The competition for attention shows no signs of slowing. And Facebook’s News Feed Optimization makes it harder for brands to get noticed. The way it works is one’s feed only shows updates and information from the people you interact with most. You’re not going to see what all of your friends are doing nor the brands you follow. Thus to get noticed, you have to matter. You have to connect and interact. Tough for many brands to do. Check out this post and think about how that affects your content marketing efforts. And no, shouting “Look at me! Look at me! Oh Please Look at me!!!” will not get you anywhere here. This is more proof that it’s the quality versus size of your audience that counts.
Klout is certainly much discussed with many bemoaning their dropping scores as a result of a tweaking of their secret formula this week. As a counterpoint to a singular focus on one’s popularity, I appreciated Stephen getting the basics down on what influence really means and how to get it. It’s not hard, just takes some old fashioned relationship building: like connecting, listening, and not trying so darn hard just to be popular. You likely know this already, but a refresher course never hurts. But then if you do gain enough influence and a little popularity, there are rewards via Klout Perks even if they’re not always ideally targeted.
The internet may be messing with our brains and most marketers only want to accentuate the positive (for obvious reasons). So the savvy communicator needs a way to find out what doesn’t or didn’t work out so well. Boing Boing offered some nice links on scientific studies that didn’t. Lest you’re feeling a little too chipper this Friday, click on over to the Journal of Negative Results in Biomedicine. Isn’t it really about finding balance?
I really enjoyed Tom Kelley’s book on Innovation and respect the work of IDEO. They’ve proven the power of taking a different path to achieving results. A must read for bosses at any level, Bob Sutton takes us through David Kelley’s concept of Love and Money in business. Essentially you want to spend most of your time helping your teams succeed at doing work they enjoy while knowing there are times in any business when there’s work that’s simply not fun. The goal is to have more deposits in the Love account then you withdraw when it’s simply all about the money. #LeadershipChat this week talked about Love in Leadership which caused several to question whether that’s possible or even the wrong name, thinking it’s more about passion. But no matter how you define love in business, it’s good to ask the question. I tend to think David got it right.
Although I don’t often enjoy a rich milkshake, I did find the concept of milkshake marketing by Harvard’s Clay Christensen intriguing. And I love a good analogy. The concept here is that rather than segment your customers by demographic data, you develop products and strategies based doing the job that needs to be done. In this case, customers bought milkshakes not because they really wanted one, but because they were easy to consume while driving over a bagel. By taking a focus on doing a job rather than inventing a need, you not only increase your chances of success, but create something more sustainable and differentiated – thus easier to market.