Just thought I’d share some thoughts on how the eBook “Hang On” is doing after its recent launch. I’m conscious that lots of people are thinking about a doing a similar thing as part of their freemium model. Claire Marshall at www.RokkInternet.com suggested I do this at the launch. A promise I made and am about to keep.

I’ll not go into the too much detail, I’ll just point out a few facts that may help those of you thinking about making the commitment. I’m going to be honest, would I be anything else! During the production phase, think about these aspects:

1. Budget for it through opportunity cost. What ever time you think its going to take, double it. It cost my company £12k to write this eBook!
2. Do the research and always add your bibliography. Little tip, as you read stuff, write it down then, don’t spend two days at the end immersed in your bookshelf! Even Seth Godin’s started to include one!
3. Prepare for ‘bugger factors.” They always happen. I’d just started the book was on a very creative roll and my Grandmother passed away. Two weeks side tracked by more important things!
4. Get it designed properly by someone who knows how to do something that can be read on mobile, tablets and can be easily converted into an Apple app if so required.
5. Involve people. I’m not saying by reading the content. I personally prefer just to write it and then get the feedback once its done. But ask people to participate in the debate. I crowdsourced the words but would have liked to bring in Linkedin discussions etc if I had had time. Or made it part of my company’s ThinkLAB’s.
6. Its bloomin’ obvious but get it professionally proof read and get a creative comms license.

The aftermath has been fabulous. The launch party ridiculously successful. People networked, connected and have done new business. Perhaps it was the wine, perhaps just the atmosphere in the room, but everyone has fed back what a great evening it was. Many said they had made new friends! More specifically, there have been some fascinating insights:

1. It may be the design but most people are consuming it slowly. One reader said “Its not a McDonald’s , you don’t consume it in one sitting in 15 minutes. It’s more like a seven course evening dinner you spend hours on whilst washing down a particularly good merlot.” Fabulous. Main reason from several readers; apparently the content and the need to digest each ‘word’ as it’s so thought provoking. Thank you thats very kind.
2. No one is printing it. Just my intention!
3. I’ve been surprised by the number of people reading it on their mobiles and, in the last few weeks, the iPad. This perhaps indicates a trend for future eBooks.
4. There have been over 1000 downloads so far. We haven’t even rolled out the full marketing campaign for it so far. Just a launch party (highly recommended) and a little PR.
5. Since the launch, my Twitter account has gone haywire with the increase in the number of followers.

You don’t need to push me too much for me to say it was worth it and as any high end designer will tell you, your main piece of work, sometimes isn’t commercial. I’ve loved the process and learnt so much about myself. It is still early days yet, and I’ll give you a further update in six months! It’s not perfect but then thats just subjective anyway. What it is though, is it’s mine and you haven’t seen anything yet!!

Word provided by Scott Gould – www.scottgould.me

If you help, what I contribute will be better. Value, in the future for a lot of people, will be whether and how they participate in the businesses we run. They will be particularly motivated by group effort. Participation has almost become risk free because the cost of failure has dropped so we can mass innovate. The tools are there and the hierarchy removed to allow us to all to really take part.

Humans have always had a desire to make meaningful contributions. We lost that. Businesses deliberately organised themselves to control the participating. However, the case studies of Wikipedia and Linux have altered how close the horizon is. Participation is changing the way companies use resources and it’s bridged the gap between the amateur and professional. Amateurs are collecting data on behalf of wildlife trusts, we can transmit news items to the media, and astronomers are listening for other life forms for governments.

The passive consumer is evaporating. We want to participate in the generation of new products and services. We no longer want to just wait for it down the line to be delivered. Charles Leadbeater talks about “mass production to mass innovation.” He has missed a process or two out of the equation. It’s more like this:

Mass production – Mass participation – Mass collaboration – Mass innovation

It’s just a thought. As companies we have misunderstood that it’s the non-financial, intrinsic factors that motivate people like participation more than the financial ones. We are always talking about the difficulties of getting customers and employees to understand what we do and the advantages of our product. Perhaps we should take a leaf out of Benjamin Franklin’s thoughts “Tell me and I’ll forget, show me and I might remember, involve me and I will understand.” Powerful stuff. Maybe participation gets rid of that communication problem we have been having?

We have no excuses anymore. All business can allow its customers and employees to participate. I’m not talking about amateurs doing brain surgery, not a great idea, I agree. But I am talking about using the social tools we have now to enable the impossible to be achieved. If we involve people in the process, they take ownership. From that they will easily become part of our community, which is where we need them to be in the future.

Now thats interesting and if the questions are changing perhaps the answers must too! Last evening I attended the www.media140.com event in Bristol, hosted in the salubrious setting of Goldbrick House. A superb, fascinating venue that upstairs resembled a gentleman’s club, only it allowed women in too!

As my fellow countyman (thats Yorkshire Trey) Alan Bennett once said “”Life is rather like a tin of sardines – we’re all of us looking for the key.” Well we felt a little like sardines but there were some moments of inspiration that may just provide the key! The line up was exceptional to say the least Gemma Went, Trey Pennington, Paul Squires and Gabrielle Laine Peters. All providing insights and foresights. The key moments of conversation;

1. “Conversation created the brand.” Ande Gregson on how Media140 has been successful.
2. “Something that engages you, is engrossing.” Gabrielle Laine Peters.
3. “This is a time of opportunity for small business.” Trey Pennington.
4. “Think about what you can’t achieve with social media.” Gemma Went.

There was lots more. I’ve been to many events like this and, indeed I’ve also spoken at them and I feel the Q & A sessions are shifting. They are getting down to grass roots. Simple questions are sometimes difficult to answer. But there is a drilling down to ROI and rewards. I think we are being too fluffy with the answers. Sorry to be so bold!

Rob Glover chaperoned me for the road trip up to Bristol, accompanied by the album Sunday 8pm by Faithless (for those of you who kept asking.) We talked a lot all day about the detail and the movement towards what I have called social business. Rob’s analogy of farming just summed it up in terms of the present. Nice one Rob! My take on his discussion point is set out below.

Social media is like agriculture. Its preparing the land for an abundant crop. That magnificant harvest does not happen overnight. It means tilling the land, creating a fertile soil. Cultivating it, caring for it, timing it and doing the right things at the right time. So that when you start to plan, promote, engage, participate and co-create you will reap what you sow. People are expecting immediate results from social media, a typical business desire for insatiable vast return now. It just doesn’t happen like that.

Chris Anderson in his book “The Long Tail” hits this right on the nose with a big thump. We see the big hits in the media like Jon Morter and his Rage Against The Machine project and expect the same followers and fans like that. In real life, the hits are rare and most of us succeed, like good farmers, by putting the hours in, caring for our product, preparing, being determined and being patient. We expect so much so quickly from social media, yet we don’t expect the quick results from traditional marketing. Where is the rationality in that?

We need to stop panicking, understand social media is not the only solution but part of it and start using it to cultivate our eventual results that will produce that exceptional harvest next year. Oh and don’t forget crop rotation in this scenario too!

At the end of this thought provoking evening, Trey said “platforms will come and go but the conversations will carry on.” I was going to ask a question but time ran out. Here it is; “How does genuine conversation flourish?” Answers on a postcard…oops sorry….in the comment box below!!!

Word supplied by Andrew Farmer – www.myoxygen.co.uk

Thankfully and not before time we have new networks, they’re the vibrant ones, they’re the life changing ones. Lets be honest if we are going to spend our precious time in one, they had better be full of intellectual, artistic, radical, maverick, engaging people! Encouraging debates around “what’s new?” not “What I have to sell?”

Open minded, open sourced minds that upturn the conventional, unlock what seems difficult and create a level playing field. The ‘grey suit’ networks, if they aren’t dead yet, soon will be. These myopic, ego driven, inert, mundane environments of the past can no longer survive. A huge disappointment to those professional service firms that used them as a reason to not go home.

Most networks are average. Survival will require a great shift to raising the game. And we wonder why social networking has taken off? It’s led to the abandonment of those traditional congregations, simply because the culture, the atmosphere was as stifling as being in a lift with your worst nightmare for 24 hours.

The new networks, and they do meet face to face are the ones to join. The ones that use imagination, let us connect, enable us to influence its evolvement, allow collaboration, shares new ideas and help us work across disciplines. They even expand our minds and, of course, they do lead to real business too. Before anyone says it, most of the physical ones do not!

Next time anyone walks into a room full of people speed networking (what the hell is that about?) and it’s not full of buzz and you can’t feel the excitement in the room, turn around and get out of there. Join me at the bar, that’s where I’ll be sitting! I just got there before you!

The second word from the forthcoming eBook “Hang On.”

It’s about taking the conversation beyond price. Conversation is no longer a distraction at work, it is central to its existence and a leader’s job now is to start those conversations and invite people to take part. Conversation initiates new rules, new ways of engaging. They spring up everywhere. We can’t stop someone from being part of the conversation. Our people are talking to customers, our customers are talking to US and most importantly, our customers SHOULD be talking to each other. We can’t beat them so we’ had better find a way of joining them.

David Weinberger in the book ‘The Cluetrain Manifesto’ states “We treasure our conversations most of all because they are ours, the way marketing speak never was.” The conversations we are having right now are so important. They can spread ideas, solve problems, gain agreement, build trust, remove barriers, encourage laughter and promote enjoyment. In the future, the conversations people are having in and around companies will be the essence of success. That means allowing it, encouraging it and facilitating it.

Most managers are terrible at conversation, they are too busy directing, making decisions, controlling budgets and keeping order. If you have ever walked onto the proverbial shop floor and killed the conversation you know what I mean!

Conversations are intimate, they are free, and they are open. They flourish when there is trust and a common commitment. Conversation is equal, it’s diverse, it generates the unexpected, and it’s participative and informal. They are actually quite liberating whilst at the same time conversation gives people a voice.

Conversations though do take control and power away from us control freaks and puts it right back where it precisely belongs with our customers, our community and our people. Charlene Li succinctly puts it this way “Campaigns begin and end, but conversations go on forever.” It’s interesting to sit down for a few moments and reflect on what conversations we are having right now……

The first Word from ‘Hang On’ the new eBook provided by Phil Rees @ www.defacethis.com

Being distinctive defines us. Distinctive is about people (there is that word again) having a distinct idea of us in their mind. For a lot of companies, it’s easier to remain indistinctive than to become distinctive! Our product, even service is probably not as distinctive as it used to be. It’s possible its competitive edge has been backed into a corner by the plethora of new products in the market place, or, the bad ones just caught up.

Tom Peters said years ago “Ask yourself what on your turf (local and global), is clearly unusual about the services you offer.” For me, if we can’t answer that in five bullet points, we’ve lost the right to be a great business. Look at the worst bit of your sector, even your closest competitors and change the customer experience; it at least gives you a stab at the five points of distinction.

We need to almost forget about our product. It’s great isn’t it? Cheaper certainly is distinctive but how is being mediocre? Being distinctive now is about how we use design to differentiate, by building a community from our clients, being recognized for meaningful work, the passion we inspire in people, how we engage and build relationships. Get used to it. Don’t get me wrong it is about developing a sense of currency and curiosity in parallel, however, the biggest barrier to us identifying what makes us distinctive is internal not external.

Little question; is your business more like a circus or the waiting room at your doctors? We really can’t afford to be ignored by the masses and silent to the few. Don’t be known for everything but something! Distinguish by identifying your tangibility.

Just thought we’d let you know that there are going to be a few changes on the site in the next few weeks. We have a new brand identity for the company which needs incorporating into the site and we’ve decided on a few design changes so its easier to read and you can download the new book “Hang On” which is due for release soon.

Its an interim change as we plan to conduct a major overhaul in the Autumn. Enjoy!

There is an abundance of information on the web about social media that could take a lifetime to read and be all consuming. For some of us it is! However, there is a scarcity at the moment to how to weave this into an integrated marketing campaign.

Some would have us believe that its the only way forward and its the only thing you need to reach new and existing customers. Thats far too one dimensional and we’ll all fall into the trap of traditional marketing if we take that road.

As Olivier Blanchard said at www.wearelikeminds.com in February “Your business doesn’t plug into social media, social media plugs into your business.” He is right. It’s not an attachment, neither is it the only solution. We must not miss the opportunity to really get to the route cause of why we embark on social media campaigns. We can’t also ignore that its just as important to be gregarious offline as well as online.

Before embarking on any social media activity, we all need to go back to the beginning and think about how it is going to fundamentally change, for the better, the relationships we have with customers and employees. The fact is that social media is creating new vulnerabilities and opportunities for business. That can’t be ignored. There are some big questions to ask before setting a blog up such as; how will social media define what is being delivered to the customer.

We have to remember that, even now, most of our customers and users of social media read content but don’t necessarily post it. What that means, for now, is that social media is in a state of mass consumption, not mass creation. We have a long way to go to create meaningful experiences and that, in essence, is our first task!

Just a thought provoker and I’m interested in your thoughts. If you give away stuff for free, at some point, you need to see that go beyond an increase in followers or traffic to your website/blog and turn into at least some currency, don’t you?

Whether you are posting images to flickr, publishing an eBook or participating in a collaborative software development project, you have to get past the potential position of feeling a little downbeat or worse exploited.

This culture of generosity and reciprocation built the web. The notion of sharing and obliging in participation like the Wikipedia case study is at the heart of the web’s recent success. But its also evolving. We need to see that return and perhaps thats where social media is heading. We can’t watch the founders of flickr and other organisations all profit quite nicely from something built by essentially a set of volunteers or by us spending time with someone who never returns a favour. The stakeholders need rewarding too.

If you build a community around your brand who regularly participate in developing innovative ways of doing business, that your company benefits from for free, you need to reward. The winning companies of the future will be those that build incentive frameworks around innovation that adequately ‘pay back’ those contributors whether its financial or non-financial.

Some are doing it already, Ebay, Microsoft and Amazon. But we need to develop this further and get past the less imaginative prizes and competitions structure. Royalty payments, recognition or a bit of free stuff back will be the successful models of the future.

Creating and leading a community is all very well, encouraging people to collaborate on a level playing field exciting, finding an infrastructure that supports innovation and rewards time and effort another thing. Free isn’t free at all, it comes with expectations, time lines and limitations too.

Social media so called because of how it connects people and allows people to share information and ideas. But actually, social media is more fundamental than that. Its social because its helping shape the cultures of the future, its enabling engagement and its aiding collaboration on unprecedented levels.

It’s effect on the continuum of change ranges from the sublime to the ridiculous. In the future, it will assist in the overthrow of governments, research and development activity that creates amazing products and currently, its helping me meet someone in my home city I have never met before.

To critiscise it is natural, to ignore it is futile but it will, itself need to change too. There will come a point, perhaps a Malcolm Gladwell tipping point, where social media must turn into social business on a more larger scale. There are case studies. Dell reckons its generated $3 million just via Twitter. Gavin Sheppard at www.devonshiretea.com recently said to me that its the best marketing decision he ever made joining Twitter because its bringing results.

It’s truly fab connecting with people, its amazing sharing ideas but its hard work, even daunting sometimes. Social media maybe a more effective way of marketing and removed some cash spend but it adds huge pressure to your time. At some point, even us fans, followers and early adopters are going to have to turn those connections into some kind of business. And that’s where we have to claw back the control, take a hold of social media/business, grab it by the horns and decide how we are going to make it work. That’s our role social media/business can’t do it for us, its really a question of time management and influencing your followers.

At the moment it gives us connections, reach and spreadability, in the future we need to start turning that into long term relationships, robust communities and cash.