Influential Marketing Blog

How To Be A Better Entrepreneur, Friend, Parent, Marketer & Human

NOTE FROM ROHIT: Likeonomics is now AVAILABLE - if you read my previous post and decided to wait to buy it because I asked you to, thank you!!

Please purchase your copy of Likeonomics RIGHT NOW!

About four months ago I was sitting at home during an unseasonably warm evening in late January. It was the night of the State of the Union address, and was feeling that unshakeable mixture of happiness and sadness that happens usually on the last day of an amazing vacation. That day I had just delivered the final manuscript for Likeonomics, but as I read the news online that afternoon I found a story that was still bothering me hours later. 

The media was reporting on comments from politicians delivered in something called a "prebuttal." A prebuttal (as opposed to a rebuttal) is based on the idea that you can talk about all the ways that you disagree with someone before they have even said a word. Welcome to politics in 2012. In fact, welcome to the world itself. 

I have written before about how we are in the midst of a very real believability crisis and to find our ways out of it and build a more trustworthy world will take a new philosophy.  Along the path to writing Likeonomics, I researched (and wrote about) many interesting nuggets from history, such as the moment when Microsoft almost bought Pixar to the moment almost exactly thirty years ago when two guys with a crazy idea started The Weather Channel. From the story of Nelson Mandela in South Africa to the surprising tourism policies of the Bhutanese government, the process of writing the book also took me to some unexpected places.  Ultimately, what I learned was about far more than marketing or even business.

Likeonomics is really a book about how any of us might become better people. How likeability might be the real secret to trust AND success ... and most of all how BEING more human could help any of us be better in every part of our lives.  

This week is launch week for Likeonomics. A chance for me to FINALLY share everything about the book with you. A chance for me to tell you NOT to wait anymore and to go out and buy the book and buy as many copies as you can! 

So every day this week I'll be sharing a different story and exclusive excerpt from the book here. Each day will be from one of the chapters featuring a different principle of Likeonomics:

• Monday - This Post!
• Tuesday - Truth
• Wednesday - Relevance
• Thursday - Unselfishness
• Friday - Simplicity
• Saturday - Timing

My goal is simple. The more I can share about the idea of Likeonomics and offer some value back to you and your daily life, the more likely you are to see what the book is about and perhaps decide to pick up a copy. 

To give you a head start, here is a password free, no-email-required, completely FREE download of the Prologue from Likeonomics, starting with the interwoven stories of a Lard Salesman, an NFL Agent and a YouTube Star: www.likeonomics.com/excerpt  

If your interest is peaked, or even if you are just up for doing something to support me and my efforts this week because you may have found some value in my blog over the years, PLEASE consider buying a copy of Likeonomics RIGHT NOW.  

Not only do I hope it will help you become a better entrepreneur, friend, parent, marketer and human ... but I look forward to sharing some real stories and lessons from the book with you throughout this week to show you exactly how!

 

 

 

5 Marketing Lessons From Uber (The World's Best Travel App)

Several weeks ago I was standing on a street corner in New York. (This is not the sentence I thought I'd start this post with, but go with me ...) After unsuccessfully trying to hail a cab, I decided to try out an app I had heard about called Uber. I had heard it was useful for those kinds of situations. From the moment of signup - a process which took way less time than I expected, to the actual act of immediately booking a car and heading happily on my way to LaGuardia Airport just 15 minutes later - the experience transformed my NY trip. Experience itself is getting lots of great media attention for solving a big problem in the taxicab experience - but what was particularly interesting for me, of course, was the marketing lessons their successful experience can offer. Here are five big lessons you can learn from Uber:

1. Simplify mobile signups. I hardly ever sign up for any kind of service on my phone, because typing on a touch screen is such a pain. Unfortunately, when signing up for Uber, I was literally standing on a street corner and had no choice. The app seemed to be designed for exactly that. They only captured the most important and basic details, and let me take a photo of my credit card to scan in the number (instead of having to type it). Every app and signup process should do this one simple thing.
2. Add fun to necessary waiting. After I requested a pickup, the app confirmed that I had a driver ... but it didn't stop there. As I was waiting, the app showed a Google map image of where I was and where my car was. Then I could track my car's progress in real time as it drove to meet me. Sure I was checking email and Twitter while waiting, but it was actually fun (yes fun!) to watch that car coming closer and closer until it arrived exactly as the map predicted. No empty hoping that every next car would be mine. The entire experience was stress free.
3. Give people useful data they didn't ask for. After my trip, I received an email with my final total cost for the trip and a receipt. This was what I expected. What I didn't expect was that they also told me exactly how long my journey had taken, how many miles we traveled (which is how they calculate the fare) and what the average speed was that whole time. I definitely didn't need that information, but somehow I was still glad to have it.
4. Make rating a two way street. When your journey finishes, you have the chance to rate your driver - which is nice. What you don't expect is that your driver also has a chance to rate you. So now karma has a real rating system, and it penalizes you for being an a-hole to your driver, if you happen to be that kind of person. That's how the world should work, and people should get rewarded or penalized for how they treat other people, so I love this. Not to mention that it finally gives drivers some way to be part of that rating conversation as well.
5. Don't apologize for excluding some people. The app has been criticized for its focus on urban city dwellers and price point that makes it about 50% more expensive than taxis, if not more. But this criticism also means that they have a clear picture of who their target audience is ... a consumer who doesn't mind paying more for the reliability and comfort of a clean black sedan that shows up exactly when you expect it.

All of these together make Uber probably my favourite new app ... and marketing story to offer lessons to each of us no matter what we are trying to promote.

50 SXSW 2012 Panels Worth Getting Excited About

Here's a sad fact about SXSW - at any given time there are at least 16 other talks, events or meetups that you could be attending besides the one that you do make it to.  That's assuming you even make it to any events at all.  But whether you are ambitiously aiming to make it to a long list of events, or not going to SXSW at all ... the fact is that the range of talks offers a really interesting spotlight into trends and insights for anyone working in a digital or business role today. 

Some are good world changing ideas, and others are the worst kind of introspective navel gazing crap you would expect from a big interactive conference filled with people who spend way too much time idolizing one another. To help bring attention to some gems amidst the noise, here is my list of great panels happening at SXSW this year. I know I won't make all of them, but these are the ones I'm really excited about and highly recommend. In case you're interested, check out my full virtual schedule for SXSW, including other events outside of panels here.

Also, here are a few places where you'll be able to see me for sure in case you're going and would like to meet up:

1. MEETUP - The "Get Ready For SXSW" Meetup For 1st & 5th Timers (And Anyone In Between) - (Friday, Mar 9th at 3pm) Co-hosted with Charles Duhigg, Author of The Power of Habit (currently #12 in Books on Amazon).
2. PANEL - How To Be Strategically Unlikeable Online (Monday, Mar 12th at 9:30am) - my talk at SXSW, which will be the biggest panel at SXSW thanks to a big surprise we'll be unveiling on stage.

Friday, March 9

1. OMG Your RFP Is Killing Me (2:00pm) - As someone who has suffered through trying to respond to more poorly written, confusing and contradictory RFPs than I care to admit, I am thankful for this panel.  Anyone working in a consulting or agency role should be too.
2. The Accidental Creative (4:00pm) - A session I am looking forward to from a book I really enjoyed. The biggest takeaway from me about what it takes to be continually creative ... fill your brain with knowledge from outside your industry, and let your mind make the connections itself.
3. Why Happiness Is the New Currency (5:00pm) - This is a topic that is seeing more attention from multiple places these days - which is a great thing since most of us don't spend enough time understanding what really will make us happy and how to get there. The cure to rising social media jealousy?  Find a better metric for happiness.

Saturday, March 10

1. Digital Vertigo (9:30am) - A sneak peek at the new book from Andrew Keen (author of Cult of the Amateur - a great commentary on the downside of social media). This is a preview of his latest book Digital Vertigo - and someone who has managed to piss off as many "social media gurus" as he has is worth a listen ... even if you might not agree with his point of view.
2. Crowdsourcing a Revolution: Can We Fix Healthcare? (11:00am) - One of the most exciting things about SXSW this year for me is how so many panels on the topic of healthcare are now integrated into the main program at the event. This is one of the first, and looks to be one of the best that I highly recommend checking out.
3. The Power of Fear in Networked Publics (11:00am) - A great session from Microsoft researcher Danah Boyd on how fear is such a pervasive part of our culture and how it impacts our behaviour.  I imagine this session will give me lots to think about in terms the positives and negatives of using fear as a motivator for anything.
4. The Complexity Curve: How to Design for Simplicity (11:00am) - The title says it all for this one - if you do any design for anyone, you should go to this talk.
5. Likeable Social Media (11:30am) - A talk from my good friend and fellow believer in the power of likeability, Dave Kerpen. Highly recommended.
6. Not Just Tech Support: Online in India (12:30pm) - India is finally emerging from beyond the outsourcing reputation, and this panel is one that I'm really excited about attending because of how it is one of the few panels focusing on India and its role in the the future of business and social media.
7. Catch Me If You Can: Frank Abagnale 10 Years Later (3:30pm) - I am a fan of this movie, and intrigued to hear what Frank Abagnale is doing today.  Beyond that draw, he seems like a super interesting guy and one worth listening to tell the story of his life.
8. The Curators and the Curated (3:30pm) - A great session on a really popular and important topic, this is part of the Future of Journalism track that I hope to spend some time attending at SXSW.  Plus the speaker list including David Carr, Maria Popova and Noah Brier are all worth listening to.
9. Not Your Mommy's Blog: The Evolution of Dad Blogs (3:30pm) - If you are a Dad working in marketing, it is easy to feel ignored because everything seems so focused on the moms.  Sure, they make most of the decisions and buy most of the stuff - but we matter too, don't we?  Dad bloggers get the short end of the stick when it comes to visibility and attention too.  And in case that's not enough of a reason to attend this session, you might just find out that Dad's can be a good target market to sell your stuff to as well.
10. FOMO: How Can Brands Tap into Fears of Missing Out (3:30pm) - I have read plenty of great insights from Ann Mack at JWT in the past, so to see her giving a session like this was enough reason to put it on my short list.  The FOMO trend is one that definitely matters when it comes to consumer behaviour in an age when everyone shares everything they are doing ... especially at SXSW.
11. Priming Audiences for a Truly Social Olympic Games (5:00pm) - I am surprised that there are so few sessions devoted to Olympics considering it is coming up in just a few months, but this one promises to be a great sneak peek at some of the very cool social engagement programs that will be coming during the London Games in August.
12. The View from Inside Rainn Wilson's Brainstem (5:00pm) - Um, Rainn Wilson - Dwight from The Office and author of the amazing SoulPancake book ... do you really need more of a reason?
13. Abundance: The Future Is Better Than You Think (5:00pm) - I had the chance to get an advance copy of Peter Diamandis' new book that this talk is based on, and it will be worth attending.  Even though he is up against Rainn Wilson, definitely try to check this out.
14. Beg, Borrow, Bribe: Startups in Emerging Markets (5:00pm) - A great and important session from G Kofi Annan on emerging markets and startup culture.  The insights in this session will be super useful if you do any work in this area, or care about how to support more innovation and entrepreneurship in emerging markets.
15. Enterprise Social Media: Five Emerging Trends (5:00pm) - A super relevant session from two leaders at IBM about trends in enterprise social media.  This will likely be very applicable if you do any work with social media and driving its strategic use and adoption in large enterprise cultures.

Sunday, March 11

1. Can Gaming Make the World Better? (9:30am) - Gaming is definitely a hot topic, but the quality of the speakers on this panel makes it a must see on my list, and it should be on yours as well.
2. The State of Social Marketing (9:30am) - Another session with a great list of organizations represented, including Eloqua, Jess3, The Next Web and Unified.  I've heard almost all these speakers or know them personally, and this should be a great panel.
3. Food Trucks Share Social Media Tips (9:30am) - A perfect topic for a panel in Austin, food trucks sit perfectly at the intersection of so many hot topics in social media today ... dining and reviews, geolocation and mobility, and experiential marketing.  The insights in this session should be applicable to a wide range of businesses and industries. 
4. Friending Pharma: Patients, Industry & New Media (9:30am) - Another healthcare session worth checking out, and one of the only ones to even mention Pharma in the title.   
5. Pitching Start Ups to Ad Agencies and Clients (9:30am) - The main reason this one is on my list is because I am one of those agency guys heading to SXSW and open to being pitched by startups. One of the biggest reasons I return year after year is because it is one of the few events where I can get some face to face time with people doing interesting things with startups.  
6. Socializing the Presidency: Digital Politics 2012 (9:30am) - There are lots of political panels happening at SXSW this year thanks to it also being an election year. This one stood out to me because of the quality of the speakers - Christina Bellantoni from PBS, Craig from Craigslist, Heather Smith from Rock the Vote and Maria Teresa Kumar from Voto Latino. Check out this panel to help get ready for what will be the most social media enabled election in history.  
7. Mother Goose Got Punked: Next Gen Visual Stories (11:00am) - Not only do I love the fact that this storytelling session focuses on nonprofits, but the majority of the speakers are photographers and videographers themselves - which means that this should be a highly practical and informative session for anyone in the nonprofit world looking to get better at telling engaging stories.  
8. Discoverability and the New World of Book PR (11:00am) - Having met or heard a few of the speakers on this panel before, anyone considering writing a launching a book should put this panel on your list.  Not only should get a lot from the discussion, but the Q&A should offer a great discussion and some highly useful tips to take away.  
9. The Science of Habits: Why We Do What We Do (11:00am) - This is the official session for Charles Duhigg, who will be co-hosting a meetup with me on Friday.  In case you don't make it to our meetup, or even if you do, I highly recommend seeing Charles talk about his amazing book in person.  
10. FILM - Decoding Deepak (World Premiere - 11:00am) - This is the only film that made my list (in case you forgot, SXSW is also a huge film festival!).  It is the world premiere of a highly engaging film from Gotham Chopra, Deepak Chopra's son.  I have corresponded with him in the past and seen the trailer for the film (which you can also watch here) and it is pretty amazing. For anyone who has admired Deepak Chopra from afar, or ever considered what it would be like to be the kid of a famous person ... this movie brilliantly deconstructs the experience. 
11. How Brain Science Turns Browsers into Buyers (11:00am) - I have read several of the books from the speakers at this session and just having AK Pradeep (author of The Buying Brain) and Roger Dooley (author of Brainfluence) - two of the leading minds in studying how our brains control the buying decisions we make - is enough to make this panel worth attending. For anyone who has a website or business to optimize based on real research from leading researchers studying the brain, this session should blow your mind (um, pun intended).   
12. Open Art, Open Audiences: The Edinburgh Festivals (12:30pm) - The Edinburgh Festival is one that I have admired from afar for some time and always thought about making it to. This session should be an entertaining chance to go behind the scenes.  
13. How We Do It in Brazil (12:30pm) - Once again SXSW is very thin on panels with a global focus, but this is one that made my list. It's focus is doing business in Brazil, which should matter for many businesses because of the size of the country and economy, but also because it will be hosting the Olympics in 2016 and the FIFA World Cup in 2014.  
14. Everybody's a Bloody Entrepreneur! Or Are They? (12:30pm) - It doesn't take much these days to call yourself an entrepreneur, and this panel focuses on the good and bad of that.  It is enough to make this panel interesting, but also love that it is a panel full of successful female entrepreneurs, but that the focus of the session isn't on women in business or women in tech. We often pay too much attention to that, and not enough to the credentials and expertise of the speakers themselves. This is a session filled with four super successful entrepreneurs. Period.
15. The Payment Revolution is Coming: Welcome to Interchange Zero (12:45pm) - Telling you to go to a keynote talk doesn't really offer much - they all should be good. But this one with Scvngr founder Seth Priebatsch is on such an important topic that it really is a can't miss session. The future of money, digital wallets and virtual currency all are hot topics this year. I can't make every session about those, but this is one that I plan to be at.
16. What the Internet Finds Funny: Creating & Covering Humor Online (3:30pm) - The powerful role the humor in marketing and advertising can take in actually punching through and being effective.  The only reason I think we don't see more sessions on this is because of how pitifully bad most marketers are at it.  
17. Reprogram Your Yard, Then Eat It (3:30pm) - This is not on my list for any social media or professional learning, but instead because I'm just so interested in the idea. Can I learn to grow my own food, get over my own mental barriers and actually make myself healthier in the process?  If there is any talk on the list that should immediately be turned into a DVD and made required viewing for at least half of America, this would be it. 
18. Digital Immortals: Preserving Life Beyond Death (5:00pm) - This was a hot topic last year and seems to have died down a bit since then, but is no less relevant as a trend or important topic that we should all pay attention to.  For anyone who has wondered what happens to your Facebook page after you pass away, and all the other issues around "digital death" - this panel should be a good one.
19. PostSecret + BLUEBRAIN: A Multimedia Presentation (6:30pm) - If Frank Warren were showing up somewhere to read random entries from Wikipedia, I'd probably show up ... and pay good money for a ticket too.  In this session, the creator of PostSecret will go interactive and do something new and different with his amazing content.  If you don't have this on your list to attend, you need to add it.

Monday, March 12

1. MY PANEL: How to Be Strategically Unlikeable Online (9:30am) - This is my panel, so obviously I'm biased ... but I'm planning something unexpected and it should be a lot of fun, and educational too.  I hope you do show up, and in case you are planning on it, here's a page where you can RSVP to attend.
2. Branded Documentary: Cause Marketing's Best Media? (11:00am) - Ever since the success of Inconvenient Truth, this has surely been a hot topic for nonprofits - so I love the idea for this session.
3. Invention & Inspiration: Building a Better World (11:00am) - If you care about innovation at all, seeing Dean Kamen has to be on your short list.  His bio describes him as a "prolific inventor who has been compared to Edison."  In his case, it isn't just ego or exaggeration.
4. Shut Up & Draw: A Non-Artist Way to Think Visually (11:00am) - Dan Roam and Sunni Brown in one panel session? There's only one word for that ... WOW.  This panel needs to be on your short list because both of them are amazing people and talented communicators as well. This will be an amazing session.
5. HOW: Why HOW We Do Anything Means Everything (11:30am) - I loved Dov Seidman's book and his important message about "corporate virtue" is an important one for any business to hear.  This is a book reading that should be worth the time to see.  
6. The Business of Kevin Smith (12:30pm) - As a media pioneer, Kevin Smith has launched plenty of firsts in the film and entertainment industry. His view of the world is one that I can't wait to listen to.
7. #140conf @ SXSW 2012 (3:30pm) - Jeff Pulver is a master community builder - which is why every one of his #140 events are such a hit. He is running an abbreviated version of one of his events at SXSW, and one that you should try to make it to - especially if you have never made it to one of his #140 events before.
8. Africa, Tech & Women: The New Faces of Development (5:00pm) - This panel brings together several under represented topics into one - which alone makes it interesting enough to make my list. 
9. Timing is Everything: How to Maximize Your PR (5:00pm) - I have long believed in the power of timing to make marketing and PR more effective. In fact, it is a topic I devote an entire chapter to in my upcoming book. This will be a great session and reminder that if you haven't got the right timing, you're just preparing for failure.  
10. En/Forced Femme: Sex Workers and Social Media (6:30pm) - A topic that we don't see enough conversation about is the role of social media in enabling forced sex workers. This should be an interesting session on the topic from a sex worker who will have a unique point of view. I love that this is part of the scheduling at SXSW.

Tuesday, March 13

1. I May "Like" You, but I'm Not in Like with You (9:30am) - There's been a lot of conversation lately about how much a "Like" on Facebook really matters. In many cases it doesn't. This panel should bring that conversation up in a timely way.
2. China: Creators and Consumers of the Future (9:30am) - There are many panels this year on China - and this one looked like one of the most promising because of its dual focus on creation and consumption coming from China.  If I make it to one panel focused on China, this should be it.
3. Who Needs a Fashion Cycle? I've Got Social Media (11:00am) - A great panel focused on the intersection of fashion and digital tools.  Social shopping will be part of this and is a hot topic for the coming year. 
4. Philanthropy for Everyone: Community Grantmaking (11:00am) - Some of the biggest crowdsourcing examples today are in the community grantmaking space, so I really like the idea of bringing microlending to smaller regional areas - including Detroit. This session should offer some great discussion about the next phase of Community Grantmaking.
5. The Future of Work and the Free Radical (12:30pm) - How we work is changing, where we work isn't. This great panel should offer a new look at how the future of work will be dramatically different primarily because the things that matter to the work force are dramatically changing.
6. Social Media & Young Children: Our Kids' Futures (3:30pm) - Now that my older son is 7 years old, he is starting to use the computer by himself ... which is a freak out moment for me because I know all the crazy stuff online.  As he gets older and starts using social media, I'm sure I will start to panic even more - so this session is super relevant for me, but also for anyone who has young kids today.  
7. Digital Debauchery with Anthony Bourdain (3:30pm) - I wish I was still going to be in Austin to be able to attend this one, because I love the viewpoint that Anthony Bourdain has offered through his travel shows.  He not only goes to interesting places, but he the best kind of adventurer, who doesn't need to dive off cliffs or climb into a cave with spiders to show us all the wierd and wonderful things that our world already has in it.

Of course there are probably a bunch of great panels that I missed.  In case you happen to be leading one, or have one that you're particularly excited about - feel free to add it in the comments.  And in case you didn't already realize, I only included the panels and talks during the Interactive part of the festival!

2012 Edition: 15 Marketing and Business Trends That Matter

Let me tell you a little secret.  I look forward to putting together an annual trend report the same way that some people look forward to having Turkey for Thanksgiving dinner. I realize that may sound a bit strange, but ever since I did my first trend recap last year I was hooked.  This year, the process of collecting the trends took all year.  I have a folder on my desk labelled "Trends 2012" and throughout the year I would rip out articles from magazines or printout webpages to save. Last November I started actually writing my trend presentation and finally released it on Slideshare yesterday. 

 

A few things surprised me about the trends this year. Here are a few of the most unexpected things:

1. Only 2 out of 15 trends are based on innovative technology (Trends #10 and #13). Given the prominence of technology in our lives and more and more digital tools, I expected that more of the trends for 2012 would be based entirely on technology innovation. That ended up not being the case as most of the trends focused more on either behaviours or the use of sites and technology that already exist and don't really require much innovation in order to keep growing.
2. Creativity and design are more important than ever. While it would have been too obvious to point this out as a trend on its own, many of the trends that were included in the presentation were highly dependent on encouraging more creativity and delivering great design. Measuring Life, for example, has taken off in part thanks to great product and interface designs. Pointillist Filmmaking or Social Artivism are clearly based on creativity and design. Even Retail Theater, Tagging Reality and Charitable Engagement are all trends that require creative thinking and  strong ability to use design to engage people.
3. People actively seek opportunities to participate, collaborate or experience something. Doing something together came up as a big motivator for many of the trends this year, as Social Loneliness led people to look for more opportunities to have great experiences or be part of something worthwhile. Pointillist Filmmaking, Civic Engagement 2.0 and Retail Theater are all examples where people are seeking the chance to participate in something. Charitable Engagement ChangeSourcing and Co-Curation are other trends where people offer their time and passions to collaborate together on something.

Let me know what you think about these trends with a comment here or on Facebook, or feel free to send me an email at influentialmarketing@gmail.com.  Next week I'll be starting my trend folder to gather stories for 2013 ...

If you would like to get a downloadable version of this presentation, you can find it on my Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/rohitmarketingauthor.

Survive The Modern Believability Crisis: Be Meaningful

Last year when I spoke at a TEDx conference on reinventing marketing, I asked what I thought at the time was a relatively innocent question: "how many people in the audience feel that marketing is adding something positive to the world around them?" Of the few hands that went up, the majority came from people in marketing ... underscoring a gulf that has exponentially multipled in the 16 months since that talk. Today people around the world are launching full occupying demonstrations against big corporate brands and new research points to the US as the only country to see trust in all institutions decline from 2010 to 2011.  The bottom line is we are fully into a modern believability crisis.

And it is not just a crisis for marketing people either. When we live in a world where people become skeptical of everything around them and wary of any type of manipulation, we all lose. Society itself becomes a tougher place to interact with others and survive in. People only consume news they agree with, compromise is seen as surrender and the bickering of politicians becomes just a precursor to a similar toxic dissent which may start to invade the rest of our lives and interactions. 

If this seems like a doomsday scenario, the good news is that this week signs of hope emerged from some very unexpected places:

Though certainly colored by politics, Bill Clinton's new book Back To Work was profiled in yesterday's New York Times. In the review, reporter Michiko Kakutani says that Clinton "serves up a succinct common-sense argument for why America needs a strong national government, why both spending cuts and increased tax revenues are necessary for addressing the debt problem."

Also this week, communications agency Havas Media released a global study which showed that "only 20% of brands have a notable positive impact on our sense of wellbeing and quality of life." In the research which polled 50,000 people in 14 countries, they found that "most people would not care if 70% of brands ceased to exist (and in the US alone this number goes up to 82%)."

In a related point, they found that "nearly 85% of consumers worldwide expect companies to become actively involved in solving these issues (an increase of 15% from 2010)." The underlying message of the research is that companies must find a way to stand for more than just the products they make.  The impact they have on the world around them is becoming increasingly important to increasing customer loyalty.

Today I am speaking and participating in BrandsConf, a conference all about how brands can rediscover their humanity. More than two dozen speakers will share their thoughts in short bursts of 5 or 10 minutes each on how to add more humanity to the way that large organizations communicate. It could not have come at a better time. This idea of more human brands is closely related to why companies matter more to people.  Yes, a big part of it is how you choose to do business in the world and whether it is sustainable and responsible.  The other important piece, however, is the people who represent your brand and the human connection they can offer.

The real battle today isn't one of perception ... but one of meaning. In a sense, this is the big problem I am writing a book about how to solve (Likeonomics) - and one that the many speakers today will likely cover. Ultimately solving it will require a new level of organizational vulnerability and commitment for them to be more human and more honest. Honesty creates trust, and trust leads to us changing the culture of business and our culture itself.

I saw this first hand last week at the Opportunity Nation Summit as well, where business, religious, political and media leaders came together to talk about the importance for all of us to create a nation of opportunity for everyone. For too long, as the summit shared, the zip code you are born in determines our future. That shouldn't be the case.  Business has an important role to play in this revolution ... and it isn't to sit back and let the attacks fly.

In a skeptical world where honesty has become the most unexpected thing of all ... making your brand meaningful to your consumer's life comes first from finding a way to tell the truth when you answer the question of whether you are offering anything positive to the world. Being meaningful is the new secret to creating long term brand value.

5 Surprising Reasons Haters Are Good For Your Business

There are generally two kinds of businesses, the ones who are afraid of haters and the ones who aren't. A hater is pretty easy to spot - someone who is disgruntled enough to actively turn to every avenue they can find to talk about how much they hate you and your business. They often find their way onto social media, thanks to the low barrier of entry and promise that any invisible comment can find its way onto the highly visible first page of Google results.

Though it may not seem like it, these haters are a good thing. Here are a few reasons why:

1. Haters expose vulnerability. No business is perfect and haters sometimes have valid points. It requires an open mind to be able to focus on the heart of a complaint and ignore the emotionally charged aspects, but if you do then this can make your business stronger because it helps you hone in on the things that you really need to fix.
2. Haters can be converted. There are many types of haters that may come to your business. The most frequent type isn’t the one who will passionately hate your business forever, but rather someone who has had a negative experience of some kind. If you can find a way to fix that experience and make it right, that same person can be transformed into your biggest advocate.
3. Haters bring attention. Though I am not a believer in the “any publicity is good publicity” motto of some … the fact is that when you have people actively talking about how bad or pathetic your business is – it can add visibility and help to keep you from being invisible. If you can find the right ways to counter the negativity, that attention can actually become a good thing.
4. Haters publicize frequently asked questions. If you have a FAQ page on your website, you will realize the power that answering often asked questions can have for giving potential customers an idea not just of what you do … but also what you DON’T do.
5. Haters validate social media efforts. If you have been actively using social media, the goodwill that you may have built up with your fans and friends comes in very handy when haters appear. The people you have invested time in building relationships with will often stick up for your brand and fight on your side.

Facebook Bankruptcy: How (And Why) To Convert Your Personal Profile To A Facebook Page

FINAL UPDATE: This process did not go as expected for me and there are several downsides to converting your profile to a page.  Read my update at the end of this post for why you may NOT want to do this before you make a decision - it includes some things I wish I knew before starting this process.

For more than a year now, I have had a problem with Facebook. When I first joined the social network several years ago, I intended to be completely open.  I accepted every friend request and posted whatever I wanted. Over time, as my friend circle on Facebook started to grow, I found that I was less personally connected to the people who I was "friends" with on Facebook. Now, several years later, my Facebook page is a mashup of people who I am connected with for different reasons. As of today, I have 2434 friends on my personal profile and hundreds of friend invites which are sitting in my queue unapproved because I don't really know what to do with them. Sound familiar?

This is a problem that I know many others have, and one that Burger King brilliantly brought to life back in 2009 with their "Whopper Sacrifice" campaign which infamously called upon Facebook users to defriend people in exchange for a free whopper and had more than 234,000 people choose to defriend 10 people each. As the reasoning went, anyone you would trade in for a whopper couldn't have been that good of a friend, right?  In case you were wondering, I didn't dump anyone for a free burger.  Still, my problem of losing the separation between personal and business contacts on Facebook continued. This weekend I am finally going to fix that problem by declaring "Facebook bankruptcy."

"Facebook Bankruptcy" is the extreme act of either closing an account altogether or migrating it to a different type of account in an effort to reduce or better organize your friends. 

5 Good Reasons To Convert Your Personal Profile To A Page

This weekend, I will convert my personal profile into a Facebook Page, something that I read about doing some time ago in a Mashable post.  For me, I think this is going to be useful 5 reasons:

1. Leverage your best URL: I can start to use www.facebook.com/rohitbhargava as my official Facebook page URL instead of my personal profile URL, which is what it is now. This is a BIG motivator for me to make this change because I really want to be able to use a better and more logical URL at events (my current Facebook Author Page URL is www.facebook.com/rohitmarketingauthor). 
2. More effectively segment people by relationships: It will be easier to separate my work colleagues and acquaintances from my closer friends and family who I know in person (and have generally met!)
3. Handle pending friend requests: It will give me a solution for how to handle all the backlog of pending friend requests that I have. I am going to approve everyone over the weekend and then convert the page. 
4. Allow relationships to scale: I will no longer be limited by the 5000 friend maximum that a personal profile has, which means my page will be able to scale over time. 
5. Enable better privacy control + Share better content: One reason I don't share too much about my family and kids is because I don't have a more personal way to do it. After this, I can share more personal thoughts and images with my smaller circle of friends - something that I have wanted to be able to do for a long time.

What Are The Risks?

There are a few big risks that I have been considering related to this, as well as how I might be able to handle them:

1. Multiple Facebook Pages: Given that I already have an Author page for myself, converting my personal profile will give me two pages for myself. This is not a problem that I have found a great solution for yet (so please let me know if you have one!).  There is a page on Facebook about how to merge two pages, but otherwise I may try to contact Facebook directly to find a way to do this and combine the fans.
2. Losing past content and conversations: The help page for migrating a page clearly says that all your profile photos will remain, but the other content such as wall posts and messages will be lost - so you need to download them before converting. For some people this may be a big problem, but I never tended to use Facebook messages a lot, and my wall posts are about moments in time so while I would love to have access to them, I am ok with losing them because the benefits of migrating my profile to a page are higher. 
3. Annoying friends by trying to turn them into "fans": This is probably my biggest concern, because of the inherent rudeness of turning someone who wants to be your "friend" into what is essentially a "fan" even though Facebook doesn't use that term anymore. Part of my method for dealing with it is to write this post and publicize WHY I am doing this so people who already follow me understand my reasons. The other better reason is because I think that the content I am able to share with people will improve because I can share what they ACTUALLY care about. Having a Facebook Page helps me to separate my more marketing related thoughts and ideas which MOST of my friends who are not in marketing don't really care about.

So, taking those pieces together - I have decided it's time to finally do it. In case you happen to be following me on any of these places, thanks and I hope you continue to stay there. If this change makes you angry or somehow otherwise unhappy, I'm truly sorry. And for those who just want to see how the experience goes, here are a few links to my existing Facebook pages:

http://www.facebook.com/rohitbhargava (Currently my personal profile)

http://www.facebook.com/rohitmarketingauthor (Currently my Facebook Author Page)

NOTE: I will likely come back to this post after several weeks and share an update on how the experience went - in case anyone is considering doing the same thing in the future. 

Update: Why NOT To Update Your Personal Profile Into A Facebook Page

Let's just say I wish I had done a bit more research on this process before taking the plunge to migrate my profile.  After having a few issues, I read these two posts which I highly recommend you follow the links to read right now:

• http://mashable.com/2011/03/31/facebook-profile-migration-warning/
• http://www.zeldman.com/2011/03/05/migrating-from-a-conventional-facebook-account-to-a-public-figure-fan-page-%E2%80%93-a-report-from-the-trenches/

For my own experience, there were a few things that I wish I had considered before which might have impacted my decision to migrate my page.

1. Facebook URLs don't transfer - One of the main reasons I wanted to change my profile to my page was so that I could use the URL I had registered as my public facing URL. When you convert your page, you lose the URL - a strange policy since anyone who has a profile and wants to migrate to page would probably want to keep any URL they have.
2. The "Facebook Suicide Moment" is painful - When you first migrate your account and it shows up, your profile is gone right away, but your new page has 0 likes. The immediate result is that you think you just killed yourself on Facebook and lost all your friends. Eventually after a couple of hours your friends come back as likes, but it's a traumatic experience - be warned!
3. Profiles can't be added to pages - Once you convert your account, if you then want to create a separate personal profile (as I did) then you will need to create a SEPARATE account in order to do that.  I wanted to keep all my accounts under one umbrella, and though I could create a new profile and then make that an admin on all my pages to control it centrally, it is still a unwanted extra step.
4. Friends can't be easily re-added to a profile - Perhaps the toughest thing about this migration, as Christina Warren shared in her post linked above is that you can't add all the friends that you want to because Facebook thinks that you are spamming people even though you actually know them.

So I am going to try and find a Facebook connection who can help me migrate my page back into my profile (I already submitted an online request).  After that, I will likely take the manual step of trying to reduce my friends on my personal profile to only family, friends and those whom I have met in person.  Wish me luck.

Final Update: How My Experience Ended Up (11/11/11)

After trying unsuccessfully to get my page converted back, I have moved ahead with my original plan.  So now the fans on my official Page have doubled and that is now going to be my page moving forward.  I created a separate personal profile and now have made that mostly private and am only accepting friend invitations there from family and people that I know in real life or have an actual personal connection to (rather than just a shared interest in marketing, for example).  Here are a few things I've finally learned about this process, as well as a few ongoing sources of frustration:

1. Page name is lost - I have officially lost my original URL that I had associated with my personal profile when that profile was converted to a page.  I am working through a Facebook connection to get it back, but in case you are very attached to the URL you currently have for your personal page, you may want to reconsider converting that profile into a page because you will lose that URL.
2. Friend network is tough to rebuild - You can add your friends based on Facebook's suggestion tool to your new personal profile, but after adding a few - you will continually be blocked because Facebook assumes that you are spamming.  The end result is that you may have to wait months to add people who you legitimately know because you can't send them invites and they don't realize that you are no longer friends and have converted them into "likers" of your page instead.  There seems to be no way around this. 
3. The "Admin" Hack - One workaround that you will figure out quickly is due to the fact that your profile that you now converted into a page will only let you log into the page and not add your personal profile to the same account.  That means you will now have two accounts, but the hack to get around this is to add your new account and profile as an adminstrator of any pages that you manage.  Then you can manage all your pages from your new personal account directly.

Ultimately, the entire experience of doing this was useful to get all my fans onto a single page, but has exposed some serious usability problems with Facebook when it comes to doing a more complex task like this.  That coupled with the near impossiblity of using Facebook to accomplish a simple task (such as letting any of your friends or family who live in NY know that you will be there next weekend) makes Facebook a major pain to use as a primary social network.  It is not surprising several people I respect like Chris Brogan are actively moving away from Facebook to Google+. One bottom line result of this entire experience is that I will likely start to do the same myself. 

The Magic Button: Finding The Real Secret Formula For Social Media

Let me tell you a secret I don't often share: I have a magic social media button. This button has only one special power: when I press it, I can immediately give you a million fans, followers or friends. You can choose whether you want this instant audience on Twitter or Facebook or some other site. They would have no cost to you, and you would have all of them overnight. The only catch is that they are from completely random regions and demographics - and I can offer you no guarantee if they know anything about your business at all.

Would you ask me to push that button? More importantly, if I did offer you a million new fans overnight - what would you do with them? Everytime I ask this question, I'm greeted with a similar silence. See, the problem with the math here is that I'm giving you a truckload of UNQUALIFIED followers to your page. For all you know, I might be offering a million steak lovers as new followers for your vegetarian restaurant. Good luck using Facebook to convince them to give up their steaks and go for tofu instead.

Ok, by now you've probably realized that I don't actually have that magic button - but the premise isn't so silly. Everyday business owners challenge their marketing teams to build fan bases to reach as big a number as possible. So they turn to promotions and short term incentives. Like our page for a chance to win a vacation. Follow us on Twitter and we'll give 10 cents to the charity of your choice. Who cares what you like, if you care about our brand or if you might ever actually buy anything from us?

Playing the volume game is setting yourself up for failure. Instead, you need to focus all of your efforts on two big things:

1. Passion - how much do you love us, our products, our people or your experience with our business?
2. Influence - what is the size of your network and how many people pay attention to your opinion?

Those two elements are the real secret formula behind social media. When you have them both, all sort of good things happen. People talk to other people. Engagement is high. Customer satisfaction, and more importantly, customer delight goes through the roof.  If you're looking for a formula for success in social media, that's it.  It might not be as easy as a magic button - but it is certainly not complicated.

Toyota Venza Reminds Us Of The Dangers Of Evangelism

If there is one universal truth that almost no one in the world of technology or social media has figured out, it might be this: everyone hates evangelists. No matter what they are "evangelizing" - the world view anyone who claims this title for themselves usually has is that the product, service or idea that they have to share with the world is one that everyone should adopt. Evangelists don't see the world as it is - they see it as a place that would be better if only more people agreed with them.

That kind of one-sided thinking is dangerous, whether for joining Facebook, adopting a religion, buying an iPad or anything else. I found an unlikely reminder of this several days ago through a brilliant ad for the Toyota Venza which pits an active middle aged couple against their teenage social media obsessed daughter. As they go out into the world and enjoy their lives, their daughter laments about how "anti-social" they are and calls their 19 friends on Facebook "so sad." Check it out:



How many times might any "social media enthuasiast" find ourselves in exactly that same position? In the ad, the daughter (played perfectly by Allyn Rachel - @allynrachel on Twitter) is an evangelist for a technology that her parents are managing to do just fine without. For me, the ad stood out as a rare reminder that there is a hidden cost to our growing culture of evangelists. As marketers work to build "brand ambassadors" and ordinary customers find pleasure (and sometimes revenue) in becoming the unofficial voices for brands - there will be a coming backlash against those who are overly evangelical.

So instead of so much dueling evangelism, what if each of us just focused on ourselves instead of "converting" others to our point of view?   In an ideal world, people should always feel free to share their passion about the things they love ... as long as we all don't have to agree on what those things are.

The Marketing Truth Which Surprised Mark Zuckerberg

The first time that brands were ever allowed on Facebook, the only way they could advertise was by offering a specific promotion. No brand awareness campaigns or focus on engagement ... just a simple offer. It was a symbol of how Facebook (and Mark Zuckerberg in particular) saw brands entering into the previously sacred space of the Facebook social network in the early days. Brands were once a necessary evil, something that had to be endured so Facebook would be able to continue to pay the bills and pay back all their VC investors. 

Fast forward several years and you will really appreciate this stunning statistic - the "Like button" is clicked a total of 91 million times every month. And many of those clicks are for brand sponsored pages. Earlier this week I was lucky enough to be invited to attend and speak at Intel's internal conference focused on social media. More than 125 social media pioneers from within Intel came from around the world to participate, and one of the speakers was Aimee Westbrook from Facebook. Among the many interesting facts about brands working with Facebook that she shared was this data point which should make any marketer sit up in their chair: 50% of all the people on Facebook have clicked the "Like" button on a brand page in the last 30 days.

It was thanks to this affinity that more and more people are sharing around connecting with brands they like that Mark Zuckerberg changed his view of brands on Facebook. Brands were no longer the soul-sucking necessary evil Facebook endured so they could afford to run their business. Brands had a place on Facebook because people WANTED to connect with them in a social sense. More than anything else, this is a profound argument for the importance of social media as a communications channel.

On the world's largest social network, where people are connecting with long lost friends and loved ones separated by oceans can share their lives, brands no longer need to be online equivalent of the intrusive telemarketing call at dinner that everyone hates to get. They have a seat at the table, and if they behave themselves, they can even share the meal.

Finally there is a place where brands could be welcomed into an authentic conversation with their customers.  Whether you are Mark Zuckerberg or not, it's hard to imagine anything more surprising than that.