Archive for the ‘Work’ Category

Guy Kawasaki pointed me to a brand new profession Chief Listener. Forget the fuzzy sweater, the inviting divan or the steaming pot of tea near the cozy fireplace. A Chief Listener listens online, looking if the brand that pays him/her gets mentioned somewhere.

Lately online titles crack me up. Browsing through twitter biographies I find Chief Social Media Officers, Gurus, Specialists, an  Onlinemetrist, Padawans, SoMeYedi’s , Experts, a Tweetpert (I kid you not), Chief Online Conversation Analyst, Conversation Managers, Mavens, Social Media Cross Over Consultants, and –I hope you are sitting – a non-executive chairman of a digital thinktank. Nomen est omen.

I have the bizarre feeling that the more a person is in the dark on what to do for a living, the more eccentric the online title becomes .  I need to build a reputational savvy global positioning creditproof title for when I grow up. Rainmaker. I think it suits me .

Dabbing my toe left and right in the stormy waters of Social Media, I bumped into a fascinating quote from Google big boss Eric Schmidt (Google him, it’s impressive ). He said in an interview with the Wall Street Journal: “I don’t believe society understands what happens when everything is available, knowable and recorded by everyone all the time… I mean we really have to think about these things as a society… Young people may one day have to change their names in order to escape their previous online activity.”

This is a concern I have voiced for a long time now. Do people really know what they are sharing? Do people really want to tell every last detail of their most private lives online, for Google to index? Do people realize that that very cute picture in that minuscule teenie weenie yellow polka dot bikini is available for their future boss? What about the massive tagging of pictures taken by smartphones in the dark of a hen night? Do people realize Tweets are indexed and kept, long after their authors have deleted and forgotten them?

Schmidt has a point. Digital citizens should be more aware of the digital traces they leave behind. Some social auto-responsibility is required, indeed. Some social clean up even: map your real friends. Find a circle where sharing is mutual and well defined. Un-friend and un-follow the shady ones. Be online street-smart. And we need more e-netiquette. The freedom of waving your digital camera around ends where someone else’s freedom (for privacy) begins. An opt-in/opt-out for tagging?

We all can become social-digital smarter. But we’ve all been young. We’ve all partied. We’ve all made big, social mistakes. Luckily, for my generation, the memories of those mistakes have been blissfully eroded by the softening hand of time. Should we now be merciless on youngsters that made that one drunken mistake online? Should we continue to judge that one girl for loving the wrong guy just a bit too much, and ending up tagged on exgirlfriends.com?

Maybe Eric Schmidt and his all-powerful Google have a responsibility here: can you get a second chance from Google? Imagine, mister Schmidt, if a youngster made that one online mistake, and motivates why he/she would like to see it blown into –permanent- oblivion.  Could you alter your logarithm, and give the kid the rest of his/her life back? Would that not be easier, more respectful, and more educative than just offering future generations the possibility to change their names?

But I do not want to put the entire burden on Eric Schmidt’s shoulders, I agree with online consultant Suw Charman-Anderson who said somewhere:  “As a society, we are just going to have to become a bit more forgiving of the follies of youth.”

It’s almost funny. I met a distinguished communication specialist, -expensive suit, nicely groomed grey hair- rambling at a cocktail party a week ago. He gave his attentive audience some remarkable quotes… one of them being that “digital communication is a nice to have these days”. Nice to have. That is what he is counseling his clients. Nice to have. When I wanted to know if he actually ever used social media, he confessed that he did “not have the time for any of that modern nonsense”.

I can find a plethora of well paid, highly intelligent consultants counseling their clients on digital: without any experience, knowledge, frame of reference or even remote understanding. People with less than a handful followers on Twitter, who never tweet, who are not experimenting, who have no access to any metric tools are helping brands decide on how to communicate. Do not get me wrong. I do not think for a moment that all wisdom and results come through or from social media. I am an honest believer in integrated communications. Keep the best of the past, add the best of today, and you’ll be armed for the future…

But, seriously, how can you give valuable advice on something you do not practice, that you do not know, and that you do not master? How do you take the responsibility? It beats me. These people do not have a clue how social media can be a great add-on to the communication mix. . The reason is mindblowing simple: they do not know, because they do not use it themselves. Management by example. Counseling by example. Only people who actively participate in social media are able to determine if their clients could benefit in any way. Not being involved in social media gives you absolutely no insights on what it is about. So you should be silent about it.

On every corner of the street, there is a self-proclaimed social media guru now, shooting some buzzwords in a presentation, and trying to tap into the marketing honey-pot.

Never take advice from a guru with an online social capital that is lower than your own. Call it street wisdom.

I get my social media streams funneled into my brain through five screens. Content comes in swiftly at a nice steady rate of about a tweet/post/second. Do not worry. If your content is remotely interesting, challenging, funny, edgy, groundbreaking or special… I will notice. I have a decent, well-equipped army of filters, aggregators, spam detectors and fluff busters.  None of the spam shall pass. None.

But I do get the flying green space invaders looking at messages, tweets and posts that get seeded by #’s. I know hash tags are a useful thing. I love hash tags. Heck, I use hash tags. But I would love it if people would just use them wisely, with caution. Not all the time. Not #everywordbelongsbehindahashtag you know. And if you need a hash tag so #yourmessagelooksfunny, maybe you should redefine the metric fun system.

O well. #maybeImjustgettingold.

You do not have to follow me, you do not have to follow anybody .

My colleagues from the London office invited me to speak at their healthcare event “How to communicate with the 21st Century Patient”.  Highlighting the importance of digital media seemed a logical thing .  More and more patients turn to the internet as their first source of information, confronting their medical practitioners and doctors with the information they have found online. Dealing with this “dr Google phenomenon” is something that is changing the medical playfield, and frankly a bit of a challenge.

A freelance healthcare writer, co-presenting at the event, is an excellent    journalist (with a focus on print media). However, I had to disagree with her when she stated that off-line information is per definition better than on-line information, and that online providers of content are mostly inferior to off-line providers.

And that is when the sleeping journalist in me roared. When I was a young press monkey, older journalists were better, and journalists with a blue accreditation cards were better than the ones with a green card. Now the quality debate shifted to it’s online, or offline.  Honestly, that is enough nonsense to propel a pound of half-cooked beef in an orbit around Betelgeuse.

It is NOT about off line or online. It is about quality of content. If the content is good, crosschecked, weighed, referenced, footnoted, transparent, honest and correct…. I could not care less if it is written by a journalist with a diamond incrusted press card, or by a nerdy blogger in a Hindustani basement.

Encyclopedia Britannica, the self-proclaimed God of wisdom, proves to be less correct than the crowd sourced, wiki-drafted, and community controlled Wikipedia.

Trust me, you will also find fine and balanced content online. Written by journalists; bloggers; moms and dreamy eyed students. Not all of those have nihil obstat press card blessing… who cares?

Shuffling through my weekly mountain of undigested news, I stumbled on a nice article in the Wall Street Journal on how Digital Media have created countless gigabytes of text, sound, and images… most of it created by people who understand little of the professional standards and practices for media. One might think that this produces an un-fresh sea of mediocrity, eroding quality and acceptability, and steering humanity as we know it directly into chaos and intellectual collapse.

But do not jump too quickly to the wrong conclusions. Since Gutenberg invented the book press (and people eroded contemporary literature with vulgar versions of the Bible and its interpretation) , every increase in freedom to create or consume alarms people who want to defend the old system and set of metrics….  Every century, the “old ones” accuse the new technology to make the younger generation stupid. And still, humanity seems to get smarter, week by week…

Close to two billion people today are connected to the same network, spending more than a trillion hours a year of free time, creating a cognitive surplus so gigantic that even a tiny fraction of it that can be seen as “valuable” creates breathtaking positive effects.

The Wall Street Journal states that: “Increased freedom to create means increased freedom to create throwaway material, as well as freedom to indulge in the experimentation that eventually makes the good new stuff possible.”

On this rainy Sunday I agree. We’re watching a digital revolution: on communications, media, press, conversations, connections, privacy, work/life balance, and countless other holy grails.  There is never an easy way through a revolution. We’ll have to ride it out, bolting the rails just in front of a fast moving train.   Of one thing I’m convinced, in the end, when we will lick our wounds, and watch how the dust settles… we’ll discover it will have made us stronger, and smarter.

I’ve been passionate about location based services for ages. In my humble –but very wise - opinion, the various possibilities for location based offerings are endless. True, location will only pay-off and be widely accepted when it will be closely linked to the psychographic and econo-graphic profile of the user. And the user needs to be in full control of the level and focus of the LBS information coming through his shields… But we’re not there yet.

After GPS in car and navigation on mobile devices, the first steps of true location based applications are surfacing fast. Twitter, Facebook and other networks scatter to embed location in their offering.  Gowalla and Foursquare constructed their complete business model around it.  Most users still look a bit hesitant at these services. Checking into places is a nice gimmick, but what does it really bring? And how quick do people tire of collecting mayorships and badges? Pay-offs will have to be found to keep as well consumers as businesses and brands in the game.

The tracks are now being laid in front of the fast moving train. Starbucks, the coffee phenomenon, already rewarded frequent customers with a collectors Barista badge on Foursquare. It now jumps a hell of a step further by offering a stunning 1 dollar discount to people holding a Starbucks mayorship on Foursquare.  

Getting a full $1 off a $4 Frappuccino is a baffling discount. For the first time, loyal customers get a tangible pay-off for their location based social media advocacy of their favorite brand.

Collecting badges, adding new places, posting reviews and sharing tips just jumped from mouth-to-mouth sharing in a game-esk set-up to a possible lucrative business with a direct ROI for participants. The rules of the game have fundamentally changed. Did any-one notice?

Meeting a great delegation of Porter Novelli West Cost while in San Diego was nice. Great to see some real people on the old avatars. And I must admit, the Surf and Turf that I attacked during the Social Media chat was…. Mjummie. And huge! This is just a lobster…tail .

Dear Yves,

about a week ago I sent you an open post, tweet and mail: on you and Twitter. You probably did not see it, but lots of people (yours truly included) offered you some insights and do’s and don’ts on social media.

But you and your colleagues had a busy week, we know. A week where the people of this country, and people interested in this country followed every single syllable of the politicians that are negotiating the future of this country.

You twittered about nice flowers and our Belgian tennis babes. Nothing wrong with that. And you went to sleep at 1 in the morning on Wednesday. One of my American followers found that useful information. And in the midst of the negotiations on the future of Belgium, you found time to tweet about cycling.

And half the world was amazed to hear two hours later from sleepy journalists that you did not find the solution to Brussel-Halle-Vilvoorde.

@alexanderdecroo warned on Twitter that he would bring your government down, if you had not a solution today. Did he not tell you? See, you could have known if you would have followed him on Twitter?  And @svengatz said already on Wednesday he would split something, anything really. But you do not follow Sven either.

I realize negotiating is hard and perilous work. But looking from a distance, we, communications people, see a clear lack of communication. People who do not reach out, who do not find each other. Who talk, but do not listen. Who communicate egocentrically…

Maybe, going forward, you and the other politicians could start interacting, listening. To each other. To citizens. That can start with real simple things. Like following each other on Twitter.

Tell me how you tweet. I’ll tell you who are…

sincerely,

@dannydevriendt

 My inbox gets flooded by a small 350 press releases per week, and I thought nothing would surprise me. Been there. Read it. . And then, PRNewswire slammed a release on my screen that got my attention:

“Men With iPhones Are More Attractive to Women”. People with way too much time on their hands apparently conducted a survey of 1500 women that suggests that men who own the Apple iPhone handset are more attractive than those who do not. 54 % of women will date you quicker when you have Apples cutest… and iPhones owners are luckiest in love. There, I said it.

The study used topnotch techniques to come to quotes as “if he has an iPhone then he’s obviously intelligent and well-off.”

Now look, it took us, men, a gazillion generations to judge women on their intelligence, humor, wits… and not on the length of their skirts. And now some heavily paid marketing bonobos discovered that those women judge and label us on the size of our… phones?

But I’m not giving in. Let’s get an #equalphoneday right after #equalpayday until all men will be treated equally by women, independent on the status of their phones.

It has to be said: I can appreciate a good old trend from time to time: a certain continuity that clearly shows life is going on. Rambo, 1, 2, 3; The Godfather I, II, III; Windows 2000, 2005,… But trop is just too much… Lately people use the word generation a bit too eagerly.

First there was Generation X, and then came the fully connected web-designed smart kids of generation Y. Here @ Heliade towers, we’re still trying to figure out what those Y-ers eat (lactose free bio vegetables?) and there comes Randstad with a new label: Generation R.
According to a study conducted by Randstad, a human resources group, Generation R describes a whole generation (there you have that word again) frustrated professionals who have survived the recession. Yep: the R stands for recession.
Many companies had to downsize (rightsize, optsize, lay-off or fire) a lot of staff, leaving those who stayed with much expanded roles. These survivors had to shape up and take on roles above their job titles and pay-checks.
Needless to say that these people progressed way faster in this lean and mean environment: skills and experience were injected and generated Red Bull-fueled progress.
Now that the economy stops sputtering a bit, and some slow traction can be perceived, Generation R wants to be rewarded: upgraded, refitted and boosted. And we’re talking paycheck, title, and career path. If they do not get what they want, fast… they leave, to cash in their new status elsewhere…
I guess the keys of all those lonely Audi R8’s and Porsche GT3-RS’s that were slowly gathering dust after the financial bubble, will be tossed to Generation R now.
Heck, I’ll have to ask mom what generation I am….

Cladoselache.  You got to love its handy fusiform, it’s torpedo streamlined spindle-shaped body and its sharp, multicusped teeth. Meet the shark, the silent scream or adrenaline boosting predator that gives surviving divers something to talk about.

And with the Cladoselache Digitalis Mother Nature’s most able fighting machine has a new variety: the digital shark. These are the hungry dark forces of evil that lurk in the swimming areas of the digital decade,the merciless soldiers of fortune that hunt for inappropriate content, revealing pictures, stupid career quotes or private life threatening remarks.

I’m still flabbergasted how younger people carelessly share all of their thoughts, pictures, movies and views… unprotected and online.

I admit. With my grey hair and old bones, I’m not exactly the role model of the digital native, and maybe I am growing too ancient to understand. But if I look at what some people share on their Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare and tutti quanti my heart just misses a beat. Do they know I know? Do they know I can see? Do they know that, if I can  so can the whole of west-Timbuktu?

Sharing thoughts and nice moments is fine, as fine as snorkeling in the Blue Lagoon. Just be careful…. Old Bones is telling you it’s a jungle out there.

And what you share can be used… there is a difference between a digital native, and a digital naive…

Since people follow me in (in? through? on?) Social Media, life becomes increasingly complicated. O yes, facing multiple ethical dilemmas here. I do like interaction, sharing and even cynical or ironical snowball fights.  But would it be wrong to employ an expert hit-man to deal with all of the lunatics on social networks? I hear they come cheap these days.

Honestly, I’m not interested in adding to your barn in Farmville, and your fish in Aquarium really would be better off in sushi. I did not receive any complaints about my reproductive hardware, and do not need a system upgrade for that. I have followers by the thousands, so am NOT interested in buying half a Pondukuriststan province into following me (buying followers, you’re joking, right?).

The 350 million dollar you want to put on my banking account would just get me in major trouble with my ego and the Belgian tax authorities. I am not into renting exotic beauties either… I hate anything that smells like TrueTwit, and if your golden formula to get rich is working, why do you still bother bothering me?

So I’m looking for a Cyber Rambo willing to root out the evil accounts, bots and tweeps that dirty my online existence. There is good money to be made

I am the mayor of Avalon, a secret Eden in Normandy. And I collect other Foursquare mayor-ships like ancient warriors glued scalps to their Hokenavaloha Spears. But there is a new game in town: the Quest for the ultimate Foursquare badges.

A new breed Knights of the Round Table boldly crosses city borders and mountain ranges and dwells in ridiculous expensive cocktail lounges and fashionable trade shows to collect and unlock the most prestigious badges.

For you, dear readers, that have been living under a stone for the last 14 months, good morning,  Foursquare is a location centered application that allows users to update their location, and share it with friends.

In this most Holy Quest, some are really pushing it far. Let me tell you the tale of fifteen-year-old Parker Liautaud and 44-year old David Newman who are on this  most very moment racing themselves through endless miles of powder snow and wee-wee freezing temperatures to be the first to check in at the North Pole.

That’s right. The North Pole. Just to unlock a badge that looks exactly like this.

O well. Let them have it. I will personally leave no stone unturned to get an even greater badge. This one.

You get it when you recklessly showed up in 25 different pizza places.

Do you hear this, Parker and David? 25! Choose your battles carefully!

Sometimes, I just like it when it gets a bit mesjogge . The dudes and hipsters of Blendtec always crack me up. Blendtec makes high end food blenders (they come at a price ).

No better way to test it than trying to blend…. Well… about everything. Here is the blender test for the shiny new iPad!

Luckily, my good political incorrect friends @Topgear can easily beat this. With no one buying power cars, how about using the V8 engine to power a food blender! Richard Hammond and James May are left to taste Jeremy Clarkson’s Beef, Bovril and Brick smoothie, which goes down a treat!

Hell, yeah