Content Mapping the Buyer Experience

I recently presented on 'Content Mapping the Buyer Experience' at the 2011 Canadian Marketing Association's (cma.org) B2B Summit in Toronto. Gotta say, it was an impressive (oversold) event. The combination of a good agenda, great people and interesting content made for time well spent.

I'm an advocate of supporting the 'Buyer Experience' which goes beyond the traditional buying cycle. How so?
1. The Buyer Experience includes various stakeholders, such as influencers, partners, end users, procurement, executive sponsors, etc - all those involved in a purchase decision - and looks at their motivations and involvement along the buying stages.
2. I include the loyalty cycle after the deal closes as part of the Buyer Experience. This is a discipline that is often managed separately under a 'customer experience' or 'customer satisfaction' label. While this is all well and good, I prefer to include it with the Buyer Experience because customers are potential repeat buyers. Having a holistic view of your buyers - even after they become a customer - provides a better view into patterns, people and purchase characteristics.
3.The Buyer Experience also includes all the pre-buying cycle activities that are done before the vendor is ever contacted or even knows there's an opportunity in play. With the evolution of social media, word of mouth, and user generated content, the Buyer is exposed to a wealth of information - an incredibly powerful and influential force,  that impact the buyer's perspective, perception and purchase decision criteria. If vendors aren't including this in their content marketing strategy, it's a missed opportunity.

While I could have spent all day on the topic, here's what I covered in the thirty minute session. Enjoy.

Content Map the Buyer Experience-CMA B2B Event

View more presentations from Corinne Schmid

Interview: Gamification & Content Strategy

Interview conducted at the EU Content Strategy Forum 2011 on Gamification and Content Strategy. 

Do I really sound like that??!

Enterprise Gamification: Legit or Leap of Faith?

I'll be honest, this one was a beast.

Aside from verifying all the sources and data - developing a narrative from a frog's POV (which I must thank designer Julien Tremeur) was an interesting experience. 

I'm fascinated on how the topic of Gamification is controversial. I've seen how it ignites strong reactions and opinions - positive and negative, with few between. The only times I've received Tweet-beats (the affectionate term I used for being flamed via Twitter), has been related to my editorial or posts on gamification.

Regardless of where you stand, I'm interested in your feedback... even if that means you're compelled to tweet-beat me. :-) 

Enjoy.

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Here's the follow up to my EU Content Strategy Forum 2011 presentation - I refer to it as the 'long deck'. The CSForum deck is what I presented live. This iteration provides the details, background and data which I referenced in the "Gamification and Content Strategy" presentation.

Enterprise Gamification by itzCorinne

View more presentations from Corinne Schmid; namely EU Content Strategy Forum 2011 - Sept.6th. Conference presentation.

INFOGRAPHIC: where did Content Strategists come from?

Very cool info graphic on Content Strategists from Richard Ingram. EMBED

Woe is me: 0% "Interestingness" according to my Twitter Infographic.

Here's a first: I'm 0% Interesting according to my Twitter infographic by Visual.ly.
That explains my "Strongest Connections": my long term super boring BFF Britney Spears and buddy Barack Obama.
Yep, totally boring. I'll need to work on that.

Gobbledygook: I say potatoe, your content says Best-of-Breed Complex Carb

Is Your Content the Victim of Gobbledygook?

I’ll never forget when my CMO told me to use my “weekend voice” as we reviewed messaging for an upcoming product launch. My response that I had considered my Small town Redneck mouth wasn’t nearly as funny to him as it was to me, so I quickly added that I would incorporate my ‘weekend voice’.

 In Search of the Messaging Silver Bullet

Messaging and positioning isn't easy to do well. It's expected to be compelling, differentiated and unique. Well, in truth - these elements don't magically combine in our minds and then effortlessly roll off our tongue. Like watching the gold medal Olympic gymnast land a back flip and split jump on the balance beam  –  landing gold medal messaging is the result of hard work that requires practice, hard work and balance of several elements: 

• Market trends
• Competitive Forces
• Industry and Economic factors, including macro and micro economic elements and even government legislation
• Business Goals
• Buyer Motivations and Points of Pain
• Product / Service capabilities       

Especially for technology marketers, messaging is often a translation function that takes the product input points, like tech specs, and translates them into something everyone else can understand and want. The example I frequently use, if a developer were to promote a Sushi restaurant, the positioning statement may read, “We Sell Cold Dead Fish” 

 Sure, this is factually correct; it’s just not appetizing. On the flip side, the Onion demonstrates “step too far”

So how do you develop messaging that can create compelling content?

1. Do your homework.

Yep, that's right. Homework. Most people instantly jump to SWOT analysis. Here it comes - I do not like SWOT analysis because I've rarely seen it done well. Too frequently the analysis element is missing and it’s a laundry list of facts, claims and statements that do not provide meaningful information. I also find it too ambiguous that doesn’t provide structure for the analysis. However, if it is the outcome of a PEST or PESTEL evaluation, it can provide meaningful analysis. I always start with PEST/PESTEL.

It's probably obvious, I’m a big fan of Porter’s Value Chain and methodologies. Why? Because it works. 

For generating compelling messaging, I find that using Porter’s 5-Forces and PEST analysis is a good way to start to identify the factors noted above that establish the basis for messaging based on industry, market, buyer and economic factors.

 You can read the description for PESTLE here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PEST_analysis  Succinctly PESTLE provides structure around influential factors related to

• Political
• Economic
• Social
• Technological
• Environmental
• Legal

2. Know Your Buyer

From here, an understanding of the buyers and motivations can identify the points of pain, business issues and related factors that will guide the overall message development. Knowing where your solution impacts the buyer's business process to provide value is essential.

 3. Write It Up

There is absolutely an element of trial-and-error in writing messaging. A good way to test the message is to review with existing customers and ask my two favorite questions:

           So What?   Who Cares? 

If the message does not clearly answer these two questions, then I'd recommend taking a closer lok at step 1 and 2. 

4. Test the Message

The old adage holds true, “would your grandmother understand?” That's great if she does but I strongly recommend putting those analyst dollars to use. Reach out to the key analyst groups you work with and have them review and comment. In this process, understand when and why they would short list your offering and when they wouldn't. In my experience, they’ve provided actionable feedback and helped steer positioning towards areas of strengths and real differentiation. Speaking of differentiation, always check competitive websites to ensure you’re not ‘me-too’.

5. Evaluate the Voice and Language

So now you have some candidates. While the message may be on point, the choice of language, voice and words are also significant. This is where David Scott Meerman can help with his Gobbledygook Grader.

According to Wikipedia , Gobbledygook is

"The term gobbledygook was coined by former US Representative Maury Maverick, then working for the Smaller War Plants Corporation, in a March 30, 1944 memo banning "gobbledygook language". It was a reaction to his frustration with the "convoluted language of bureaucrats.” He made up the word as an onomatopoeic imitation of a turkey's gobble."

So what does that have to do with messaging and marketing? Meerman’s Gobbledygook Manifesto on  slideshare provides an overview.

The gobbledygook manifesto

View more presentations from Heuvel Marketing

4. Try the Goobledygook Grader

Meerman helps the technology and messaging marketer with a Goobledygook Grader, an online tool developed jointly with HubSpot that looks for buzz corporatese words. Meerman’s slideshare on the topic provides background and the Grader online tool provides an honest evaluation of your copy based on buzz and overused hype term.

Check out the Goobledygook Grader here:

Other sources for language and terms is non other than Seth Godin. His Business Cliché overview is time well spent.

Summary

Like the Gymnast – Messaging isn’t a simple practice. It takes considerable work and practice to get right. The approach I recommend:

1. Porters 5-Forces
2. PESTEL Analysis
3. Competitive Review
4. Customer / analyst review
5. Goobledygook Grader.

What tools or methodologies do you use? Are there tools out there that you rely upon? Send me a message or post a comment below.

Check Out Cool Content About.... Content!

I've seen a lot of really cool content lately that was about.... content!

Digital media becoming mainstream opened up a world of possibilities to communicate and express ideas in radically new and interesting ways. Formats and delivery mechanisms continue to mash-up; evolving content into the intersection of both art and science. Check out my new favs:

Content about Content #1: Content Marketing versus Advertising Infographic
This infographic from Marketo looks at the face-off between advertising and content marketing. Marketo is a marketing automation company, positioning themselves as a revenue performance management company. I started following Marketo back when they had under 100 customers and within a few years their website claims to now have over 700. They have a lot of useful and informative research, reports and best practices - it's worth checking out their site at www.marketo.com.

From the website: The data for this rockin’ infographic came from Marketo’s Content Marketing Cheat Sheet and the 2010 B2B Content Marketing white paper on benchmarks, budgets, and trends from the amazing content marketers at MarketingProfs and Junta42!

Cool Content about Content #2: Push Pop Media's Digital e-Book: Our Choice by Al Gore
From an unlikely source - Al Gore. Yep, his follow up book to An Inconvenient Truth called Our Choice, that Push Pop Media took to a whole other level with a next generation digital e-Book. You know it has to be good when it's featured on Ted.com. As you'll read on the website, software developer Mike Matas demos the first full-length interactive book for the iPad -- with clever, swipeable video and graphics and some very cool data visualizations to play with. The book is "Our Choice," Al Gore's sequel to "An Inconvenient Truth." 



Cool Content about Content #3: Content in the Cloud - Cloud App (author Tom Jenkins)
This is a triple threat: content on content that provides an immersive content experience for iPad. Tom Jenkins' follow-up to the ECM Trilogy book series went mobile and interactive:  Content in the Cloud - Cloud App. Everything you ever wanted to know about Enterprise Content Management,16 chapters featuring innovator stories, case studies, videos, podcasts, and a bunch of other cool stuff. It's free and is available in English; and sadly NOT French, German, Japanese, Spanish and Swedish as it suggest on iTunes. Here's a preview:


Full disclosure: yep, I work at OpenText and I 100% stand by listing the Content in the Cloud as one of my fav's - especially when it was the first iPad immersive book app (and one of the first iPad apps overall thanks to its super talented developer/designer/you won't believe what this guy can eat in a day Jonathon P).
 
If you've seen Cool Content about Content, I'd love to check it out - either list it in the comments below or message me.

Enjoy the Content about Content! 

Gamification and Content? Yes, really....

Let me start off by saying: I'm not a gamer. Never was. No shocker that my first reaction to the term 'Gamification' was less than favorable and I wasn't going to waste a moment of my time on such nonsense.

Three minutes later, I've opened a dozen browser tabs with various search results for Gamification, Gamify, Game Layer, Game Dynamics, Game Mechanics, there's no shortage of related terms. Having dabbled in the MMO and MMORPG industry (business planning, not playing), I was definitely intrigued...but not convinced about its use for non (video) gaming applications. Then I found these two videos:

 

1. Seth Priebatsch's TEDxBoston talk (July 2010), The Game Layer On Top Of The World. 

Seth talks about the "game layer" being constructed on top of the existing social infrastructure (which Priebatsch notes is already established and is called Facebook). At the root of it: gamification has the potential to motivate and drive behavior towards specific actions and outcomes.

2. Jesse Schell's infamous DICE 2010 Design Outside the Box presentation. 

Perhaps you're one of the million people who already viewed the video, Jesse has an entertaining and quirky way of presenting the 'unexpected' and the possibilities. He presents how game mechanics and dynamics could - and will - soon apply to our everyday lives.

Gamification 101

Gamification is the use of game design, game dynamics, and game mechanics in non-gaming applications. In other words, it's NOT about playing video games at work and having a game controller instead of a keyboard. 

Summarizing the two key terms defined by Michael Wu, Ph.D Lithium's Principal Scientist of Analytics, on the Lithium blog:

"At the most fundamental level, gamification is the use of game mechanics to drive game-like engagement and actions....in everyday life, we are often presented with activities we hate, whether it is boring chores or stressful works. Gamification is the process of introducing game mechanics into these abhorred activities to make them more game-like (i.e. fun, rewarding, desirable, etc.), so that people would want to proactively take part in these tasks."

Wu continues about game mechanics. "They are principles, rules, and/or mechanisms that govern a behavior through a system of incentives, feedback, and rewards with reasonably predictable outcome. Some of them are so predictable that they can almost be seen as a kind of behavioral or psychological reflex, much like the patellar reflex of your knee when tapped by a physician."

What does this mean for Work?

Sky's the limit! While gamification is only in its infancy, given the rapid adoption of consumer-based applications, like social networking and communities, into the work environment (given a fancy industry term called 'Consumerization of IT'), it will ramp up quickly. While more prevalent in B2C markets, the opportunity to increase participation in learning, education, loyalty programs and product innovation and testing is ubiquitous.

Where is this going in 2011?

Gabe Zichermann, author of Game-Based Marketing (2010) and industry pioneer, writes about the 5 Predictions for Game Mechanics in 2011. Notably, this presents a big opportunity for the consumer space, he calls out the 'big brands' to drive customer engagement, brand loyalty and brand awareness.


R Ray Wang writes how Gamification Will Drive Future Enterprise Software User Experiences in Trends: 5 Engagement Factors For Gamification And The Enterprise which outlines how the enterprise can apply game mechanics and dynamics to improve engagement and participation within the business and also with partners, customers, suppliers and other stakeholders.

What's this got to do with Content?

• Social was about connecting, collaborating and engaging with others. We saw Content become increasingly (now exponentially) user-generated. Gamification is about participation, motivating behavior and rewards. Content will be much more pervasively co-created as well as user-generated.
• Digital content is the current standard; gamification requires mobile access, delivery and publishing for all content, content/social/gaming objects and their associated interactions and processing.
• Content marketing was the new black in 2010 and will evolve to becoming interactive and immersive (gamified) in 2011.
• Content strategy and strategists will be essential element for planning and execution.

Gamification is a new opportunity for innovation, monetization and productivity.There are already some well documented successes:

• Innovation: website modernization can increase brand awareness, loyalty and customer engagement. Much more than your traditional loyalty program Microsoft, Google, Playboy, Ford and others have realized these benefits by adopting game dynamics.
• Monetization: DevHub increased engagement rate of 300% and increased revenue for virtual goods grew to 30% of overall revenue within 3 months.
• Productivity: Microsoft gamified software development testing to drive significant improvements and user participation. Microsoft’s Beta1 Game from the Vista release  increased beta testers by 400% and their Language Quality Game for Windows 7 had users provide feedback and commentary on 500,000 screenshots.
• All of the above: In November 2010, a co-created report between Stamford University and Seriosity Inc published a report that presents the significant benefits gaming and virtual world would bring to government and its citizens: Government Uses for Games and Virtual Worlds: Optimizing Choices for Citizens and Government Workers in  the Areas of Energy Efficiency, Educational Assessment, Worker Productivity, Safety and Health, and Quality of Information Exchanges.

How companies adopt and deploy 'gamification' is yet to be seen. I recently published an article via CMS Wire that looks at the potential to improve sales enablement and productivity through gamification. While many have doubts about the validity and value in the non-gaming world, the industry research and support suggests that it's not a passing fad:

• Gartner included Gamification in its CIO New Years Resolutions, 2011
• Venturebeat.com writes that over $25 million US went to businesses using gamification as a core customer strategy and at least one $100 million fund dedicated in part to gamification was launched. You can read more on Venturebeat's website which has an entire stream dedicated to
• M2 Research estimates that the production of gamification projects will generate $1.6 billion in revenues by 2015 with an average growth rate for the next two years of 150%.
• Bloomberg Businesssweek writes that Gamification is a trendy technique to build addictive websites and has raised the number of return visitors by 20% for some sites.

I'm sure we'll see a few business-related early adopter / experimental applications in 2011. From my perspective, a lens that combines enterprise software, mobility and MMORPG  experience, I see several immediate opportunities:

• Product Testing: as noted above about the success Microsoft has experienced
• Sales Productivity: there's no better captive audience to deploy an incentive-based, reward-driven, status granting gamified application. We joke that sales is coin operated; what if we gave them lots of virtual coins for giving feedback, co-creating content and  participating with communities? As noted above, I detail some examples via CMS Wire.
• User Adoption: gamify learning systems and work process. Whether it's onboarding, product training or domain/subject/application specific learning - make the experience tolerable and potentially fun. The more end users who know how to use a system, application or process - this will increase productivity and even may lower the TCO of enterprise software purchases and implementations.

What's your perspective on this concept? Any examples of failed or fantastic case studies? Feel free to write your POV or link to other resources on this topic.

User-Generated Content: The Game-Changer towards Enterprise 3.0

How have your behavior, actions - even beliefs, changed over the last year or two? I'm willing to bet your behavior and actions on making a purchase have changed and I'll go out on a limb to say that it's because of User-Generated content.

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Sidebar: "User" generated content...really? Why is it that only drug dealers and techies call their consumers "users"? I've seen some references to "consumer' generated content... well, I'd say that users are consumers (by any definition, not just techies and drug dealers). My point is that in this social, collaborative and connected world, we use a term that de-humanizes content created by people when we call it 'user' ... I digress....

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The world is a mash-up. And User Generated Content is at the heart of it. The impact of UGC on the B2C world - and increasingly B2B world is significant. You can read more about my POV on UGC and how it impacts the business world in the March edition of KM World Magazine at UGC KM World Magazine. 

What is more interesting is the 'mash-up'. UGC is the collision of the business and consumer world - no matter if you're a B2C, B2B or government organization. It's the new reality. Are you ready for it?

Consider:

1. People talk. The fancy new term for it is, "Word of Mouth". Whether you're a vet, a grocery store, restaurant or major brand - people are now empowered to share their experience, their POV, their recommendation - whether you like it or not. Unfortunately, the more they DON'T like it, the more likely they are to tell others about it. AKA: Misery loves company. The personal and consumer world has infiltrated the business/corporate/government operating environment - what's your plan to embrace it and use it as a source for change/improvement?

2. People talk ALL THE TIME - and increasingly (thanks to the social infrastructure) to people whom they've never met before. We're tweeting and status updating and LinkedIn'ing our opinions, interests and beliefs all the time to the masses in the Cloud. 

The business world needs to accept that when people have something to say - ready or not - there it is: tweeted, retweeted, Facebook status update, etc. It's for all to see. The sad irony is that when we we've had a great experience, we relish in our contentment and have a great day. When it goes sideways: we're on our iPhone, Blackberry or other device to tweet about it before the situation/incident has even concluded. In many instances, the world could be notified of it before you are - and before having the opportunity to correct it.

3. People have influence and impact on your business, brand: The champion of mind-controlling tapeworms (a great profile I came across on Twitter) could be as influential as CNN. We're all publishers and media outlets! This could mean that the person from high school who you can only recollect as being the recipient of wedgies, is now the person with significant influence over your brand.. .subsequently your company's brand equity... subsequently, the company's EPS. No joke, if you aren't paying attention to or embracing UGC, it could be too late when you do. You may think wedgie-tapeworming guy doesn't matter, but the reality is that you should care that much more!

Bottom line: hellooooo brand new world. The Madmen of the 60's no longer dictate. This is not a command and control Marketing 1.0 world. The upside of Marketing 2.0 (enter UGC): the inmates ARE running the asylum and calling out the perpetrators of bad business, bad practices, bad... well... just being bad. If that's not you - or your business - then you have nothing to worry about. Even then, drop your guard for good service, good business, good practice - let's just hope that Guy K or someone else who's listed 24,000 times on Twitter doesn't hear about it first.

We're evolving from the Enterprise/Web 2.0 world of Engagement to the new 3.0 world of Participation. Consumers are engaged and now participating far more frequently on Twitter, LinkedIn, Blog sites, Online communities, etc. And there are millions of them out there. It's an exciting time when your words - your voice - matter and have impact.  For the business and government world - I hope you're listening.

To Tweet or Not To Tweet - If Shakespeare Were Alive Today

Just for fun - if Shakespeare were alive today.
Forgive the iambic pentameter transgressions; I did try to stay true to original. Enjoy.

To Tweet, or not to Tweet.

That is the question:

Whether ‘tis nobler in the mind to suffer

The slings and arrows of Twitter/Tweet fortune,

Or take arms against the sea of Facebook’rs

And by unfriending end them? To blog: to tweet:

No more; and by a tweet to say we end

The heartache and the thousand retweet forwards

That Tweetdeck propogates; ‘tis a consummation

Devoutly to blog each week;  To blog, to Tweet;

To Tweet; perchance Slideshare: ay, there’s the rub;

For in that Slide of Shares what Tweets may come

When we have Slideshare’d, this Twitter coil,

Must give us pause; there’s Tweetmeme

That makes calamity of so many Tweets;

For who would read the blogs and tweets of time

The Facebook status, the proud man’s contumely,

The pangs of ‘Is Single’,  status updates,

The embarrassment of social break-ups,

That Single status of the unworthy takes,

When he himself might his quietus make

With no Zuckerberg? Who would  ZB bear,

To grunt and sweat under a billion life (worth),

But that he dread of Social after death,

The undiscover’d blog draft from whose bourn

No followers, retweets;  puzzle the will

And makes us rather bear those Tweets we have

Than blog to others that we know not of?

Thus Social Networks make cowards of us all;

And thus the Facebook hue of networking

Is socializing with the pale cast of thought,

And enterprises of great brand and earnings

With this regard their websites turn awry, and fail to engage with social. – Soft you now!

The fair Tweet, Facebook, Blog, in thy social cloud,

Be all my sins remember’d

Using Collaboration, Rich Media and the Social Infrastructure to Save my pet Sugar Glider

It’s been over a month since I got home from a family Christmas in British Columbia. Within minutes of being here, I knew something was terribly wrong: my little man Mars, a Sugar Glider, was critically sick and needed emergency care.

While his fate is still uncertain, his care and recovery up to this point can be credited to the power of user-generated content and the social infrastructure that supports it.  Oh yeah – and a super fantastic vet, Dr. Mitelman at Kingston Animal Hospital in Toronto.

Meet Mars.

Nine years ago, I faced a similar situation when my first sugar glider became ill. At that time, there was no YouTube, Facebook, Yelp (or even the concept of Word-of-Mouth) nor such prevalent use of Rich media like videos or pictures - Flickr.com did not exist. Despite the medical care, this little sugar glider died in my hands within a few days.

Today, the wealth of online resources, networks, and user-generated content combined with using rich media (photos and videos) may just save Mars. Here’s how:

1.  ‘Word of Mouth” helped me find the right vet.

Like any parent with a sick child, you don’t want just any doctor.  Despite my very limited options – it was New Year’s eve day and we’re not dealing with a ‘normal’ kind of pet, I wanted credentials and feedback on Kingston Road Animal hospital – all of which I found on Yelp.com.  The comments from pet owners, the Word of Mouth content, validated that it was the right place to go.

2.  The social infrastructure located other Sugar Glider experts.

Mars needed emergency surgery and until the test results came back, the course of action was uncertain. He had a gaping hole in his chest – the size of a quarter – and it was deep enough that I wasn’t sure if I was looking at his ribs or spine.

Unsure of what caused this, Dr. Mitelman and I would have to wait – and given the holiday weekend, it could take longer than expected. Things were not looking good for Mars.

Undeterred, both Dr. Mitelman and I reached out through the social infrastructure to find answers and the recommendations of other Sugar glider experts. Dr. Mitelman reached out through VIN.com, a veterinarian specific hub where he could collaborate amongst the 42,000 worldwide members.

I found a Sugar Glider-specific vet site, reached out (despite not being a vet) and within minutes received a reply and great support from Val Betts, the owner and President of Sugarglidervetinfo.com. She recommended an ‘e-collar’ for Mars and pointed me to a website where I could download the directions to make one. I also found an instructional video on YouTube which was incredibly helpful.

3. the social infrastructure enabled me to share pictures and video for monitoring his recovery.

It’s January in Toronto, Canada. There’s snow. And at times, a whole lot of it. During these times of arctic-like conditions, driving is not advisable, or even a possibility. But sharing videos and pictures via YouTube and Flickr is.

Using a FlipShare camera (best purchase ever), I could film Mars, edit the footage in minutes and then directly upload to YouTube. Likewise, taking photos didn’t require National Geographic-like finesse or equipment – my Blackberry was just fine.  I could share the media with Dr. Mitelman and also with Val, who is located in Texas,

It hasn’t been easy to provide the care he needs and monitor him around the clock. He needs food, water, medicine, wound cleaning, bathing (often a combination thereof) every few hours. [I’ll spare you the details on the 2am glider enemas] . Having the support found online and the over-the-top attention from Kingston Road Animal Hospital (they call regularly to check up on him), has provided support, expertise and ongoing treatment that wasn’t possible nine years ago.

This is the first time I’ve relied on social tools and technology in my personal life – in this Veterinarian 2.0 experience. We’re not sure of the outcome yet (fingers crossed),  but social and UGC could very well be the reason why my little man Mars survives.

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Social and User Generated Content mentioned and used:

http://www.suzsugargliders.com/

http://www.gliderhealth.com/

http://www.sugargliderhelp.com/links/pages/

http://www.sugarglidervetinfo.com/default.html

A big shout-out to Dr.Mitelman and the staff at Kingston Road Animal Hospital.

http://www.beachvet.com/

By far the most compassionate, attentive and committed vet and staff I've ever experienced. I don't know too many doctors who will call in a prescription at 11pm at night for a human, let alone a pet!

What the heck is a sugar glider?

No – it’s not a rat, or even related to the rodent family. They are marsupials.

Yes, like a Kangaroo or Possum

Yes, females have pouches and give birth to Joeys.

Yes, they have a lifespan much longer than hamster - they can live up to 12-15 years.

No, they don’t go to the bathroom on me.

No, they don’t ‘fly’, they glide, hence the name Sugar ‘Glider’

I’ve had pet Sugar Gliders for over 15 years and it has certainly been the topic of interest, ridicule and amazement – bottom line, I adore these little creatures.

 
Nothing like an Award show Red Carpet to provide creative inspiration. Or so I thought. The 2011 Golden Globes Red Carpet was anti-climatic and missing the O...M...G moments brought by the likes of Bjork, Cher and other Red Carpet shockers from days past. Where was my muse?!

I found the endless parade of perfection to be, well...kind of boring. I wasn't expecting my source of inspiration to be the lack thereof. The outcome is a departure from my regular Content-related postings but here's the Opinion piece I wrote for Blogcritics.

Article first published as Golden Globes Red Carpet: Hope for Hollywood or Hopelessly Boring? on Blogcritics.

Golden Globes Red Carpet: Hope for Hollywood or Hopelessly Boring?

Read more: http://blogcritics.org/video/article/golden-globes-red-carpet-hope-for/#ixzz1BGZkJdt9

Another Golden Globes Red Carpet has come and gone. The gowns, the diamonds, the to-die-for shoes. No shocker that Anne Hathaway was absolutely stunning, Natalie Portman and Jane Krakowski showed elegant pregnant, and I have to admit I’m a Helen Mirren fan. She also looked amazing but could have left out the tacky comment about the multimilion dollar diamond necklace. I don’t think any of us were questioning if it was cubic zirconia.

The media cannot get enough of Hollywood power couple Brad and Angelina who once again dominated the TV coverage with the most mentions prior to their arrival and even after they were off the red carpet. Michael Douglas and Catherine Zeta-Jones made an appearance; Catherine always looks timeless and one has to admire Michael for winning his battle with cancer.

The glitz, the glamour, the Golden Globes – does anyone else find it a bit… well… how shall I say…tired? I was more entertained by the TV commercial for Big Bang Theory than by seeing Sandra Bullock was sporting a new hair style – she’s got bangs! Even Helena Bonham-Carter with her different colored shoes was more expected than shocking.

Is this a sign of the times? Has Hollywood grown up and relegated the Bratpack-style antics to TMZ? That’s not to say that media pundits like Perez Hilton, the hilarious Fugly critics (gofugyourself.com), and notorious Joan Rivers won’t have ample material for their reviews this week. I have hope for Hollywood but it’s also becoming hopelessly boring. It’s a catwalk parade of the rich and beautiful and sadly, less about the art and accomplishments for which they are coming together.

Maybe next year Paris Hilton could try another motorcycle entrance. 'Cuz that was hot.

Part II: Be Memorable! Rock Your Presentation with a Profile Infographic

Last week I wrote about a great presentation tip I picked up at the annual CMO Council Summit in San Jose: a biography puzzle.You can read about it here. For those who have waited with abated breath for me solve my bio puzzle - the wait is over! 

To all the aspiring Double Jeopardy presenters who took a run at solving my Biography Puzzle, I had a good laugh at some of the responses. And yes, there were a couple... concerning ...interesting... suggestions, “you think I’ve done what??” Thanks for the emails and a big thank you to Chris Hummel for providing his puzzle details.

This week I stumbled upon - but not on Stumbleupon.com - an online tool that creates a personal profile Infographic and allows you to save the output. Before I crack the code of my bio puzzle, I'm wondering if anyone has an Infographic? Has anyone tried this? Seen anyone? Anyone? …..Bueller? 

I love infographics. And I mean LOVE them. The good ones, of course. I would characterize a good one by

• a clear and focused narrative (even better if it has a unique point of view)
• Addresses one topic and has done its homework with finding, verifying and providing good data and information.
• Creatively and often genius - marries design and data to visually represent and communicate the story – and deliver knowledge. For me, when I find a good one –  I feel like I’ve absorbed an entire chapter from a school textbook within seconds and can retained the information with ease.

I like the clever and savvy use of visuals. Especially the combination of rich media and interactive design. I’ve got a few links at the bottom that you can check out - there's a great one for the sports fans. As I searched for other tools, I found a a series of Infographic resumes which were super creative, informative and could be used as an introduction (a lighter, less detailed version).  I have a few links below you can check out.

The online profile infographic tool took me about 2 minutes to sign-up and complete their template and then another 5 minutes to format using the options provided. The information isn’t that spectacular but it looks impressive for a <10 minute effort.  In fact, I’m pretty optimistic that a color copy would wildly impress my parents and likely be showcased on their fridge next to my niece and nephew elementary school art projects.

Here are two versions. Let me know what you think and if you’ve come across anything better.

the horizontal layout

itzCorinne Profile Infographic: same tool used as above, but with the vertical layout and different background.

 
BIOGRAPHY PUZZLE

As for the biography puzzle:

1. It’s all German and Greek to me
2. T •
3. 000010001100011 x 15
4. BI, CPM, ABM, APM, SOA, ITIL, BPM, BBIM
5. ECMM
6. CMO and/or Wired
7. Sat Nam

Answers:

1. I’m half German (half British) and my name is Greek. Most people assume it originated in France.
2. I live in the Tdot – aka Toronto.
3. I’ve worked in the software industry for 15 years
4. Some of the specific software areas include Business Intelligence, Corporate Performance Management, Activity-based Management, Application Performance Management, Service-Oriented Architecture, Information Technology Infrastructure Library, Business Process Management
5. I’m currently in Enterprise Content Management (ECM) and you can call me a ‘Master’… at least that’s what the ECMM stands for – it’s a certification from the AIIM organization.
6. My big hairy audacious goal in life is to become a CMO or make the cover of Wired Magazine… best magazine ever!
7. Sat Nam: No - it's not a sandwich! I’m into Kundalini yoga and yoga therapy. Sat Nam is the Kundalini equivalent to Namaste.

 

 The links to the online Infographic tool and resume examples:

• The Infographics I created above are from http://ionz.com.br/
• Seriously amazing Interactive NFL Sports Stats: NFL stats "spike chart"
• There's a great collection of resume infographics - which are far more advanced than the template I used above and illustrate very clever visuals.Check them out at Cool Infographics
  

If you have any to share, I'd love to see them.

Be Memorable! Rock Your Presentation Intro with a Biography Puzzle

How many presentations did you attend in 2010? 

My answer is…. no idea. A lot? Think back for a moment: all the travel, conferences, obligatory meetings, the webinars you signed up for…Nope… I still couldn’t tell you how many presentations I attended. 

I can recall the good ones - like John Mancini at AIIM's annual conference or Jess Schell's DICE 2010 keynote (WOW!). But it's rare to land the Double Jeopardy presentation: great speaker and great content.

Far too frequently, I witness the audience succumb to the relentless Blackberry itch that compels attendees to check for anything that will hold their attention or maintain a semi-conscience state (especially during the dreaded post lunch time slot).

Let’s flip it around: how many presentations did you deliver in 2010? Were you memorable? What about your content? Let’s be honest – there's one Steve Jobs. For the rest of us presentation mortals, we can use some tips and tricks. Especially when we're one of umpteen speakers in an all day line-up of back-to-back presentations – we can use a little help to up our game.

But how?

I hit Double Jeopardy last week at the annual CMO Council Summit in San Jose.

I didn’t know Chris Hummel, CMO & President of North America, Siemens Enterprise Communications prior to the CMO Council Summit. I’ll be honest, I wasn’t anticipating any life changing revelations during his keynote, How the Operationally Savvy CMO Can Become a Valued CEO Asset.

I’ve never been happier to be so wrong.

I’ve never seen a keynote delivered by a mortal in 8 slides. And with an introduction I’d call genius. Yep, Hummel is my new reigning Double Jeopardy presentation champion. The bar has been raised: compelling content and speaker with 8 slides. Actually:

 - 7 slides if you remove the title.

 - 6 if you overlook the bio.

 - 5 if you don’t count the Agenda.

In this instance, his intro was the highlight. Chris called it a “Biography Puzzle”, he captivated an entire room with 7 bullet points:

• The Martinellis & the Walshes
• RS – C – P
• 14 + 8
• Здраствуйте!
• FSO
• 3
• ?

His DaVinci code approach had everyone’s attention. The next day I caught myself telling a friend about this great speaker who was part Irish, fluent in Russian, has a German last name, lived overseas for nearly a decade, in 8 countries, did a stint somewhere as a Foreign Service officer and is now the CMO of Siemens Enterprise Communications.

I’ve never seen this approach before and based on comments from the other CMOs in the room – they won’t forget Chris either. I figure if I can remember that level of detail on someone I just met - in a line-up of 20 other speakers, he's on to something. And I love that he came up with the concept just to keep the presentation interesting.

I decided to give it a try and came up with my own biography puzzle:

• It’s all German and Greek to me
• T •
• 000010001100011 x 15
• BI, CPM, ABM, APM, SOA, ITIL, BPM, BBIM
• ECMM
• CMO and/or Wired
• Sat Nam

I suppose I could simply tell you what it means…. Nah! I’m interested to hear your interpretation, see your biography puzzle or find out what other interesting presentation tips you've seen. 

Any takers?

1 Minute on Marketing 3.0: Values-Driven Marketing

I came across this video ages ago and it stuck with me. Now I know why.

"You can do anything. So go do it."

Sadie has a pretty clear and compelling message. More remarkable, she expresses and personifies all things marketing 3.0 – in a minute! The same principles that have many corporations flummoxed. The simple breakdown:

Medium

She uses rich media -  video, to tell her message. A future in Content Marketing looks bright for Sadie as she also showcases some of her artwork.

Message

She’s authentic – from the pink room with all the stuffed animals to the Coldplay poster pinned up on the wall, Sadie is real. Full stop.

Mission

From an academic perspective, if you compare this with Philip Kotler’s Marketing 3.0 approach, she’s also got it covered: she’s got Mind, Heart and Spirit and she certainly exudes her Mission, Vision and Values.

This isn’t dismissing the notion that we need values in the sense of value-based selling and value messaging and value this and value that – sometimes a gentle reminder that we need just plain VALUES.

Kotler calls it ‘Values-Driven Marketing’ and I don’t disagree. And this takes Mind, Heart and Spirit to communicate and express your mission, vision and values. Kotler and Hermawan Kartajaya have a great article I found on Scribd at

Marketing 3 0 Values Driven Marketing

Funny that you can learn all that in 1 minute from Sadie. What's your view on Sadie or Kotler's approach?

Latest Marketing, Storytelling, Content Strategy Reading List: Pink, Tasner, Roma, Denning and others

Okay, I confess: I love ordering books online. It's not just about the books; I get a rush like a kid opening birthday presents when the package arrives. It's awesome. Especially when I've compiled a lengthy wishlist and then finally have some time to dig in and check out the topics that have been wiggling my brain.

My selection criteria is pretty simple: if the book passes the highlighter test, I buy it. That may shed some light on age (I stopped counting at 29), the highlighter test is when I browse through the book and have an impulse to highlight sections for future reference. There's other factors as well, but that's the main one.

Here's the latest books that past the highlighter test:

•  A Whole New Mind: Why the Right-Brainers Will Rule the Future - Daniel Pink
•  Any guy named Pink who suggests that us left-handed creative types will rule the world - I don't even need a highlighter.
•  Engage!, The Complete Guide for Brands and Businesses to Build, Cultivate, and Measure Success in the New Web - Brian Solis 
• I’m not sure how I feel about Ashton Kutcher writing the forward but Solis past the highlighter test nonetheless.
•  Marketing in the Moment: The Practical Guide to Using Web 3.0 Marketing to Reach your Customers First-  Michael Tasner
• I first opened this book on the page where Tasner talks about being the best marketing person ever by 25 years old. What a punk, I thought... oh... wait... there's a whole lot of highlighting for this book - and I'm talking where you need multiple color highlighters. I got over the whole punk thing pretty quick - it's a great resource.
• The Back Of The Napkin: Solving Problems and Selling Ideas with Pictures - Dan Roma

• When I realized that Roma was suggesting the pictures were drawn versus using graphics or illustrations, I nearly put the book back on the shelf.  I can't draw - what's this guy thinking? Rest assured - he's got that figured out and lists the dozen-ish stickman pictures that any 3 year old can draw. Genius. For that - I even bought the over sized version of the book so the pictures are bigger.
• The New How: Creating Business Solutions Through Collaborative Strategy – Nilofer Merchant
• The title for this book doesn't do it justice. It's a great great read for anyone who wants a prescriptive look - with case studies and examples - on how to approach intercompany collaboration. I'll admit - wasn't so much the highlighter test as accompanying comics by Hugh McLeod which are simply hilarious.
• Get Content Get Customers: Turn Prospects into Buyers with Content Marketing, Joe Pulizzi and Newt Barrett.
• You gotta love Joe (sorry Newt, I don't know you).  If you're into content, content marketing or content strategy, then I recommend checking out anything from Joe or the Junta42 resources. And  congrats Joe to being named the #1 Content Strategy Rock Star.
• The Leaders Guide to Storytelling: Mastering the Art and Discipline of Business Narrative, Stephen Denning
• I love storytelling and how it's being applied in the business context. Let's get past the buzz, hyperbole and gobblygook (there's a BS meter - aka gobblygook - where you can find out just how many of these BS infractions you've made in your copy). Denning's book was a no-brainer 'must buy' as soon as I saw it.

Still on the Wish List

    •    Made to Stick, Chip Heath. .... Funny thing about this one:  not too long ago, I walked past a display of this book. I hadn't heard of it at the time but the cover caught my eye even though I was engrossed with a book in my hands. And I proceeded to the cashier, I wondered why a home improvement book was in the marketing / management section. Since then, at least a dozen people have recommended this book to me.

These look interesting – potential Highlighter candidates:

•  UnMarketing: Stop Marketing. Start Engaging - Scott Stratten
•  Why We Buy: The Science of Shopping--Updated and Revised for the Internet, the Global Consumer, and Beyond - Paco Underhill
•  The Buying Brain: Secrets for Selling to the Subconscious Mind -   A. K. Pradeep
•  Convergence Culture: Where Old and New Media Collide -  Henry Jenkins (I've heard a lot about Mr.Jenkins and the general consensus is that he rocks).

What are you reading these days? What recommendations do you have for me?

Mesh Marketing (MM10): Games, Social Pizza and Humanizing the brand

I was school-girl giddy arriving at the Mesh Marketing conference yesterday in Toronto. Lots of great topics:  Transmedia storytelling, Gamification, Social TV - oh my! 

So What’s Up with Marketing?

• B2C trends like gamification, immersive worlds and transmedia storytelling are already in full swing and making its way to B2B. 
• Facebook as a media/marketing/mobile/messaging platform has become ridiculously advanced - super cool opportunities for new apps, plug-ins, widgets that combines gaming, fans, communities, sites, campaigns, polls, social commerce, etc, etc - all from a single source. 
• Let's not forget generating followers - and creating advocates, in 140 characters or less. 

Here’s a few highlights from Mesh today that illustrate this transformation:

• Janice Diner (@janicediner) knocked it out of the park with her Facebook beyond the Wall presentation. I was overwhelmed with the implications as she illustrated that the medium shift from the corporate website to Facebook:
• Delta Airlines has a flight reservation system on Facebook: Check it out!
• Starbucks lets you gift a Starbucks Coffee card : this was a personal favorite and apparently over 17million people agree (number of ‘Likes’ on their page) Check it out
• eBay uses Facebook with PayPal integration for Social commerce
• Ford launched the new Explorer on Facebook BEFORE the Detroit Automotive show. (wow). Check it out
• Blackberry has several localized Facebook pages for their audiences in Indonesia to Ireland. Check it out

Take-away: sure you need a corporate website. Let's be honest: just because you build it does not mean they will come. You need to go to them! This is why your Facebook presence is equally important as your primary www site... and will become even more important (I’d argue the same for your YouTube site). 

Former pizza delivery driver and now Operating manager of 6 Domino locations, Ramon De Leon (@Ramon_DeLeon ) captivated the room with his “You need Social Media Water for a Social media fire” comments during the  Top Brands in Social Media and the Lessons They’ve Learned Panel. He's got over 7000 followers on twitter and is known as the “The Pizza Guy to know in Downtown Chicago”.  RightSleeve did a great write-up - link to it here

Nathania Dashner from Pepsi walked through the ‘Refresh Campaign’ Here’s are my notes deciphered from the chicken scratch I wrote down:

• Have to humanize the brand: through unexpected and meaningful engagement/interactions with customers.
• People don’t trust websites. The internet is full of garbage.
• This is a whole new way of doing business.
• Don’t acquire; earn their trust.
• Pepsi – NO SUPERBOWL?? (that was a ‘note to self’ to ensure I got that right).
• Yes, I got that right, the $1million was reallocated to the Pepsi Refresh Campaign. Pepsi decided NOT to advertise in the Superbowel; rather to allocate funds to creating a movement that engaged people and involved participation. The goal was to humanize the brand.
• It’s not about the picture of a person holding the Pepsi can; it’s about how they feel about Pepsi.
• The next search engine will be Twitter to find relevant information
• The goal was not moving cases (reference to generating Pepsi cola revenue), it was about creating a movement. 
• Results: 900 entries, 1,000,000 impressions, 60 million page views and Forbes awardeding Pepsi with the top 5 ‘Best Ever Social Media Campaign” title.(wow)

It was a great day that wiggled my brain and gave me way too much to think about. Full props to Mesh Marketing especially for the uber cool swag bag. It’s now on my top 10 conference swag list.

The Content Conundrum: Redefining Content Strategy

I was thrilled to have my first editorial published by CMS Wire in mid September. Many thanks to those who have commented and and tweeted. It's led to some very interesting conversations - feel free to reach out to me if you have a comment. You can read the original article here  
--------------------------

What Does Content Strategy Mean to You

Welcome to the Content era. It’s here, it’s now and it’s changed the game. Stemming from the rise of data during the Y2K scare, to the subsequent explosion of information that followed, we’ve drowned in data, been overwhelmed with information and now face a new realm that’s been characterized as Content Chaos. (AIIM, 2010). Regaining and establishing order requires a Content Strategy. Let me ask you first, what does ‘content strategy’ mean to you?

1. Isn’t that what marketing does when they print brochures?
2. It is the creation, delivery and disposition of web content.
3. SharePoint
4. It is the creation, publishing, distribution and governance of content in support of corporate goals.

Wikipedia defines ‘Content Strategy’ as, “the practice of planning for content creation, delivery, and governance” in the context of being "a repeatable system that defines the entire editorial content development process for a website development project."

While this served well for Web Content Management, the definition is too myopic for the new content-driven paradigm. Content is pervasive and proliferating throughout every functional group across a company or government organization and extending beyond the firewall to partners and customers. Meanwhile the unrelenting volume of user-generated content, rich media and social objects compounds daily as the tribes, crowds, communities and countless (millions!) of internet users continuously create, collaborate, publish, distribute, access, stream, download and view content online — and now on their mobile device.

Applying a Content Strategy

Web content management is a valuable discipline and requires a content strategy. So does email, contracts, invoices, documents, presentations, spreadsheets, engineering diagrams — even Twitter and Facebook accounts. However, managing content is very different than applying content. Managing content can help bring order to content chaos; you may even reduce costs, meet compliance regulations and generate efficiencies from process automation and knowledge-sharing.

Applying a Content Strategy not only brings order to content chaos, it prescriptively orchestrates through the clutter to realize new sources of value. For that reason, the best answer above that defines Content Strategy is ‘D’
How do you apply a content strategy against corporate goals? Therein lays the conundrum. Here are a few examples that illustrate the risk of not applying and the potential rewards:
 Scenario  Conundrum                           Recommendation             Validation

Do I need a mobile app for that?	Content Strategy includes ECM and WCM and now mobile content and mobile content management completes the trinity.	The content strategy supports the business objectives. If revenue is a top priority then monetizing content via mobile applications might be the focus.	Mobile content revenues will grow from $1.15 billion in 2009 to more than $3.53 billion in 2014 (eMarketer) NBC Olympics Mobile platforms (Mobile Web Site and iTunes App), amassed 87.1 million page views during the 17 days of the Vancouver Winter Olympics (NBC 01/03/10)
Who stole my brand?	User-generated content, micro-blogging and viral distribution has shift the balance of power from the Establishment to end-user	Embrace the users – and gain their support. Ignoring them won’t make it go away.	Parody BP Twitter site usurped the official BP page in less than a week. BP, an enterprise conglomerate, applied a full court PR press and tweeted over 2,000 times to amass 18,632 Twitter followers. The parody accrued 190,206 with less than 500 tweets.
Hell hath no furry….	Instant and viral distribution of content or social objects: Word of Mouth rules. A poor experience, delayed response won’t encourage customers to say nice things.	A content strategy is more than monetizing assets. The experience is equally important to ensure a repeat customer. And one that tells their friends, and their friends….	According to a survey of US mom Internet users, Consumer reviews are significantly more trusted- nearly 12 times more- than descriptions that come from manufacturers, (eMarketer, February 2010).

Content is a Valuable Asset

Organizations spend millions on data and information management infrastructure, systems and technology. They invest millions in storage, security, business intelligence and other applications to reduce risk, be compliant and analyze corporate performance. Sadly, in their efforts to achieve business goals: reducing costs, improving operational efficiencies and uncovering new sources of value, they fail to apply one of their most valuable assets: content.

The Content era is a new world with new rules and a new realm of players. To prosper, you need a game plan — a content strategy, and it must align with business goals. Sitting on the sidelines isn’t being cautious; it’s conceding to the market, your customers, your competition. A prescriptive and pragmatic content strategy will help navigate this new world and support value creation.