DISQUS

@Kevin,
I thought of you having mentioned that you took some classes when I was hearing this last night. Thanks for the book, and the exercise recommendations!

@Amy,

I'm not sure, good question. Carrie (and others) are full time, and I believe that it's a full time (and then some) job in order to be effective.

A sense of humor is often mistaken for a lack of professionalism.

That's where the business voice and the human voice have a hard time bridging the communication gap.

If your professional voice is always serious, then of course a humorous voice would be viewed as the oddball. But in my case (and yours, knowing the professional voice you've chosen for LessEverything), your professional voice *has* a sense of humor, because it is your own. It's consistent, so humor and professionalism can become synonymous.

"Laugh at yourself..." is the core of the next thesis...stay tuned for Monday :)

@Jay Now we're talking! Some of the "ROI" examples from this report are places where you can balance the costs: http://www.dangerouslyawesome.com/2009/01/25/cl...

@Uwe,
Interesting...I'm not sure I'd have made that correlation myself. "Partnership", as I think of it, comes with a fair amount of baggage.

For instance, a partner doesn't just provide input, but also assumes so liability. I can't think of many companies I buy from whose liabilities I care to burden.

I agree 100% that people do NOT want to be targets of businesses, but partners isn't the word I'd use to describe the desired relationship, either.

It's weird to comment on my own blog to another author, but heck, let's give it a spin:

Stephen: Can you explain the difference between big M Marketing and little m marketing?

@Craig: Fixed, thanks!

@Mark,
That's why I said "all you have to do is ask". My hope is that, for the people I've provided value for, that they feel that they got the value they paid for. I could have automatically distributed those funds. But I chose to go the route of asking the customers to reach out. Ideally, in my mind, I'd also get an opportunity to get feedback from them on the pricing point.

I don't think I'm bribing any egos. I think I'm offering a fair opportunity in the event that the service was mis-priced, which I'm comfortable admitting here. The results are still yet to be seen, and I'll be sure to report back on how that goes as well.

@Lee,
I actually totally agree with you, and I wrapped a few too many things into "pitch" than I should have.

What's important about the Geico example is two things:

1. Tone, or voice. As I've been harping on, even if we know the intent is sales, the tone isn't anywhere near it. This is one of the benefits of the "non related" commercial strategy. You can use an unrelated tone without it feeling...fishy.
2. There's something important about the comedic factor of the Geico commercials. That comedic factor is, in my opinion, a social capital deposit in the favor of the company the commercial is for. In my mind, I go something like, "OK, you made me laugh. Well done. For that, I'm willing to accept that you're selling me something, even though I did't really want to be sold to in the first place."

Commercials that are unrelated to the product/service they sell that don't elicit a similar response (by either being funny, ridiculous, or SO in incongruent that it is inherently interesting) fall into that "uncomfortable, I know I'm being sold to and I'm not OK with it" pitch voice.

And to your final point that one is correct and the other isn't, of course. These essays are speaking in extreme terms for the sake of illustration. In practice, all new media/social media/whatever you want to call it works BEST when used in conjunction with traditional efforts.

Great, great points, and I'm glad you brought them up.

@tim: I think this really boils down to a cultural disparity, and one that I know for a fact is capable of being torn down (or never put up in the first place).

Fear and perception of what we're to be afraid of, behavior wise, is changing.

Let me be clear: I don't believe in imposing a culture, corporate or otherwise. In fact, I don't think it's possible to succeed at imposing culture long term. Ultimately, imposed culture becomes a lie as well. And if I've learned anything from history books, lies aren't sustainable.

Maybe (to one of your points) this is a recruitment issue. Does modern HR know what the company needs, or more importantly, what the candidate needs? A resume certainly isn't honest, for the same reasons I renounce the "pitch" as a mechanism for communication. When's the last time you saw a resume that included someone's weaknesses? It's only ever half of the story and therefore not 100% honest.

This whole game is just that: a game. This isn't about designing and imposing a culture, it's about setting a framework for it, based on a shared understanding between employer and employees, and growing it together. I think that's why Zappos has been successful with what would be an otherwise radical corporate design.

Good call. Archive axed. My categories need a desperate cleanup, but once I get around to that I'll add that to the sidebar. Thanks Mark!

See you in Miami?

Bleck. I'm still not happy with this post. Need to move on!

my day was one of the best I've had in a long time.

Front page of the Philadelphia Weekly:
http://www.philadelphiaweekly.com/articles/1812...

Great interview with LuckyStartups about Unstick.me
http://www.luckystartups.com/2009/01/07/all-sta...

AND two of my hero-authors commented on my new blog series, Cluetrain 2009:
http://www.dangerouslyawesome.com/2009/01/02/cl...

WILD DAY!!!

Rick, thrilled to have you here as well.

To both of you, I want to thank you for essentially writing out my editorial calendar here. This is going to be a fun ride!

@David Weinberger: Wow, David. It's a pleasure and an HONOR to have you reading and commenting along!

@Murray Izenwasser: Murray, personas are a *great* way, maybe even a common way, but hardly a *ubiquitous* way to design for the web.

Even worse, they're almost completely remiss from design for *business*. Before the business plan, define who is your customer, and do they need you? If not, you need to start over.

@Patrick: Great to re-read that piece. Thanks for digging that up and sharing!

@Mark Jaquith & @Chris: thanks for sharing your thoughts on the ratio, helps a lot!

@Chris: I firmly agree that improving the boarding process to gain new users is a positive step. What I'm curious of is, from a business perspective, does that ratio of members : active members mean anything?

@Ryan Graves: It's screening regionally...check your local movie house. It probably won't be in a multiplex.

Worth traveling for, though. It's really that good. And Sean Penn totally kills it.

@Liz: Liz, I totally agree. Fundamentally, our experiences are richer, and I too appreciate that I can "know" hundreds of people who I likely would never have encountered.

I'm not concerned about people knowing what I'm up to, as it's been far more beneficial than detrimental to myself and those who keep up with me on twitter. I don't feel like I'm being intruded on. That's also been my choice, and to many, seems absurd.

Lucky for them, Twitter is opt-in :)

I'd argue that PR is killing social media. Just sayin'.

Seth nailed it. Your education is just that, YOUR education. If you're not feeling educated, then I think you have every reason to consider other options.

If you think of it from a customer service perspective, why would you keep paying for crappy product when there's competition across the street.

My only point would be: before leaving, know what you're looking for so you don't find yourself wandering. If you can set goals that you can weigh your options against, you'll have a more efficient experience evaluating options and a higher chance of making the right decision.

I think it's an extremely adult decision to make, and better to make sooner than later.

Best of luck, Emily, and keep me posted if we can do anything else to help.

@timoni: you're quite right, I'm not suggesting that we reverse the benefits (and detraction) of knowing more about each other.

Thinking about this in a sense of tribal communities and their inner workings, your notion of gang signs and t-shirts aren't outlandish. I mean, they are...but what they represent isn't.

I'm honestly less worried about the individual circles that this happens within. It really gets the weirdest where those circles overlap, and most weird when the circles overlap with those who aren't as used to the hyper connected and our idiosyncrasies.

Average Joe may not know why he's on facebook yet, and how's he going to react when he has his first oddball encounter like the ones we're describing? Will he be ready to be as accepting of it as a norm as we are? Or will he firmly reject it and put us back to square one on a meter of <air quotes>progress</air quotes>.

@Lachlan Hardy: that's way less fun. ;)

Are we really going to talk about "nonsensical names in the construct of the english language" when we've got funded companies naming themselves with a web two point oh naming convention ridiculousness?

Point taken, though. And I always like when you stop by to say hi.