Shaken, not stirred. I’m not talking about James Bond’s drink preference, but the state of the advertising world.  A “seismic shift in marketing” was how Simon Kelly, COO of agency Story Worldwide and host of last week’s Post-Advertising Summit in NYC explained the state of affairs. An eclectic group of advertising creatives and marketers gathered to discuss the impact for the future where traditional advertising tactics are dead or dying. The good news: like a creative menu at a martini bar, there’s many new-fangled ways to acceptably serve up marketing with impact. Here are five takeaways from the Summit to help you consider how. 

1. We’re all in media.

Advertising Age columnist Simon Dumenco told an engaging and important story that illustrated the speed of media and publishing today. He found himself in a NYC coffee house during last year’s earthquakes. While he felt the café rumble, he didn’t realize what was happening until he simultaneously discovered that the quake was already trending on Twitter. Seismic waves were traveling from the epicenter of the quake at a rate slower than social media reporting! CNN couldn’t even respond as fast. This is just one simple example of how we’re all reporters, editors and publishers in a new media world where you can have impact.  In the process we leave a “digital vapor trail” through the little pieces of information that we post on Twitter, Pinterest and Facebook.  It is our record as media company of one – representing our brand and identity in a manner available for posterity in the Library of Congress. I’d add: it’s a great example of how we’re all storytellers.

2. We’re living in the era of the underdog. 

In such an age, where speed and access via social technology has made everyone a media maven, power is with the people.  It could be argued that creativity and reaction time are the coveted marketing skills and that the more wieldy systems and processes held by larger, traditional organizations and agencies can pose limitations. Today, everyone has access and opportunity to market – regardless of budgets.  “Your audience is a channel, an audience of audiences,” according to marketer, author and social media power influencer Mark Schaefer.  So in today’s world everyone has the potential to be a marketer — all you need is an ISP and something worth talking about. A story worth telling provides power to an individual marketer that can rival the big advertising guns. And maybe even be more nimble and flexible in the approach.

3. Content is the new creative.

Presenting content that is interesting and entertaining is the new marketing formula for connection.  The concept: attract attention and engagement around a piece of information or an idea that will give people something to talk about.  And share. Consider this: everyone has the ability to create content.  But take heed because content is abundant.  We’re operating in an information overload that is dizzying — creating noise that makes it hard to stand out and be heard. To have a media presence, therefore, according to Andrea Miller, Founder and CEO of  YourTango, “requires investment. It’s not sufficient to simply push content anymore. You must show personality and actively cultivate content that engages. And that takes time.”  Time to learn new skills as editors and publishers, with an eye on the overall desired brand experience. In response, many brands (notably Coca-Cola) are transitioning their marketing departments from ones built to advertising and broadcast to a new design focused on developing interesting, entertaining content and stories.

4. Opportunity Abounds for Brand Storytelling.

“We live in an age of hyperpassivity,” according to Bluefin Labs Tom Thai, whose organization tracks social TV, where the couch potato is still sitting there but tweeting away. We’re watching TV with smartphone in hand, in a world where more people avoid spoilers and, instead, engage in real-time conversation. The result is a multi-dimensional experience where more people are actually (surprise!) watching media in real time. This is just one example that illustrates the opportunity to expand and communicate a brand’s narrative.  There’s a growing trend to integrate media traditionally reserved for entertainment – incorporating visuals, video and gaming – and serve up appropriate ways to give people an active role in your story.  Creating shared narrative (what I believe is a fundamental goal of branding!).  It also means, thankfully, we don’t have to broadcast the same ole basic message all of the time. Instead, we can select different parts of our brand story to share at different touch points – all designed to convey a larger, coherent message.

5. Co-Creation is Real Engagement.

The goal of great marketing content is to create something so interesting to people that they want to share it.  As part of the Summit, attendees collaborated on creating content for the sensational reality-bending news media outlet Weekly World News. In about an hour, we created the strategy and concept for an app that enabled everyday people to be reporters – actual participants in recording and sharing the strange and paranormal they encounter.  Think your neighbor is an alien plotting an attack of earth? Here’s a way to report it. The app provides a way for people to participate in an activity that not only conveys the core trait of the brand but enables them to actively claim a role in it. Because to the Weekly World News reader “life is stranger than fiction.”

Indeed. And the changing marketing world does not fail to disappoint either. As a marketer we can have a field day connecting with people by creating something for every desired action and experience.  A marketing world in which your imagination (and not your wallet) is the only constraint.

How will you get started?

If  “big business” were a problem celeb, it would make Charlie Sheen seem positively angelic. What’s needed is a big red pen to edit, re-write and reframe a new brand story.  An overhaul and reinvention of the likes that requires a top-notch brand and PR crisis management team, maybe even calling in the legendary nerves-of-steel celeb handler Cindi Berger for the fix. And we need it fast because business, notably corporate America with all it has to offer in resources, has all the potential to solve society’s biggest problems. 

That was the message (well sans Charlie and highly paraphrased!) from none other than legendary Harvard professor and competitive strategy guru Michael Porter last fall at the Babson Forum on Entrepreneurship. And I’ve been thinking a lot about it, because the sentiment hits close to home.

Porter talked about how decades earlier, while riding a bus to begin studies at Harvard Business School in the 60s, he responded to a fellow passenger’s “so where you headed?” question with more than vague avoidance. Why? Because business was worse than The Man. Business, big corporate greedy capitalism, was evil empire.  Not something to be proud of as life work , most certainly.

And I’ve felt this pang for my career choice on more than one occasion.  Earlier in my life, I wondered, “really? I’m spending my life convincing people to buy stuff?”  What a contribution, I thought, eyes rolling in sarcasm. But a friend wisely reminded me that working in sports (and later music and education), which I love and value dearly as a part of my own life, was a way to encourage people to participate.  To do.  To get off their (our) duffs to live it.

So, as I’ve ventured away from product categories and brands that have deep connection to my life personally to work on a wider array of businesses, I’ve found myself with that old familiar feeling creeping in on occasion.  Because saying “I’m in business” is not really a feel good story, never mind one in which I want a shared narrative.

We’re all familiar with the business story of the day: profit for profit’s sake.  In my state, gas fracking profiteering makes way for concerns over water. Farms are developed as “urban residential” without care for the future. And corporate America?  Our business big brother’s behavior frequently makes Lindsey Lohan look like a poster child for Our Sisters of Angelic Virtue. I certainly don’t trust ‘em and I know I’m not alone — apparently most of us don’t in record numbers.

But the story can change – there’s a great opportunity to make business the hero.  

Business – corporate America – has big resources that could be put to great use. Imagine what could happen if the spirit of social entrepreneurship met big corporate resources. Porter used a great example, citing P&G’s efforts to solve impending problems with water shortage. Their motivation: finding viable water resources, a key component of their manufacturing process, when the unlimited supply of free water ends. So P&G’s  fix could solve their problem…and ours.  And in the process make all of us who call some form of “business” believe in its value again.

Business world (and the rest of us) take note: help is on the way. Learn more about how to reinvent your business, brand or cause (supercharging your biz without selling your soul) by joining me and my friends at Get Storied for their Reinvention Summit, the world’s largest virtual conference on storytelling.  It’s happening next week April 16-20– and there’s still time to sign up and gain tips from the convenience of your own computer or mobile device. Change your story. Change the world. Check it out & sign up here.

When I attended Babson College, a leading educator of entrepreneurship, the business plan was the holy grail of tools required for launching a new venture. I’ve held onto and used my old textbook, “New Venture Creation” by Jeffry Timmons so much over the years that even duct tape couldn’t keep it held together. While the book still serves as a great guide, the need to labor over a lengthy, elaborate plan in order to move forward is not. The business plan is dead, RIP. Carpal tunnel sufferers rejoice! In it’s place is the need for a good story.

Why? Our fast paced world won’t wait for extensive writing of plans. Can you imagine a new venture in technology taking time out to write a complete and through analysis before acting?  Time out equates to left out. Nobody – not customers, competitors or investors – will be waiting. The plan risks being dead on arrival.

Instead, a new formula for success involves a thoughtful combination of storytelling and action. Tell a story that conveys the real meaning and value behind your business. By sharing the “why you do what you do” story, you’ll lend credibility to your idea and convey the opportunity in a way that people (investors! customers!) can immediately relate with and understand.  At Babson today, instead of elaborate year-long efforts to write a business plan, you’ll find students immersed in what they call “Entrepreneurial Thought & Action®.” Business plan writing’s mostly been replaced by rocket pitches so they can get on with the show: testing and trial of their ideas in a real world environment.

Women Entrepreneurs: want to learn more?  I’ll be participating and leading a workshop at the We.aRe Women’s Entrepreneurship Retreat in Monterey, CA on March 9-11th to help you craft and strengthen your brand story. Join us for a 3 day Summit to connect with other early stage entrepreneurs in a supportive community where we’ll help each other build big visions and strengthen our  skills to execute them. To learn more visit We.Are or drop me a note at sharlene@brandstoria.com. Hope to see you there!

I was fortunate to participate in Jeff Pulver’s #BrandsConf last week and also cover the event for Sparksheet, the award-winning multiplatform magazine that explores how brands intersect with content, media and marketing.  You can read the recap here on the NYC event exploring the humanization of brands. 

You can also watch recorded sessions which were streamed live throughout the day at UStream.  And, just for fun, my panel session was captured by the clever illustration of Stefan Aronson:

Photo courtesy of Stefan Aronson

Tis the season… for conferences.  It’s that time of year to and there’s no shortage of conferences to choose from this fall.  I want to take a moment to share a few of note with you. Even if I weren’t participating in these events as speaker, I’d be going to them anyway.  Because I really think we’re in the midst of a business revolution.  A revolution that is being led by the people who have choices to buy from us — or not. Impacted by new ways of communicating — or tuning us out. And with new modes of doing so, thanks to all the shiny new technology and 24/7 social communities.

If your brand story is the distribution vehicle of meaning, then the path for real connection between people and brands is taking some twists and turns these days that would be well worth understanding.  I urge you to follow (and join!) the conversation. I’ll be reporting some of my thoughts and takeaways here in the coming weeks (and making some other special announcements too!).

Don’t miss:  Jeff Pulver’s #BrandsConf in NYC, Wednesday, November 9th.  People don’t want to do business with brands, they want to do business with people.  If you can’t be there in person to hear 35+ brands discuss this topic be sure to join the live coverage on UStream here.  I’ll be leading a discussion about The Joy of Conversation — how brands can find meaning and value through shared narrative as a starting point for connecting with people.

Joining me will be Jackson Jeyanayagam, the VP of Digital Strategy at Taylor, who has supported well known consumer brands including Old Spice, Diageo, P&G, NASCAR and Gillette;  Matt Bean, AVP – Mobile Social and Emerging Media at Rodale as well as conributing editor for Men’s Health magazine and host of Spike TV’s “The Playbook;” and Christina Wilson – Tretorn Marketing Manager at Puma, where she’s doing some really fun things to reinvent the brand by connecting and shining a light on people’s stories.

Conversation is the new currency — a precursor to relationship and important ingredient for brand building. And if that doesn’t convince you, check out The Midas Center Andrea Cook’s reasons for why she won’t miss it.

Then, I’ll be heading to Babson College to participate in the Babson Entrepreneurship Forum where there’s another kind of revolution going on.  There’s never been a better time to be an entrepreneur and Babson is leading a charge to define entrepreneurship in new, more expansive ways.  Where else can you hear from Daymond John, FUBU founder and cast member of ABC’s “Sharks” and the authority on competitive strategy, HBS’s Michael Porter?  If you can’t be there live in Boston, check out the real time conversation at #bef2011 as well as this blog for a recap.

I’m looking forward to conversation, learning and great energy that always comes from these two events! And I’d like to hear your thoughts too — please post your feedback or reach out to me here. And if you’re at the event, please say hello!

If you visit my home, chances are you’d realize that pretty much everything has its place and utilitarian purpose. Having moved quite a bit as an adult, I’ve been fairly good at keeping stuff to a minimum and to those things that I really use. This makes even more sense when you learn that I live in an older rural American home, built in 1885. The home didn’t originally have closets, so the only two that exist today were built during recent renovations. Yes, a woman with just two closets. I have, however, a confession that belies this practicality. If you peer into the large freestanding cupboard where I keep my kitchenware, you’ll see it:  an old, worn out wooden salad bowl with matching, broken serving utensils. It just sits there lonely, neglected and unused. I paid rather handsomely for it about six years ago in a moment of whimsy, coughing up $52 plus change for an item I inevitably would never use. Why? Because of its back story. This wasn’t any ordinary, old salad bowl set. No, this little beauty was right there in the middle of my Friday night childhood entertainment – passed about between Keith, Laurie and Shirley on quintessential 1970s American family television. This salad bowl, now my salad bowl, was a Partridge Family salad bowl.

Had I seen this hunk of salad serving junk at a random yard sale, I guarantee I would’ve passed it right by. It’s a pretty plain, old, ordinary mass-produced salad bowl (and not really a nice one at that). I actually made the purchase fully intent on using it, rationalizing how serving up my little piece of TV history would overshadow my inadequacy as chef. But when this little gem arrived with a “certificate of authenticity” from Ellis Props, I gave it second thought. How could I use it? The salad bowl suddenly increased its value in my mind (not that I’d consider selling something that touched the hand of a Partridge….). In my enthusiasm, I even spent an evening watching old episodes on DVD, just peering for a glimpse of my bowl, our bowl. No luck, but I swear I really do remember watching Laurie Partridge tossing a salad with it….

I tell you this salad bowl tale because I think it makes a great case for the role of storytelling in business. Collectors and sellers of memorabilia (derived from Latin meaning “associated with matters or events worthy to be remembered”) have long known the value of a good story attached to a product. It creates meaning and value for people, even when the object is seemingly utilitarian. A back story of meaning and relevance, whether for product or service, gives people another reason to care. This bond, a shared narrative between you and your customer, can achieve all the great things that marketers desire:  loyalty, buzz, advocacy and engagement.

The value for connecting with people through story isn’t confined to memorabilia. Witness the success of the Significant Objects Project (www.significantprojects.com), which set out to specifically examine the value of a product’s back story. The project pairs a writer with an object purchased from a thrift store or garage sale for just a few dollars. The author then writes a fictional story about the low-cost item, making it “significant” through a contextual back story, and posts it for sale on eBay. My favorite, for example, is the story of a $2 small metal bottle opener shaped like a hammer that became the symbol of one retired Navy veteran’s strength and power. The resale value: $40. The bottle opener wasn’t a singular success, as the selling price of other objects inflated after association with story. The overall return for the items purchased and storied: how’s a 96% margin? Some $128.74 of random stuff transformed into sales of $3612.51 (with proceeds donated to charity). Proving that one man’s junk is another man’s treasure, thanks to the added value of a good story.

“But I sell tile grout” you say?  OK, so you don’t have to focus on your story as part of your marketing strategy. But I think you’re leaving an important marketing and sales tactic on the table if you fail to employ it, no matter what kind of product or service. Consider the closely related parallel we can draw with product design: as manufacturer and marketer you can choose to emphasize design as an asset. Or not. Regardless of your choice, design will still be at play as a fact of nature. All products have an embedded design. The attention you pay to it, however, can be great means for differentiation and added value. Witness the transformation of the $.99 flyswatter, recreated by designer Philippe Starck as a successful $19 mass-produced, household item. That’s a pretty good case study for the value of repositioning a product for higher value. I’m thinking the financial managers liked it too. Like design, story can similarly provide a boost for your business.

Author and educator Pleasant Rowland understood this concept well when she created her company with a simple concept: to provide girls with an alternative to existing dolls. The “American Girl” dolls represented fictional characters from different periods of American history, each packaged with a book to tell the tale at a premium retail price. The accompanying stories struck an emotional chord with Moms, who purchased $1.7 million worth of storied dolls in the first year. By 1998, Rowland sold her “American Girl” franchise to Mattel for a reported $700 million and it has since expanded to include publishing, retail stores, digital media and more. The stories behind the American Girl characters gave the dolls meaning to legions of little girls and created a significant point of differentiation and value in the marketplace. Without the story, the American Girl would’ve just been another doll on the shelf. How’s that for a return on story investment?

Whether you artfully integrate your story into your marketing strategy or not, stories will be told about you, no matter what your industry, product or service. They are embedded in your reason for being, providing a rationale for your position in the minds of people. Your story supports and helps define your brand identity, so why not take time to pay attention to it — editing, crafting and shaping it in a way that increases the value of your offerings? Every business has a story. So why not dig it out, dust it off and purposefully use it? And come to think of it, maybe it’s about time I served up a Partridge Family salad for dinner after all.

I recently chatted with Raf Stevens about how brand stories are increasingly part of conversations at the board room (and coffee shop) table — no matter what the business or industry.  Every brand has a story of relevance and meaning that can help connect with people and impact business.  This is why my work is like experiencing “Four Seasons in One Day.”  The Neil Finn tune is my soundtrack:  on a given day you might find me working with a large global leader in technology and, later,  a solo entrepreneur who makes satirical packaging for condoms. That’s some serious season-changing. Raf is the managing director of Corporate Storyteller, an author and great colleague calling from Belgium where it was about 10pm.  And don’t worry…. you won’t have to hear me sing.

At first glance, Peter Shankman’s recent post “Why I’d Never, Ever Hire a ‘Social Media Expert’” had me a little baffled. I usually like his marketing commentary – but likening a social media expert as no different than someone skilled at “taking bread out of a refrigerator?” Whoa, that caught my attention. I think that’s what he intended, since the analogy plays into a knee jerk reaction to warn about a particular type of “guru/expert” character.  This doesn’t really accurately reflect the bigger picture he proceeds to paint for the role of social media or the one that actually exists in many cases.  Unfortunately, the cautionary “label” potentially risks undermining the great value that someone experienced in the discipline can bring to your business, with plenty of “experts” that actually do fit the bill appropriately.

Shankman argues to forego hiring the social media expert and, instead, focus on “generating revenue through solid marketing and stellar customer service.” He outlines how a key to utilizing social media is, indeed, to incorporate it as part of a complete marketing/customer service strategy. So why does “social media expert” seem to conjure up something to the contrary? What’s the big beef? It seems to me, the real rub is with a few simple words and the stories we attach to them – of which “expert” is just one. I also think it would be valuable to look squarely in the mirror and  ask ourselves about the story we attach and project upon “social media” too.

Let me elaborate, as I see it, to serve up a few lessons about the power of story and how it plays out in our lives and work:

Are We Jumping To Judgment?

I admit it: I sometimes find myself wincing at self-proclaimed “experts” and “gurus.”  What the terms bring to mind are associated stereotypes, played out as familiar narrative. I immediately think of the overbearing, far from transparent “Sweetie, Baby, Cookie, Honey Have I Got A Deal For You” varieties that seem like they just might be right at home selling me swampland in Florida. Or perhaps heading up an overzealous congregation as fire-and-brimstone preacher proclaiming, “Social Media is the singular Way, The Truth, The Light.”  I know quite a few leaders who are personally unfamiliar with social media and have heard the resentment in their voices just talking about it. So it only seems natural that anyone who approaches them to talk passionately (heard as: obsessively) about the subject (and in a “strange, insider” language of the medium, no less) would be met with glazed over if not rolling eyes. The result: both sides thinking the other “doesn’t’ get it.” Sound familiar? I think what we’re really reacting to here has to do with our own loaded personal perceptions, with all sorts of issues at play. We project our own stories (and their meaning) onto the specific title provided:  the self-important, egotistical “expert” vs. the seemingly more team-friendly, collaborative “specialist,” for example. In the process we may be losing out. The lesson: I vow not to dismiss “experts” and “gurus” based on my own predisposition to the titles and, instead, will take time to learn more about their approach, values and beliefs. It also makes me wonder: where else am I doing this and potentially shortcutting my work, business and life?

Looking for Clues: Does The Expert Value Storysharing?

Shankman explains what social media can do by highlighting, “it’s about using the tools to market to an audience that wants to help tell your story.”  Hip, hip, hurray!  So, I’d take that a step further and add: social media gives you the opportunity to share a story, not just tell it, by actively engaging people in it. A key point: it provides another way to create shared narrative and common bond with others. Giving them another reason to care. Don’t believe me? Just look at how Old Spice reinvented their brand by executing a campaign that included a major play for co-creating narrative with the audience via social media. The story played out together – hand-in-hand, with the audience as co-author.  Which leads me to a perceived problem with “experts:” they seem more intent on telling and not sharing. Makes me ponder (wink, wink): where else can I utilize co-creation of story to create impact for my business?  And, asking questions to understand how the so-called expert perceives these distinctions can be a clue into just what kind of person you’re dealing with….

Good Business: What We’re All Here For

Any good social media specialist (or brand storyteller!) worth their salt will start a discussion on tactics by backpedaling to examine the Holy Grail of all business questions: what are you trying to achieve? I like to think of that as “What’s the future story you desire?” Notice I did not say my favorite MBA all-purpose question, “how are you going to monetize that?”  Social Media, like every activity you do, should reflect and support your overall business goals. Isn’t that what we’re here for? The answer is not just limited to the “show me the money” variety. Good business can provide value of a sort that is reflected beyond economics. Say, for example: social value.

So while I’m still not enamored with self-proclaimed labels that feel full of puffery for both the discipline and self — I’m trying to have an open mind. I’m considering: that bread’s still an important part of the overall sandwich and it’s got to get out of the fridge somehow. I hope everyone I work with strives for excellence in whatever they do, no matter how I perceive the skill level or importance assigned to the task. If they do an awesome job and want to take the title “expert” – what do I care?  More power to ‘em. And, by the way, as a good entrepreneur (leader, manager) shouldn’t I be looking toward others to fill in gaps in my own expertise? If I throw out the social media expert, do I get rid of my business coach, my personal trainer, web development expert, graphic designer or sales expert?

I’m going to challenge myself toward greater self awareness by examining ways I engage and project story in my business and in my life.  I’d encourage you to think about it too.  And, I might even stick my neck out to demonstrate my commitment by having dinner at the “World Famous” diner near my home. OK, maybe not. The nutrition expert I’ve hired would probably frown upon it.

This week I’m the guest blogger for Synergy Events, creator of signature brand experiences for leading brands and agencies. I call them the “experience experts” because they’ve created some of the most amazing moments to connect brands with fans. From a NASCAR Victory Lap and Pit Stop Tour  to a 53′ M&M candy posing as Lady Liberty, floating down the Hudson to celebrate “there’s an M in everyone,” their work is all about giving life to brand narrative.

The post examines how your brand’s story can combine with carefully designed experiences to ignite a marketing chain reaction and impact performance.

I invite you to learn more at Synergy Events.

Ever see a bunch of five year olds learn to play soccer? Wherever the ball goes, there goes the pack of kids. Following the ball like a little flock, flailing at it and at each other.  A good pair of shin guards is a necessity. That’s pretty much how I feel about a lot of social media and marketing activities these days. We’re all competing for what often seems to be not much more than momentary attention. This post is admittedly long, but I think there is another way to play and it’s important to understand to raise our business game. And, frankly, I’m still trying to figure it all out.

“People are Not Avatars, Cliques are Not Clicks”

I think the great irony in much of the social media interaction I still experience is that it often isn’t very social at all. That’s not the tool’s fault, but our own. Automated follow backs, “follow me” buttons on websites, and automated direct messages make me kind of cringe (key words: automated, follow). Does anyone really think this is engagement? I had the chance to hear Brian Solis speak recently in NYC about his new book “Engage” and I think he was spot on regarding this topic (not to mention the title quote above). He talked about the irony that marketers now refer to the addition of a “5th P” representing “people” as part of the marketing mix. It’s pretty humorous to think they never were, but the omission is a glaring clue to the traditional mindset of old. If I hadn’t deep sixed my old “marketing principles” book from college many years ago, we’d probably have a good chuckle at it. And that goes for the thinking of those days: that we could create something and just put it out there. Right product, price, position and promotion would do it, right? Well, not necessarily if the consumer is in control of the game (and I do think they are). Yet, the old thinking still often prevails. I was in a social media conference recently and a participant candidly noted, “Who are we kidding? We don’t want to be social. We just have to be. We’d gladly go back to the old way of business if we could.”  If it’s any indication that those days are pretty much over, the Wharton School has announced an overhaul for its MBA curriculum. What’s new: “soft skills related to people.” Sounds rather social doesn’t it? At issue: I think being social requires a new mindset to go along with the emerging media. We can’t just carry over our old, traditional way of thinking to new channels of execution. Remember “push marketing?” That doesn’t sound so friendly and inviting, does it?

There Is No Social Silver Bullet

It’s not just big brands that need to pay heed to this.  It seems like every day that I receive an invitation to join another site or download an app that’s promoting “community” and “social” interaction. In an effort to be noticed and heard, many of us (entrepreneurs, leaders, managers) are clamoring to them. I found myself uncharacteristically frustrated during the recent launch of social media network Quora – a curated q&a forum (my description!). The whole situation just confounded me and I was actually a bit, dare I say, annoyed at a pressure I felt to participate. Why? Because writing a thoughtful, valuable response to a question takes time and a lot of effort – and that wasn’t something additional I wanted to do, at least at that point in time. My real frustration was that I felt marketing and branding in this context was being relegated to competing for attention and presence. And, deep down I was left wondering: would I be left behind by a failure to be there at all? All of this has made my resolve even greater: we should be considering ways to connect with people, providing them with an opportunity to co-create story together at various touchpoints in their lives. Whether to Quora or not is not the question – the real point is to make sure you have a whole team in motion, with a purposeful strategy and not just out there “following the ball.”

An Audience of Influencers

So, what to do? More and more colleagues are thoughtfully using social media to meet a wide variety of objectives. Interestingly though, it’s the ones who are really utilizing vehicles to get to know people who I see as most intriguing and winning. They understand Solis’ commentary that an audience is no longer just eyeballs (old marketing think) but an audience of influencers that find and share information differently than ever before. We need to “speak through them.”  To me, that means not “at them” in traditional fashion, but engaging with stories in which they are co-creator and author, too. These thoughts are, I think, fairly simplistic and just serve to remind us to continually challenge ourselves to move beyond a traditional mindset. Being active in social media doesn’t make you social or any more in tune to today’s connected consumer.  Instead, with purpose, intent and focus on engaging people we can better serve people and our businesses. In the end, which channels of distribution we use to accomplish that will all work itself out.