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Thoughts About Women To Watch

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I eagerly devoured the latest edition of Fast Company with a longer-than-usual perusal of the cover on which are three gorgeous women gracing a headline, “The League of Extraordinary Women.” And, then I began to think about that headline more intently and feel a bit of guilt that I was less than inspired to read that cover story.

Why? I hadn’t thought long enough to come to grips with my reason for discomfort. Then, I switched over to June 18, 2012 Advertising Age,  and was shocked with the serendipity of the Viewpoint article written by Linda Sawyer, CEO of Deutsch in re Ad Age’s Women To Watch list. Her thoughts provoked mine to gel more quickly…let me share:

Linda Sawyer of Deutsch said:

  • “The gender imbalance at the top of the industry might suggest that it’s time to move past citing women’s accomplishments in terms of how they stack up against each other, and solely in terms of how they stack up.
  • Linda is an avid reader and fan of Ad Age (and alumna of the Women To Watch list in 2000), and she felt compelled to question the Women to Watch feature and its relevance. She realizes that “lauding the accomplishments of star talent is beneficial, but perhaps we have to entertain the possibility that any type of segmentation of talent unduly diminishes that group to a subsegment.”

I pondered what she said, a lauded and laudable woman executive in the advertising profession…and I came to this conclusion of my own:

I am not diminishing the amazing talent and inspirational accomplishments of the 60 women featured in  Fast Company or those featured annually by Ad Age, either. Where I’m coming from is how to parlay these stories to a level in business that is far diminished from them and their levels in business. Fortune companies, celebrities and well-to-do philanthropists with the ability to make a tremendous difference across the globe with their earnings have a bit of an edge over women in business who strive daily to achieve success, raise families and improve themselves professionally while paying it forward.

I am inspired with the stories I read, and then I’m immediately realistic — I can never make a widespread impact like they can. My accomplishments pale in comparison;  I am relegated to my wee corner to manage my business, build my future and raise my child. Would that I could make such a difference on such a grand scale…but, should I pine for that when I know very well I am in this place for a purpose?

Thoughts about women in business, achievement, and always keeping your purpose alive in spite of others’ accomplishments right next door…? I’m still thinking on this one.

Another Facebook Competitor Bites The Dust? Instagram vs. Camera

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Credit: Facebook.com

Today’s news is somewhat disturbing for Instagram lovers such as me and several tens of thousands of others who have loved the app for its simplicity and ability to snap a photo on the run via iPhone and upload while also sharing with connections on Twitter and Facebook in addition to the Instagram stream.

Facebook was apparently already under development with its new Camera photo sharing mobile app, set for launch later today, when it agreed to acquire Instagram for $300 million in cash and 23 million shares (that’s $1 billion). That private bedroom deal made CEO to CEO was quick, quiet and involved few others. It made Instagram founders gazillionaires, too.

Facebook promised the backlashing Instagram fans that it would allow Instagram to stay independent. It is still promising that today; however, one can only imagine the lure by Facebook to win over Instagrammers to Camera.

Looking at the flipside of this issue, hail to Facebook. Here’s what it did well:

1. Directly responded to analysts during its roadshow pre-IPO who said there is no Facebook mobile strategy. (This has plagued Facebook for months, and it was a major risk for the company to go IPO without a solid solution in place.)

2. Literally erased a key competitor from the space with the flip of a button and a few hundred million dollars. No lengthy boardroom chats and discussions, no public back and forth on purchase price and takeover threats, and no grandstanding. Just an honest-to-goodness-back-of-the-envelope acquisition between two wet-behind-the-ears CEOs (well each is under 35-years-old, right)?

3. Proved to new shareholders it means business in creating a solid foundation for success into the future. I’m not sure, however, exactly where monetization of Camera plays out; Instagram is free.

Listen a minute. I can hear the Instagram backlash already this morning as folks in all the time zones west of Indiana awake with their morning coffee. I’ll be signing on to Camera this afternoon when it comes online; I want to be one of the early adopters so I can write again about how well Facebook launches a brand new app to whet the whistle of we would-be professional photographers.

Do You Buy GM Cars Via Facebook Ads?

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The headline in today’s Wall Street Journal put me into a tailspin. It knocked me off the regularly scheduled program and prompted this emergency blog post.

“GM Says Facebook Ads Don’t Pay Off.”

Let me get my reaction immediately onto the table:

1. Is this sour grapes, or what?

2. Are you flippin’ kidding me? Since when do people buy a car by clicking on a Facebook ad? Really?

3. What kind of cover story is this just prior to the Facebook IPO when a publicly traded company attempts to downgrade stock price and pose ponderings about a $104 billion valuation by a start-up with a CEO under 30-years-old?

4. Do GM investors want to snap up more shares for less price per share?

Now let me read the story; hang on a minute.

K, I’m back…here is the gist of the article:

1. GM spent “only about $10 million in 2011 to advertise on Facebook; a fraction of GM’s total 2011 U.S. ad spending of $1.8 billion.”

Uhmm, if that paltry percentage is being spent on Facebook advertising, then naturally someone isn’t going to click on a car ad on Facebook and buy the vehicle from the website…right? I mean, don’t you buy your car direct from a website, sight unseen without the lovely dealer experience?

2. “General Motors plans to stop advertising with Facebook after deciding that paid ads on the site have little impact on consumers’ car purchases, according to a GM official.”

Love the timing of this; just before the Facebook IPO in a few days and it helps get GM some extra publicity. I wonder what GM will do with its $10 million not being spent on Facebook ads? Will it go to charity? Or, maybe they’ll use it on Pinterest where women can click on the picture of a car and go buy a car from a website!

3. “GM’s decision raises questions about the ability of Facebook to sustain the 88% revenue growth achieved in 2011. Facebook said last month its first-quarter ad revenue was down 7.5% from the previous three months.”

I have no idea how to respond to this; it’s got to be the reporters (three of them) playing both sides of the fence.  Should the timing of GM’s announcement affect Facebook’s IPO? Will it? Should it even matter? I seem to recall an auto industry bailout that put the U.S. economy into a downward spiral. I don’t recall reading that Facebook ever strayed from its growth goals, so why should it quake in its boots because GM is playing chess? (Although $10 million is likely not chump change to Facebook.)

So, a few disclaimers here – I’m not in advertising. I’m not a Facebook shareholder (but, I’d sure like to get my hands on a few of those on Friday). I’m not a financial analyst or investment adviser.

What I am is this:

A Business-to-Business Social Media Marketer with a Public Relations core (how’s that for key word attention?). I probably should be applauding the GM investor relations team for its smarts to push such a story on the cover of today’s national financial paper. But, it stinks putrid to me (I said to me) in my rantings above.

What do you think?

 

Book Review: Marketing In The Round

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Back in the day, integrated marketing was a big trend. Everyone allegedly rushed to climb aboard to play nice in the sandbox. Soon it fizzled and silos crept back to the forefront of business models, and everyone stayed in their corners.

Then came social media (well, some umpteen years later), and marketing altered again. Companies had to tear down the silos and implement integrated marketing again; however, it’s not over. Business is only in the early stages of adoption of social marketing, and one way to be successful is “marketing in the round.”

Marketing In The Round, How to Develop an Integrated Marketing Campaign in the Digital Era by Gini Dietrich and Geoff Livingston, provides a in-depth look at multi-channel marketing without silos, without a champion, and with a balanced, cross-cultural team working in alignment toward attainment of business goals. Consider it akin to change management.

When you put marketing in the midst of all the communication disciplines, you get marketing in the round. No silos, no hierarchy, just an investment toward positive impact on the business.

At the helm of the marketing round is a leader with an understanding for as many disciplines as possible. This leader is also a strategist who can encourage the breakdown of barriers that exist between advertising and public relations, for example.

In a perfect marketing in the round scenario, there isn’t a chief marketing officer to report to; everyone communicates from one level and uses all communication methods to stay current.

Marketing rounds will succeed well with communication approaches from the top down, via a groundswell, and by two left and right flanks. I bet you money Geoff wrote that chapter (Chapter 4) about military tactics akin to a marketing round. Another tactic of engagement is direct marketing.

Throughout chapters five to eight, the authors detail each tactic in-depth and provide excellent examples of deployment of each of the aforementioned strategies of communication.

In the final chapters, the discussion surrounds integration and the incorporation of various of these tactics from the outside in, inside out, internal only, horizontally, vertically, and any other direction you can imagine.

The book wouldn’t be a Gini book without a chapter on measurement. When you read that chapter, the takeaway is that measurement doesn’t happen overnight. There are many trials to determine what to measure, especially in this era of big data and analytics reports numbering in the hundreds of pages. Along the way, you develop your benchmarks and the dashboard to plug in these figures.

When your marketing round is humming from all the inter-collusion, be prepared to get a flat tire and inflate it all up again. The marketing round has no stopping point, it’s a model to develop, test, fail, test, improve and enhance some more.  The “dramatically changing media landscape has moved faster with each new decade.”  What that means is companies need to adapt even faster.

When you pick up your copy of Marketing In The Round, you’ll find tips, charts, how-to graphs, examples of companies trying, and an approach that clearly comes from the experts. I encourage you to buy this book and reference it regularly. And, there’s a FREE webinar by Radian6 this week featuring our now-famous-er celebrity authors. Click here to register.

May I close with a hearty congratulations to my friends, Gini and Geoff, for their accomplishment. Gini and Geoff are coming to a theater near you; if you’d like to order bulk copies or invite them to autograph yours from a club setting or tweet up, please indicate such right below in comments. I’m sure either or both are paying attention today.

Millennials In The Generational Workplace

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In anticipation of a guest post tomorrow from none other than Beatriz Alemar, founder of Breakthru Life and member of this community, I’m going to recap an opinion column in Ad Age Feb. 20, 2012 that inspired my invite to Beatriz to post on the topic of millennials.

I’ve always been fascinated with demographics and their nomenclature. Now, more than ever, I wonder about the corporations seeing the blending of extreme youth with the profession’s elders. Teams are being cast with a a senior mentor and a young professional sharing some ropes, too.

This opinion piece I paraphrase today is from Beth Ann Kaminkow, president and CEO of TracyLocke. I love this first paragraph I’m going to repeat exactly, “We’re seeing a progression in the quality of young professionals. This  isn’t a group ready to stay in the background and learn the way things are done. This is a talent dynamic that I foresee shaping the way we work and interact, and they’ll present challenges.”

Think about your teenagers at home or those in your family. Have you ever seen the devour a device and never look up? How about that texting? The superficial social skills with a blip interaction create horrifying habits for the workplace. Fast forward to the college grads who maintain those habits and also think Facebook is their playground for laughs and giggles.

Does your company need to hire young people from college? There may be a respite as so many more seasoned Americans are out of work, but companies can’t avoid hiring millennials.

Kaminkow suggests the solutions are training that builds habits with a push to dig deeper instead of skim the surface. Teachable moments should be cherished whenever they pop up, too.

In the piece she wrote, Kaminkow gives five tips on how to incorporate millennials  into the workplace:

  • Loyalty is fleeting. Companies need to give these youth a reason to stick around. With digital skills that abound, the “babies of the recession” (as Kaminkow states) want to use those skills.
  • Engagement inside the company and with clients (coming from an agency perspective) are what matter. There are many coaching opportunities to teach hierarchy; something many young people are not glomming on to.
  • Less respect for process. Online research being always available to millennials sets off common systems and processes in the workplace. When a manager “has always done it this way,” and a newbie rolls in and sidesteps the steps…imagine the sparks!
  • Whites of the Eyes. Facebook never meant face time. The in-person meeting is less preferred by youth due to the comfort with texting and social media postings. That has to change as body language, facial expressions, and contextual understanding are critical in business (and especially teams).
  • Coffeehouse. I love this tip Kaminkow provides most of all.  She suggests each company make a coffeehouse area with comfy couches for everyone to get supine and brainstorm. Millennials with their devices gathered up with a Starbucks green tea respond better to this than to sterile cubicles.

In her close, Kaminkow puts the onus on a new style of management and leadership to integrate the generations. She draws a comparison to the blending of new tools as to the blending of new talent “into a thoughtfully reimagined environment.”