SoV-Share of Voice

Fast growing YouTube Vid with cats on a treadmill proves it’s as hard to call a hit in hollywood as in the digital channel. It’s cute and  I can’t figure out for the life of me why it’s entertaining. Do the people on vo sound stoned to you? Maybe that’s added texture to why this one is working. Add your thoughts below in the comments.

I see a lot of stuff each day that I think, “that would make a good post to share,” and then the thought and inspiration falls prey to priorities. That’s why I’m using twitter and bookmarking more to bring the quick hits into this blog and beyond.

Anyway, to the point of the blog, I caught a cool meme the other day with one of those inspirations and wanted to take it all the way to post, so here goes.

Chris Messina, “Open Source Ambassador” for Flock, put together a thread of images dealing with identity and form fields in web applications. The straw-dog was a form that said “girl” and “boy.” As with “salutations” where it’s presumptive to assume one is simply either married or not these days, we also have to think beyond simply male/female. The post goes onto share all the ways apps have addressed such as pownce’s solution shown here.

The big idea and takeaway is that every interaction can be an opportunity to bring one closer or turn them away. Every form can be loaded with political implications. Even extending beyond male/female is a political acknowledgement to which what my most-right leaning friends would take exception.

Have you ever run into these considerations in User Experience? Post thoughts below.

Jeremiah Owyang created a great post for career advice to those within corporations–his disclaimer was that these principles apply to moving up within companies, not entrepreneurially. I actually think some are universal, so here’s a recap, the entrepreneurial view and my a few career tips of my own: Keep reading →

A great idea usually inspires other great ideas, even if in reaction to them. You see a fair amount of parody, imitation and adoration when searching brand terms on YouTube, Flickr, etc. That’s merchandising for Real Brands and can be an opportunity to listen, respond, stunt (IMHO, Marvel’s Cease & Desist to Techblogger Arrington re: Iron Man screening was just that) and maybe even innovate. The mega-benefit of posting + parody + commenting + rating + @replying + blogging + sharing is trust for consumers and the search algorithms that crawl all this activity. In terms of the latter, that means better organic placement.

So, if you see something out there about your brand that you don’t like, consider all your options for response and remember that your customer is smart enough to tell the parody from what’s real, even in your actions. A Real Brand can stand parody and even benefit from it. Who knows, you might even have your next big seller, as in this video for an innovation-on-innovation violation (consider watching with sound on mute if in shared office or if potentially offended by lyrics):

We’ve been collecting and creating a growing number of terms, some of which are self explanatory, some which are insider jargon and/or purely for fun and some inspired by the unique challenges developing in the digital channel requires. Please add yours in the comments area below.

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This is a belated response to Tim Brunnelle’s March 24 post Tagging me with the 4×4 meme making its way around blog circles. It’s a concept that gets bloggas posting out of their normal zone, especially if they are more business oriented. Tim quoted Marketing Prof, Ann Handley, on it: “The object is for the tagged writer to reveal personal bits about themselves that you wouldn’t know otherwise, and then to tag other blog authors to similarly spill their guts.” I’ll probably add this as a page on my blog because it has an evergreen and personal quality that the “About” page won’t capture. On to my 4×4:

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 You can catch an interview with me on media–digital, social, acrylic/oils and more–at Susan Bratton’s Personal Life Media show, the Dishy Mix.

There’s a podcast, transcript and ongoing blog discussion/Q&A where you can enter to win some consulting time, a beer tasting or the new book, Groundswell, signed by Charlene and Josh.

If I blather on too long with any subject, consider the alternative:

Great interview by Rodney at FaceReviews with Amy Worley of H&R Block. Talking about listening, not just distributing content via Social Media tools. Take a good listen yourself–the wind was blowing hard and the info is worth the time.

Learn about @replies, re-tweats and direct messages in Twitter as a signifier of listening for a brand versus just “blasting.” Impressive although I might have edited out the time being spent dispensing tax advice in Second Life. Kind of lost me there but perhaps there could be utility via vid capture or sharing outside of SL.

Here’s your Friday snack. A great video mash-up with retro talent–The Delta Rythm Boys–and a soundtrack about Web 2.0 connectivity brought to life on dem iPhones. Cheers!

Scoble and Rumford discuss Groundswell, the new book by Forrester’s Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff as well as why corporations should use Social Media to listen and promote their brands. It’s a bet of a mess on audio, so bear with the blips and bloopers to get to the good content.

BTW, Rodney will be joining us next month for our Digital Leadership Summit as our editorial partner.