Interesting Thinking about Engagement

http://radar.oreilly.com/2009/11/what-does-innovative-social-en.html

 

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Picture the Possibilities

Crazy!  Awesome new virtual reality/augmented realities created by tagged photos.

A Communication-Based Approach to Interactive Media

I thought about titling this post “All Media is Social: It’s really not that complicated.” From caveman drawings, to the printing press, through mass media of the 20th century and 21st century, all media is social.  As we work to communicate with each other and negotiate meaning we are interacting in  social processes.    With new technology and the adoption of interactive platforms our lives become noisy leading to the postmodern communication dilemma, right?- the technology that is to make our lives easier seems to make it more complex.  One of the ways to reduce the amount of noise is to take a communication-based approach to interactive media.  Through the lens of communication we can frame interactive media (web, social media, digital communication, online communities, etc.) .  Confusion about adoption patterns, listening, participating, community, etc., can be seen more clearly with the use of a few good communication theories.

There’s nothing more useful than a good theory.

-Kurt Lewin

There’s nothing more useful than a good communication theory

-John Cragan

Theories, pragmatically, help us understand, predict, and explain phenomena.  In this case, communication phenomena.    While the interactive landscape may seem confusing a few communication theories can help us cut through the noise – to better understand, explain, and hopefully predict what is going on.

I know, you’re thinking “hey, that’s fine in theory, Poindexter, but what about the real world?”  Good point, but the Poindexter thing may have been offsides.  If your theory doesn’t work in the real world, if it doesn’t have utility, then it’s not a good theory. It’s really that simple.

Over the next few weeks, I’m going to go into more depth about some particularly useful theories, the importance of listening (think customer centricity, user-centered design, and research), the art & science of interactive media (the zen like nature of human and digital communication), and applications of these concepts as they relate to building a better brand and improving marketing communication performance.  Together, these should provide an organizing framework to  help you meet your business goals, as well as helping your customers with their interaction goals.

The theories or frames that will be covered in the next series are:

1. Information Systems.Claude Shannon’s theory of message integrity.  While initially developed as a mathematical model for machine to machine communication, it provides a solid framework for human communication.
2. Symbolic Convergence Theory  (SCT).  Developed by Ernie Bormann and advance by Cragan and Shields,  SCT helps us understand how meaning, motive, identity, and emotion can chain out from any message or communication episode.  Elements of SCT have been covered earlier in the blog, notably here and  here.
3. Narrative Paradigm Theory (NPT).  We often here that you need to tell a good story.  That’s right.  NPT, advanced by Walt Fisher).  What does your story, or collection of stories, need to hold true and resonate with your audience.
4. Diffusion of Innovation.  From the work of E. Rogers.  From his work we have insights to how an innovation (like a new idea, or technology) is adopted or not through networks and cultures.
5. Dramatism or Burke’s Dramatism Theory (BDT).  Looks at other elements of the dramatic nature of human communication and how we identify with the speaker/message sender.

With each post about the theories, I will provide applications and how those elements need to account for here-and-now phenomena and make current communication elements like  social media less mystical and abstract.

Feel free to send me questions that you may have or communication issues that your organization may be dealing with and I will work to incorporate into future posts.

Things are always better when they're fun

A friend and former colleague on the three important aspects of a "delightful user experience":
- Playfulness
- Usability
- Context

As always, nice job Fred.

Socialnomics

Interesting, engaging, and thought provoking promotion for a book. Social media is gaining lots of attention, at the end of the day it's still humans participating in human systems. Technology is enabling more conversations, not necessarily better ones. However, as marketers it's a chance to "fish where the fish are."

Technology is not the drive, it's the enabler. Know what type of interactions and experiences, the types of conversations, you want to enable.

Benjamin Zander's TED Talk

In 2008, through my work with Best Buy, I was introduced to Benjamin Zander.  His TED talk and his book The Art of Possibility are well worth your time, IMHO.  If you're ever stuck or caught up in the existing rules, remember that it's all invented...and you have a rich array of possibilities in front of you.

Where did the summer go?

It has been a crazy summer. My family and I moved to Iowa City, as my wife accepted a tenure track position in the College of Education at the University of Iowa. I’m now the Sr. Interactive Media Consultant at Stamats. So, over the past 8 months, both my wife and I have switched jobs, we’ve sold our house in Minneapolis , bought a house in Iowa City, and enjoyed the addition of our second child. Needless to say, posting on the blog as been a bit light.

 I’m very excited about the new role and look forward to more frequent postings about interactive media, communication trends, and brand experience.

 Best wishes for a great Fall.

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For Father's Day, Share the Awesomeness

Ernie Bormman Memoriam Page

Last year the communication discipline lost one of its greatest scholars. The U of M now has a nice memoriam page on their site. In some ways, Bormann was like my academic grandfather. Ernie, the creator of Symbolic Convergence Theory (SCT) and other ground-breaking group communication research was the advisor to John Cragan. I studied with John and have worked with John and Don Shields on furthering SCT. I was lucky enough to meet Bormann a few times. Ernie was also a University of Iowa Ph.D. At Iowa, Ernie roomed with Sam Becker, another giant in the communication discipline, and one of my favorite professors.

Rest in peace, Ernie.

Tropicana Design Mishap

As noted on "Under Consideration," Tropicana is reverting back to its old design...or the one that was recognizable.   The design may have been acceptable for a Web 2.0 site, but is not the right move when consumers, especially those in your tribe, are trying to find your product in the commodity laden refrigerated section.  The iconic logo was easy to spot and differentiated from other OJs. The new (now old) logo looked more like a generic.  

Perhaps the PR team will argue that this is generating buzz, but I don't think it's going to have a long-term positive effect on sales or the brand.  I'm curious to know what, if any, research when in to creating the creative blueprint for this.  I must say that this post makes me want to pour myself a nice glass of of pulp free Minute Maid.

Thanks to Rett for the link.

Sanctioning Agent Welcomes Newest Field Agent

Malcolm W. Arnold is ready for assignment.  Malcolm was born February 18.  Mom and baby are doing fine.

From TED: David Carson on Design

A great video from the fine folks at TED. It's part of David Carson's talk on design. It was recorded about six years ago and recently posted to the TED site. It's perfect fun for a Friday.

Thanks to Rebecca for the link.

Recent Social Network Demographic Data

Today's eMarketer update has recent demographics regarding social networks. It aligns with Pew's research, released this month, which shows rapid adoption of social networks among adults.

Take Aways: eMarketer has great updates, and Pew is a great resource for research regarding internet impact in the U.S.

MIMA Reminder

A reminder about next month's MIMA event - Inbox Insanity: The Future of Email Marketing. This looks great. As noted in the tease for it at this month's event, what constitutes an inbox these days? With the onslaught of social media applications we can message in so many ways. What's your inbox?

By the way, this is a morning event. I wonder how different the attendance and attendees will be from the evening events. I hope to be there unless Agent Infant arrives early.

Event Details

when:	Wednesday, February 18, 2009 7:30 am Registration and Continental Breakfast 8 am Presentation 9 am Networking
where:	The Depot 225 Third Ave. S. Minneapolis, MN 55401

Digital Reputation Management Event

Tonight was another great educational event put on by the fine folks at MIMA. One of the things I'll miss about moving out of the Twin Cities will be access to these events. The topic of the evening was Digital Reputation Management. The discussion reminds me that the principles and theories of good communication and constituent relations haven't changed because of the internet or Web 2.0, as much as they have been accelerated. Great conversation with Ward about this topic as well. Anyway, if you're not doing so already here are three tools you can use immediately to try and "listen" to what people are saying about your business:

1. Spy - http://spy.appspot.com/
2. Google Alerts - http://www.google.com/alerts
3. Twitter Search - http://search.twitter.com/

Other advice from the panel included embracing transparency, being honest and human...and not creepy. That's pretty good advice regardless of setting.

Best and worst brand names of 2008

Reposting from The Lead. The folks at Pollywog address the best and worst in brand names from 2008.

Posted using ShareThis

Welcome to the Iowa City Readers: Constituent Lifecycle Revisited

I realize that we may have an increase in readership to this blog from readers in the Iowa City/Cedar Rapids area. To that end, I will repost some more in-depth entries that will apply to specific marketing and communication roles. As a start, please take a look at this post regarding student life cycles, constituent relationships and the symbolic identities associated with higher education institutions.

The Here & Now in Advertising

Brands and symbolic identities need to continue to ground themselves through changing times. Their ability to do so, without violating dominant here and now issues, are critical to sustaining or growing the life of a message. Two commercials of late have done a great job in doing this. Allstate acknowledging the recession (perhaps the most dominant here and now issue we're facing). Allstate reinforces their genesis story and the length of time they've been around and that they continue to provide "good hands" for their customers.

Hyundai's latest campaign is more impressive. They say that "we're all in it together." To back this up, they now tie future ownership of one of their vehicles to your employment status. One's fear of losing their job seems to be the greatest barrier preventing the purchase of large ticket items. Hyundai significantly reduces the risk. Additionally, they remind consumers that they have previously worked to reduced risk when they were the first to provide factory power train warranties for 100,000 miles/10 years.

With both companies, their genesis story and/or history align with ways to help consumers through the here and now, which, I think, should continue to build brand equity.

Business/Technology Break Through from 2008

Looking back, Apple was able to keep their hot streak alive. In '07 they changed the smartphone landscape with the introduction of the iPhone. In '08, they released a new iPhone, but more importantly they opened up the ability to deliver applications created by other programmers. The model is the same as their iTunes store. More details are in this Washington Post article.

Beyond the money Apple is making (30%) from each transaction, it turns out that this may be more of strategic move, rather than a short-term money-maker in a down economy. Here's what I found to be the most interesting paragraph in the entire article:

Apple won't say how much money the App Store is taking in, nor will it say how many of the 300 million downloads were free apps and how many cost money (most apps are free; the others cost anywhere from a buck to $10). Apple gets a 30 percent cut of revenue generated by apps. But for Apple right now the money isn't the point. The big thing is the race to become the dominant mobile-computing platform, the way IBM-standard PCs running Microsoft operating software -- first DOS and then Windows -- came to dominate personal computing in the 1980s and early 1990s.

Best wishes for a safe, happy, and prosperous 2009.