My Name is Kate

Listen up, Brands! Help bloggers build reputation capital!

Bloggers live and die by reputation capital.  Reputation capital can be built by creating helpful tutorials or quickly posting the latest and greatest news, by collecting relevant links around a topic and creating an annotated bookmark-list or by building nifty tools that save people time.

Often reputation capital is linked to the idea of Lovemarks ... to someone being such a fan of a brand or product, that they extend that brand's essence through their own creation.  Lately called brand democratization, this activity is at the heart of what makes CGC (Consumer-Generated Content) so powerful.

Sometimes brands don't like this democratization and/or don't want to help bloggers build reputational capital.  But sometimes, they embrace it ... and not just as a marketing stunt, but from a place of authenticity ... because they *know*, fundamentally, that their brand lives and dies by their customers, customers who are loyal beyond reason.

Squidoo is such a brand.  Here's a small (yet incredibly powerful) example of how a brand embraced and supported a blogger's reputation capital *while* protecting their interests.

Donna Maher, aka Bizunlim, is an active Lensmaster over at Squidoo.  And she wanted blog badges with Squidoo's logo so that she could promote Squidoo and her content on her own site and blog.  So, she did what any self-respecting blogger would do.  She didn't wait around for Squidoo to do it; she did it herself.

Then, because she'd gone to all this trouble and figured, "Hey, other people might want these too" she posted about them in one of the Lensmaster's Forums over in SquidU (actually in response to another Lensmaster's request for blog badges ... pent-up demand was already clear).  In her post, she requested feedback from Squidoo and offered to remove any that were inappropriate.

Both a Squidoo engineer (Gil) and the director of community development (Heath) reviewed her badges and requested that one be removed because of potential infringement on another company's trademark, but praised her efforts and her contribution to the community.

No cease-and-desist letters. No "My Brand.  Don't Touch."  No FREAKING OUT.  Even the request to remove the one badge included a thoughtful, explanatory discussion of why it was necessary to remove.  No *telling*.  No "just do it and don't ask questions."  Inclusive.

Wow.

Now, I know that you might say, well, Squidoo is new, and is all about community, and it wants to get people engaged, and bloggers will build it, and blah, blah, blah. 

Doesn't matter.  Any brand.  ANY brand could have had this situation arise and could choose to react to it like Squidoo, or choose to send a cease-and-desist letter.

It's about brands recognizing that their power, their allure, their own capital comes from the people who buy them, wear them, use them, *love* them.  And Squidoo has shown that it is possible to protect a brand's own interests but still allow a customer to own the brand AND build their own reputation capital.  Because ultimately, the reputation capital of brands and bloggers are linked.  And the sooner we all realise this and come up with expedient, painless and meaningful ways of recognizing and addressing this, the better.

Technorati Tags: squidoo, brand+democratization, reputation+capital, blog+badge

Including Context with Customer Reviews

Over on OneDegree, I just posted an article on the added benefit of context when it accompanies customer reviews.  While Amazon pioneered customer reviews as value-added content, eBags takes it to the next level by allowing customers to offer additional information about themselves and the use of the product.  For eBags product lines -- laptop bags, luggage, travel gear, etc -- this information provides meta-data about the product that is considering being purchased.

I love this .. and hope that they'll continue to evolve this offering and make it even more product specific.

Bonus link: For those of you who are looking for an even better reason to read OneDegree, Ken Schafer is conducting a live branding experiment.  Bell Canada debuted their new mascots last night during the Super Bowl.  Their new mascots: Frank and Gordon.  Their eponymous website: frankandgordon.ca.  Oh, but what about gordonandfrank.ca?  Click to find out!

Another followup to McDonalds's blog eDrama ...

Jim from One by One Media called me out in my last posting about not entering the conversation.  Fair enough.  I certainly didn't address all his points in my post.  So ... I took him seriously and commented over on his blog.  I'm reposting those comments here because sometimes it is hard to follow all the comment threads.  This is why I'm a fan of trackbacks.

Hi, Jim ...

So, a couple of things ...

I apologize for calling you an A-Lister. :-)

I actually don't take issue with Shel's advice.  I think for the most part it is sound.  The degree to which McDonald's can comply is something I am concerned about.  Bob may not be able to "drop the corpspeak".

I also have concerns about the blanket advice "Start a conversation with your customers".  Frankly, I think there are some customers that a business might not want to have a conversation with.  Not all people have a transparent agenda or want to engage in *authentic* dialogue.  I feel that McDonald's should be able to make a call about which conversations they start *and* which they respond to.  Resources are limited.  This is also why I support moderated comments.  McDonald's blog is, first and foremost, *McDonald's* blog.  We don't all get free reign there.

I don't know if I agree with your comment, "Before you swim make sure you can jump."  I think companies need to jump, sink or swim, into the blogosphere NOW.  And as I said, they're not going to get it right the first, or second, or third.  And I don't have a problem with people constructively criticising them (heaven knows, McDonald's doesn't need me defending them); I take issue with the tone.  I don't think their attempt was "feeble".  I think it is admirable.  And to admonish them to "Listen.  Really listen." as Shel did, I think smacks of patronization.

I do agree with Shel on his point about McDonald's starting to blog:  I don't think we should feel "honoured" by their presence in the blogosphere ... but I think we could be nicer neighbours and offer a friendlier welcoming committee.

Jim, I will definitely take you up on your coffee offer.  Just let me get my saddle-shoes.

Client/Agency Relationship Redux

Back in October, I wrote about an encounter with a biz dev guy from an interactive agency here in Canada.  It was not the perfect meeting, but, in the end, I decided to go with the agency, largely on the strength of their reputation & portfolio.

It's now February.  We're about 39 hours away from the launch of our project.  And it's mostly out of my hands. The flash guys and the art director are finishing up some pieces, and then we do a once over in the morning.  So, its a good time for me to reflect on this experience.

After an untold number of late-night conversations, MSN chats and emails with the art director and the account director, I've come to the-not-very-surprising conclusion that while the biz dev guys may initiate the relationship, it's the staff on the ground that forge that relationship, that make it work.  Even when I was on the agency side of things, I never realised how important the production staff are to the relationship with the client.  Why?  I think it's because they are easier to trust. 

See, a long time ago, in a galaxy far far way, I was a production person.  And the motivation for everything was The Work.  Cool projects.  Because The Work = Me (for better or for worse).  My take on the biz dev guys: Client = $$.  And there's nothing wrong with that (it's these guys that keep the agency in business).  But because I, myself, am a terrible biz dev person, I don't relate to biz dev people.

In any case, why did I find it easy to trust them?  Here's my list.  I think it's a good place for any client or agency looking to enhance their relationships:

• Don't bullshit.  (And clients .. this means you too).  About timelines, about delivery dates, about costs.  And especially about the creative.  An early draft I saw of the creative was ... less-than-optimal.  And I told the art director.  And he said, "Yeah.  You're right."  And they came up with a plan to fix it.  I didn't get a big song and dance justification about it.  I got an acknowledgement and a solution.
• Keep me in the loop.  I know that deadlines get missed.  This is software we're building.  Sometimes it doesn't go like we think it's going to (we just can't find that missing ";").  I get that. (*More* clients need to get that).  The AD kept the lines of communication flowing around anything that was going to go differently than expected and managed my expectations through-out.
• Understand my goals, busines AND personal.  No one is 100% pure.  Not even me.  I absolutely have business goals around this project.  But I also have personal goals.  What will this project's success or failure mean to *me*.  Everyone at the agency understood both.  They asked good questions and took the answers to heart.
• Personality and humour are essential.  Sometimes this web-stuff is tense.  We all need to keep it in perspective.  I had the best time on this project because people allowed their personality to shine through.  Emails & chats were infused with humour and personal experience.  I'd gladly have a beer with any of these guys.

I'm lucky ... a lot of client/agency relationships don't go as well as this one.  But I think we both worked at it - the key to any relationship.  So (and I may be tempting fate by posting this now), kudos to Fuel and to the guys on the ground that have made the experience of this thing successful.  Hopefully the product will be the same!

On a related note, I am priviledged to work with an exceptional web development agency of record, Thrillworks.  Upon reflection, Thrillworks does all of the above and adds one more element to the mix:

• Treat my site, my business and my success as your own.  We had a small emergency this weekend and I spent late-night time on the phone with their CTO.  The situation was handled with care and the miniscule details were seamlessly dealt with.  I didn't do much of anything except flag the situation.  And the whole time the CTO provided solutions and kept me apprised the whole way. There was never any begrudging of the lateness of the hour, or complaining about how the situation happened in the first place.  He just knew it had to get fixed and it did.

So what's the big takeaway?  Trust and respect.  I respect the skill set, work methods and integrity of the teams I partner with.  And I trust them to do their job.  And I get that trust and respect back from them.  It's the reciprocity that's key.  I've worked with agencies before where I felt like a nusance to be tolerated rather than a trusted client.  That attitude doesn't subsequently engender *my* trust ... and there's no where to go from there.  Also, talk it out.  Like any good relationship, honest and open communication is essential.

Client/agency relationships are tough.  And they often start on the wrong foot with uncommunicated motivations and pre-conceived attitudes.  That has to change.  I'm pleased to be working with interactive agencies who are leading the way.

Technorati Tags: client+agency+relationships, communication

A-Lister Envy? Or am I just old-fashioned

I have read with great interest the sub-conversations and related posts that came out of my thoughtful musings rant about Shel's comments regarding McDonald's new blog.  There are a few themes I wanted to comment on.

Is A-Lister Envy my latest ailment?
Oh, I hope not.  I consider myself a definite Q-Lister.  BlogPulse doesn't even rank my blog and I'm pretty far down in the Technorati take on things.  I blog because I love writing, and I love thinking about technology & marketing.  And (selfishly but honestly) also because I love seeing those thoughts *captured*.  Even if it's on my own publishing platform aka my blog.  So my frustration with A-listers is less based on jealousy of their success, but more on the *tone* in which I perceive them to be conducting the conversation in.  More of an "I'm *telling* you and you'd better listen" rather than "Hey, I have some great, successful experience and here are my thoughts based on that.  Do with it what you want."  This may be the Canadian in me showing through. Which leads me to ...

Is Shel Israel my latest nemesis?
Again, I hope not.  I received a private email from a colleague of Shel's who indicated that I am likely mis-reading "candid" as "arrogance".  Fair comment.  I have never met Shel, though I am looking forward to hearing him speak at AIMS in Toronto in March (something I had signed up for before the eDrama (you have to scroll for the Feb 3rd post - Jeremiah, I'm having linking trouble with your post)) and perhaps commiserating over a beer at the Peel Pub.  I have read with interest the comments about his being supportive of new bloggers like Kami over at Communication Overtones.  And I know that people like Tara Hunt think highly of him as well.  His book is on my "To Read" shelf and I will likely steal his good ideas and pass them off to my boss as my own.  And I in no way begrudge him his success.  But this is what's tough about the Blogosphere .. the misreading of tone.  Which is why, especially with the rapid international growth that is happening in the blogosphere, that bloggers need to take more care with their tone.  Which leads me to my terrible analogy ...

What kind of Conversation are we talking about?
Is it like a cocktail party?  Then I just picture a bunch of old-timers standing around like Sean Connery in a tuxedo, drinking shaken not stirred martinis, and then throwing them dismissively on new-comers.  And I don't know if it's protectionism, or genuine arrogance, or a perverse initiation ritual, or just east-coast American-speak (as it was characterized to me by my private email correspondent) (Oh, and before everyone gets all CRAZY, I, myself am an American, Connecticut-born, Texas-bred).   But I find it troubling, this tone.

Now, it is not unique to the blogosphere ... it is a hallmark of passionate people.  My friend, Daniel (no blog), and I often discuss the lack of civility in Canadian parliament.  But I wonder why we can't be passionate without harsh words.  And why those of us, in particular, who believe so passionately in this medium, aren't more civil.  [Note to self: order Lynne Truss' Talk to the Hand]  Speaking of civil ...

Apologies to my mother
I have to again take a page from Tara's book.  The best (worst) part about the last few days has been reading quotes from my previous article that all start with "Holy Crap!" 

Classy!  Clearly I need to take my own advice about first blog impressions.

Related Posts
MediaOrchard - The Natives Are Restless
Naked Conversations - Kate Doesn't Like My McDonald's Tone
One by One Media - The McDonald's Blog Conversation
Blogger's Blog - A-Listers Criticised by Non A-Listers
Emergence Marketing - Way to Go Kate

 

Technorati Tags: a-lister, blogger+civility, conversations