dangerouslyawesome

This post is part of a 95 post series discussing the 95 theses of the Cluetrain Manifesto as they relate to business in 2009. Read more about the series in the introduction post. And check out the rest of the series!

Thesis #16: Already, companies that speak in the language of the pitch, the dog-and-pony show, are no longer speaking to anyone.

Don’t Pitch Me Bro Uploaded by chrisheuer

As we’ve established, the language of “pitch”, which includes sales, marketing, campaigns, verticals, leveraging, and more…is ineffective.

When it works, it only works when you cast a net so massive that you are working the power of numbers. If you pitch to hundreds of thousands, even millions of individuals, of course you’re going to have some rate of conversion. But that’s a ton of wasted energy. And in terms of voice, and language, is a great way to the business equivelent of laryngitis.

Why is the language of “pitch” ineffective at anything other than alienating your audience? Think about it this way. While some of us are better at it than others, we all have some innate “lie detection” built in to our communications arsenal. First line of defense? Irregular speach patterns, followed by messaging designed to obscure intent.

Now let’s examine the physiology of “the pitch”. By definition, a pitch is meant to succinctly explain

a) what you are pitching b) why it is valuable c) who you are, related to that element of value

Notice anything missing?

The ideal pitch explains how perfect your product or service is for the person being pitched to.

Unfortunately for the “pitcher”, that’s when our innate lie detection kicks in. For me, it’s the “too good to be true” meter that usually goes off the charts.

That’s usually when I turn my back. I don’t know about you, but the things that set off my lie detector send me the other way.

As soon as I hear a pitch, I assume that I’m in the middle of a bait and switch.

“Here, stay for the weekend in this beautiful ski resort. It’s free. All you need to do is sit through a 2 hour presentation about our time share offerings”.

Right. I saw that episode of South Park and I’m not buying it.

Which is why the companies that use the voice of “pitch” in all of their communications are finding that they look up from their pitch script to realize that they are talking to an empty room.

“Where did everyone go?” the pitching marketer asks.

They’re online, and they’re talking to each other.

I’ve spent the last 3 weeks working from Cluetrain theses to explain how online communities are conversing, with and without the companies they are conversing about.

While doing some more research for case studies, I came across a research report by the Online Community Research Network from March 2008. Less than a year old, I think it’s still relevant and extremely telling about the effects of the themes we’ve been discussing. Furthermore, like the Cluetrain Manifesto before it, it’s a quantitative prediction based on historical trends of things to come. I cannot tell from their website if they have more current reports than this one available, I’d love to see the results of the year to change.

Anyway, some relevant results from the report that relate directly to the Cluetrain.

One of the questions in the survey was: What were the 1-2 compelling sources of value from your community or social media efforts that you constantly communicate? The answers followed the themes below, which also include direct pull quotes from the survey responses. There’s some solid stuff in here.

1. Community helps problem solve faster and more efficiently than Customer Support, saving our company time and money: • “Customers are able to get faster response and answers to their problem utilizing the community over contacting Customer Support.” • “Knowledge share, and hence problem solving, is more efficient due to the community model.” • “The ROI on employee time devoted to the forums far exceeds the returns on the usual support methods.” 2. Availability of information and content for specific areas of interest: • “Niche communities, focused on specific areas of interest. Market leaders on-line and in print with high cross over traffic.” • “You won’t find this content anywhere else – written by our members to raise best practice within vendors.” 3. Increases site traffic / more engaged relationship with us: • “The more we invest into community, the more organic traffic we get.” • “Our community sites get more than 3 times the engagement for solutions, capabilities and use case content than our traditional sites.” • “Views of photo albums remain the most popular area of the community. Members may not wish to participate in discussions, but they do want to see photos of their events.” • “An online discussion moderated by subject matter experts that followed an in-person event with the same moderators achieved the most participation of any attempts to engage our users.” 4. Idea Creation / What we learn from members of the community: • “We will have the opportunity to get first hand feedback on products and ideas for improvements and enhancements.” • “We discovered some problem areas in usage and service adoption that caused us to change our materials and strategy.” 5. Lead Generation / Conversion: • “Converting contacts, acquaintances, and other informal relationships into donor relationships.” • “Converting contacts into activists and issue leaders.” • “When we enlist our community members to represent us physically or virtually, our reach and conversion metrics dramatically increase.” 6. People are saving time / building skills by using our site: • “People creating and building productive relationships with people that help them improve their practice or do their work better.” • “Our community members credit participation in our community with their increased skills in using our products.” 7. Build customer loyalty: • “Community members are more likely to volunteer their time, services, advice, and financial support than non-members.” • “Employees who belong to the community almost never ‘turn over’. They are consistently the best performers out in the stores.” • “Offering a community to your clients where they can speak to you and each other significantly increases customer loyalty.” • “More connected members spread the word and come back frequently.” • “If you want to understand your stakeholders and develop the relationships, you have to think in communities.” • “Online dialogue creates a more open environment that deepens trust and team work throughout the organization.” • “Research shows that customers in a community can have a sense of involvement with the company as long as we make sure they are heard and that involvement can lead to great loyalty.” • “Our community members are actively engaged with the brand and don’t hesitate to tell us what they like, and don’t like. They feel a real sense of ownership of the brand.” • “Our ability to personally communicate with future users of our product substantially influences their perception of our company.” 8. Online community is growing our membership base: • “Our blog has increased community participation by 80% over the past year.” • “We have doubled the size of our community membership in the last 6 months. 2 years ago, only 34% of our Company’s upsells and renewals were also members of the Community. In 2007, 75% of our upsells and renewals were Community members.”

So ROI is alive and well in Social Media…

And we see a solid reinforcement that Cluetrain theses are a driving force behind the value being noted.

For more details on this report, see Bill Johnston’s blog post.

Remember when I kicked off the cluetrain series saying that I’d be turning to some of my really smart friends for input and possibly contribution? Tara Hunt was on my mind then, and she is now. She just re-posted a 3+ year old blog about being a good marketer. It was great then, and it’s great now. Excerpt below, but you MUST read the full version or else I’ll come and snap off your pinky toes. I’m serious. It’s that important.

1. A good marketer is a Community Advocate
2. A good marketer knows today’s brands aren’t built in boardrooms or ad agencies or brainstorming sessions
3. A good marketer plans a little, but changes alot
4. A good marketer doesn’t only respond to community needs today, but also knows what needs will arise tomorrow
5. A good marketer rewards the community members who stand behind him/her
6. A good marketer gets involved in the community
7. A good marketer is her/his own client
8. A good marketer knows when to back off
9. A good marketer learns to use the tools available to them
10. A good marketer never takes her/himself to seriously

Now go read the whole thing. Tara’s explications of each of these points are briliant.

This post is part of a 95 post series discussing the 95 theses of the Cluetrain Manifesto as they relate to business in 2009. Read more about the series in the introduction post. And check out the rest of the series!

Thesis #15: In just a few more years, the current homogenized “voice” of business—the sound of mission statements and brochures—will seem as contrived and artificial as the language of the 18th century French court.

The homogeneity of voice predicted by the Cluetrain of 1999 has been realized. What’s worse, is that its artificiality has this creepeing effect that leaves no corner of communication untapped.

The Cluetrain has been cited as a precursor, possibly even a crystal ball, into the world of Social Media that we live in today. Of course it seems that way, hindsight being 20/20 and all. Realistically, though, I think what the Cluetrain did was recognize patterns in how humans communicate in real life, how humans communicate in business, and the differences between them. Social Media, whatever it can be defined as at the very moment that I’m writing this essay, is the convergence of those conversations. Human conversations and business conversations.

But we’re experiencing a culture clash.

Funny for some, uncomfortable to watch for others. Either way, a poor representation of reality.

The language we use to describe business activities is almost equally as absurd if you consider it in the context of the rest of your life. In the rest of your relationships.

I recently “overheard” a dialogue recently, a couple of Tweets shared between between Dave Troy and Tony Bacigalupo about “sustainability” as related to business.

Sustainability is a term that’s thrown around in business a whole lot, typically tied to business modeling. Even worse, it’s found it’s way into marketing, and we’ve started talking about building “sustainable relationships” with our business partners and customers.

Think about that for a second. It sounds positive at first, but put it into context.

Right.

The homogenized business voice is so unaware of itself and how contrived it sounds that it doesn’t even know that it’s in a hole, let alone how to dig itself out. Meanwhile, the human conversations are more real than ever before, with more people discovering their own voices and how powerful they can be when they are honest and authentic.

Here’s the problem. Discourse in business is taking place as if it’s still “us” versus “them”. Like this is a high school dance and the boys are afraid of touching the girls.

Cooties. Ew.

I’ll let you in on a little secret.

There is no them.

This post is part of a 95 post series discussing the 95 theses of the Cluetrain Manifesto as they relate to business in 2009. Read more about the series in the introduction post. And check out the rest of the series!

Thesis #11: People in networked markets have figured out that they get far better information and support from one another than from vendors. So much for corporate rhetoric about adding value to commoditized products.

Uploaded by Brassard

Imagine walking through the aisles of your local Walmart with a shopping list. You know with a certain degree of confidence that you’re going to be able to grab each item on your shopping list, and the more generic the contents of your list are, the better your chances of leaving with 100% of what you came for. Walmart, and other mass market vendors, have mastered this model by carrying not just one, but many of the same commoditized product.

To the undiscerning eyes (or the carefree shopper), soap is soap. Socks are socks. Televisions are televisions. So long as they do the same thing, the sale goes to the lowest bidder.

Walmart is the intermediary, and doesn’t care who the lowest bidder is because they make a margin on it either way.

But people have fundamentally changed, and they are more than just value conscious.

The carefree shopper cares more now than ever before, because they are more informed. It’s an interesting set of cause and effect, too.

Companies are too busy selling a line of marketing drivel, so in true “Boy who cried Wolf” fashion, every bit of messaging companies sent out is assumed to be marketing drivel.

Now consumers have networked markets. They have each other to find which soap leaves their skin the softest, which socks keep their feet the warmest, and which television the big game will look best on.

And they trust each other WAY more than they trust your marketing department.

This post is part of a 95 post series discussing the 95 theses of the Cluetrain Manifesto as they relate to business in 2009. Read more about the series in the introduction post. And check out the rest of the series!

Thesis #10: As a result, markets are getting smarter, more informed, more organized. Participation in a networked market changes people fundamentally.

We know that participation in these smart, organized, and informed markets is changing people.

News breaks differently.

I cannot remember the last purchase I made without first checking consumer reviews.

I no longer have to ponder the risks of trying a new restaurant.

Talent recruitment has changed.

Even the latest US presidential election set new precedents, and the president elect continues that leading up to inauguration.

Unfortunately, businesses are still operating under the same old presumptions that information travels wherever they direct it.

Press releases turn into press.

Advertising dollars turn into goods and services sold.

Except they don’t.

I mean, they do, but people’s attention to their markets have fundamentally changed, now that they are participating in them.

Consumers’ participation in a networked marketplace means that less of what businesses pump out is being seen when .

People have direct access to information that’s been organized organically, by people they trust more than the companies that have old school expectations.

People no longer rely on the businesses press releases, advertising campaigns, etc for discovery.

Eyeballs are still there, and they are still important. But they’re looking someplace else. They’re looking at each other, instead of upstream.

Businesses are scrambling for tools, sources, any “magic” they can find. Those businesses are falling behind every day.

It’s not about the tools, sources, or magic. It’s about participation.

There is no way for businesses to experience the benefits of the changes their customers have undergone…without participating in those markets themselves.

It’s a small segue from our Cluetrain-a-day series, but you should see a lot of similar themes to what we’ve been discussing for the last couple of weeks in this video. Great work from Michael Reissinger. Scholz & Friends: “Dramatic shift in marketing reality from Michael Reissinger on Vimeo.

Hi. Since this past Thursday morning at 12:00AM, it’s been 2009. You’ve said, “it’s going to be better than 2008″. You’ve said “I’m going to resolve…”.

Screw that. Year long resolutions are too long to keep, which is why they’re so rarely kept. I’m making a resolution to make smaller resolutions this year. Want to play along?

What are you going to do for the first 95 days of 2009?

I figure the first 3 months of the year is a pretty solid commitment to anything. Lucky for me, I’m not committing to the gym, or to eat better (though I hope to do that anyway). I’m committing to working my way through the 95 theses of The Cluetrain Manifesto to riff, expound, and hopefully ask new questions about what they mean today.

What’s that? You haven’t read Cluetrain yet? Go buy yourself a copy now (disclosure: affiliate link). You’ll thank me. I promise. In fact, you should buy one for a business associate you care about as well. They’ll thank you.

This series won’t refer to the original Cluetrain so much that you MUST read it, but I can’t recommend enough that you should read it anyway.

Kudos goes to Annie Heckenberger for the original call to action here. We often talk about how much better off the PR and Marketing industries would be if, as a pre-requisite to entering the profession, they had to read Cluetrain.

What’s wild is that now that it’s 2009, that means that Cluetrain has been around for 10 years. In fact, according to Archive.org, cluetrain.com’s first version was May 8, 1999. While this may or may not be accurate, it is poetic. If I post about one thesis each week day for 95 days starting this upcoming Monday, I’ll push the final post live on May 1st15th, 2009, just one week before after Cluetrain.com‘s 10th birthday. (Seems my weekly math was off).

And so it will be.

Beginning this Monday, January 5th, 2009, I’ll take on thesis #1: Markets are Conversations.

95 days is a lot of writing. I’ll be reaching out to respected friends and mentors for guest posts. If you have posts that you’re interested in guest posting for, let me know which one and we’ll discuss the editorial calendar.

At the end, I’m confident we’re going to have something very interesting. Something very exciting. And something worthy of celebrating the 10th birthday of one of the most important books I’ve ever read.

I hope you’ll join me in this experiment. You can even subscribe to just these posts or have them emailed to you.

Oh, and a HUGE thanks to the original authors for writing a book that now, a decade later, is as relevant if not more relevant than it was when it first was published. I tip my hat to the site’s creators: Rick Levine, Chris Locke, Doc Searls, and David Weinberger. You’ve inspired a generation, but to hell with them, you’ve inspired me.

Original Photo by Jill Greenseth

Today marks the 1 year anniversary of me having gone independent.

Wow.

A year. Really? I go back and forth between “that’s it” and “that long”? In some aspects, I feel like it was only a couple of months. In other aspects I look at all that I’ve managed to accomplish everything I’d set out to do, and much much more.

I partnered with some amazing talent, many of whose work has earned us opportunities to work together more than once. I worked with some amazing clients (many of whom are brands that I really, really love).

I’ve co-built a couple of funny little apps that got a fair amount of attention, which was never the plan…the plan was to have fun building them.

I co-founded our own little version of a much larger movement that, in it’s own right, has paved the way for more opportunities for myself and countless other people. That’s one of the most gratifying and exciting accomplishments of my life, and I’m SO happy and grateful to have been a part of it and have made all of the friendships and connections I have along the way.

One year in, I’ve learned a lot about making choices and how to learn from the choices that I, and others have made.

The Next Chapter

It’s only appropriate that my newest client not only has choice in their name, but is excited to learn what happens when you give a community some opportunity to make choices.

My newest venture is a new kind of building. This one is less about building a website site and a lot more more about building a community. Learning from the wonderful community building experience we’ve had here at IndyHall, I thought it’d be great to take the model to the road and allow others to benefit from it. This next foray into community building is with a company called Choice Shirts, just outside of Philadelphia in Pennsauken, NJ.

The new project is called The Choice100 and it’s first incarnation as a blog has launched last night. It’s simple and direct, but that’s by design. The whole goal of the project at this stage of the game is to facilitate asking a potential community of design talent what they think about the proposed community model, and feed back as to what would benefit them the most.

This project has me really excited for a number of reasons. One, it’s a really fun opportunity to have conversations with the folks who work in a field that I’m closely tied to (design, that is) but from a whole new angle for me; graphic design for apparel.

Even moreso is that a company with a fairly traditional (and well established) business model is just as amped as I am to listen to their customers (who, in this case, double as their product creators) and be so open about the process.

In the preliminary research on who to have in the loop for this, I got some really positive feedback from designers that have worked in other t-shirt “contest” and “designer community” scenarios. Of course, they’ve all had thoughts as to what was good and what was bad. What’s really great about ChoiceShirts and The Choice 100 is that the company has a history spotted with creative evolutions of existing and established business models, and that they are embracing a conversation within a community to help model the next steps for their company.

Sounds wonderfully Cluetrain to me. What happens when you stop selling and start conversing. ChoiceShirts is not only embracing that, but they’re excited to embrace that. That’s immensely energizing and inspiring for me.

We’re going to be starting from the ground up. This blog is out there to announce the existence of this new evolutionary process for ChoiceShirts, and gather the interested parties in a place where they can converse. Next steps will include some real-world brainstorming, which we’ll facilitate at IndyHall much like the first brainstorming session we held back in August.

Check out the site, leave some comments, and subscribe to the blog and twitter feeds if it sounds like something you’re interested in participating in. Remember, this project is about us hearing what you have to say!