Jaffe Juice

Jaffe Juice #142 - Joel and Jaffe Part 8 - The death of conversation

My friend, colleague, peer and fellow thought leader, Mitch Joel, the man behind Twist Image, Six Pixels of Separation (book, blog) and I have decided to hold monthly conversations, debates and back-and-forths that will dive a little deeper into the Digital Marketing and Social Media landscape. This is our eight conversation and this one focuses on the if we're really having any semblance of a conversation at all in Social Media, or if Marketers have done a great job of selling the invisible (once again).

A little more context (follow the links) can be found here

Enjoy the conversation... 

Listen to it LIVE or download it here

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Jaffe Juice Overdose?

Never!

...so here's a summary of a variety of places and spaces I've been spreading the juice of late:

1. A terrific interview with destination CRM/CRM magazine on "Flip the Funnel"
2. Marketing podcast, The Beancast - the latest episode just posted in which host Bob Knorpp and panelists, Ken Wheaton, Erik Proulx, Jeff Cutler and myself discuss Facebook's location-based announcement and privacy in general, TBWA\Chiat\Day's digital stumbles, whether mobile has arrived or not...and much more
3. Poolside chat with David Armano (@armano), where we discuss thought leadership and the difference between "thinking" and "doing"
4. It's becoming a regular for me....my third appearance on Small Business Advocate with host, Jim Blasingame. We discuss community, leveling the playing fields and more.
5. Marketing over Coffee podcast conversation with host, John Wall. We discuss "Flip the Funnel"
6. A great review of "Flip the Funnel" from Patrick Reyes. Be sure to click through to the Saturn example
7. Also how about this great merchandising of "Flip the Funnel" which - unbeknownst to me - was created by Readitfor.me

JJTV #87 - Lets do lunch (making an impression with a business card)

An interesting experiment at SxSW inspired by my new friend, Elaine Ellis @ Trada. At a given point in time at SxSW, I reached into my pocket to assess all the business cards and which ones stood out.

Can the business card itself be and leave the impression?

I reveal all....

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The Power(ed) of Social Media

 
WOW! It really is possible to keep a secret in a world where there are no secrets (only information you don't already have). I just got back from C.E.S. in Vegas and after hanging out with people like GaGa, Levar Burton, Brent Spiner, Scottie (Monty), Jeff Cutler, Chris Heuer, Brian Solis, Chris Brogan (not really), Bobbie Scoble (not really), Jeff Pulver (not really), Leo (really), Justine (i), Sarah (almost told her), Rick (sorry), Steve Rubel, Rohit (how was the Adult Film party?), David Churbuck and much much more, not a word or whisper about 00011110 (the binary equivalent of the magic number 30).

Sooooooo......after 3+ years after founding and building crayon into a social media strategic playa, today I get to announce that crayon is now the "powered crayon" (hat tip to Forrester's Augie Ray) AKA crayon has been acquired by Austin-based Powered, Inc.

Along with crayon, Powered has also acquired Portland-based StepChange, gurus extraordinaire in all things social networking and mobile apps, widgets and presence (fan pages etc) and New York-based Drillteam, demons in engaging brand loyalists and advocates in the form of offline and online seeding and activation programs.

I should probably also tell you that Powered itself is a leader in terms of creating, building and sustaining branded communities online.

You don't have to look too hard to connect the dots and see that the concept of "community" is an incredibly strong common thread that brings all four companies together - whether this lives in the form of social networking or a tupperware party.

We don't want to resort to the usual plethora of poppycock and bravado (other than solely mine of course) and we're mindful of empty promises - especially in the social media space. So for now, let's just say that the four compaines have combined to build - what we believe is - the first full service social media agency with scale.

Let me stress this is a work-in-progress and that we intend to prove ourselves and let our collective work speak for itself. We already have an arsenal of case studies, but now it's time to let 1 + 1 + 1 + 1 = 30.

I'll be constantly updating a list of resources that you can refer to for more information, including the social media press release and various blog entries from both inside our company (CMO Aaron Strout's post here, including answers to several FAQ's) and outside.

Update: Additional press/blog mentions:

• crayonista Greg Verdino's post
• MediaPost
• Adweek
• PaidContent.org
• Austin Statesman
• Web Strategy
• Agency Spy

For now, I wanted to do 3 things:

1. Share with you why I sold the company I started
2. Talk to you a little about my passion for what I think we can achieve
3. Give thanks

I actually don't look at this as selling (or certainly selling out), but rather "buying in." Whereas most company owners, founders or execs sell and as quickly as you can say "golden handcuffs", bolt....I'm joining a company that I think can do amazing things - not only for its shareholders and clients, but for the industry at large. More on that in a jiffy.

I have to say that being an "entrepreneur" or "small business owner" is probably the hardest and most worthwhile thing I've ever done professionally. I guess I was both when I left the traditional agency world in 2002 and formed my jaffe, LLC army-of-one, but when you have partners, employees, members or professional "dependents," it's a different ballgame altogether.

To explain why I sold crayon is to explain to you why I started crayon in the first place. I've always believed that it's easy as pie to be a prognosticator or pundit. Writing books or giving speeches about dumb companies making dumb decisions is just part of perpetuating the status quo. This is probably why there's so much (justified) backlash against self-proclaimed social-media experts. I didn't want to be part of the problem; I wanted to part of the solution. I wanted to be part of a team again. I wanted to turn strategic and creative ideas into reality and in doing so, prove that the vision in my books was credible and capable of moving mountains.

I believe that we did just that in the past 3 years for clients including the likes of Panasonic, Coca-Cola, Kraft Foods, American Airlines, H&R Block, Colorado Technical University, Facebook, ooVoo, GyPSii and much more.

So now it's time to kick that up a few hundred notches. I call it taking one step forward in order to leap forward 100 more steps in the process.

Those of you who know me are well aware that I'm "financially challenged". I'm also no operational guy. I'm an Interruptor and I wanted to focus on doing what I love and what I do best, as opposed to the incredibly complex and demanding rigor of running a company.

...and that's exactly what's happening. I get to ramp up my evangelism big time, focus on maximum damage and destabalization within the lethargic industry, whilst simultaneously helping our clients reap incredible rewards from implementing commitment-based programs that are head and shoulders ahead of their competition.

On the way into Vegas, I had a chat with my friend, Sean Finnegan, who heads up all of Starcom Mediavest's Digital Media. We debated whether business needed a dedicated social media department or the industry needed a dedicated social media agency. The counterargument was that social media was too important to be siloed or specialized into a vertical capability. I was itching to tell Sean the news, which quite clearly emphatically communicates where I sit on this debate.

Put succinctly, what percentage of traditional agencies TODAY truly gets (and delivers against) digital, let alone social? I rest my case. How on earth can we expect traditional agencies to master both digital AND social at the same time? On a different level, I'd argue that the same could be said about digital and P.R. agencies when it comes to social. And I did in this Adweek article and as you can see in the comments, the truth hurts.

Bottom line: social is both a horizontal and vertical imperative and I intend to do my part to help Powered become one of (if not the) leading social media agency that can deliver broad-based and profoundly transformational social media solutions to brands that need them.

With my third book, "Flip the Funnel" coming out in about a month's time, I expect to invest a good chunk of my time promoting and talking about the book; dividing my time between writing, speaking and conference events on the one hand and working closely with the group's clients on the other. I'm giddy with excitement about the rise of customer experience and how "retention can become the new acquisition" (more on that soon) and will be devoting much headspace to the central themes of the book.

I also intend to rededicate myself to blogging...yes, blogging. To hell with Posterous and Twitter. I'm all about the renaissance of blogging. I also plan to revive Jaffe Juice - the New Marketing Podcast, starting with a live podcast on Tuesday morning at 9am EST with all the new members of the Powered family talking about the momentous event. If you'd like to listen in and participate with questions, comments or challenges, here's the link. And last but not least, I'm going to continue building out Jaffe Juice TV (check it out why don't you and subscribe on iTunes or via YouTube)

Whereas Drillteam and StepChange will continue to operate as independent entities, crayon is very quickly rolling up into a bundled Powered package. That said, crayon's strategic solution of consulting, planning and advisory services will continue to be offered (only now with more oomph, diversity and scale).

And so finally to thanks. I wanted to start off by thanking my family for putting up with me working 7 days a week for the past 7 years and spending so much time on the road.

I want to thank my family of crayonistas: Greg, Jane, Amadeo, Kate and Gary for putting up with me until the end. In particular, I have to single out Greg Verdino, who is my right hand and without him, I would be lost.

I want to thank all of our clients. Your belief, support and most importantly, friendship, is invaluable beyond words. One of my most incredible memories from crayon will be the EQUAL partnership and bonds formed with our clients. I simply despise how so many agencies have a superiority complex and feel their clients "don't get it"; they do. Big time. I totally expect these relationships to continue; with genuine personal and professional respect as a mandatory.

Finally, I want to thank all the ex-crayonistas who played their part at some point in building this company, but for whatever reason moved on. As you can see there are a lot of them and I think this emphasizes how difficult it is to run a business that is so strongly reliant on talent and properly invest and manage the cultural, interpersonal and yes, even political dynamics that are part of the job. Every single person here is a star and many have gone on to achieve fantastic things since leaving (which is something that I'm pretty proud of). Your color from the big box will always remain "retired": Gary C, Francis, Shel, Neville, CC, Aaron, Michael, Chris, Steve, Scott, Melissa, Seni, Deb, Earl, Adam S, Adam B and Gary K (and if I left anyone out, I apologize and will you add you in ASAP.)

So I guess that's it for now. I'll be spending the next day or two trying to respond as much as possible to comments on this blog, Facebook, text messaging, e-mail, cell and yes, of course Twitter (there's a Twitter press conference today at 2pm EST, hashtag #powered). I hope you can join tomorrow's (Tuesday) podcast recording at 9am EST. I hope to see many of you and continue this conversation in person at some point....sooner rather than later. Perhaps at SXSW or next week's MarketingSherpa e-mail conference in Miami.

These are exciting times and the tide is going to rise like no end to float all boats that embrace change, and sink those that resist it (because of all those holes)

The magical number 30

30 is an incredible number with both magical and mystical properties. It has huge implications for business, economics and finance. It also has a series of very relevant marketing attributes which include holistic thinking, integration, (strategic) planning, innovation and more.

2009: The Year of Nothing

My latest Adweek column is up. It's titled, "2009: The Year of Nothing" and I think it is pretty self-explanatory.

Here's the full text of the article, which deals with the lack of innovation and experimentation in a "down" year and challenges us all to step up to the plate in 2010 (or even in the final few weeks of this year). Enjoy and join the conversation on the blog, Twitter, Facebook etc.

2009: Year of Nothing

How do you plan to make sure next year is better than this one?

Nov 16, 2009

-By Joseph Jaffe

Happy New Year everybody. Time to usher in a new year...with new hopes, dreams and expectations of a year that can't really be worse than 2009. Can it? It's time to close the book on arguably one of the most frustrating, draining and demoralizing years in our professional lifetimes.

Yes, I know. It's still mid-November, but I'm pretty sure I speak on behalf of the majority of us who can't wait to slam the door shut on 2009. If '09 were associated with a color, it would probably have been associated with pink -- as in pink slip. It was a year that many, many people lost their jobs. If that doesn't include you (consider yourself fortunate), it probably affects someone you know.

2009 was a year that witnessed entire companies wiped off the face of the Earth; it was a year when media stalwarts faltered, stumbled and even careened headfirst into the dust; it was a year in which even billion-dollar bailouts couldn't motivate banks and financial institutions to incentivize and reward the backbones of this great nation: small business owners and entrepreneurs.
 
While many of us would like to wave a wand and wish this year away, it's probably not a bad idea to pause for a moment and take stock of the year that was...or perhaps I should say, the year that wasn't.

When all is said and done, what did you accomplish this year? What did you achieve? Did you venture out of your comfort zone or did you recoil into your shell and hide from the storm? How did you gauge success? Was it the ability to avoid Armageddon (as WPP's Martin Sorrell put it) or the ability to preserve status quo?

I've always liked the analogy of change and innovation as a treadmill or a conveyer belt, where the speed and the backwards direction of the belt represent the inevitable passage of time and progress. Standing still results in a pretty obvious outcome. Less obvious is what happens when the march forward is at the exact rate of the belt itself, yielding a net result of nothing. In fact, the only positive outcome is when movement is greater than that of the speed of the belt.

So how did you fare on the belt? Are you hitting your stride as you power forward or are you nursing a bruise on your rear end?

If the latter is the case, the good news is that it's not too late. Not too late to make the most of the final few weeks of the year and certainly not too late to hit the ground running in 2010. You can still make a concerted effort to make a difference. No more operating on the back foot.

It's well documented that companies who increase their investment in marketing during recessionary times almost always realize a competitive advantage from doing so. The same must apply to an operating philosophy or climate which focuses on innovation and experimentation.

As you prepare for 2010, here are a few ideas to consider:

• Carve out an experimentation or innovation mandate and commensurate budget.

• Find your magic number: perhaps it's 2 or 3 or even 4 new projects or "experiments." Is one per quarter that unrealistic?

• Less talk; more walk: Don't debate and talk yourself out of change. I hate to say it, but "just do it" already. If you can't bring yourself to commit, recognize that someone else will come along and take the initiative away from you.

• Avoid bright and shiny object syndrome. Don't wait for the next big thing, because there are way too many new colors in the box of crayons begging for your attention and consideration right now.

• Inaction is tantamount to failure. If you remain on the sidelines for too long, waiting for "proof of concept" or the mainstreaming of fringe or emerging platforms, you run the risk of being left behind. To be sure, it's a balancing act between premature experimentation and paralyzing procrastination. Find the balance and find your stride.

And while you continue to debate the relative merits and demerits of emerging media, bear in mind that the "belt" of change, evolution and even revolution never stops and is even accelerating.

So Happy New Year to you and yours. I raise my glass to your success and toast to 2010 being your Year of Something.

Waxing about crayons and candles

 
Greg Verdino, our Chief Strategy Officer, reminded me of a certain birthday today: crayon's. The little company I founded 3 year's ago is a walking and talking toddler.

No more terrible 2's, although I think we were well behaved (reasonably) during this whole period.

I wanted to personally thank the box of crayonistas (Greg, Jane, Gary, Amadeo, Kate) for everything and all that they do.

Of course I also want to thank our clients for your continued support and belief - in particular, Panasonic, Kraft Foods, The Coca-Cola Company and ooVoo.

It's also been great to have several new projects out in the ether-net, in particular Panasonic's LiHD Insider and Coca-Cola's Expedition 206 (nice write up in Mediapost here)

So that's about it. Back to work now.

Photo credit: Photolovedeb

JJTV #16 - My 10kTweetup at Southern Hospitality

Party of the Century. Thanks Justin Timberlake. I owe you one, buddy.

See you all at my 100ktweetup.....coming soon to a TGIF near you. Flickr set here

Spread the word:

• Tell Justin Timberlake, your friends, co-workers, clients and colleagues
• Tweet or RT: JJTV #16 - @jaffejuice's 10ktweetup big bash - http://bit.ly/yVRPs
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To pay or not to pay, is THAT the question?

Forrester just released a report titled "Add Sponsored Conversations To Your Toolbox," authored by Sean Corcoran.

Kmart gave some bloggers a free shopping spree in exchange for a blog post about the experience — a practice we call sponsored conversation. With appropriate protections for disclosure and authenticity, this practice will take its place alongside public relations and advertising activities in the blogosphere. Marketers should take advantage of sponsored conversation as an entrée into the online conversation. To succeed, you should get to know the bloggers you plan to work with and set expectations across your organization.

What's interesting is how Forrester is pretty deliberately putting this approach into a category of its own, alongside it's predecessors or cohorts (depending on your position), advertising and P.R. and in doing so, plays a part in terms of legitimizing or formalizing an emerging practice.

His colleague Jeremiah Owyang covers it here and Brian Morrissey at Adweek covers it here. Marshall Kirkpatrick from ReadWriteWeb takes a strong counterposition here.

I was interviewed for this piece by Sean, as was Chris Brogan, who participated in the aforementioned Kmart program, sits on the board of IZEA - the company behind the program (and the one formally known as PayPerPost). Chris responds specifically to Marshall with this post.

Here's the thing. In my time in this space thus far in a formal capacity (i.e. crayon), I've worked on two pretty public and well received programs: My ooVoo Day and the Panasonic CES program. In the former example, both Marshall and Chris were participants; in the latter one, Chris was one of the bloggers. I'm not sure I would call either of these programs "sponsored conversations". In fact, crayon calls them "tactical hooks" - a mash-up of the best (practices) of the advertising and social media worlds. Put differently, we believe that influencer outreach should be treated with the same consideration, commitment and investment as a traditional communications program from both a planning and production standpoint.

It's imperative to give influencers both a reason to believe and a reason to behave. Too often, we are lazy, greedy and gratuitous in terms of what we expect from bloggers and the like and essentially what we expect back from them, relative to what we put in, in the first place.

In a personal capacity, I've participated in both the Nikon D80 giveaway and the Sears program (part 2 of IZEA's Kmart 1-2 punch). In both cases, I wouldn't say this remotely smacked of PayPerPost; nor would I say my conversation was sponsored. In some respects,this is no different than a "celebrity" (TRUST me, I'm using that loosely) sponsorship - from loaning a star diamonds on Oscar night to adorning Tiger Woods with a cacophany of swooshes in exchange for mega moolah.

I guess the point is where on the continuum does blogger or influencer outreach fall. Personally, I believe we should be calling this "blogger/influencer outreach" and not "sponsored conversation". Let me also be very clear (and you can see from the definition), that I don't think Sean meant this to be taken in a negative light. I spoke with him and we had a great conversation. I think the real ambiguity and problem lies with us (i.e. the readers of the report; the commentators and so called social media experts etc).

Part of the problem lies with the fact "sponsored conversation" sounds a bit like "paid search" does it not? Putting two terms which seemingly mean exact opposites together and in doing so, creates a rather jarring disconnect.

Part of the problem as well lies in the endless, boring and inaccurate comparison between the new class of content creators (bloggers if you wish) and journalists. They're not...at least for the most part.

And so we come back to the two core issues:

1. Should bloggers be compensated in any way, shape or form for their time, effort, energy, passion and contribution. The answer can only be a resounding YES, with standard terms and conditions (disclosure, transparency etc) which make both common sense and business sense.
2. Is expecting bloggers (in return for aforementioned compensation) to write, talk, post, create etc about their experiences, reflections, ideas, participation crossing a line? The answer here is a resounding NO, provided there is adequate disclosure and transparency.

Come on people. Grow up and wisen up. This is a nascent industry and space which is learning and maturing all the time. What we have here is in many respects no different to how the world was, but in many respects is also incredibly and completely different. It's time to get off our high horses and open our minds, instead of stubbornly holding on to and exhibiting self-righteous, hypocritical and close-minded positions.

Whatever you call them, "sponsored conversations" are here to stay. And just like the vast differences between crap and mediocre creative (lumped together) and inspiring/breakthrough creative, so too will there be a marked difference between influencer programs that stand out from the crowd or get trampled by it.

Conversation Killers: Why most viral marketing amounts to lazy, clueless chatter

My latest Adweek article is up. It's called "Conversation Killers: Why most viral marketing amounts to lazy, clueless chatter"

Here's the text:

The movie Rounders contains a life lesson: "When sitting down at the poker table, look around for the sucker. If you don't recognize the sucker, get up and leave, because the sucker is you." Along the same lines, the next time you sit down at a planning table to discuss something viral, look for the moron leading the project and if you don't see him, excuse yourself from the meeting because that moron, my friend, is you.

As an industry, we're awfully good (and by good I mean bad) at bastardizing or perverting pretty much any natural and pure expression of engagement, influence, authenticity or passion. Take word of mouth for example: It's the oldest and most credible form of influence and "persuasion" (insert your choice of chart proving that word of mouth obliterates any other form of marketing, advertising or media), and so what do we do? We add the word "marketing" to form a new compound phrase synonymous with lame and ineffective.

It's the same concern I have with the phrase "conversational marketing," which I either created myself or just took credit for. It would appear that the second we find something that actually works, we do our best to exploit it to the point where it becomes unrecognizable and downright repugnant.

It's the same for the term "viral marketing," which has seemingly sprouted an entire industry dealing with shocking or extreme video designed to ring up "hits" on YouTube.

Don't get me wrong. I'm a big fan of the masters of pass along. I don't profess to be expert in how viruses are spread; what makes them infectious and what defines, differentiates or classifies one virus from another. It's terrific when the "world" in "world wide Web" embraces a piece of video (did you see the one where the elephant paints a self-portrait?), site (www.manbabies.com) or idea (moveon.org).

That said, I'm not terribly sure that it's predictable or reliable to plan for this kind of spreading of the word and, even more troubling, I'm not convinced that it actually works.

Here's the thing: In this day and age, all content has the ability to be wildly viral, that is, embraced, internalized, evangelized and disseminated. Rather than plan with the end in mind, might I suggest instead that we focus on the idea itself and the means to achieve that end. In other words, getting back to basics to generate compelling, relevant and engaging content and then liberating it to be embedded, hacked, mashed and showcased accordingly.

Then there's the efficacy element of the viral industry. In many respects the viral video is separated at birth from (in the greatest irony of all) the 30-second spot: Although they live at opposite ends of the spectrum, each is equally ineffective at selling stuff. The latter sells too hard, whereas the former doesn't sell hard enough. Indeed, the viral video seems to be almost apologetic at putting a brand face on an allegedly infectious value proposition.

But what if the goal of the viral is not to sell stuff at all? Heresy, I know, but not unlike 99.72 percent of all unmeasurable paid media that would make John Wanamaker vomit just a little in his mouth. What if the goal is to ring up those "hits," those faceless impressions that are reconciled with a paid media cost of zilch and multiplied by an earned media commensurate value? It's hard to argue with a free lunch, but at the same time, surely our efforts are better served by an agenda that balances quality with quantity views.

Perhaps it is unfair to hold the viral ad to a higher standard than the rest of the peanut gallery. After all, we're still talking about OfficeMax elves, CareerBuilder monkeys, a subservient chicken, Ray-Ban performing dudes and Waspy New England Smirnoff Tea Partayers aren't we? Compare this to the Stupid Bowl CareerBuilder debacle -- or as Wendell, the Miller Lite delivery guy, would say, a most effective anti-drug commercial -- and it surely seems like a steal (versus the real thieves behind the 30-second fireworks display).

True enough. But by the same token, we're also still talking about Apple's "1984," Miley Cyrus' Vanity Fair "exposé" and that incredible Kruger National Park scene with the buffalos, lions and alligator. Great content is great content, whichever way you slice it, dice it, prepare it or serve it, whether as a conversation starter, accelerant or superficial water-cooler fodder.

So let's do our best to keep our eyes on the prize: creating unique and compelling content that is sharable and infused with sociability (conversation). We'll rack up those views sure enough and not have to concern ourselves with cutting corners, reducing costs and duping our consumers into doing our jobs for us.