This was an amazing day at TED Global.

It will take a while to let the ideas come out.. but for now please be sure to take a look at these people and their passionate work.
•    Ethan Zuckerman – Blogger, digital visionary
•    Elif Shafa – Novelist
•    David McCandless – Data journalist
•    Mor Karbasi – Singer-songwriter
•    Iain Hutchison – Facial surgeon

Session 4: Irrational Choices
•    Sheena Iyengar – Psycho-economist
•    Laurie Santos – Cognitive psychologist
•    Lewis Pugh – Coldwater swimmer
•    Jamil Abu-Wardeh – Producer
•    Maz Jobrani – Comedian

Session 5: Healthier Together
•    Inge Missmahl
•    Mitchell Besser
•    Annie Lennox
•    Karsu Donmez
•    John Hardy
•    Arthur Potts Dawson

Session 6: Different by Design
•    Miwa Matreyek – Multimedia artist
•    Neil Gershenfeld – Physicist, personal fab pioneer
•    Tan Le – Entrepreneur
•    Eben Bayer – Green designer
•    David Bismark – Voting system designer
•    Emily Pilloton – Humanitarian design activist

When most companies get started with social media, they make it the responsibility of marketing, PR, or even customer service. To achieve maximum business results, new social processes need be implemented across the entire organization.

The web has given a voice to consumers and the tables are turning in real-time.  Recently, we have witnessed industries collapse (energy, financial, auto, real estate and even government) at a time when the public’s voice has become more powerful.  Freeworld Media is taking a new approach in answering these evolving complexities.

“We need to close the gap between what science knows and what business does.” – Daniel Pink

Change is happening and the problems aren’t going to be solved by doing things the way they’ve always been done. So here comes social media… it’s fun and easy to use, but most important to the enterprise is the knowledge found through the social web. By tapping into these open data streams of information, we can better understand how to adopt to the new reality. Ultimately, success will come to those organizations that integrate humanized technology as part of their culture — to engage customers, employees, and stay ahead of the competition.

“Knowledge has to be improved, challenged, and increased constantly, or it vanishes.” -Peter Drucker

New Organization Models

Recently at the Social Business Summit, leaders from social media gathered to explore the topic of “social business design”.  The Dachis Group describes social business design as “the intentional creation of dynamic and socially calibrated systems, process, and culture.”

Managing Complexity through Systems Thinking

Successful organizations need a way to adapt to an increasingly changing and moving world.  As we look for a more strategic approach to understanding the nature of system constraints and interactions, we look to Complex Adaptive Systems.  Wikipedia describes these complex systems as “diverse and made up of multiple interconnected elements (and so a part of network science) and adaptive in that they have the capacity to change and learn from experience.”  Systems thinking requires a new set of leadership skills to manage the challenges of a complex adaptive system.

“We are shifting from a world where the key source of strategic advantage was in protecting and extracting value from a given set of knowledge stocks — into a world in which the focus of value creation is effective participation in knowledge flows, which are constantly being renewed.”- Thomas Friedman

Networked Organization Benefits

• Becoming more responsive and adaptive.
• Leveraging the crowd through open data streams.
• Serving the customer through rapid communication and response.
• Expanding the collective knowledge of the enterprise by tapping into the network.
• Preventing disruption by understanding the impact of failing pieces and how to minimize those risks.

Holistic Approach

Complex adaptive system is the study of natural systems – how they interact, adapt, and survive over time.  Organizational responsiveness to adaptive change is both multidisciplinary and strategic in nature.  By understanding how social, political and cultural landscapes affect the complex adaptive system, the enterprise can extend their capacity to plan, implement and create results.   Look to social network intelligence technology to radically transform business in the 21st century.

Earth Day has come a long way in 40 years. What started out with a small group of people, has now grown into something that business understands as the responsible way to achieve long-term success. The earth’s population is increasing, our resources and dwindling and only with some new ideas are we going to make this whole thing work.  We need new forms of energy and new ways to conserve our water, air and other natural resources.

But one things for sure… we’re all in this together.  Alot of people don’t like those they don’t understand.    So whether it’s Democrats or Republicans or whatever religious group or nationality… there is something I know you agree on.  You want to make sure those dirty (fill in the blank’s) clean up after themselves. 

It’s a universal truth that nobody wants somebody else’s junk in their backyard.  It’s Earth Day everyone, so let’s remember to ‘do unto others.’

AT&T just launched a massive re-branding effort called “Rethink Possible” that delivers an optimistic response to the economic downturn.  It’s been a rough ride lately and most people are re-evaluating what’s really important to them… both professionally and personally. This AT&T spot reminds you to wake up your inner-dreamer and imagine things with a fresh perspective. It also helps that they pull on the heartstrings of an entire generation by using the Willy Wonka song (sung by Gene Wilder).

“Too big for its britches”

It’s not that big business is a bad thing, it just needs to be adjusted to become more humanized.  There’s a great idea from Seth Godin called “small is the new big.” What we’re seeing now is the pendulum swinging from a broken corporate world back to a more traditional way of doing business.   Personalized customer service is now possible through the social web.  Think about the connections our grandparents’ generation had with their local businesses.   They knew the people at the market and the drugstore and it was those connections that strengthened the community and kept business honest. You couldn’t cheat your neighbor and still see them at church on Sunday. This doesn’t mean we’re all going back to the farm (although we certainly need to support our local farmers) but it’s possible to achieve intimacy at scale through technology.

The truth lies somewhere in the middle

Somewhere between over-sized corporate greed and the nonprofit world, we will find the definition of sustainable social business. Keep in mind, the corporation wasn’t given to us by God or anything… it was made up by some guys a hundred something years ago during the Industrial Age.  Now it’s our responsibility to fix what’s broken.

The good news

Through social technology, we can create the kind of world we want to live in. Already we keep in touch with our friends’ lives better than we have in years because of Facebook…. Your business colleague in Europe that just sent you the YouTube clip of his kid’s first steps?   That old friend from high school?…your Mom?

The Business Opportunity

We are witnessing a historic shift unfold in real-time as business becomes more humanized.  Using open data streams, the intelligent enterprise will be able to scale globally by customizing their product for local populations.  It may sound impossible, but this a new reality for the progressive technology-enabled business.   And ultimately, companies will achieve the greatest success by the providing positive social value to local communities.

By the way, AT&T…
I’m still optimistic you’ll stop dropping my calls.

There is an old saying that cobblers children have no shoes.

It’s been a long time since we’ve posted anything on the Freeworld Media blog and that’s a real shame for a company that specializes in social media.   Truth is, we’ve been heads-down working on social media strategies for some big clients.  Thanks for your patience.

Without purpose, social media doesn’t do anything for your company.
Without value, it doesn’t do anything for your customers.

Many corporations believe that the social web is simply another place to broadcast messages and socialize. But in many cases, the people broadcasting those messages are the customers, not the marketing team. The social web is a place to listen and use customer input to improve experiences with your company in hopes that they start doing the marketing legwork for you.

The social web gives us the ability to turn great service into remarkable experiences.

Customer service is a form of brand currency that translates directly to loyalty, referrals and return customers.  Think about it first in the real world service environment. Maybe the waiter knows everything on the menu and handles rapid-fire questions on gluten content without a blink. Perhaps the travel agent finds a way to rebook your flight without a change fee, and keeps you laughing with jokes and commentary as she’s waiting for confirmations. In both instances, confidence, knowledge and humanity positively impact the customer experience and attitude toward those people and companies for which they work.

So how do these uniquely human transactions translate to the social web? A positive experience for a picky eater is priceless, so you can bet that there will be posts on Yelp and the Celiac forums about the staff that doesn’t roll their eyes when you ask if the flourless cake is really flourless.

The experience with the travel agent brings a new respect for her special skills versus a website to book travel. Her expertise and ability to deliver results may inspire status update that encourages coworkers to book complex, “failure is not an option” itineraries with this agent and save the easy vacation stuff for the online sites.

In both cases, the social web provides a channel to share and persuade based on personal experience. It also provides the company with a direct line to its most productive customers, the people who will go out and either recruit or scare away others.

When we work through the business objectives for a social media initiative, we stop thinking of service as something that takes place at a counter or in a call-center, but something that happens every time a potential customer has an interaction or experience with the brand or company.

But what about results?

Great question. Will social media measurably improve your customer service experience? The better question is, how will consistent positive customer service experiences support your overall business objectives?

Let’s say the goals are to improve account retention, increase participation in customer surveys, and create a quantified improvement in service levels. Social media acts as both a communication channel and a compass in this process. It helps you understand the environment in which you are working, and provides important information for correction when you get off course.

Monitoring software can let you know whether your customer service initiatives are resulting in positive and negative sentiment, and help you identify and talk to those customers who are amplifying those messages. In essence, social media not only enables improvement but it also is the tool by which you can test your success.

Creating a social service culture.

The first step is acceptance. Social media is evolving into critical component of corporate strategy. This requires executive teams to trust their employees a little bit more – giving them the opportunity to shine. It also requires a new trust in your customers – they are now the keepers of your brand’s message – empowered to share experiences and problems.

This doesn’t happen overnight, nor does it happen without planning, insight and a blueprint for success. And yes, when you take a trip to the Freeworld, that’s what we are going to help do – make and manage experiences on the social web that mean better business for you and better service for your customers. Will it be a straight shot? Nope. Will it revolutionize your organizational infrastructure? Not in a day. What we will do is help you understand where your opportunities are and how your employees and customers can help you seize them. Only question now is, are you ready?

The era of brand obsession may soon be over – for marketers that is.

It’s no longer within our power to force our idea of what the brand represents on the customer. Now, they decide what the brand means to them, whether it is worth their money, their loyalty and most importantly, whether they would risk their own credibility by recommending to a friend or colleague.

So that begs the question, what is the definition of a successful brand today?

Is it measured in revenue? Not if you’re one of the (successful) countless online applications that have yet to figure out a sustainable revenue model. Is it in the number of people using it? Perhaps. Some companies are looking for ways to measure the human response to interactions with their product. Does it make you happy? Does it make you feel self-confident? Does it reduce job-related stress?

To measure these emotions, we have to connect them to specific behaviors.

A non-profit, for instance, typically tries to raise awareness of an issue and influence the public to either donate time or money to help the organization address the cause. When we educate an audience about the lack of soap in refugee camps, are we making an emotional connection that compels the reader to act? Success will be defined not only by fulfilling the organizations mission, but also by its ability to make people care.

Corporations want to build enough trust for their product that the shopper will ultimately make a purchase, love it and either buy more or recommend it to a friend. No company aspires to be commoditized, so again, the key to success to create an emotional connection with the most awesome (productive, spendy, etc) customers, give them (multiple) great experiences and enlist them in the marketing strategy.

Here’s where the traditional marketer gets lost.

We used to create feature and benefit campaigns. Most of the time, however, these benefits reflected aspiration rather than reality. Some of us (a scant few I’m sure) have even been put in the position of touting the wonders of a product that doesn’t exist yet (vaporware). Those days are so over. The boulevard of broken dreams is littered with disparaging remarks about companies letting their customers down. This power shift deeply discounts the value of reactive public relations, letters from the CEO or apologetic calls from the account manager.

Back to the original question, what defines a successful brand today?

It’s certainly changing. Most of the people I know are spending their money with great care and purpose these days. Success belongs to those organizations that give their customers the opportunity to help improve and innovate alongside its leaders and employees. This isn’t earth shattering. It’s just a matter of listening for and acting on great ideas. Successful brands won’t have a status quo.

Happy Thanksgiving from Freeworld Media!

This year we have many reasons to give thanks – some challenges, some opportunities – all of which have prepared us to move into 2010 as a stronger team:

- We continue to grow and do great work in consumer marketing, social responsibility and social marketing strategies. Sometimes all at once.

- Our new digs at the King Plow Arts Center and to Quinn Hudson of The Hudson Group who immediately took us in when the roof at our old studio caved.

- The opportunity to work on water sustainability projects that directly improve the quality of life for people in developing nations.

- Having the opportunity to play with new technology every day, and the ability to create business value from something creative and new.

- Amazing clients who are both collaborators and partners as we push the limits of social and interactive marketing strategies.

We’re also very grateful for social networking. Has someone special inspired you this year? Send them a note, a tweet, a Facebook message or – hey – give them a call and let them know you’re happy to have them in your life. With all of the ways that we can communicate, why not?

Happy Thanksgiving Y’all!

The Coca-Cola Conversations blog launched a new “vintage” look to mark a new strategy and direction for the the world’s #1 brand.

http://www.coca-colaconversations.com

“From an economical perspective, innovation is a matter of life and death.  A company must innovate today if it wants to be in business tomorrow. For a company to succeed, it not only must be much better than its competitors, but it also must anticipate where its future competition will come from and what it will offer.

Today, business leaders are turning innovation into a major driver for better solutions, experiences, and sustainable business.  In fact, the most successful leaders apply innovation across every business process, from behavioral strategy and market research to financial, leadership, and business models.”

- from a fine line, by harmut esslinger.  used totally without permission

Recently, I had the opportunity to meet the very impressive President of frog design at the TED Global Conference.  The mission of frog is to “create and bring to market meaningful products, services, and experiences” to some of the worlds biggest brands. They do this by understanding “the culture of technology and the design of business.”

Since then, I’ve been reading “a fine line” from Harmut Esslinger. He’s the creative visionary and founder of frog design that has spent forty years building the world’s most recognizable brands.  In this book, he talks about how companies can achieve better business through better design and about the very real challenges facing businesses in the new global economy.

“As a realistic optimist, I believe in a better future.”

Esslinger shows how business leaders and designers can work together using creative strategies to build a more profitable and sustainable future.  The book talks about how he evolved frog design from an industrial design shop to a global innovation powerhouse.

Here are some rapid fire soundbites from Harmut…

In talking to the firm’s leadership, it is clear that frog’s corporate culture is their first priority.  The key to their creative process is that by creating a positive work environment, they enable their talent to create innovative ideas for their clients.   This think-tank atmosphere gives great minds a place to incubate big ideas and leads to successful services and products.

The Creative Corporate Mind

“The fourth level of design, is made up for highly creative, strategic thinkers who are fluent in convergent technologies, social and ecological needs, and business.  The mission that all busines leaders should adopt for their organizations’ design efforts — is to create physical and virtual objects that are inspirational in the usefulness, beauty and social/environmental responsibility, which at the same time supporting business’s strategic goals.

This mission forces the foundation for any organization’s creative strategy and drives its tacticial implementation.  For business leaders pursuing and innovation-driven business model, strategic designers are essential partners.”

Their unique way of re-thinking complex business problems from a design perspective breaks the mold of traditional creative agencies.   To create success in business, the big thinkers should be brought together with business specialists that are able to implement and sell those big ideas.

“As designers, we are uniquely qualified to feel and see opportunities that might be invisible to our more “rational” professional partners.  And the business leaders we partner with may be attuned to exciting opportunities that haven’t even crossed our minds.”

- from a fine line, by harmut esslinger.  used totally without permission

How are you going to stay ahead of the competition?

In the new economy, change is expected and should be encouraged.  If you’re a business leader, think about what you are doing to improve your brand and ask yourself these questions:

- Do you value safety over innovation?

- What will your business do differently to remain competitive?

- What systemic changes will you make to keep your top talent performing at their peak?

Stay ahead of your competition by continually defining your brand as an innovator in the field. The key to relevance in a fast moving economy is to put innovation at the core of your business, which enables your entire organization to adapt, anticipate and act.