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Funny thing about communities. Sometimes they spring up in spots you haven't been watering. Because they're not clustered in nice fat groups claiming a proud central space in the garden, they're not complimented by neighbors of other carefully-groomed organic matter. They're insubstantial, really. These wild communities may be lone, thriving on a long-thought-dead channel with small membership numbers. It may be easy to discount the discovery of a wild community as unintentional, lacking organization...

Do your employees - even those that don't directly touch your customers - think about how they can shepherd them down a path to greater commitment, higher satisfaction, and higher lifetime value? I'm reading a book titled "Edge" by fiction author Jeffrey Deaver. The story line centers on a personal security expert whose job it is to protect innocents and whistle-blowers (along with the occasional bad-guy-turned-informant) until they can safely deliver their damning testimony to the appropriate...

It's dangerous to make assumptions that hamper effective communication. Hyperconnectivity, rapid-fire signals, and a mentalities fraught by a sense of uber-urgency serve to amplify our executional shortcuts. As we look for more tools to make it easier to set the oven from our phone or take charge of our grocery list, I think we get complacent with sub-par. We lower our standards and rationalize our mistakes ("sent from my iPhone - mi3t8kes r not my ownn"). We don't mind making assumptions because...

A friend phoned me today on her ride home from work, buzzing with frustration. She sometimes struggles with the operational and people-management aspects of her job. Anything nibbling around the edges of conflict or fierce conversation makes her palms sweat. It seems the IT techno-scanners in my friend’s office discovered one employee sent 348 instant messages one day last week. Someone (or maybe the sniffing software itself?) determined 348 IM’s equaled an investment of about 5 hours, 50 minutes...

Back in the old days when "integrated marketing" execution was decidedly weighted with more print, outdoor, TV, and direct than web portals or online advertisements, the full service agency I worked for had its own information group bundled under the IT department. It was the mid-90's, and we still had budgets for employee training, annual raises, and early-out Fridays. The information group consisted of two staff librarians and one support person. In retrospect, their roles may have seen a little...

I know we're talking about B2B and not B2C, but the cover of the latest BtoB Magazine bothers me. I think the editors are still thinking in terms of "outbound"  rather than "inbound." Would a more appropriate headline be "Demand Generation Guide 2011" if in fact the issue contains content that helps B2B marketers find success? After all, aren't strategies that build interest and demand for a business's products far more sustainable - and viable for secondary advocacy strategies based on forged...

Last week I was in Minneapolis rubbing hashtags (#Confab) with other word geeks who build and publish stuff online. About 500 of us glommed around the Hyatt for three days to talk about how to plan for content, how to sell it internally and to clients, how to test for good content, and how to work through a content development process. Good stuff, and more thoughts from sessions I attended will be shared here in the coming days. And yeah, there were a few tweets flying around. But first I thought...

Our society and every organization within it has rules. From Little League to scholastic codes of conduct to employee handbooks and merchant agreements. Whether the exacting and micro-detailed codicils drafted by lawyers, or the pinky-swear commitments that ensure your besties will refrain from buying the same "to die for" jeans, rules are important. Rules contain us bouncy balls within some sort of manageable space and prevent unfettered chaos. As a customer, how many times has "It's the rules,...

In life and business, there are some measuring sticks that matter. Are you giving love and praise unconditionally? Are you generously sharing the bounty of your talents so that others might learn and grow? Are you holding fast to the promises your brand makes to its customers? Are you committed to doing more, even when no one is looking, even when no one specifically asked? Such things will be the measurement of our lives. They'll determine the course of our businesses. As Danny Brown...

I've been fortunate to receive a few books to review, and I'd like to share some quick thoughts about two of them.  My gratitude goes to the authors and publishers who so kindly shared the books and asked nothing in return (only to be rewarded with a slow-as-molasses review). Being an avid reader, I was excited for the opportunity to learn from the authors. Being an avid reader, I have a truck-sized load of books on hand every day. Or so the nice librarian reminds me during her frequent voice mails. Today...