Logic+Emotion

Top 25 Marketing Blogs

Mack Collier over at The Viral Garden has updated his famous list of Marketing focused blogs to reflect Technorati rank vs. Alexa.  Non-geek translation: the blogs are ranked by the number of sites that link back to them.  Here's  how it  looks:

1 - Creating Passionate Users - 8,460
2 - Seth's Blog - 8,452
3 - Gaping Void - 3,728
4 - Logic + Emotion - 1,406
5 - Daily Fix - 947
6 - Converstations - 914
7 - Drew's Marketing Minute - 800
8 - The Viral Garden - 742
9 - Jaffe Juice - 736
10 - Church of the Customer - 710
11 - Diva Marketing - 706
12 - Duct Tape Marketing - 701
13 - Servant of Chaos - 671
14 - What's Next - 666
15 - Influential Interactive Marketing - 651
16 - Hee-Haw Marketing - 648
17 - Brand Autopsy - 618
18 - Community Guy - 571
19 - Flooring the Customer - 563
20 - CrapHammer - 560
21 - Customers Rock! - 547
22 - Shotgun Marketing - 534
23 - Coolzor - 532
24 - CK's Blog - 525
25 - Tell Ten Friends - 521

Interesting.  Kathy Sierra's blog squeeks past Seth even though her blog has been inactive and is most likely done.  The Long Tail in action?  A blog, site can cease to exist—but it's shelf life goes on even after it becomes inactive.  This will probably change over time as Technorati updates but interesting nevertheless.  What do you think of the list?

Oh BTW, don't read into BL Ochman's rank (666) she may be tough—but she's no prince of darkness.  :)

Twitter 101

Twitter isn't for everyone just like Second Life, Blogging, MySpace, and wearing Crocs isn't for everyone.  BUT if you're interested in getting a better understanding of the technology and how it's used—why not listen to someone who actually uses it?  Matt Dickman has put a nice comprehensive video together that acts as a great "Twitter 101".  It won't convince you to use it.  But at least you'll understand why some do.

Day One 2.0

The first day at a new job is always an interesting case study on people and organizations.  And the way we share these experiences is changing.  For example, upon reviewing some of the internal resources at my new employer Critical Mass—I came upon this video of the Chicago office which was already uploaded to YouTube.  The video was produced by a Creative Director here in Chicago.  So now the way we talk about and share events such as our first days on the job has changed, evolved and becomes distributed content. PS, some good things happening here.  Stay tuned—more to come.

5 Things I Learned...

My brief respite in between jobs is just about over.  Here's a few thoughts while my brain is still in "vacation mode".

1. Recreation is what you make it
The photo that goes with this post was taken at Starved Rock state park near Utica IL. It's one of the natural waterfalls that are situated through the numerous sandstone canyons throughout the park. We took the photo on our second trip there (I'm the small black speck near the orange and blue specs over to the left). Our first trip was short lived due to both boys getting really sick. But I learned an important lesson in all this. By choosing a destination only two hours away, we were able to re-visit and pick up where we left off.  If life is in beta, so is recreation. And though we weren't far from Chicago we might as well have been exploring the forests and caverns of South America.  A little imagination and a lot of relaxation can go a long way if you let it. 

2. Live in the moment
Today I dropped what I was doing and had a watergun fight with the boys. They won. Life's too short to hesitate. Live in the moment and take some water on the chin every now and then...

3. Take pictures
We took some pictures and video. We didn't overdo it. But I'm not the most proactive at taking pictures when having fun. Probably because I like "living in the moment". But occasionally you gotta capture those moments. You won't regret it.

4. Savor everything
Sometimes simple meals like Fish-n-Chips and a slab of ribs can be gourmet experiences when the setting and company is right. We had some great meals in good company while overlooking wonderful scenery.

5. Be spontaneous
One of my favorite moments was sharing a motorbike ride with my wife. She usually shuns doing this with me for safety reasons which I totally understand. But one afternoon she surprised me with the idea of hopping on the bike. So we rode off a couple of towns over, dined outdoors and rode back. It was an unexpected treat and one I won't forget.

OK, I think I'm ready for work now.  :)

L+E Links // 5.29.07

Hot For Features
Adaptive Path talks about features, simplexity, and everything in-between:

"Instead of the engineering specs, design and marketing have to work together to figure out what the story of the product is, how all the features fit together into a unified product that can be sold and enjoyed. We don’t need to sell simplicity any more than we should sell complexity. We need to sell–and design–products that are useful, usable, and desirable. And that customers perceive as all those things (that’s where marketing comes in)."

Aesthetic Aspirations
Rothacker Reviews provides some interesting insights around appreciating creativity and design in an environment that might not share the same appreciations:

"There are no human beings that I work with or acquaintances that I have in the physical world who share my love and appreciation for design, the written word in the world of business, the art of communicating messages, the need to move beyond status-quo, hamster-wheel, business as usual, the incredibly vibrant and stimulating work philosophies of younger generations and what they are contributing today and this aching need to move with fluidity in a world not constrained by judgment-by-looks, suits and ivory towers."

How To Succeed in Second Life
Advertising Age sings the praises of Coke's latest effort in Second Life:

"Joseph Jaffe, president-chief interrupter of Crayon, the firm leading Coke into Second Life, said the soda giant has already learned from its predecessors. "Instead of big splash followed by fizzle, we plan to start small and build momentum," he said. "We just decided to join a conversation already in process."

5 Things I've Learned as a Corporate Blogger
Matthew T. Grant over at the Aquent Talent Blog shares some of his findings from authoring a corporate blog:

"1. Just Do It

When I was asked to launch a blog for Aquent, I spent a lot of time hemming and hawing about what exact approach to take. Then, one day I was simply told, "The new website is launching in two weeks and there's going to be a link to the blog on it." I just had to do it. 100+ posts later, I'm still doing it and have not yet been fired (to my knowledge)."

Should Microsoft Sell Avenue A/Razorfish?
Dave Pasternack thinks they should:

"Nothing in Microsoft's history indicates that it wants to be in the position of owning an ad agency. The problem it faces, and it's not a small one, is the conflict of interest that occurs when an agency is both a rep and a seller of media. In the ad world, this is the biggest no-no that exists, and it's one that Microsoft will find it impossible to step around."

"I am highly doubtful that Microsoft will hang onto Avenue A/Razorfish, because of the conflict of interest that is inherent in such a merger. As I've indicated, Microsoft's interest is in controlling access to the tools required to execute next-generation digital advertising, not in the agency business. But it is also possible that Microsoft will take advantage of the fact that it now owns a stable of very talented people to expose them to its new tool set and effectively turn them into Silverlight evangelists. Being able to mobilize such a group to create cutting-edge, cross-platform commercials would create a critical mass for Microsoft's tools, a requisite for market success. Whether Avenue A/Razorfish's staff can be convinced to lay aside their Macs, Photoshop, and Flash and become adept at creating digital masterpieces in Silverlight is a cultural, not an operational issue, but creating this kind of creative vanguard would be very helpful to Microsoft as it attempts to sell the IPTV solution to brand advertisers in the next few years."

In regards to the part about A/Razorfish's staff trading Flash, Photoshop and Macs for Microsoft tools: that could be a very tough sell (yes, it's mostly cultural vs. operational and cultural changes as we all know are the most difficult to pull off).  But that's assuming Microsoft intends to change the culture or tools (maybe they won't--if they don't sell 'em off).

Picture of the Day

On Friday afternoon, I took Max to the local hardware store with me to pick up some gardening supplies.  I could have gone a few extra miles to the Home Depot, but I opted to save a little time despite paying a bit more.  Plus, I just like the feel of our local mom 'n pop store. It's friendly and I don't feel overwhelmed by choice.

On our way out I picked up two small American flags.  One for Max and the other for Mason.  We spent the rest of the afternoon on Friday doing chores and planting in the garden.  I quickly forgot about the flags.

Saturday morning was cool and overcast.  It had rained heavily during the night--severe thunderstorms actually, which I vaguely recall interrupting sleep.  Despite the cool and moist morning air--I engaged in my weekend ritual of stepping outside with a cup of coffee wandering around the yard.  And there on the kid's  playground, in the double swing--were the two little American flags.  One of the boys must have put them there the day before and I never noticed it.  They were probably playing on the swing together with the flags propped that way.

The rest of the story is pretty obvious.  I quickly grabbed my camera and took a shot of it. I'm not exactly sure why.  Something about this image speaks to me and I can't quite put my finger on it.  Maybe it has something to do with the children.  Maybe it's knowing they put the flags there.  Maybe it's the stillness of the playground without them--the hushed silence of the early morning hours.  Maybe it's the drops of rain slowly trickling down the swing.  There is almost a sadness to this image.  I can't figure out why I'm drawn to it.

Regardless, today seems to be a good day to share the photo.  So this post is dedicated to all who have served.  To all who have fallen.  To all of the families.  I didn't plan on writing something about Memorial Day.  But as I always say, life is about planning + improvising. Today--I'm improvising. 

Enjoy the photo--as well as the day.

Spring Cleaning

Being in-between jobs is fun.  In addition to more time with the family, I've been able to make some tweaks to the blog design here.  What's different:

• Consolidated blog search, feed, e-mail, Linked In and Twitter info in left column
• Updated description to include new job info
• Moved recent comments to right column (above fold)
• Added small mugshot (updated Technorati widget)

That's pretty much it.  Out of all the changes, I feel like moving the recent comments to the right in such a prominent area is the most significant.  This way, you'll be able to see who's talking without scrolling down the page.

PS, my HTML knowledge is limited and I noticed that on IE, I'm seeing an "error on page" after everything loads.  All seems well on Firefox, but on IE I can't see the delicious links and get the error message.  Any help here would be appreciated!

Thought of the Day

Good news for Sun-shaped People:

"The majority of those reaching out to embrace this trend have their roots in the UI industry rather than industrial design. While traditional product and graphic design practitioners enter the field with a foundation based on design history, emphasis on form, method and process, those in the UI field come from myriad backgrounds such as software engineering, marketing, and brand strategy. Without a common heritage and education, these designers are more comfortable working with disparate client groups and in interdisciplinary teams."
~Niti Bhan, Seismic Shift: Rethinking the Design Industry

Digital Moleskines

I recently bought a set of thin Moleskines for the new job. Pretty basic stuff--I opted for the grid paper version, ideal for both notes and visuals. But the more I think about it, the more a realize that my mobile phone has become my "digital Moleskine". In addition to e-mail, and all the stuff you can do on a smart phone--I use mine to take notes, snap photos of stuff that interests me and I occasionally blog from it as I am doing this moment. I got caught in the rain on my motorbike and I'm in a Starbucks waiting for it to clear up.

So I'm pretty sure that I'll be using my new set of Moleskines but it just hit me that I've been using my mobile device as the digital version of one (sans the sketching). Can anyone else relate to this or am I just a weirdo?

Afternoon With A Citizen Marketer

Today I had the pleasure of meeting Jackie Huba in person.  Jackie of course is co-author of Citizen Marketers and Creating Customer Evangelists not to mention co-owner of Church of the Customer along with Ben McConnell.  OK, now that I got all the formalities out of the way--here is what you really need to know.  Jackie and I had a really nice, relaxed conversation at a local Starbucks in north Chicago.  Obviously we chatted about our respective blogs, Jackie and Ben's books and our personal experiences in the space, but mostly we just talked about what was going on in our lives.  I even got to see a picture of "Mini", possible the cutest toy poodle pup around (having owned a Boxer in the past, I'm more of a big dog guy--so this is a huge compliment).

But here's the thing.  I've been fortunate enough to meet lots of folks lately at conferences and stuff.  Designers, bloggers, designers who blog, journalists, businesspeople, city representatives etc.  I've been "networking" as they say.  But there is one thing I've discovered through all of this.

There is no substitute for one-on-one conversation.

What do think my biggest take away from our afternoon was?  Did I "pick Jackie's brain"?  Did I find out the secret to writing a successful business book? 

Nah. Not really.

My favorite part of the afternoon was that Jackie and I unplugged for a bit and talked about whatever was on our minds at that moment.  Well, there was a very brief demo of Twitter mobile performed by yours truly--but that was the only time either of us looked at a screen.  Today I found out that Jackie loves her Mini (both car and canine), Ben loves the color Silver (Jackie likes Red) and one thing that we have in common aside from blogs and time spent at interactive agencies is that we're not the most effective self promoters.  But that's where the idea of citizen marketers comes in.  Create something that is worth talking about and you don't have to market yourself. Your community will do it for you.

Well, I'm not telling you anything that you don't already know.  But the nice thing about having your community do your marketing is this: 

When you don't have to market yourself, it frees you up for the things that actually matter more.  Like sitting down and enjoying a cup of iced coffee over some casual conversation in good company.  I'll take that over marketing any day.

L+E Links // 5.23.07

(Image from BusinessWeek, May 2nd 2005)

BusinessWeek Gives Birth to a New Blog
Jessi Hempel and Helen Walters of BusinessWeek have started a new blog dedicated to innovation tools and trends.  Dubbed NEXT, the blog makes it's debut with posts such as Design is Dirty and From Goldman Sachs to Kabul.  This blog is one to watch, not only because of the content--but also because Jessi and Helen have been following blogs themselves for some time and get the concepts of dialogue and community.  They've already been very responsive in the initial comments.  Check it out.

Welcome "Conversation Architects"
The Chicago Sun Times covers SOBCon 07:

"To these believers, a blog exists more as a virtual storefront where small-business owners and independent proprietors can communicate with existing and potential customers in ways otherwise not possible. Frequency of posts, e-mail newsletter-distribution practices and incorporating podcasts and video streams were among the topics at the conference."

When Trains Fly
Advertising Age publisher Scott Donaton has started a blog under the Adage moniker.  Here's part of the story behind the name "When Trains Fly"

"Forty-seven years ago, Theodore Levitt posited in "Marketing Myopia," an essay in the Harvard Business Review, that industries risk obsolescence when they forget what business they're really in, and he chose the railroads to illustrate his point. Train lines didn't stop growing because of competition from airlines, he wrote, but because fat-and-happy railroad tycoons forgot what it was they actually did for a living."

"It's a safe bet that few of today's marketing and media tycoons have read Levitt's essay. But the question of what they do for a living is one with which nearly everyone who earns a paycheck in those businesses has become intimately, if uncomfortably, acquainted. That's especially true as the consequences of the digital-technology boom have begun to be felt where they most hurt: on the bottom line."

Tip of the hat to Jaffe for this one.

Hmmm.  Just thought of something now that I've compiled this list.  They all have something to do with business, blogging and the legitimizing of the medium.  Maybe the words "blog" and "blogging" are still dirty--but the act itself isn't anymore.

Picture of the Day

Here's Max + Mason walking through Starved Rock state park. What you don't see is Max's cast on his fractured right arm. And that very evening Mason developed a raging ear infection. Who needs sleep anyway? So it's back to Chicago. Life = plan + improvise? You bet. :)

L+E Links // 5.21.07

Jakob 2.0 
Jacob Nielsen single-handedly takes on the 2.0 movement saying:
"they should get the basics right first"
(I agree, most sites including 2.0 ones don't get the basics right)
...and goes on to say:
"Most people want to get in and get out"
(I disagree and wonder if Nielsen uses social media Web apps at all)

Read the related BBC article and also take a look at Navigators, Explorers and Engaged Participants. (image below)

London Calling
PSFK is having another conference--this time in London.  Here are the speakers:

Niku Banaie, Naked Communications

Mike Butcher, TBites

Russell Davies, Open Intelligence Agency

Regine Debatty, We Make Money Not Art

Jeremy Ettinghausen, Penguin Books

Karen Fraser, Ethical Index

Santiago Gowland, Unilever

John Grant, BrandTarot

Tamara Giltsoff, OZOlab brand

Jessica Greenwood, Contagious Magazine

Hugh MacLeod, GapingVoid

Beeker Northam, Bloom

Steven Overman, Lowe Worldwide

George Parker, Madscam

Simon Sinek, Sinek Partners

Stan Stalnaker, Hub

Iain Tait, Poke

Diana Verde Nieto, Clownfish

Amelia Torode, VCCP

Timo Veikkola, Nokia

Johnny Vulkan, Anomaly

Faris Yakob, Naked Communications


The Community According to Mack
Mack Collier of the Viral Garden provides a nice community roundup of various marketing bloggers.

Picture of the Day

Chris Anderson speaking at Strategy '07. 
Source: 2007 Conference Blog

Career 2.0

Of all the visuals on this site—this has to be my favorite, simply for the reason that it captures the essence of life.  We can plan—we certainly improvise, but life ends up being somewhere in the middle. 

Today is my last day with Digitas.  I planned on staying here longer than a year and eight months—but as the saying goes, "life happens".  I have an incredible opportunity ahead of me which I have recently accepted from  Critical Mass, an agency based out of Calgary Canada (I will be working out of the Chicago office).  Critical Mass has deep roots in user-centered design and excels at architecting the consumer experience across multiple touch points:

I'm thrilled to be joining Critical Mass who continues to be a leader in the space—earning praise and high marks from organizations such as Forrester.  I'll be joining Critical Mass in a relatively new role (VP, Experience Design) and could not be more pleased with this, as it is a perfect fit for my background and the way I approach the work.  The new position will also allow me to continue developing thought leadership and all of the stuff you've come to expect here.

You've probably got some questions—so I thought it would be best to treat the rest of this post in an FAQ style fashion.  But before I do, let me just say that I've had the rare pleasure to work alongside some of the most talented people at Digitas in all capacities.  Together we've launched several initiatives under tight deadlines and we've delivered innovative solutions through prototyping concepts and pushing the execution of our ideas.  Thank you everyone at Digitas for the experience.  And a special thank you to Executive Creative Director Mark Beeching, who accidentally stumbled upon this blog in the early days and embraced it immediately (I never told Digitas about it—I just launched it) .  Mark, I won't forget your support.  :-)

OK, on to the "FAQ's"

Why am I leaving?
Simply put, Critical Mass presents a unique opportunity to grow in areas that I am truly passionate about (multi-channel consumer experiences).  I've had many discussions with the people there, and we posses a shared vision.  This opportunity is a perfect fit for me.

How will this affect Logic + Emotion?
It shouldn't.  This is still my personal blog, I'll just have a different employer. Theoritically it could get even better as I'll be tapped more often in the thought leadership area.  The topics discussed here will probably be pretty much the same.  Of course posting could get lighter while I adjust to the new role—but we'll see...

When do I start?
I start on May 30th.  And Yes, I'm taking some much needed time off.  A little over a week.  Not a huge amount of time, but it will be enough to slow down, take a breath and bond with the family.  I'll be doing a lot of that.  This move comes at a good time as I've been working at a pretty fast pace between Digitas and this blog.  So I'm looking forward to a break!

Will I become an honorary citizen of Canada?
If Canada will have me.  Over my break, I will be renting large quantities of Hockey DVD's and audiobooks.  I plan to know all about Hockey before I begin on my first day.  If anyone knows about Hockey, please send me an e-mail directing me to some good resources.  ;-)

So as you can tell, I'm very excited and even a bit nervous.  This past year has produced amazing professional (and personal) growth for me.  Thanks for coming along for the ride.  Life—with all of it's planning and improvisation, goes on...

Thought of the Day

"To get more reliability (business approach), you sacrifice validity (design approach). And vice-versa."
— Roger Martin, Dean of the Rotman School of Business, Univerity of Toronto

Source: Strategy '07 conference blog

Live Twittering IIT's Strategy '07

follow Armano at http://twitter.com

Well, if Twitter can get it's act together, I plan pushing out some Twitters at the IIT Institute of Design Strategy conference.  You can check back here to view the feed, or go to my page on the service.  Fingers crossed...

Breaking Up With Advertising

I'm not sure what else to say except get the heck out of your RSS feed and watch this video.  Or for your convenience, you can go here, where there is a blog dedicated to "The Break Up" between traditional advertising and the consumer.  It's also funny as heck.  Please watch, you'll be glad you did.

Interestingly enough, the creator of this video and site works for Microsoft—who incidentally just got a whole lot cooler in my book.  :) 

But wait—there's more.  Apparently this whole thing was inspired by "It's the Conversation Economy Stupid".  Even cooler.  My favorite quote?

"Let's just hug".

Update:  Here's A little more background on the effort behind the video series and blog.

"Together with our ad agency Openhere, I’m currently making a commercial for Microsoft Digital Advertising Solutions. The film is called ‘The Couple’ and makes some statements about the relationship between today’s advertiser and today’s consumer. A quite risky project if you know that the commercial explicitly challenges the advertisers - our clients - to question themselves and the way they communicate with their target groups. In this blog, I will keep you posted about the making of the campaign. I have also given the agency access to this blog, so that they can vent their ideas as well. As should be in this format, there is only one rule: “their are no rules!”

 

Also, by the end of the month, I’ll be able to tell you whether I still work as a Marketing Manager at Microsoft, or whether this project finally turned itself against me"

Creating Compassionate Designers

Originally Posted on September 6th, 2006

As the quality of digital experience improves; the value of creating passionate users is becoming clear to brands wishing to thrive in the "experience economy".  Provide an experience that is useful, usable, desirable, and differentiated and you will create demand for your brand and delight your customers.

But if passionate users (or customers, or consumers) is the "WHAT"—the end result which we aspire to attain, then what about the "HOW" in regards to the role in which design plays in all of this?  And I'm not just talking about visual design here.  As designers of digital experiences, what are we doing to develop compassion toward the users we are designing for?

Ok, if you are going to get defensive while reading this article, now might be the right time.  If you are an Interaction Designer, you probably feel that your whole existence is dedicated to meeting the wants and needs of users.  If you are a Visual Designer, you might feel that you possess heightened sensitivities, which allow you to be more "empathetic" while designing for your audience.

Well, if you feel you are doing all you can to be a compassionate designer, then there is no need to continue reading.  But if you think you can do more—read on.  I have this theory.  My theory is that when we feel that we get really good at something.  When we begin to consider ourselves "experts", that is when we become "at risk" for losing (or de-emphasizing) our compassion for the customer—the people we design for.

Think about it this way.  It happens to Doctors.  The people who swear to uphold Hippocratic oaths.  The same people who sometimes hold the key to life or death.  When a Surgeon gets so good at his or her craft, sometimes compassion takes a back seat to the honorable goal of saving lives.  Sometimes bedside manners become compromised in the process of moving on to the next patient.  It's not intentional or out of malice—it just happens.  All professionals are vulnerable to this.  When we get really good at something, we're tempted to think, "I've done this hundreds of times—I know what I'm doing."

We are tempted to think, "This is my area of expertise".

Usability, Interface Design.  Visual Design.  Motion Design.  Copywriting.  Marketing.  All of the above.  Let's be honest with ourselves.  How many times have we made a design decision that was in the interest of winning an award rather than winning over the customer?  Or how many times have we included a deliverable because it validated our role as opposed to validating the life of a consumer?

We've all done it. Oh, you haven't?  Liar.

What exactly does it mean to be a compassionate designer?  It means doing things that help us not only understand, but relate to the users we design for.  To feel for them.  To put ourselves in their shoes, even if our own lives are totally opposite from them.  Sound simple?  It is. You just have to do it.

Here are some practical ways we can develop compassion for our users:

1. Get out of the office
Put down that design magazine and boxes+arrows article.  Go out into the real world.  Watch.  Listen.  Observe.

2. Talk to someone
Talk to the people you are designing for.  Chances are you won’t be able to relate to them at first.  When you get to this point—then you know you’re doing something right.

3. Eat, sleep, dream curiosity
Be curious.  Be very curious.  Don’t know how? Find yourself a five-year-old, and hang out with them for a while.  Then ask the same questions they do.

4. Do what they do
Are you designing for stay-at-home moms?  Take the day off and go to a park.  Hover around schools during drop off time.  Walk a mile in their shoes.  Better yet, just walk with them.

Strategy '07 Conference Blog

I didn't think that this year's Strategy conference was going to have a blog—but I was thrilled to see that John Maeda of the MIT media lab has stepped up to create one:

"Blogs are odd resources that sprout up around conferences. They usually take a back seat to the main activities, but they can sometimes provide a good place for more conversation.

In order to get this blog going, we have surveyed the illustrious list of speakers  -- and a variety of other favorite creative leaders -- on a simple question: "What role does creativity play in design strategy?"

We present our findings here in this space, and hope that we might all think together about these 3 words: creativity, design, strategy.

— John Maeda + Becky Bermont (MIT Media Lab)"

Let the conversation begin.  Oh, and speaking of conversation—I recently found out that Helen Walters from BusinessWeek will be there.  Helen did the editing for my BW article titled "It's The Conversation Economy Stupid".  Looking forward to meeting Helen and hopefully connecting with some L+E readers as well (I know you're out there...).  :-)

Also, see IIT's Institute of Design's blog called D log—it's chock full of visuals.

IIT Institute of Design Strategy Conference

Thursday and Friday of this week, I'll be gearing up for the IIT Institute of Design Strategy Conference.  I've never missed an ID Strategy conference and this year I'm really looking forward to it as one of the headliners is Chris Anderson of The Long Tail fame (whom I have yet to see speak).

Here is the entire lineup:

Chris Anderson
Editor-in-Chief, Wired Magazine; author, The Long Tail

Charles Cascio
VP, Interactive Learning Strategic Business Unit, ETS

Connie Duckworth
President and Chairman, Arzu, Inc.

Dale Fahnstrom
Professor, IIT Institute of Design

Josephine Green
Senior Director of Trends and Strategy, Philips Design

Jim Hackett
CEO and President, Steelcase Inc.

Matthew Holloway
Vice President, Design Services Team, SAP

Bumshik Hong
Vice President, Innovation & New Business Development, SK Telecom

Larry Keeley
President, Doblin Inc.

William Kramer
Deputy Director of Dvpt. through Enterprise and Senior Fellow, WRI

David Lawrence
Sr Mgr, Bicycle Product Development & Marketing, Shimano America

Roger Martin
Dean, Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto

Christopher Meyer
CEO, Monitor Networks

Hasso Plattner
Co-founder, SAP

Denis Weil
VP, Innovation and Concept Development, McDonald's Corp

Connie Yowell
Director for Digital Media, Learning & Education, MacArthur Foundation

Check out some of the footage I took from the conference back in 2005 (includes Bruce Nussbaum).  The video is poor quality—but the content is solid.  I'm be looking forward to the end of the week.  And I'll be Twittering from the event so if you are interested, you can follow here.

If you are going, look me up and we'll have a chat.

Blogs Are Free Samples of Your Brand

The headline of this post is borrowed from my good friend Mike Wagner who I felt captured the significance of the business blogging event also known as SOBCon 07.  Here's the presentation I gave which can be downloaded from Slideshare.  As mentioned in a previous entry—I stressed that blogging is a commodity.  Anyone can do it.  There are over 75 million blogs out there—that's a lot of noise.  But I went farther in my presentation.  I said this:

Stop calling yourself a blogger.

Why did I say this?  Well, here are the notes I wrote for that particular slide:

"Blogging is a commodity.  Anyone can do it.  We are human beings with passions and interests that come out in our blogs—not the other way around.  Stop calling yourself a blogger.  You are a… (designer, businessperson, marketer, artist, baker, mother, grandfather, etc).  Calling ourselves bloggers takes away from what makes us unique."

After I made the statement I clarified my intent to the audience.  I said something along the lines of "we don't need to abolish the word blogger from our vocabulary—especially in meetings like this, but we should be careful how we refer to ourselves to the outside world".  I was calling for a shift in mindset more than anything else—my theory is that focusing on the passion more so than the medium will lead to a better personal brand.

What it all boils down to is this: 
Being a blogger doesn't make us unique.  Our individual talents, passions and personality does.  This is the stuff brands are built from—and blogs, despite all of the baggage that comes along with the word is an extension of our brands, whether it be personal or business.  My presentation was at the core about building a unique brand enabled by personal publishing on the Web, and then delivering a great experience.  As we discusses at the event—many folks who come across our blogs may not even know that it's a blog they are reading—what they are interested is in value.

Here's another set of notes from my deck:

"Our passions should drive what we do—what we write about.  Find your passion and you will find your voice.   ...Make your message an experience.  Curate conversations.  Facilitate relationships.  This will lead to affinity and passionate communities."

You get the point.  Anyway, it was a really great day for me.  I finally met some good folks that I've been in touch with over the past few months.  In addition to Mike Wagner, I got to meet (and spend time with) Drew McLellen as well as Mike Sansone, Director Tom, Liz Strauss and a whole lot more.  It was an energetic mix of business and relationships (and laptops)  ;)


photo credit

Additionally, Jason Alba has pulled off some of the best note taking I have ever seen and posted them over on his site.  You can view the notes as organized by speaker:

• Blog Critiques: What’s a Successful-Blog?  
• Wendy Piersall, eMoms at Home, Blog Coach  
• Tools Panel: Chris Cree (moderator) with MyBlogLog, Evoca, TheGoodBlogs  
• Drew McLellan, Mike Sansone, Mike Wagner - The Iowa Way  
• Andy Sernovitz - Word of Mouth guru 
• Rodney Rumford - VideoSticky 
• David Armano - Conversation by Design 
• Liz Strauss: Successful and Outstanding Blogs 
• Phil Gerbyshak: 10 Ways To Make It Great 
• Non-virtual open mike (mic) night

In summary, SOBCon07 went well past the free sample.  We got to taste the real thing—live and in person.  My favorite part?  Dinner and drinks after the whirlwind of activities.  It was terrific to unwind in good company—and proof that business, brands and community do indeed go hand-in-hand.

Persona Ecosystems

(click for larger image)

Leisa over at Disambiguity says "Yes, you should be using personas".  I agree.  And I would take it one step further.  In addition to using personas, shouldn't we take a step back and visualize the "persona ecosystem"?  Personas are an effective way to look at users/consumers/customers in a way that goes deeper than marketing demographics.  In fact, a persona that is done right shouldn't look much like a marketing segment at all (though it can still contain basic demographic info such as age etc.)

Here's a basic description from Wikipedia:

"Personas or personae are fictitious characters that are created to represent the different user types within a targeted demographic that might use a site or product. Personas are given characteristics and are assumed to be in particular environments based on known users’ requirements so that these elements can be taken into consideration when creating scenarios for conceptualizing a site. Cooper (1999) outlined the general characteristics and uses of personas for product design and development.

In the context of software requirements gathering, a user persona is a representation of a real audience group. A persona description includes a user’s context, goals, pain points, and major questions that need answers. Personas are a common tool in Interaction Design (IxD)"

Personas often combine narratives and sometimes scenarios that often go into great detail to paint a plausible profile which looks at a person's motivations, goals, mindset, wants, needs, desires etc.  And often times, personas are often cross-channel—taking a holistic look at the entire consumer experience.

What I've been toying with is the idea of showing the persona ecosystem in a simplistic and visual format (shown above).  This artifact would not replace a persona—on the contrary it should co-exist with one.  Where a persona can go deep, a persona ecosystem can go broad showing what is influencing the individual's behavior as well as what channels and touch points they may use.

Tip of the hat to Julie Fleischer who helped inspire the "Planner-In-Chief" shown in this particular example.  Happy to say that Julie is now working with Digitas Chicago.

Thought of the Day

"We have to recognize that the practice of experience design is miscellaneous.

Unfortunately, standard thought around design work is rooted in a typical, and, I would argue, retrograde, notion of what a practice and/or discipline is. Most organizations are stuck in classic mid-19th to 20th century thinking, borne of a manufacturing economy, where optimization arose when people were as interchangeable as the parts of the machines they built.

21st century work is going to have to be much more synthetic, mixed-up, and uncertain, largely because of the forces that Weinberger points to in his book.

I think it’s a key reason why experience designers have had such a hard time defining their work. It escapes definition.

And you know what, that’s a good sign."

~Peter Merholz

25 Women to Watch

A friend tipped me off that Crains Chicago Business recently featured Chicago's "25 Women to Watch".  Check it out, there are some great stories.  I'd like to highlight one in particular—Julie Roth Novack.  I worked with Julie for several years at i-shop agency.com.  Simply put—she's one of the hardest working people I've ever met.  And she's a great businesswoman.

Each of the featured women in the piece answers the question "What is the greatest challenge for working women today?" Lots of good insights here if you have some time to spare—the answers are as diverse as the individuals.

If you have less time to spare, you can view a multimedia slideshow here.

What do you think?  What is the greatest challenge for working women today?

Conversation by Design

SOBCon '07 is this Saturday!  I'm putting the finishing touches on my presentation.  Here's what you can expect.  I talk a bit about the need for blogs to be unique—to take on the attributes of desirable brands.  Since the audience is almost exclusively composed of individuals who actively blog, I focus on the WHAT and WHY.  Specifically, what worked for me and why.  I go into the 4 C's of blogging in detail and provide some personal examples.  I also talk about using design to create not just a blog—but an engaging blog experience that is as unique as you are.

If there is a theme in my presentation it's this: 

Anyone can blog.  Anyone can call themselves a blogger.  Blogging is a commodity.  Heck, there are how many millions of blogs out there?  But how many get noticed?  How many are fortunate enough to have passionate communities which sprout around them?  How many make an impact?

I guess I could have done lots of theoretical research to support my POV, but in the end—I'm choosing to talk about what I know best.  And since I've had a lot of good fortune enabled through personal publishing—it's seems only right that I share what I know.

Hope to see you there—it should be fun.

Technorati + Authority

Technorati has updated the way they display blog ranking by swapping "authority" in place of sites linking back to your blog.

Also looks like some of the numbers are changing as well—they must be tweaking their measurement methods.  Here's the issue on the table.  I don't think this is newbie friendly.  For someone who is trying to figure out the world of Technorati and what perceived influence translates to— the words authority and rank numbers don't really mean anything.

I'm not sure if this is a good user experience—especially for first time users.  There is an opportunity to simplify and clarify here.  The number of sites linking back is a concrete idea in the context of "easy to understand".  Ranking numbers and concepts like authority are more abstract ideas.  The same rules apply to Technorati as they do for any brand—provide a good experience, don't make your users work so hard to get what they want/need and desire.  Speak in their language, not yours.

I started looking at Technorati just over a year ago—so it's still somewhat fresh in my memory.  I still remember the concepts of sites linking back being one of the few measurements I could initially wrap my head around.  If today were my first day visiting the site, I would be mystified.  Not a great first impression for any brand.  Even a 2.0 one.

Of course, I could be wrong.  Anyone else have thoughts on this?

Tip of the hat to Ben Yoskovitz for the heads up.

Visual Library

Doing a little housekeeping and I've updated my visuals in a single slideshow.  Every 4 months or so, I'll update the slideshow and re-post here.  Gotta love slideshare.

MicroHoo!

Update:
Charlene Li of Forrester provides an analysys.

Yup.  Microsoft is currently in merger talks with Yahoo! as I write this.  So we could potentially have MicroHoo! and my guess is that Google is watching this closely.  This is a bit out of my territory so I really don't have a POV on this other than to offer the following observation: 

I recently watched an interview with Lee Iacocca who was discussing his new book "Where Have All the Leaders Gone?"  In the interview Iacocca says that his biggest regret was putting a successor in place who would then architect the Daimler-Chrysler merger.  I'm not a businessman, so I don't know if this merger was a good business move or not, but I do find it interesting that as Iacocca examines his legacy—he offers this up as possibly his biggest regret in life.

Well, I guess we'll have to see where this all goes.

Blogger Choice Awards

Update:
Now at 23.  Isn't that Michael Jordan's number?   

Update:
Now at 17.   I can still remember when I was 17.  Sort of.  OK, not really.

Update:
Well, we've gone from 0 to 9 votes.  Not bad.  Seth is at 46.  Doh!  :)

Sara Cantor of The Curious Shopper recently gave me a heads up that she nominated me for a Blogger's Choice Award.  But look how lonely this little guy looks here—with no votes and all.  Don't you feel bad for him/her/it?  I mean, it's bad enough that he/she/it has no facial features or fingers, but no votes?  Please don't let this travesty of justice continue.  You can make a difference.  For less than the price of a cup of coffee a day. 

Vote here.  :)

Blog of the Day: Innovation Ecosystem

According to Technorati, Blogs aren't growing at the blistering rate previously anticipated.  So what?  As long as there are quality blogs out there spreading insight and knowledge—that's all that matters.  And that's what Innovation Ecosystem is all about.  Part innovation thought leader, part strategist and part planner, Julie Fleischer  serves up bite sized nuggets of brainfood covering the gamut of topics from marketing to design to innovation and business.   She also has some great observations on everyday life.

Julie recently wrote about her contribution to "The Age of Conversation" e-book.  It's called Visualizing the Threads.  I was actually fortunate enough to see an early draft.  It's great stuff.  Here is a preview:

"In the beginning, advertising was a conversation. In the early 1920’s, manufacturers created characters to humanize their brands. Betty Crocker was a fictionalization, invented so that women could relate to and interact with the brand. Her radio show was the highest rated in the land. Betty spoke to consumers and they spoke to her. They asked questions, she answered them. Together, these threads invented the brand."

Innovation Ecosystem's archives are worth perusing—with goodies in pretty much every nook of the blog.  So check it out.  On a related note, Innovation Ecosystem joins The Curious Shopper and Design Thinking Digest as yet another Chicago based blog featured here.  Proof that not all the action happens on the coasts.  :)