Wheel: http://apps.facebook.com/friendwheel
• Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom: http://craphound.com/down/
download.php
• Whuffie: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whuffie
which takes place in the future and in this future
there is something
Which includes such things as
ping someone’s
you get back a
we
in
this is a picture of my friend wheel on facebook. It represents the connections of my connections, but it is only a portion of them because I actually have
and growing, this is not to mention the aforementioned twitter where I have
that is 7,800 people who listen to me at any given moment as I tweet out what I’m doing right now. Of course I don’t know all of them, but I do have
people that I follow, who represent those
who I’ve met or talked to on or offline in some capacity at some point over the past two years
I’m merely showing you how an individual like myself can carve out an audience of influence with my own whuffie.
MySpace, with 110 million users; Google's Orkut ranked second with 67 million users; and Facebook was third, with 50 million users.
Now, as a word of caution...some companies have gotten smart to this phenomenon and started to join these social networks themselves...not as people, but as companies and characters and as sales. Which leads to a reaction something like this...
Companies who cater to clients who want to tap into Social Networks and the power of blogging think they will influence others through word of mouth, but they have it dead wrong.
you cannot
buy
whuffie
Because whuffie
does not equal
people join
connections
Connections over time equal trust. And trust is the basis of whuffie
Connections over time equal trust. And trust is the basis of whuffie
Connections over time equal trust. And trust is the basis of whuffie
Connections over time equal trust. And trust is the basis of whuffie
Connections over time equal trust. And trust is the basis of whuffie
Connections over time equal trust. And trust is the basis of whuffie
Connections over time equal trust. And trust is the basis of whuffie
When a blogger is known to taken money to review a product, the trust between him and his readers is eroded and he
loses credibility. By trying to pay for social capital, the company extinguished it.
Without whuffie
the connections and
be seen as
...spam and met with...
...this. So, if we were to take this equation and reverse engineer it...
Influencer - that is...
...someone with a whole lot of social capital - is to
...make connections and establish ...
It’s kind of dead simple, if you ask me. It’s all about...
This
and
turn that bullhorn inwards.
...this that turn people off? Well, most of all, the reason people are turned off is because this kind of communication is...
...impersonal. What worked for the more disconnected world we lived in, pre-internet is no longer so effective. Why? Because people don’t want to be...
...treated like a number, they want to be treated...
...like special snowflakes. As INDIVIDUALS. As human beings.
This is precisely why they are getting their information from...
...their friends, who know and care about who they are. People they are CONNECTED TO.
...doing this...you are missing out on...
...this...so in order to...
...connect, you need to...
...take this and turn it...
...into this...a beacon for constant feedback.
...the 10 commandments of receiving feedback. So...here they are...number one..
...become part of the community you serve, which is the #2 sure-fire process.
Becoming part of the community you serve means you have to...
Get out of the boardroom and...
into the community. Of course!
...so now what? What do you do now? Well, the first thing you need to figure out is...
...who IS that community you serve...
Think of the diversity of the people in this world. Everyone has different needs, passions, interests, desires. Trying to serve each and every one of their interests would take a great deal of time and money you probably don’t have. You need to narrow it down.
The simplest way to figure who your core customer is...is to figure out...
...what problem are you solving? And...
...who it is that you are solving it for? Then it gets easier to figure out where
...those customers are gathering, what interests them and what other networks they are using...
...and join them! Not as a poser. Not as a salesperson. Not as a trial. Not as a skeptic. But figure out what is useful and great. Fall in love with these tools and learn from them. I’ve seen WAY too many people wanting to build online communities that have never even been part of them. That’s going to work out as smoothly as...
...why would they give a damn? Why would they want to use your product? With seemingly infinite choice in the marketplace, globalism, commoditization, and constant overstimulation and inundation with branding messages, if you aren’t offering anything remarkable, you are going to...
...get alot of this. Boring! Lame! So, what you need to do is...
...differentiate. And that differentiation could look something like...
...some people may just give a damn. However, remarkable is not the only way to differentiate yourself. In fact, the simplest and the best way to differentiate your business is
...to care about your customers. That’s right. Since the bar is set really low...
...delight and create amazing experiences.
When I say ‘amazing’, I mean that it isn’t enough to make stuff that works well, if you want to incite passion and connectedness from people, you need to create sites that incite feelings like...
...gratitude and thankfulness....
...utter and total joy. ...
...loads of love...and of course...
...tons and tons of laughter. Because in order to make connections, it is very important that you...
...design your customer experiences for maximum happiness. If you do this, you WILL...
...connect. If you work to touch people in some way, shape or form, those connections will happen.
And it doesn’t have to be complicated. In fact, the least complicated designs for happiness are often the most profound. An example of this is...
embrace the chaos. So...
...what about Planning? Business plans? Models? Strategy? Brand management? Messaging?
Well, if there is anything I’ve learnt from working in social media is that when you try to control the future...
...it fights back...and in entirely surprising ways. There are so many hours wasted on coming up with all of the reasons something won’t work or on predicting customer needs that we forget to concentrate on the here and now.
People and projects are messy. The future is uncertain. It’s far better to...
...lay the foundation for the type of community you want and then prepare to discover...
...the Everyday Magic along the way. Everyday Magic is what happens when you open your eyes to the unpredictable way that the world works around you. Unplanned events can lead to powerful endings.
It’s one thing to say embrace the chaos, but here are a few tips on HOW to embrace it...
1. Stop moving and look around you until you see everything clearly. Ever heard, “Stop and smell the roses?” Whatever you are stopping and smelling or observing, do it. And do it often.
2. Transfer the knowledge. Be transparent and open...ask for help. Secrecy and brand management may have worked pre-internet, but your customers are happy to know you are human. The more you reach out, the more they will support you.
3. Every time you feel anxiety, acknowledge it. Embracing the chaos is a scary thing. Acknowledging you are scared will bring forward all sorts of help you didn’t know you had.
4. Define your own measure of success. Forget what the books tell you. Forget what even I tell you. Success is whatever makes you happy. Think long and hard about what your passion is and then go for it.
5. Get outside of your personal circle. Some of the biggest innovations have come from taking what is happening in other industries and adapting them to your own. Take a look at Apple’s interfaces, those aren’t an accident. They borrowed a great deal from Las Vegas.
6. Realize that everything is out of your control anyway. It’s a totally freeing feeling.
7. Have patience. These things may take alot of time.
Embracing the chaos is a simple concept that will leave you feeling...
1. Stop moving and look around you until you see everything clearly. Ever heard, “Stop and smell the roses?” Whatever you are stopping and smelling or observing, do it. And do it often.
2. Transfer the knowledge. Be transparent and open...ask for help. Secrecy and brand management may have worked pre-internet, but your customers are happy to know you are human. The more you reach out, the more they will support you.
3. Every time you feel anxiety, acknowledge it. Embracing the chaos is a scary thing. Acknowledging you are scared will bring forward all sorts of help you didn’t know you had.
4. Define your own measure of success. Forget what the books tell you. Forget what even I tell you. Success is whatever makes you happy. Think long and hard about what your passion is and then go for it.
5. Get outside of your personal circle. Some of the biggest innovations have come from taking what is happening in other industries and adapting them to your own. Take a look at Apple’s interfaces, those aren’t an accident. They borrowed a great deal from Las Vegas.
6. Realize that everything is out of your control anyway. It’s a totally freeing feeling.
7. Have patience. These things may take alot of time.
Embracing the chaos is a simple concept that will leave you feeling...
1. Stop moving and look around you until you see everything clearly. Ever heard, “Stop and smell the roses?” Whatever you are stopping and smelling or observing, do it. And do it often.
2. Transfer the knowledge. Be transparent and open...ask for help. Secrecy and brand management may have worked pre-internet, but your customers are happy to know you are human. The more you reach out, the more they will support you.
3. Every time you feel anxiety, acknowledge it. Embracing the chaos is a scary thing. Acknowledging you are scared will bring forward all sorts of help you didn’t know you had.
4. Define your own measure of success. Forget what the books tell you. Forget what even I tell you. Success is whatever makes you happy. Think long and hard about what your passion is and then go for it.
5. Get outside of your personal circle. Some of the biggest innovations have come from taking what is happening in other industries and adapting them to your own. Take a look at Apple’s interfaces, those aren’t an accident. They borrowed a great deal from Las Vegas.
6. Realize that everything is out of your control anyway. It’s a totally freeing feeling.
7. Have patience. These things may take alot of time.
Embracing the chaos is a simple concept that will leave you feeling...
1. Stop moving and look around you until you see everything clearly. Ever heard, “Stop and smell the roses?” Whatever you are stopping and smelling or observing, do it. And do it often.
2. Transfer the knowledge. Be transparent and open...ask for help. Secrecy and brand management may have worked pre-internet, but your customers are happy to know you are human. The more you reach out, the more they will support you.
3. Every time you feel anxiety, acknowledge it. Embracing the chaos is a scary thing. Acknowledging you are scared will bring forward all sorts of help you didn’t know you had.
4. Define your own measure of success. Forget what the books tell you. Forget what even I tell you. Success is whatever makes you happy. Think long and hard about what your passion is and then go for it.
5. Get outside of your personal circle. Some of the biggest innovations have come from taking what is happening in other industries and adapting them to your own. Take a look at Apple’s interfaces, those aren’t an accident. They borrowed a great deal from Las Vegas.
6. Realize that everything is out of your control anyway. It’s a totally freeing feeling.
7. Have patience. These things may take alot of time.
Embracing the chaos is a simple concept that will leave you feeling...
1. Stop moving and look around you until you see everything clearly. Ever heard, “Stop and smell the roses?” Whatever you are stopping and smelling or observing, do it. And do it often.
2. Transfer the knowledge. Be transparent and open...ask for help. Secrecy and brand management may have worked pre-internet, but your customers are happy to know you are human. The more you reach out, the more they will support you.
3. Every time you feel anxiety, acknowledge it. Embracing the chaos is a scary thing. Acknowledging you are scared will bring forward all sorts of help you didn’t know you had.
4. Define your own measure of success. Forget what the books tell you. Forget what even I tell you. Success is whatever makes you happy. Think long and hard about what your passion is and then go for it.
5. Get outside of your personal circle. Some of the biggest innovations have come from taking what is happening in other industries and adapting them to your own. Take a look at Apple’s interfaces, those aren’t an accident. They borrowed a great deal from Las Vegas.
6. Realize that everything is out of your control anyway. It’s a totally freeing feeling.
7. Have patience. These things may take alot of time.
Embracing the chaos is a simple concept that will leave you feeling...
1. Stop moving and look around you until you see everything clearly. Ever heard, “Stop and smell the roses?” Whatever you are stopping and smelling or observing, do it. And do it often.
2. Transfer the knowledge. Be transparent and open...ask for help. Secrecy and brand management may have worked pre-internet, but your customers are happy to know you are human. The more you reach out, the more they will support you.
3. Every time you feel anxiety, acknowledge it. Embracing the chaos is a scary thing. Acknowledging you are scared will bring forward all sorts of help you didn’t know you had.
4. Define your own measure of success. Forget what the books tell you. Forget what even I tell you. Success is whatever makes you happy. Think long and hard about what your passion is and then go for it.
5. Get outside of your personal circle. Some of the biggest innovations have come from taking what is happening in other industries and adapting them to your own. Take a look at Apple’s interfaces, those aren’t an accident. They borrowed a great deal from Las Vegas.
6. Realize that everything is out of your control anyway. It’s a totally freeing feeling.
7. Have patience. These things may take alot of time.
Embracing the chaos is a simple concept that will leave you feeling...
1. Stop moving and look around you until you see everything clearly. Ever heard, “Stop and smell the roses?” Whatever you are stopping and smelling or observing, do it. And do it often.
2. Transfer the knowledge. Be transparent and open...ask for help. Secrecy and brand management may have worked pre-internet, but your customers are happy to know you are human. The more you reach out, the more they will support you.
3. Every time you feel anxiety, acknowledge it. Embracing the chaos is a scary thing. Acknowledging you are scared will bring forward all sorts of help you didn’t know you had.
4. Define your own measure of success. Forget what the books tell you. Forget what even I tell you. Success is whatever makes you happy. Think long and hard about what your passion is and then go for it.
5. Get outside of your personal circle. Some of the biggest innovations have come from taking what is happening in other industries and adapting them to your own. Take a look at Apple’s interfaces, those aren’t an accident. They borrowed a great deal from Las Vegas.
6. Realize that everything is out of your control anyway. It’s a totally freeing feeling.
7. Have patience. These things may take alot of time.
Embracing the chaos is a simple concept that will leave you feeling...
...like this about your future and will let you spend more time concentrating on your customer’s satisfaction than on working out hypothetical business issues.
Well, we are finally here at the final sure-fire step to getting closer to
...this. To having the kind of network of people around you and your business that the feedback flows and the word of mouth travels fast.
...the gift economy. In the gift economy...
the more you give away, the more Social Capital you gain. Saving Social Capital for a rainy day doesn’t work.
It’s only valuable as it circulates throughout the community. And as it circulates throughout the community, it inherently...
...connects us. So, as I recognize that we still very much reside in a market economy and you still have to make a living, the question is..
...what can you give away that won’t leave you broke? Which leads me to the most important sure-fire lesson of all...
...find your higher purpose.
Finding your higher purpose as a company helps you figure out on what level you can start connecting to your customers and to potential customers.
This group of friends have a shared bond: it may be their passions, history or even a common enemy.
How do you relate to your customers in these ways?
But maybe your company just exists to make money...then what? Is there no Social Capital for you? Nah...it’s actually pretty simple...
...you just have to find a way to give back to the community.
And, as is built into the nature of the gift economy...
...the more you give back, the more that comes around to reward you and your company...beyond it just being a nice thing to do, it is part of the growing popularity of something called...
...“Nerd Values” that reads...
#1...Democratize something! What is currently inaccessible? Elitist? What are ways in which you can give everyday people the power to speak up? The ability to create?
#1...Democratize something! What is currently inaccessible? Elitist? What are ways in which you can give everyday people the power to speak up? The ability to create?
Blogger did this for journalism.
YouTube opened up a whole new marketplace for entertainment.
Flickr made it easier for everyone to be a published photographer. What can you make accessible? Give people the tools to go further...
Number two is...
...Spread love! I talked earlier about designing for happiness, but what about turning this up a notch? What about designing for joy? For generosity? For helping people connect at a deep level? Reaching out to people who don’t get the love all of the time? Designing a site that encourages people to do nice stuff for one another?
Jane McGonigal’s alternate reality games, such as Cruel to Be Kind, are a great example of this. She’s created a mixture of online/offline action where, you are sent directives: give a stranger flowers, kill another player with compliments, etc. People react extremely positively and have reported personal transformations.
And the fifth example of how you can give back to the community you serve is to...
#5...This goes beyond you donating time and money. This means you dedicate a good part of your resources into doing something to give back to the community.
So, to sum up just a few of the ways to give back to the community...
You can democratize, Open up, Bridge, Give Love and/or Value something bigger than you. Heck, do as many of these things as possible and your...
You can democratize, Open up, Bridge, Give Love and/or Value something bigger than you. Heck, do as many of these things as possible and your...
You can democratize, Open up, Bridge, Give Love and/or Value something bigger than you. Heck, do as many of these things as possible and your...
You can democratize, Open up, Bridge, Give Love and/or Value something bigger than you. Heck, do as many of these things as possible and your...
You can democratize, Open up, Bridge, Give Love and/or Value something bigger than you. Heck, do as many of these things as possible and your...
...social capital will grow immensely over time...
Alright...we’re almost out of time. I know I’ve covered ALOT of ground here...and I don’t know if there will be any time for questions, but to recap...here are...
