Saturday, January 16th, 2010
I came across this article titled Five questions every CMO should ask a prospective ad agency and want to draw attention to two specific questions.
Part of Q3 (What’s your criteria for hiring people?)
And find out for sure how many digital natives your agency’s hired recently. You definitely don’t want them playing catch up.
This I think is huge. And you know what? If the company says they’ve hired 10 new digital natives/Generation Y staff in the last year, ask them to show you a sample of their blogs/Twitter stream/etc to give you an idea of what these people are up to. This is a definite sign, trust me.
Q5
What are five recent creative ideas that aren’t ads?
This could be anything. An interesting use of social bookmarking for internal archiving purposes, running a new project entirely on Google Wave, using Facebook as the new company “intranet” to share information – something that demonstrates out of the box thinking which isn’t client driven – ie there’s some innovation from within.
The entire article is pretty good and definitely worth a read, and so are the comments. Once you’ve checked that out, what do you think? What questions do you need to ask your prospective ad agency?
Tags: advertising agency, Blogs, CMO, criteria for hiring people, digital natives, facebook, generation y, google wave, hiring talent, innovation, intranet, out of the box thinking, prospective ad agency, sharing information, social bookmarking, twitter
Posted in Marketing | No Comments »
Monday, December 8th, 2008
Only four links this week:
Twitter/Brand Monitoring
Jesse Stay has an exclusive interview with the woman behind @BritneySpears on Twitter over on Louis Gray’s blog, and I found this to be a very, very interesting read. When you think about Twitter, you think about people in social media or tech people or people who live their lives online. Yet @BritneySpears has found some footing with an audience of more than 10,000 (maybe it isn’t even her audience, maybe it’s a wider audience than her usual), and the results look to be, for the most part, positive.
It just makes you think, if a female pop star with a tarnished image in the last few years can get on something like Twitter and begin to make small steps to getting back on the right track, what can your company do with it?
[I'm @uniquefrequency on Twitter, if you want to link up there]
Social Media In Businesses
More than 60% of companies are not ready to engage in social media – Surprise surprise? Not really, if you ask me.
if you have a “spying” culture you distrust your employees’ reading habits and how they spend their time. You will therefore distrust their ability to engage with customers on your behalf or you will put so many controls over it that it will sound 100% inauthentic. Think of people willing to speak in public in dicta rial countries – they have zero credibility, as most people assume that they are shills for the regime.
If your company is one of those that blocks Facebook, all it does is signal an extreme lack of trust in your employees. And most of Gen Y aren’t going to take it (Minus the bankers. They’ll do anything for money)
Generation Y/Millennials/Digital Natives
Read Write Web tells us that Millennials Will Route Around IT Departments – There are statistics in this research, but here’s the bottom line:
This report definitely makes it clear that IT departments can either choose to adopt some of these technologies, or they will risk that a large number of their young employees will simply go rogue.
I’ve had a little bit of experience with this in the past and I can say with some certainty that whatever organisations think they’re blocking, they’re not. Whether I want my email forward to Gmail and IT won’t do it for me, or running Firefox from my USB stick because I can’t download Firefox, there are ways to get it done. Blocking IM and/or Facebook? Pretty much useless with the 3G iPhone. (not that I have one).
Just let it go and find more meaningful work for the IT department to do (like improving web analytics, for one).
Blogging
Bryan Person of Social Media Breakfast asks whether blog sidebars are useful. I think they are and I feel I could definitely utilise mine more efficiently. How do you use yours? What are the must haves for your blog sidebar?
That’s it for this week, do share links with me on Delicious.com (I’m uniquefrequency) or just leave them in the comments below!
Tags: 3g iphone, @britneyspears, @therealbritney, blog sidebars, brand monitoring, britney, britney spears, bryan person, businesses not ready to engage in social media, delicious, digital natives, facebook, firefox, generation y, gmail, is your business ready for social media, it departments, louis gray, millennials, social media breakfast, social media in business, twitter, uniquefrequency, usb stick
Posted in Gen Y, Links | 2 Comments »
Friday, December 5th, 2008
I picked up an article from Read Write Web in my feeds talking about how education is evolving, and basically that the availability of data on the internet suggests that we may not even need to memorise things for education like we used to.
To some, this might suggest that Gen Y might be getting lazy, but to me, it’s freeing up the brain to really work on other issues that can’t be as easily solved with a Google search.
One thing I never understood in my freshman year, was why I had to memorise how to create a balance sheet, when I wasn’t even an accounting student. Even if I was an accounting student, I refuse to believe that graduates leave school, get a job at an accounting firm, and sit down to create balance sheets without referring to anything because they memorised it in freshman year.
What I find more challenging, and relevant, is asking my how things apply. Or I might have all this data, but what does it mean? How do students analyse a situation from different angles and begin to think critically about issues.
Perhaps there will be some professions where memory work is still the key, but for the rest of us, probably not so.
More importantly, in response to this issue: are our educators ready to face the new wave of students who have mountains of information at their fingertips?
[Mark also picked up on the same issue and you can read his take on it here]
Tags: accounting, availability of data, balance sheet, digital natives, education, Gen Y, google search, millennials, read write web
Posted in education | 7 Comments »
Monday, November 24th, 2008
Twitter
If you’re still using Twitter, Louis Gray has 15 Tools For Your Twitter Toolbox which you might want to check out.
Social Media
How To Be The Social Media Champion At Your Office by Jason Falls. Many of us are graduating this year if not next, it might be time to think seriously about bringing such a change to our offices.
Collaboration
And speaking of offices, EtherPad is a tool that allows you to collaborate on text documents in real time. I was pretty blown away by the screencast, you should give it a view. I’m looking forward to using this on future projects!
Recessionary Marketing
Do Not Kill Off Marketing During A Recession is the call by Hutch Carpenter. Most of us in marketing (unlike the CEOs) know this, and I’ve read that there is statistical data to show that it’s a bad idea. Try Hutch’s little cartoon for a more intuitive feel.
Generation Y/Millennials/Digital Natives
New Study Shows Time Spent Online Important for Teen Development – I’m a little out of the “teen” demographic, but I think this study hits the right notes and more importantly, should give employers an idea of what to expect when we hit the workforce. I haven’t had time to read the full white paper, but the two page executive summary is pretty exciting.
As always, share your links with me on delicious/uniquefrequency or post them in the comments!
Tags: championing social media, collaborate on text documents, collaboration, delicious, digital natives, do not kill off marketing during a recession, etherpad, generation y, how much to spend on marketing in a recession, hutch carpenter, jason falls, louis gray, millennials, recessionary marketing, screencast, social media, social media champion, social media in the office, teen development, twitter, twitter tools, uniquefrequency
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Monday, November 17th, 2008
A weekend of travel means less blogging this week, but definitely not less reading!
Blogging
You want to show you know what you’re doing, even if the company you’re in follows prehistoric methods, so that the next person who hires you has a reference point. Joseph Jaffe tells you how in AdWeek – Save Your Career, Start A Blog
RSS
Daily Blog Tips has 50 Simple Ways To Gain RSS Subscribers – some might just come in useful!
Word Of Mouth
Andy Sernovitz gets another link this week for telling us why Your Word Of Mouth Markting Doesn’t Have To Be About Your Product. I’ll admit I liked this post partially because Molson Canadian is my new favourite beer while I’m here in Canada. (Oh and they have a blog, and recently an event right here at Queen’s!)
John Johansen had a great experience at Best Buy, which is the polar opposite of what some companies are doing in this recessionary period. (Examples to be posted, soon). He also mentions that because it was a special event there was extra help, free drinks etc, but many people also bought something. Do you think they included his blog post (or any other positive ones) while measuring the ROI of that event?
Social Media ROI
While we’re on that topic, David Meerman Scott tells us how to Answer The Ultimate Question: “How do I convince my boss of the ROI of new marketing?” – It’s not a long video, definitely worth a look.
Gen Y, Millennials and Digital Natives
Quickly becoming an interest point for me these days. Prof Netzley has a deck on Educating Gen Y and how collaborative technologies foster participant-centered learning. . I’d say it’s definitely worth flipping through, especially if you’re trying to figure out what the heck Gen Y is about and how we learn.
Tags: adweek, andy sernovitz, best buy, blogging, collaboration, collaborative technologies, communicate asia, daily blog tips, david meerman scott, digital natives, educating gen y, Gen Y, generation y, john johansen, joseph jaffe, michael netzley, millennials, molson canadian, new marketing, participant centered learning, queen's university, recessionary times, ROI, rss, save your career, social media roi, start a blog, ways to gain rss subscribers, word of mouth marketing
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Thursday, November 13th, 2008
One of my previous bosses once said: You don’t need to spend $20k on market research to know what the youth are into. Just sit on the train from one end to the other end of the subway and you’ll see the iPods, Playstation Portables, Nintendo DSes and the like.
I’m reading a lot about how Gen Y’s expectations of work from the Baby Boomers (read: our bosses) are different. It doesn’t necessarily lead to conflict, but it can lead to misunderstandings.
But the best “focus group” or “market research” comes from these fresh grads who are seen surfing Amazon one day, coming in with a product bought off Amazon the next. All without watching a TV ad for it, or flipping a magazine to see an ad, but maybe got an e-mail from a friend (read: someone like themselves) with a link to check out this cool new product.
Since your company is probably thinking of cutting back advertising and/or marketing in these recessionary times anyway (bad move, by the way), why not ask him or her what led to that purchasing decision? When was the last time they even saw an ad on TV? They’re sitting in the office working at double the normal productivity and have time to spare anyway.
The even better way to do this, if you have kids, is to just watch your kids. If my folks were marketers (and they’re not), it would be folly for them to think I would ever see their company’s advertisement on TV or read about their company’s new product launch in a physical newspaper.
Years ago, during festive seasons (Chinese New Year, Christmas), families would gather for dinner and the TV would be showing some “special” programme, chock full of advertising. Growing up for me, that’s where the kid’s eyes were glued.
Now? My younger nephews and nieces are huddled around my laptop or around their gaming console. So why pay money for those advertisements that no one’s watching? Do you even know they’re not watching?
In my previous internships I’ve been lucky enough to have bosses who let me do what I want (within reason), and I like to think as much as I learned a lot from them, they’ve learned a bit about my generation and how to stay relevant as well.
Tags: advertisements on tv, amazon, baby boomers, digital natives, focus group, Gen Y, generation y, internships, ipod, market research, millennials, nintendo ds, playstation portable, psp, where is gen y getting their info from
Posted in Gen Y, Marketing | 2 Comments »
Tuesday, November 11th, 2008
Hope you enjoyed yesterday’s rare political edition of Links For The Week, it’s back to the regular stuff.
Tribes
- There was an allusion to “Tribes” a couple of times in yesterday’s post, listen to Seth Godin talk about it for more than an hour in this special edition of the Marketing Over Coffee podcast. It took me a long time to finish it because my daily commute is five minutes, but so worth it.
Generation Y, Digital Natives & Millennials
- Workplace 2.0: Motivating and Managing Millennials – Very short (12 pages total, about 8 pages of content) PDF file on managing millennials (aka: us). It doesn’t actually give much of a “how to”, but it does lead you to understanding us more. I must say he is right on about fervour, hard work and tireless labour. I’d work overtime, for free, for a job that’s rewarding in an industry I’m passionate about.
- Digital Natives are here by Mitch Joel – Again, great post to help the people in management understand the digital natives. I feel a lot of people still aren’t ready to accept that our generation is a little bit different and that being constantly connected is more of an empowerment than a distraction. But those organisations who do grasp that, are going to be able to channel us much more efficiently.
Social Media Strategy
- The Strategist and Social Media by Kami Huyse – Great slides in there that you should read if you’re beginning to think of a social media strategy, especially points about risks of social media engagement, and the Sea World case study.
Plurk
Google Reader
Music & Social Media
- MTV to MySpace: Post Our Content, Please – you might remember in my review of the book/rant Cult Of The Amateur by Andrew Keen that he called Viacom (parent company of MTV) suing YouTube a “powerful message”. I say the partnership between MTV and MySpace is a) a more powerful message b) a sign that at least one player in the industry waking up to reality.
As always, share your links with me in the comments, or you can find me on delicious.
Tags: andrew keen, apple, beth harte, cult of the amateur, delicious, digital natives, generation y, google reader, itunes sucks, kami huyse, links for the week, marketing over coffee, millennials, mitch joel, mtv, myspace, obama, Plurk, read it later, risks of social media engagement, sea world, seth godin, social media strategy, tribes, viacom, youtube
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