Best word to describe it: rejuvenating.

Smoky Mountain National Park view from Foothills Parkway

Image via CrunchBase

“When I first heard about Foursquare, I emailed [co-founder] Dennis Crowley. He said, “Are you ever in New York?” I said, “Actually, yeah! I plan on being in New York tomorrow.” [Laughs.] I booked my flight that night, met with him and, a month later, I was working for Foursquare. ” says Tristan Walker responsible for Business Development at Foursquare in his interview with VIBE.

I like this story, because it shows the attitude that Tristan attacked his career with.  He swung for the fences and did work to make it happen.  How many “could have….” have been missed because of not pushing forward?  Plenty.

Just a reminder to make it happen.  Or as Garyvee would say HUSTLE and CRUSH IT.

I recently learned that American Express aka AmEx is launching a new card called the Zync card aimed at 20-30 year olds. This piqued my interest so I figured this would be a good time to explore why would I use American Express, who uses it and the major benefits. For comparison I’m currently using a CapitalOne rewards card.

For starters, all I knew of American Express was the infamous “Black Card” which American Express refers to as the Centurion Card. If you’re already familiar with AmEx skip this overview. Essentially American Express cards are charge cards (read no balance) vs a credit card (interest bearing balance). Additionally, American Express is a card you pay annually to use  ($$ depends on card) and they have a favorable point rewards system. The various people I asked about why they use American Express mentioned the rewards for spending as well as perceived clout with reservation based services (hotel, car rental, etc).  

The Zync card is a bit different than the traditional American Express account because it has a lower annual fee, $25 and you can add additional buckets of services you want for $20/each. There are multiple, but an example of one is called Go for travel with additional rewards and features. For a good review of the additional services see this blog post.  For a review of the card, check out this post from Money Under 30.

As I explored this different card my mind drifted to marketing and I asked myself the question “if I was responsible for gaining adoption in the 20-30 age group what would I do?” I’d focus on one thing and one thing only, how using an AmEx now could get me to a Black Card. Why? Because I’m in the target market and about the only thing I’m aware of about American Express is the Black Card, so hook me with what I know and then tie me to what you’re working on. From my basic surveys 9/10 people I talk to don’t know why they’d ever pay for the features of an AmEx that you can get for free with a CapitalOne card (and get cash back). While the features may not go punch for punch, it’s close enough that most people are happy with where they are.  Thus, the logic the value averaged out over time e.g. $0.20/day wouldn’t convenience me. But if you drew on my emotion and the aspirational target of the Black Card, what’s $25+/year compared to the flash of a black card at dinner and the perceived clout that goes with it? At that point, $25+/year is nothing even though the ability to get the card is years down the road. (If interested in how to get a Black Card, Mahalo has a breakdown)

So past drawing on the road to a Black Card, I would do a few things:

1. I’d start a street team of Zync card advocates. This would be a crew that would start the groundswell of awareness and education.
2. Recruit bloggers to do some digital evangelism.
3. Be the first company of their kind to partner with Facbook, Twitter, etc in a meaningful way. Not just advertising, but account integration.

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I launched the app and I saw the screen below….and I’ll admit it hit me like a ton of bricks – it’s called OpenTable because it’s about finding an open table.  It’s primary purpose isn’t a “new” way of making online reservations, it’s that in a busy city full of bustling restaurants, I can easily find what restaurants have openings in a few easy steps.  Beautiful.

It’s worth noting that Urbanspoon just launched it’s restaurant management solution Rez, iPad app today called RezBook which TechCrunch gave an overview and while I can’t comment on the quality of the management – I’m not sure the OpenTable model can be beat for a customer, particularly in cities where it has high adoption.

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I’m leaving Ruby Tuesday. About a year ago I wrote this post talking about my decision to join Ruby Tuesday in the role to help lead the social team and WOW it went fast. My time at Ruby was great and I’m thankful for the opportunity to have collaborated and made a few waves with their awesome team, who I’m now glad to call friends. Not to mention working with a top digital agency, AgencyNet and their great crew.

So I’m sad to go, but I’m excited about the new opportunities at my new firm, Moxley Carmichael. I’ll be leading the digital initiatives as the Director of Digital Media which will include the social media spaces we’ve all become familiar with such as blogging, Facebook, and Twitter – but also covers the possibilities in the emerging spaces of mobile, location based services (Foursquare etc) and other technologies.   I’m a firm believer that the market for digital answers to communication problems will continue to grow and I’m excited to begin work with both current clients and new ones down the road.

So while I’ve poured some out for my friends at Ruby Tuesday – my glass is still half full.

A few weeks back my friend John recommended I read the story of karlssonwilker inc., called  tellmewhy: The First 24 Months of a New York Design Company. The book is both absurd and interesting at the same time.  Essentially it is the dueling stream of consciousness from the two founders and only employee’s of the agency as they debate what to do, how to do it and how they felt about it.  This is definetely a good read for anyone who might be jumping into the business of starting their own small design shop or business on their own.  It deals with the simple complexities of paying bills (accounts payable), getting paid for work you’ve completed (accounts receivable)  and pitching new work.

The more I think about it, the more it’s a perfect read for anyone who is walking down this path.  If you’re not, well you’ll probably find it humerous in a Zoolander type of way.

Oh, and they’ve got some SWEET infographics in the back.

Flicker Credit: Phi1317

Yesterday I had the opportunity to speak on a panel with my friends Chad Parizman and Lynsay Caylor to a class of very bright full-time MBA students at the University of Tennessee. Our topic was social media monetization, although we certainly talked more broadly then that in our time with the class. I enjoyed hearing their questions, and learning more about the challenges that Chad faces at Scripps and Lynsay at Pilot.

The most striking thing to me about the class were their answers to a few questions Chad asked about their social involvement.

How many of you have updated your Facebook status in the last week? 80%

How many of you have updated Twitter in the last few hours? 45%

How many of you only have a Twitter account to study it? 60%

How many of you use LinkedIn? 65%

(The room was also about 75% PC and 25% Apple)

I found these answers very interesting, particularly the LinkedIn stat. Facebook and Twitter stats are pretty consistent with what I’ve experienced, but I was very surprised that there were students who were not on LinkedIn. I don’t consider it to be the end all be all, but there are MBA students who have had jobs and are going back to school to further their career. Blew my mind that they weren’t on LinkedIn. The opposite take away  is that LinkedIn isn’t a go to for these smart saavy students, so either it doesn’t present a value proposition to them OR they are unclear how to make best use of it.  This will be an interesting one to watch.

I closed with the following advice “79% of the Fortune 100 currently uses social media in one form or another. Most of you expect to get jobs in the Fortune 500 and once hired they will expect you as a younger MBA to know social media. You don’t need to love every service, but you do need to use them and understand their application to business.”

I hope they jumped on and started experimenting. If you had a final statement, what would you have shared?

[UPDATE] eMarketer today launched some statistics on job sites used by HR professionals as well as the following quote, “The most helpful tools for career advancement were professional networks such as LinkedIn as well as best-practice communities, each named by about two-thirds of HR executives.”

I came across this blog post recently where a waiter was fired for twittering while on the job.  This wasn’t a case where they were fired just for twittering, it’s because who the tweets were about which is a whole new kind of fail whale.

Let’s cut to the chase, if you work in a field where you work with other people, about 99% of the people reading this, you need to watch who you tweet about.

In this case – the waiter was sending “documentary” tweets about various guests they served.  In this case the people who were tweeted about weren’t just John and Jane Doe’s – they were people who are considered celebs.

Needless to say, it’s safe to assume that you shouldn’t tweet negative things about people that pay you particularly if you hope to continue to be paid.  Why? Because people can find out almost anything public on the internet.  There was the widely popularized tweet that a potential Cisco employee sent previous to hiring.   For example, I work at Ruby Tuesday, Inc. If I were to blog or tweet some pretty negative comments about our leadership that’s probably not a smart career move.  Why? Because they pay me and opening up a public discourse on some deficiency I think my boss may have isn’t the best way to deal with any problem.  Let’s be clear, I’m not saying you should cover something up for the sake of a career – I’m saying use some discernment when posting.

Back to the original person who was fired for tweeting about customers. First, I’m very pro people acquiring and using technology in their lives and people should have the freedom to post what they feel they want to, but posting publicly on the Internet isn’t quite the Wild Wild West it once was.  On this issue, if you’re in a similar position you should think twice about tweeting about people.  There is a very large difference between “My last customer was super messy” and “Sandra was my last customer and OMG she was messy” and matters get compounded a bit further if you list somewhere on your blog, bio, etc that you work for aka represent a particular company.

Key takeaway, be careful what you share.  It’s global, discoverable and permanent.

I’m about half-way through “The Design of Business” by Roger Martin which explores how knowledge advances from one stage to another-from mystery (something we can’t explain) to heuristic (a rule of thumb that guides us toward solution) to algorithm (a predictable formula for producing an answer) to code (when the formula becomes so predictable it can be fully automated). As knowledge advances across the stages, productivity grows and costs drop-creating massive value for companies. p18-19

He talks about two of the models companies operate under, exploitation and exploration.  To paraphrase companies that operate under the exploitation philosophy will analyze a set of resources and their strategy will be to squeeze every drop of revenue and subsequent profit out of those resources, think of these companies as super efficient.   Companies that adhere to the strategy of exploration will purposefully step of the path of their current success to analyze the market, the customer and seek to discover new products.  Exploitation is a strategy that reaps tremendous benefit – and then seemingly overnight the cash cow runs dry.   Exploration bears almost no fruit in the short-term and can command equal resources without benefit – then seemingly overnight it turns into a rock star.

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• How Do Innovators Think? (blogs.harvardbusiness.org)
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January 5, 2010 is the day Google launched its first consumer physical device, the Nexus One – a phone.  In geekdom it is quite the popular topic, trending on twitter as well as the chiming of every major tech site to post review.  Here are some of the posts.  TechCrunch, GigaOM, Mashable, Engadget, Gizmodo, gdgt and BGR thoughts which review the physical phone itself, the software (Android 2.1), how it compares with the iPhone and how the launch of the Nexus One wasn’t the paradigm shifting event for mobile phone salvation we expected. I promise you they all cover each of those matter far better then I can, especially since I haven’t had a loaner phone for weeks preceding the launch – nor do I have one now. Instead let’s talk about how this will affect your organization. If you’re thinking, “my organization isn’t techie at all,” then this is for you.

Increased Validity of Android - for all intents and purposes Google’s launch of the Nexus One with T-Mobile (and upcoming Verizon) will place its open source operating system Android in the hands of non-Geeks.  This is a big deal as there are far more people that will like Android because they can get free turn by turn directions on the Maps then the people who will like the Nexus One because it runs the 1GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon processor that facilitates maps happening in glorious bliss behind the scenes.  This will also spearhead the wave of Android phones that are coming from Motorola, HTC, LG and others in 2020.

Spread of Smartphones - because there will be more of these bad boys in the hands of non-early adopters as they upgrade with their current carriers which will spark a couple key things.  First, your website will need to become mobile friendly pronto – it will no longer be seen as an option to have a mobile optimized site.   Second, the Android app market will see a signifiant increase from the 10,000 it has today as consumer programs will come out of the woodwork like they did for iPhone and organizations like yours will begin to build and launch apps for your consumers.

Rise of the Engaged consumer – we will continue to see the rise of the always on customer.  What this means for you is that their questions, comments and concerns will come to you faster and from new locations then you’ve seen before.  Perhaps more importantly their expectation of your prescese and response will reward those who are ready with open arms to customers who want to talk.  This will also open up new channels of communication and opportunity to connect with your customers, which will be scary but will make you a better organization.

For many, a phone with Android will be the very first time they’ve used open source software as part of their daily life and with Google’s support I think we’ll see it continue to grow in market share on new devices which will drive app invovation.  By far the biggest effect you’ll see is that your customers will have smartphones and while they all won’t know how to use them, they’ll do a few things well and that will disrupt your current business practices.

A few concrete examples, if you’re a

• national retailer – make it easy to order online via mobile
• brand with lots of locations – make it easy to find and contact them
• local church – show sermon notes or bible passages during services
• non-profit – use your mobile site to showcase your work and align volunteers with places to serve near them

These are just a few ideas.  You’re bound to have a few that are key for your organization, find one or two and get the strategy mapped out.

The launch of Nexus One is the ushering of mobile data into the hands of the masses and that will rock your world in 2010.  Launch with it.

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