Calvert Creative

It’s so easy to dismiss the realm of mobile phone texting as “just for teenagers,” that it hasn’t yet seen widespread use in business. As a company studying and creating business communication strategies for other businesses, Calvert Creative is finding texting to be a powerful and compelling tool worth a second look.

1. It’s polite
Miss Manners would like texting, I think. Rather than having my mobile phone erupting mid-meeting with Nickleback’s “I Wanna be a Rockstar,” my text messages simply show up on the face of my iPhone. Unlike with a phone call, I know at a glance whether a situation is urgent or can wait until I’m out of the meeting. And because I know the level of importance of any given text, I can decide whether to tap off a response while walking down the hall to my office, or let it wait until I’m headed home for the day. It’s also incredibly handy for locating people in a crowd without disturbing everyone else (i.e., “Excuse me, are you Dr. Kinnicut?”). The only thing more polite is an English butler.

2. It’s concise
Brevity the best thing about texting, and in the business world, getting directly to the point is next to godliness. Text messages tend to be short either because you are on a numerical keyboard  that requires several keystrokes per letter or simply because the keyboard is so small. Texters have developed a rather extensive shorthand that can be useful in brief communications. You might use DD for “due diligence,” or STD for “seal the deal.” If your colleague insists on texting you about what he’s having for lunch, at least you haven’t wasted time on the phone with him. Glance, delete, move on.

3. It’s mashable
Integrating text with other business functions is slightly advanced, but well worth the time. I use a third party, Twitter, which is famous for delivering breaking news faster than any other source, to make this work. For example, I might subscribe to the New York Times business feed (which delivers links to headlines) through Twitter, then tell Twitter to deliver those notifications by SMS (Short Message Service, i.e., a mobile phone’s texting application). Alerts can also be delivered this way, so that you know instantly when someone uses your online name, for example.

4. It’s not a driving hazard
Another great application to use with texting is voice-to-text. Jott.com is a free service that will turn voice messages into texts (or emails!). Simply set up your account, dial Jott, tell it who you want to text, then speak your message. It’s outstanding for texting while you’re in the car or if you hate tapping out messages on a tiny keyboard.

What other ways have you discovered to make texting a powerful business tool?

From the time we wake up in the morning (Philips clock radio, Irish Spring soap, Gillette razor, Kellog’s Frosted Flakes), and throughout the day (Honda Accord, Apple computer, HP printer, BIC pen, AquaFina water, Motorola cell phone), even into the night (Sony TV, Tide laundry detergent, Tempurpedic mattress) we are bombarded with brand names. We also interact with the brands of other businesses, such as our bank, supermarket, customer service with our cellphone provider and credit cards. And in the past several months, we’ve been inundated with the brands of the presidential hopefuls John McCain, Hillary Clinton, and Barack Obama.

Now, let me back up a second. When I say brand, I’m not just talking about the apple icon that I see on my Mac laptop or Tony the Tiger that adorns the cardboard box that holds my Frosted Flakes. I’m also not just referring to the sans serif type and setting sun icon that Obama uses in his “A Change We Can Believe In” posters and website. I want to be careful that I don’t throw that word around like it’s a “thing” that I just hold in my hands and then toss in the garbage after I’m finished with it.

Defining the Term

Brands are not created by designers with fancy software. A brand is not a logo. It is not a typeface. It is not a mascot. It is not advertising. It is not created on a computer. It’s also not something that is created in a couple of days or weeks.

What we’re talking about here is an experience; a mindset; a relationship.

A brand is not just a logo, it is a constructed array of feelings and memories and emotions that are evoked by interacting with a company, a product, or an individual. Yes, people can have brands. I mentioned in the first paragraph about the campaigns of McCain, Clinton, and Obama. Ask any of these three if having a well-branded campaign is crucial. Ask if it’s important to have a clear message, with everything from communication materials to campaign volunteers delivering the same consistent emotion and appeal as the candidate. I’m pretty sure I can accurately guess their response.

The Challenge

Believe me, this term brand is a very complex and potentially confusing topic. It seems like everyone has a different idea as to exactly what a brand entails, and that doesn’t necessarily mean that they’re all wrong. I think it just supports the notion that a brand is an ongoing process, that it’s a living, organic message that can change and evolve each day and mean something different to everyone. It also means that it takes a lot of effort and support from a lot of people to make a brand successful and strong for many years. What happens to the Sprint brand when one of their customers has a bad experience with customer service? How is the Royal Caribbean Cruise brand affected after not appropriately handling customer complaints?

So it’s neither the designer that creates a flashy logo, nor the copywriter that constructs a catchy tagline that make a brand successful. Yes, these pieces are a crucial part, and they should be creative and memorable. But the real work comes into play when the logo starts being applied to all of the communication materials and delivered to thousands of new customers, and the secretary welcomes a new client at the door with a smile, and a returning customer is elated to find that the new product they just purchased is even better than the last version. It takes time. It takes a lot of dedication and patience. It takes a strategy that is flexible enough to respond to market changes and new audiences. And it takes people willing and passionate enough to make bring this into fruition.

This is as much a challenge to me as to those reading this post. These are the challenges I face and the things I must remind myself as our team works to create a new identity and marketing strategy for our company. These are just my own thoughts on how the term brand is defined.

What are yours?

The folks over at Common Craft are pretty talented. They take complex ideas and make them fun and understandable. My favorite scene from this one is “Soon, a few things became clear.” If your business has been trying to figure out that whole social media thing, this video will help!

There’s no question about it: cutting-edge technology can be really cool. Many businesses love the image of themselves as innovators (hey, see our tagline!). We’re masters of our iPhones, divas in our online networks, media mavens and business rockstars. We secretly Wiki terms like crowdsourcing, microblogs and augmented reality so that we can talk confidently about them at the office or over a beer. And that can get any well-meaning business in trouble.

90% Fail Rate
Gartner Inc., a leading information technology research company, recently reported on the 90% failure rate of online virtual world projects. Virtual worlds like Second Life, World of Warcraft, and even Club Penguin have been great attention-grabbers; this year SXSW even premiered a film about the people who utterly immerse themselves in these online worlds (for better and for worse). Virtual world enterprises have heavy-duty cool cred, are fairly cheap to implement compared to traditional media buys, and are even more attractive because they offer lush possibilities for collaboration. Even Gartner predicts that by 2012, 70% of organizations will have established their own private virtual worlds. So why do so many endeavors in these environments fall flat?

Goals, Goals, Goals
They fail because we get so jazzed about the cool tech that we forget Business 101. What are our business goals, again? Who is the target market? “A successful virtual presence starts with people, not physics, ” says Steve Prentice, vice president at Gartner. “Realistic graphics and physical behavior count for little unless the presence is valued by and engaging to a large audience.” And if you are thinking that your goal is to sell your widget to everyone online, you’ve failed before you start. “Organizations can not effectively market a product for the whole world. They need to be focused and targeted,” he added.

Following Tech Innovation
It can be an incredible value-add if you are part of a team in your company that stays on top of the latest developments in online media so that your business can utilize those tools to meet specific company goals. Small shops with few resources may have to wedge their own forays into online innovation into late night bouts of internet surfing, feed subscriptions and blog browsing; mid-sized companies would do well to begin repositioning resources so that they can have their own online guru and trend-watcher, someone who can begin planning and implementing the company’s online strategy.

Experiment (Carefully!)
If the first step is to watch and listen for innovative online tools that might meet business goals, the second step is to experiment. But remember, everything you do online becomes a part of your digital footprint, and that of the company you represent. Even if you’re experimenting with blogging “on the side,” the internet will return results on your name without differentiating your personal life from your business life. Even if you delete things the internet never forgets: your future clients will be able to see your past experiments online on the Wayback Machine. You’re allowed to experiment, but go in smart and you and your company stand to come out winners.

I attended a lecture not too ago entitled “Getting a Seat at the Table - Design Strategy in the Corporate World.” The title alone provoked my attendance; I am a designer, but I don’t work in a traditional design firm or agency. My office is part of a business development company, and researchers, scientists, developers and strategists surround me. My projects often include collaborating with these different people and offering my perspective as a designer, and so I am always interested in learning how other designers in similar situations view their role within the corporate world.

The presenter at this lecture, a designer in the field for more than 30 years, spoke about the frustrations that our profession often endures when working with those that don’t see the value in design. He had worked on many projects for big corporations, some very successful and others disastrous. One particular client of his had become frustrated with the amount of time a particular project was taking, and didn’t understand the effort and skill required in the design process. One day he overheard this certain individual mutter, “Give me a cup of coffee and a ruler, and I could be a designer too.”

Now for most of us designers, this would be the tipping point. This quote would send us over the edge, because a) we understand that there is so much more to the process than getting a caffeine buzz and drawing a straight line, and b) how dare anyone think that becoming a designer is that easy! Haven’t we all toiled for countless nights in our respective studios, slaving over that last second project so we can get our degree and become successful in the real world!?!

Stop.

Breathe.

Count to ten.

Yes, there are some out there that simply don’t see the value in design. There are those that believe that becoming a designer means owning the latest version of Photoshop. But, just as this presenter set out to explain, maybe it’s time that EVERYONE started seeing himself or herself as a designer. For one, the trend of DIY (Do It Yourself) Design has been going on for several years. This movement embraces public access to powerful design and media production tools and software; from page layout programs to video editing software, anyone can start creating what once only “professional” designers could attempt. The idea that design is an accessible form of communication that can help inform and invigorate our society should be an exciting philosophy! To some however, placing the craft of design in the hand of amateurs will devalue, and eventually eliminate, “good” design. Professional designers will no longer hold authority with their clients. Design may lose its status as a valued profession.

Basically, get your cousin Joe to design the company website and buy a logo online for $99.

I had a college professor who warned of this. If designers remain as simply production artists, say for instance all you do is design logos and websites, then it may be true that our profession will fade. If our role is solely to “make things look pretty” or “jazz that graphic up a bit”, then we better look for a new career. But I refuse to label design as simply making pretty graphics or flashy websites. It’s time that we redefine what design actually is. Not just design as visual communication, but design as business strategy.

Now let’s go back to the idea of EVERYONE being a designer. I don’t mean everyone being able to draw a logo or make a website for their company. I mean everyone, from the CEO to the office administrator, is involved with the communication and strategy of developing the company’s communication and brand. Design thinking in business involves asking the right questions, creating a process that helps define boundaries and move towards the most effective solution, clarifying the unorganized, and communicating the unclear. It has a systemic view, interdisciplinary approach, and democratization of creativity. It means asking, “What if…?” and, “Why this or that?”; it involves looking beyond the obvious and embracing the new and undiscovered.

As the presenter offered, when asked the question “How many designers does it take to change a light bulb?” the design strategy responds with “Does it have to be a light bulb?”

Social media is how collaborative communication happens online. But even if you have an idea of what some of the tools are, you may wonder how on earth you will pick a starting point.

Set Goals
You can focus your social media time toward your business goals. If you want to keep up with industry standards, check your most-trusted colleagues (your heroes and mentors) and traditional industry resources (like print magazines or newsletters) to see if they publish a blog or are hosting online forums in your field. If you want to keep an eye on your competition, find out what online directories and networks they are a part of, and join those groups yourself. Are you hoping to book your reception hall with more wedding parties? You might need to make wedding-related adwords a part of your social marketing strategy. Does your team need a way to work from different parts of the globe on the same project (without the emails and multiple versions of Word docs piling up)? Wikis were built for just such an application. Are you trying to enable interactive participation for a big event? Livestreaming and proprietary chat forums might be a part of the solution. Professional social media consultants can give you many ways to meet your business goals, and the first piece of information you’ll want to share is what exactly those goals are.

Listen
There’s already an online conversation about your brand, message, or industry, and you should be a part of it. These conversations are easy to find with a simple Google search. Even if your company doesn’t have a website, there’s talk – good, bad, and otherwise – about your industry. The people who are using social media the most are the young clients, entrepreneurs, and business leaders of tomorrow. Smart companies are already listening to these online influencers and communities, because once you understand the conversation, you are better prepared to join it.

Experiment
Fear no social media! While it’s true that not everyone should blog (or Twitter, or join Facebook, etc.) social media is usually easy to test out. If you have already named your goals, and have been listening to the online conversation, you will have a bit of an idea of what tools to test some things out with. Need online survey capability? Do an in-house, among friends test run with PollDaddy or SurveyMonkey. Want to keep your team informed about the progression of an event or project? Set up a private, in-house test blog. If it doesn’t work, ask for feedback so that you can either shift gears or scrap it and try something different.

Measure and Refine
Just about everything happening online can be measured. If you are trying to convince advertisers to buy ad space on your online property, you should (at the very least) be able to tell people exactly how many people visit your site on a daily basis. If you are trying to become a thought leader in your field, you should (at the very least) be monitoring how many times your work or message is being picked up, published, or talked about on the web. There are dozens of good tools out there for businesses, and you can choose based on the size and scope of your web properties and activity. You should measure the effectiveness of your social media experiments based on how well they helped you meet your goals so that you can refine over time.

Get going!
The main thing is simply to begin learning now. Social media has some powerful capabilities, and the sooner your business begins to put some social media muscle behind its goals, the sooner you will see real change begin to happen. Even if it feels a little new right now, you’ll become more skilled, and you will add a valuable resource to the power behind your company’s mission.

Lots of people ask for tips on building a follower base in Twitter. If you are wondering about this, you should also ask youself another question: what’s your goal? My colleague Lisa Creech Bledsoe and I are both avid Twitterers. However, we Tweet for entirely different purposes, and our communities of followers are radically different because we have different objectives.

Why I Tweet: @JeffTippett
I Tweet in an attempt to build community. Admittedly I’m that annoying guy in the line at Starbucks that’s asking how your day is going—what exciting events are coming up in your life, etc. I have an innate desire to chat and build horizontal relationships. If you don’t believe me—just ask my colleagues! This natural tendency plays out for me in Twitter. I’m seeking a large group so I can learn from them, help them when they need help, and ask for help as I need it. Thus, a large horizontal group of followers is important to me. Of course, I’m always excited when a few of the relationships become vertical relationships.

Why I Tweet: @Glowbird
For me, Twitter is all about breaking news, field-related links, and strategic partners. So I follow major bloggers and other news sources like Techmeme, Mashable, Jowyang, New York Times, and even an NBC cameraman who twitters his impressions before the news stories hit. My favorite corporate Twitterers are those who not only use Twitter to RSS me links to news, but who also speak as individuals. In addition, I want a strong local community of peers, so I will add people whose profiles let me know they are geographically nearby, particularly if we share industry or personal affinities.

My Strategy: @JeffTippett
Ultimately, I find followers by following people of interest to me. I’m into social media, cycling, working out, running, politics, and social networking (well, plus a few others). I look for people that are talking bout these issues. My hope is that they will follow me as well. I’ve started noticing a trend that helps me predict whether or not the person will return the follow. If they have a higher amount of people that they are following compared to the number that’s following them I find the odds play in my favor that they will follow me. Conversely, if they have a lower amount of people they are following versus following them, the chances are slim to acquire a new follower. I’ve even asked my followers (those with whom I have a close relationship) to Tweet out to their networks to follow @jefftippett. A great time to do this is after you’ve done something to help them. It doesn’t hurt to ask!

My Strategy: @Glowbird
For breaking news and field-related links, my strategy is often to work backwards: I look on internet sites that I like (for example, Mashable or MarketingPilgrim) to see if I can find people there who Twitter (like Pete Cashmore or Andy Beal). I also use Twitter-specific search engines like Terraminds to find businesses or people on Twitter. For local links, I look on wikis, get connected at events, and find people to connect with by browsing the profiles of followers of my other friends on Twitter.

A List of Where to Look and How to Add

• Twitter’s public timeline. Peruse the feed for conversations that interest you. Then check out a specific Twitterer’s posts to see if they are a match for your goals.
• Other people’s followers. Check out your friends’ followers. You may share common interests or goals. You can even ask your friends to invite their networks to follow you.
• Traditional networking events. Ask people if they use Twitter and exchange Twitter names so that you can add each other.
• Other social networks. Put a link to your Twitter account in other social sites like StumbleUpon, Digg, LinkedIn, LastFM, or Facebook. Often people that you like or are connected with there will also opt to follow you in Twitter.
• Blogs and other sites you love. Where do you love to go on the internet? Is someone on the site offering a Twitter link or feed? Look in bio sections to find links for your favorite bloggers and add them.
• Twitter search engines, aggregators, and specialty sites. Use Terraminds.com to search for subjects and people on Twitter. Watch for great twitters on StrawPollNow or Tweet140. Look at Twitterverse and click through to keyword conversations that engage your interest. Then add the people who are saying things you would like to hear.
• Your email. Add a signature to your emails that includes a link to your Twitter account. Often people will click—if for no other reason—out of curiosity. Those that already Twitter may follow you.
• Engage in the timeline conversation. Jump into the conversation of your current followers. The best tweets are helpful, friendly, and funny. If your friends enjoy and respond to your comments, then their followers will have the opportunity to see your tweets. If the conversation interests them, many times they will view your account and opt to follow. Tweet new followers and ask them a question. Chances are they will answer and then their followers have the opportunity to see your name and potentially follow you.

Set a goal and make it happen. Your goal may be higher or lower based on your objective. There are plenty of ways to make it happen!

So, why do you Tweet? Are you trying to build a following? If not, why not? If so, why? We’d love to hear from you…

On Thursday, March 6, 2008 Calvert Creative, a Calvert Holdings, Inc. company, hosted the Triangle TweetUp at its corporate headquarters in Cary, NC. Over 30 people who are actively engaged in online community attended the phatic event. The common interest uniting the group was the use of Twitter.

Event coordinator Wayne Sutton explained that “Twitter is a user-managed, hyper-local, micro-blogging conversation web application that asks the question “What are you doing?”

Prior to the event, nearly 15 people gathered at the MacGregor Ale House for cocktails and early introductions. Connecting the dots among screen names, avatars, and actual faces surfaced as the eminent challenge as participants worked to locate each other in person for the first time. However, despite the fact that many had previously only met in a virtual environment, stimulating conversations began to flow at a quick pace. Several participants commented that their online relationships felt just as real to them as traditional face-to-face relationships. Many agreed that adding a personal dimension to an existing virtual relationship was the best of all possible worlds.

The official gathering began with social mixing and lots of gadget use at a newly installed English bar within the Calvert Holdings offices. The bar, added as a statement of Calvert’s desire to create an inviting workplace, remained the hub of activity throughout the evening. The agenda included open and variable multimedia discussions on topics ranging from Seesmic, Pownce, and Twitter for business, to smartphones, the local music scene, operating systems, and the use of technology in education. Concerns about transparency and online visibility in social community were of particular interest. “Everyone was simultaneously Twittering, videotaping, livestreaming, uploading photos, and blogging as we talked about emerging technologies that help to facilitate community,” commented Lisa Creech Bledsoe, who goes by the name Glowbird on Twitter, and heads up Calvert Creative. “It was an ideal innovative communication environment.”

In explaining the emerging popularity of Twitter, event participant Teri Saylor noted: “I am amazed at the eclectic mix of Twitterers, and even though we come from such a diverse background, we seem to find common ground through this medium. Everyone wants to have a sense of community, and Twitter provides that. At work, I keep it going on my iPhone and never feel alone.” Looking ahead to where all this online communication is progressing, Michael Kimsal predicted: “If you want to see what the future of communication will be, the Triangle Tweetup people are the ones to watch.”

After several hours of networking and community-driven discussions, participants departed talking animatedly about future meet ups.

Calvert Creative, whose mission is to help businesses learn to use innovative communication tools, hosted the TweetUp because of its commitment to make the Triangle a driving force in social media. Jeff Tippett, Outreach Strategist for Calvert Holdings, Inc., noted: “Calvert Creative helps business communicate at the speed of innovation. We think that users of Twitter are blazing new trails in business communication.”

I was just a part of an interactive live video demo that Robert Scoble did with the developers of Asterpix: they have just created video hotspotting software that will employ the user-generated metadata (that’s all the tags and other descriptions that you type in about your video content) to show video watchers and users additional information (like links, etc) on rollover of the hotspot. It would be great for in-video advertising — imagine the possibilities for Fashion Week in Paris! — but I also see huge ramifications for education as well. Say you are giving a seminar on US geography, and are showing a video clip from (ahh, just pulling a random state name out of the hat!) North Carolina — anyone rolling their cursor over specific things appearing in the video could be referred to further resources, historic landmark videos and sites, oral history files, etc. Sound awesome? Get ready, it’s already here.

If your company or business is interested in hearing and talking about social media, come on over to Calvert Holdings next Thursday night at 7pm and join us as Calvert Creative hosts the Triangle area TweetUp. You will have a chance to gather in an informal business setting (great snacks and free drinks!) with social media professionals and business people from this area. You don’t have to be a Twitterer or blogger already; this is your chance to find out about it, though! Come network, ask questions, and enjoy the company!