The Disconnected Leader

I saw Warren Buffet along with his son and grandson on CNN last week. One of the richest humans on earth has sent exactly one email, drives a six year old car, and lives in the same Omaha, Nebraska home he and his family has lived in since 1957. Something to think about the next time we feel compelled to want the newest latest shiniest gadget.

Imagine we woke up tomorrow and there was no Internet, the smartphone had not been invented and there is no email. We have all those things but one idea we could try is to type less, turn off our toys more, and speak directly with humans rather than devices or channels. Mr. Buffett is worth more than $63 Billion. He may be on to something.

If we disconnect once in a while we may be amazed how connected we can become with each other.
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Kneale Mann | Leadership Strategist, consultant, writer, speaker, executive coach facilitating performance growth with leaders, management, and teams.

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Making History on The Social Web

If you are active in any of the online social channels, you have probably seen how fast a news story can spread. The death of Michael Jackson was reported on Twitter before CNN, the earthquake in Haiti was all over the social web as people tried to find and share correct information.

On Friday I received an email from someone about the Rick Sanchez rant on satellite radio where he dumped all over Jon Stewart then went on a racial tirade which got him fired from his gig at CNN. I quickly did a Google search and the screen was full of reports on the story, not all from “credible news sources". It was everywhere. The twitterstream was packed with comments and it was one of the top trending topics.

The 20th century was the culmination of hundreds of years of technology that gave us the one-to-one and one-to-many media models. The Internet has given us the many-to-many model.

Each of us is able to produce and broadcast a message and create a conversation or join another one midstream and contribute as much as anyone else in the group.

Exciting times.

Author, consultant, visionary and speaker Clay Shirky brilliantly points out that the tools we use become social interesting when they get technologically boring. He adds “It isn’t when the shiny tools show up that their uses start permeating society, it is when everyone is able to take them for granted.”

Here’s more from his TEDTalk last June. [video]


knealemann

image credit: TED

The Digital Arm Wrestle

As we quickly get to two billion people online, this is no longer something of a boutique or alternative behavior.

I chuckle when I hear terms like “digital marketing” and “new media” because when you have almost a third of the world’s population participating in an activity that is by definition mainstream. I realize we need these terms for those who haven't caught up but everything you do in your business is marketing and everything you use is media.

What is Traditional?

Most refer to “traditional” media as television, print, outdoor and radio. All remain viable for content, entertainment, information and advertising. Radio is not dead. Print is going through a transition while direct mail remains the biggest form of advertising. Billboards and bus boards remain filled with messages. And the television model is evolving.

Facebook has over half a billion users, Twitter is close to 100 million and the CNN website receives over 20 million unique visitors a month.

I heard a radio sales consultant recently talk about how his medium was the most intrusive. He’s right – if the radio stations you activate are any good. There is great content in all media so before you blindly focus on the strengths or weaknesses of each choice, ensure the specific outlets are of any quality.

Advertising on a bad radio or television station is just as dangerous as assuming a Twitter stream will save your business.

But this is not solely about advertising. As someone who has been in radio, television, print, outdoor and digital, I can assure you that without a quality product you won’t see black ink no matter how many layers of marketing lipstick you put on it.

We Share What We Like

I’m a product guy, an idea guy, a creative guy, a strategic guy and that includes all content. We share with others when we see a great movie or a great commercial. We rarely discuss what medium we found it on – that is irrelevant.

As the chatter increases about this medium or that, let’s stop and be very honest about the content. Is it any good? And if the boss isn’t convinced that the Internet is a place to find new customers, ask her to put down her smart phone for a moment and listen.

What are your thoughts?

@knealemann
Helping you integrate all you do with all you do.

photo credit: ipbase

Resolutions

For some reason, most of us find it necessary to make resolutions as we embark on a New Year. First of all, we think we’ll fool ourselves this time in to thinking that we’ll do what we say we’ll do on December 31st. Most New Year’s resolutions don’t see the end of January. This begs two questions: why do we lie to ourselves? and who do we think we are we fooling?

We mean well. We want to do these things and we think our friends, family and colleagues want to hear that we’re trying to improve. Keep in mind; they’re doing the same thing!

According to dorothy.com who asked 2,000 people over the age of 18; Two-thirds of those surveyed have made a resolution in their lives while only 17% have kept them. One third cites financial issues as the biggest hurdle in reaching their goals – that seems low.

Time is a huge one – for some strange reason we feel that our time is under someone else’s tutelage. And this is interesting, 33% of the sample said they use social networking and search engine tools to achieve their goals.

It was startling to find out that more men kept their resolutions than women. 74% of the women missed the mark while 58% of the guys did the same. Perhaps it’s because we make fewer promises or ours are not as adventurous? That’s just my guess.

This year, I thought I’d ask followers on Twitter if they had any New Year’s resolutions. Thanks for all the responses! Here is the Top 20 (in no particular order):

◦ Exercise more
◦ Make me the priority
◦ Worry less
◦ Get to know more social media friends
◦ Talk less
◦ Pay less attention to the News
◦ Play more
◦ Take better care of myself
◦ Stay away from negative people
◦ Stop drinking
◦ Find balance – for real this time
◦ Write more
◦ Live with passion
◦ Collaborate more
◦ Act more than say
◦ Release the past
◦ Replace negative thoughts with positive thoughts
◦ Laugh more
◦ Enjoy what I do
◦ Work less

Whatever your goals or plans for 2009, I hope you reach them.

Happy New Year!

km

The Cable World is Changing

This week, the Canadian Radio Television and Telecommunications Commission announced that it plans to allow satellite and cable content providers and suppliers the right to revamp their revenue models.

In a recent Globe & Mail article, reporter Grant Robertson writes; “A plan being put in place by federal regulators will let cable and satellite distributors offer up commercial time - something they were previously prevented from doing - on U.S. cable channels carried in Canada, such as CNN, MSNBC, Fox News and others.”

I’ve been in the media for a long time and sadly my brethren are reluctant to embrace change or worse yet something foreign. For instance, of all the great cable channels in the U.S., it is only now that Canadians can have access to HBO. We are expecting running water and paved streets any day now.

If you are in Canada, you may have noticed local commercials on American networks. That’s called “commercial substitution” or “local avails”. The new and more relaxed rule stipulates that the cable provider may no longer be the only stop for advertisers to go. If you want your local commercials on CNN, you may be able to buy the airtime directly from the content providers.

Robertson adds; “In cases where the shows are provided by a Canadian broadcaster, the distributor must work out a deal to share the money. But if the cable company starts buying shows directly from the producer - something Rogers Communications has done in the past for its on-demand channel - it pockets all the money.”

I am not being glib when I say that these things take time, it is important because as many have mentioned this week the rules will be near impossible to reverse. I guess I'm still innocent after all these years to think that the focus should be more on content creation than the aging content-commercials-content model. There are better ways to tell stories through fully integrated models and product plots.

More on that tomorrow.

km

p.s. I received a excellent comment about a recent posting from Keith on the west coast. Thank-you, Keith! For some reason your comment disappeared. Technology at work again.