Gen-Zers Speak from the Heart on Work, Diversity and Dreams

Since, in my role as Managing Editor, I both assign and personally create a lot of content for MediaVillage.com, thought I'd start sharing some of my favorites here. I'm especially proud of having created the Insider InSites podcast for the company, and as main host have the opportunity to interview some inspiring and influential media/marketing folks. (Listen for my interview with reknown advertising journalist, Stuart Elliott, up next!)

Here's the latest #podcast I did for MediaVillage, with interviews captured during an education and engagement event held for hundreds of interns working in the industry, called #1stFiveExperience.

The Magic of being a Mensch

Penn & Teller, in their opening week on Broadway, did not fail to literally thrill and delight the audience with their unique form of "magic" - or trickery, tomfoolery, sleight of hand, plain bullshit, as the talkative Penn Jillette would describe it. Of course their version of trickery is masterful, practiced and Olympic in its skill and style.

 The small "parlour tricks" were big fun: like revealing how old timey magicians  pulled what were actually fake rabbits out of the proverbial hat, to completely astounding us by turning the fake demo rabbit into a real one before our eyes.

The bigger tricks, like their version of "disappearing" an elephant or the classic sawing a woman in half were all done with literal levity, audience participation or jokes...but they never talk down to the crowd.

But, it was afterwards that I saw an almost bigger trick: a crowd of humans tightly encircling a man in the center and practically consuming him with flashes and fevor, but being tamed by the lone subject in the middle.

Teller, or "Mr. Teller" as he was known when he was my brother's teacher at Lawrence High in NJ, soothes, and calms the crowd, cooing at them in kind voice. Teaching us still....

His part of the stage act never involves speaking a word, but when Teller talked to the crowd that was something to hear. He was patient, polite, generous and, well, a mensch with every single person. If he needed to coax a camera-shy person into a photo, or remind an anxious, clamoring kid that there was a bigger kid (me) who had been waiting longer, he never raised that voice or seemed irritated. He continuously reassured everyone he was not leaving until everyone had a photo or an autograph. There must have been a couple of hundred clamouring fans. I can't imagine how he was not claustrophobic with people pressing in on him.  And yet, the crowd was tamed, and behaved, if that is not oxymoronic in describing crowd mentality, thanks to one of the best communicators I've ever seen.

See them while you can. Through 8/16.

Ms Green Dreams

Forgive me readers, for I have sinned; how has it been 9 months since my last post?  And yet the topic of that last entry remains current: how do we face our problems as a town, a country, a planet, and keep up the motivation to heal the world when it's all so overwhelming and easier to just pull the blanket over your head?  While the good news is Ebola is amazingly back under control, other things seem worse - with Palmyra falling brutally, and more uncivil civil conflicts in our own home towns. 

And, just when you want to tune out, give up, and just tune in to Mad Men, THAT outlet pulls the plug.  But not without giving us a little reminder of social progress made since that era, especially as pertains to the ERA, in one of the last episodes. This won't blow the finale for those that are delaying gratification by storing it in their DVR, and even if you've never watched it, at least watch the segment from one of the last episodes when Joan tries to go head to head with her boss over sexual discrimination. Spoiler alert: she loses.

Joan's argument and poise is perfect, her character's bravery buoyed by Betty Friedan. While she at least walks away with some dignity and some of her owed dollars, the battle is what is important for women today to watch and understand.  It really was not very long ago that women like Betty Friedan and Gloria Steinem helped us finally WIN some of those battles.

We still have a ways to go, and equal pay issues can be added to my laundry list of misery-making headlines.  But we cannot take the progress for granted.  Organizations like Makers are showcasing the stories of women who have - and do - make America.  Younger women can't afford to not tune in and understand the sacrifices made by the Joans before them.

I've made my own progress in the past few months. I'm channeling my anxiety about the news into a resource for women who want to find purpose-based ways to help turn thing more things around.  It's called Golden Girl Dreams, and its aim is to be a curated guide to ways to give back. It's my sideline so it's slow going, but the illustrious followers I've gained on Twitter and the enthusiastic response I've gotten to the concept inspires me, and keep me moving forward.

It's all we can really do, after all.

A Little Help?

Ebola. ISIS. Israel. St Louis. And those are just the big headlines.  I was reminded of those and more after a brief reprieve from the news during a three-day getaway. And I found myself weeping while watching the broadcast the night I returned. When is it okay to tune-out? What is the tipping point between the responsibility of staying current and doing one's part vs self-responsibility to fight the anxiety provoked by helplessness...or its close cousin, hopelessness?

I have Saved a Child, donated to UNICEF, cleaned up the parks because NY Cares, mentored, protested and donated some more. And heaven knows I have evangelized environmentalism. By nature I am a bit of a cockeyed optimist yet I find my faith floundering. Must I keep watching the news? Do I dare to look away? For how long?

How do we stay tuned in, which is essential for staying empathetic to the plights and needs of fellow human beings, and not turned off by the tonnage of bad news? How can I renew my confidence that a little help from everyone can help turn a tide? It takes a village may be an understatement with what we are facing; ironically the temptation is to run away...or just turn away. It's easy to compare oneself with the angels who do aid work and feel insignificant. I'm hoping sending more donations and creating more dialogue will help the world at least a little and stave off some bit of pain for those afflicted - and for those of us watching from home.

Some Suggestions for where to send A Little Help:
Red Cross
Anti-Defamation League
UNICEF

Riding the Green Wave in April

Ann Curry's special on NBC - "Our Year of Extremes: Did #ClimateChange Just Hit Home" - was well done and provided a necessary reminder - in simple a+b=c terms that there is little doubt it is people that are impacting our planet's dramatic weather changes. And watching the report as both an ad sales marketer and someone passionate about sustainability, something was clearly missing. Something as glaring as those glacier images. Not one advertiser in that show grabbed the opportunity to align their brand with corporate social responsibility. And not one advertised product was anything endemic to the area of sustainability. There were half a dozen ads for QSRs and fast food restaurants, a couple of department stores and (ironically) insurance companies, many cleaning products, and even those land-filling coffee pods. I'm from the "it'll never be perfect but at least we can try" camp. So, where was Starbucks and its sustainability effort? Where were CSX or Amtrak touting fuel-saving transportation modes? How about even a fuel-efficient or hybrid car? Even Microsoft - which PRNews just applauded as the most socially responsible company of 2013. Instead, we saw ads for (ironically) air fresheners and burgers.

A few years back #NBC launched its fairly wide-reaching "Green in Universal" effort. Where's the beef now? Around then, #CBS bought a smart little company EcoMedia, which while today still allows ads for mainstream brands to feature a leaf in the corner of your screen, indicating a portion of the ad buy is being donated to environmental causes, I haven't seen a leaf in a long time. Now, just as when waves of consciousness were spurred by things like long fuel lines then diminished when the lines went down, it seems it has grown less ...convenient?... to wave a green flag. Yet media media gives a nod to extra eco-content in April -- Earth Day month  

But as every marketer today will tell you, ads are most effective when more "native" to the content and appropriately aligned. So, some cynics might cry "greenwashing" if the Climate Change special had ad loads of more environmentally conscious products, but even they would have to agree that the AD environment was better suited to sponsors who at least tried to grab the opportunity to shine their sustainability spotlight a little bit brighter.

What if God were On the Bus?

I always loved how Joan Osborne's lyrics captured the essence of it being possible that anyone could be anything, and what if God were just a "slob like one of us" ...just a "stranger on the bus...". I got that reminder today. I realized I'd misplaced my metro card and was frantically searching my pockets for the fare just as the bus pulled up.  Then in my frenzy a receipt I needed went flying into a puddle, and I plucked it out gingerly, flapping it dry.

Shaking my head at my own disorganization I heard a woman ask if I needed a tissue to dry off the receipt. I looked up and it was a shabby but warmly dressed woman, who was missing most of her teeth. Probably in her 60s, but could have been younger based on what seemed to have been a hard-lived life. I thanked her and declined then shared how stupid I felt about losing my metro card.  Without a second of hesitation she asked if I needed money for the fare.

A whole range of thoughts raced through my head -- from "oh gosh, I hope she didn't think I was looking for money," to "she doesn't look like she even HAS any money - let alone any she could spare?" to "what an incredible gesture." Clearly to all appearances I was the one who should be offering her help, but this stranger from the bus thought nothing of helping another stranger even if it put her that much more behind on rent, or food. I was humbled, and honored. I assured her that I would be okay, after she asked at least twice more if I was sure I'd be okay.

I thanked her and said I wished more people were like her. She just asked, "Well, that's just the way we should all treat each, isn't it?"

Simply, yes. It is.
And a stranger from the bus reminded me of that.

Mine, Yours, Ours: Eat It

Across a two-page spread in today's New York Times Sunday Review section (or if you no longer read newsprint, below the online "fold" on the Opinions page) live three seemingly different, but to me curiously related pieces, that spotlight how we look at ourselves and others. Check out "MySelfie, Myself," "Ma'am, Your Burger Has Been Paid For," and "How to Feed the World," and tell me if you see the connection.

What I see is a series of stories that illustrate our varying levels of self-orientation, the good, the bad and the ugly.

There's more than just self-orientation to taking and "selfies" - but, according to @NYTimes tech reporter Jenna Wortham in "MySelfie, Myself," these digital self-portraits are "more about showing your friends and family your elation when you're having a good day or opening a dialogue or line of communication using an image the same way you might simply text 'hi' or 'What's up?'" Or, as a Vine co-founder said, it's less about vanity but "...about you doing something else, or you in other places. It's a more personal way to share an experience." And posting selfies apparently ups one's social currency, sparking more reactions and responses to posts.

So here you go:

But no matter how it's positioned, selfies by definition are "all about me." Me, myself and I are the subject. 

So then we look at the next story below that, "Ma'am Your Burger Has Been Paid For."  This piece describes today's social resurrection of the "Pay It Forward" concept coined by the 1999 best seller (whoops, almost wrote "best selfer!") and later film version with Kevin Spacey and Helen Hunt. 

Apparently in a phenomenon primarily happening at fast food drive-thrus, customers are being self-LESS, paying for the car behind them in a chain reaction of random acts of generosity. Stories of hundreds of consecutive cars covering the food purchases of the drivers following them were reported at Tim Hortons in Winnipeg to Chick-fil-A in Houston and so on. (FYI, though not mentioned in the NYTimes story, a little late to the game Starbucks tried to leverage this selfless trend with an organized version of altruism last week, but we'll give them points for trying to encourage a little less selfie-ness in the world.)

Which brings us to "How the Feed the World." In a nutshell, the "how" won't be by covering the cost of the coffee of the car behind you. It will be, as the astute Mark Bittman describes, when we "stop assuming the industrial model of food production and its accompanying disease-producing diet is both inevitable and desirable."  This is a tough but important article to read. 

Bittman reminds us that we have more than enough calories produceable to feed the projected 9 billion people blooming by 2050. But a third is going to feed animals and another third is wasted along the food chain.  Especially here with Big Ag where based on the number of people fed per acre "the United States ranks behind both China and India (and indeed the world average), and roughly the same as Bangladesh, because so much of what we grow goes to animals and biofuels."

There IS a road to salvation, but it will require something we don't do very well outside of the occasional Chick-fil-A drive thru lane: selflessness and a shift to less consumption, more energy efficient farming methods and a focus on not how MUCH is produced but HOW food is produced. 

By diversifying crops, mixing plants and animals, planting trees — which provide not only fruit but shelter for birds, shade, fertility through nutrient recycling, and more — small landholders can produce more food (and more kinds of food) with fewer resources and lower transportation costs (which means a lower carbon footprint), while providing greater food security, maintaining greater biodiversity, and even better withstanding the effects of climate change. 

I stopped eating meat and poultry for good back in the '70s, shocked by reading "Diet for a Small Planet" and its statistics on the inefficiency of grazing cattle vs growing protein rich soybeans, for example. Even if you approach things more moderately, do consider posting a selfie of yourself reading "How to Feed the World" with a link to the article.  And instead of saying "Ma'am, Your Burger has Been Paid For," galvanize your friends and consider giving up the burger even for a week, or to whatever degree you can, and pay it forward for the population and the planet by saying, "your edamame has been paid for."

Talking to Ourselves

Bryan Boettger wrote a well-researched blog that made a great point in MediaPost's "Social Media Insider" yesterday about the Oreo tweet.

Power out? No problem. twitter.com/Oreo/status/29…
— Oreo Cookie (@Oreo) February 4, 2013

Slam dunk (sorry) on the point he made, which is that of the THOUSANDS of retweets it received, a high percentage were from other marketers and social media folks: 

In an age when social media is supposed to help brands connect with average consumers, I find it ironic that the social media industry is what Oreo seemed to connect with most – not average consumers....

...I think Oreo and 360i did an amazing job. They were aware, smart, creative and fast --everything a brand and agency should be.
[But] Here’s the big point: I just question how much the tweet resonated with the general public, compared to resonating with what our industry is craving.

Read more: http://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/193539/everyones-dunking-the-wrong-oreo.html?c=104715#reply#ixzz2L11fKkBM

Bryan also compared the tonnage of retweets to the number for the most popular presidential post during the elections.  It was less than half of Oreo's.  His explanation is that

The President’s tweet was spread by average Americans, but Oreo’s tweet was spread by us: ad industry pundits, professionals and news outlets. And it was retweeted by us IMMEDIATELY after it came out.

To me, an important point beyond that in this example marketers were talking to mainly each other, is that in general we follow like-minded people most often. We choose to hang out in similar circles, like birds of a feather.  And while social media amplifies all our voices louder and broader, for sure, ears that we hope to influence may never hear our point of view because they probably have not chosen to follow us. 

More and more we'll stay in our own lanes, listening to each other speak about the stuff we already agree with.  This is might not matter much with a package goods scenario - Oreo and others have brand strategies and advertising that helps them reach wider audiences.  But it's definitely important in social CAUSE circles and politics.  We're already spending way to much time talking to ourselves versus really engaging with other opinions.  It's the trouble with citizen journalism and it's an easy way to homogenize communities. 

So, reach out, everyone, and do something crazy like following some people you don't necessarily agree with.  And maybe even retweet them!

A Holiday Reminder For Every Day

2012 brought the usual ..and the extreme ...ups and downs to many. We usually take the time to reflect around New Years, and usually say we'll do better at our efforts to stop and smell the roses.  But sometimes we are stopped before we can do just that.

Illness is another time of ups and downs in the life of the patient, and of his or her loved ones. It's often the patient who then has time to reflect and experience the epiphanies to which we all aspire.  Yet, just as we each have to learn by doing and can't take the growing pains away from someone else, my friend Peggy never stopped trying to share the beauty she discovered throughout her four-year journey with cancer. 

While this may be sentimental for a primarily business blog, I haven't had time to write much recently. So I think it's especially important to divert from strictly business and add a personal touch, especially since one of Peggy's greatest realizations was that she needed to slow down and work less.  And smell the roses.  She did that remarkably well right up to this past springtime.  I was so moved by her love and encouragement of EVERYONE in her email updates and observations I asked if I could share some of thoughts.  She agreed, so in the spirit of giving and and reflecting here are thoughts, from my loving friend, Peggy Goff Bottger, who said it better -- and lived it better -- than I ever could:

At Christmas of 2009 she wrote:
"I was once asked what Christmas means to me, and I've never felt that I did my beliefs justice in the answer I gave.  So here's where I am right now.  Christmas is a time to stop and focus.  On another year gone by: what, of real meaning, did I accomplish?  Did I find joy?  Bring joy to others?  On family: a time to get joy fully out of the act of giving and providing, to honor the memories and traditions established by my own parents, and to hear the kids squeal with happiness at gifts they've long dreamed of (yes, my kids still squeal!).  On spirit: this time symbolizes for me the reminder of light and love and hope.  While I don't prescribe to any specific religion, I have a deep and beautiful connection to God and Spirit, and this time of year reminds me that everything we need is already here, and everything we dream for will come if we just close our eyes and open our hearts."
And at Thanksgiving of 2010 Peggy wrote:
"...I wish for you all a beautiful week with your family and friends, and may all your dreams come true!"So my dear ones - I hope this finds you all healthy and centered.  Don't forget to take care of yourself during this busy season - if you give it (yourself, your energy) all away, there will be nothing left for you! Another thing I've learned since diagnosis.  It doesn't all have to be done a certain way - no one will really notice if the pie is store bought, or if the Christmas tree isn't decorated just so, or the bathroom sink isn't polished when guests arrive.  It's the most impactful lesson I've learned from my studies in A Course in Miracles: "I am under no laws but God's."  It's crazy when we think through all the laws we have created in our minds, which we then accept as true law, and then we get stressed out when we don't live up to those crazy and twisted laws.  We created them, we can release them!  And God's laws are so simple: give love, choose joy.  You can't imagine the burden that was lifted off my shoulders when I learned this. I'd been driving myself to the brink of destruction all those years, and why?  Anyway, that's my loving lecture to you all today; stay with what's true, live from your heart, and give thanks for the many amazing things in your life."

Best (way to) Buy?

In the same edition as a story on President Obama's woes about stagnant job growth, and a story on the irony of social sites not offering personal customer support by phone, The NY Times had a small piece today about Best Buy laying off 1.4% of its job force.

The reason is what I find interesting:
"Best Buy is trying to combat showrooming at its stores, as consumers test out products there, then go home and buy them cheaper online or at discounters."

 What are the options for keeping the customer satisfied, and competing in a groupon-tinged bargain-based world? Seems to me that we all want to still see and touch the goods. And we all want customer service to understand the goods. And we all want a bargain...and are empowered to find one or risk buyers remorse.

So where does that leave a retailer like Best Buy? What's in it for them for providing the venue and the service and missing out on the sale if the cost of bricks and mortar means not competing on price with online retailers?

Well, we could look at Horn and Hardart... If you could browse the goods on a basic display level and buy at a competitive price...but to touch and feel and actually get customer support and interaction you paid an up charge would you do it? Think of the automat with people. Insert a little more and the helping comes out. Make it easy to comparison shop, too.
Maybe add the virtual mall touch that the Japanese have created, where we all go to a wall of online images and select from there?

All I know is something's gotta give.  There has to be a happy medium for a better way to buy.

A Valentine to Every Day Events

Where does time go? The age old question...but a year since my last blog post still seems remarkable and something of a shame. It just feels that I haven't had the time to write even simple musings on every day life.

Until today gave me 'the shame on me' impetus.

It was not a smooth afternoon. Missed connections. Missing loved ones. Missing buses. I needed to just let go and have a simple pleasure...and avoid filing receipts or cleaning my apartment and just hop a train to spontaneously have dinner with my BFF in NJ. I scanned the open seats left on the subway and made a strategic choice to sit a little closer to a woman reading her book and a little farther from the questionably dressed man with a somewhat rank odor who, thankfully, seemed preoccupied with chatting up the unlucky  woman on his left. I mentally thanked heaven for her keeping his attention off me so I could burrow into Angry Birds unpestered.

But, at the next stop, as the car filled up, a woman holding a baby got on, and a man nearest her got up to offer his seat. She demurred, but was clearly unused to riding NYC rails, and a couple of us were poised to spring to action to grab her elbow...or the baby, as she wobbled. My homeless-looking neighbor called out to her to go ahead and take that open seat and she sheepishly did.

Then my somewhat shabby seat neighbor turned and looked straight at me with amazing clear blue eyes and said, 'I just love kids.'

I, with just a second of trepidation, knowing a response he would mean engaging in some unsolicited conversation, decided to be in the moment and dive in. "Do you have any kids?" I asked. "No," he said, "but I have nieces and nephews that I love."
"Me too," I said.

I realized then he was he was anything but offensive and I was chagrined.  He was pretty decently clothed, I was relieved to notice, on a cold day. His nails were black, and his beard may have had some crumbs parked in it, but he had a hat and earmuffs, and a warm looking, if dirty, parka and sturdy boots.

Over the next three subway stops, we kept chatting. He explained that he appreciates kids because they are so open, while so many adults see him and automatically recoil, even with fear.  "I'm just a panhandler," he said, "and I'll just be sitting there, shaking my cup a little and I see women clutch their purses tighter and practically run. I mean, if I'm asking I'm not taking. But if I'm taking I'm not asking.'

Meaning, he is not taking without asking, like a thief does.  He's just politely asking for help.

I asked him if he is judgmental about how much people give, because things have been written about how people are judgmental of some panhandlers: we'll scrutinize them and  in an instant, decide if or how much they will give, based on things like even how 'worthy' -- aka needy -- the person appears. He said "even if a guy in $150 boots gives me a penny I'm as grateful for that as a dollar, and always say thank you."

I asked his name.  "Brett," he said.  "Are you in need of some cash now, Brett?"  "Always" he said, and I gave him a little and he said thanks.  I asked if he was hungry.  He said he gets so much food, which he's always grateful for, that sometimes he has to find a homeless person to give some to.

Then his blue eyes lit up when he described how someone recently gave him a coupon book for $10 a month for a YEAR at Steak 'N Shake. He goes in, he said, gets a burger, fries and a shake. I could just envision him loving every minute of that monthly treat, totally in the moment, savoring every bite...and I only hoped the people working there and serving him withhold judgement better than I had at first.

Like the Picture the Homeless site says, "Don't talk about us; Talk WITH us."
Thank you, Brett.

It had to happen...Less Green for More Green

Yesterday I got a solicitation in email to purchase the new study from Natural Marketing Institute on the Mainstreaming of Sustainability.

 It has been nine years since NMI conducted the first... research study on the Lifestyles Of Health And Sustainability (LOHAS) marketplace. In 2002, only a few companies were talking about sustainability. [Now] most Fortune 100 companies have C-level sustainability staff and have infused sustainability throughout the organization so that it is everyone's responsibility to consider the environmental and social impacts of their products and operations.

Today I received an solicitation in email to purchase a Green Deal of the day.  Now, I'm a big fan of Groupon, LivingSocial, ideeli, you name it.  I know, I know: higher consumption... but less gas when buying daily deals online vs at brick and mortars! But check out the Green Deal rationale, which makes sense to ME:

You want that big coupon for that local restaurant or that online retailer that makes you call all your friends because you can't believe what an amazing deal you just got.  But you don't want to get great savings at the expense of your commitment to taking care of people and the planet.

Now you can get a great deal AND support the companies who share your values.

  So, I love that now, instead of all our early cries about mainstream companies jumping on the green bandwagon, now the green guys are going mainstream.  At this point, I'm all for things moving both ways, and finding a good, green middle ground. 

Multi-tasking too much? SITT with it...

It has to be said -- OFTEN, since most of us still don't get it (or at least ignore it) myself included, and I wrote a damn blog about this same topic two years ago and called it MT Brains (get it?): multi-tasking is not efficient.  It FEELS like it is; we get smugly proud of looking/acting busy and managing tasks, putting out fires, and juggling three screen lifestyles all at once.  But the micro-seconds it takes our brains to recalibrate when we jump from one task to another actually SETS US BACK and sucks time and focus for the worse.  And it's physically affecting our brains, and the brains of the up and coming generation.

Check out the story on kids and tech addiction, in the NY Times.  This is startling, but not surprising. Prognostications for the future of our society, anyone?   

There's scientific proof that our attention and comprehension skills are negatively impacted by multitasking, so we need to counteract it...even with focused breathing for a few minutes. Think of it like a counter-stretch during a work-out.

This is why I'm taking advantage of SITT training with Dr M.A. Greenstein  -- Somatic Intelligence Training Technologies.   

Also known as “mindfulness practice”  S.I.T. (sm) trains users to embed the practice of mindfulness in an embodied way, grounding it the emergent science of contemplative brain/mind/body studies.   

insula portion of the brain

Dr G is amazingly generous with her time for a pittance of a fee, and with her honey-smooth voice talks us through the art of healthy, cleansing breath.  Think about it for a second:  where are your shoulders right now?  Up by your ears?  How is your breathing?  When's the last time you took a slow, deep, luxurious inhale?  She taught me about the insula, and how focused breathing helps expand that portion of the brain.  It's a fact, jack.  She wrote her thesis on it and spoke at TED.  So, I'm here trying to evangelize something that costs nothing to do but could cost us a lot if we don't:  Take some time each day to do nothing but observe your breath, or, as she says, "Be aware of your awareness."

And now back to our regularly scheduled frenzy.

Tearing down the Walls to Good Customer Service

Call me a princess, but I had to return or exchange a bunch of damaged or bad quality things in the past two weeks.  From a third try at getting my eyeglass prescription filled correctly to a keratin treatment re-do to a mattress that smelled like mildew (eeww!).  The good news is that all three of those companies redid or replaced the items without much hassle and with decent customer service.  (Thank you, Loft 26, Cohens, and Sleepys!) 

The bad news is that I'm nostalgic for a time when workmanship was excellent and important to begin with.  (Of course, I only HEAR about those times from older relatives or movies on Turner Classics.)

Back to the good news.  Customer service.  We're in a time when consumer goods are a dime a dozen and Miss Manners is rolling over in her grave.  We just don't seem to care as much.  BUT, now with more people out of work, companies can be more discriminating in the workers they hire, and bad employee attitudes may put bad workers at bay.

Danny Meyer, whom I've long respected for his conscientiousness about sustainability as well as creating quality restaurants from Gramercy Tavern and Union Square Cafe to the hot new Shake Shake phenomenon , just added a brand extension to Union Square Hospitality Group all about customer service.  Today on the Wall Street Journal Report he explained how his new HQ -- for Hospitality Quotient -- is new company to help those who are already the best at what they do or make, make their stakeholders even happier with good treatment and good customer service.

In a way, we can also thank social media for influencing this potential trend:  Let's look at what Frank Eliason set out to do with @comcastcares on Twitter.  Knowing people can say and write exactly what they want about a company he and others, like the classic examples of Zappos and Dell, helped inspire them to make good customer service a mandate on the social web. It's all tied together.  The walls are down, companies are bare naked, and even Cohen's Opticals knows I can write something good or bad so maybe, just maybe, companies are erring on the side of better workmanship, better customer-facing employee training and better HQ overall.  And better customer service can actually help stimulate the economy!  I like this post on it from last year: http://www.goodexperience.com/2009/04/on-hospitality-in-a-t.php

Now, there are still the places like Bard Graduate Center, which has ignored my pleas and emails to begin their construction on Saturday mornings later than the 7A start they have had in place for the past weeks.  So, I can take it to my blog, and at least feel I had a place to share my pain...and hope they will remember that the walls between public opinion and good customer service are as thin as the walls between our physical buildings.
ARGH!!

Happy Synchronicity

I LinkedIn with David, after meeting him at a trade show a few years ago and our professional paths continue to cross here and there. This week he sent me a friendly email  letting me know about an upcoming "Broadway on Broadway" event at TImes Square. Apparently, his client's tech product - Aerva's Pic2Screen application - will be make it a consumer-controlled billboard - enabling tourists to upload their photos on the jumbo Kodak screen. Super-sized social media.

Cool.  I like Broadway. I like new consumer tech applications.

So, I clicked on the link to read more on David's blog, Eat Media, which featured an article on Aerva that he included. His blog included his Twitter feed where I happened to see his interesting tweet about how that Kodak screen enabled more awareness for a Diabetes event, featuring pictures on the big screen of kids with juvenile diabetes who were working to raise research money.

Cool.  I like cause marketing.  I like new tech that helps consumers raise their consciousness.  AND, I am working with Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation on some of their chapter's social media efforts. So I clicked on THAT link from Twitter and read more about that case study.

That led me to a terrific story about 9 year old Noah, The Diabetes Dude.

And that is where this story ends...and begins:

The story is REALLY about Noah, and HIS combination of charisma and a good idea to help leverage star power, media, and social media to get people thinking and acting. 

Noah The Diabetes Dude, and his parents have set out to do their version of the traveling garden gnome, but using blue flamingos as a pop icon of diabetes awareness..."flocking" people with the plastic birds to create engagement and interest. 

They have a nice little site, a blog, videos, photos, a donation button...even an interactive Google map to track the growth of their flock!

The value of sharing good content, across multiple platforms, and the joy of synchronicity led me to learn more about this inspiring little activist, so I hope you'll read about Noah from here, and decide to do your part to "flock someone" and spread the word and donate some dough to help eradicate this terrible disease.

Cool?

Oh the Places you might not Like to go on Facebook

There's Trouble again in Facebook land, and that starts with T and that rhymes with P and that stands for Places.

Per a really interesting article in Ad Age that describes a "real life" experiment in trying out the new Places feature on Facebook in real life, there are a lot of aggravated people. The issue at hand is again the DEFAULT settings that Facebook arrogantly selected including one that enables anyone to check anyone in to a location, true or not, desired to be revealed or not.

You would think Facebook would have gotten the clue from the Beacon fiasco, but not so much.

There are a lot of good articles on Places to learn more (like on Mashable ) if you want, but as always, I think the reader comments (including my own) especially on this particular article are a reflection of the feelings of many. It all feels very similar to the uproar created by Beacon which infamously automatically posted purchases made online via Facebook connected sites to one's wall. The Beacon anecdote that circulated as an example of a good idea gone wrong was the guy who cancels on a date, only to have the movie tickets he purchased posted on his Facebook page, to his girlfriend's dismay. Now imagine being location-outed by a friend to the delight of a stalker-ish ex, or your boss if you're playing hookey!

We have got to pull the reins in on giving power to the people and keep it with the person.

The majority of commenters on this story echo how I feel, and why I immediately disabled the ability of someone else to "check me in" on Places. While I have a lot of respect for Read, Write Web content, they are not as much concerned about "asynchronous" check-ins. But they DO bring up another issue - that of labeling a place with a less-than-desirable name...like, say, your own home, or a restaurant you didn't love...and having it stick.

So, if you agree, and I think most do, go to your privacy setting immediately.
Here's a how-to from my @rww source.

Predicting a Social Media Based Society

As a media marketer, I've been awed by the impact of social media on all our lives for a while now. In a Faith Popcorn moment recently I was trying to imagine the even greater impact it will have on society down-the-road. Will the transparency social networking forces on brands now drive us to be kinder, gentler human brands because of the power of mob to criticize? We already open ourselves up to criticism for every opinion posted. And we make instant heroes of the Steven Slaters of the world (212,000 Facebook fans and counting) who act out secret fantasies in public.

So, think about where will we be as the walls are continuously torn down... where that will put us in 20, 30 years under our belts of a medium that is only in its toddler-dom today?
What adjustments will we make?
Will the pendulum swing backwards to greater privacy than ever, as a backlash to too much crowd judgments on every move one makes?
Will it burst open even further and manners and mores be damned?
Will we become vanilla pudding, scared to make a move or take a stance?

I wonder.

Tamar Weinberg wrote a nice blog on balancing social media social lives and blending with relationships offline, applying practices of one on the other.

As social media enthusiasts, we often forget that we live in a different type of world than everyone else. We might be more keen to open up to strangers and share our feelings with people we don’t know. It’s the world we’re living in — for us, at least, and it will continue as we spread these ideas to our peers and colleagues, all of whom will likely slowly open up to this world in due time. All paths will ultimately lead to here whether or not these “outsiders” have chosen to accept it yet.

Faith Popcorn, criticized by some, lauded by others, predicts less conspicuous consumption (driven by fear of criticism again or is it the economy, stupid?...though we won't hesitate to rubberneck in awe of a Real Housewives' lifestyle and shop their bankruptcy sale). Either way, social media is part of the problem and the solution:

Amy Avitabile, senior vice president of marketing at Lord & Taylor, called the use of social networking a “complete game-changer.” Lord & Taylor is using Facebook and Twitter in nonpromotional ways. It also has a mobile strategy for messaging. While Lord & Taylor was late to the party with e-commerce (its site is less than two years old) “it’s the number-one trending door by a lot,” she said....

“Our big message was to alleviate the guilt of shopping,” said Avitabile. “We don’t sell things she needs, but what she wants.” So the store developed the “Shop Smart” campaign, created by David Lipman with the tag line “Shop More, Guilt Less.”

Popcorn also thinks supermarkets will work to compete with local farmer's markets' rise in popularity but may fail without "authenticity and transparency." Why? Again, because of social media, and our ability as consumers -- or just humans -- to point fingers and get to the truth.
Truth is the breath of life to human society. It is the food of the immortal spirit. Yet a single word of it may kill a man as suddenly as a drop of prussic acid.
~Oliver Wendell Holmes

Thoughts? Criticisms on this post? Please share, but leave the prussic acid at home.

Looking Up

My dear friend Rita, a respected businesswoman in the marketing world, forwarded me a link to Pete Blackshaw's column today in AdAge. I was very moved by the piece and submitted a long comment back to Pete, but the topic is worth a couple hundred extra words...at least.

Pete, a regular AdAge columnist and VP at Nielsen Online Digital Strategy, lost his sister recently. He became aware of the contrast between real, deep offline connections and community created by her passing and shared grief and support vs the surface kinds of connections we are all running after in our online world. Here's a link to his column: http://bit.ly/Blackshaw-adage

I found myself buying every admonishment and silently vowing to work those offline relationships harder than my Twitter-based ones, but found the comments posted very interesting for the push back from a few readers. This is actually why online conversations can be so important and compelling. We actually have more opportunity than ever before to share and hear other opinions. This hopefully will make the world a little smaller, but it also reminds me of the need to remember the middle ground.

Here's what I wrote in response to Pete's column and others' comments:

"Pete, I too am sorry for your loss, and sadly grateful for the column it inspired.

Yes, there are those who feel the connection you made between your experience of a family member's death, offline, with the lifestyle we live now, online, was "kind of too much" or "nearly blasphemous."
And others will share the pathos completely and hang their heads in shame for a moment vs just hanging their heads down over a smartphone, thanks to the reminder that we need to emerge from our avatar-selves and raise our eyes and our consciousness more frequently, and seize the offline day too.

That said, the ship has sailed and I fear we won't easily be able to find our way back to the kind of connections we SHOULD have. I'm guilty of missing the chance to share a smile or receiving one, and have heard annoyed passersby say, "Look up!" And I've been annoyed in return to see every single person on the train completely absorbed in their own digital world.

Tim Sanders wrote his book, Love Is the Killer App: How to Win Business and Influence Friends back in 2002 on the premise that "being a lovecat" is the only way to succeed in the 21st century, and necessary to overcome our Dilbert society of isolation in cubbies.

We crave community. I think we're creating it in any way we can.

Digitally, time suck that it is, is just easier for many. Unfortunately, we end up back in the digital version of a cubbie after all.

Thank you for the excellent reminder to look up."

Learning to Swim at Broadband Speed

I was just reading "High Speed for the Sparsely Wired" in @NYTimes this week about the portion of the government stimulus program that allocates $7.2 billion for extending high-speed Internet access. I have to say, I'm pretty fascinated by both the possibilities facing rural communities about to get transported to the web 2.0 community via the economic stimulus plan...and by the perspectives of people in and out of those in dial-up-speed land.

Think about it: if you're reading this blog, chances are you didn't have to wait a half hour for the page to load. (And if you did, and think I'm THAT worth it, bless your heart.) That means you likely live in an area where broadband means PDQ* access to the world wide web. It means traversing global villages and accessing the knowledge of the crowd on literally any topic you can imagine. It means you can, like view images of Mars or play web chess with someone in the Czech Republic...or try the impossible of keeping up with every damn article on social media marketing, staying up every night til 2AM....

The comments on this news story are inspiring, as many in rural areas talk about gaining the ability to work virtually, or post resumes, or set up online storefronts -- helping to open up new commerce opportunities. And imagine this: expanded health care options, too! For example,

"doctors in Anchorage, 400 miles to the east, can see patients via videoconference."

It's a whole new frontier for many, down to learning how to build a skyscraper ad right in their own backyard. Of course it also means closer examinations of the less illustrious and the downright icky. Or, as "Mike" commented on this topic in a NY Times story:

"How can you not look at that [article] and think, "Hi, JokrBoy. I'm HotBlonde. What r u wearing?"

Access to the vain or glorious aside, it means a whole new part of the country will be exposed to social media tools that some 500,000,000 Facebook users take for granted. We're not talking total social media virgins, as patience, or satellite and cellular services have certainly enabled access for many. But from an almost anthropological perspective, it will be interesting to observe how superfast, 24/7 entry to Twitter, YouTube, Flickr and Digg impacts life as they knew it. I can already hear the cries of "and WHY do I want to 'tweet'!?" or "What a time suck!" Oh the stories I could tell...the caveats...the techniques... Don't use all CAPS! Don't "sell!" Do remember my social coaching mantra of "Look. Listen. Learn. Participate. Lead!"

Unless our rural friends stay up nights studying Mashable and Brogan, Ochman to Owyang til all hours, they will have to learn it all the hard way. They will be jumping into the deep end that most of us had the chance to hold hands and wade into more slowly back in the day, last year or so.

*Now it will even be easy to figure out obscure references like "PDQ."

Black Gold and Blues

On the day that yet another attempt was made to cap the disasterous oil leak in the Gulf, I reread a blog post from the NRDC on 5/21, about dealing with the feelings of frustration and anger. Since I awoke this morning to news stories of pelicans drowning in oil and the spread heading towards all of our mid-Atlantic beaches, rereading Sheryl Eisenberg's thoughts stemmed the flow of some of my tears. For now. In my rage against the machine I offer some of her words to help us all funnel action to good:

From This Green Life blog of the NRDC: Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill -- What You Can Do

In 1968, when I learned about the population bomb in biology class, I was overwhelmed. The planet was heading for disaster and there was nothing I could do to stop it. In the 70s, it was nuclear weapons; in the 80s, the ozone hole. This spring, it's the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. But these days I know something I didn't know then. There is always something I/you/we can do.

I don't mean we can erase the disaster that has already occurred. That's oil under the bridge—and if we're unlucky, into the Gulf Stream. What we can do is help prevent recurrence. For recurrence is not only likely but inevitable as long as we allow offshore drilling, depend on oil and, indeed, continue to consume energy as if there were an unlimited supply.

Therefore, this is the time—when we are sick at the thought of the workers killed, sea turtles and other endangered species harmed, fisheries ruined, coastline polluted and coral reefs destroyed—to change our lives.

To begin, we must change our mindset.

We are running on borrowed energy. Oil is just one part of the problem—and oil spills just one of the risks. The trouble is our whole fossil fuel driven way of life. There is not a big enough store of fossil fuels on earth to sustain it, and if there were, it would only make matters worse. Prices would go down and use would go up. The environmental costs of extraction would rise and the climate would be wrecked that much sooner and more completely, perhaps irretrievably so.

We who care need to follow Gandhi's dictum and "be the change we wish to see in the world."

Here's how.

Step 1: Drive less. Do you hop in the car whenever you need something? Zigzag across the landscape to perform errands in opposite directions? Drive where you could easily walk? Join the club.

Americans burn up gas so freely because it hardly seems to cost them anything. The price at the pump is deceptively low and the true price—environmental destruction—is hard to recognize.

But for this brief moment in time, thanks to the oil spill, we can connect the dots. Use the opportunity to change the way—and amount—you drive. Plan your trips. Carpool. Walk. Bike. Give public transportation a chance.

Step 2: Care and repair. Cars and appliances, along with virtually everything else in our consumer culture, are considered more or less disposable nowadays. Since we expect to replace them, we don't keep them in good working order. Thus, they continue to operate, but grow less and less efficient, eating up energy unnecessarily when they run.

So take your car for regular tune-ups, keep the tires inflated, change your air conditioner filters, lubricate the moving parts of motors and do all those other pesky maintenance tasks recommended in the manuals.

Step 3: Get energy-efficient equipment. The difference between conventional products and energy-efficient ones can be quite staggering. For instance, an incandescent bulb uses four times as much energy to produce a given quantity of light as a compact fluorescent bulb—and 10 times as much as an LED. Yes, the energy-efficient alternatives cost more to buy, but they also cost less to operate. Besides, becoming the change you want to see in the world includes paying more for a cleaner, safer future. So, shop for Energy Star appliances and factor fuel economy into your choice of car.

Step 4: Go local—and not just with food. It's simple: goods need to be transported to market. The shorter the distance, the less energy required. Therefore, look for products made close to home.

Step 5: Change your habits. Today's norm is to live wastefully, but you don' t have to go along. To save energy:

• Turn off lights when not in use.
• Wash full loads of dishes and laundry.
• Air dry both.
• Change your clothes before the thermostat.
• Unplug chargers and always-on appliances.
• Reuse and recycle.
• Eat less meat.

Step 6: Buy less stuff. It takes energy to produce goods. Think twice before you throw it away on things you do not need.

Whatever you do, don't let this moment pass without some step toward change.

And one thing I just did with some savings from buying less? Contributed to the Coalition to Restore Coastal Louisiana. It's a start.