Every time we converse, post and respond on-line and off we reveal ourselves. The word reveal means to make known, disclose, divulge, to lay open to view, display or exhibit. When something or someone is revealed each of us decides whether what or who is revealed has any relevance to us.

Many of us don’t realize how we reveal ourselves. What we reveal are the things that attract others to us or us to others. Whether an organization or an individual what we reveal are common characteristics that bring us together or separate us.

These common characteristics are transparently revealed in content that is in context to four things that determine who we are, who we want to be as well as who and what we attract.

We are all assets of the human network exchanging value with others. Our value makeup is reflected by four knowledge assets that represents value to the human network. An asset can appreciate or depreciate based on many variables. The primary variable that increases or decreases an assets value is determined by the demand for use.

Do The Assets You Reveal Create Demand for Use?

When we use the term asset we think of things that stores or lends economic value. When we think of the term value many would quickly reference terms of an economic transaction. The human network creates economic value by what we do. We earn money for what we do and exchange the money for other things of value. What we do and the exchanges we make represent "value creation and exchanges" that are and continue to be produced by knowledge assets borrowed, owned or traded between two or more individuals.

Knowledge assets are contained within human beings. The human network reveals four types of capital: 1) intellectual capital, 2)social capital, 3)spiritual capital and 4) creative capital. These four knowledge assets are used to create "value" that is traded with people and things we "value". These four assets which reveal us are defined as:

1. Intellectual Capital: That which we have learned, understand, know and apply to life experiences.
2. Social Capital: The relationships we build and our ability to interact with others.
3. Spiritual Capital: Our sense and faith in a higher power other than ourselves, our intellect and our social capital. This capital is usually referred to as the knowledge of "God".
4. Creative capital: The insights we see and the possibilities we create. Creative capital is influenced by the internal and external interaction of 1,2 & 3.

We use our knowledge assets and share them with others, organizations, institutions and society at large. We get hired for who we are which is reflective of our knowledge assets. Organizations use and abuse our knowledge assets to their gain or lose. We share our knowledge assets with family, friends and associates. We exchange knowledge assets in the form of conversations, actions and insights.

The #1 influence over economic output is individual and collective knowledge assets of people working together towards a common aim. Imagine if our collective knowledge assets were indexed, able to be searched and subsequently used, borrowed, shared and executed more efficiently. What could happen if we were enabled to identify and connect knowledge assets for collective gain?

Our life experiences shape our knowledge assets defined and then revealed by what we say and do. Collectively our knowledge assets represent the gifts and abilities we have, both the good and bad, which are ultimately shared with others through interactions and future experiences.

The Future Web of Knowledge Assets Connected

Social technology could enable individuals to leverage their knowledge assets for the benefit of others thus creating a giving exchange that provides exponential value. The technological medium will eventually index knowledge assets and create a new economic paradigm when knowledge becomes connected and taken out of silos of information.

The future web will enrich human experiences by giving, sharing, learning, relating and re-enforcing or improving the four things that reveal who each of us really are and what we have to offer and learn from each others.

As we completed the Barack 2.0 project, we had the opportunity to speak with the professors at Wharton School of Business about the data exhaust that is created due to new media platforms and practices.

These are the questions that came out of that discussion:

• What data is required to produce a profit in business?
• What data is worth inspecting?
• You have the data… now what?
• Does it go into a nice report and sit on the shelf?
• Is all of this data collection and measurement meaningless?

It can be meaningless if the data is not useful and pragmatically applicable.

Let’s look at a few concepts that filter out a lot of the noise: 

Perfect Information Definition #1: Information that completely eliminates uncertainty in a situation (as opposed to imperfect information, which only reduces uncertainty). (www.businessdictionary.com)

Perfect Information Definition #2: Information that is accurate, precise and actionable.  (Technomics – H. Lee Martin)

Accurate and precise means that the data is picked up from a reliable source and is repeatable. But what caught my attention was the idea that the information has to be actionable.

What does that really mean? It means you have to be able to do something with the information besides just present it and think about it.

Information, to be truly valuable and meaningful, has to be actionable.

So if you are running your business by the numbers, the steps are as follows:

• Know what data to gather
• Get the right data
• Interpret the data
• Use the data to improve your business

This is especially true with social media, as so much data *seems to be coming out of the social media space.

*Just having a large volume of data does not mean that the data is valuable or meaningful.

Do you think that all of this expensive data and reporting is worth it if you push it against the idea of it being “actionable?”

Let’s look at a fundamental truth right from the dictionary.

This is the textbook definition.

mar·ket·ing (mär'ki-ting) n.  

1. The act or process of buying and selling in a market.

2. The commercial functions involved in transferring goods from producer to consumer.

Taking a page from politics, marketing is getting an idea into the marketplace and getting people to change their minds and behavior.

Let’s examine a pragmatic definition you can use today:

Marketing is the practice of getting your idea not only into the marketplace but also into the minds of those who are ready, willing and able to take action to consume your product.

As a business, the first thing that your business has to do is promote the idea that it can produce a consumable product. But more importantly, getting the idea to the right people is critical. Traffic is crucial. Actional (conversional) traffic is even more important.

For politics, the consumable product that you market is leadership.

As a business owner, you too are promoting leadership in your chosen market.

So how does this pertain to social media strategy?

Social media for most is a place for chatter. Making that idle chatter actionable is your goal.

So…

Getting an idea into the marketplace is one skillset.

Getting the idea to penetrate, stick and become an action is a totally different skillset that is often overlooked.

Most get concerned with the amount, such as:

• Number of Friends On Facebook
• Number of Twitter Followers
• Number of Connections on LinkedIn
• Traffic to your Website.

The questions that I have for you are:

• What are you saying in the marketplace?
• What is the response to your communications?
• Are you looking at the right numbers?

I contend that most are looking at the wrong numbers and don’t even know it.

Look for sales, transactions and valuable conversations as the measure for your success.

Til next time…

David Bullock

This is a continuation of Social Media Strategy Playbook Series. There is much to learn as we study politics and extract meaningful marketing lessons from the outcomes of the various campaigns. New media technologies are disrupting the landscape of both business and politics and the similarities are staggering. If you have the distinctions to see what is really happening, this is an excellent real-time ideation-to-transaction primer.

We have covered:

Rule 1:  Use All Available Media Channels from the Very Beginning

Rule 2:  Create a Short Meaningful Message, Speak It and Let It Work

New Media. A Virtual Party

Notice that most of the conversation that is going on within social media is chatter. When I say chatter, I am talking about conversation that leads nowhere. Your goal is to be meaningful, valuable and relevant to the people in your network.

The question becomes, “Why are you being meaningful, valuable and relevant?”  If you are in business, you are using social media because at some point down the line you are looking to connect with people to exchange value. “Social Media” is simply a place where you have an opportunity to connect and interact with more people at the same time.

When “social media” was first explained to me, it was done with a party analogy. “Everyone is in the room and talking and you have to find the conversations and the people that you want to be around.” Then came the distinction. “All parties and conversations are different. You can go to a dinner party with friends. A seminar. A networking event. They are all types of parties (or gatherings) where people are getting together and talking. The key is to know why you are there and who you are looking to connect with.” It all starts with a meaningful conversation.

Moving on Rule #3…

Rule 3: Create a Transactional Situation.  Tell your listener or viewer what you are going to do if they engage with you. This is the transactional part forgotten by most people using social media. They are just chatting and there is no meaningful transactional content.

You actually have to have a transactional situation. Have a time and place where folks are going to take action. In the political world, this is obvious. That transactional situation is election day. In business, the transactional situation getting the lead, having a conversation and closing the sale.

So the Social Media Strategy question is:

What is the transactional situation that is at the end of your social media activity?

Please bear in mind that it is ok to not have a transactional situation in mind as you move in social media. But if that is the case, know that you may have a difficult time seeing the ROI of your social media efforts.

The Superbowl is over. Lasted for one day. Done.

Congratulations to the New Orleans Saints on the win.

Congratulations to the advertisers that debuted their new commercials.

But let’s look beyond the Superbowl to the Pepsi Refresh Project.

For those of you who have not followed the story… In a nutshell, Pepsi decided not to advertise during the Superbowl. They decided to use the money that they would spend on “traditional advertising” on a social media project.

Here’s the background story (Dec 17, 2009) : Pepsi to end 23-year run of Super Bowl ads Company to focus on new campaign that will mostly appear online

This move changes everything.

A major traditional long time advertiser is making a move away from a traditional media channel.

• Advertising on television is a make-or-break, one-time shot. Money is spent. Media channel wins. Advertiser? Maybe, maybe not.
• Advertising online with a persistent presence is not a one-time shot because you can become a permanent part of the online landscape.

Hmm…

This is very similar to the way the social media technologies were used in the 2008 Presidential Campaign (Barack 2.0 Project). Obviously, I am very keen to this seismic shift in the marketplace. But even more importantly, we can learn from these moves and apply them to our businesses now.

Point 1:  Look at your actions and see if they align with your goals

Pepsi is redirecting their advertising dollars because they looked at the Superbowl advertising media as a channel. That media channel, they assessed, did not align with their goals. I speculate that they made this assessment based on the dynamics of the communication technology marketplace. Television as a media is being supplanted by online consumption of video content.

In other words, you can advertise once, but online you can create a presence that allows for people to consume your content over and over again.

** The ads that were shown on the superbowl are available online right now. So consumption, reach and exposure are no longer the only valid attributes to measure the effectiveness of advertising.

Point 2: Create an offer and environment where your audience can engage

Pepsi has created a community that fully engages the audience and “empowers” the audience to participate in a social improvement project that they support with hard dollars. This creates an everlasting ripple effect of good will and community support. This is priceless.

The new standard for effective advertising is engagement and ongoing participation with the audience. The audience is now in action for Pepsi.

• Are they becoming engaged with you and your offer?
• Are your dollars producing the returns that you are expecting?
• Are you doing what you have always done, expecting the same results?
• Are you still getting the returns from your actions?
• Is it time to think and act differently in the marketplace?

Point 3:  News Begets News Begets News

Run this search on Google: “Pepsi not advertising”. Here is the search link. At the time of this writing there are over 3.7 million listings on Google.

Major media has been covering this story for months.  Thus, the broad audience is well aware of Pepsi not spending money on advertising in lieu of spending money in the community.

Since Pepsi now has public support and media support, they have the advantage of good PR working for them.

Point 4: Supporting Marketplace Ideas

Social media is all about sharing of data and information. The most precious and most valuable commodity is a good idea. But a good idea is only the beginning. A good idea needs shaping and support to grow into anything that is valuable.

Good ideas are everywhere. But when you evaluate, activate and then support an idea with cold hard cash, you have the possibility of real success. 

Sharing ideas is just a “social and human” thing to do. Pouring money back into the community makes Pepsi a wonderful corporate citizen. They are using social media communication technologies to contain the messages from the marketplace, in the most cost-effective environment to let ideas flow, report progress and let the people continue to engage.

Idea, thinking, execution and community support are the cornerstones of human existence. The more that I see technology move forward, the more I see us as “just people” moving back to our core activities without restraint.

Bravo, Pepsi, for thinking differently and moving differently in the marketplace.

The question now becomes:

What can you learn from this Big Corporate example and how can this apply to your business?

By David Bullock

Howie Jacobson is a good friend of mine. Howie is the author of the “AdWords for Dummies” book.

I was looking on my hard drives and I found a folder full of interviews and conversations that I have had over the years. These are pure gold nuggets of information that I am so glad that I captured. Howie is featured in the interview below.  There is so much in this 7–minute clip:

• PPC
• Salesmanship
• System Setup
• SEO
• Social Media
• Passion For Work
• Media Repurposing

Markets are changing rapidly. Hope that you enjoy it. More to come.

By David Bullock

Is social media an effective tool for driving targeted traffic to a brand new website that is starting from a complete standstill?

Based on what we are seeing - yes. I am learning a lot with this project, as it is in a market with which I am not at all familiar.

Getting traffic is only the first part of the equation. Motivating that traffic to take action is the part where most social media deployments break down.

More to come in a few days…

Be well…

On the fringes of conversations lies innovation. Innovation is what changes dynamics, markets and human behavior. While we may think of innovation being a product or service in reality innovation begins with thinking which then is transformed into words.

Words carry power when the exchange of words creates new thinking which begets new action and a change in behavior. If you haven't notice social media represents an exchange of thoughts communicated in words, images and video's which creates actions from the crowd. The crowd then vets the thoughts expressed in multiple forms of media and then decides which "thoughts" are worthy of future consideration".

Future Considerations Come From the Fringe Factors

A large percentage of "0n-line conversations" can be categorized s chatter about existing things. A small percentage of conversations can be categorized as things yet existing but possibly existing with the right thinking and subsequent actions. Before social technology, which wasn't long ago, the masses really couldn't exchange at the rate which exist today. Today nuggets of innovation rest in the smaller percentage of conversations that are discussing and observing how social media is changing dynamics, behavior and entire markets.

So what are you considering? If you are thinking from the inside your considerations are relevant to what is not what could be. If you are sitting and thinking on the fringes of the outside you are thinking what could be then making what could be a reality by collaborating with the crowd of others seeking what could be rather than what is. All this social stuff merely accelerates the communications which stem from the thinking of the few rather than the many.

So unless you consider the fringe from the outside you will never be able to get out from the inside. Get it?

Apparently, the social media marketing playbook got lost within a year. Folks, we outlined the blueprint as it was happening in 2008 in www.barack20.com.

1. We did not go with a major publisher.
2. We did not spend a fortune on advertising.
3. We used social media just like the typical small to mid-sized business to prove the point that any business could use these new media effectively.

Guess what?  The methodology worked and continues to work. Now it seems that the political world is waking up to the fact the social media is powerful if it is used correctly.

Presidential, Senate and Local Elections: A Different, Closer Look

Doing the same things will yield the same results. The tools are available for use for those who have the foresight to use social media correctly.

Both the Democrat party and the Republican party have recently seen clear victories with social media as the apparent point of leverage. Is that really the case? Or are there other factors beneath the surface that we can uncover with a cross-discipline inspection? Let’s take a look.

2008 Presidential – National Race (Global Reach)

2010 Gubernatorial – Statewide Race (National Reach)

2008 County Election – County Race (Statewide Reach)

The major media and pundits have weighed in with very superficial analysis about the effectiveness of social media.

In the January 19, 2010 Wall Street Journal Article you can read about the large disparity in the number of:

• Twitter followers
• Facebook friends
• YouTube views

Let’s take a real look at what happened beneath the surface, away from the social media story that is dominating the landscape.

What elements are critical as any business looks to deploy social media? These political events are most telling because politics is the highest level of conceptual marketing.

Definition: Leadership is an idea that has no form until someone executes an order or creates policy.

Now follow me…

Selling an idea is the first crucial step for any business venture. Selling the idea is the bedrock of sales and persuasion. If you can sell the idea of the product or service, then selling a product or service can naturally follow. The critical path for selling an idea is to make it relevant to your listener.

Listener Relevance Axiom: No one has the time or the energy to deal with or listen to ideas that are not relevant, important and meaningful to one’s own life. We live in a world of information overload. If you are not relevant you will be filtered out and marginalized.

I spent several hours analyzing the messaging and positional setup of the Massachusetts state senate campaign between Brown and Coakley, and a few things became very clear.

Rule 1:  Use All Available Media Channels from the Very Beginning. Should the other opponent not use social media at all, the social media savvy challenger will win. It is therefore not so much that social media “won” the election for the candidate. Social media was used to disseminate the message to a space beyond the market boundaries. This was a statewide race that was promoted to a national market, with complete saturation of the target market and pressure on the local market to pay attention, mobilize and act.

• In 2008, the Obama Presidential Campaign embraced Social Media from the very beginning – not as an afterthought.

Rule 2:  Create a Short Meaningful Message, Speak It and Let It Work. Having a clear message and establishing a clear position in the marketplace is key to communication (Marketing 101).

• In 2010, Brown’s message was “This is the people’s seat.”  This powerful language cuts through the clutter of the marketplace and penetrates the mind of the listener. Take note that the Democratic Party had to use this same langauge to rebutt Brown. To make matters worse the message of “this is the people’s seat” came from this video.  Watch it here with Brown first at the 38 second mark.  He uses very powerful language and then pushes forward with data to support his position.

The opponent then had to use the very same language later:

• Do you see how you can surround your target market by using new media tools?
• Do you see the powerful use of language and messaging here?

These are the first of many lessons that can be derived from this campaign.

More coming…

____________________

We are dusting off the social media playbook that we documented in the 2008 Presidential Campaign in www.Barack20.com. Yep, we have the playbook and we have used our own playbook over the past year.

Here are the media and positional results based on using the strategies mapped out in the “Barack Obama: Social Media Lessons for Business” workbook.

The rules have not changed. The only thing that has changed is the players and the technological environment that continues to exhibit interesting dynamics.

This year will prove to be interesting.  This time we can refer back to over two years of real world experience as we read between the lines and extract the new media lessons for business.

By David Bullock

Social Media continues to disrupt the business of politics. While I continue working in the business sector, over the past year I have become increasingly engaged in the political vertical.

Neal Harrington of www.HarringtonFT.com and I had a conversation several months ago (July 2009) that proved to be very interesting. We are discussing the gap in technical expertise within the political arena in terms of social media deployment. These new communication technologies are completely disrupting the political marketplace.

If this is the case, this news that came out earlier this week is especially intriguing:  Plouffe to Play Expanded Advisory Role for Obama.  Who is going to step in to assist the opposition?

If both parties are using social media communication technologies effectively, what will be the deciding factor or secret weapon in the upcoming campaigns?