Get Shouty

I’ve been thinking about gifts. Again.

I am a believer that you are what you give away. And, in addition, ” Bis dat qui cito dat,” meaning “You give twice when you give quickly”.

I love sharing a research piece, a presentation, an insight. I often have to defend this trait, as many believe that it can make you vulnerable, that you’re giving away your advantage.

But information is everywhere. And it’s free. And it’s freely available.

Showing you my cards doesn’t give them away.

Kevin Kelly in his magnificently observed piece on the next 5000 days of the internet puts it this way:

• Copies have no value
• Value is in the uncopyable
• Media wants to be liquid
• Network effects rule
• Attention is the currency

As Kelly observes that there are 8 things that are better than free:

1. Immediacy
2. Personalisation
3. Interpretation
4. Authenticity
5. Accessibility
6. Embodiment
7. Patronage
8. Findability

It’s never been about what data you have access to- it’s always been how you use it.

I’ve got a serious girl crush on The Bloggess. Check out this exchange from one of her recent posts

Me:  Hey, do you know what a “haberdasher” is?  Because I just found out I’ve been using it wrong for…my entire life.

DJ: I use that word all the time and I have absolutely no idea what it means.  I just randomly yell it at people as an insult, like“You insolent haberdasher!” Like a Victorian alternative to “asshole”.   Isn’t it a ‘hat dealer’ or something?

Me:  That’s what I thought, but I totally got called out for using the word incorrectly.

DJ: Hmm…google it.

Me:  Okay… ”Haberdasher: A dealer in notions.” Dude.  I’m a dealer in notions.

DJ:  Me too!  I deal in notions all the fucking time.  We’re freaking haberdashers, dude.  Kick-ass.

Ok- I’m stealing referencing that as often as I can.

Through the vagaries of online researchiness I also came across this jem Novelty Makes Brains Creative

Discoveries by neuroscientists studying the brain say that novel experiences are key in increasing brain power and creativity. When the brain experiences, or imagines a familiar situation, it already has a shortcut to understanding – it’s got that categorized in a neat little mental box. Novelty, new experiences and stretches of the imagination keep the mind limber, and more creative.

Fast Company reports:

Most corporate off-sites, for example, are ineffective idea generators, because they’re scheduled rather than organic; the brain has time to predict the future, which means the potential novelty will be diminished. Transplanting the same mix of people to a different location, even an exotic one, then dropping them into a conference room much like the one back home doesn’t create an environment that leads to new insights. No, new insights come from new people and new environments — any circumstance in which the brain has a hard time predicting what will happen next.

Fortunately, the networks that govern both perception and imagination can be reprogrammed. By deploying your attention differently, the frontal cortex, which contains rules for decision making, can reconfigure neural networks so that you can see things that you didn’t see before. You need a novel stimulus — either a new piece of information or an unfamiliar environment — to jolt attentional systems awake. The more radical the change, the greater the likelihood of fresh insights.

Fresh hot insights- get ‘em while they’re hot: they’re lovely!

I was reading this today and was reminded that:

existing corporate structure(s) doesn’t allow for making mistakes and yet humans do that all the time, so unless we want brands to sound artificial we’re going to need some human contribution at some point….

I’d take it a little bit further- you just can’t have an emotional connection with perfection. You could never be friends with anyone that doesn’t have doubts, make mistakes, have cracks and the ability to laugh at those moments in life when things have gone significantly broader at the base.

Vulnerability connects. It makes brands human.

Unless we allow brands to innovate, iterate, royally stuff up and learn from listening we’re never going to be able to build real, long term relationships.

And the stats are in: people love brands that admit a mistake and change course better than walled gardens.

It’s time to take the legal team out to lunch.

I’m sure everyone gets asked these kind of questions:

Overview:

A website that allows users to view local content and upload their own content.

Questions:

1. The sites profitability comes from the selling of highly targeted ad space, and the effective media cut through on offer to advertisers targeting this demographic.

We are going to register both a .com and a .com.au

But want to know if we should have a version of the site for Australia, US, Uk etc, so that the advertising we sell will be at a premium to target customers in each county. (but obviously unique user numbers and site traffic potential will be limited)

Or if we should just focus on one global .com site, the advantage being that it will grow much faster in terms of traffic (ie the whole world vs a potential 20 million for Aust.), but will not be able to deliver the same relevance and targeting in terms of advertising. Or can media agencies know what country a user is from and still deliver premium relevant ads?

Just looking for advice as to which track to go down?

2. How many site visits and subscriber numbers do we need to have to become a serious site on the radar for advertisers in Australia.?

Any advice you can give is much appreciated.

My answer:

Guys: my advice is that you seriously research your offer. And that you really spend some time looking at the social media skills you will need to build a community around your site.

A simple Google search results about 16,900,000 in your content area. So you have 17 million competitors.

Check these out: The Australian Index http://theaustralianindex.com

There are a number of sites that already do what you want to do- and you will need to a comprehensive understanding of you competitors to differentiate.

The most important question you can ask yourself right now is not how you will monetize- it is how you will launch, build an audience and create enough value for them to keep coming back.

The Cool Hunter is an Australian outfit that has done a brilliant job of this, and now has geo specific versions of its content. But it’s taken years and years to build.

You will not get on an advertiser’s radar with out compelling content and a loyal audience.

Adserving can geo target an IP address. Your best bet is Google Adsense (ads will be contextually served onto your site) and you can do this from day one.

There is no tool in Australia available for media planning that can even see a site with under 100,000 uniques a month. After you have built a decent audience (say 30,000) you might be able to contact one of the Ad Network resellers.

And on an end note: an old fashioned piece of advice. Write a business plan. No one else need see it- but planning is a key ingredient of success. It will walk you through all of the steps that you need to make, allow you to clearly articulate your offer, evaluate your competitive set and work out your business model. Good Luck!

Anything I’ve missed out? What are your tips for online start ups?

UPDATE: Here’s product marketing guru/VC/advisor/author Guy Kawasaki’s The World’s Shortest Marketing Plan, Version 2.0 Click here to get the document. It’s a Word document so that you can fill in the cells with your answers.

Every week the white agency get together in teams for a little collaborative and competitive thought sharing in an initiative called 3 x 3.

Each team member has three minutes to present three trends. If you’ve been following my twitter stream you’ve seen this come together this week. Enjoy!

P.S. I see that Jenny Williams has a much longer, much smarter take on the challenges and approach to managing digital transformation.  She has kindly shared her presentation “Managing change in the digital environment” from this week’s iMedia Brand Summit on Slideshare. I wasn’t able to get away, but I’ve been following the tweemstream here: http://twemes.com/imed08.

BTW. I like the term “MyFace” better than “Facespace” – it’s ruder and gets a laugh. But you can’t say “I want to get on MyFace” in a three minute presentation. You loose the crowd…

oh and the quote about competency and change comes from Seth Godin.

UPDATE: here is the match report of the White Team 3×3.

I have always worked in an industry where my parents have been in the dark about my day to day life. I’ve worked in online longer than Google has been around (ouch!) and love the way that the landscape changes as you look at it….and that’s its challenge.

We work in a field where we are trying to make sense, of not only new technology, but new behaviours, new habits, new tribes and a new sense of identity as well.

And so we make up words to try to describe these new things. And as a consequence very few people can understand what the hell we’re talking about.

I know that I never learnt how to program a VCR and that I still have battles with our printer and I won’t go anywhere near a photocopier. These machines just don’t impact my life and I can live without ever having to acquire this technical knowledge.

But what I see is that social networking, in particular, is not a technology- it’s a behaviour. And as mega trends of community and simplification are driving people to connect and share their lives online it is my fate to try to teach my clients and colleagues all the whys and wherefores of our new world.

David Ogilvy said: “The consumer is not an idiot. She is your wife.”* What’s been helping me is to try to explain what I know, with respect and humour, is to imagine that I’m painting a picture for my Mum. (Now she’s a very hip, creative and switched on lady and someone who really wants me to succeed- so I’m sure she won’t mind if you need to borrow her for this occasion.)

Teaching requires creativity, patience and playfulness. It’s not about about dumbing anything down- it’s about using sophisticated metaphors and an inclusive structure so that questions are welcomed and embraced.

We need to believe that our clients want to understand change. We need to be able to create stories that they can understand and champion.

And am looking forward to my parents finally being able to brag about what I do.

* (Implicit in that remark, of course, is the idea that everyone being dressed down by Mr. Ogilvy was a man — and that all the men would be married. Sometimes, it seems the TV series “Mad Men” is a documentary rather than a drama.)