Athonestim

This is an edition of The Wonder Reader, a newsletter in which our editors recommend a set of stories to spark your curiosity and fill you with delight. Sign up here to get it every Saturday morning.

What’s the scariest part of Halloween? Maybe it’s how far we’ve strayed from the spirit of the holiday, a night meant to be celebrated with eager trick-or-treaters and over-the-top costumes. A recent gripe about the holiday comes from the writer Kate Lindsay, who notes that  “Halloween has been steadily succumbing to the chronically online for years now.” More costumes target niche social-media-savvy audiences, meaning fewer people are experiencing the delight of seeing more traditional getups (think: a grown man dressed as a pumpkin, or a toddler version of the president).

Following the norms on Halloween may seem boring, but give them a chance, Kate argues. The spookiest day of the year is also a day of socialization and joy—one where people can gorge themselves on candy, watch a horror flick, or dress in whatever silly costumes they want, as long as they do it together.

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On Halloween

The Chronically Online Have Stolen Halloween

By Kate Lindsay

Obscure meme costumes are sucking the joy from the holiday.

Read the article.

Big Candy Bars Have No Place on Halloween

By Ian Bogost

They ruin the “fun” of the fun-size treat.

Read the article.

Trick-or-Treating Isn’t What It Used to Be

By Julie Beck

Instead of going door-to-door on Halloween night, many parents are taking their kids elsewhere to get candy.

Read the article.

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Still Curious?

• The Halloween scare that won’t go away: For 40 years, Joel Best has tried to debunk the unfounded fear that bad actors might tamper with children’s trick-or-treat stashes, Caroline Mimbs Nyce wrote in 2022.
• What to do with that rotting pumpkin corpse: Millions end up rotting in landfills. But Halloween’s leftover pumpkins don’t have to go to waste, Linda Poon and CityLab wrote in 2019.

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Other Diversions

• This influencer says you can’t parent too gently.
• Americans are hoarding their friends.
• Six political memoirs worth reading

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P.S.

I recently asked readers to share a photo of something that sparks their sense of awe in the world. “A few years ago I was stealthily photographing birds at a local park while sitting in my car,” Cynthia Case, 68, from Laguna Woods, California, writes. “The day had turned misty and cold, and just as I was preparing to leave, this bobcat appeared out of nowhere.”

I’ll continue to feature your responses in the coming weeks.

— Isabel Fattal

The rise of AI has really instilled plenty of questions in people’s minds. And for starters, we’re talking about how it just might cause the downfall of human competency, thanks to its great capabilities.

Many AI systems are being called out as super powerful and they’re posing significant risks to all of humanity. And if AI’s goals continue to behave in this manner, the end might be near, many fear.

To avoid such ordeals and us getting close to doomsday, we’ve got the co-founder of DeepMind explaining how there is a solution possible. And that entails ruling out several capabilities linked to the world of AI.

Thanks to a recently published interview, Mustafa Suleyman explained how integral it has become to rule out some aspects linked to self-improvement. And that’s related to the chance of AI to get better with time.

You would never wish to have the AI go off in different directions and enable code updates without anyone providing oversight. Moreover, it might be a licensed activity and it’s quite like handling anthrax.

There has been a lot of focus on this subject and how AI regulation is taking place at an institutional level. Moreover, both Musk and Zuckerberg are gathering together in the capital city of Washington to take part in a new AI forum that’s arising behind closed doors.

The main problem is people aren’t setting boundaries, he added and there needs to be some limit in place that the world of AI shouldn’t cross. These types of boundaries establish provable safety including the actual code, all the way down to interacting with so many others or even with the likes of humans. This entails all sorts of motivations as well as incentives having to do with firms establishing such technology.

In the past, we saw Suleyman being the co-founder of Inflection AI. This brings forward a new chatbot that’s programmed to put out emotional support. And yes, it might not be as fabulous as other places, but this chatbot is said to be highly controllable.

Remember, you need to be super optimistic about AI and ensure it’s regulated effectively. And thanks to the encouraging words of Suleyman, he seems like he’s more than brave about what’s taking place.

Speaking to the publication, there are close to 101 issues and those need more focus and attention than just this. Be it privacy or facial recognition that’s overshadowed by bias, or maybe even online moderation, there’s a lot worth considering.

Moreover, Suleyman seems to be just one of the many experts in this field who sounds a little off in terms of regulating AI. One other cofounder of DeepMind explained how AI technology development needs to be done in a careful manner through such a method and entails plenty of experiments as well as testing.

Meanwhile, the CEO of Microsoft added that the manner to avoid this kind of Runaway AI is to ensure we begin using categories where humans are at the forefront.

Remember, since the start of March of this year, we had nearly 34,000 individuals, including godfathers of AI sign open letters hailing from Future of Life Institutes that are non-profit. They call upon AI labs to put a pause on training of any kind of technology which is more competent than OpenAI which is rolling out GPT-4.

So to sum it up in a nutshell, we can be hopeful that AI is not putting an end to the human race, provided the right kind of regulation is in place.


H/T: Yuval Noah Harari / The Economist. / YT

Read next: Meta's Encryption Plans: UK's Safety Concerns vs. Tech Titans' Privacy Push

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Meet the guy behind a bootstrapped company with almost no overhead and a giant following in New York City.

Where can you reach about 70 percent of all Americans?

If you answered social media, you would be correct. 

The sheer rapid growth of these platforms and their current prevalence in our world is unparalleled.

Considering that the leader of the social platforms, Facebook, was born in 2004 (just short 13 years ago), it is astounding how quickly social media has permeated our culture and how we interact with each other.

Social media has become central to communicating with customers, addressing customer services issues, as well as promoting the brand and services.

In this blog post, we will talk about social branding.

The idea of social branding is one, that all brands should consider – and optimize for – if they want to be taken seriously be customers.

Especially, startups and small business!

What is social branding, though? And how can brands establish themselves to compete in this increasingly saturated online world?

And how can brands establish themselves to compete in this increasingly saturated online world?

Let’s look at these questions in some detail…

What is social branding?

Social branding means building the brand’s reputation, following, and awareness through social media.

Today, social media plays an important role in the brand’s growth.

Social media is the world’s water cooler.

It is where people meet to discuss their likes, dislikes, and needs.

Social brands understand how to engage with people on these platforms and share their stories.

Stories – that are memorable. Stories – that not only reflect the brand but utilize the social platform’s unique DNA.

Businesses that are successful with social branding use the power of the online platforms to drive their organizations forward.

Why is social branding important?

Sure, it would be nice to be immensely popular on social media, but do those platforms really impact the bottom line? A popular misconception is that the customers do not really make purchases directly off social media.

Actually, it does matter.

Social media branding might not directly impact the bottom of the sales funnel, but it will impact the top. Eighty percent of customers say that they are more likely to evaluate the solutions put forward by brands that they follow on the various social media channels.

In other words…

…the brand recognition you gain from a strong social presence impacts how many people even consider your company in the first place. Sixty seven percent of people also report that they are more likely to buy from brands that they follow on Twitter.

One of the hidden treasures of social media value, however, is that 79 percent of customers say they will recommend brands that they follow.

Recommendations from friends or family are considered one of the most trustworthy forms of advertising. The recommendations you receive through social media offer incredible return for your organization.

Finally, a strong social brand presence will generally increase exposure and drive people towards your website.

Say someone mentions you in a Facebook posting or gives you a shout out on Twitter. Suddenly your company name is in front of countless new people who did not follow you before. Your site traffic will receive a boost.

How do I do social branding right?

Ok…

…now that we see the importance of social media branding, the question becomes how can we embrace this potential and put it to work for us. Social branding requires far more effort than just creating profiles on the different relevant platforms and then putting up the occasional post about the latest in your company. Here are a few golden rules for you to follow.

Social branding requires far more effort than just creating profiles on the different relevant platforms and then putting up the occasional post about the latest in your company. Here are a few golden rules for you to follow.

Here are a few golden rules for you to follow.

Speed is your friend.

People today, in general, have short attention spans (thanks, technology!) and they also expect brands to answer them quickly. If they post a problem or a question, you want to be right there to answer them or address their concerns. Delays just give potentially negative stories more ammunition– your lack of response screams to consumers that you do not care.

If they post a problem or a question, you want to be right there to answer them or address their concerns. Delays just give potentially negative stories more ammunition– your lack of response screams to consumers that you do not care.

Delays just give potentially negative stories more ammunition– your lack of response screams to consumers that you do not care.

Consistency is key

Although each platform has its own voice and culture, your brand should still be recognizable regardless of where customers find you. Use consistent branding, including messaging, colors, and offers.

Use consistent branding, including messaging, colors, and offers.

Be unique!

There is something that sets you and your brand apart from the competition. Let this aspect of your brand shine through. Offer value to your customers and let them see what you uniquely have to offer.

Let this aspect of your brand shine through. Offer value to your customers and let them see what you uniquely have to offer.

Promote conversations– not a soapbox!

We can’t emphasize this enough.

You want to actively engage your followers and use them to spread your brand.

Invite them to participate in contests or post using fun hashtags. Ask open-ended questions and start conversations on your pages.

Remember that social media is about relationships

If you remember nothing else, remember this:

social media is about relationships.

It is about posting content that is interesting for your followers and letting them know that you care about them personally.

Your postings should be authentic and trustworthy.

These traits matter considerably for customers: 80 percent of customers say that content authenticity matters to them when they consider what brands to follow.

Your postings should also include more than just self-promotion. No one wants a social media feed filled with just ads, and 45 percent of people will unfollow a brand for excessive self-promotion.

Follow the 80/20 rules. Make 80 percent of your posts about interesting information for customers, even if it is from another site, and 20 percent of your content about yourself directly.

What companies have done social branding correctly?

There are some companies who have completely nailed this social branding idea. They created campaigns that boosted their reputation and engaged people, and we can look to their examples for some inspiration.

Always and their #LikeAGirl campaign.

Sometimes it can be valuable to take a stand on an important issue, in this case it was gender equality and what women are capable of accomplishing. The stance really resonated with their core audience– women– and it caught on like fire. If you use this strategy, thorough market research should be done on your important issue to make sure it is not divisive or will not damage your brand reputation.

GrubHub

GrubHub knows how much people like to take and share pictures of their appetizing food, so they make art out of some delicious entrees. It makes you hungry, and it gets people to click.

Charmin and their #TweetFromTheSeat campaign

Some brands might feel stumped about creating successful social media campaigns over something mundane, but Charmin did not let this stop them. With engaging, humorous posts and campaigns like their #tweetfromtheseat, they encourage people to have fun with social media and their brand, boosting their reputation and creating positive associations.

Denny’s

Denny’s is a popular diner, but they do not restrict themselves to postings about food, sales, or specials. They go the humor route, casting themselves as a fun brand to follow for some laughs during the day.

Your customers today are on social media, and they are using the platforms as their means of connecting and engaging with those across the digital ecosystem. If you want your company to find a place in this conversation, you need to put social branding to work for you.

The post Social Branding: What It Is, Why You Should Care, and How to Rock at It appeared first on SmartKai Blog.

New comic!
Today's News:

Jamie's always under budget.

http://www.girlswithslingshots.com//comic/gws591">Here's the original strip!

Jordan Rebello is the beautiful face of some of our favorite brands, like Dôen and Glossier. She and her partner, John, live in Los Angeles with their four-year-old daughter, Poppy, where they spend their free time eating guacamole at the beach.… Read more

The post My Beauty Uniform: Jordan Rebello appeared first on A Cup of Jo.

The unique performance of Philips irons and steamers is demonstrated by the Art of Ironing. The classical Dutch paintings are re-created on a plain piece of white tissue with Philips ironing aids.

Agency: DDB, Moscow, Russia
Creative Director: Anna Denisova
Art Director: Ivan Davydov
Director: Anton Groves
Production: Yarche, Carioca Studio
Published: September 2012

If you were planning to buy your old man a “World’s Greatest Dad” mug for Father’s Day, stop right now. You can do much better than that.

If your dad is into technology, there’s a whole world of potential gift ideas out there, none of which will break the bank.

Here’s our countdown of the best Father’s Day gifts for any tech-loving dad.

1. Marshall Kilburn II

Marshall Kilburn II Marshall Kilburn II Buy Now On Amazon $249.99

Is your dad still using an old transistor radio in his garden shed? Maybe it’s time to drag him into the 21st century with a Bluetooth speaker, like the Marshall Kilburn II.

Both the design and cost of Bluetooth speakers vary considerably. However, the Kilburn II is great if you want a classic radio-feel that’ll suit your dad’s style.

He doesn’t even need a music streaming subscription to enjoy it; there are lots of free music apps in the Google Play Store and Apple App Store, as well as plenty of radio options like TuneIn.

2. Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K

Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K Buy Now On Amazon

The Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K has rapidly grown to become one of the most popular TV streaming options. Their low cost combined with an impressive number of features (including the ability to sideload any Android apps) means they’ve become a must-have product among the cord-cutting crowd.

You can watch content from Netflix, Prime Video, Hulu Basic, STARZ, SHOWTIME, CBS, and more.

A few different Fire TV products are available—including the more expensive Fire TV Cube. However, for most users, the Fire TV Stick 4K will suffice. Even if you don’t have a 4K TV, the more powerful specs of the 4K stick make it a better choice, especially given the price difference is minimal.

3. Plex Pass

If you have a lot of locally-saved video and music content, Plex is one of the best options for managing your collection, streaming it around your home, and accessing it remotely.

A Plex Pass introduces some useful features that are not available to free users. Most notably, you’ll be able to watch and record live TV directly from the app (as long as you have an antenna). You also get offline access on mobile, and some premium music and photo features.

4. Amazon Kindle Paperwhite

Amazon Kindle Paperwhite Amazon Kindle Paperwhite Buy Now On Amazon $249.99

No bookworm should be without an Amazon Kindle Paperwhite. These lightweight ereaders are the best-in-class, providing your dad with millions of titles at his fingertips.

Once again, a Kindle will also help your dad save some money. Kindle editions of books are consistently much cheaper than their paperback and hardback counterparts.

Just be aware that if your dad already has an extensive collection of ebooks from a non-Amazon source, there’s a good chance he’ll need to convert them into the AZW format before he can read them on a Kindle. The ebook management app Calibre can help.

Three Kindles are available—the All-New Kindle, the Kindle Paperwhite, and the Kindle Oasis. With 8GB or 32GB and 300ppi, the mid-range Paperwhite arguably offers the best value for money.

5. Audio-Technica AT-LP120-USB

Audio-Technica AT-LP120-USB Audio-Technica AT-LP120-USB Buy Now On Amazon $281.36

Your dad might be the type of guy who prefers more “traditional” technology. If he’s of a certain vintage, a vinyl turntable is worth considering. We like the Audio-Technica AT-LP120-USB; it offers a perfect mix of features for the price.

Don’t worry; we’re not suggesting you pick up a 1960s relic on eBay; turntable technology has moved on considerably in the last half-century.

Today’s best turntables come equipped with Bluetooth, PC connectivity, and dozens of tweaks and settings, depending on the brand you buy.

6. Streaming Subscription

No one should be without a least one streaming subscription.

With the average cable TV bill in the United States now exceeding $100 per month, a streaming service will not only provide you with hundreds of hours of entertainment, but also save you some cash.

The problem? A recent explosion in the number of providers now means there are a lot of streaming services to choose from.

If your father is new to online streaming, we recommend going with Netflix. Despite the increasing competition, it still has the best library of content. You could also check out some niche apps like BritBox or Hulu Live, depending on his preferences.

7. Jabra Move

Jabra Move Jabra Move Buy Now On Amazon $39.45

If your dad already has access to music streaming services, why not get him a pair of high-quality headphones? The difference in sound quality between cheap ear-buds and the best over-ear headphones is massive.

The very best headphones easily cost upwards of $500. For a more affordable solution, we like the Jabra Move. They are lightweight, sturdy, and offer eight hours of continuous playback.

8. Star Trek Blu-Ray Boxset

Star Trek Blu-Ray Boxset Star Trek Blu-Ray Boxset Buy Now On Amazon $61.85

What do The IT Crowd, Doctor Who, Star Trek, Battlestar Galactica, and Red Dwarf all have in common?

Firstly, they’re all TV shows adored by geeks. Secondly, they all have multiple series, making them perfect box sets to buy for a geeky dad on Father’s Day.

Sure, lots of the series are available via video streaming services, but there’s still something to be said for physical ownership of your media. We’ve gone for the Star Trek Blu-Ray Boxset as our pick, but make sure you let us know which are your favorite TV shows and movies for geeks in the comments.

9. Amazon Prime Subscription

Readers with shop-a-holic dads should consider an Amazon Prime subscription. It offers free two-day shipping on millions of items and even same-day shipping in lots of large cities.

But a Prime subscription is about more than the just shipping. Your dad will also get access to Prime Video, Prime Music, Audible channels, Prime Reading, Amazon Photos, and a whole lot more.

10. Best Dad Ever Mug

Best Dad Ever Mug Best Dad Ever Mug Buy Now On Amazon $14.99

Okay, there’s a lot of ideas listed above, so you should be able to find something your dad will like.

If nothing we’ve suggested has inspired you, you’re beyond help. Perhaps you should get him that Best Dad Ever mug after all.

More Gift Ideas for Tech Lovers

If you’d like to see even more gift ideas ahead of Father’s Day, we’ve got you covered.

Make sure you read our articles on the best last-minute digital gifts and the best gifts for music lovers.

Read the full article: 10 Awesome Father’s Day Gifts Guaranteed to Entertain Your Dad

We’ve compiled a list of the top productivity hacks for your WordPress site.

One of the key advantages social media has over other marketing channels is the ability to get feedback from consumers in real-time. For more traditional marketing channels, like television, print, etc., it can take weeks or months gather insights from a campaign and then even longer to implement. With social media, both quantitative and qualitative data can be gleaned from your audience and reported to other disciplines to inform overall marketing strategy.

Quantitative Social Insights

Quantitative social insights are established through measurement and goal-setting. Depending on your resources and your objectives, using the reporting dashboards built in to the channels natively might be enough. If your goals are around SOV, benchmarking against competitors, etc., you will likely need some third-party tools to pull this data. 
The second piece is accurate goal-setting. In order to determine if something was good or bad we need to benchmark performance. Setting goals requires analyzing past performance and projecting a trend forward based on a strategy and understanding of the social space. It is important to remember that overall goals should ladder up to larger business objectives. Once we have those benchmarks, frequent reporting against them will help gather quantitative insights. Common KPIs to set goals for include: impressions, engagements, engagement rate, click-thru rate, advocacy actions, etc.
An example of this in action is one of our clients has a CPG product that makes up a smaller portion of sales than their hero product. However, when we feature this product on social, it continues to be a top performer in terms of the benchmarks we set. These insights are then relayed to the product team to show that there is a strong demand from our audience for this particular product.

Qualitative Social Insights

Quantitative insights are great; however, I believe that the qualitative insights that you can gather from your social audience can be even more valuable. The near immediate feedback you can get about a new or existing product or service from social is a gold mine. If you see a trend in the questions or comments from fans these insights can be used to inform social content, programs and potentially your overall marketing strategy.
An example of this is that one of our clients posted a DIY water bottle hack to encourage people to drink more water. Fans loved the hack and expressed how much they would want to have that water bottle like this. Those comments were raised up the chain and the brand created a new water bottle based on the feedback.

How Quantitative & Qualitative Insights Come Together

Quantitative and qualitative insights are the most effective when they come together to make an informed decision. Here is a checklist of what is needed for that to happen:

• Benchmarking & goal-setting for social
• Frequent reporting on social performance with analysis
• Community Manager who can identify questions and trends from fans
• A nimble social team that can adapt to those insights
• Social reports shared with larger marketing teams and executive decision makers

The post How Social Insights Can Inform Your Marketing Strategy appeared first on Ignite Social Media - The original social media agency.

If you truly want to maximize your reach on Facebook and Google+ when you share content, look no further than our client, Angie’s List. Many folks (like us) push our content to social media utilizing a host of publishing applications like Hootsuite or Buffer.

The problem is that our articles are seen on Facebook and Google+ with minimal reach. Not too many shares, not too much dialog. We’re using a a third party to publish them so we know that Edgerank is already driving our visibility down. The posted articles look like this:
Click to view slideshow.

Now take a look at Angie’s List and how they publish their articles:
Click to view slideshow.

23 Shares, 32 Likes, and 9 comments on the topic, How to Choose the Right Shingle Color! Folks… that’s not exactly some amazingly fascinating topic the world was waiting on, was it?

The difference between our sharing method and theirs is that they provide a very nice photo and upload it with a short link to their article. This is a manual process and requires the additional time of developing the graphic and uploading it manually… but it’s getting hundreds, if not thousands more people seeing the article by doing so.

The images are displayed at the full width of the stream – a huge difference compared to the small thumbnail accompanying other articles. As folks are scrolling through their streams on Facebook and Google+, they breeze by the text, may catch one or two article thumbnails, but their eyes can’t miss these large images! Google+ publishes them at almost full browser width!

You may want to think about developing some kind of template in Illustrator of Photoshop to easily build out these images to post… they really do work!

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© 2013 DK New Media.

AKA the cutest 33-seconds you'll see today.

Source: youtube.com  /  via: tastefullyoffensive.com

The ninth post in The Education of a Writer (TEW) series. A Monday feature. Next up: “I Thought I Was the Next Robert Collier.”

Call me lazy. I go where the jobs are. I go where the path offers least resistance. I go where the data indicates. That data being my feelings of wanting to land a job, and then get back to life …

To what I love (poetry). That was my attitude back then. Towards career. Towards life.

Here is how I left the job with the television evangelist: I asked a close friend to review my resume. I said I needed to find greener pastures. My last raise — after 18 months — was for 17 cents an hour. That’s like I earned less than a penny an hour for each month I was there. If I was going to provide for my family, I was going to need more than that.

My friend accepted the invitation to review my resume. Then he invited me out for dinner. At dinner he told me that he and his partner were doing quite well after five years of near poverty-level living. The real estate market had taken off … and their company with it. And to enjoy some of the fruits of their labor (and actually take a vacation), they were in a hiring spree. And they were looking for a writer. Was I interested?

Was I interested? The job was two miles down the road. I would be writing vast amounts … but a particular kind of writing. Direct response writing. I shrugged, “Yeah, baby, sign me up.”

“Then we need you to write us a sales letter — selling you.”

“Consider it done, baby,” I said, slamming my ice water down. “Consider it done.”

I got up and left.

When I got in my car, I nearly panicked. Up until this point I’d never written a sales letter. I wasn’t even sure what a sales letter was. So when I got home I jumped online and started to study. I immediately felt a little icky.

“Sales letter,” turns out, was another word for “infomercial.” At least that’s what I ran into online. Whatever. I wanted away from the 40-minute commute one way to the television evangelist, days of empty-handed production, and copy-cat product descriptions.

So I wrote the sales letter.

It wasn’t that great, but had potential. That’s what I was told when they hired me. I didn’t care. I’d learn how to be great.

My first day on the job I met my boss. He was a kind man, tall, studious in his glasses, but casual in his faded orange polo and cargo shorts. I was in love with his office … a bookshelf-lined room punctuated with giant windows.

I was thinking, “Excuse yourself and let me dig through those books, baby.”

We chatted, I shared my experiences, he shared his vision. And then he handed me a book.

THE book.

I turned it over in my hands. The book jacket was white with chunky blue and gold letters declaring the title and author. On the back I scrutinized the photo of the writer.

“How do you pronounce his name?”

He pronounced it. I winced.

“When you finish that book, I’ve got more from where that came from.”

“Okay. I look to read, baby. I look to read. I’ll be back.” I winked and zipped out of his office. When I reached my desk I set the book down and hovered over it. I curled my lip and my stomach churned.

“What a loutish, brain-boiled excuse for a book,” I snarled. “Influence: the Psychology of Persuasion … a tome for idiot-worshippers.”

But because I was a loyal and dedicated employee — and because I’d committed myself to being done soon — I sat down to read it. From page one I fell in love with it.

Who couldn’t love a  chapter called “Weapons of Influence”?

… and the opening story about a jewellery store owner (trying to unload a stubborn shipment of turquoise pieces) orders her sales lady (in a note) to “sell everything at 1/2″ then heads out for a short vacation …

Only to come back to learn the entire turquoise inventory sold out in a matter of days because, instead of discounting everything by half, the sales lady, misreading the note from her boss, doubles the prices.

O my, I thought, what is this mysterious power that influences people to pay more for items they ignored at a lower price? What is going on here? I blew through that book in an afternoon. And then read it again.

A few days later I returned to my bosses office, handed the book back, and asked for another. He gave me Joe Sugarman’s Advertising Secrets of the Written Word. My reaction to the book was less violent than before, but I could still feel the book snob was still alive in me.

Wounded, but still alive.

After Sugarman I read The Robert Collier’s Letter Book, Ogilvy on Advertising, Tested Advertising Methods by Caples.

I then read the books, sales letters, and blogs of living copy legends like Dan Kennedy (The Ultimate Sales Letter), John Carlton (Copywriting Secrets of a Marketing Rebel), and Gary Halbert (the “most valuable website on the internet“).

I then dove into the ancient works of dead legends. The guy who made Dale Carnegie’s How to Win Friends and Influence People a best seller in the 1930s (Victor Schwab). The father of scientific advertising and ceaseless promoter of “reason why” copy (Claude Hopkins, circa 1904). And the copywriter who Rodale press supposedly paid $54,000 for four hours of work in the 1950s, and … has the most stolen book from the library (Eugene Schwartz).

The impact on my own writing was massive.

Over time I learned how to write clearly. No more obscure meaning, clunky sentence structure, or dense copy. No more flowery detail or five-syllable words. Out with the conflicted, constipated, meandering professor … in with the relaxed, liberated, gun-slinging outlaw.

A few months went by and, by chance, I looked at my old poems. The ones I was so proud of. I furrowed my brow, flipped them to the side, and shook my head. I stared at the volumes of Wallace Stevens and Ezra Pound on the bookshelf. It was obvious: I could no longer write like that … I could no longer depend on being obscure, ambiguous, or circular … making the reader work for the meaning … earning the right to read me … a languid genius the world didn’t deserve …

What happened was I finally left that cave, walked down the mountain, and into the village below to join the rank and file. To live amongst their sweat, their dirt. The carts spilling corn cobs as it wobbles down the road, the sulphur odor spilling from the smith shop, the shouting of the leather merchants, the gossip of the cotton seamstresses, the swarthy taste of figs and pork dishes.

I drank coffee with the accountants, the electricians, the veterinarians. I hung out in Las Vegas with soldiers and real estate developers. I grilled coders and dentists in Miami. I watched screaming children play in a fire hydrant gushing water. Jobless youths smoke and skateboard. The elderly sneeze and break their hips on the edge of a table.

I wanted to be plain spoken. Simple. And persuasive as all get out. Then it happened.

After several months at the new job I swore that I would never return to poetry. To complexity for complexity’s sake. I couldn’t see how it could happen. I’d been awakened to a realm of writing that demanded clarity and potency. That forced me to look at people and figure out their hopes, dreams, and fears. I would board up that old place. Allow it to grow over with weeds. And hitch a ride to new spaces full of people and warm-blooded relationships.

If only it was that easy.

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Image source: Four-Color Process

Scan the web wisely.

My Starbucks Idea exists 5 years and they have turned 275 of consumer generated ideas into reality. What can CMOs learn from open brand innovation at Starbucks?

We discovered My Starbucks Idea back in 2008. And I decided to cover it as “amazing potential” here on ViralBlog. Why the love?

Ausdauer or Mechanism with Mileage?

Already in 2008 I had the gut feeling that this Starbucks program could be leading towards something special: An ongoing movement or a mechanism with mileage.

The Germans would call such a long term program “ausdauer“. Freely translated by me as; Staying power, endurance or persistence.

Where most brands tend to go for short term campaigns and being in control, Starbucks went for long term. Showing the marketing community it’s in control enough to let go.

In FMCG or CPG, we see lots of “new” flavours being introduced to push the market penetration up a tiny percentage.

Honestly, how often do we see TVCs about “new and improved” facial creams or even better shampoos? If that happens too often, consumers might think; “Hey, why not creating a better product right away?”

At C-level, we mostly brief agencies on campaigns. Long term programs are often being neglected, straight away.

Most large brands are very scared to release consumer generated ideation, or open brand innovation.

Like consumers do not rate their products or services on sites like Epinions or TripAdvisor anyway?!

True Social Media, Open Brand Innovation or Social CRM?

I am not sure how to “label” My Starbucks Idea. But, does the label truly matter?

I only know that the consumer generated and voted suggestions are shaping Starbucks in the best of ways.

A brand that listens to its customers, now that is true social media, right?

Or should I call it open brand innovation? Or social CRM? That decision is up to CMOs. Or you.

Science, analytics, observations and experience at C-level, are showing me that consumers are engaged with Starbucks.

And that consumers are smart, certainly in similar wisdom of crowd format.

Mostly the sum of consumer generated ideas is often smarter than the brand’s own R&D department.

My Opinion on My Starbucks Idea?

I liked the approach back in 2008 and 5 years later, I even like it better from a branding and marketing point of view.

Share. Vote. Discuss. See. They seem like 4 simple words, not a very big deal, right?

But any CMO knows and understands the possible impact of such a program. Most CMOs won’t even take the risk to be labelled radical.

I do have some quotes (from others) to express my appreciation for this Starbucks program:

“It takes an architect to vision and build cathedrals. Everything else is just bricks in a wall.”

“Learning is experience. Everything else is just information.”

Some brands can become part of our badge of belonging. Starbucks achieved that. When its going got tough, CEO Howard Schultz revealed his true DNA.

The My Idea program helped Starbucks over its tipping point from mindshare to heartshare.

Two thumbs up for this mechanism with mileage.

What About You?
How would you label My Starbucks Idea? How do you rate it? What other great examples can you share with our readers?

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About the Author
Igor Beuker was CMO at 3 listed companies, chairman at the IAB, jury member at Webby, AMMA and Esprix awards, founder of 3 digital agencies (sold to WPP) and global chief social officer at Mindshare. Now he is freejack consultant and still a sought after keynote speaker.

The post My Starbucks Idea: 5 Years Of Inspiring Ideas appeared first on VIRALBLOG.COM.

Time to lighten up the kick game.