Brains on Fire

• 

  Getting our questions in the right order

  Posted on March 31st, 2009 by Justine and currently 2 commenting.

  This morning I was reminded of a story that Sam Keen told me a few years back. It’s a great nugget of wisdom that is timeless (and particularly relevant for these times).

  In a time when my life had gone off track, my friend Howard Thurman said to me “A man has to ask himself two questions. First — Who am I..where am I going? Second — Who will go with me? If you ever get the questions in the wrong order you are in big trouble”

  

The crisis modern men face is that we have gotten our questions in the wrong order. 


  Amen, Brother Thurman.

  Do you know who you are? What your company stands for? Where you are going?
  Get that right and people will follow you. Both your employees and your customers.
  Keep trying to get people to follow you, and they won’t stick around for long.

  Tags: Identity, purpose
• 

  What would it take for you to abandon your favorite brand?

  Posted on March 30th, 2009 by Spike and currently 14 commenting.

  Over the weekend, brother Armano expressed his displeasure that the new MacBook Pros don’t come with a video projector adapter.

  

  Now I’m not here to debate whether or not that’s a ripoff or not. It just got me to thinking about what it would take to get you to turn on your favorite brand. David was pissed at Apple, but did he turn around and take back his brand new, shiny computer? Nope.

  So what would it take? Think about your favorite company, product or brand in the whole-wide world. Now think about what it would take for you to never, ever use them again. Crappy customer service? A bad user experience? A “lemon?”

  A big part of what a brand is, is your memories of that brand and how you identify with it. If those memories are positively strong, it might take a lot before you abandon that brand. There’s even many, many stories of people blaming themselves (user error) if their computer blows up or their transmission falls out or their clothes come out of the wash destroyed. That’s loyalty.

  Please don’t get me wrong. I’m not saying that companies who have spent years earning your trust have the right to screw you over just because they think they can get away with it. That’s not right. Quite simply, my question is what would it take for you to leave them and never, ever look back?
  

  Tags: Apple, branding, Brands, Customer Loyalty, customer service
• 

  Don’t Discount the Doodling

  Posted on March 27th, 2009 by Justine and currently 8 commenting.

  I feel exposed without a pen and paper in a meeting. I guess its hard to take the student out of me because for one thing I take notes on everything. But they’re guaranteed to have doodles all over them. I doodle all the time. Now I should clarify what I mean by “doodle” right off the bat. I can’t draw things or people worth a damn. My three year old daughter can sketch a better stick figure than I can. No, I scribble down words, fill in all the “o”s on whatever document or agenda has been handed out in the meeting, or outline geometric patterns and color in random sections like a piece of stained glass. I like dots a lot. And wavy lines. Maybe even a smiley face or flower here and there.

  I can’t say for sure why I doodle. It’s not like I’m trying to capture this quick visual representation of the conversation – that would be an amazing skill which I sadly just do not have. Maybe it’s nervous energy – akin to restless leg syndrome. I’ve never suffered from ADD or lack of ability to focus so it’s not like I’m distracted. (You’ll rarely catch me missing something that was just said and when you do it’s almost certain to be one of two things. Either I’ve been up all night or I haven’t had a cup of coffee yet.) One thing is for sure, my doodling is not an entirely conscious exercise. My brain just goes. And I inevitably reach a point in the meeting where I realize that everybody can see that I’ve been doodling and, unlike my creatively-inspired (and wired) colleagues, don’t have a sheet of paper full of great ideas, word plays, or logo sketches. And then I feel really bad. Cause I know they think I’m not engaged or paying attention. So this is usually where I try to jump in and say anything just to prove that I am indeed alive and following the discussion.

  You can imagine my joy when I heard a story on NPR the other day about the upside to doodling. Turns out that doodling’s bad reputation is really misguided. To doodle is not “to waste (time) in foolish activity” as the dictionary would have you believe. It’s not necessarily “absent-minded scribbling” or “aimless scrawl”. No no – doodling, in addition to just being a great word phonetically, can actually help you retain information. Rather than signify someone that is distracted and disengaged, a recent study in Applied Cognitive Psychology suggests that doodling is a way for the brain to avoid becoming disengaged. To keep itself from slipping away into daydreaming or succumbing to boredom. Students who were tasked with doodling while listening to a phone call remembered 29% more information from the call than the students who didn’t doodle. Both sets of students took written notes from the call. But only one set doodled, and I’d be remiss if I didn’t point out that the doodling ‘task’ was to color in squares and circles on a page!

  Then there’s the whole doodle as a “window in to your personality” angle. It can be quite insightful to scan a person’s doodles when they’re through. I’m not sure I would take it quite as far as a professional handwriting analysis does on the homepage for the U.K.’s National Doodle Day: Circles, squares and triangles often appear in doodles. These shapes are hugely symbolic and can be linked with our basic needs for love, security, sex and survival. Seriously now. A wee bit of a stretch, don’t you think? Nevertheless looking at someone else’s doodles can be fascinating. Some people are even willing to pay money for celebrity doodles. Fortunately for us, USA National Doodle Day is just around the corner on May 7th. For 10 days you will be able to bid on celebrity doodles on eBay (many which frankly are just too artistic to qualify as doodles in my book). And the money goes to a good cause — help patients and families affected by neurofibromatosis. Even President Obama has a doodle, and a pretty good likeness of some fellow Democrats at that!

  So please don’t discount your fellow doodlers, or your own idle doodling. Do get out a piece of paper and a pen and keep it handy with you all day.

  Tags: doodling, engaged, focus
• 

  Past – 5.13-14.09 – Geno speaks at WOMM-U, Miami, FL

  Posted on March 26th, 2009 by Geno and currently 0 commenting.

  First of all, why would you pass up WOMM-U from WOMMA?

  Secondly, why would you pass up The Ritz at South Beach?

  Thirdly, why would you miss Geno’s Session:
  Year 3-5 of your WOMM Program

  You are done with your first or second year of your WOMM program. You are getting good results. Now what? This discussion will center on years 3 through 5 of a WOMM program and addresses issues of scale, optimal message refresh rate, online and offline tactics that work, influencer burnout and expanding into new target groups.

  WOMM-U is shaping up to be one of the must-participate events of the year. REGISTER NOW!!

  Tags: Florida, geno church, Miami, Speaking, WOM, WOM-U, WOMM, WOMMA
• 

  Being Timeless

  Posted on March 26th, 2009 by Geno and currently 3 commenting.

  I just finished my faculty homework for the upcoming WOMMA WOMM-U in Miami. My subject: Year 3-5 of your WOMM Program. As a faculty member, I was required to submit my 5 Takeaways to be used as a handout for attendees. I hate writing scripts early and then having to follow them (one of my many faults), but I embraced this challenge and it forced me to evaluate what I’ve learned about the long-term word of mouth marketing movements we have been a part of at Brains on Fire.

  We’re very lucky to have several long-running word of mouth marketing driven movements that I can reflect on. Teenagers talking about the choice to smoke or not to smoke. Crafters sharing their love of crafting and sharing ideas directly to product engineers. Talking to park-goers about their love for their parks. Listening to big-box sales associates share their fandom with their customers.

  I’ll save the laundry list for WOMM-U – so come to Miami so we can share war stories and learn from each other! My session partner is Chris Aarons of Buzz Corps and I’m excited to learn that our workshop will be one in an un-conference format. That means way less talking TO you and more discussion – very cool.

  So I’ll just share a little frosting.

  The first thing is, if you think you’ve got it figured out, then you probably don’t. WOMM programs are driven by people. As a WOMM program matures, you have to continuously measure results and re-align your strategy based on the community’s objectives and the brand’s objectives.

  Remember people are always in beta. Their lives change and you can use your relationship to be plugged-in to these changes in “your people’s” lives.

  Get back to the basics that got us here – WOM 101
  I can’t think of a better audience member for a workshop session on Year 3-5 of your WOMM program than a brand or marketer starting year one. It’s advice overload on social media application tools, use twitter for this, facebook that – no wonder so many people are just throwing their hands in the air and
  saying wtf!?!

  Take the steps to understand the marketing techniques that encourage and help people talk to each other about things they care about. I start right here with WOMMA’s 11 common types of WOMM.

  In People we Trust
  We’ve been fortunate that the brands and organizations that we’ve worked with believe in the long run. And if you want to see a year 3 or a year 5 for your program, you’ve got to trust people, your customers, your fans. If you involve your community from the start, then they will give their time and voice to make sure the community grows and prospers.

  The community needs to stay personal as it grows. We learned that it will have a personal feeling if we continue to “invite” people to join and continue to respond to emails, inquiries, etc. in a personal way – no generic responses. We’ve built all of our WOMM programs with influential leadership – not influencer leadership but influential, due to their passion for what each community stands for. And leadership is not a lifetime commitment. As a WOMM program matures involve the community in defining new leadership. Keeping the community fresh and vibrant and leading the process.

  I’ll leave you with one final thought: Build a community with people and it can be timeless. But build it just with tools, and it can quickly time-out.

  Tags: Buzz Corps, Chris Aarons, geno church, Miami, WOMM-U, WOMMA