Logic+Emotion

Venn Economics

Unconventional Marketing

(click image for larger version)


As an individual, this blog is one of the most effective manifestations of "marketing" I could have produced for myself.  I have a respectable audience that comes back as opposed to visiting it once, never to return again.  People participate in through comments and the content is distributable.  But imagine if I started it the same way many large organizations launch conventional marketing initiatives. What would that have looked like?

First I would have had to do several hundred pages of strategy documentation, including target audiences, marketing segments, competitive analysis—you name it. Then I would put some concepts together and test them in focus groups to see if representatives in a lab like A, B, or C, better. Next, I would take that feedback, make a few adjustments and plan a multichannel campaign—launching the blog with all sorts of advertising pointing to it. And since I painstakingly outlined the ROI in the in-depth strategy, I'd go about measuring the effectiveness against the ROI that was outlined prior to launch.

Of course, this blog like millions or other forms of "social media" followed a path that looked nothing like that. In fact, it looked much more like the second flow.  Sure, I put some initial thought into it before ever touching a pixel, but once I launched the blog it became a never-ending cycle of content development, template design tweaks, and learning curves based off of what was going on each time I did something.

For example, when I started posting visuals, I would check my stats and could see that people from all sorts of other sites and blogs began referencing them and linking back—so I realized that the visuals were providing something people wanted, and if I wanted to continue to build an audience, this was a good way to do it.  Secondly, I had thought that my primary audience would be designers, when in fact the blog started attracting an eclectic audience of planners, marketers, librarians, even evangelists.  After each cycle of launching content or even functionality in the sidebars, I was learning about who my audience was and why they were coming.  This required me to periodically have more frequent checkpoints of "little strategy" where I would plan the direction of where I wanted to go and make the appropriate adjustments to get there. And it felt less like a straight path and more like a meandering one, because the "focus group" was happening in real time after the initial launch.

I've been thinking about this for a while because after having some exposure to large organizations, it occurred to me that there is a desire to do more "unconventional marketing" but the machine which is in place is actually "conventional"—all the things that have been done in the past. For example, it's common and understandable for the "what's the ROI?" question to be raised during an unconventional marketing initiative, but that question could derail the entire effort before it has a chance to ever get off the ground.  Sometimes the ROI is simply insights and learnings that are gleamed from actually doing the initiative. Other times, the direction of the initiative changes midway through in in unexpected ways that could not have been predicted. Many times for the better—let's not forget that Twitter was never meant to be what it ended up being today.

Speaking from personal experience, I could not have predicted many of the outcomes I have had since launching this blog, but I believe following a much more "unconventional" path is a core reason behind everything that I've learned from it.  For a couple of hundred dollars a year and a lot of dedication and effort it's priceless to me.  And so as I think about how times are becoming more unconventional—with unpredictable financial markets and political change in the air, I can't help but think that it's more important than ever to get serious about what it takes to do these types of initiatives right.  It just doesn't look like conventional marketing—it's different. And unconventional times call for unconventional tactics.

5 Things I learned From Dave Gray

I just wrapped up 2 days at the IDEA conference in Chicago and one of the highlights for me was getting to spend some time with Dave Gray, founder of XPLANE and a wonderful advocate for visual thinking.  One thing you should know about me is that I watch people very carefully and make mental notes about what I can learn about them.  Here are a few things I picked up:

It's The Delivery Stupid
Dave's talk at IDEA was very good—he explored the notion of analog benefits which have not yet translated digitally (for example comparing books and browsers), but aside from an interesting topic, what I noticed most about Dave's talk was that his delivery of it really made it extraordinary.  Dave's spontaneity, conversational style, enegry and  animation were instantly picked up by the audience. They fed off him, and in return he fed of them, and the amount of chatter going on in the back channel served as proof.

Show And Tell
I watched as Dave took notes and drew everything in his notebook. If he wasn't jotting something down as you were talking to him, he was pulling out his notebook to SHOW you something he was either thinking about or start drawing as he discussed something with you. A conversation with Dave was like an exercise in interactive show and tell.

Use What You Got
If Dave didn't have his notebook on him, he'd write something down on his hands and even in one case, his arm.  I watched Dave do this more than once. The true sign of someone who understands improvisation—you use what you have as opposed to trying to create the perfect environment.

Smile
Dave is well over 6'5" and has a deep voice that easily carries. Yet he's not intimidating when he easily could be. Why? Because he's inquisitive and generally smiles a LOT. It's a great quality and instantly disarming.  Watching Dave taught me that you can be smart, talented AND approachable.

Stand Corrected
Smack in the middle of Dave's talk—someone from the audience challenged him on something he had just said.  Dave had invited people to to this at the beginning of his talk and responded by saying "I stand corrected".  By Dave not only inviting the critique and giving it credibility, he was able to quickly move on with out disrupting the flow of his talk. And the audience responded even more positively for it.

So that's what I learned. And if you're open to a tip from your truly, consider this: don't always listen to what people say. Watch what they do—and how they do it. The insights you get from all three are more potent that just one.

People, Places + Events

Just a quick update on some events I'll be a part of over the next few weeks:

IDEA 2008
I'll be kicking off the IDEA conference next Tuesday morning and joining a great roster including Dave Gray, Jesse James Garret, Bill DeRouchey, and Jason Fried among others. IDEA is positioned as follows"

"This conference addresses issues of design for an always-on,     always-connected world. Where "cyberspace" is a     meaningless term because the online and offline worlds     cannot be made distinct. Where physical spaces are so     complex that detailed wayfinding is necessary to navigate     them. Where work processes have become so involved, and     so digitized, that we need new processes to manage those     processes."

Forrester Consumer Forum 2008
I'll be having a conversation at this year's Forrester Forum with Deborah Schultz on the topic of "Return On Insight". Deb has done some interesting work with P&G on their Social Media Lab and we'll be discussing the effect of social media both inside and out of organizations. Here's how we are billing the talk.

"Today’s evolving consumers are sophisticated, informed, fickle, and multifaceted. And they’re just getting started! To stay ahead of the (r)evolution, organizations will need to break down their internal silos and adapt to new ways of connecting, communicating, and listening. As companies toss focus groups aside for other forms of input, “netnography” and communities can yield rich insights that lead to future product and service innovations. But to do this, organizations need to rethink return on investment (ROI) from the ground up to rapidly launch and iterate efforts before they get dismissed. Learn how P&G is getting a “return on insight” through initiatives that will help it connect to the ever-evolving customer.”

WOMMA Summit 2008
I'll be joining a "town hall" style panel at the WOMMA (Word Of Mouth Marketing Association) summit in Las Vegas.

If you are going to any of these events, be sure to look me up!

The 4 Kinds of "Free"

This is an updated to my original post since Chris Anderson added a "4th Free". Actually, the ironic thing about number 4 is that it perfectly captures why I'm doing these visuals in the first place. If Chris uses them, he gets better quality representations of his ideas while my reputation benefits from additional exposure. This is a new kind of currency that we're seeing being used and what fuels it is the accessibility we have to each others through more of an open source way of working.  If Chris chose to write his book in more of a traditional way—people like me wouldn't have known about his need for help or his desire to improve the rough visuals he created.  So, this post is a testament to the "gift economy" which Chris recently added. 

Life In Perpetual Beta

By day Melissa Pierce acts as a creative coach, for entrepreneurs in the Chicago Area.  On the side she's got an interesting project called Life In Perpetual Beta. A few weeks ago, Melissa turned the camera on me and the video above is what resulted. We talked about a few topics including creativity, authenticity, design thinking and personal branding. Other contributers to Melissa's video project have been Dan Pink, author of a Whole New Mind, entrepreneur Gary Veynerchuck, designer Carlos Segura, Jason Fried,  Jim Coudal, Liz Strauss and more. Have a look at the videos. Worth checking out. for sure.

Visualizing Chris Anderson's "Free" Model

Chris Anderson, author of the Long Tail, put out a call for help to visualize his "3 Kinds of Free" model.  The above visual is what I've come up with. If you know Chris, can you give him a heads up? Of course, if the Long Tail is valid, he should be able to find this himself. :-)

From his post:

1. Here's the first, which dates back more than a century. It's the razors-and-blades model, as well as loss leaders of all sorts, from "free gift inside" to "free toaster for opening an account":

2. The second is the media business model, ranging from free-to-air broadcast radio and television to all ad-supported content online today:

3. The third is the new one, enabled by digital markets where the marginal cost of production and distribution is close to zero. This is the one that allows the "freemium" business model, where 90% of the users get the basic product for free and 10% chose to pay for a premium version. In economics this is called "versioning"...

A Brand New World

Here's the thing you already know about this space. If you're not consistently evolving, growing, learning and experimenting, than you might as well go work in another industry. In the spirit if everything I just said—I've launched a new pet project called "Brand U.0". It's not a blog (well, this link will take you to one). But it's an idea.

The idea is this:

Personal brands matter—we're creating them each time we create a profile online, reinforcing them each time we have an interaction and if we get fired or move on in our careers—it's the one thing we are allowed to take with us. That can never be taken away.

And consider this. Successful personal brands are REALLY HARD to build and maintain. And that's why there are so few examples of people who have cultivated huge followings and actually live up to the brand they have built.

Chris Brogan is one of these people, and he's my first interview .  Join me in this experiment—you never know where it will end up.

Blog(s) of the Day: IDEO

The thing I Iove about the Web is that it levels the playing field. Novices and professionals each have equal shots at being heard. So when a company like IDEO launches official blogs (later in the game compared to many), it really doesn't matter because the Web thrives on quality of content and interactions. Everyone has a chance.

IDEO brings us two blogs worth checking out.  The first is IDEO Labs, which is described as follows:

"IDEO Labs is a place where we can show bits of what we're working on, talk about prototyping, and share our excitement over the tools that help us create."

While IDEO Labs is not posting in large volumes, it does offer some behind-the-scenes glimpses into their process and how they work. Check out this video of an IDEO team as they play around with their own multi-touch experiments.

Next is Design Thinking by IDEO's Tim Brown, an outspoken evangelist of the design thinking movement.  Design Thinking has more of a personal touch (I'm sure this is by design) compared to IDEO Labs as it offers direct perspectives from Brown on topics such as optimism and critique,  and  asking questions about the differences between product + experience.  Tim is in th process of writing a book and has positioned his blog as follows:

"This is a blog about design thinking. I am in the process of writing a book on the subject and this is the place I would like to share ideas and have a discussion. If you want to get an overview on how I see design thinking then check out the article I wrote for Harvard Business Review here.

As you will see as you read the posts, I have lots of questions. If you can help me with any answers or perspectives I would be very grateful. If you let me know who you are I will also do my best to acknowledge anything that makes it into the book."

Both blogs support comments, and both are worth checking out. IDEO are master marketers and intelligent self-promoters. In addition to learning about design methods and thinking, you might learn something about how to market your own organization from them.

10 Reasons To Stop Calling Yourself A "Blogger"

Several years ago, I gave this presentation at a blogging conference. I wanted to help people become better at blogging and I made a point which may or may not have been fully understood at the time. I suggested that we stop calling ourselves "bloggers". My broader message was that unless the act of blogging itself was indeed your core passion—you should identify yourself more closely with what your true passion is—whether that be writing, sports, design, marketing or perhaps being a parent. Here's some more food for thought on the subject matter. A bit tongue-in-cheek, but maybe it can get us all thinking. Here's 10 reasons to stop calling yourself a "blogger":

1. People are only nice to bloggers because now, they have to be.
2. Blogger sounds like "booger". Ew.
3. Bloggers are so 2006. "Microbloggers" are the new bloggers.
4, Most successful bloggers have written a book. That makes you an author.
5. If you haven't written a book, you're just a blogger.
6. No one really wants you to blog about what they did at last night's party.
7. Blondes have more fun. Bloggers have more fights.
8. Bloggers are now respectable, like journalists and lawyers. Except no one trusts journalists and lawyers.
9. The word blogger rhymes with "jogger"—subliminally recalling images of head bands, knee highs and short shorts.
10. Bloggers only talk about blogging. You're more interesting than that.

Live From Web 2.0

I'm attending and speakiing at the Web 2.0 Expo in New York. I'll write about it later, but for now here's a quick podcast I did with the folks from Blogtalk Radio. 

Stories That Stick

What's a story? There are so many definitions that I won't even try to define it here. But I do know one thing—good communicators are good storytellers, and good storytelling is memorable. I'm still fairly new to public speaking and so I try to weave in short stories to my presentations mainly because I can't present something effectively unless I can relate a personal story to it.  A story that means something to me.  It's why I brought Randy Paush into my micro-interactions presentation. It's why, when I'll talk about "personal brands"—I'll probably pepper it with stories I've heard before or maybe something I've experienced myself.

Being an effective storyteller isn't easy—but it's much easier to tell a story that matters to you. Stories that stick can influence decisions, inspire people to take action and persuade people to see things in a different light. Next week I'll have two opportunities to tell a story. Hopefully, they stick.

Sketching Is A State of Mind

That's my Moleskine notebook. I take it everywhere I go and use it to sketch out ideas as they pop into my head. I'm constantly sketching on paper, napkins—you name it. Sketching with simple tools like a pen and paper is the fastest way for me to explore different ideas, concepts and designs.

The above statement is mostly a lie.

Well OK, it's partially true. That's my Moleskine and I occasionally use it to sketch out ideas and jot things down—however you would be surprised out how FEW drawings I have in it.  It's actually quite pathetic for someone who "thinks visually". Since sketching is the new black right now, I'd like to offer up a personal perspective that comes at this topic a bit differently.

Sketching and drawing are not the same thing.

Allow me to elaborate on this personal opinion. For me personally, drawing on paper actually has some downsides. I find that when I draw, I'm tempted to render things. Rendering (making things look nice) gets in the way of my thinking process and as much as I try to ignore how things look, I find that the physical drawing part limits me. Sometimes I actually enjoy the drawing part so much, that my brain slips into "doodle" mode which is very relaxing but a essentially puts me into a semi-trance, as opposed problem solving mode. Again, this is a personal opinion but I have found that the act of "sketching" actually has nothing to do with drawing whether it be paper, or white board. Now to be clear, I am not saying that a pen and paper aren't useful tools—they are. But here's a few things to consider.  They work for me and might work for you, especially if you are uncomfortable with "drawing" but want to sketch more. 

1. Sketch in your head
Since you most likely have eyes, it means you are capable of thinking visually. When you have a visual idea, make up a name for what that idea is and write it down. Then take a mental snapshot of the what's in your head. I do this all the time, especially because in reality I don't carry a sketchbook with me at all times and often times, just naming something is enough for me to recall the idea when I'm ready to make it visual.

2. Use the tool that you are most comfortable with
If you like the feel of pen and paper then this article might not be for you. For me, I am very comfortable sketching digitally. My tool of choice is adobe illustrator because the vector art lets me move things around as quickly as I can. In fact, I actually embrace the limitations of tools such as Powerpoint because it helps me focus on the idea—not the rendering of it. It's difficult to get things to look perfect in Powerpoint, so it forces me to keep things simple. Plus, both tools let me copy and paste any image I can find on the internet—again this bypasses the temptation to render. Bottom line is that sketching does not have to be separate from digital.  Actually, I consider most of my images to be digital sketches and didn't draw on paper for most of these.

3. Think in color
Paper and pencil sketching doesn't allow you to express your thoughts in color—and for me personally, I think in color and shapes! Again, there are lots of digital tools that allow you to quickly color items, select shapes and edit rapidly. Print out versions of digital sketches that you think are getting at something, use color to create visual hierarchy in your ideas. For me personally, color helps me think.

While I think the act of sketching is essential—I think there needs to be a distinction between the tools and the act of sketching itself, as well as drawing. Sketching isn't better when it's analog, or when it's digital—it's better when we are in the right frame of mind. For me, this includes resisting the urge to make things look too pretty and working with tools I feel comfortable with. For me, the tools are a combination of digital, mental and visual. No Moleskine or white board required.

So just get out there and sketch. But don't feel like you have to draw. Work in a medium that lets you move forward rapidly and doesn't get in the way of your ideas.  That could very well be a sharpie and napkin—but it doesn't have to be.  Sketching is really a state of mind.  Oh, try a good beer when you sketch, that helps me too. ;-)

Brand "U.0" + The Chicago New Media Summit

Brand "U.0"

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: personal branding)

Next Monday I'll be kicking off the Chicago New Media Summit with a talk called "Brand U.0". As far as I can tell, the Chicago New Media Summit is styled somewhat like TED, with a high volume of presentations lasting around 20 minutes.  The back story for the presentation comes from an article I originally wrote for Ad Age in which I said:

"The hallmark of any great brand is authenticity -- just ask Harley-Davidson, Coke or Apple, especially when all of these brands lost their way and learned from it. Same thing applies to Brand You. In every tweak or a template, upload and keystroke, you have an opportunity to be authentic or disingenuous. Know what makes you special and unique, and tap into those qualities as you build your personal brand online. Most people can spot a fake when they see one, so remember that being genuine is more important that presenting yourself in an artificially glossy manner. It used to be important for bloggers to "find their voice" -- now it's relevant to all of us.  

These are a few things to consider, and you don't have to be Robert Scoble or Seth Godin to benefit from them."

I think personal branding is a behavior we'll see for quite some time. Just take a look at how much time is being spent by kids on their own profiles—and of course, you don't have to be a kid to have your very own "brand" online. If you are attending the event, be sure to say "hello".

Boxes + Arrows

Russ Unger recently had a chat with me over at Boxes and Arrows. Russ asked me a bunch of questions, but I though this one specifically was relevant as it pertains to my upcoming talk at IDEA 2008.

RU:  What should the audience take away from your talk?

DA: I can’t answer this question really. People will take away what they want and that’s a good thing. I can tell you what I hope they will. I hope they will be excited about the future which I believe presents huge opportunities for people who understand how to create great experiences one interaction at a time. This could be through interface, through content or even through personal interactions such as responding to comments, etc. I can’t help but see a strong link developing between social networking and experience design. We are living in an age where we can design prototypes and get real time feedback. People can tell us what they want and we’ll have to be confident in ourselves to read between the lines. But at the end of the day, I believe that it’s more important than ever to deliver a great experience vs. building a myth around one.

You can read the full interview at Boxes And Arrows

Chrome Wars

Top 10 Signs You Might Be A "Weblebrity"

Andy Warhol's prophecy was fulfilled with the advent of MTV's programming and widespread reality television. We're now seeing a new kind of micro-fame which lasts well beyond 15 minutes. You don't have to have thousands of friends on My Space, Facebook or Twitter to feel like a "Weblebrity"—you can be the celebrity of your own social system regardless of size.  Here are the top 10 signs you just might be a Weblebrity. :-)

1. You have signature clothing such as a certain T-shirt, hat, tie, sunglasses, boas, and occasionally ascots.
2. At internet parties people follow a "drink for link" policy—they buy the drinks, you provide the links.
3. Your internet friends treat you like a star while your real friends tell you to go F@*k yourself.
4. You stopped thinking about yourself as a person years ago.  Now you're a "brand".
5. At family gatherings you receive regular taunts like "can the internet superstar please pass the casserole??".
6. You've considered getting your Facebook photo shot professionally.
7. Total strangers you meet at conferences know more about you than your significant other.
8. You fight back the urge to say "do you know who I am?" almost daily.
9. People actually think you're friends with Scoble.
10. No-one in the real world has ever heard of you.

Memo From A "Mad Man"

When "Mad Men's" characters arrived on the scene the program's creators moved to have the "unofficial effort" shut down. After thinking about how to analyze this latest example of how the internet creates it's own rules, I decided that the creators "We Are Sterling Cooper" have said it best. Maybe you should take people like them more seriously.

"Fan fiction. Brand hijacking. Copyright misuse. Sheer devotion. Call it what you will, but we call it the blurred line between content creators and content consumers, and it's not going away. We're your biggest fans, your die-hard proponents, and when your show gets cancelled we'll be among the first to pass around the petition. Talk to us. Befriend us. Engage us. But please, don't treat us like criminals.

This site exists to catalogue the conversation around AMC's Mad Men and its fanbase across the social web. But it's just the beginning. 'We are Sterling Cooper' is a rallying cry to brands and fans alike to come together and create together."

Sometimes it's worth listening to a mad man.

Beyond The Conversation

OK, let's get this straight. For the past couple of years we've had a great time talking about the merits of conversation, transparency, authenticity, facilitation, participation, and blah blah blah.  Having talked about "The Conversation Economy" myself—I'm no exception to the "BLAH".  So, we get it—and now it's time to get down to business.  From my vantage point there are a few things going on at once, so here's a few thoughts rolling around in my noggin.

1. Social Networks
I won't go too deep here, we know what the deal is.  Many of us are spending countless hours managing our profiles, uploading our videos and photos, creating personal brands and generally yakking our heads off.  Oh, and we're also using social technologies to collaborate remotely/more effectively and yadda, yadda, yadda.  It's not going away, it's not a fad, and yes it changes how people want to interact with both individuals and in some (but not all) cases, organizations.

2. Internal Properties
Some organizations have invested in creating internal communities to either help break down silos or bring in external viewpoints that they can enjoy from the safety of their secure environments. Much of the interactions here mimic many of the things we see on social networks. People have profiles—wikis can be used for collaborative editing, discussions can ignite around relevant topics and of course information can be shared.  The internal part is important because it keeps the interactions within the business, which aligns with most corporate cultures. But the benefits are similar to participation in social networks—the operative word here is participation (Sorry, I couldn't resist).

3. External Properties
The third leg here in the stool may actually be the most critical and difficult to manage.  Most organizations are moving toward an external presence that consists of multiple sites, microsites, banners, blogs—you name it.  Anything that gets "launched" ends up in the digital ether and is either maintained or neglected. Many of these properties interconnect and depend on one another.  Some come and go and some just litter the Web.

I'd say there are probably more ways to slice this—but for me these are the three biggies and I'm starting to think about a few questions, such as:

1. How will these initiatives relate to one another?
2. Will they be able to scale at the same rate or will some pull ahead of others?
3. How much redundancy will occur between them?
4. Will new tools need to be developed to coordinate internal/external and social activities?
5. What platforms will best be served for research vs. communication?
6. Which systems will demonstrate the most flexibility to adapt?

Right now, I'm mostly in question mode.  Just seems to me that as all of these wonderful changes take place, there is going to be some type of maturation process which requires a bit of orchestration that moves beyond evangelizing the need for "conversation". 

Would love to get your thoughts on this one.

People, Places + Events

September 3
Next week I'm off to Proctor & Gamble (a Critical Mass client) to do a talk and participate in a day of internal work sessions that will be attended by approximately 400 P&G employees. P&G is taking the rise of social networks and how this is influencing consumer behavior pretty seriously and that will be the theme for the day. I've been participating in their internal "Social Media Lab" where there are a lot of ongoing conversations and sharing going on and I've found it to be quite insightful. Deb Schultz has been working with Procter & Gamble in this initiative.  Rumor has it, that there will be a karaoke meetup in Cincinnati on the evening of 9/3.  For more details follow me on Twitter.


September 15
I'll be doing a 20 minute talk at the Chicago New Media Summit which is a first ever event of the likes in Chicago. If you are in the area, this might be worth looking into.

September 19
I'll be joining an all star lineup for OREILLY's Web 2.0 Expo held in NYC. This is one I'm really honored to be a part of and I think I'm looking forward to listening and learning than I am talking. 

Hope to see you at any of these events. Especially karaoke night in Cincinnati. :-)

Dan Saffer Launches Kicker

Just caught wind that Dan Saffer author of Designing for Interaction and former Experience Design Director at Adaptive Path is carving out his own path with a new shop called Kicker.  Here's how it's positioned:

" We do interaction-infused product design for:
consumer electronics / appliances
  kiosks and touchscreens / toys / robots
interactive environments / responsive objects
mobile and medical devices

We combine expertise in industrial, visual, and interaction design
to create innovative products that are as pleasing to use
as they are to look at and hold.

KICKER. [KIK-er] noun. 1. One who kicks. 2. An unexpected twist. 3. In poker, a high-value card used
as a tie-breaker. 4. In football, the player who drills it though the uprights when the game is on the line.
5. In extreme sports, a ramp used to launch off of. 6. In design, a brief phrase or sentence lead-in
to a story or chapter. 7. In product design, a consulting firm that smashes through convention."

Best of luck to Dan who is is a fantastic contributer to the field of interaction/experience design.  Dan will also be speaking at agency R/GA in NYC on September 17th.  I'd suggest you go if you can make it. 

Social Networks & The Customer Experience

Upon arriving back home from a week-long vacation, I was unpleasantly surprised to return to a house with no cable, internet or phone service.  This came at especially bad timing as my wife had recently lost her mobile phone.  After calling our provider (Comcast) and getting a generic message about an outage, (post navigating through the confusing phone menu) I opted to wait it out for the afternoon as the recording recommended.

By evening we had no service and after waiting on the line again I had finally gotten through only to get the expected "we'll send a technician between the hours of..." message.  The Comcastic puppets couldn't put a smile on my face at this point (actually, they've always creeped me out), but Frank—a Comcast employee who provides customer service on Twitter did.

Within a few minutes on a Sunday evening, Frank responded to my complaint letting me know that it was most likely not an outage in my area, but a problem at my house. He also guided me through a process that would have fixed it (if I had a amplifier vs. a splitter), but it was still nice to get the education on the difference, not to mention the personal touch delivered through what is supposed to be an impersonal medium.

I've spoken about at length, the real opportunity for organizations looking to figure out how to tap the power of the social movement lies on the experience side more so than the marketing.  Whether it's consumer or enterprise, companies can gleam insights from customers and actually extend the customer experience as I've outlined in my story,  Critics may say it's a waste of time—especially when tapping relatively small networks such as Twitter, but I believe this is a strategy built of fragmentation and niche value vs. mass appeal.  Digital channels have evolved in to infinite touch points meaning that technology has permeated our lifestyles in a very organic fashion.  Networks offer us a glimpse of what the potential is for companies to provide better experiences in an automated age.

If I have a problem with my Comcast service—I'll probably ping Frank again.  You might make a phone call, but a good experience at the root is built on empathy and understanding how people want to interact with you. Franks knows that while I don't use my phone as much as I used to—I still crave human contact and a helping hand. Nice to know I can get it in a way that aligns with my lifestyle.

Micro-Interactions at SXSW

I'm hoping to bring the gospel of micro-interactions (vs. advertising) to SXSW, but will need your help if you'd like to see me there.  If that sounds good to you, vote here.

Lots of other great panels as well.  Here's a few you should look at.
Convincing With Pictures, Dan Roam
Start Small, Stay Small, Jeffrey Zeldman
Being a UX team of one, Leah Buley
Friendship is Dead, Russ Unger
From the Roman Agora to the Mobile Web, Chris Carfi
Making Whuffie, Tara Hunt
Is the Mouse Dead Yet?, Chris Bernard
Embracing Your Customer Evangelists, Mack Collier
Curiosity Marketing, Rohit Bhargava
Your Brand is Not My Friend, Alan Wolk

There are many more—too many to mention, if you have a panel that you'd like to get some exposure to, please leave a link in the comment section here and I promise to get it out on Twitter. Hope to see you in Austin!

L+E Visual Thinking on Flickr

Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.

I've decided to put a few choice samples of the visual thinking I've done over the past few years on Flickr.  The set can be viewed here. If you've been a regular reader, then you know that the visuals are what helped me build a following—they are my "purple cow" so to speak. I encourage their use in presentations, blog posts etc. as long as clear attribution is provided.  Many of you have done this, and it's why I continue to share the artifacts digitally.

The consolidation on Flickr is where I'll continue to upload what I think are some of the best in .jpg format.  At some point, I'll figure out what to do with them—I have a few ideas but not enough time.  Any ideas from you?

Thanks again for listening, reading and referencing my stuff.  Hopefully the aggregation is useful and helps you in some way.  If you're not a fan of my "brand" of visual thinking, that's totally OK, there are lots of others who play in this space and I recommend the folks at Xplane, or Dan Roam for different approaches.

IDEA 2008, + Discipline Convergance

I'll be joining some amazing speakers at IDEA 2008 held in Chicago on October 7-8.  The conference will include the following:

Jesse James Garrett - Adaptive Path
Jason Fried - 37 Signals
Aradhana Goel - IDEO
Dave Gray - Xplane
Bill DeRouchey - Ziba Design
Andrew Hinton - Vanguard
...and more

The role of all types of designers is being grappled with by many organizations.  I recently recieved a heads up from (former) Forrester Analyst Kerry Bodine who announced that she'll be leaving Forrester to build an experience design practice at advertising agency Hill | Holliday.  I am not suprised at all by moves like this as I've been talking about convergence for some time.  Marketing, design and "branding" are on a violent collision course as communications, experience and messaging become indistigusible to the average customer/user. It's going to get interesting to say the least. Hope to see you at IDEA.