Guys, I get it. I really do.

You’ve been taught all your life to avoid “girly” things. People have told you to be “be a man,” and possibly made fun of you for doing something that appears feminine. You’ve been given an innate fear of weakness, beauty, and other qualities that have somehow become only associated with the fairer sex.

Maybe this led you to play a sport you didn’t really care about. Or pretend to like an action movie you thought was actually poorly produced. Or hide your love of things like poetry, or the “Real Housewives of Orange County.”

You’ve gravitated towards things like man aisles in grocery stores, or sites like The Art of Manliness, because they’ve supposedly made it easy to tell what a real man does – to differentiate yourself from feminine things. New shows like Man Up and Last Man Standing appeal to you for the same reasons.

Enter the new site Gentlemint, which does the same thing online. You’ve heard about Pinterest, the wildly popular online pinboard where people can “pin” images and videos to curated boards for everyone to see your interests. But you’ve also heard that Pinterest is dominated by women, so you’ve hesitated. And now Gentlemint has given you an option that will clearly say, “I’m a man!” Everyone wins, right?

Wrong.

Here’s why I’m going to advocate that you avoid things like Gentlemint. The first reason – the most important reason – is that those assholes in high school (who, let’s face it, may have included your own father) who advocated for you to “be a man” were telling you that because of their own insecurities. The anti-femininity (and thinly-veiled homophobia) that is rampant in locker rooms and around dinner tables in America is a moral failing that not enough parents – not enough fathers – have the courage to address.

We need to be better than this. Because right now, we’re intentionally creating intellectual and cultural ghettos from which men are incapable of escaping. We’re ceding the marketplace of ideas and innovation to women out of a fear of becoming like them – no, out of a fear that other men will perceive that we’ve become like them. And in the process, we’re making the very idea of men a caricature that no one can take seriously.

This is a small window into why some are declaring the end of men. The ghettos we’re creating extend beyond television and websites – they include professional tracks and education. (“You want to be a nurse? That’s a girls job!”) Fear is leading men to a permanent place of second-class citizenship. Sure, we’re not there yet. But I for one don’t want to see my son growing up in a world of shrinking opportunities for men created by our imaginations.

This is one of the reasons why I created FWD – I want to get the marketplace of ideas back. I want to make it OK for men to think big again. And I hope you’ll join me.

On an average day, the busyness is palpable. Hours are filled with obligations, to one party or another or your offspring. The sun rises and sets, and you try to get through it – from one point to another – while trying to find little moments of respite.

You count the little victories, and if it’s a special day, you have to use two hands. Usually one will do.

“The last year in the mountains new people came deep into our lives and nothing was ever the same again. The winter of the avalanches was like a happy and innocent winter in childhood compared to that winter and the murderous summer that was to follow…”

If you’re lucky, if you have the presence of mind enough for that day, you might remember to notice things. Like the taste of your food when you make yourself breakfast. Or the woman who’s afraid to ask you for your seat on the train. Like how the peaking sun mixes with the chill January air to create a sensation of brisk warmth.

Numbers occupy most of the space of the day. The number of tasks accomplished. (The greater number unaccomplished.) The balance of your checking account. Budgets. Train numbers. How many emails. How many meeting minutes. How much productivity.

“In the mechanics of how this was penetrated I have never tried to apportion the blame, except my own part, and that was clearer all my life. The bulldozing of three people’s hearts to destroy one happiness and build another…”

At the end, the meetings accomplished, the children put to bed, the time for the two of you. The twilight hours for rest, or romance. But usually rest. The day has stolen your energy, your will to make an effort. Decision fatigue has left you incapable of doing the right thing. Or of doing anything.

“Any blame in that was mine to take and possess and understand.”

In A Moveable Feast, this is what Hemingway knew all too late. How happiness is penetrated one day at a time.

Or.

You don’t let it be. You put up a fortress, brick by brick, around each other. You look into each other’s eyes. You fight, tooth and nail, bloody, injured, for the other person. You see each other, daily. You count the little victories together.

“The only one, Hadley, who had no possible blame, ever, came well out of it finally and married a much finer man than I ever was or could hope to be and is happy and deserves it and that was one good and lasting thing that came out of that year.”

The story behind this week’s photos:

• 1 & 4  - Winter has officially arrived in Chicago, but I’m not complaining since it was so mild up until now. Give me a few weeks…
• 2 & 5 - I picked up guitar last weekend again for the first time in a while. It felt good – although my fingertips were not happy with me. When Miles saw me doing it, he wanted to get out his little guitar that his grandparents gave him and play along with me. His imitating of me is always fun, but also kind of scary, since it’s only going to grow.
• 3 - Our new floor at Edelman continues to get finalized, including our new Food Room. Kind of crazy how well stocked it is.
• 6 – Love this shot. Took this when we stopped by Gene’s Sausage Shop, a sweet little grocery and delicatessen in Lincoln Square. They also have a rooftop beer garden with amazing bratwursts.

As always, follow me on Instagram for more photo goodness.

How was your week?

If you don’t have yourself a barber, get one. I’m pretty loyal to mine. That’s one reason I love this video.

The other is that it reminds me of people I grew up with. Plus it got nominated for an Emmy. Score.

[via Devour]

One of the benefits of escaping big city life to visit my parents in Oklahoma is the wildlife. Adjacent to my hometown is a big refuge and mountain range, filled with buffalo, longhorns, and other endangered species. We also have a few friends with farms, so the last two holiday seasons we’ve taken Miles to see some horses.

He’s going through a big animals phase right now. All of his favorite books to read are animal-related, and his favorite toys are little animal figurines. We try to satisfy his cravings for all-things wildlife here in Chicago to the best of our abilities, like taking him to Lincoln Park Zoo (even in the dead of winter). But there is obviously only so much we can do.

I really want nature to be something he looks forward to when he visits Oklahoma. It’s definitely something I took for granted growing up there, and it’s one of the things that will contrast the greatest with growing up in a big city. The prairies offer up such unique experiences (including Rattlesnake Festivals – it’s a thing).

I want Miles to own his heritage, just as I’m learning to own it myself. My wife makes fun of me because one of my dreams is to one day own a working ranch (proof). I think that may be part of me trying to recapture my heritage just a bit. Maybe Miles and I can do it together.

We’ve carried on the horse tradition for the past two winters, and it’s amazing to see the contrast between the Miles of 2010 and the Miles of 2011. The contrast is made even more stark considering that this year we went to see a group of miniature horses that my sister keeps. They make Miles look even more like the little boy he’s quickly becoming.

Here’s hoping me and that little boy have many more wildlife adventures to come.

The story behind this week’s photos:

• Photos 1 & 2 – Edelman Digital Chicago packed up and moved floors – from 63 to 66 in the AON Center. Our new floor is pretty slick – a modern, open floor plan, new kitchen with a ton of food, and cool meeting spaces. I’ll probably have more photos of it coming soon.
• Photos 4 & 5 – Miles got pretty sick this week, with his fever at one point going up to 103. A few restless nights for him (which meant a few sleepless nights for us). I stayed home with him a couple of days until he got better. It was a rough couple of days, but he was in good spirits for most of it.
• Photos 3 & 6 – Only in Chicago can it go from 50 degrees one day to a blizzard the next.

For more photos on-the-go, you can always follow me on Instagram.

How was your week?

Nice little reminder of some ways to stay creative. Any you would add?

[via Co.Design]

And I’m back. How are you?

My holiday was… interesting. More on that later this week.

Right now I want to share with you guys a fun exercise I’ve been going through in the last couple of weeks. Last month, I was thinking about what I had accomplished in 2011 and what I wanted to get out of 2012. There is quite a bit on my life agenda, and figuring out what the next step is has always come with some difficulty for me.

Then I had an epiphany: what I needed was a strategic plan.

Strategy is a big part of my day job. So when I started thinking about what my goals were for 2012, what were my important action items to get to those goals, etc., I thought, This sounds familiar. Honestly, I’m not sure why it didn’t occur to me earlier.

The exercise of actually doing strategic planning for myself has been really interesting. I’ve done everything from laying out my mission, vision and values to doing a SWOT analysis for myself. (Laying out your weaknesses is not fun. Talk about a humbling experience.)

The result has been something tangible that I can hold on to that allows me to say, I’m doing this right now or I want to do this, but it’s not for today. I’ll do that in a few months (or years). The latter I think is more important for me, because lists like this can easily make me feel like I’ve got to accomplish everything right away. It’s very freeing to be able to say no to things.

I won’t bore you with all of the details of the plan, suffice to say it focuses on the next three years, and involves five interconnected spheres of living: mental, physical, emotional, spiritual, and relational.

Here is a quick snapshot of where I landed on those for 2012:

• Mental – Write, write, and write some more. A lot goes on in my head. Time to get some of that on paper (per se). Plus it moves me towards a few of my list items.
• Physical – Fighting in a boxing match has been something I’ve wanted to do for a while now, and I just started to dip my toe into this project in 2011. I want to take it up significantly this year.
• Emotional – I’ve alluded to the fact that I don’t have a relationship with my biological father. The task I’ve given myself this year is to start making inroads into finding out more about him. (More on that soon.)
• Spiritual – Last September I started getting up really early in the morning in order to get stuff done. This has been amazingly successful for productivity, but this year I also want to use this time for centering, stillness, and talking to God.
• Relational – This really has two pieces: family and friends. I’ve realized that it’s really easily for me to exist in isolation, physically and mentally, from everyone else in my life. In 2012, I want to be intentional about being with the other people in my life.

Now you’ve seen under my hood a little bit. What are your goals for 2012?

Image credit: Menage a Moi

Fascinating history of Santa Claus, eh? Bet you didn’t know that Santa, St. Nick, and Father Christmas were all different people at one point? At least, I didn’t.

No matter what you celebrate at this time of year, happy holidays to you and yours. I’ll be taking a little hiatus around here until the new year, giving myself a much needed digital break. (I suggest you do the same).

See you in 2012.

[via ManMadeDIY]

Stumbled upon this really great art exhibition at the London Science museum called ‘Hidden Heroes.’ The exhibition celebrates the design genius of everyday objects – things we often overlook.

Watch the video. It’s fascinating.

Here’s to finding meaning in everyday life.

[via Selectism]

This post was originally published on Ben Cotton’s blog Social Web Thing.

As we celebrated Community Manager Appreciation Day this week, I thought about the attributes, skills and behaviors that make a successful Community Manager (you can view all the #CMAD conversation on Twitter).

I’m lucky enough to have managed several high-profile communities throughout my career, ranging from mobile phone to sports apparel to food brands, so I’ve drawn upon my experience when compiling this list.

My colleagues Britta Heer and Jasper Krog correctly point out that Community Managers should be appointed based on their strategic, communication, social and management skills, so here’s what I consider to be the 10 attributes every successful Community Manager needs.

1. Strategic focus

   Here are many challenges and opportunities awaiting brands who engage in real-time conversations with fans, but this activity needs to be underpinned by a clear strategic framework and an effective Community Manager who understands and can execute the strategy.

2. Relationship development

The central focus of all Community Management activity is the ability to identify, nurture and develop long-lasting relationships with new and existing community members for the mutual benefit of fans and the brand.

3. Leadership

Effective Community Managers help shape the conversation which takes place online and they need to possess strong leadership qualities in order to guide the conversation and community in line with the overall strategy.

4. Issues identification

There are many examples of crisis’ blowing up on Facebook pages, but a successful Community Manager will be able to identify, monitor, intervene and escalate issues where appropriate, before they develop into a crisis.

5. Emotional intelligence

Admittedly, this is a very broad term, but Community Managers need to have high emotional intelligence and be able to spot, assess and respond to the emotions of the community using the correct tonality, language and frequency.

6. Attention to detail

Paying attention to detail at all times is critical to being a successful Community Manager. Whether it be posting content, replying to individuals or recording daily activity, focusing on and appreciating the detail is crucial.

7. Authenticity

Great Community Managers have the ability to let their personality shine through when engaging with fans, whilst staying true to the voice of the brand. These types of authentic, personalised conversations are what the community wants, rather than default, corporate answers.

8. Mediation

Frequently within online communities there are opposing views, which can often lead to inflamed, passionate and angry exchanges taking place between different community members. However, a good Community Manager will be able to calm things down, mediate and bring any conflicts to a resolution.

9. A ‘thick skin’

Online communities contain a wide spectrum of views and there are bound to be times when people vent their anger at the brand, product or community manager. Subsequently, having a ‘thick skin’ and the ability to remain calm and not take things personally needs to be part of the Community Manager’s personality..

10. Respect

Following the last point and it may seem obvious, but treating all community members with the respect at all times is absolutely essential when looking after communities. There have been many examples of bad Community Managers engaging in slanging matches with fans, causing reputational damage.

What attributes do you think somebody needs to be an effective Community Manager?

Earlier this week, Edelman released the global findings from the 2012 Edelman Trust Barometer – the 12th year of the firm’s annual trust and credibility survey.  Anyone in the business of communications, or planning how an organization engages with its audience, should take note of the results – and particularly that data surrounding trust in media.

For starters, the 2012 Edelman Trust Barometer shows an overall decline in trust globally, with steep declines in the levels of trust in government and business. Government is now the least trusted institution–trailing business, media, and NGOs. Business experienced fewer and generally less severe declines in trust, but has its own hurdles to clear – notably that CEO credibility declined 38 percent, its biggest drop in Barometer history. For the fifth year in a row, NGOs are the most trusted institution.

Media was the only institution to see an increase in trust over the past year. Global trust in media is now above 50 percent – and media in India (20 percentage points), the United States (18 percentage points), the UK (15 percentage points), and Italy (12 percentage points) all saw significant gains.

What does that mean for your work?  Here are five takeaways related to media:

1 – Traditional Media Stronger Than Ever

Not only are traditional media (and search) the most trusted sources, but in specific circumstances – corporate earnings, product launch information, details on a crisis — they are also the first places people go for information. Traditional media — TV, newspapers, magazines, radio – and online search engines are the most trusted sources of information for people searching for general news and information, new product information, news on an environmental crisis, and company announcements. In the United States, trust in all media sources rose, with major jumps in the perceived trustworthiness of television, radio, and newspapers as sources of information about a company (by 23, 13, and 11 percentage points, respectively).

In the U.K., those same sources increased by 25, 17, and 17 percentage points, respectively. In France and Germany, however, trust in television news and newspapers fell by ten or more points.

Traditional media likely earned the trust of various audiences after doing a solid job covering the financial turmoil throughout the European Union as well as numerous corporate crises, including the Bank of America debit card fee, the Netflix/Qwikster snafu, and the India telecoms scandal.

But trust is ever-changing, so to maintain its upward trajectory, traditional media must continue to innovate, not just by embracing new platforms but also by expanding its focus (covering more stories), deepening its commitment(following issues over time) and doing a better job engaging its audience (sharing data, co-creating coverage, sharing responsibility for fact checking).

2 – Digital DNA Key to Hybrid Media Influence

Traditional media has worked hard in the past year to expand its digital offering, and still has work to do if it wants to earn its stripes using social networks.  Hybrid media, by contrast, has digital as a core part of its DNA and has used its approach and perspective on how to engage with audiences to build trust around the world.

According to data from the 2012 Edelman Trust Barometer, 83% of the general population use digital media for general news and information and in countries like Russia (95%), China (93%) and Indonesia (92%) the usage was even higher.  Not surprisingly, among 18 – 29 year olds, digital media is the most popular source for general news and information.

Hybrid media – which includes content aggregators and curators (Flipboard and Pulse and Storify, TechMeme), as well as personality and topic-specific-blogs and news sites (VentureBeat, Politico, GigaOm, and Sports Blog Nation) – post frequently, on a range of topics, and look to social media and the online community to help extend the life of stories and integrate different angles and audiences.

Like their traditional counterparts, hybrid media acquitted itself with its coverage of key stories over the past year. They still trail traditional media sources, as well as search, on the list of sources for general news and information, but their influence on the media industry, and the innovation they are helping to drive across all sectors, is clear. With a growing number of news consumers looking to hybrid media for information, the opportunity to drive further disruption across the media universe remains great.

3 – Social Leads the Pack

Social-networking, micro-blogging, and content-sharing sites (Twitter, Facebook and Tumblr) witnessed the most dramatic percentage increase as trusted sources of information about a company, rising by 88, 86, and 75 percent, respectively.  Search engines and news/RSS feeds also saw a jump (18 percent together).  The findings suggest that some of the trust that audiences have in social media was transferred from other media. For example, in China, Trust Barometer data showed double-digit decreases in television as a trusted source, plunging from 74 to 43 percent, and trust in Chinese newspapers fell by 20 points to 34 percent.

But trust in social media jumped: micro-blogging sites and social-networking sites in China went from virtual distrust at just one percent each to being greatly trusted by 25 percent and 21 percent, respectively. The rapid growth in social media usage within China is best exemplified by Weibo (the Twitter equivalent in China), which at the end of 2010 had 60 million users and by the end of 2011 had grown to more than 310 million users.

In addition to massive growth, major news stories, including the corruption of the Red Cross and a high-speed train crash, were first reported on Weibo, and they became central to discussion about political and other issues.

4 – Transparency Vital on Owned Channels

Every company is a media company, no matter what its business or activity.  Data from the 2012 Edelman Trust Barometer shows that ‘owned’ channels – a company’s website or blogs for example – are a key source of trusted information for consumers.  The data show a significant rise in trust among owned channels, and notably corporate communications and corporate/product advertising.

At the same time, the credibility of CEOs, along with government officials, experienced a massive decline this past year. Organizational leaders should not take this (solely) as a criticism, but rather an invitation to partner with outside thought leaders and elevate other employees and technical experts from within their own ranks to the position of trusted spokesperson.

Traditional, hybrid, and social media are trusted in the eyes of audiences likely in large part because of their transparency and commitment to innovation. To achieve the necessary level of participation and engagement required to earn trust in a connected society, most organizations still need to undergo a cultural change in terms of their online communications, and especially their owned channels.

Organizations must gear themselves to the transparency of the new media and remove hierarchies from its own media and communications structures to establish and maintain trust with audiences. Beyond just posting more and better information, organizations must also be alert to comments on its products, brands, or personnel all across digital media, and be prepared to respond and engage quickly. This rise in trust seen this past year should be seen as encouraging, but more importantly used as evidence that more can, and should, be done.

5 – Repeat, Repeat, Repeat

There is one last data point from the 2012 Edelman Trust Barometer that all media, and other organizations, must understand. Against the backdrop of increased skepticism, 63 percent say that messages must be repeated between three and five times for them to be believed, a four-point uptick over last year. In Japan, which now sits second from the bottom of the list of where countries rank in terms of overall trust in institutions, the number is 82 percent.

That means in one year more people need to hear the same things repeated, across different channels and from different sources, before they believe its accuracy. Let me say that again: that means in one year more people need to hear the same things repeated, across different channels and from different sources, before they believe its accuracy. The results of the 2012 Edelman Trust Barometer show what we have known for a while – how important it is to stimulate storytelling and conversation that creates motion across all of the different types of media.

It is critical that all organizations, and especially media, focus on providing smart ideas, high-quality content that can be easily found and shared, and commit to a level of engagement with their audience, that benefits all. The more this line of thinking becomes embedded into how organizations operate, the more credibility and trust will be found. What do you think the path forward for media will be?  How can media build on a strong 2011 to cement its status as a trusted institution in future surveys?  And what can business, government, NGOs – and others – learn from the rise in trust in media this past year?

For more information about the 2012 Edelman Trust Barometer visit Trust.Edelman.com or read the Executive Summary or the Global Results Presentation.

This post was originally published on David Armano’s blog Logic + Emotion.

“Social command centers” are all the rage today and it’s not without some merit. Many organizations now find themselves in a real-time business environment where news travels faster than sound, and information is set free. As a result, some forward thinking companies have put “monitoring” in place either in-house or in combination with partners. This isn’t enough. And to make matters worse, I’ve seen companies make the classic mistake of buying a tool BEFORE putting any thought into the design that goes into effective monitoring and response, forgetting the 3P’s (People, Process, Platforms). Tech platforms are only one third of the problem.

The media hasn’t helped. “Social Command Centers” as physical spaces ripped from the playbook of NASA have been documented via Dell, Gatorade* and most recently, the Super Bowl. Now, to be clear—a physical space can make listening, engaging and responding in real time effective—but it’s not a requirement. In fact, for the organization who wishes to be able to function in real time for the long haul, it’s the wrong place to focus on. So, how does any organization who wishes to be better equipped for real-time business move forward? Based on some of the work I’ve been doing with our analytics teams at Edelman Digital—below are some high level recommendations for setting up your social command center, without the center.

1) Set Up The Infrastructure

If your organization is not currently equipped to take in large amounts of social signals and process that data in real time—it’s imperative to start with the three P’s:

People

Most organizations forget that any initiative is dependent on people no matter how effective the tool and they forget to start here. Don’t make that mistake.

First, decide how much your organization can invest in terms of training people to both use the tools and have “listening” become either part of their job or the job itself. Go to the organizational design drawing board and begin to map it out. See who has done it before and if you don’t know who has—find help here.

Many organizations will find out that they need assistance in the form of professional service providers. Even here, work on the org design to determine how resources, both internal and “outsourced” work together for maximum integration.

Process

Another area where many “command center” initiatives fail is that they gather the signals, but don’t have the internal process in place to share the insights and intelligence. If your organization has spent money on tools or even people but haven’t figured out how to effectively communicate (internally) what you’re hearing, it’s wasted investment.

A process must be designed which connects multiple stakeholders together who can quickly get information and perhaps more importantly be able to connect with others on interpreting what it means. Internal social networks which act as collaboration hubs, can play a role here—but again, without a process (and the right culture) in place, the tools won’t matter.

A system must be designed here which can quickly get information out to key stakeholders across multiple silos, but those groups must commit resources and leadership to support the process.

Platforms

Not all tools are created equal and some perform better functions than others. There’s no shortage of tools which started as listening and are moving into the CRM (Customer Relationship Management) space, or social publishing platforms that are extending into the monitoring and response category. There are tools which will work with existing enterprise platforms and those which claim to be end to end. There are also technology platforms who will offer services around their tools and those who don’t.

The golden rule when choosing a platform is to remember that a technology company at the end of the day always views their technology as the best solution. We typically recommend comprehensive audits here—as well as bringing together both internal decision makers an key partners together before pulling the trigger on a technology solution. It’s also recommended that SOME thought be put into both people and process before making a decision on tools. The most common scenario I’ve seen is the reverse—which leads to more cost and less efficiency, retrofitting people and process to work with a tool which may have not been the best pick in the first place.

2) Analyze For Meaning

Data. It means nothing without analysis. In order to even get to any kind of meaningful analysis, you mist first set up the right filters and taxonomies. Your company for example may have a product name which also comes up in other industry conversations in total unrelated context. Once the right taxonomies and filters are in place, it requires brains to detect patterns and extract any kind of meaningful insight from the data. These brains are not just the data analysts but also people across your organization who should be pulled into the “command center” and tapped for their area of expertise. Individuals from R&D, customer care and even HR can be relevant here.

3) Optimize Content & Engagement Tactics

There are really only two immediate actions any organization can take from having a command center infrastructure in place. The first is to optimize any form of communication asset which goes out. The second is to optimize any form of engagement (example, talking to anyone in a forum, social network, or commenting on a publication). Both content and engagement tactics are informed by the social intelligence captured, disseminated and digested by the designated individuals who are part of the command center ecosystem.

Content and engagement tactics can happen across a number of digital and real world properties. Traditional media, (mainstream), Hybrid (blogoshphere), Social, (networks and forums) and Owned (apps and corporate sites).

4) Monitor & Measure New Signals

If you’re going to invest in a social command center (without the center), you’ll need to be able to measure and report progress, not only intelligence. Every piece of content and every interaction should be designed to create a ripple effect or reverberate a signal which your command center should be able to pick up and track back to the source.The source should be connected to your efforts whether ranging from correcting inaccurate information, to levering social channels to rectify a bad customer experience.

Everything we do in the digital space sends a signal. Some are faint and some get picked up. As part of a command center construct, an organization should design it so it can not only trace signals back to their origin, but connect them to business objectives.

It’s worth noting that as with everything else attached to the word “social”—a command center construct is not a magic bullet nor a solution for your business problems. However, it can be an effective move your organization makes in calibrating it for real-time scenarios which is becoming all too frequent as a result of social technologies and the behavior it influences. Today, your customers, employees and competitors can send signals in real time. My hypothesis here is that within the next 5-10 years, nearly every organization will have some kind of system like this in place which works to their benefit.

*PepsiCo is an Edelman client.

The following post is an excerpt from Edelman Consumer Marketing’s 12on12, a compilation of essays from some of our consumer marketing leaders around the globe. This is the second in a series of essays from the compilation. To read more essays from the 12on12 series, visit the Edelman Scribd Channel.

I promise not to go all Mayan on you, but it is 2012 and time to make some predictions… none of which are about the world ending (sorry, “Melancholia”). However, some endings and new beginnings would be welcome. Here come the predictions - “Cross a New Time Zone,” “Renew Your Senses”, and “Act Up and Act Together”:

Cross a New Time Zone

• Time Reconsidered: It’s high time for “time” to make a comeback, too. Not the 24/7 work week, but quality time to think, plan, contemplate, and ruminate. The Pause button on all our devices will be rediscovered, and will become the valued feature over fast forward. Some will even opt out altogether. A recent Roper global study found that people in the Western world were opting for money over time and in the fast-growing economies of Asia, time was being valued over money.Wherever you live in the world, time will be viewed as a precious commodity, and perhaps become the new gold standard of living well. IDEO, the world-renowned design firm, has even traded traditional vacation time for what they call time to “rejuvenate and relax,” giving more color and depth to the use of time away from work.

• Substance Returns: It certainly must be time for depth to make an elegant entrance and the easy, short-term fix to make a graceful exit. Depth doesn’t come easily. It requires insight, a strategy, an idea, long-term planning, and even longer term delivery. A conduit to substance in 2012 is what my colleague Robin Bruce calls “Slo-comotion.” The principles of Slo-comotion include a return to thought, exiting through the iPad into real-life experience, and an anti-microwave mindshare movement; instead of brands facilitating micro actions that last for a hot second without lasting affinity, brands, companies (and maybe even governments?) return to “baking” ideas that last.

Public forum thinkers of yore like Aristotle, Mark Twain, and Martin Luther King will be re-examined and emulated, setting the tone for a new public discourse that values the quality of the idea and the richness of the content over the quantity and the pithiness of 140 characters. A Return on Substance will ensure a longer term return on investment.

Renew Your Senses

• The Arrival of ARR (Attention Renewal Remedy) and the departure of ADD. Twitter sections in movie theaters will be deemed unconstitutional and/or hazardous to our health. “Pay attention” will no longer be an elementary school command and “listen up” a military imperative. Both will become cultural imperatives at home and at work as we see 12-step programs designed to revive attention. According to artist and author Ed Schlossberg, “paying attention to anything will be the missing commodity in future life. You think you’ll miss nothing, but you’ll probably miss everything.”

• “1 and a half D”… it’s 3D… minus the clutter and minus the frenzy, so we can connect with real meaning (back to substance again). As we debate and struggle how to communicate best in an email-only culture (and the increasing phenomenon of unanswered emails), we are increasingly forced to sacrifice quality thinking time for quick, and sometimes shallow, shortcuts. The following passages from Maureen Dowd’s column, and the new silent movie she refers to (The Artist), are worth contemplating and reflecting on:
  • “The sounds of silence are a dim recollection now, like mystery, privacy, and paying attention to one thing – or one person – at a time.”
  • “There will be fewer and fewer of what Virginia Woolf called ‘moments of being,’ intense sensations that stand apart from the cotton wool of daily life.”
  • “In the case of The Artist,” silence is not only golden; it’s a reminder of how much you can articulate without words. If you take away the language, green screens and 3-D glasses, the feelings – pride, vanity, envy, fear, and love – can be more primary and fascinating.
  • “Hazanavicius (director of The Artist) recalled that at a French screening of the movie, a group of teenagers approached him. They thanked me for letting them hear the silence, he said. It was touching to discover that these young people, always with their iPods, could like real silence.”

Act Up and Act Together

• Passion Rising: Time Magazine names the protester as person of the year. I think this says a lot about the return of “passion.” Brands will need to tap into this passion factor… not expecting people to be passionate about their brand, but serving as a catalyst for people’s individual passions. Passion in the last few years has been overlooked, due to struggling bottom lines and fear of change, but it is passion that creates loyalty, increased usage and longevity.

• Asian Values Infusion, not just Asian economic strength. When we think about the potential of Asia today, we seem to focus solely on the economic progress so rampant in the last 20 years. In 2012, the Asian values of community, compassion, and inter-connectivity will be recognized by the West as ideals to be emulated. Add on the Asian respect for elders, experience, and artisanship and you have quite a triple threat. In Japan, an artisan, whether a mask maker or basket maker is considered a national treasure.

• Collaboration will become the new competition. Look for more collaborative consumption, collaborative capital and collaborative capabilities to emerge. Collaboration will become the competitive edge that helps reboot our economy.

And one last thing to ponder as you wander…

A sense of humor finds its place again. Mayan cuisine will become all the rage in 2012 as will Mayan fashion and architecture. I predict a Mayan X Factor, a Mayan Macarena craze, an all Mayan Glee episode, a Kraft Macaroni and “Mayonnaise” product – and a new Woody Allen film shot on location from the Mayan ruins. No Mayans protest.

Image credit: JobotDaRobot

*Note: the information below should not be considered endorsement of presidential candidate Rick Santorum by Edelman nor the author*

The US presidential race is underway, and so the public scrutiny begins. As President Barack Obama’s powerful “Yes We Can” campaign demonstrated, leveraging digital and social channels can propel a campaign forward. However, in the case of Rick Santorum who is vying for the Republican vote, Google’s playground can also evoke some clever schoolyard tactics.

The story goes that in 2003, Santorum made offensive remarks, and Dan Savage, a sex columnist fought back by creating a contest, inviting readers to claim his surname as a sex act, to memorialise the scandal. He selected a winner, developed the website (spreadingsantorum.com), and users have been creating thousands of inbound links ever since.

Fast forward eight years and this site is still capturing Google juice. It appears within the first page of listings and serves up an embarrassing conundrum for the candidate: how to defuse a Google Bomb.

Google Bombs are the deliberate attempt to redirect search traffic to or from unrelated and/or often satirical content. Famously, there was a time when searching the word “miserable failure” yielded George W. Bush as the top result. Google grew wise to the manipulation of the system, and in an effort to demonstrate its lack of involvement with said Google bomb, defused it by changing its algorithm.

Defusing the Bomb

Without a dramatic algorithm change, anyone going up against a Google Bomb is faced with fighting back through traditional Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) tactics. Some of the options are the following:

1. Having the site removed – Google receives numerous requests for sites to removed, but unless they incite hatred or violence, do not take action. This is therefore not actually an option for most links.

2. Investing in paid search – A person or brand can’t reclaim their search results through link building in isolation. One should invest in keyword research – utilising sites such as Google Ad Words and SocialMention.com along with focus groups  to identify key search terms users actually type into Google when seeking information. Paying for advertisements using these key words will increase the likelihood that users will be yielding the intended website and material, rather than the joke site.

3. Leveraging authoritative supporters for organic search – Specifically for Santorum, his donors, voters and supporters represent a wealth of opportunities to generate on-message, positive content. What’s important is that his team reach out to authoritative fans – those who have an established, popular (with many inbound links and a low on-site bounce rate) presence and properly tagged content. Quality of links – or the level if influence connected to those links – is critical.

Amplify the fans that are generating tweets, Facebook posts, Google Plus posts, blog posts, podcasts, articles and more. Positive media articles are particularly important because they are shareable, and can displace negative content if the media is shared within social networks.

4. Leveraging owned platforms and creating a web of stories online – Use/create communities around Flickr, YouTube, SlideShare, Twitter, Facebook, Google Plus and other sites. These offer a wealth of opportunity to generate content for readers. The more useful the content, and the better the content is optimised for search (inclusive of meta tags, links, etc.), the more likely this will move upward in search rankings.

5. Focusing on rich media – Search engines and users love rich media. According to comScore, users click on images first (84%), then video and news second respectively (19 and 18%). Images are not beneficial to all sites, however. Video in particular drives click-throughs (19%), so it represents a good portion of the search engine results page and is favoured by Google.  A strong YouTube strategy with appropriate tagging would be advisable.

6. Ensuring proper tagging for indexing – By optimising content using known writing tips for search, fans and owned platform managers can feed Google spiders and ultimately, push bad content into later search results pages that are less likely to be viewed.

7. Adding social buttons to the .com – With the launch of Google Search Plus You World, personalised and social search is becoming increasing important online. By taking simple steps to build up visibility of people’s activity within networks, you can increase eyeballs and ultimately Google page rankings of various owned platforms. This will involve adding Facebook, Twitter and other icons to separate pages too.

As the world gears up for the election, politicians and their stakeholders can anticipate politics playing out in the Google arena. By developing a content strategy inclusive of search engine optimisation and search-optimised content, players can help avoid and mitigate erroneous Google Bombs more effectively.

“Pinning” has rapidly become a buzzword in social media and it’s taking consumers, as well as brands, by storm.  Joining the ranks of prominent sites, such as Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr, Pinterest has brought attention to social interest sharing, with a visual platform as the core feature.

Differing from social media sites that focus on status updates and current events, Pinterest is viewed as a “digital corkboard” for users to share, discover and engage with a community that expands beyond people they know in real life.  According to Comscore, Pinterest pulled in 421 million page views during the month of October, despite the fact that it’s still an invite-only site.

Several brands have started to find their place on the site; however for brands and consumers that are still considering engagement on the site there are some key practices to keep in mind before the “pinning” begins.

Best Practices

Currently, Pinterest does not have official brand pages, which means brands need to create a normal user account. When a brand engages on Pinterest an important thing to keep in mind is that it’s a source to share and represent the image of the brand. For a brand to succeed on Pinterest the 70/30 rule is recommended for engagement. This means a brand will engage 70 percent of the time and send out brand content 30 percent of the time. For example, Whole Foods pins images that represent a healthy and active lifestyle. Their pins don’t always represent products you can buy in the store, but they bring further attention to the lifestyle and meaning of the brand. On other occasions they might feature a pin linking to a product you can buy in their stores. Department stores like Nordstrom’s and Bergdorf Goodman are also using the site to streamline the shopping process, by showcasing style ideas and unique trends in one board.

Similar to influencers on other social media sites, there are several Pinterest users who can set the tone for successful pins in a specific category.  Well-known bloggers are often influential within their niche, such as food, design, etc. Connecting with individuals who understand a brand’s category and presence on Pinterest is a great way to make a meaningful impression within the Pinterest network and amplify the brand’s online presence and reach.  Sponsored bloggers connected with a larger digital program could disclose their relationship with the brand through a description feature on their board.

In terms of sourcing, every pin is tracked by a link that will take the user to the original destination. When a pin is repined several times it can build up a substantial amount of backlinks. As a result it’s important the pin is linked with the correct source, providing the user additional information beyond the pin. Pins can also be added by uploading an image from your computer. However, when this occurs it prevents a user from identifying the original source. A brand can use this tool when working with copyrighted images; however it’s not the recommended approach as most users rely on a further source of information.

The description is where most users look to understand the context of a pin and the description of a pin can get lost in translation after several repins. Before repining something it’s important to make sure the description reflects the idea you want to represent.

There is no set number for the amount of boards a brand should have and it will often depend on the context of the brand. However, it’s likely that boards below the fold of a page will gain less attraction from users. As a result, it’s recommended to stick with a few boards that can represent a distinct theme and stand on its own.

Sharing on Facebook and Twitter

Every pin can easily be shared via Facebook and Twitter channels. It provides a great way for a brand to connect their current communities with the Pinterest network; however the tool should be used with some restraint. Pins that are shared with a wider social network should provide additional context to those channels, rather than a stream of images. At this time brands only have the option to sync with their Twitter account, due to a Pinterest setting that does not permit linking to Facebook brand pages. Down the road we expect Pinterest to update their settings, especially as more brands interact with the network. Once an account is created the user can choose to remove the link from Facebook or Twitter at any time. Pinterest will also source the individuals from the user’s Twitter network that are currently on Pinterest.

A recent announcement highlighted a new Facebook app for Pinterest, providing deeper integration for the two sites.  It’s important to note that this will not change the current settings for a brand page. However, this could provide further amplification for repins that will automatically show up in a user’s timeline and newsfeed.  A user can choose to select a feature in their Pinterest settings that will automatically link pins to their Facebook timeline. If a user selects this feature, their pins will show up in one post highlighting a summary of their most recent pins, compared to separate posts.

Thoughts and Considerations

When it comes to engaging on Pinterest there are a few key considerations to keep in mind. There are currently no privacy settings for a Pinterest account, which means that users can’t have a private pin board. This means that every pin and board can be seen by everyone regardless of followers and following.  Several users have started to request private pin boards, which could become an addition down the road.  In terms of the demographic on Pinterest, the user base is heavily female. There are opportunities to engage men on this platform, specifically with the right brand connection. Brands that appeal to men and women can attract their social communities from Facebook and Twitter over to Pinterest by creating the right niche for each demographic.

A separate gift section highlights pins that feature the dollar sign within the description.  Pinterest recognizes the dollar sign and will automatically categorize the pin under gifts; however it will still be present on the user’s board and live updates.

Pinterest is currently tight lipped when it comes to sharing stats and measurement; however there are qualitative and quantitative ways for a brand to track their success on the network.  Repins, likes, comments and number of followers are all numbers that can be manually pulled to reflect a brand’s engagement on the site.  A user can also track how many original pins are being pulled from a specific site through a source feature. From a qualitative perspective, monitoring the types of conversation, comments and users talking about the brand is a useful way to gage the level of influence the brand is experiencing on the site.

Aside from the traditional forms of engagement there are plenty of opportunities to make the most of a brand’s experience on Pinterest. Lands’ End recently used Pinterest for a “Pin it to Win it” contest. Participants were encouraged to pin items that they liked from the Lands’ End Site and the most stylish and creative items won prizes.  Similar contests would work for a variety of brands, such as highlighting creative recipes. However, if a brand was to run a contest they would have to review Pinterest’s Terms of Service and define accompanying rules.

Recommendations:

Pinterest, along with sites such as Tumblr and Instagram, represent the rise of content sharing in social media and the importance it places on creation.  Quality content, which varies from an influential blog to The New York Times, is being shared at a rapid rate and it’s important to take note of where this content is being shared and what is being shared.  Recommended articles below further discuss the influence Pinterest is having on brands and individuals.

• Tricks for Cutting Edge Users
• Chobani Yogurt Tickles the Tastes of Pinterest Addicts so You Can Your Brand
• How Businesses Are Using Pinterest
• To Pinterest: A Love Letter
• Can Pinterest Change Your Life?

**Update from the Author**: In addition to the Pinmarklet button that users can add to their bookmarks, there are two additional sources to pull pins from websites. If a user prefers not to add another bookmark they can use the Add + feature on the upper right-hand corner of the Pinterest homepage.  Adding the URL for the image will automatically allow users to add the pin to the board of their choosing.  For brands that want to provide immediate access for images to be pinned from their sites, they can add a “Pin It” button that will automatically connect the image to the user’s Pinterest account. Etsy is one example of a site currently using this feature. When a user pins a product from Etsy via the “Pin It” button, it automatically sources a description and product cost, eliminating a few steps for the user.

Image credit: Hello Jenny

Yesterday morning in London, Richard Edelman unveiled the 2012 Edelman Trust Barometer. It’s the twelfth year that we’ve conducted the study, which tries to answer the seemingly simple question: “Who do you trust?”

One thing is clear from this year’s research: It isn’t your CEO.

Globally, only 38% of informed publics think CEOs are credible spokespeople. That’s down from 50% last year.

On the other hand, trust in a ‘Regular employee’ showed a dramatic rise from 34% last year, to 50% this year. ‘Regular employee’ trailed only academic, technical experts in the company, and person like yourself as the most credible spokesperson your business could put forward. You can view all of this data on slide 21 our global trust presentation.

We’ve been talking about social business here and elsewhere for a while, but for me, no single piece of data has made a more compelling case for social business.

In a world where employees, whether technical experts or regular folks, are a company’s most credible spokespeople, every business simply must understand how to organize and empower employees to interact successfully in social media.

We have some practical thoughts what this means and how to make it happen, but the bottom line is that it’s time to expand social thinking from brand marketing and communications to the whole enterprise. That won’t happen overnight, but as the Trust Barometer shows, it’s important that the journey begin.

Edelman’s London office is hosting a panel discussion on Social Business on the 14th of February. The event will be held at 105 Victoria Street London , SW1E 6QT, 8:30-10:30am.

You can register and find more details here.

Image credit: Lars Plougmann

Yesterday, community managers around the world celebrated the third annual Community Manager Appreciation Day with tweets, online gatherings and a new report outlining everything you need to know about your local community manager. Last year, we celebrated by crowdsourcing some of the amazing knowledge and insight from community managers with various backgrounds and expertise. At Edelman, I’ve been a part of big communities, small communities, niche communities and even created a few communities here and there. To celebrate Community Manager Appreciation Day I put together a few thoughts from my own learnings as a community manager.

Go Where The Community Is

Many companies limit themselves to participating only in Twitter and Facebook because they assume this is where their community is participating. In reality, communities exist everywhere and conversations are taking place in many more embassies than most brands would even consider entering. Take the time to do an audit of the social space to determine where the community is currently engaging and to find opportunities for community growth. Leveraging insights from an audit could open a brand up to more engagement opportunities through forums, blogs, and even niche communities like Instagram and Pinterest.

Know The Community

Before diving into a community headfirst, research and evaluate the community to identify common themes and issues. Each community has their own unique set of needs and issues, and as a community manager you’ll find that you often encounter the same situations over and over again. Some of the most frequently seen issues and conversations include; competitor brand bashing, cyber bullying, brand innovation requests and customer service inquiries. To help better manage each of these situations, create a running FAQ document with a list of all common community issues and questions. For each situation that you experience frequently, have a suggested response plan in place so you can easily engage in an efficient manner.

Authentic Voice In The Community

It is important for the community manager to have an authentic voice and identity within the community. A community manager should be a natural fit in the community, and the brand voice should reflect that of their personal tone. Community managers should establish a brand identity that is authentic and recognizable to community members. Community managers can make their voice more personal by pulling in content from experiences, responding to small talk, and speaking naturally with the community while using common lingo and mannerisms.

Monitor Existing Communities

Content creation and ideation are some of the most time consuming tasks for a community manager. Community managers should utilize features like Facebook and Twitter lists to help curate content and invoke inspiration. Personally, I “like” more than 800 brands on Facebook so I can understand how other industries (big and small) are engaging with their communities daily. Each of these brands is sorted into custom Facebook lists by industry and practice on my Facebook account. Throughout the day I refer to these lists for inspiration and to evaluate best and worst practices.

As a community manager, what tips do you have to share?

Image credit: kdonovan_gaddy

This post was originally published on David Armano’s blog Logic + Emotion.

Today I had the opportunity to present to academics and industry experts from the international poultry industry (you can listen to a re-cap via a short podcast from “Agwired” here). During the presentation I was able to share some results from the recently released 2012 Edelman Trust Barometer, in which the overarching theme is a general skepticism toward institutions such as government and big business with signs of hope when it comes to empowered individuals.

A Person Like Yourself

In last year’s study, it was the expert and even the analyst who enjoyed some degree of trust from the public according to the survey, but this year it is “a person like yourself” who sees the most gain. What I stressed to the group of experts at the event was that this is an opportunity for them to share the stage with “regular” people who have a voice via a variety of social channels and also a responsibility to be “in tune” with the topics and issues they care about and discuss. Last year I speculated that the decline in attention given toward people like ourselves—our friends and peers may have been related to social media fatigue. This year, it’s possible that many of us who make social networking part of our digital routines have gotten a bit better at filtering the signal from noise, thereby being both more generous but focused with our finite attention spans.

Regular Employees

In this year’s survey, CEO’s took a nose dive compared to last year reflecting a somber and skeptical mood which likely connects CEO’s with the institutions they work for. Only government officials fared worse. But it is the individual “regular” employee who moved from the bottom tier to the fourth most credible and trusted resource. This signals a significant opportunity for organizations who have cultures in place where employees themselves are trusted to behave responsibly and are active in public spaces.

Fragmented Media Consumption (And Production)

A recent Mashable article reported that digital ad spending had surpassed that of print—bringing an era to a close and emphasizing the new reality of media fragmentation. The increase in social media (illustrated above) is partially fueling the shift—with social networks driving much of the traffic through sites replacing e-mail shares with buttons that blast out content across your networks amplified by others. Nobody knows this more than the traditional news media outlets who are scrambling to ensure that there content is designed for social sharing.

Trust In The Digital Age of Empowerment

With trust in government, big business and at a broader level institutions down—there remains experts and individuals both who are in a prime position to take their platforms into digital spaces and elevate their position. For institutions, there’s an opportunity to improve sense making out of what’s being said not only by the mainstream but also talked about via networks, message boards and anywhere a comment button can be pressed. For CEO’s, a chance to take a second look at their workforce—instead of seeing worker bees, the connected CEO may see employee ambassadors who when motivated can be the most effective spokespeople for their company.

For the complete findings on this year’s Trust Barometer—the data can be viewed and downloaded via Slideshare (below).

Sports and social media have been a natural fit from the start, with teams, players, leagues, bloggers, media outlets and fans all diving in to engage with one another.

With the overwhelming amount of content available throughout a given season, the challenge for those managing social media for teams, media outlets and blogs is not a lack of content to populate those channels, but rather how to prioritize and manage the content in order to add value for the community.

Unfortunately, that doesn’t seem to be a priority for every organization, as there continues to be an abundance of play-by-play updates spamming peoples’ feeds on any given game day.

Teams, media and bloggers should keep a couple things in mind when deciding how to manage in-game content.

First, a significant number of followers are already watching the game in-venue or on TV, so to add value to their second (and third and fourth) screen experience, it should include information beyond what they know from watching the game. Second, the key to effective engagement is delivering the right content through the right platform to the right people at the right time. That means creating a multi-platform strategy that allows some people to follow every play while others get fewer updates but that include more meaningful content.

Here are some tactful ways to manage in-game fan engagement through social media without spamming feeds with content that lacks value:

Host an In-Game Live Blog

Teams, media outlets and blogs that use their blogging platform to create an in-game thread for each game have the opportunity to post updates, photos, video, stats and pre-and-postgame quotes in real-time on a platform that exists away from fans’ feeds. Their social media channels can promote the live blog in a timely fashion so those who want to be exposed to that level of content and interaction during the game can do so, and those who don’t are only seeing a handful of updates versus a non-stop stream of play-by-play. The blog can also be archived and promoted after the game for those who missed it and want to access the content after-the-fact.

Host an In-Game Live Chat

Similar to the in-game blog, the in-game live chat provides the opportunity for like-minded fans who want a high volume of content and interaction around the game to engage in that conversation on platforms, such as Cover it Live, that exist away from their social media feeds. Just like the in-game blog, the in-game live chat can be promoted through all channels in order to drive awareness for those fans that choose to opt-in to such an experience. Also similar to the in-game blog, teams like the Los Angeles Clippers are archiving the chats and promoting them after the game for fans who want to relive the action.

Create a Dedicated Twitter Feed

If organizations believe their followers are intent on getting a steady stream of live in-game updates via Twitter, it’s beneficial to create and promote a dedicated channel specific to that effort, so the fans that opt-in to follow that channel know exactly what they’re getting and are open to their feed being dominated during the games. Kansas Athletics created @KUGameday to give fans live updates during games and it promotes the channel periodically through its other platforms.

Develop a Gameday Mobile App

Many outlets and teams, such as the San Francisco 49ers, have developed mobile apps specifically designed to enhance the gameday experience. Users have the ability to follow along through play-by-play, stats, video, photos, conversations and more. The mobile app is another platform that can be promoted through other channels in order to reach those who want to opt-in to such an experience.

Use Twitter and Facebook Very Strategically

The beauty of the platforms listed above is they are truly opt-in experiences where users want to follow the game in real-time and there’s nothing else competing for their attention. That’s what makes in-game updates via Twitter and Facebook tricky… sure, the user has opted to follow the team, media outlet or blog’s updates, but doesn’t necessarily want those entities to clog his or her feed with hundreds of in-game updates during the game.

On Facebook, there’s a reasonable expectation to get some pregame content, a halftime update and the final score plus all the relevant postgame links and information, but that’s about it. Unless something extremely newsworthy happens during the game, Facebook content should be pretty limited.

On Twitter, it seems reasonable to provide a few updates per quarter or half updating the score and some key stats and notes that provide context and add value even for those who are watching the game. One team that does a great job of that is the Portland Trail Blazers through their @TrailBlazersPR account. In-game updates always include relevant notes, stats or breaking news such as injury updates. The fans following that feed, even if they’re at the game, are getting added value from it.

Thousands of fans are following their favorite teams every game day through social media and content from teams, media outlets and blogs. In an age where competition for attention is at an all-time high, it’s critical for those organizations to create targeted, multi-platform strategies in order to reach the right people with the right content and manage the in-game social media experience tactfully.

Image credit: clydeorama