Archive for the ‘Uncategorized’ Category

Nice view from the tweeps at alltwitter .com. Maslow 2.0. It makes sense. Well done…

I love all of you. Well, no, that is a lie: I love most of you. But still, there is so much about you that I really, really do not want to know. Ever.

The world went crazy last year when a woman live-tweeted her drug induced abortion, live. Tons of blog posts, articles and editorial pieces were written on keeping certain things from the internet, and to safeguard some information in one’s private life, rather than on the web.

Still, looking at your twitter feeds, your blog posts, your Facebook pages: there is so much I’d better not know. I see updates flipping from in a relationship to single back to in a relationship over a weekend. So you had a big fight with your loved one, that happens. You made it up on the pillow, that is nice for you. Your life goes happily on. Only, I know.  Before, you could break up a blue Saturday night, and discover new frontiers of the Kama Sutra the next sunny morning without me noticing it. But you had to Facebook it: now I’ll never look at you the same way again.

People tell me online -through updates- that they’re out of money, hate their boss, will kill their neighbor’s cat, have a hangover, broke up, divorced, have that time of the month again, are late, were out of dental floss, shopped a G-string at Victoria’s Secret, illegally downloaded the new Susan Boyle, are looking for a new job, and secretly used their moms credit card. THAT is just what I found through the updates I saw over the last 10 days, from you.

Those are just the updates. Your picture streams are really wild, complete, and do not leave a lot to the imagination either. Keep them coming.

I have a wicked mind, I’m not a prude, I can take a joke. But I’m worried. One day, you will wake up, and realize you overshared. Big time. In a way that hurts. The update that went over, the picture that kills, the drunk tweet with consequences. That day, it will be too late. It will be all over the place, indexed, search ready, shared, stored, mirrored and backed up. Your painful slip, for always ready to be found on Google. Disaster forever just one click away.

Don’t. Don’t share it all. Think twice. Like fine lingerie, social media is as exciting for what stays hidden, than for what is revealed.

There is, deep in me, a small McGuyver. I love non conventional solutions. I love forget-about-the-box-thinking. I love Dyson engineering, a lot. My Dyson vacuum cleaner totally rocks. And it is high tech from space

I was amused to see how Dyson reinvented the fan, by taking the blades away. Now, they use it to fly hot air balloons. Me like (just do not try this at home, really!).

Bristol’s Cameron Balloons advised on and supplied the ultra light weight balloon material, but honestly, they were just interested to see if Dyson’s engineers could make it work. It took several prototypes to find the final scale required. And it involved some physics; Dyson engineers needed to overcome the machine’s thermostat control to ensure a continual heated output, whilst working in a chilly and cold space to get the required lift.  Heck, science asks for sacrifices!

It took some time to fill the balloon with the large volume of air required, whilst combating heat loss from the balloon’s large surface area. They used a second Dyson Hot™ fan heater to help overcome heat loss until the balloon took off. All in all it was quite fun. *sigh*. I guess I’m just a boy

Yes, I know. MP3 players. MP4 players. Shiny ones, megabytes, bitrates, fashionable colors. I have an iPod that has more musical power than the disco I used to hang out in, and that looks cooler than a frozen Ferrari Testarossa. But then again, so do you, and a gazillion other ones. *sigh* Being different but staying cool did not get any easier in these hip times…

Luckily, old records are so in, greying black discs turning around under real diamond headed needles… Listening to the Sex Pistols with the occasional scratches… that’s the way. If you really want to blow your audience away, try getting a steampunk record player.

Yep, this record player is powered by a small steam engine, and uses a small processor and some servos to turn the record at the exact speed. Admit, there is simply no better way to listen to God Save the Queen than powering up a small steam engine. It looks hot as hell, and is the perfect accessory for the ice cubes in your bourbon on long summer nights. In the right company, of course… 

Neatly stacked piles of paper, empty desks, desert desktops, I hate them with a vengeance. It simply never works out for me. I will try, organizing my desk, filing documents, doing creative things with Post-It’s, lining up my pencils. It will make me sneeze. It will give me a headache. It will not work. I will be setting there in that oasis of clean, ordered efficiency, helplessly fishing for inspiration. Organization, it gives me the creepiest nausea just thinking about it.

But, until now, they always made me do it, these goddesses of efficiency, these marvels of organized workspaces. Frowning from under perfectly groomed corporate hair, they will point out, slightly patronizing, how inefficient my cozy, dusty desk is, and that I would be better, faster and smarter if I just could keep it neatly organized.

Until now that is. No more. I have a new hero: Michael Schrage, a research fellow at MIT Sloan School’s Center for Digital Business . In a recent HBR report he said: “How much time do you spend each day getting better organized? Cut it in half. When it comes to investing time, thought and effort into productively organizing oneself, less is more. In fact, not only is less more, research suggests it may be faster, better and cheaper.”

Sounds like music to my ears! But it gets better:  “IBM researchers observed that email users who “searched” rather than set up files and folders for their correspondence typically found what they were looking for faster and with fewer errors. Time and overhead associated with creating and managing email folders were, effectively, a waste.”

I’m faster, better, cheaper. Schrage said it. So, get out of my office, stop frowning over my desk, and yes… I DO love my bookcase exactly as it is. I DIGG the icons on my desktop. Go get your stuff in disorder, try to keep up.

*happy sigh*

You know, I can predict the future. Every morning, I predict the day will end with dusk and dark. And, using my best Nostradamus skills, I predict a lot of New Age craziness on my favorite social networks this year. It will dwarf all talking of Michael Jackson’s death, Obama’s election, and Paris Hilton‘s underwear: the 21-12-12 frenzy.  The Mayan calendar,  you know, it maxes out end of this new year, when a huge astronomic line-up is due, and the Black Hole planet Nibiru will doom us all into the next solar maximum.  We’re doomed. We’re going to die.
Before you start maxing out your credit cards to go with a bang, hold your horses. First of all: Yes, the Long Count Calendar reaches the end of its round…. Only, it is not Mayan…  it’s Olmec.  Nowhere in Olmec or Mayan history is the end of the world mentioned. … but the end of an era.  After our calendar year 2011 was “up” and “over”, luckily we could start a new count in 2012. When the figures on the mileage counter of your car reach 99999 miles, it starts over again. So does the Olmec Long Count.  The ancient Mayas even thought it was the reason for a huge celebration…
There are even multiple references in as well Olmec as Mayan inscriptions referring to dates way beyond the turning of the long wheel (well, ellipse is more correct ). B’ak’tun 13  is not the end of time.  In fact, there are inscriptions leaping forward to October 21st 4772 AD.  We should be fine. For the moment. I think.
The cosmic line-up is another doomsday reference….  It’s been said that on 21.12.12 the Sun will lign up precisely with the Galactic Equator on the 2012 winter solstice, the precision and slight wobbling of the earth all thrown in a mix that predicts overheating of the earth’s electromagnetic capacities, prompt polar reverses and mayor catastrophes.  Too bad that neither the Olmec nor the Mayas refer anywhere to the Milky Way. No inscriptions, no tailored calendar.  Most unfortunately, even today, no one knows even remotely where the exact equator of the Galaxy is… the Galaxy still mostly being very much uncharted and unknown… what we do know is that the accepted equator did indeed  align most precisely  with the exact center of the Sun, only….. this occurred  already  on October 27, 1998.
So… I’m going out widely on one limp here: we will be fine! The world will not end, just yet. Trust me, I’m a consultant. If you DO fear 21.12.12… Porter Novelli, the company I work for, offers great crisis communications advice. Now is the time to get your end-of-life-as-we-know-it-messaging right. Contact me for end-of-time prices.  It might be your last chance to spend your budget wisely .

A marvelous 2012. It is a New Year, 366 days of blank canvas for you to fill in. Make it into a nice piece of art. May your most crazy wishes come true, may you encounter fun, friendship, starry nights, real coffee, pleasant moments, dreamy music, warm fires, plenty of luck, blue oceans, true love and crazy quarks… have a fab one!

Corporate life, you have to love it. Working in a consultancy environment, with clients that are dictated by the whims of Wall street is, well, interesting. Nearing the end of the year you spend your time waiting for Godot. Budgets erode away quicker than Artic ice in a microwave, projects get postponed, to that magic point where they emerge into the next year, maybe. Political games are played harder, sensitivities emerge more sensitive, accentuated by hourly rates, geographic location, gender, diversity, language, level, connections, hope and early Christmas carols. Decisions are phrased, rephrased, polished, re-polished, vanish into the waiting room of stuff about to happen, before they join next year’s budgets, maybe… where they will be postponed, eventually. Plans are penciled out in meeting rooms to do better, faster, quicker, with more ROI, and will be discussed in conference calls, next week, before Christmas, before Easter, but soon, really.

Q4 is the time where corporate world waits for Godot. Vladimir meets Estragon, Didi meets Dodo. The modus is waiting, rephrasing, and ironing it out in splendid PowerPoints. Meeting rooms are hard to get in December. Windows get steamy on the inside, wet on the outside.

It reminds me of J.P., best personal coach I ever met. Ex Airborne trooper, hard as nails with a hernia. Cold as frozen carbon. Liquid Freon in the veins. Eyes that burn through armor. I still can hear the gasps when we first saw his foot, or better what was left of it. J.P. amputated three toes while climbing a silly mountain in Alaska. They were frozen, going gangrene. The toes that is, not the mountain. J.P.’s wisdom is simple. You roll the dice, cut through the bone, and let it bleed. You kill it before it kills you. Don’t wait for a new year. Sometimes, you have to hammer nice.

I really miss J.P. Especially in Q4’s waiting room called Godot…

Charming spot

On Twitter, 140 characters make up a message. That’s not much and some businesses, especially small to medium-sized ones, still think Twitter is a no-go. They say it’s too short, too uncontrollable and too time-consuming.

At first glance, Twitter might indeed not seem an ideal communication tool, but in just a couple of years it has proved the world that sometimes “short” is powerful. From its genesis as a basic online SMS service, it has evolved into a world-encompassing communication tool; Twitter users generate more than 200 million tweets per day, and the microsite often beats the most sturdy news platsforms in the world with speed and accuracy. And don’t forget that close to 750 million searches are performed on Twitter every single day, making it a toup-four search engine.

Communicating in 140 characters can be extremely tricky, and when done in an unconsidered or trigger-happy way, a lot of damage to brand and reputation can be done in a heartbeat. Here are 10 ways that brands risk ruining their reputation on Twitter and, ultimately, across their marketplace:

1. You have the wrong handle. A good Twitter name should be short, catchy, simple and recognizable, and refer to your brand.

2. You’re nobody except an egg on a blue background. If you do not tell people who you are and what you stand for, you’ll never reap ROI. Use your profile to show what it is you do and what you stand for. Include your location and website, and remember to use the C3 rule: be catchy, concise and complete. Also know that the default Twitter background with the impersonal “egghead” avatar is not the road to success. Dress up the bride. Stand out. Be sparkling, inventive, inviting.

3. You’re a robot or a zombie. Communicating from a corporate pedestal and hiding behind a shiny logo gets you nowhere. People want to interact with people, not with a brand. This is the engagement part of social media; So mention in the profile who is tweeting on behalf of your brand. You’ll be amazed how much more interaction is triggered by having real people represent your brand.

4. You’re selling. If you only communicate about your beloved product all the time, people will unfollow you faster than you can press “send.” People are not interested in your sales talk or marketing language. They are interested in finding useful content, hearing smart viewpoints and getting helpful tips.

5. You’re boring. People follow you because they think you might share good information with them, or because they want to build a relationship with you or your brand. So give ‘em what you want. As a rule of thumb, divide your tweets in three buckets, one-third for conversing with people, one-third for spreading great content that others brought to you and one-third for bringing great original content to the platform. This optimal mix will allow you to boost followers, connect and engage.

6. You’re shy. Staying in your corner will not win any business or Twitter goodwill. Growing a Twitter account is hard work, and it requires commitment and a willingness to connect. The easiest way to get followers is to follow people. So search for and follow relevant accounts. So search for and follow relevant accounts. If you find someone interesting, check out who he or she is following and add some of these folks to your lists too.

7. You follow spambots and prostitutes. Tell me who you follow and I will tell you who you are, so be careful. When people start following you, it’s common courtesy to follow them back. That’s how a relationship gets started. Be smart about it though. Make sure you filter out the spammers, spambots, prostitutes and random bizarre people.

8. You don’t keep your house clean. Once in a month, do some housekeeping. Look to see if you’re following the right people back and if you answered all messages. Decide whether or not to keep people on your follow list if they are not following you. Ask yourself if the accounts you do follow are relevant in your Twitter stream. If not, unfollow them. Also, accounts that haven’t tweeted in 90 days are usually stone dead, so unfollow.

9. You’re rude. Yes, you have the right to disagree with other people and have your own opinion. What you don’t have is a reason to be rude or impolite. Deal with the message, not with the messenger, and disagree in a pleasant style.

10. You’re lazy. Remember that point earlier about unfollowing accounts that are dead? You’ll be unfollowed if you aren’t a regular tweeter. And remember that once you starte engaging, you’re in it for the long run and should never stop. Your social capital builds with every single tweet.

BONUS TIP: never tweet when angry, drunk, in love, upset, confused or high on emotion. What you put out there cannot be taken back.

(Originally published in PRNews’ Digital PR Guidebook, by Danny Devriendt , buy it here http://www.prnewsonline.com/store/57.html?hq_e=el&hq_m=2327704&hq_l=1&hq_v=b80c18002f ; republished on http://pnintelligentdialogue.be/?p=1675)

I love presenting, I love speaking. Seeing others doing it well is a joy. Peter Hinssen blew away the audience @ #TEDxBrussels. You’ll like it…

This one… just moved me. For all of you who love the power of words…

Nice one from @guykawasaki .  I have to agree with Douglas Adams:  “I love deadlines. I like the whooshing sound they make as they fly by” .

Without words .

It sounded a bit like a seriously broken record. For more than a year, most of the marketing, communications and external relations efforts for way too many companies and agencies have been terrorized by one magic word: “LIKE”.

Facebook’s LIKE button was rapidly becoming the dictator of influence. Forget about engagement, forget about sentiment, and forget about relevant content, social ecospheres, authenticity: How many “LIKES” can we have by end November? In an online world where everything can be measured, the magic key of demonstrating success was a ridiculous simple graph showing your brand had more LIKES than the competitor.  Add the evil grin on the face of the presenter: we had more LIKES!

Everyone in his right mind knows that “LIKE” does not mean a thing, that LIKE can be bought, 27 dollar per thousand… still, in many pointy haired boss presentations, LIKE became the barometer of online success.

LIKE does not give any hint on the impact content has on an audience, how the content is received, discussed, analyzed, shared, rejected. LIKE is a tool to artificially shift stuff into a timeline. Lots of great content was created, shared, approved and enjoyed, but never liked… and thus never made it into the charts.

Zuckerberg and his team are now taking wind out of the sails of LIKE. LIKE will be less dominant. People can share without liking, or simple  indicate what they read. Facebook moves clearly towards a deeper connection with the content. Basically, it turns everyone’s profile into a dynamic content page.  Mark Zuckerberg said at Facebook’s keynote: “The next five years are going to be defined by the depth of engagement”.

Creating depths of engagement will finally force brands and companies to turn away from the cheap “LIKE” hunting, to rethink their engagement strategy. Creating content that makes the Facebook crowd tick will force communicators and marketers to work harder for their money.

Finally.

Found a great infographic on jurgensundberg.net on how to get smarter about personal branding while setting up your social media ecosystem. Smartly done!

Bertrand Piccard got my full attention last year @LeWeb. Bertrand Piccard’s grandfather was the first human being in the stratosphere, his dad plunged down a whopping  14.000 meter into the Challenger Deep, and Bertrand himself adventured around the world. Nonstop. In a balloon.

“It would be childish to think humanity will compromise on comfort levels, mobility and way of living” he says: “we need innovation to adapt the technology to fit the people and the planet’s needs. Not the other way around. We need to dare to innovate, and invent sources of energy and commodities that will support human life as we know it. Simply put, the next generation will have to save us, and the planet. Or not. Either way, nature won’t care”.

A bold statement from a passionate nature loving adventurer. An open invitation to start innovating using the power of Social Media, and the wisdom of the crowds. Piccard used crowdsourcing to make his solar powered non-stop flight around the planet happen (more on www.solarimpulse.com ) .

It seems that Piccard’s public plea for crowdsourcing is a smart one.  Biochemists at the University of Washington used a worldwide set of 235.000 young gamers (!) to play a game called Pundit to help solving a decade old puzzle on the molecular structure of an AIDS like virus found in monkeys. Figuring out the structure opens the way to designing the cure. It’s that simple, but in an environment where there are billions of combinations, no professor can find the little Stone of Rosetta on his own.

The researches turned the Quest into a crowdsourcing game, looking for the most efficient, lowest energy state of the molecule. It took the combined players less than 10 days to crack the code… using auto building, smart tagging and group projections.

Using the unique human knack for seeing structures and sift through recombinations fast, is one of the key drivers of crowd sourcing success. For a lot of global players, – governments, research and development centers, universities or brands alike-, crowd sourcing will play a vital part in the next years to come.

The fundaments of successful crowd sourcing are deeply imbedded in creative connectivity, social engagement, dynamic communication lines, intuitive sharing platforms, and gamification.  It will require people with unique social connectivity skills to drive it: Connected Communicators.  Personally, I think that the word crowdsourcing does not give the planet saving potential any justice. I prefer group intelligence by far: a definition so rooted in my agogics and social sciences background it’s scary .  What communication departments, strategic consultancies and decision makers will first see what it takes to spark success through the cleverly connected wisdom of many?

Harnessing the power of millions of highly inventive brains into one sizzling solution center, connected by the power of a connected web and social sharing tools. The little Kurzweil in me is having a field day…

I still could not care less about your Klout score. Really. It’s just a number, that needs to be put in more context than I can handle right now.

Fashion brand Bal Harbour rattled my belief in social humanity as it re-defined VIP status. Someone thought it was a very good idea to go for a social-score based on Klout to determine who could attend… or not. For its Fashion’s Night Out party in Florida, you needed a Klout score of 40 or higher to get in. Now wait a minute: traditional journalists, people who did not rate their Klout score were refrained from attending? Surely that propels Bal Harbour high in the social likability charts!

What happened to the old-fashioned press-room, where a local beginning journalist could sip coffee brotherly next to a Pulitzer winning heavy weight? Or to a blogger lounge where a starting tech blogger can shake hands with @guykawasaki?

How did Klout become the official VIP rating anyway? Because their website says it can? Let me get this straight: I have nothing against Klout. I do have a Klout score, and apparently it is high enough to get me Champagne and Caviar at the Bal Harbour Shops Fashion Night Out, thank you very much! I would have been welcome there… except, I’m not influential in fashion. Not credible. No role model. No fashion kudos what-so-ever.  The whole Klout craziness is a bit tiring, and extremely worrying. If agencies and brands are using this score to determine who is important, influential and thought leading, we are far far away from home.

It’s already starting: every single day I get multiple requests on Twitter, Facebook and mail from bloggers, twitterati, Google+-ers and tutti quanti to ask me to give them a +K score on Klout. “can you please give me a +K on Klout for my blog”?  A system that can be heavily influenced by simply begging people to vote-you-up, seems a shabby standard anyway. So no, I will not +K you because you ask. Maybe I will if you deserve it.

So please, leave me now… I’ll bash in the luxurious glow of having a Klout score way higher than 40. That gives me VIP status in Florida. I made it. My star is shining…

(you can +K me on writing, blogging, social media, etc…. some of my light might shine upon you, so it’s totally worth it)

“I can do all things through him who strengthens me” - Philippians 4:13. This nice piece of wisdom gets particularly highlighted in this movie, where a father keeps a promise to his son: they will finish an Iron Man together, no matter what. Or… how “yes we CAN” gets a different meaning when it’s propelled by faith and unconditional love. Rick and Dick Hoyt in a moving tale…