 It's high time I took the time, dear blog reader, to explain what I'd like you to do now that I've gotten your attention (at least for the next minute or so). Here goes.
Since you're reading this, you're already doing something I'd like you to do. Thanks!
Next, I'd like you to find this informative, entertaining, and/or interesting. If that's happening, then I'm hoping you'll respond in some way (comment, email, phone call) or that you'll think about my words after you've clicked away to other destinations on the InterWeb and, perhaps, share this blog with someone else.
Of course, this isn't a personal blog; this is a corporate blog. As such, it should be "driving business," which is where the path starts to fork. From a marketing/business development perspective, "what I want you to do" depends on your relationship to Aquent qua Aquent. Here are three possibilities:
1. You already have a relationship with Aquent.
Maybe you're working on assignment through us. Maybe you have in the past. Maybe you're a client. Maybe you're an Aquent employee.
Whatever the particular way you relate to Aquent, and these relationships can and do change with time -- talent become clients, clients become talent, staff become clients or talent, talent become staff, etc. -- I want you to continue that relationship in the way that makes the most sense for you. I also want you to tell other people about Aquent because we did something for you and did it in a way that left a lasting, positive, impression. OK?
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 Our CFO was kind enough to forward me an article from the Wall Street Journal, "Most Corporate Blogs Are Unimaginative Failures." Once I recovered from his passive-aggressive attack, I actually read the article and was relieved to discover that, for all its faults, at least this corporate blog doesn't commit the sins Forrester enumerated in the study on which the article was based.
Forrester faults most B2B corporate blogs with: lack of personality; infrequent posting; and the mere recycling of press releases. As far as the first two go, I think we're good. Personality is my only real asset, so if ain't coming through in this here blog then, gosh darn it, I'm doing something wrong.
On the frequency front, I've maintained a fairly steady "3 posts a week" pace, but I'm trying to bump that up to 5 per. And as far as press releases are concerned, if you want to read them, you can find them here on our corporate website.
Finally, Forrester points to the dearth of comments as an indicator of failure. To that I'll quote Van Morrison, who once sang, "And if you fail to hear from me/It only means I didn't call," or something like that. In other words, the only definite conclusion you can draw from an absence of comments is that no one commented. It doesn't mean they didn't read, think about, or even react to a particular post (or so I tell myself....)
In any event, I do, get comments. So back off, CFO-man!
Image Courtesy of salimfadhley.
 A friend of mine had gotten kind of burnt out at his job and had reached the point where he was pretty much phoning it in. Then one day, he up and decided that, if he was going to continue working where he was, he needed a new attitude. To that end, he chose the continual, daily improvement of the company as his primary motivation for coming in to work every day.
Committing oneself to continual improvement is not like accepting a particular task or project, each with its own envisioned state of completeness. It is more akin to assuming an infinite responsibility, a responsibility that involves, first and foremost, maintaining the commitment to continual improvement.
What do you want to improve?
Image Courtesy of juria yoshikawa.
If you're reading this blog, then you probably read this story in ADWEEK, "Agencies Seek the Right Mix." If you didn't read it, the article describes a kind of power shift in agencies from the "traditional creatives" to the "digital people."
The two quotes that jumped out at me were this, from JWT's Ty Montague:
"It used to be a caste system where traditional creatives came up with the 'big idea' and then turned it over to digital... We' re creating a system where the traditional creatives cannot overrule the digital people."
And this, from Mother London's Dylan Williams:
"Great ideas have always been viral. Digital is just one way to fan flames."
The first quotation tells me that, when Aquent's CIO became my überboss by adding marketing to his numerous responsibilities, this was but a ripple in the stream of the Zeitgeist ... or at least a symptom of this broader trend: Marketing is becoming indistinguishable from a technology, specifically, the Interweb, which contains all media without being a medium itself.
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On the "giving it away as a business strategy"-front, check out this WSJ article on Google offering a free tool to measure web hits. I quote, "Existing ad-serving systems don't currently provide detailed Web-audience data about the sites where they place ads. By giving away the new tool, Google could presumably attract more ad business."
You charge companies to serve their ads, but at the same time, you provide them with free intelligence about where those ads will best perform, which encourages them to use your ad-serving service. Etc.
I think they call that a "virtuous circle," though Google's competitors may call that a "death spiral."
What's Twitter?
Jun 24, 2008 @ 1:06 PM · Matthew Grant
 I was iChatting with a former colleague who left a while back to join a fast growing design and production agency. I told him that I was on Twitter (my handle is @aquentminister, if you're interested in my sporadic digital quippings) at the same time as I was chatting with him and he typed, "What's Twitter?"
Oddly enough, a young-ish member (I think he's like 23) of our marketing team asked me the same question a couple weeks back. I was not surprised that he wasn't familiar with Twitter. Apparently it's adoption has been slow for various reasons among college kids, though, as the compiler of these 25 Twitter Tips for College Students demonstrates, that certainly doesn't have to be.
On the other hand, I was surprised that someone in a cutting-edgy global creative organization didn't know about it, but then again, my perspective has probably been skewed by the company I keep: namely, marketers with a technical bent who are committed bloggers and vocal advocates of all things "social media." Frankly, if it's effectiveness as a marketing medium has yet to be established, and it's not on your clients' radar, why should you know about Twitter?
I think that many people outside the marketing echo chamber may not yet understand how it could work for them in their particular context. If you are one of these hapless souls but are curious about this odd new tool, I'll get you started on your path to Twitterlightenment by pointing you to this post enumerating one blogger's favorite uses of Twitter as well as some useful Twitter tools (thanks to Mike Kavis at ITtoolbox for leading me to it).
Odd end-note: I'm writing this post from a hospital waiting room (everything's fine, don't worry), and while they do have wireless here, the system blocks access to Twitter, Facebook, and Flickr, among other sites. Go figure.
 On Twitter the other day talking with the Conversation Agent about the Associated Press' decision to go after sites that quote too much of their content - apparently, they called the Drudge report out for quotations ranging in length from 39 to 79 words - and it got me thinking.
I'm no lawyer but I learned about "fair use" as a graduate student and always assumed that, if you were using a quotation in certain expository contexts, that the copyright holders would just have to grin and bear it. I can see there being a problem with populating your blog or website with entire articles penned by someone else - but even then, if you have given proper credit and linked back to the original location of the text, is that really so wrong/bad?
Though I tend to lean in this direction, I'm not saying that all content should be free or that copyright doesn't mean anything. I am saying, however, that trying to control where your content shows up on the web goes against the tide of history as well as the essence of the web an sich, as the Germans would say.
On the "tide of history" front, "give it away" is the order of the day. I've referred elsewhere in these pages to an essay by John Perry Barlow on the power of giving away "content," and my ideas have not changed on the subject. Specifically, every business should focus on their absolutely unique, inimitable, and irreplaceable offering, and deploy their "content" to sell that.
Barlow uses the example of the Grateful Dead allowing taping at their shows because they realized that circulating bootlegs increased interest in their music and, more importantly, promoted attendance at their shows which were always one of a kind. As the bumper stickers used to say, "There's Nothing Like A Grateful Dead Concert," which is why concert revenue was the core of their business.
Apply this to your business and ask yourself, "What is my live-in-concert moment and how can I use my content to get people through the proverbial door?"
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