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.

Got Content? My home (content) improvement project

Saturday 1:20pm
Consolidate & move all media files to iMac.
Hmmm, how do I find and get rid of duplicates?


Do I really have a terabyte of music, videos and who knows what else?


1:45
Okay, this sucks – maybe I really do have a terabyte. I’ll just move it all and figure it out later.


2:00pm
I need an external drive – with at least a terabyte of space.


2:15
Arrive at Staples.


2:35
Am tempted to use the store PA system as I still can't find a store clerk and the cashiers are deeply involved in some sort of boyfriend crisis to notice that I've been standing in front of the Customer Service counter for 7 minutes... not that I was counting. Because if I was, I would have specified 7 minutes and 23 seconds...


2:36 
I'm advised that the phone system is not for public use. However, I'm able to quickly get a few questions answered and procure a Western Digital external drive that will work on both PC and Mac.


3:00pm
Back at home office and moving files to new drive. Okay, now – where was I? Right – media files. Move them all and I’ll deal with the duplicates once I have all media in a single location.


3:20
While media files are moving, I’ll go through temp and download folders to move or delete files …or did I already do that? Am I moving the same files again – but potentially to different folders and I’ll have multiple copies? How do I check that?


3:30
Search on a few files to see if I’ve already moved them, and if so – where? One Mac has 150 files and the other has less than 30. Who calls a file 154987_345_21456.pdf? Or 3398531745_5a8c79f42_z.jpg. Honestly?! That’s just cold.


I’m going to have to open all the files with a cryptic file name and see what it is, if I want to keep it, and if so, rename it and move it.


4:15
Cryptic file names suck. Clearly there must be an easier and faster way to do this?


5:00
Media files still copying. 180 files from download folder have been moved or deleted (feeling like Rock star. Not quite Gwen Stefani but better than Taylor Swift at last year’s MTV awards show. )


Open email with visions of grandeur to deal with the 2922 unread messages. On the bright side, that’s 4,000 less than what’s piling in my yahoo account. [Who’s sending me this stuff anyway??!]


5:10
Surely I must have a bottle of wine in the house somewhere….


5:12
Nope. Bummer


5:13
Back to email. This sucks. I’ve only conquered A-D.


5:47
Who are these people? I don’t want a Rolex, I’m not interested in marrying a self proclaimed super sexy single from overseas, I’m not suffering from ED… woah - DSW has free shipping this weekend??!


Deep breath - stay on target. Focus.
Media is still copying over to external – how long is this going to take??
Back to email... I can do this!


6:00
I wonder if DSW has these Fendi patent peep toe platform heels in size 8.5? Step away from the computer.




Play with cat.


6:05
Remove fruit fly catcher sticky tape from cat’s tail. Hope the hair loss isn’t going to be permanent.


I should organize my Documents folder
I need to organize my Documents folder
I will organize my Documents folder


6:12
Okay, here goes: Documents folder.
Why are there two folders with the same name on the same machine? Oh wait, there’s a third if I include my MacBook . Super. Just super. I’ll consolidate and organize. Hmmm, not enough memory to do that. On any of my machines. Right – I have to delete the media files that I copied over to the new drive.


6:25
Deleting dilemma… what if something goes wrong on new drive and the files don’t move properly? What if the new drive crashes and I lose everything because I deleted the source files from my machines? 27,654 songs now in my iTunes library. Hmmm, seems excessive. That’s a project for another weekend.


6:30
Find 500gig external drive to consolidate and move My Documents folders to single location. WHAT? “Destination folder is not large enough”… come’on!


6:45
Find second external drive – 320 gigs. I now have the terabyte drive for my media files, 500 gig for Documents folder and a third 320 gig for overflow. With keyboard, external speakers and printer already taking most of the USB ports, I have to find a second USB extension ‘thingy’ (note to self: a tradeshow trinket that is actually useful) to connect the third drive.




7:30
Wonder if Sharam or GlamScum have released new podcasts I can download…


8:00
My stomach advises that I’m hungry. Apparently the cat has forgiven me and also wants dinner.


8:10
Cat is fed. Corinne has ordered Thai food.


8:12
Copying is all-complete.
Now what?


I'm exhausted. Over 7 hours invested into managing my home computer(s) content. I need a content strategy. How does one person have nearly 2 terabytes of data and not really know what it all is?


7 hours just to organize my files and I still have to review it to see what I can get rid of, what I can archive and what I’m going to keep. How do companies approach this? If I’m using close to $600 of external storage and spent 7 hours just to move the information- not even organize it yet – how do companies manage this for hundreds…1000s…of employees? Do they have a content strategy? Can I borrow it?


No wonder there’s content chaos. I can’t even get my home content under control. I'm sure there's more efficient and technically superior way to have accomplished this - and YES! I'd love to hear how. Especially if it doesn't require me to invest in additional hardware. This home project is far from done and it's about as exciting as peeling fruit fly tape from my cat's tail.


Luckily - Thai food has just arrived! To be continued….

Death, Porn and Digital Legacy

That's right - I said it.

That nasty little word that is riddled with emotion and sometimes wrought with controversy: death. It was the focus of Adele McAlear’s session, “Death and Digital Legacy”, at the Mesh Conference today in Toronto. I’ll be honest; when she dropped the ‘p’ word, stating that everyone needs a “porn buddy”, that's when her session came to life. In that dreaded post-lunch time slot, no one was dozing - she had everyone’s undivided attention.

Porn buddy? Really?

The context is an old school, pre-internet reference: if something (god forbid) were to happen to you – such as death or debilitation – that you had a buddy who would take care of your porn stash before your parents found it. Hence, porn buddy.

Fast-forward to this digital era characterized with social media and the pervasive distribution of user-generated content. The concept of your porn stash has evolved and is now online, shared, linked, and exponentially growing with each subsequent Tweet, Status update, Wall post and photo upload. There’s the usual suspects - your website and various social media accounts on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Blog sites, etc. What about Paypal, eBay, Flikr, Picasso, Google, Yahoo, MSN, YouTube, and the magnitude of others….? What happens to these accounts and the associated stash of content if something happens to you? Do you have a designated porn buddy tasked with taking care of your online presence?

I don’t know anyone who tracks his or her various accounts and passwords, let alone in one consolidated place. Or who even tells someone about it all. Adele makes a good point: if a death occurs, who is the designated digital porn buddy – what she calls a ‘Digital Executor’ – who will take care of the content, assets, artifacts and accounts?

I am far from an online e-lebrity nor have a significant following on Twitter, but some of you do. I don’t have an eBay store or generate revenue using PayPal – you might. I also don’t have the next Pulitzer Prize winning manuscript, World of Warcraft Hack or other content that would be deemed invaluable to some. You might. So who is your digital executor, what are your final wishes for these digital assets/accounts and where do you document and store this information?

Take this a step further into the workplace. Many corporations set up Slideshare, Scribd, Facebook, Twitter and the countless online accounts where employees register using their corporate email address. Let’s not be dramatic and say these employees die; simply that they’re no longer with the company. Who is the porn - ahem - I mean Digital Executor when he/she is no longer with the company? Where is this account information? What happens to the related content assets and artifacts when they leave? Who even knows the extent of all the accounts that employees have associated with their corporate email address? Just because you’ve turned off their network access and disabled their email account doesn’t mean that these social sites terminated them as well. And while we hope that people exercise good judgment and don’t go off on some social slander campaign using a corporate ID account – as the old adage says, hope is not a strategy.

What does this strategy even look like? A corporate social media and blogging policy is a good start - does yours include more than the obligatory guidelines covering etiquette and not dropping the eff-bomb? If it doesn't - it should. Does it state that corporate domain accounts need to be discontinued once the employee leaves the company? Does an employee need to log or register the accounts that are based on a corporate ID?

Policies are nice in theory but the devil is in the details: how can a company track this? Who is responsible for auditing and monitoring any of this and the magnitude of content generated from it? What does enforcement entail? Can it be enforced? Who is the corporate digital executor once they are gone?

Thanks Adele for discussing death, porn and digital legacy. It certainly provoked me into thinking beyond our personal need for a Digital Executor and questioning how the corporate world will approach this. I'm not proclaiming to have answers and for those of you reading this - I’m interested to hear your thoughts and how you plan to personally - or from a business perspective - address these questions.


Sources:
Adele McAlear: http://www.adelemcalear.com
Mesh Conference: http://www.meshconference.com/