Market Leader: YouTube – Not surprisingly, YouTube is the most popular video-sharing service used by bloggers, attracting 81.9% of all embedded videos and direct links. Vimeo is a distant second with 8.8%, followed by Dailymotion and MySpace.
Young Males Engage the Most – 20-to-35-year-old males constitute the most engaged demographic group in our study. In total, 77% of users are under 35-years old, while 60% of all users are male.

Asian Users Engage Differently - 90% of the users from Asia and Oceania are under 35-years-old. In comparison, a third of North American users are over 35-years-old. Bloggers in Asia and Oceania are less likely to use services other than YouTube, with 89% of the links and embeds pointing to YouTube.

Gender Balance – The most male dominated video service is Break.com (88%) vs. (12%) females. The most female dominated video service is MTV (68%) vs. males (32%). The most balanced video serviceis MSN (56% male and 44% female).

Countries and Cities – The countries with the most bloggers embedding and linking to videos are the U.S., Brazil, Spain, the U.K. and Canada. In terms of cities, the most active bloggers who embed and link to videos live in New York, Sao Paulo, London and Madrid.

Engagement Peaks on Tuesday – The most popular day for engaging with video in the blogosphere is Tuesday and Wednesday. The most active engagement takes place between 11a.m. and 1p.m EST.

Alarmed, my husband cleaned the feeder and thoroughly checked the yard for any weird growing berries or other vegetation that could be deterring the animals. But nothing. Pretty sure that the birdseed was contaminated  he emailed  PETCO Customer Relations, and they wrote back:

Unfortunately, there has been no information provided to us regarding any issue with the PETCO Black Oil Sunflower Seed. You may want to check if there’s something different with the bag that you recently purchased compared to those you have purchased before…You may also want to contact the manufacturer, Kaytee, regarding your inquiry.

Why would PETCO refer us to  the manufacturer when it was a PETCO branded product?  Why wouldn’t they ask for more details about our purchase so they could track possible contaminated shipments in our geographic area? Why wouldn’t PETCO apologize and tell us to return it to the retailer for another product?  If they looked at my husband’s purchasing history — he has one of those PETCO PALS loyalty cards — they’d see just how steady and profitable a customer he has been over the past 10 years.

The lack of PETCO interest so turned off my husband that he switched to a competitor, PetSmart, and tells all of his animal-loving friends about this story. Talk about word of mouth marketing.

The marketing lesson is this:  customer service is more important and valuable than any advertising.  It creates positive or in this case, negative, word of mouth.  Yet for many companies customer service is not part of marketing.

Advertising, promotion and CRM loyalty programs report to marketing, but not customer service?  In today’s social media world where the good and bad travel fast, that’s just for the birds.

Our bird friends are returning after a month away from the feeder.   But no squirrel. We think he may have died from the tainted birdseed.

Also, please note one legal issue that not enough people are paying attention to. Many companies’ HR policies prohibit  you from giving recommendations to people who have worked for them.  This policy applies to LinkedIn: most likely you should not be giving LinkedIn recommendations for anyone who has directly worked for you or is currently reporting to you. Here’s a good legal perspective on the LinkedIn issue.

If you know of other helpful policies, please share and I’ll post. Thanks. Lois

Online Database of Social Media Policies: links to 107 policies

Center for Social Media at American University

NewPR Wiki – Resources.BloggingPolicy

For Mayo Clinic Employees « Sharing Mayo Clinic

Enterprise Social Media Usage Policies and Guidelines | SocialComputingJournal.com

10 Must-Haves for Your Social Media Policy

Social Media Policies For Your Company: Internal Policies | davefleet.com

A Corporate Guide For Social Media – Forbes.com Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. -

Wal-Mart’s Twitter Terms of Use Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.

- Wal-Mart’s Twitter External Discussion Policy

SAP Social Media Guidelines 2009

Lawyers blocking social media is not a policy

ESPN Responds to Criticism and Publishes Social Media Policy | Wordpress Marketing

RightNow social web employee policy | RightNow

Social Media Policy and Employee Guidance « Candid CIO

Intel Social Media Guidelines

Social Media Policy Examples | 123 Social Media

Blogging and Social Media Policy Sample – See a Blogging and Social Media Policy Sample

WaPo’s Social Media Guidelines Paint Staff Into Virtual Corner; Full Text of Guidelines | paidContent

3 Great Social Media Policies to Steal From

Social Media Policies | Social Media Law Student

Beats and Tweets: Journalistic Guidelines for the Facebook Era – Inside NPR.org Blog : NPR

On December  16 I’ll be speaking at: Word of Mouth Supergenius: The “How to be Great at Word of Mouth Marketing” Conference in Chicago.  The one-day agenda includes 12 how-to classes, 12 real-world case studies, and 6 word of mouth authors — including moi.

If interested in going   apply the coupon code “Loisismyhero” to get $101 off registration. Hope to see you there.

Forget money, give them egoboo.

Not the game Egoboo, but egoboo, derived from ego boost, which people get from seeing their name in “lights” and getting recognition for what they have to say.

According to Wikipedia, egoboo originated from science fiction fandom around 1947:

As a reliable way for someone to get their name in print was to do something worth mentioning, it became caught up with the idea of voluntary community participation. As a result of this, in later years, the term grew to mean something akin to an ephemeral currency, e.g., “I got a lot of egoboo for editing that newsletter.”The term later spread into the open source programming movement, where the concept of non-monetary reward from community response is a key motive for many of the participants.

1.  Instilling the belief that the leader will support and help his people  no matter what. “I have your back,” is ingrained. It’s about believing in the organization’s vision and purpose,  not any one leader.

2. Believing that there is a place for everyone to succeed and helping people find where they can most successfully contribute. Human potential is ingrained.

3. Having a point of view that helps people see what really matters and demonstrates the leader’s expertise and intellect.

Here’s a video of one of the executives, a former Marine, with whom I had the pleasure to meet at BIF-5.

“Most products today have no emotion. They just stare at you like a coyote with a blank stare.  Ever have a mammogram? That’s a coyote experience.” Bob Schwartz, General Manager of Global Design, GE Healthcare

“ If you’re in business you’re in politics. you’re trying to get your customers to vote for you every day.” Alan Webber, author, journalist

“When and were are you when you have good ideas? Find out, writ it down, and then structure you life to be in those productive environments…Cognition is about place.” Bill Buxton, Principal Researcher, Microsoft Research

“Products are the experience that they engender.” Bill Buxton

“Men die more from embarrassment than pathology.” Michael Samuelson, President and CEO, The Health & Wellness Institute, on how men typically deal with their health issues

“Were always speaking to every audience” Ethan Zuckerman, Founder, Global Voices, on social media communications

“Silicon Valley not the only place disruptive innovation can happen.” Jay Rogers, President, CEO & Co-Founder, Local Motors

“If we continue doing things the same way, we’ll continue getting the same results.”  Helmut Traitler, Vice President of Innovation Partnerships, Nestlé

“The next revolution will be materials meets IT.”  Neri Oxman, MaterialEcology.com

“At Hasbro disruption not just acceptable, it’s expected.” Gina Malone, Hasbro

“Let’s not ask people to make radical health behavior changes and instead tape into what they already like doing…healthcare is enabling people to do what they want to do.” Greg Matthews, Director of Consumer Innovation, Humana

“Falling off a cliff is a good thing. I highly recommend it…. Outputs matter, not the process or technology. Technology, like Twitter, is not delivering change in solving world conflicts.” Carne Ross, Founder and Director, Independent Diplomat

“Play is a way to understand and learn” Matt Geiger, Simulation Expert, Host, Spike TV’s Deadliest Warrior

Every year some of the most brilliant minds from business, science, art, technology, education and government come to the Business Innovation Factory’s BIF Collaborative Innovation Summit in Providence, RI for two days to share their stories about innovation. It’s sort of like the TED conference, but more intimate and relaxed. But, like TED, it blows your head off with new ideas. There are no rules, best practices, methodologies, how-to presentations. Instead, each person takes away something meaningful to them.

Here are 10 patterns and my personal takeaways from the 39 diverse speakers:

1. A positive view:  people who make new things happen are positive people, yet grounded in realism and a splash of skepticism. They don’t just see the glass half full; they see a tank half full. Their wrinkles indicate that they laugh more than worry. They want their work to make a difference.
2. Anger fuels action: anger fuels people to do things. Carne Ross, the Independent Diplomat, quit the British Foreign Service due to his anger over how issues in Iraq and Kosovo were handled by official powers, like the British government and the United Nations. MOMA’s Paola Antonelli nailed an interview that led to her position at the Museum of Modern Art by angrily addressing an interviewer’s dismissive statement on design. “Anger can make you do interesting things. Beneficial good can come from positive anger,” she said. Jay Rogers, CEO of Local Motors, started an open source automotive company based partly on his anger with America’s dependence on foreign oil – and his tour of duty as an elite Marine sniper in the Middle East.
3. Focus on the outcome: these people see possibilities, focus on realizing the big outcomes, and don’t worry much about any “right” way to get to the outcomes. As Alan Webber, so-called world detective and co-founder of Fast Co., said, “ There are those who want to do something and those who want to be someone. My advice is to do something vs. be someone.”
4. Sacrifice: inventing, creating and accomplishing require heavy lifting and personal sacrifice. If you want to “do” meaningful things, you have to be ready sacrifice – whether that sacrifice is money, ego, security, parental approval, and alienation from peers. So many of the speakers have jumped off secure cliffs, not knowing where they’ll land, and, frankly, not caring about the landing because the figuring-it-out-while-falling is where so much new thinking and creative approaches happen.
5. Cut through the b.s.: People who make things happen cut through the b.s. and tell it straight up, no pussy footing around.  They don’t couch a problem in jargon or bureaucrat-speak. Roger Martin, dean of the Rotman Management School at University of Toronto:  Business schools today are turning out “jargon-spewing economic vandals.  Stephen Trachtenberg, retired president of George Washington University: “Universities are in more denial than any other institution in society today… How did we get so outer directed that we let magazines like US News & World Report tell us how to run our law schools?”
6. Let go: Creating innovative ways often requires letting go of assumptions and presumed wisdom, Greg Matthews, director of consumer innovation at Humana, decided to not focus on “wellness” and getting people to make behavior changes like every other health insurance company trying to reinvent themselves. Instead Humana is creating new services that tap into what people already like doing, like offering cities bike sharing programs, creating games for health, and developing social media health applications.  Echoing the need to let go and look at issues differently was Richard Saul Wurman’s advice that “embracing ignorance is the only way to embrace a new project.
7. Slow way down: This was a shocker. Jonah Lehrer, science writer and author of How We Decide, talked about neurobiological research that proves that the mind needs to be quiet and in a state of relaxation to produce insights.  If you’re too focused, your attention will drown out the quiet mind, the right hemisphere “insight machine.” Jonah explained that there are two characteristics of those “aha’ moments of insight.  They are mysterious; the subconscious throw up the idea out of nowhere. And we have a feeling of certainty when the “aha” happens, we just know it’s the answer we’ve been searching for.
8. Revere humility: I’ve spent too much time in Silicon Valley and VC conferences where hubris reigns. (Merriam-Webster defines hubris as “exaggerated pride or self-confidence.”)  The people at BIF-5 were so incredibly accomplished, doing big things for our world, but humility was a marked characteristic. This vulnerability is a way to stay open to possibilities and new insights. My guess is this vulnerability also attracts talent. followers, supporters, fans and customers.
9. Stay grounded on the right questions: Almost every speaker kept saying, “ So the question I kept asking myself.” Or,  “ the question that needs to be answered is…” Good questions trigger good ideas.

Alan Weber recommended that we all “ask the last question first,” defining business victory before setting out on creating and running the business. Knowing what victory is – whether for our careers or our businesses — helps guide decisions.

Nell Merlino, founder of Take Your Daughter To Work Day and CEO of Count Me In, a non-profit helping women entrepreneurs, asked, “why do half of women-owned businesses never grow beyond than $50,000 a year. The answer to that key question is helping her organization focus on how to help women grow their businesses. (The two greatest obstacles: women are afraid to hire people and they think that if they pay attention to the numbers, their dream will die.)
10. Make it fun:  Invention is serious fun.  Humana is designing games to help people manage health. NYU’s Natalie Jeremijenko is creating wacky, fun ways to get communities involved in solving environmental health issues, like being able to text fish in the East River. (I didn’t quite get it, either.)  Sarah Endline is making sweetriot candy because it’s fun and because it helps farmers in developing countries achieve economic independence. Bill Shannon, CEO of kidney dialysis company DaVita, a Fortune “Most Admired” company, appeared on stage dressed as one of the Three Musketeers. (His picture is above.) Part of his message is that companies need to create environments where people share, learn, personally succeed, and have fun. “The work we do is so hard that we need to create the most fun work atmosphere.”

The Business Innovation Factory will be posting the videos of all the speakers within the next couple of weeks. Check them out here. Then, put it on your calendar to come to Providence next October. You will be inspired.