Category Archives: Best Practices

10,000 hours

May 21, 2012 in Best Practices, Clients, Culture, Industry by Barbara Bates
Malcolm Gladwell's pivotal essays

Outliers, by Malcolm Gladwell

I’ve had a blog post in the works, halfway done, for the last week. It’s about “a day in the life” here at Eastwick, and what my schedule looked like on one particularly interesting day. I want to share it, not in any competitive “my day was fuller than your day” sense – but because we, Eastwick, by nature of the type of work we do and where we do it, happen to be a pretty good barometer of the market: its level of activity, the heat map of various technologies, the pace at which people are looking to shape their markets.

And right now, the needle is tipping high on all three counts, and my schedule – as you’ll see when I post – shows it.

At a pace like this, we need to move and think more effectively than we do during quieter times. Demand on my hours means I need to hold myself to be more efficient and decisive than I normally would be. I say no to meetings I’d actually like to take. I don’t hesitate when I trust or know the truth of something – I don’t pad it with the layers that I might in a quieter time. Some people might not like this about me. I’ve been called out for it, and sometimes I’ve hated that, but these days – I like it. This time is too good, too strong to be taken lightly. We’re building a new level of strength here in the Valley and if I mess around I’m not going to give it the level of value it deserves.

We have a lot to contribute and I’m committed to contributing it wisely, effectively, with the right people, and in a way that fulfills my vision for Eastwick.

And on that, I thought of the 10,000 Hour Rule: Malcolm Gladwell’s assertion about true insight and expertise being traceable to practicing a specific task for 10,000 hours.

Over the last 20 years, how many hours have I sat with tech visionaries, everything from bright-eyed founders to weary late-career executives, and listened to them describe their dreams, their obstacles, their roadblocks, and above all, their stakes.  Maybe they’re prospects, maybe they’re clients, maybe they’re investors or good industry friends – whatever the case, I’m at the table with them and they’re sharing something they want to change and asking me what they should do to change it.

If I assume 10 such meetings each week for one hour each – and that’s a safe lowball number for me (I can think of times when it’s been much more) – that’s 520 meetings a year. I’ll take two weeks off for vacation and to make the math easy. We’ve been in business for 20 years now (actually, almost 21), so if I multiply those numbers, I’m at it. I’ve done my 10,000 hours.

And, if you think of all of the hours I’ve spent brewing in this stuff, not in meetings but in team conversations, talks with reporters and journalists, check-in with industry friends, and the countless initial screening calls that I filtered out before level two – yeah, I’ve done the hours alright.

This realization hit me today with a sense of surprise at first, but then clarity and calm. When I sit across the table later today with a new prospect – one whose story slowed me down and made me say, “Woah…” – I’m going to go full throttle. They don’t have time to mess around and neither do we. This is the time we’ve all worked for, that somehow all of the learning and struggle and vision in the Valley have conspired to create. We’re in it, better than we’ve ever been, and pardon me for saying we’ve earned it.

We’ve done the work. Practiced our 10,000 hours. Learned how to tell a good company from a great one and to help whichever one it is become better – sometimes a little, sometimes a lot. And though I wouldn’t mind dialing back the pace of my days, I wouldn’t change a thing about the things we hear, see, enact and deliver. In a sense, the fun is just beginning. From the platform we’ve built, and the opportunity we see at this time, this is an important moment in the story of the Valley.

Leveraging what we’ve all learned is what it’s all about. The hours may be full, but – especially at a time like this – I’m making the most of every one of them.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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How NOT to be a Dodo

April 18, 2012 in Best Practices, Culture, Industry by Barbara Bates

We count on our friend Francine Hardaway for unfailing reality checks on what works and what doesn’t in business (and much more). Often her thoughts resonate with issues we’re discussing at Eastwick, or concerns we have about (and sometimes for) Valley companies or business models.

Her latest post for Fast Company – “Why Agencies are Going the Way of the Dodo” – shares her signature tough love. In essence, Francine calls out agencies for ruining (my word, not hers) social media by replacing branding and conversation with performance-based social strategies. (To translate: many agencies are shilling “pay for results” social strategies, meaning they only get paid for their work when a brand’s friend, fan, or follower jumps through some brand-ordained hoop. A “Goal!” bell rings and the agency gets a coin. Essentially a CPM approach to social media.)

For anyone considering this approach, I offer a short word: DON’T. I agree with Francine that this model is inherently flawed and will go the way of traditional online ad models (and other dodos). What to do? Allow me to offer some perspectives.

1. Learn from experience.

Observe the evolution of online advertising and read the writing on the wall. The category is growing but engagement is waning. As Francine says, nobody pays attention. I see dozens of thoughtful articles each day on how online ad models are failing and how companies are scrambling for the next thing that replaces them. We talk to countless companies looking to ship the next “aha!” that will save the model: incent response, increase efficiency, generate broader terms, etc. For a while, maybe. But most won’t sustain; on that I agree with Francine.

Looking for “solutions” to the waning ad model “problem” suggests that the goal really to help the digital (or social) marketer to rush breathless into their CMOs office proving that they’ve scored the numbers that signal “success”? Maybe they can’t get that 0.0X clickthrough rate on banners anymore, but dang it, they’re going to get in on social, and, good news: they only have to pay their agency if they get that result.

Beware, marketers, the danger of this thinking. As the saying goes, each time I hear about it, a kitten dies. To think of relegating social media, an unparalleled platform for true conversation, interactivity, and trust-building – all of which build momentum and action – into…what?  Compare your favorite farmers’ market to QVC and I think you’ll see what I mean.

Eastwick doesn’t do that, and we won’t. We believe that social platforms give brands an unparalleled way to communicate openly and honestly, to ask for input, and to track the way conversations evolve over time.

Based on these conversations, we learn about sentiment (how people feel about our clients or their products). We learn about concerns. Competitive issues. Opportunities – heads’ ups on things they should know about or even places they should go. We track how this shapes things like Share of Voice, topicality, and preference over time (that’s the NEXT thing I’m going to write: my manifesto on measuring success), and we watch, sometimes literally smiling, as these conversations get generous. People openly sharing with each other. Responding and helping. Providing information that otherwise would be hard to find or expensive to source.

And we track how this leads to actual engagement and conversion: to filling sales pipelines, driving online sales, and otherwise building business results. Sustainably.

Think flock, not dodo.

I’m not saying it happens overnight, but with vision and commitment: it happens. Our clients see it and acknowledge the momentum, the results. And I’m ready to assert that – unlike the waning efficacy that Francine forewarns in her post – this type of social interaction will grow in value and impact over time.

2. Share the LOVE.

Francine calls agencies to help their client/partners “design love into the product or service.” Thank you again, Francine. At Eastwick, we use the word “generosity,” but heck: “love” works too. Differentiate with openness and proactivity. Invite. Collaborate. Encourage.

Don’t those words hit you differently than things like Drive, Incent, and Close? I’m not saying that we don’t use those words: we do. But we put them into context of a generous, proactive strategy that begins with serving an audience’s best interests (AKA “Love”) and not simply seeing them as “consumers” of what we want to push or serve.

How does this work? By understanding the people who are part of the audiences our clients serve: what interests them, what matters to them, what’s essential to their satisfaction or success. Then: story development – how we talk about this in terms that reflect our grok of and respect for these audiences. Sure, Francine: journalists CAN go straight to the source…but if the source hasn’t evolved the story to the point where it connects with the audiences, that access doesn’t matter.

This, by the way, is very different for a communications agency than it is for an advertising or even digital firm…but that sounds to me like another future blog post….

3. What killed the Dodo?

I’ve waited a long time for this. Now I get to share some tough love right back at Francine.

Francine, it’s easy to blame agencies for what you describe in your post, but we all know better. Agencies are like any other business: they need to be a business. That means selling something (typically services, aka “people’s time”) at a price that the market will bear.

For most agencies, that means pushing work down to the junior ranks, minimizing strategy, and willingly saying “Yes!” to business relationships that don’t position them as intellectual and implementation partners to their clients.

We all know what I’m talking about. Eastwick team members have written about the phenomenon in recent posts asking if “tech PR is broken” and challenging marketers to demand more out of social (and themselves). It’s also why I declared my independence as one of the few hold-out agencies in Silicon Valley who continues to do things a different way (I loved the positive feedback on this, by the way).

If agencies are going the way of the dodo, Francine, then we need to remember what caused their demise. Dodos didn’t stand up for themselves. They stood there looking dodo-like as they were hunted to extinction.

 

In a way, what Francine describes in her post reveals a much larger problem in business today. The online world’s inherent connection to data, and the ease with which we can access, analyze, and understand it, has created a “hyper-quantitative” approach to marketing that I believe undervalues qualitative insights in determining success. As a good friend says, “Analytics are the pepperoni slices on the pizza of business results.” I’m no vegetarian, but I wouldn’t want an only-pepperoni diet, or even an only-pepperoni pizza. It’s the balance of the ingredients (quantitative meets qualitative, if you will) that makes the pizza taste great and worth ordering again.

As you read about the Dodo, think about the big picture that’s causing agencies to choose a role that they probably know is a fail-in-the-making. They’re scared as they watch their traditional models being disrupted and by direct connections between businesses and the audiences they serve. They’ve lost sight of their true value as data and analytics (awesome as they are) have shifted the shape of their craft. And they’ve let that happen by reacting to demands rather than committing to the value of their work and upping their game to make it even better.

So they’ve let themselves get cornered into accepting roles that ultimately shrivel up and die, like that dodo, almost like some twisted self-fulfilling prophecy proving that their models don’t work.

Here, Francine and I agree. THAT, actually, is the brokenness of most agency models: the “servitude” that prevents them from being of true service. How did that happen, and why did some of us allow it? When agencies can sit across the table from clients and share perspectives like I’ve shared above that say, “Actually, I don’t recommend that. And here’s why,” in a way that helps these clients make better decisions?

That’s when the model will get unbroken. That’s when it works.

Thanks to Francine for a thought-provoking post, and for helping me articulate another reason that I’m committed to sustaining the way we do things at Eastwick.

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Eastwick’s Leanse makes the Tech Top Five

April 11, 2012 in Best Practices, Culture, Industry by christina

Who are technology’s top marketing pros? According to  Silicon Valley’s PandoDaily the five to watch are Don Dodge, Danielle Morrill, Sean Ellis, Jeff Slobotski and Eastwick SVP Ellen Leanse.

Ellen, a respected authority on social media and user experience, has championed the importance of audience engagement throughout her work at Eastwick, and at her prior experiences at Google and Apple, and in strategic consulting. She and her four illustrious Pandolist colleagues were saluted for their innovation, insights, and vision for technology.

Ellen recalls her experiences as an Apple evangelist with PandoDaily reporter Amanda Schwab. You can read more and watch the video here, or roll the show:

Congrats to Ellen and all who made this impressive list.

Follow Ellen on Twitter or subscribe to her posts on the Eastwick blog.

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CIO Evolution: a predictor of future success?

April 9, 2012 in Best Practices, Culture, Industry by Ellen Leanse

The Evolution of the CIO? (click to view larger)

Ramón Baez stood in the spotlight near the main stage, his face shining from massive hanging screens, amplified words resonating through the packed auditorium. The audience leaned in, tweeting, taking notes; untold others followed via simultaneous webcast.

Baez echoed the still-warm words of Angela Ahrendts, CEO of Burberry, who spoke via video to the 10,000+ attendees at Salesforce’s recent Cloudforce gathering in San Francisco. Discussing the critical role of IT in accelerating the collaboration between companies and customers, Ahrendts – who has nearly quadrupled Burberry’s share price since her arrival in 2006 – said, “You have to be totally connected with anyone who touches your brand. If you don’t, I don’t know what your business model is in five years.

Watch for yourself (1:51 viewing time).

In his Cloudforce demo, Baez, CIO of Kimberly Clark, showcased his company’s take on the critical nature of the customer-enterprise connection. Scrolling through screens of tweets, texts, and comments, he pointed to the various touchpoints where customers can get “in” and information can get “out” of his organization.

A winner of the CIO Executive Council’s Leadership Award (roughly the equivalent of the CIO Oscar), Baez wasn’t the only IT lead to stake this claim. CIOs from a variety of companies also took to the stage, showcasing the ways they connected with customers: reading and responding to social posts, geolocating callers as Customer Support conversations began, talking face-to-face – even looking at the problem – over ChatTime.

The message? That companies that will thrive tomorrow need to connect directly with customers today. And IT is leading the movement to that connectivity.

This isn’t just about consumer brands. Companies that sell to enterprises – where, of course, decisions are actually made by people (increasingly young/tech savvy people at that) – are also proving that point-to-point conversations streamline sales and attract valuable input on deployment and development. Not to mention the impact on loyalty.

In past years, we’ve all heard IT professionals bemoan the challenges of enforcing controls and keeping social conversations out. Often, resistance was driven from the top, with IT being asked to maintain the moat, so to speak, that forced customers to know, and stay in, “their place.”

That “us vs. them” mentality is reflected in the web blockers, last-gen firewalls, and enforcement policies we all dealt with a few years back. But the irresistible forces of social platforms, mobile proliferation, and BYOD have moved these immovable objects. Today’s leading enterprises defined more by their willingness to open up and collaborate than by their ability to keep things safe and closed in.

Is that, as Ahrendts asserts, a key to future sustainability?

If so, can we make a connection between the companies that are increasing their openness – via active two-way communities, enterprise social networks, and collaborative business ecosystems – and these companies’ future relevance and success?

If we can, does that suggest that IT innovation might be an indicator of future value?

And if so, is the IT lead a “litmus test” of sorts that we should look to as we test what companies will succeed best over time?

I don’t have answers but I’ll tell you right now: the companies I’m banking on over time are future-proofing themselves by increasing the way they interact with – and converse with – customers. They’re equipping themselves to learn faster, communicate more openly, and shape decisions based on the wisdom of the people who matter most: the ones who buy their products.

And at the helm of all that? The CIO.

Makes me wonder. What can we learn from a CIO and his or her power to shape a company about the way that company will perform in the future?

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Breaking Through the (Hyperconnected) Noise

March 5, 2012 in Best Practices, Culture, Industry by Ellen Leanse
Creative Commons image

We always value the insights in our friend Francine Hardaway’s thought-provoking blog, and an entry last week, exploring the long-term impact of an “always on,” always connected life on teens and young adults, inspired a response. Her insights rang especially true since I’m engrossed in David Rock’s outstanding Your Brain at Work, which reveals the way the brain – and specific parts of it – activate and interoperate during different types of tasks. I’ll never look at multitasking the same way again.

Although there’s probably no way to decide if “hyperconnected lives” are good or bad (and even if we did, what difference would it make?) the important takeaway is that people today are increasingly shifting between modes, managing parallel tracks of complex information, and engaging their prefrontal cortex (the late-to-evolve “thinking and reflecting” part of the brain) and the basal ganglia (the habit, repetition, and sometimes even veg out part of the brain) in a complex on again, off again dance that’s probably never been precedented (except for short bursts) in human history.

Plastic/elastic wonder that the brain is, it adapts accordingly, actually altering functions to optimize for this new way of interacting with information.

Back to that takeaway. To reach audiences and communicate effectively, we need to be aware not only of hyperconnectedness, but of the need for that brain to take a little break from deep thinking and processing and refresh itself with a bit of low-stress engagement.

That’s important for every business to understand, even enterprise: witness the rise in humorous or playful content from nearly every leading B2B brand.

This isn’t a cop out or a sell out, it’s smart science. You will strengthen your engagement by aligning your modes of communication to address the multiple parts of the brain that today’s decision-maker is optimized to use, adapting your content and placement to connect to their new way of thinking.

Imagine your way back to an earlier time: an executive in a quiet office, a stack of papers before him (yes, him), photographs and diagrams and detailed information waiting to be read, understood, and processed as he moves along a linear gameboard to a purchase decision. His secretary takes his calls: wouldn’t want to be interrupted! His back is to the window: wouldn’t want to be distracted! He takes notes or underlines as he moves through the pages.

Fast forward to today. I’m commuting on SF MUNI now, focusing (thank you, prefrontal cortex) on writing this post, but glancing up occasionally (hello, basal ganglia) to notice the many young professionals standing in aisles or sitting in close-quartered seats, fingers sweeping across iPhones or tapping on keyboards.

Most wear earphones; some nod subtly to the beat. We’re underground, offline ‘til Powell Street, so no one is texting (contrast to the stop where I boarded) but people are tapping in notes, scanning downloaded content, or flipping through pages of printouts, sometimes folding corners or scribbling in margins. They move aside uninterrupted as people come and go at stops. And every now and then one of them will fold their notes into a Timbuktu bag or backpack, slip the phone into a pocket (or not), and step out of  an exit doors just as the train stops. Without missing a beat.

Better or worse? Who am I to say? My own stop is coming so I feel an urge to wrap up, probably triggered by a jolt of adrenaline fired by some unconscious awareness in my basal ganglia that the words “Van Ness Station” means three minutes to my exit. I didn’t really even hear the words, yet here I am preparing for my stop.

As I prepare to close my laptop, a list of the morning’s priorities stages itself in my prefrontal cortex, a process I prepared for when writing down tomorrow’s to-dos on my schedule last night. I glance out the window as my train slows, Banana Republic and City Car Share ads blurring by, not read or really seen but certainly recognized. Registered. As I save this file a text pops up on my phone (we’ve passed Powell Street) and I plan my response even as I prepare to shut my computer.

There, in three minutes: everything a communicator needs to know about breaking through the noise.  Engage with multiple modalities, optimize content for focus and space out, and remember that learning is cumulative and sometimes unconscious.

And realize that today’s hyperconnecteds are simply doing what people have done since the beginning of time – trying to make the most out of the complex stream of information constantly barraging our brains, and relying on those brains to help decipher this information and find a way to thrive…or at least exit the MUNI at just the right stop.

Francine’s post appears below. And thanks to David Rock for the neuroscience; hope I’ve understood enough not to botch it.

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Hyperconnected Lives: Are They Good or Bad?

I was invited to participate in the Pew Center on the Internet and American Life’s survey on the Future of the Internet, and they gave us a link to the online results this morning.

Net-net: it’s almost a 50-50 split on whether young people will be positively or negatively affected by their always-on environments.

Half the respondents think that by 2020 the brains of young people will be wired differently, making them short term thinkers, multi-taskers, and instant gratification junkies who can’t retain information and lack face-to-face personal skills.

The other half think that although the brains of young adults will  be wired differently, “they do not suffer notable cognitive shortcomings as they multitask and cycle quickly through personal- and work-related tasks. Rather, they are learning more and they are more adept at finding answers to deep questions, in part because they can search effectively and access collective intelligence via the internet. In sum, the changes in learning behavior and cognition among the young generally produce positive outcomes.”

So we did a big study of “experts,” — meaning invited participants, not random participants — and the outcomes is “nobody knows.”

There was consistency on one thing: the brains of millennials are adapting to their environment. You would hope so. Otherwise,we’d be discrediting Darwin.

Also, the most desirable life skills in the future will be “public problem-solving through cooperative work (sometimes referred to as crowd-sourcing solutions); the ability to search effectively for information online and to be able to discern the quality and veracity of the information one finds and then communicate these findings well (referred to as digital literacy); synthesizing (being able to bring together details from many sources); being strategically future-minded; the ability to concentrate; and the ability to distinguish between the “noise” and the message in the ever-growing sea of information.”

Oh, and lest we forget: education has to change.

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