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3 Important Lessons From Steve Jobs

2011-10-07T10:52:22+01:00

If he had been British, he would have most likely been known as Sir Steve Jobs or Lord Jobs. Steve Jobs, however, was as American as Apple. This week, millions of loyal fans paid their respects to the charismatic icon and former Apple CEO. Some of the most appropriate tributes compare Jobs to the most impactful American revolutionary thinkers and businessmen that helped shaped the US of A. Ben Franklin, Thomas Edison, Henry Ford and Andrew Carnegie are just a few characters of another time that Steve Jobs now shares a stage with. Jobs was a truly transformational leader who single handedly made modern times more modern and little bit easier for all. Here are three important lessons that we can take from the actions of a legend.

1. Design for humans without compromising aesthetics.
Time and time again, Apple changed the category it entered by combining style and ease of use. Apple didn’t make the first computer, mp3 player, smartphone, or tablet. Arguably they don’t even make the best versions of these products if you judge them based on superlatives. There will always be something faster, with more features, made with more exotic materials or at better price points. Apple made “dense” products that packed more design, usability and simplicity into every inch than any competitor. This formula created products with a gravitational force that pulls people in, makes them forget how technically brilliant the products are, and helps them focus on how life just got a little better. The form and function ballet is a difficult thing to execute, but Steve Jobs has been a consistent performer.

2. If you want to sell more, don’t make more products, create markets.
The iPod changed music, but without iTunes, Apple would not have been as successful. iPods were fashionable little stores in your pocket. They made buying digital music easier than stealing it, which was a huge accomplishment at the time. The opening of the App Store followed the introduction of the iPhone. Again, Apple created another intuitive marketplace with no competitors in sight. The Mac App Store is the marketplace for their computers and the iCloud will be the storage marketplace for all devices. Each one of these markets are as important as their storefronts, which we all know better as Apple products. Apple not only creates markets, they bring them closer to you.

3. Never forget the importance of good storytelling.
This lesson doesn’t come from Apple. It comes from Pixar, the little computer graphics company that Steve Jobs bought from Lucasfilm for about $10 million dollars in 1986. While at Pixar, Jobs helped shift the direction of the company from one that creates animation that attempt to mimic life to one that uses moving images to tell stories. In the 90’s Pixar teamed up with Disney, who’s been known to tell a good story or two. Since it’s first blockbuster, Toy Story, in 1995, Pixar has made 12 feature films. In 2006, Pixar was sold to Disney for $7.4 billion dollars. Now that’s a story worth telling.

I’m sure there are more lessons we can extract from the life of Steve Jobs. I can think of at least six as I type away on my Macbook Air, but I just checked the time on my iPhone and I have to get going to work now. Thanks for the lessons Mr. Jobs, but more importantly thank you for making life just a tad more enjoyable. The world will miss you.

Boom! Facebook Timeline Cover Image Hack

2011-09-26T18:46:07+01:00

I was playing around with the Facebook Timeline cover images and noticed that you could hack the cover image updates. First you need to change your profile to allow for the new timeline. I followed the instructions here http://mashable.com/2011/09/22/how-to-facebook-timeline/

Then select an image that would fit nicely across multiple tiles. Mark sections of the image in the same proportions as the Facebook timeline. Use a large picture to ensure the quality is decent when it become your cover image.

The crop and cut the image to the dimensions of each tile. Save each file separately, noting the order.

Go to the Facebook timeline and upload the bottom image first, then proceed up. Boom! You've reconstructed the orginal image on your Facebook timeline. You can get as creative as you'd like.

Communities Gather Around Ideas (Brooms vs. Balaclavas)

2011-08-13T20:52:52+01:00

As anyone connected to an information source knows, parts of London burned over the last few days. Scenes of looting and overwhelmed riot police have dominated the endless news loop. The talking heads on television don’t seem to know what to make of the chaos. There’s no consensus as to what the source of the problem is. People viewing the problem with a socioeconomic lens blame the austerity measures, some see racial undertones, while other misguided individuals blame social media. There are many ways to view the current state of unrest, but blaming social media is a bit far fetched. It’s the equivalent of baseball bat for breaking a window. A bat alone will not break anything. In the same sense, social networks are merely tools that we use to communicate in real time. What people choose to communicate is up to them. Social media as a channel is neutral and can be used for good, evil or annoyance in some cases.

The Internet and social networks are guilty of enhancing the ability and speed of one of the most fundamental human traits, the desire to socialize. Since the beginning of civilization, people have come together to discuss anything and everything. A word-of-mouth recommendation from a trusted source is still one of the most effective drivers of commerce today. The main difference between now and 2000 years ago is that a physical presence is no longer required to share information or to gather around an idea. Before media, the fastest way to spread information to a large group was to unite them into a single location and to provide them with information that they can pass on to others. You can imagine how some messages may have lost momentum or become warped beyond recognition. Today messages are repeated more frequently across vast distances, but that doesn’t mean they’re immune from the issues of the past.

Welcome to the hyper-connected world. A world where people and ideas can all be interconnected at lightning speed. You don’t even need to be digitally connected to be a part of zeitgeist. There’s a good chance that relevant information will find you through someone nearby who ‘s linked in. People gather for and against ideas, but thanks to social media, they can unite in real time using nothing more than a connected device or knowing someone with one. Living in hyper-connected times means that we must rethink the concept of community to include flash unions that form and break up dozens of times per day. The police in London describe their policing style as community policing, but physical communities are only part of the equation. There is a clear line between gaining a better understanding of what’s happening in the digital space and imposing a full big brother crackdown on social media as has been suggested. We can’t expect Blackberry to shut its messenger service because you don’t like what’s being said.

There is some good news for the battered city. Police are learning from how these events materialize. They are starting to understand the language of flash unions and they are able to track what’s being said publicly. Blackberry’s BBM, a private communication channel for users of their devices, is more difficult to track. Blackberry is cooperating with police to track and trace crime related messages. There are two sides to every coin. So if you want to blame social media, you can. Just be sure to give it credit when something positive happens as well. People used social networks to unite in the name of anger and chaos, but today others used social channels to aid the cleanup effort. Time will tell which of these movements last longer. Both the rioters with balaclavas and the anti-rioters with brooms have gathered around polarizing ideas. But I wouldn’t be surprised if a select few rallied around anarchy in private and order in public. In our dynamic hyper-connect world you can use social media to be a part of any community, social, anti-social, or both.

Here are a few lessons learned from a few days of madness:

1. Social Media is a communications tool that makes it easier and faster to communicate (anything).

2. Don’t blame the tool for the actions of the user. We must be careful and cautious when using social media professionally because there’s always an element of unpredictability when communicating through a shared medium.

3. Communities are dynamic unions of people that are only as strong the idea that they are centered around. Strong communities can be real, virtual or any combination of both. Nurtured communities thrive on and offline.

4. Don’t overreact. We’re all still learning and getting better at communicating and listening online. Take the time to learn more about what’s really happening before making rushed decisions.

5. With great power comes great responsibility. A tool for one is a weapon for another.

(This post first appeared on WCG Common Sense Blog)

BIKE THIEF FAIL!

2011-07-27T14:17:59+01:00

Lesson: Don't steal bikes in front of the WCG San Francisco office.

Hit Me Up: A Guide to Social CRM

2011-05-09T17:25:12+01:00

Here's a slideshare presentation from a talk I delivered at the Social CRM conference in London on May 6th, 2011.

Hit Me Up: A Guide to Social CRM

View more presentations from Luis Carranza

Hit Me Up: Social CRM Conference

2011-05-03T21:58:17+01:00

2010 brought us the World Cup, the BP oil spill, Chilean miners, Justin Bieber, the Haitian earthquake, the iPad and iPhone 4. However, the most commonly referenced thing in all of Facebook in 2010 was the 3-letter acronym, HMU. It stands for Hit Me Up.

The term encapsulates the current state of multi-channel communications that is common among many people in the world. It’s used instead of, call me, text me, email me or Facebook me. Hit Me Up implies… “contact me in the most appropriate way for you at the time.

This type of communication is nothing new, but marketers still have some catching up to do. Managing multi-channel relationships requires an understanding of how consumers move seamlessly across channels. On Friday, May 6^th, I will be speaking at the Social CRM 2011 Conference in London. I’ll be talking through some examples of how to manage relationships across channels as well as going over some of the lessons I’ve learned along the way. I’ll kick off with the story of HMU and take it from there. I’ll post the presentation here afterwords or look for it on slideshare. Here’s a few screen shots of what’s in store. I hope to see you there.

Silicon Roundabout Meetup 3

2011-04-13T10:43:15+01:00

Our third Meetup has come and gone. It was the biggest one to date. We had a great crowd at Unruly Media's office. I would tell you all about it, but Unruly blogged about it already. Here's a link with a play-by-play on what happened that night.

More photos available at Unruly Media's Facebook Page.

We've been growing every week since we launched in January. We have 170 members and growing strong. We're always looking for sponsors. Please get in contact with me if you would like to provide a venue of sponsor a round or two of drinks to fuel the networking process. We have some big plans in the near future. Check back soon.

Silicon Roundabout, London: Meetup #3 is on!

2011-03-31T12:59:40+01:00

Tomorrow is April Fool's Day and our 3rd Silicon Roundabout Meetup. (no joke)

Join us at Unruly Media’s office at 11-29 Fashion St London, UK London. We’ll start promptly at 6pm. It’s our first BYOB meetup, but don’t worry, we have plenty to share already. But, feel free to bring a bottle of wine or some beer to share with fellow members. We’ll save any leftover booze for the next meetup.

Please “like” our Facebook page if you haven’t already.

Here’s the agenda:

6:00pm I’ll present a brief version of 10 Ways to Suck at Social Media
6:20ish Kevin Quincey from City Beach London will talk for a few minutes about his plans to bring loads of sand and volleyball pitches to the city.
6:30ish Welcome to Unruly Media & Networking with about 25-30 people who want to share/listen to ideas and discuss ways of collaborating.

A word from our sponsors (the people paying for the drinks and providing the venue):

A special thanks to one of our sponsors, Kevin Quincey from City Beach London.
Kevin has spent the past 15 years as an enterprise strategy consultant advising enterprise leaders how to gain positive and measurable returns from their investments in technology. While in the US he was part of a 12-person team to build the largest volleyball centre in the Midwest before moving to the UK when Microsoft recruited him for their young enterprise strategy practice. City Beach London, his latest project, will become a hub for a community looking for fun, healthy, and positive social experiences. As an indoor beach facility, it will offer a holiday oasis, no matter the weather outdoors.

Benefactors include athletes of all levels, beach and leisure enthusiasts, corporate and public event organisers, and the Olympics. But the community benefits of City Beach London will not end when the games are over. In addition to creating jobs, they’ll also help local schools to promote sport and fitness through daytime activities, and evenings and weekends will cater to a broad spectrum of guests.

Their current location of choice is in Hammersmith and Fulham and Kevin is looking to meet people who might have connections to famous UK athletes and celebrities or H&F city officials, planners, or information to assist them in moving forward.

ABOUT UNRULY

Unruly Media is the global leader for social video distribution and engagement

We work with global agencies and blue-chip brands to get their videos watched and shared across the social web on YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, influential blogs, and on mobile and social media applications.
Since 2006, Unruly Media has bought, earned, and audited over a billion user-intended views and generated over ten million sharing events across more than a thousand social video campaigns. With offices in New York, London, Paris and Sydney, our international team of social video experts can execute buzz building, social video advertising, content distribution, video syndication, digital outreach, conversational marketing, video SEO and social media monitoring across 75 countries in Europe, the Americas, Australasia and Asia.

Silicon Roundabout Meetup #2

2011-02-18T17:42:14+00:00

It’s on. Our second Meetup is tonight and I hope you all can attend. Tonight there’s no sponsor, so I’ve put some money behind the bar myself. So come early, as free drinks are limited. It’s not too late to sponsor a few quid behind the bar.

Tonight, We’ll discuss another idea for a few minutes and then we’ll go straight into the networking bit.
The last Meetup showed us that people from different disciplines could come together and share ideas. We learned about an urban beach inLondon, viral video seeding, business incubation and hotel search sites.
I hope to see you there at Devonshire Terrace, Devonshire Square, London EC2M 4WY at 7pm.

I've created a Facebook group for those you who are part of the 600M users of the site. Feel free to "LIKE" the page.

A special thanks goes out to those of you who attended my Social Media Week event. "10 Ways to Suck at Social Media" I had a great time. Here's a link to the presentation.