Hessie Jones

Oceans Apart: The Vision vs. Reality

2013-05-13T15:56:02-04:00

I had a disagreement with a scientist the other day. It was a classic disagreement between vision and reality. The scientist, strongly passionate about his product, saw a huge gap in the market and implicitly believed his solution would disrupt the market and would change the way people do things. I am a pragmatist and I've lived through start-up successes and failures. I see the world a different way. It is becoming increasingly fragmented with the proliferation of media and devices further fragmenting our attention and overwhelming consumers and business alike.

Right now, where everyone is trying to be "disruptive" we begin to dilute the value of innovation. Trends in social technology see many start-ups vying for a piece of the Business Intelligence "pie". In an industry where we're inundated with lots of unique and forward-thinking technologies, and where speed-to-market has become yet another impediment, it's become increasingly difficult to stand out and truly achieve perceived differentiation.

So, the argument between the Visionary and the Pragmatist goes something like this:

Visionary:

I really believe we have something special that no one else is doing. The possibilities for its use are mind-boggling. When I tell people what we're doing, they get it right away, and they want to be part of our success.... I'm telling you, if we build it, they will come!

Pragmatist:

Love the idea! I think it has great promise! But, in this market, your offering is somewhat similar to others. How you differentiate is based on a need that hasn't yet been fulfilled, and the market coming to the same realization of that need. Expecting people to come to you is much less likely these days. We have to tap into a market of least resistance and less risk.

Don't get me wrong: It's important for innovation to continue but in a time where innovation is rampant and incessant, the risk of customer adoption becomes a much more difficult task.

The Red Ocean vs. The Blue Ocean

As we continued to table our points of view, the Visionary explained something to me that gave me an alternative viewpoint that I decided to delve into. He likened our argument to The Red Ocean vs. the Blue Ocean.

The Blue Ocean Strategy, published in 2005 is a business book written by W. Chan Kim and Renée Mauborgne.

The Blue Ocean Strategy suggests that an organization should create new demand in an uncontested market space, or a "Blue Ocean", rather than compete head-to-head with other suppliers in an existing industry.

The metaphor of the Red and Blue Ocean describes the market universe.

Red Oceans represent all the industries in existence today - the known market space. In the red oceans, industry boundaries are defined and accepted, and the competitive rules of the game are known. Here companies try to outperform their rivals to grab a greater share of product or service demand. As the market space gets crowded, prospects for profits and growth are reduced. Products become commodities or niche, and cutthroat competition turns the ocean bloody; hence, the term red oceans.

Blue Oceans, in contrast, denote all the industries not in existence today -- the unknown market space, untainted by competition. In blue oceans, demand is created rather than fought over. There is ample opportunity for growth that is both profitable and rapid. In blue oceans, competition is irrelevant because the rules of the game are waiting to be set. Blue ocean is an analogy to describe the wider, deeper potential of market space that is not yet explored.

The "cornerstone" for the Blue Ocean strategy is value innovation. It achieves this by creating value for both the supply and demand i.e. the customer and the company. This also includes eliminating features or services that exist in the current market. This is what is known as "disruption".

An example of this is the Consumerization of IT. In today's enterprise, a more mobile workforce is less inclined to draw the line between corporate and personal technology. Where, over a decade ago, it was common to have two cell phones-one for work and one for personal use- the opposite has manifested itself in a very short timeframe. Where IT traditionally controlled the use of technology that employees use for their jobs, strong demand (since 2005) from the "new" workforce forced IT to rethink how they protected and controlled the networks and devices that they, themselves had not procured. This had a tremendous impact on the popular adoption of smartphone technology; as well as the resulting decline of Blackberry devices (which heavily relied on enterprise IT market). This Study citing the benefits of the Bring-Your-Own-Device Programs provides strong insights on the impacts to RIM and the new value created for the enterprise.

The significance of this example is far-reaching and it was able to impact an entire industry, influence technology giants and create a sizeable consumer shift that continues to this day.

Can this result be achieved again? Absolutely, but it is less likely that any one company, especially a start-up, can have the same pervasive impact.

Where the Red Ocean and the Blue Ocean Collide

We see prevailing Blue Oceans in the horizon however: the transition from email...the operationalization of social...the shift from laptop to mobile... the impending move from mobile payments to fingerprint POS. For most of these disruptions, they are market-led. Where the Visionary benefits is to be one-step ahead of the market and provide iterations to technology that will fall within the "acceptable" scope of customer convenience and experience.

The Path of Least Resistance

In a time of abundant "disruption" and proliferation of media and devices, the path of least resistance is one that develops alongside the market and validates along the way. Sustainability can be established by appealing to a niche segment. Wider-spread adoption is much more likely when this occurs.

Where business intelligence falls within an category that has been deemed no longer "trendy" but rather, mainstay, it is clear that the broader market will be ripe to receive the innovations that will emerge.

For the Visionary and the Pragmatist, both become satisfied when they transition from a competitive "bloody" ocean and move ahead of the pack where value innovation has been achieved.

And, this is where the arguments begin to wane..... at least, somewhat.

Teaching Our Kids Not to Treat the Internet as a Private Diary

2013-03-22T08:37:23-04:00

I stumbled onto Tumblr the other day and I browsed the content. It was mostly teen content, reblogs of jokes, inspiring sayings and images, weird videos etc. Most of it seemed harmless enough but once I dug deeper I became more disturbed.

One girl wrote of the pressure she felt to perfect. Skinny, straight As, s star athlete. She also wrote about being the daughter of divorced parents: a strict father, an alcoholic mother and living with a brother battling Type 1 Diabetes. Another wrote dark poetry about her thoughts of suicide, broken friendships and relationships. More often than not, for every post there were at least 30 "notes." On Tumblr, these notes are "likes" or "reblogs" and sometimes comments. This article conveys the essence of why teens are on Tumblr:

These teens come to Tumblr to learn and discuss subjects outside of the classroom, the locker room, the hallway and social events. Stories of divorce. Stories of depression and pain. Stories they wouldn't tell to anyone.

I quietly shook my head as I wrote this post on Twitter:

It occurred to me after reading a post from my friend Jure Klepic: Will Bang With Friends Bring Klout to its Climax, that companies continue to manipulate the vulnerabilities of adolescence and entice them to disclose "far too personal" information on the web.

The Need for Validation

Then came another article, "Students Tell All on Anonymous Facebook Pages." The confessions are curated by students, and unofficially links the content to certain universities. The content you find on Confessions of a Uni Student on Facebook range from tame and rueful to very raunchy and downright mean. The article, however, goes on to claim, that this is a "confession craze captivating teenagers and 20-somethings -- but alarms teachers, law enforcement officers and counsellors."

My daughter uses Tumblr. She is well aware of the dangers of over-disclosure and unfortunately has had some early experience that put her at the centre of some online bullying. Why she uses Tumblr is very much the reason why many teens go there. As one anonymous user indicated here:

I like the idea of my voice being heard somewhere where people care, so I make it heard in an environment with users who will curiously read what I have to say solely out of interest. Doing so brings me a sort of joy, that people care or agree with the things I say, that I really can't get anywhere else.

I get that kids need an outlet to vent. I get that kids need to be with others who understand what they're going through. I get that kids need validation but this world of social has created an environment that eventually strings them along a path to a point where the very information they created can be their greatest demise.

A friend of mine, Marci Warhaft-Nadler, founder of FitVsFiction had this to say when I showed her the Facebook Confessions article,

Kids Don't Care or Are they Unaware of the Need for Privacy?

My kids have grown up with the Internet. It's their source of entertainment, information and communication. They don't know how to live without it. When I was younger, all my thoughts were kept in my private diary. My mother would kill to find out what I wrote within those pages. I kept a lot of that to myself and on occasion I would tell a close friend, if I needed to. These days that diary has been replaced by a public message board that can't necessarily be erased.

I read somewhere that it's not that kids don't care. Like, all of us experience, it's that the consequences of their action are separated from the action itself. So, while I indulge in my favourite french fries with a nice dose of salt, I don't think about how that impacts my health later in life. If I smoke a pack of cigarettes now, does that mean that I'm going to get lung cancer in later years? We all, to some extent, live for today. From this perspective it's no wonder why teens do what they do. They just have different mechanisms now to speak their mind.

Facebook Trains Us to Disclose for the Almighty Dollar

The world of social media has allowed platforms like Facebook and Twitter to play on the human need for reinforcement and validation. It's game mechanics for "Likes" and "Comments" are those bits of validation that satisfies. In a way, Facebook is training all who use Facebook, to disclose more information about us. The more we embroider the account of our daily lives, the more social reinforcement we receive. We satisfy our own needs. In turn, Facebook accumulates more information that continuously stitches together a tighter and richer view of who we are.

I am a marketer and these rich profiles are what we, as marketers, crave. We want to know more about you so we can connect with you and sell you stuff. And we are willing to pay Facebook more if the information we get in return makes it easier to sell our products.

I am a mother as well so I see both sides of the coin. Big data is a huge topic these days. Everyone talks about its merits and the amount of insight we can glean from the billions of actions and post on social networks, mobile devices on a daily basis. While it has it merits there has to be controls. We need to ask the question, "Why do you need to know this?"

We Need to Arm the Next Generation

The Internet has yet to grow up. As it quickly evolves we have to somehow get it to a place that preserves our relationships and our information and our secrets. We need to teach our kids to be aware of their privacy settings. We need to arm them with the knowledge of information that's collected from cookies, their cell phones, from RFID. They need to know about phishing and identity theft.

I found this on Writingya. It's poignant and it says it all.

The problem is that we have not created a privacy culture on the Internet that we can live with. We created the wrong one. What I think about is: What is intimacy without privacy? What is a democracy without privacy?...Technology makes people stupid. It can blind you to what your underlying values are and need to be.

This next generation needs to know their privacy rights. They need to fight for them...much more than we are doing today. More than anything, they need to be increasingly aware of the consequences of their actions.

Valentine's Day Chocolate You Can Feel Good About

2013-02-10T08:31:18-05:00

I am a huge consumer of chocolate. It's not a holiday thing -- it's an addiction. During the holidays, however, it's an excuse to buy more than we actually need. Lately, however, my venture into the topic of Fair Trade within the chocolate industry has brought to light an increased awareness into practices and the injustices that prevail in this lucrative industry.

Everyone Loves Chocolate

I am not alone in this love of chocolate. Over the past two years, global chocolate sales have reached over $100 billion dollars annually making it the most popular treat in the world. It is considered "lipstick", recession-proof with sales trends that prove it's a luxury people can still afford in hard economic times. The average Canadian, in fact, consumes 5.5 kg of chocolate annually.

Recently, I was introduced to Lalita Krishna, Founder and President of Choco-locate. I took Choco-locate on as a client and in the process learned so much about chocolate, its origins, the merits of organic chocolate and the progress in the Fair Trade industry.

The Injustices in the Production of Chocolate

According to Fair Trade Canada, Close to 14 million people, in over 30 countries, depend on cocoa production. 90 per cent of the world's supply is grown and harvested on family-owned farms, generating an average annual income of US$30-100 per household member. Given the trading conditions, cocoa farmers aren't paid enough to cover the cost of production, and therefore cannot sustain a living. This has led to the rise of child trafficking and child labour in the cocoa industry.

Cocoa farms in Cote d'Ivoire and Ghana employ millions of children from neighbouring countries including Mali, Togo and Benin who, for the most part, never get paid, and are expected to work in hazardous conditions, to keep chocolate prices low for Western manufacturers. Children as young as 12 are separated from their families, work in hazardous conditions, exposed to pesticides with no protective gear.

As luxury chocolate becomes increasingly popular -- with premium brands growing almost double-digits in the past decade -- consumer demand for good chocolate will continue to place children at risk to meet demand while keeping costs low.

Fair Trade Raises the Bar

According to Just Earth, Fair Trade puts the producer first. This is a partnership between the producers (who grow and produce the products) and consumers, that assumes a fair deal for the producers. It ensures that producers are provided fair wage for their work that allows them to sustain basic living conditions for their family. A Fair Deal ensures that the real costs of production are taken into consideration and workers are provided a safe and healthy work environment.

The Good News...

Awareness of Fair Trade is growing. More importantly, the demand for fair trade goods is on the rise. According to Fair Trade International:

By the end of 2011, the total number of small-scale farmers in the Fairtrade system reached 1.24 million with a 26 per cent increase in sales revenues on Fairtrade terms.

Companies like Chocolocate are helping to raise awareness for this important topic. Its founder, Lalita Krishna produced "Semi-Sweet: Life in Chocolate," a documentary film which looked at the good, bad and the ugly of the chocolate business -- from child labour in Africa to new age gurus living in Northern Canada who think chocolate can save the world. In tackling the politics of food production across continents and cultures, Krishna seized on the idea of creating a complimentary app called Chocofinder that would give aficionados a tool to discover chocolatiers who care.

ChocoFinder is also teaming up with World Vision Canada, an international development agency that is sounding the alarm about children in 3D jobs (dirty, dangerous and degrading) in the cocoa industry. As part of its "End Child Slavery" campaign, World Vision is urging Canadians to consider ethical options when buying Valentine's Day chocolates this year. According to the agency, approximately 95 per cent of chocolate sold today is not certified to be free from forced, child or trafficked labour.

Fair Trade Manitoba has this awesome campaign called the One-Month Challenge.

The One-Month Challenge is an opportunity to show support for producers in the developing world by consuming only fair trade brands of coffee, tea and chocolate for 30 days beginning February 14.

This is an amazing endeavour to not only learn about Fair Trade but immerse yourself in some of its delicacies. Many Manitobans have already taken the challenge in the last few years by pledging their commitment. Please go to their website to sign up as an individual or a group

I also ran into this campaign by Global Exchange. Instead of buying the expected chocolate for Valentine's Day, Global Exchange creates a cheeky solution for the "We Aren't Celebrating Valentine's Day" couple by encouraging the gift of membership. I love this because it's not only about the tasty organic coffee beans, or the delicious Devine Chocolates -- it's also about providing continued updates on the progress of this important cause and creating advocacy in the process.

A Guilt-Free Yummy Alternative:

Eating Fair Trade chocolate doesn't mean having to give up the taste. Chocolate lovers have choices too. Like coffee, fair trade chocolate is slowly becoming synonymous with good chocolate. High-minded chocolatiers dedicated to their craft are increasingly diligent about sourcing chocolate that does not exploit labour in these developing countries.

And if chocolatiers are diligent about sourcing their beans, chances are they are putting that same care into making a superior chocolate, says Jennifer Rashleigh, owner of Delight, a Toronto-based company that makes fair trade and organic chocolate and ice cream. Today she still sells to a handful of green grocers, but "retail has exploded," she adds. Special occasions like Valentine's Day keeps her small business hopping. For most of her customers, it's the quality of chocolate that draws them in; the fair trade angle is just an added bonus, she adds. In fact, sometimes she still has to explain that "fair trade" is not "free trade."

So, this Valentine's Day, I told my better half to find me some delicious Fair Trade chocolates. Thanks to Lalita for educating me on this important topic. And for those of you who, like my husband, feel relegated to buy the standard Valentine's Day gifts, then I urge you to choose chocolate with a conscience.

TrendSpottr: Playing with Viral Possibilities

2013-01-09T07:12:42-05:00

One of the most powerful videos of 2012, "Gangnam Style," was released in July 2012. On December 21, 2012, according to Wikipedia "Gangnam Style" became the first online video to record a billion hits. As of January 6, 2013, the music video has been viewed over 1.13 billion times on YouTube, and it is the site's most watched video.

Now imagine for a second having the ability to foresee the phenomenon of reaching 1 billion video hits, let alone 1 million. Not many can say they know a good thing when they see it.... At least, not this good! But if you did have that power, what would you do with the information?

This is the final article in a series that profiles four companies, who have developed technologies that are paving the way for businesses to rethink how they manage and measure information and communication in order to remain competitive.

This article profiles Mark Zohar, President and Founder of TrendSpottr. When I met with Mark, he told me about the Gangnam Style video and TrendSpottr's ability to predict, while views were well under 100K, how much this cultural pop video would catch fire when it hit the mainstream. This is my interview with Mark.

HJ: What fascinates me about your technology is its ability to consistently predict trends before it hits the mainstream audience. What factors come into play that detect a piece of content's potential to be picked up by TrendSpottr?

MZ: TrendSpottr's predictive algorithms analyze data streams in real-time to identify content that exhibits the attributes of viral growth. Such factors as the frequency, velocity, acceleration and amplification of content are used to predict trend data. By spotting emerging viral content within minutes of its origin, TrendSpottr is able to predict which information is most likely to trend, hours or even days before it has gained mainstream awareness.

HJ: When I think of trend data, it is about tracking the movement of information -- vast amounts of data -- over periods of time. Google Trends, for example, has amassed volumes of search data to accurately display what the world is searching for. There are varying opinions as to whether Google Trends' algorithm has the predictive gusto to accurately determine outcomes accurately using search data. Trendspottr differs because it only uses real-time data, which means the relevancy of information has a short lifespan. What is your stance in determining trends via user searches vs. content shares? Secondly, how can you consistently predict trends when the your algorithm is dealing with a relatively short period?

MZ: TrendSpottr's solution uses advanced algorithms to analyze real-time data for predictive trends. We are living at a time when consumer sentiment, political unrest and viral memes can spread like wildfire. TrendSpottr serves as an early warning system to alert businesses, governments and consumers to these impending trends before they have "tipped". This has proven to be of immense value to our partners and customers. TrendSpottr is currently being used for crisis and issue management, viral content discovery, predictive influencer analysis and ad yield optimization.

Google Trends offers a very different yet complementary solution for identifying trends. While Google Trends provides interesting historical trends using search data that may inform the future, there is nothing inherently predictive, algorithmic or forward-looking about this solution. Some of our customers use Google Trends in combination with TrendSpottr to provide them with both historical search trends and real-time predictive insights.

HJ: What recent trends was Trendspottr able to accurately depict? Take us through an example of that "moment" when content reaches that "tipping point".

MZ: A recent example was the photo the White House released where President Obama and McKayla Maroney posed together with their "not impressed" faces . The photo was taken on Thursday November 15, 2012 but was released early in the morning on Saturday November 17th. TrendSpottr picked up this photo within minutes of it being published on Saturday and issued an "Extreme Alert" to our customers indicating that this image was likely to go massively viral. In fact, TrendSpottr was able to predict that this photo would go viral within the first 35 tweets and accurately predicted that the photo would generate over 4,000 tweets within the next 5 hours.

Several of our customers used the predictive alert they received from TrendSpottr to launch customized content marketing and social ad buying campaigns that incorporated the Obama photo and that resulted in huge content sharing metrics and click-through rate (CTR) conversions.

HJ: Up until recently, the concept of "virality" has come to question. I've always been of the mindset that viral cannot be created. You cannot possibly create a viral video. Something has the potential to go viral based on the relationship between individuals. The value of that content and the context by which it is passed between users will determine its spread to beyond their immediate social graph. NOW, we not only can predict VIRAL content, it seems to me there is a formula to develop it. What's your stance on this?

MZ: I'm wary of claims that there is a formula one can follow to develop viral content. While there are some best practices we can learn from content that has gone viral (e.g., time of day publishing, media type, content messaging, etc.), almost all viral content is surprising, serendipitous and non-formulaic; think "Charlie Bit My Finger", "Golden Eagle Snatches Kid" and even "Gangnam Style". These are all examples of content that went viral because it resonated with people at the right time and without a specific formula or call to action beyond "this is worth sharing". I believe that manufacturing viral content is the equivalent of capturing lightning in a bottle, and let us hope it stays that way.

While no one knows how to make content go viral, what makes TrendSpottr invaluable is its ability to spot viral content at its earliest acceleration point and allow anyone to capitalize on this momentum.

HJ: You are providing a looking glass into the future. I see strong uses for journalists on the hunt for the "hot story", or for companies trying to stay ahead of the competition or keep up with their customers. What other groups do you see benefiting from TrendSpottr?

MZ: In addition to journalists and news organizations, TrendSpottr is being used today by large brands and PR agencies for real-time crisis and issue management. For example, one of the world's largest PR agencies was able to use TrendSpottr to identify and act upon emerging issues and trends related to its customers' sponsorship and ad campaigns during the London Olympics.

Financial services companies, including hedge funds, investment managers and financial news organizations, use TrendSpottr to gain early and predictive insights about individual stocks and macro-economic events that may impact financial markets.

TrendSpottr is also being used widely by content and social marketers to discover and share timely, trending and relevant content that will resonate with their audience. We have heard from many content marketers that TrendSpottr has helped them scale their content marketing initiatives and has resulted in significant increases in their social metrics and KPIs.

Another key customer group is advertisers who use TrendSpottr to predict the most effective keywords for their ad campaigns and optimize their ad spending based on emerging trends.

Other customer groups include governments, non-profits, media and entertainment companies and social analytics companies that license our API to integrate TrendSpottr with their existing suite of products.

HJ: I can see immense value for enterprise especially when combining your technology with customer transactional information. Being able to predict sales outcomes, reputational impacts from social data, customer service and sales data will allow organizations access to knowledge that will strategically impact the business overall. Is this an area you are developing solutions for?

MZ: One of our key partners is Salesforce.com. TrendSpottr is integrated with Salesforce Marketing Cloud and the Radian6 social analytics platform. This coming year we will be working on extending our integration to include other Salesforce applications, including Salesforce CRM and Salesforce Chatter. We are also starting to work with other enterprise customers and partners to integrate TrendSpottr with their business intelligence platforms, enterprise data networks and web analytics data.

With technologies such as these, perhaps we are much closer to not only predicting, but perhaps also developing formulas to create trends. Like Mark, I would hope that serendipity and surprise continues to be viral activity's main supporting cast, otherwise what a terribly uneventful "predictable" existence we would live.

Mark Zohar is co-founder and CEO of TrendSpottr, a Toronto-based predictive analytics company. Mark has over twenty years experience founding, funding, advising and operating technology, Internet and media companies. He previously co-founded View22 Technology, Inc., a 3D Web and rich media company, was a Partner at TD Capital Communications Partners in New York, led Forrester Research's Telecom and Media practice in Cambridge, MA, served as a technology consultant for the World Bank and worked in corporate development roles at several technology and media startups.

What Is the Future of Advertising?

2012-12-21T17:01:25-05:00

I had several meetings recently with friends from "traditional and emerging digital agencies." Where digital ad models have evolved from banner to engagement ads, and targeting has becoming increasingly sophisticated, and where paid search and SEO are getting less and less buzz, there is a fundamental shift happening that can turn the advertising space on its head. The reality is that this new course of big data, gleaned from a wealth of unstructured information on the web and its users is enough to make media people and publishing platforms rethink algorithms for maximizing performance.

Coming from the ad world, I have seen the banner ad rise and fall in a span of seven years. The value of search marketing (PPC) has had its heyday... or has it? I've seen content ad platforms emerge screaming the need to create "value" to get user attention only to be met by a "meh" response from advertisers. Real time bidding is the new buzzword for display advertising, where advertisers can now vie for a web user's attention, then overlay that with a complexity of user propensities. The latter is by no means dead nor dying. It's still a thriving business.

But where SEO and Pay-Per-Click (PPC) has ruled for the last five years, some of the search pundits are realizing an eventual downturn. Consider this quote from Adam Torkildson, one of the top SEO Consultants in the country who was quoted in this Forbes article, "The Death Of SEO: The Rise of Social, PR, And Real Content" who said,

"Google is in the process of making the SEO industry obsolete, SEO will be dead in two years."

A large part of this statement lies in the the fact that expectations of consumers have changed. In advertising. In content. In brand engagement. Social content is what largely makes up Google's search algorithm: relevance, recency. What does this entail? Shares, comments and reviews.

I would argue that another factor will unseat Paid Search as providing a more relevant prospect framework: social data insights.

The Traditional Ad Model: User profiles

Think back. Acquisition targeting parameters were dictated by marketers. Marketers did the consumer research, mainly expensive focus group testing with questions that largely served to benefit the "business," structured and moderated by the "business" and highly subject to group-think. To top it off, this "focus" group would provide the basis of "representation" of the target customer, so the results of the research were leveraged to inform the targeting strategy. So... my point: the research conducted was subject to false assumptions, questionable methodology and a strong reliance on the outcomes.

Now, these outcomes provided the demographic profile of the target customer, which was fed into the media buy. User profiles dictated where, when and the type of offer or content was served. At that time there were mediocre optimization opportunities.

The More Sophisticated Ad Model: Behavioural targeting

I was fortunate enough to work for Hunter Madsen, the Yahoo! guru who led the team that developed Behavioural Targeting for the company back in early-to-mid 2005. We were in awe as Hunter explained the mechanics of targeting users within the network, based on where they'd been, what content they consumed, what they searched for... also taking into consideration their geography, demographics and alignment with the target profile.

Aileen Hernandez Halpenny, a friend who heads up Rocket Fuel in Canada, reminded me of the "smart ads" -- the dynamic ad units that would be served up to you based on geography, profile, search propensity etc. These were seemingly intuitive ads that knew the right offer for you at the right time. Simply put, "Optimize each ad for each user -- right down to hyper-targeted local offers -- so that you can drive your objectives, from awareness to conversion."

Now, combine that with ad retargeting that cookies a user and serves up a similar ad when they show up elsewhere in the network. Now we're talking relevance! No longer do we have to rely on latent conversion and assume that an ad I saw 10 days ago contributed to my online purchase of that same product. Retargeting takes out that guesswork.

The Future Ad Model: Enter Social Data

Now imagine if you had the best of both worlds: behavioural data AND conversation data. Case in point: So Mary Johnson searches for information about a future trip to Taipei in Thailand. She also goes to travel sites, reads hotel reviews and has excitedly spoken to close friends on Twitter and Facebook about her plans and preparations. Don't forget, Google also scans Mary's email and captures the threaded discussion with her husband about the upcoming trip. Now we not only have recent behavioural activity where she's been on the Internet, what she's communicated via email, but we also are aware of her conversations that validate her behaviour. It is safe to assume that Mary will "definitely" be going to Taipei. Imagine what this information does for a travel company? They now have MORE information on that user that will allow them to not only serve an ad, or respond to that user with relevant offers, but DO so with a certain degree of confidence that Mary, will, at the very least click on the ad.

What excites me about social data is that it does the job of the marketer, for the marketer. No longer do we have to guess about "who" is right for our product. The conversation data alone is enough to verify the right target audience. But, coupled with recent/past web behaviour, the two variables will increase response lift significantly.

Caution: this may be a game changer but the way the advertiser needs to treat the user must also change. Ads alone may not be enough to increase response rates. Engagement -- I mean outreach to Mary through Twitter where she mentioned the activity -- may seal the deal.

Ads, for the most part, have become irrelevant. Even Facebook is realizing that low click-throughs (CTRs) on sponsored stories is not enough to drive conversion. They are now relying on "impression-based" ads i.e. "I saw the ad" vs. "I clicked on the ad" to determine whether this can be attribution factor with conversion.

How do traditional media people feel about this? An ad ops person put it this way: "Conversation data may yield us potentially top 20 people who have a higher propensity to buy. Is this enough? The client wants more volume."

...to which I responded,

"Social data allows you to target to very niche groups -- the tighter the targeting the better. After all would you rather have a much higher response rate, spending less on advertising, targeting a more finite group than doing a blanket campaign across a larger volume with a standard 0.15 per cent CTR?"

The value of social data is the amplification value and allowing social strategies for outreach to augment the ad performance. It also allows you to find "like individuals" by profiling users from social data results, and targeting them with similar content or offers. This results in BOTH a higher response rate as well as word-of-mouth effects. This is where you get your volume. It also allows the marketer to spend more wisely and opens the door to developing sustaining relationships with the consumer.

...after all, why should our work as marketers get any harder?

Antelope: Making Content its Own Kingdom

2012-12-12T17:19:04-05:00

Content has changed marketing forever. The continuous drone of social media strategists warning marketers to provide more customer value that moves away from me-me-me messages about the company has made traditional marketers rethink the message and approach to gain increased consumer mindshare.

Marketers are used to focusing on the sell message. Marketers have traditionally used revenue as the success metric to gauge program effectiveness. Now, this new approach: "value = the new currency" is drastically changing the ad game.

All the platforms are implementing some variation of this: Facebook sponsored stories, Sharethrough, Promoted Tweets. It's clear that the purchase funnel has been extended and marketers need to focus on content that gains the customer's attention well before they are even thinking of purchase.

This is the third article in a series that profiles four companies, who have developed technologies that are not only responding to this data shift, but are paving the way for businesses to rethink how they manage and measure information and communication in order to remain competitive.

This article profiles Daniel Robinson, President and Founder of Antelope. When I spoke to Daniel, he was doing something that many marketers sought an answer for: The Real Value of Content.

HJ: These days content is king. The consumer attention is moving away from blatant advertising and focusing more on content value. You came from agency where the traditional thinking was to develop awesome campaigns to highlight and sell a product or service. Are advertisers getting it right?

DR: There's always going to be room in the market for a smart campaign or a captivating TV spot. But as consumers increasingly shift their attention to digital channels, its important to realize how this media are being consumed.

Today, one in six minutes online is spent on social networks. On Facebook, over 40 per cent of that time is spent consuming content in the news feed. As users expand their networks, and those connections produce more content each day, Facebook is challenged with prioritizing billions of pieces of content into a news feed that is relevant and timely for users. Their ad revenue model depends on it.

Consumers now expect this same treatment from brands on the social web. This demands an engaging content strategy that lives and breathes the narrative of a brand each day.

HJ: How did you conceive of Antelope? What was happening in the market that drove you to develop your concept?

DR:I'm a data junkie. I have always been enthralled by how new data sets can give companies a competitive edge. As a digital strategist in Toronto, I was privileged to build the social media strategies for some of Canada's most recognized brands. At the time, I turned to social listening platforms like Radian6 and Sysomos to help craft those strategies.

What I found was that those tools took a very bottom-up approach to social analytics. They were great at uncovering what consumers were saying about brands, but did little to measure what brands were saying to consumers.

Antelope looks at social analytics from the top-down by measuring what brands are saying to consumers. Our platform and analysts synthesize engagement signals (i.e. likes, comments, retweets, YouTube views, etc.) into actionable social media strategies. We combine proprietary technology with a unique strategic framework to enable our clients to make sense of and take action on the findings.

HJ: Social Media ROI is a huge factor that seems to prevent brands from stretching the limits with social media. Part of the issue with content is that there isn't a direct correlation to driving consideration or purchase. How do you respond to that?

DR: I've seen plenty of examples of tangible ROIs being derived from social marketing, but it's still early days. It's a billion-dollar nut that everyone in this industry is trying to crack.

At Antelope, we try to shift our client's mindset to considering social media's impact on their overall advertising spend. Our platform enables brands to answer critical questions like: How much content do I need to be creating? When's the best time to post my content? How did my competitor grow their Facebook page? The insights that roll out of these findings empower clients with strategies to extend their earned media reach. We then map this earned media reach back to an equivalent paid media spend.

HJ: Content is still an evolving medium. The emergence of native advertising now allows brands to test the value of content that appears in an ad format and location. This recent article from Forbes indicates that consumers view native advertising as misleading. The majority of respondents indicated that the native formats on Twitter as well as FB Sponsored stories had no impact on perception of the brand advertised. Is there a place for content in advertising or should it remain an earned media component?

DR: Most consumers find advertising misleading. This article does little to benchmark how content marketing compares with traditional marketing, nor does it suggest that its ineffective. I think Facebook's sponsored stories and Twitter's promoted tweets are clear indications that social networks are doing their best to combat the mistrust consumers have with advertising.

There has always been a sliding scale between where an ad creates vs. diminishes value. Historically, ads could diminish value because they had their audience trapped into watching commercials in exchange for their favourite programming. In social, your brand's message is competing against hyper-targeted messages directed to who your consumers are and what they care about. If your brand's message doesn't create value here nobody is going to notice. Content marketing at its core is about adding value to advertising.

HJ: Appealing to the customer's interests, and trying to create trust is an about-face for the marketing community. It also is a longer lead cycle. How do we balance the content plan with traditional tactics that drive closer to the true corporate objectives of driving sales leads?

DR: This challenge varies from industry to industry. We've worked with fashion labels and sports teams, who were blessed with a deep pool of content opportunities; the challenge then became filtering that content into a strategy that balanced engagement with driving sales. We've also worked with brands that sell toilet paper and insurance packages, where the challenge became manufacturing interest by determining content with which consumers were most likely to engage.

We start with a deep dive where we analyze the content of our clients, their competitors and best-in-class brands in similar markets. We determine the content that resonates best with consumers and generate KPIs to measure success. We then balance engaging content with offers and sales incentives to map to objectives.

HJ: Is the banner dead? Mindshare is eroding and access proliferation is narrowing the consumer attention span as more devices, more channels, more sites are introduced. Where do you think the demand will be in the next five years i.e. by way of content vs. ads?

DR: Social networks have captivated the world by producing a new form of media that targets user's interests at an unprecedented level. Mark Zuckerberg's quote "a squirrel dying in front of your house may be more relevant to your interests right now than people dying in Africa," encapsulates this phenomenon perfectly. Personalization is what makes social media compelling, and as we connect with more people and brands, more opportunities will arise to increase this personalization. One size fits all banners will die to make room for more personalized and targeted messages. It's quite clear that this progression is already well underway. Since Facebook's IPO, we've already seen quite a few new targeting capabilities open up as Facebook considers how to balance revenue growth with consumer privacy concerns.

To win, marketers are going to need to understand how they can use data to increase personalization with their consumers. They need to invest in people to make sense of this information. We haven't even cracked the surface on what's possible with big data, and the ones that do will win.

Daniel Robinson

Daniel is Antelope's Founder and President, and is focused on his company's product direction, strategic relationships and overall vision. Prior to founding Antelope, he worked as a digital strategist in Toronto, leading the development of social media strategies for brands that included Pepsi, Unilever, Nissan, Scotiabank, Toshiba and others. He holds a Master's in Business, Entrepreneurship and Technology from the University of Waterloo and admits that his passion for big data has forced him to see pie charts in his dreams.

Timereaction: Rethinking Information

2012-11-28T17:13:35-05:00

Efficiency. Agility. The new competitive advantage. The conditions of increasingly networked markets, the pummelling volume of unstructured discussions, plus an increasingly unstable global economy are forcing companies to adapt quickly with less resources. What complicates this is the increasing reliance on extracting meaning from the real-time information and applying "rapid-learning" strategies to replace those traditional three-year plans.

The brisk consumer adoption of disruptive technologies that has allowed discussion to scale at indomitable proportions inevitably (and it's happening already) forces organizations to keep pace. It's the result of progress: increasing automation that will allow companies to become more adaptive and remain competitive.

Social Business, a necessary evolution brought out by market conditions where, as per Dave Gray, "... customers are connecting, forming networked communities that allow them to rapidly share information and self-organize into powerful interest groups also brings with it a necessary transformation within an organization." No longer can we apply traditional methodologies and practices to respond to an increasingly customer-controlled marketplace.

This is the second article in a series that profiles four companies, who have developed technologies that are not only responding to this data shift, but are paving the way for businesses to rethink how they manage and measure information and communication in order to remain competitive.

This segment highlights Timereaction.

Allan Diamond, Co-Founder of Timereaction demonstrated his platform, its capabilities and a refreshing approach to facilitating the flow of information among key stakeholders in a project/workflow and developing strong efficiencies in the process. Below is my interview with Allan.

HJ: Collaboration is not a new concept. It's become more maintstay as the virtualization of workforce becomes more accepted as a practice. Leveraging technology to realize significant savings is an inherent benefit. Why else do you think are companies looking at new ways of managing information flow?

AD: Software, and more specifically, cloud-based applications, now support teams that span multiple locations, communications channels, and access devices. Real-time information from both outside and inside the organization, needs to be combined into a single, dynamic workspace to enable workers to make informed decisions. More integrated, collaborative tools are required to make sure that all employees, customers and suppliers are aware of ongoing projects.

As the nature of business evolves, the computing environment for information work will change profoundly. Intelligent workspaces is a new approach to creating a unified environment for today's collaborative, information-intensive businesses. These task-centered, process-based applications combine a single easy-to-use work environment that are designed to streamline a business process. These applications simplify the learning curve, making it easier for information workers to "just get their work done." They inevitably will improve coordination among customers, vendors and partners.

HJ: In many ways, this also changes the way a company operates. What are some of the significant processes and job deliverables do you think collaboration will alter?

AD: Collaborative capabilities must facilitate collaboration and increase transparency across the appropriate internal and external staff. The intelligent workspace represents the intersection of people, process, and information aimed at supporting information work and making workers more productive. This new generation of business applications that derives insights and connections from social and collaborative networks will give business users and decision makers a more comprehensive view of their organizations, which will eliminate some of the risks inherent in traditional silo views.

As organizations either expand globally, such knowledge as how to solve problems, handle exceptions to normal processes and address local market conditions often resides in separated, often unconnected repositories. Applying social business strategies within the organization and its value chain can play an important role in increasing transparency and knowledge share.

HJ: What was the impetus that compelled you to develop Timereaction? What current market gap were you solving for?

AD:The globalization of the product lifecycle has resulted in a supply chain that spans across continents and time zones involving many diverse and complex client, supplier, factories, distributor, and agent relationships. Important information is often inefficiently communicated. In a global marketplace the common thread is the movement of goods. From raw materials to finished product, companies need to keep track of their products at all time. Simplifying the integration and automation of the production work flow is critical to managing this movement and tracking from prototype to final product delivery.

Timereaction is a unique cloud-based workflow management platform that enables local and virtual work teams to collaborate in real-time with suppliers and clients. The web application allows users to optimally managing the processes linking the design, production, order processing, and delivery of products and projects. This can improve productivity, customer satisfaction, revenue and reduce costs.

Timereaction evolved from a web-based tool developed in 2001 to efficiently manage our manufacturing processes. Our company was a key supplier to many of the largest U.S. lifestyle brands, including Harley-Davidson, Timberland, Volcom and Billabong. The primary method of communication was email and their associated attachments while using spreadsheets to track Work-In-Process. Databases were adding new dynamic functionality to the web that we utilized to create a tool to allow or customers and suppliers the ability to monitor and manage their workflow through a simple time and action calendar. As real-time events were completed, notifications automatically advised affected participants of the updated status, increasing value chain transparency.

HJ: Where are you seeing Timereaction make significant shifts in today's environment? Can you provide examples of industries that are using your product?

AD: A core focus of Timereaction was to engage the trading partners, both through simple user design and functionality, to actively participate in real-time exchange of information. The current architecture permits a global ecosystem to flourish, where customers and suppliers can manage diverse relationships within one application. The incorporation of process management, social communication and content management into a workflow driven activity stream creates inclusive conversations that improve the quality of communication. There is a substantial drop in the volume of emails, the resulting increase in productivity, and a tightening of the development to delivery cycle.

Timereaction currently works in three verticals; discreet manufacturing, construction, and professional services. Manufacturers benefit greatly from the ability to manage complex product development cycles and raw material requirements and timelines. The construction industry's management of builders and contractors with tight schedules find value from time and action calendaring and document management. Professional services handle large content flow via traditional communication methods and high volume diverse processes.

HJ: Inevitably this will challenge traditional rules of how work is defined and how outcomes are achieved. This means that companies eventually will begin to see the benefits of an "always on" workforce in an era of hyper connection. Is this enough, do you think, to make some drastic changes to structure and job definition?

AD: The amount of value individual companies can capture from social technologies varies widely by industry, as do the sources of value. Companies that have a high proportion of interaction workers can realize tremendous productivity improvements through faster internal communication and smoother collaboration. Companies that depend very heavily on influencing consumers can derive considerable value by interacting with them in social media and by monitoring the conversations to gain a richer perspective on product requirements or brand image.

To reap the full benefit of social technologies, organizations must transform their structures, processes, and cultures: they will need to become more open and nonhierarchical and to create a culture of trust. Creating these conditions will be far more challenging than implementing the technologies themselves.

HJ: What benefits do you see directly to the customer? They're now ingrained in this process and now have visibility into process and delivery. The business is now transparent. Is this a good thing?

AD: Incorporating social capabilities into the innovation process have made it significantly easier to raise the visibility of new ideas, regardless of their source. Management and employees must be prepared to take advantage of new ideas, regardless of their source of origin. Those who have the most experience with a product or service now have the opportunity to share insights and obtain feedback from others.

While customers are the primary focus of many companies, more are starting to incorporate social approaches into the day-to-day activities of their workforces. As organizations expand, information and insights become scattered around the world. Such knowledge as how to solve problems, handle exceptions to normal processes and address local market conditions often resides in widely separated, often unconnected repositories. Also, customers expect suppliers to understand past business transactions and tap into the collective expertise of the organization to solve problems. These issues become magnified as companies continue to embed value-added services within their traditional products.

About Allan Diamond: As a family man, Allan Diamond is a devoted husband of 30 years and father of twin 23-year-old boys. He's an avid skier and tennis player, with a passion for technology, classic rock and science fiction. As co-founder of Timereaction, he is a consummate professional and entrepreneur who has the ability to take an idea from concept to execution and build a successful business.

As a former manufacturer, he is a results driven executive with over 25 years of experience, including over 10 years in Premium Denim product development and sales. His diverse background includes sales, merchandising, product development and production, working with some of America's leading brands, including Harley-Davidson, Timberland, DKNY, Tommy Hilfiger, Volcom and Billabong. Strong analytical and organizational skills, team leadership and innovative product development.

Disclosure: Since being introduced to company, I am currently exploring potential business opportunities with Timereaction. This post was not solicited or paid for.

A Virtual Choir 2,000 Voices Strong and the Harmonious Connection

2012-11-23T11:00:00-05:00

Watch the TEDTalk that inspired this post.

As a cellist this TedTalk from Eric Whitacre struck a chord in me (no pun intended). I am not an accomplished cellist nor do I have a natural predisposition for music.

But I do have a strong appreciation for a medium that, by virtue of its intent, has the power to change emotion and heal minds and souls. It's my escape and the very remedy that consistently cures any stress or strong emotion I'm experiencing. The connectedness of an ensemble, and the amplification of a united piece creates a harmony that goes beyond the music. It's about "dissonance and harmony and shared vision."

I often wonder if a Catholic from Ireland were to connect virtually with a Protestant from Canada. How would their relationship differ than if they had become part of the religious divide within the same city - Hessie Jones

Eric's reference to a woman who had travelled a long way to become a part of the virtual choir was moving. People will go to lengths to become a part of something. But virtualness is also a catalyst for connection. It's part of the human nature to be a social beast: to belong. The context of that tightly-knit participation also served to unite individuals from across the globe in harmony.

I often wonder if a Catholic from Ireland were to connect virtually with a Protestant from Canada. How would their relationship differ than if they had become part of the religious divide within the same city? It would definitely be different because the context has changed. I as a Catholic from Canada do not have the same prejudices or upbringing as another Catholic from Ireland. I, as someone who was brought up in this country don't have the same level of intolerance or experience as those across the ocean. The connection that I have with you may not be one of religion but potentially as someone who shares the same passion for modern art.

"This is an effort that gives back a little humanity in an otherwise brutal world."

I guess what I'm saying is that if governments were to act as conductors as Eric Whitacre had done, to unite individuals from polarized economies and political affiliations -- this dissonance and discord that naturally exists... and to do so in a context that connects and binds the individuals, what an amazing sound that would produce. And as someone on the comments noted: Not often does something like this come together and it is uplifting to see so many come together for a common cause. Eric has demonstrated that we are world citizens and that music can eliminate borders. The potential for this type of collaboration is limitless. For those brief moments their was a small formation of world peace through the language of music.

Context Creates the One Thread to Relationship

I, for one, have witnessed and experienced this: one thread that unites individuals across this ether; one thread that bonds individuals despite the fact they've never really connected or really known holistically about each other. Sometimes, you don't need more than one thread to truly care about someone.

I have written about this story several times but it's my defining moment that moved me and made me believe in the online community. It's the reason why I've become less of a marketer and more of a purist when it comes to social media.

In 2006, I worked for Yahoo! and launched Answers in Canada. While I was in the UK with the Answers team, I received disturbing news that a friend of mine's daughter had passed away. She was only 10 years old and she had struggled with Leukemia since she was diagnosed at age 3. I was saddened and compelled to reach out to her, but comforting her with a sympathy card, like everyone else, was not something I was inclined to do. I remembered a poem that was taped to my mom's refrigerator. It was about a child predeceasing the parent, but I had no idea who the author was or what the words were. My mom retrieved it at a funeral for a friend of mine who passed away when he was only 16. I immediately called my mom from the UK and asked her about it. She didn't remember it. I asked her if she could try to find it. In the meantime, I called my brother and sisters and asked them the same question. None of them knew of it.

I don't know why I was compelled to find that poem. I just knew I had to find it and give it to her. At that time you could not type a full question into Google. Funny, one of my colleagues told me to try Yahoo! Answers. Answers was still fairly new. It was still in beta. There were possibly 5,000 total users since it recently launched in the U.S. At that time, I wasn't really a believer in Social Media. I was a full-fledged marketer who didn't really understand, nor 'wanted" to understand community. But I tried it out since my previous attempts rendered useless.

Here's the question I inputted: My friend's daughter passed away. What poem talks about God giving us his child for a time and may take him back?I don't know the author. I am desperately looking for this poem. It talks about the mother not fretting because the child was here for a while and was happy but will be happy again with God. Can you help?

So I waited. I was told the average response time was about a few hours. I felt like I was looking for a needle in a haystack. I waited but nothing came. Days went by and I was losing hope that I would ever get any resolution.

But then it came. Nine days later. I received notification from my in-box that an answer was found to my question. And when I went to the site, I cried. I couldn't believe it. Someone who didn't know me, who had no idea how I looked like or what I did, took the time to find my "needle" in this giant haystack. I was overshelmed. "Blade", my "Answerer", was my first virtual connection -- an important connection that influenced who I am today. To this day I have no idea who Blade is. We've connected a few times on Answers and I've felt compelled to go beyond the platform and find out more about her. Sadly, I never did. Perhaps one day. But here is the response she wrote to me -- that I've cut and pasted and copied a zillion times so I don't lose it again:

I am not sure about the exact one you are looking for but I found another on the Internet:

"I'll lend you for a little time a child of mine, He said ...
For you to love the while he lives ... and mourn for when he's dead.
It may be six or seven years, or twenty-two and three,

But will you, till I call him back, take care of him for me?

He'll bring his charms to gladden you. And shall his stay be brief,
You'll have his lovely memories as solace for your grief.

I cannot promise he will stay, since all from Earth return.
But there are lessons, taught down there, I want this child to learn.

I've looked the wide world over in search for teachers true,

And from the throngs that crowd life's lanes, I have selected you.

Now ... will you give him all your love ... nor think the labor in vain?

Nor ... hate me when I come to call ... to take him back again?

I fancied that I heard you say ... "Dear Lord, it will be done!

"For all the joy Your Child shall bring, the risk of grief we'll run.

"We'll shelter him with tenderness. We'll love him while we may,

"And for the happiness we've known ... forever grateful stay.

"But shall the angels call for him much sooner than we've planned,
"We'll brave the bitter grief that comes ... and try to understand."

Lesson Learned: There is something about this great vastness which divides us, but also has a tendency to also bring us together.

Ideas are not set in stone. When exposed to thoughtful people, they morph and adapt into their most potent form. TEDWeekends will highlight some of today's most intriguing ideas and allow them to develop in real time through your voice! Tweet #TEDWeekends to share your perspective or email tedweekends@hufﬁngtonpost.com to learn about future weekend's ideas to contribute as a writer.

Preparing Business for Data Next: Tellagence Challenges Business to Focus on Relationships

2012-10-30T00:00:57-04:00

It's around the corner and businesses do not realize what they need to do to mobilize for the impending impact of Big Data. The wealth of information that's out there is forcing companies to rethink strategies how to adapt processes to the dynamic nature of the pedabytes of incoming data, and how to extract meaning in order to properly inform decision-making.

Recently, I wrote a post Do or Die: The Inevitability of Social Business. The reality remains: businesses have not felt the urgency of changing the way they do business because traditional methods are still working. Or so they think. That's what the newspaper industry thought before the rug was pulled from underneathe them. This left them scrambling to figure out how to monetize their online publications.

Technology is changing and it's providing opportunities for businesses to adapt to the changing communications landscape. Further necessitated by real time discussions, the speed of this information, plus a global shift towards improving workforce efficiency, companies now need to look at ways to transform to ensure their survival.

This series will profile four companies, who have developed technologies that are not only responding to this data shift, but are paving the way for businesses to rethink how they manage and measure information and communication in order to remain competitive.

The first company profile in this series: Tellagence

I met Matt Hixson earlier this year, and was intrigued by the approach Tellagence was using to tackle the influencer problem. While the rest of the world continues to attack Klout because of their flawed definition and algorithm, Tellagence has taken a unique approach to define and find relevant audiences. Below is my interview with Matt Hixson, CEO and Nitin Maynade, Chief Scientist of Tellagence:

HJ: In this rapidly evolving space, influence has provided marketers a way to hasten the spread of messages. The number of followers or fans was a primary metric to identify those with the most leverage to gain audience attention. And that seems not to be changing. Even a known current influence index has changed algorithms to appease its critics.

NM: Tellagence's value is the ability to create networks of meaningful, interactive relationships based on context to predict where -- and how far -- your messages will travel. Most services analyze one-to-one relationships, dotted line connections and the potential reach that a single, seemingly highly influential individual or celebrity can have based on a qualitatively high -- but quantitatively imprecise -- number of followers. This formula banks on one-directional broadcasting power, but cannot foresee who will engage or who will forward the message beyond the initial sphere of followers to individuals who actually care.

This is the gap that Tellagence fills: Tellagence instead points organizations to a network of relationships that care, and will move content forward exponentially, thus providing more impactful reach that is boundless, lasting and effective.

HJ: What is Tellagence? How is it different than what is currently out there today?

NM: While many companies focus on more generic elements for social media monitoring and engagement -- such as targeting individuals with high follower numbers or celebrity status -- Tellagence's science identifies and develops deep, common-interest-driven relationships to give brands more meaningful and exponential reach.

By meaningful, we mean absorbed. Acted upon. Shared. Content that is broadcast to a wide audience without consideration for whether that audience actually cares is wasteful. Identifying key gatekeepers and engaged advocates is the key to generating meaningful, efficient and effective campaigns.

To achieve this, Tellagence marries human behavioral science with high-computative predictive modeling to consider the affects of elements such as decision making, increases or decreases in strength of relationships and network roles. The company's first product, Tellagence for Twitter, captures the context of conversations and makes predictions by considering the ever-changing dynamics happening within a network.

HJ: Let's go back to the beginning. How did this come about? Where was the inspiration to start this journey?

NM: In 2005 I became a PhD student in Engineering and Technology Management at Portland State University and was simultaneously employed with Intel. During my time at Intel, I was challenged to identify how things go viral on social networks by my manager, Bill Pearson. It was during this time that I decided to leverage my student research to better understand the elements of online communities, the affects they have on relationships, and the changes that occur.

My research ultimately revealed there are gaps in the current methodologies of analysis that cannot be directly applied to online networks.

Fast-forward four years to 2009, where I met Matt Hixson, then a Business Unit Director at Tripwire. Matt was a pioneer in social marketing strategy for the company, and was searching for a way to predict the reach of brand messages and their measurable impact on social marketing efforts.

I presented my research to Matt, and we recognized the opportunity that our findings could mean in the age of evolving mass social communications technologies like Twitter.

From this encounter, Matt and I built on my science and his experience to create Tellagence in 2011.

HJ: A short time ago, Ev Williams seemed to backpeddle somewhat and indicated that the new "dream" metric is Retweet (RT). He indicated that the number of followers doesn't accurately measure the message distribution. RTs reveal how many people actually saw your Tweet. Do you agree?

MH: It does not define how many people saw your Tweet, also known as impressions. It defines how many people engage with your product and proactively pass it along which promotes additional engagement with your brand and message. It is an element of defining strength of relationships which, at its highest level, is called advocacy.

HJ: With the wealth of data being collected within rapidly growing datasets, traditional relational database tools do not have the capacity, or functionality, to adapt as quickly. Marketers are now looking to evolving technologies to extract meaning and enhance decision-making. How does Tellagence position itself in this world of big data?

NM: Traditional relational databases are adept at handling data that is structured, but fail in one key function: They are insufficient at managing and measuring high volumes of "unstructured" data. The hard truth is that today, 90% of data is unstructured. Therefore, with the rise of big data, technology's emphasis must change from structured data to unstructured data. Context -- meaning topical, relational and timing data -- represent "unstructured" data. Tellagence not only focuses its computational power on the high volume of the big data, but also focuses on the breadth and scope of big data to emphasize context.

HJ: How do you think the game is going to change in the next few years? While traditional marketing methods have a seemingly limited shelf life, there are no real signs of impending death. How quickly do you see technologies (such as yours) being adopted?

NM: Offline relationships will continue to evolve as people continue to build social relationships on top of technology that also continues to evolve. It is important to realize that the models built in the 60's -- which are shockingly the same ones we use today -- are not sufficient are relevant for measuring or managing todays' online and digital relationships. These models are dated and reliant on archaic technology. So, as relationships and their channels evolve, so too must the science by which it is measured and managed. Change in our understanding of online + offline relationships must happen in step with changes in technology.

MH: This said, we are seeing a very strong reaction from the market to the analysis, measurement, forecasting and engagement solution what we are offering with Tellagence. There are many tools that give you analytics about transactions, re-tweets and people's "influencer" scores, but they are still not solving the business problems people have today. Social media is still built on collecting old data points based on old models and building a generalized model of how it all fits together. We want to change that by basing a system on the collection and understanding of ALL data points -- structured and unstructured -- and building a strategic model of how it looks now, and again tomorrow and the next day...

HJ: Where do you two see yourselves in the next 10 years?

MH: In 10 years I will be seeing my first daughter graduate from high school. I hope to do that knowing that Tellagence has made a huge impact on the world. I may be working on similar problems or completely new ones. It is hard to tell what will come in 10 years but I'm looking forward to the challenges.

NM: For me the next 10 years are going to be very interesting. I believe that social networks are in their infancy and there is a lot of work that still needs to be done for their metamorphosis from mere "technology" into a viable economic and infrastructural system (like the internet or roadways). I see myself - and Tellagence - playing a very disruptive role at the forefront of this inevitable change.

Matt Hixson (Tellagence co-founder and CEO)
Matt is a veteran of enterprise software, He has been leading new initiatives and social strategies for ten years, including a new startup at Tripwire from idea to market in nine months. Matt's mission is to change the way business approaches social media.

Nitin Mayande (Tellagence co-founder and Chief Scientist)
Nitin's research has received rave reviews at major conferences, including INFORMS and MIT Open and User Innovation Conference. He worked as a BI Analyst for Intel, where he managed app stores and developer and user communities. He is finishing his PhD in Engineering Management at Portland State University.

How Online Forums Can Monetize and Grow

2012-09-26T17:54:38-04:00

I had the distinct honour of speaking ForumCon in San Francisco earlier this summer. This one-day event was dedicated to providing online forum owners with tips/tools and best practices for managing, growing and monetizing their forums.

An online forum, one of the earliest and purest forms of social networking, by definition:

"Is an online discussion site where people can hold conversations in the form of posted messages... Early Internet forums could be described as a web version of an electronic mailing list or newsgroup (such as exist on Usenet); allowing people to post messages and comment on other messages. Later developments emulated the different newsgroups or individual lists, providing more than one forum, dedicated to a particular topic."

This event was an eye-opener for me. In many ways it was ironic to me -- the online forum, the purest form of social networking, the very definition of community had remained true to its intent, even today. It had not yet evolved to modern day where its sustainability required the very solutions that websites and brands have been introduced to: search engine optimization, online influence, social media integration and monetization.

The forum owners I spoke with were passionate about their jobs. I sensed some pretty strong frustration among them; one had told me he worked over 100 hours a week in multiple roles: the moderator, the business development guy, the marketer, the web owner. The consistent gaps were noted across each of these discussions:

The top priority is to protect the communities. This means minimizing disruption.

There was a need to understand how social media could drive awareness, hence more users.

The need to be able to make money from the forums while keeping the community (ies) intact

Most of the attendants comprised not only of forum owners, but also media and tech start-ups, who provided some pretty innovative and insightful suggestions in response to the challenges stated above.

Brands are becoming increasingly aware of online forums

This was one insight that many of the online forum owners were unaware of. I presented a case study that proved to them that some of the strongest and most compelling discussions were not on Facebook nor Twitter. In fact, some of the biggest retailers are beginning to realize that there are engaged communities that reside predominantly in forums and boards that provide amazing insight into product/service development, company sentiment.

These discussions are raw and unfiltered. Actively listening to what's happening within these discussions provides a wealth of information for companies. One of the forum owners argued that these discussions were so niche that brands probably would be unwilling to pay attention to a community thread of 200 people discussing a specific topic. I argued that marketers would be more willing to spend time in a targeted discussion with fewer people than be exposed to a market full of noise and discourse with no specific focus. I also indicated that people more passionate about certain discussions have a higher propensity to share it outside of their immediate network. This is the classic word-of-mouth effect that can potentially reach, what Malcolm Gladwell coined, "The Tipping Point."

I've seen and analyzed instances where purely passionate discussions have seen a few repost information to other forums, blogs, and Twitter amplifying the message even more and ultimately driving not only website visits but purchase.

Brands still don't know how to engage effectively in social media

The case mentioned above happens few and far between. A few of my peers have had some success when it comes to persuading brands to see the value of social media and engagement in its true form. There are some brands who still think they have control. Enter Cluetrain Manifesto. Despite its warning, many brands are still unaware, nor are they willing to admit that they need to change the way they deal with customers.

As Cluetrain professes:

Networked markets are beginning to self-organize faster than the companies that have traditionally served them. Thanks to the web, markets are becoming better informed, smarter, and more demanding of qualities missing from most business organizations.

But this is why brands are starting to pay attention. Here is an example of forum traffic and engagement from one of the forum owners I spoke with:

152 active discussions

6,522,000 discussions

84,402,000 posts

At the time of this post, there were over 600 current discussions

As the owner stated earlier, the discussion topics are very niche but for a brand it's highly relevant. And brands are asking for ways to have access to these engaged discussions, at the very least to obtain the valuable insight. I have worked with brands to navigate through these "tight" communities, careful not to interrupt or upset its members. And I've realized that the complaining and anger towards companies have seen communities welcome brands openly, knowing that companies have finally heard them and are willing to listen to what they have to say.

Technologies are enabling the connection between brands and online communities

I was happy to hear several technologies talk about how they're helping bridge this gap: Tyler Tanaka of Post Release spoke of his content platform targeting brands. Here is a description of the product, "PostRelease automates the broadcasting of your content as a sponsored post or article in the content well of contextually relevant blogs, forums, and content sites. It's the ease and control of display advertising with the deeper engagement of content."

As Tyler points out, brands still don't understand dynamics of online communities. Post Release allows the brand to leverage the incredible power of storytelling that goes along with content; place it int the native location, blogroll and engage directly with the forum in ways that are positive. Tyler points out that brands (at least in the U.S.) want to spend the money. They want to scale their marketing campaigns while still maintaining relevance.

Current display media performance isn't where it needs to be, especially from a consumer engagement standpoint. Post Release uses natural language processing engine to match brand content with just the right audience. The semantic engine will index the content in the forum, to understand the relevant conversations happening so the brand can reach these discussions by posting engaging content, video, articles, images. The focus is on content, not advertising. Brands who want to engage can not do so without risking its reputation. This technology does not disrupt the community nor interfere with the existing monetization.

Enthusify "currently powers marketplaces for automotive, sporting, and hobbyist communities." Currently in beta, Enthusify differs from the Craigslist and eBay enthusiasts by providing secured marketplaces for niche communities. By developing a marketplace where communities can provide an exchange of goods and services, a larger "bazaar-type" environment is inherently generated from engaged members, immediately open to business in a protected market.

For Enthusify, the value for the seller: "Don't pay listing fees or wonder if a buyer's payment is in the mail. Don't waste time listing your items for sale in noisy marketplaces where the items won't be found. Use Enthusify to target your audience and get paid." The reason this works: Only forum members generally are the buyers and sellers. In addition, buyers can find listings in a forum and related forums that are members of the Enthusify network. Listings, as with most social media, will also show up in search engines. Additionally Enthusify advertises listings through display ads that appear on sites related to your listing. I found this appealing, yet at the same time not progressive enough. This still keeps the communities intact and closed-off from the rest of the world.

Where brands and communities eventually collide.... in a positive way

I see, in the not too distant future, a time when brands will begin to seek out forums, eager to get to know the very people who have a lot to say about them and their products. Forums will be baked into media plans for the purpose of engagement, product optimization, marketing opportunities and, for the most part, pure relationship building. It's clear that major media companies like CBS Interactive, Gum Gum, Vibrant Media, Say Media, Vigilink are wielding their respective influences to build truly contextual media that broadens the definition of advertising from brand to consumer-centric.

And when that time comes, the forum owner will begin to reap the benefits of his efforts. I've come to realize that social media, for all its purity, cannot subsist. Facebook realized it was an inevitability. How it gets there without disrupting or destroying the community will be an interesting journey...one I intend to follow.

Do or Die: The Inevitability of Social Business

2012-09-26T00:00:53-04:00

I had the pleasure of attending a recent Social Business Summit presented by the Dachis Group in New York.

The experience provided me access to some pretty forward-thinking professionals intent on building the next phase of Social Enterprise. The case examples from IBM, Newscorp, Harvard and even FoxNews revealed some pretty significant strides defining implementing social business practices in this new frontier. Coupled with the fact that these are tier one organizations made these examples all the more compelling.

Jeff Dachis, CEO of Dachis Group said it well:

We have moved from an era of mass communication to a mass of communicators... with more people trusting the communicators.

Brand managers now live out in the wild, where their customers are. Dave Gray, Partner at Dachis, points out, "The ever-improving digital infrastructure and social networks are causing profound social change that increases competitive intensity...the only sustainable competitive advantage is the rate at which a company can learn."

This, in turn, elicits two questions:

How do we engage with the mass of communicators -- the vendors, customers, consumers -- in a trusted, authentic, and transparent way?

How do we, in turn, properly integrate the reams of communication -- more importantly the meaningful data -- and translate that into organizational performance?

But when I look at Social Business as an evolution, it's hard to dismiss traditional practices that have long built and pushed forward processes that have become the mainstay of successful organizations. The eventuality of this emerging service economy brings with it substantial change that many organizations are hesitant to embrace, let alone acknowledge.

In Canada, social media is still in its nascency. While many brands are willing to include social media in their marketing strategies, it is still largely a campaign component. I spoke about Canadian Latency earlier this year at PodCampTO. I'd be hardpressed to believe that a large percentage of business in the US don't share the same mindset.

The fact of the matter is the phenomena that is social business brings with it inherent business risks, a complete change in mindset, and a cultural shift-none of which will happen overnight.

Scott Neumann, IBM's Social Business Evangelist, spoke about the need to "Activate and create a smarter workforce." This entails:

Transforming culture and process:

This means hiring the right people to embrace change. In a sales culture, where individuals are pit against each other to drive performance, the latter is non-existent in this new order. Can we effectively align the workforce to operate cross-functionally, break down silos, and more importantly, come to a consensus? Gray pointed out companies can't easily adapt because of conflicting objectives between departments e.g. profit v.s. sales volume v.s. attrition.

This also means designing a dynamic model that flexes based on customer outcomes. It's not only about technology; it's about culture. We need to create a culture that can share its mistakes as easily as its wins -- and learn from its mistakes. Can we easily embrace failure in cultures where only success has typically been rewarded?

These two factors alone are hard to come by. You need to establish a culture of sharing in order to effectively engage externally. The mind-set shift required to evolve the organization is substantial.

Control becomes another barrier that the C-suite is unwilling to relent.

IBM Social Business presented this viewpoint:

Lead by creating a world of possibilities

make everything social and bring your brand to every experience

eliminate the guesswork

get creativity from everywhere

An organization cannot run effectively if it bows to the whim of the masses at every turn. This iterative model needs process, priority, corporate governance, and an overall mission to ensure proper guidance. A balance needs to be established. And, it relies heavily on analysis of this big data to extract relevant meaning to the organization.

Dave Gray pointed out, "A control system must have as many states as the system it wants to control." This is what he coined, "The Law of Requisite Variety." The way to deal with this complexity:

Reduce Variety: provide a scaled-down product/service offering

Absorb Variety: reorganize for variety instead of trying to contain it. Here's a great example of Zappos defining customer service

Create Autonomous Pods to address real-time needs: groups that have authority to represent the company and are given accountability measures.

Chris Crummy, Worldwide Director of Sales at IBM, indicated:

Social is an organic living breathing layer that you put on top of your existing infrastructure.... Social business fills the gap that traditional business doesn't.

And therein lies the rub: The fundamental disciplines of social business is measurement. As Michael Jones of Dachis points out, it's important to identify constituencies: what motivates them, then measure and understand how they contribute to overall organizational performance. Until we set the parameters to measure this, adoption will be slow.

In many ways, it's a chicken and egg scenario: the current approach to engaging in social is a fail. Brands are failing to scale authentic engagement. The reason: resources. Increased resources will not be committed without proper performance attribution.

The new world would argue:

"Social engagement is the new ROI"

In a space that's evolving rapidly marketers are realizing numbers are slowly taking a back seat to the inherent value of garnering consumer and market insight.

After all, the new world order relies on doing everything right for your existing customers. Service, these days, has become the new economy. Unless we understand our customers more holistically: what motivates them, what makes them happy, how they feel about our products, how they feel about us- acquisition becomes much more difficult.

Social business seems like a "pollyannaish" view of the evolution of business. A totally transparent organization may be unrealistic. Mitigating current organizational politics, siloed structures and internal competition will definitely stifle this evolution. However, changes are already underway. As per David Gray,

There is no way to proceed without dismantling some of that precious infrastructure.

Is your business ready?

Part II of this series will continue to discuss what's required for business to ready themselves for this next evolution.

Your Online Reputation: A Recent Case of Vulnerability

2012-07-31T12:13:08-04:00

Last weekend was a doozy. It never occurred to me, until some recent events, how wary we have to be about our online presence.

We trust our friends-online and offline... We post snippets of our daily lives online, never really thinking of how this could be used against us....We are naively trusting that our information is protected and our reputations are intact

The fact is we are NOT in control. My friend Danny Brown had his Facebook account hacked last Saturday. The experience I am about to relay had left such an indelible impression on me, I felt compelled to write about it.

You see, this was no ordinary hack. Danny Brown is a prolific blogger and one of the strongest influencers in the social media industry. He is one of the most engaging individuals on Facebook and Twitter. When he posts on his blog, on his Facebook or Twitter, many people read will listen and respond. You could say he is like E.F. Hutton for social media.

So, when he started posting some pretty disturbing stuff on his Facebook page on Saturday, everyone took notice. I invite you to read the blog he posted: Facebook Hacking and the Value of Social Currency. While Danny and his family was out for dinner, someone hacked in to Danny's Facebook account and started playing with his profile and his friends. A friend texted me telling me about what Danny had posted. I immediately went on Danny's profile only to be shocked and worried for Danny at the same time. What he was posting sounded like a man in desperation; a man who seemed at the end of his rope. As per Danny, "Two of the public updates that brought the email questions were "Are you hiring?", insinuating that I was disillusioned at Jugnoo - which couldn't be further from the truth - and "What do you really think of me?" as a "marketing experiment".

I read the thread of comments. Friends were supportive and tried to console him. For the most part, however, many were questioning whether this was really Danny posting. It just didn't seem like something he would do. As a friend, Lindsay Bell, said to me, "Danny is my rock. He would never do this. This is NOT him!" I have to admit that I did question, even for a moment, why he would say these things? Then it occurred to both Lindsay and I that how he spoke, his vernacular was not the language of the fiery Scotsman we've come to know and love.

We were consoled shortly after when Danny posted on his Facebook, "Damn - leave for dinner and your Facebook account gets hacked. Interesting. Sorry for any crap on here, working with FB to track back who hacked." Almost 70 comments from friends ensued, everyone lending their support around a man who, ironically, has been one of the strongest evangelists for this space. This is evidence of the type of rallying that happened last night: .

We don't have control

What was scary was witnessing how the hacker was able to screw with Danny's reputation, even for a short period: texting his friends, changing Danny's marital status, his job status and outright slandering him using Danny's weapon: His Facebook Page. Until Danny validated that his account had indeed been hacked, we were not 100% sure that this was truly the case. As much as we all know Danny, there was still a nagging skepticism (even for a moment) about whether this was the work of a hacker. Some of us were indeed fooled.

While we are careful of the information that we share there is enough content that we leave behind that allows someone to conceivably walk in our shoes and come out unscathed.

I tell my kids the dangers of online and how we can't put our trust in people whom we don't know. Now do we have to question each other online? It's scary to think the same person I tweet and talk to everyday could very well be an impersonator.

Don't Let the Hackers Win!

Allow your community to support you. If you are an avid Facebook user or Tweeter, you've already developed a close community and a reputation. Your network knows you- your online disposition, who you interact with; and the nuances of each of your relationships. When the chips are down, you can rely on your community to support you. In Danny's case, we questioned his online persona at that moment and we attempted to contact him to get to the truth and/or to warn him.

Change your password frequently. All of us (me included) use the same password for eternity. Rarely do we change it." Remember that anyone with access to your email accounts can request a new password for your Facebook account." Click here to change your password on Facebook.

Change your Security Settings on Facebook. This is very important. Ensure that you click on : Secure Browsing to ensure you are browsing Facebook using a secure connection (https://facebook.com NOT http://facebook.com). Click here to find out more.

Enable your log-in notifications. Facebook can notify you via email or text when your account is accessed from a computer or mobile device that you haven't used before.

Enable recognized devices. If you enable another device (e.g. another computer or phone) to access your account, ensure that you add it. You won't have to confirm your identity when logging in from these devices.

Enable your active sessions. This reveals the active sessions you have not logged out of on Facebook. It will contain approximate location and devices. Check your Active Sessions at least once a week to validate you are the only one accessing your account.

Protect your Privacy. Control your default privacy and who can see your updates. This setting will apply to status updates and photos you post to your timeline from a Facebook app.

Like Danny said on Twitter, "This experience has been an eye-opener even for this veteran". Please protect yourself.

The Guilt Grind -- And Why I Love Every Minute of It!

2012-07-31T11:45:47-04:00

If you ever had the chance to do something really cool and were given the chance to create real change, would you do it? If this had some impact on your time and especially time with your family, would you do it? If this "something" had the potential for real good, I am sure you'd make sacrifices in your life to go from good to great, right?

I've done this. I've left respectable jobs to venture out into the unknown; to figure out whether this new "thing" would make it. I've put my marriage on the line a few times to tackle new challenges. So far I've come out unscathed, but just barely. Delivering something new is exciting, at the same time, extremely frustrating. It's wrought with emotion generated from differing opinions that can be dichotomous. It's plagued with deadlines, constant changes, skillset gaps, and resourcing constraints.

Building new can mean solving for something which no one has done yet or no one has done better. And that's what I find exciting: being the architect of the journey and iterating along the way by conceiving ideas and testing them out and figuring out which methods work better. There is no process at this point. There are only ideas, theories and discussions.

I have been fortunate to be afforded the runway to write my own path and create my own journey. I've used every ounce of energy to surface everything I've learned and figure out where each element fits along the way. I've run into roadblocks many times. Each failure makes it more difficult to get up each time... but I do. I've spent many a sleepless night writing down ideas, while I build my shopping list and other tasks needed to be completed for the day. Multitasking has become painful and exhausting.

The colleague disagreement is always difficult. This has been consistent in the world of new media. I've experienced this for the last 10 years! No one can effectively establish best practice in a space that's still emerging and morphing. But I've learned to hold ground and validate, and pick the battles -- all for the sake of teamwork. I admit the disagreements stem from competing and unwavering passions, which is a great thing, right?

Along the way, family suffers.

And while I try to make every soccer practice, hockey game, school play or choir, there have been many times I've had to make the disheartening decision to choose this "path" over family. And that has burned me each time. I will never forget when my daughter was four and I missed her first year-end gala, to make a dinner with an important executive coming into town the same night. I've regretted that decision ever since.

Each and every one of my family has chosen a safer path: a work-to-play mentality. I have emerged as someone who can't stop thinking about the problem or the task at hand. Sometimes it gets in the way of life like a bad drug that you just can't seem to get out of your system. Many late nights, I still hear "Cats in the Cradle" like an incessant ring unwilling to relent.

But I've gotten better.

I've learned to park my thoughts and pick them up later. I've learned to include my family in my journey -- always conscious that the negative is downplayed. I've learned to align with like minds to accelerate my own course. I've learned to roll with the punches while being relentless on the things that matter to me. Some say I'm passive-aggressive... and they're probably right. Most importantly, I've learned to take more time with my kids so they remember that I was there for them.

However, in the scheme of things, I've become the person I was destined to be -- like it or not. I've learned to consistently lead with my heart and listen to my gut. I'm learning not to let down my guard especially where I have strong opinion. I've been religiously protective (sometimes defensive) of those things I've created. And I've learned to take little wins and amplify them into louder accomplishments.

My daughter asked me the other day me what would be a good job to have when she grew up. This is the advice I offered, "Do what you love to do not because of money, but because it it makes you smile. Do not stay in a job because it's safe. Move towards jobs that challenge you. And never ever stop learning."

I am in no way perfect. And I don't think I want to put in the effort to be. I can be conscious of my own limitations and do what I can do to ensure I keep on course. My family is my priority. Enough said.

My friend Bilal Jaffery sent this to me tonight and it was just what I was looking for:

Your time is limited so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma -- which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of other's opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow truly know what you want to become. Everything else is secondary. -Steve Jobs

I'd be interested to hear what drives your passion.

Thousands of Texts, But No Connection

2012-06-11T17:32:33-04:00

I spoke to a friend today about a recent funeral he attended. He spoke about this young man, no older than 25, who, suffering some time from depression, suddenly passed away.

My friend overheard some of his friends talking amongst themselves. What he heard he found disturbing. The last time they texted their friend, everything was OK, apparently. Another spoke about an email he sent him not more than a week before about a trip he was planning to take this summer. In these discussions, no one admitted they saw their friend, nor picked up the phone to speak to him directly.

The pervasiveness of email, text and chat has made it easy for every one of us to find a multitude of channels to communicate over great distances. We've grown dependent on these media but it has also moved us one step further away from human contact. We've lost all context and connections with our friends and families because we've insulated ourselves in these devices.

Our human connections are weakend

Some would argue that we over-communicate. I would argue that we respond but we don't communicate the way we used to. We've lost all sight of emotion, tone or inflection that carry the words we speak.

Last September, I wrote about the Loss of Trey Pennington, a social media thought leader, whose death came as a shock to those who followed him. Gini Dietrich write about Pennington in her post. Her words struck a chord in me, "It's so hard; this online world. I know I can be completely grouchy, but you'd never know it by my tweets or Facebook status or any other online interaction. It's easy to fake it in 140 character bites."

In this post, I wrote, "... a keyboard that unites individuals across the social space cannot and will not ever really be substituted for face-to-face contact... We do not have the benefit of looking someone in the eye, or conversing with them face-to-face. Ultimately no one can ever deny that a true relationship begins face to face. Technology will never replace the human connection that we all need and trust."

We've become less accountable

A very wise man told me, "In sales, the way to close a sale is by telephone or face to face... it's very difficult to say no to someone in these instances." You can ignore an email or a text, however, if truth be told, someone other than a sales guy could argue that using email or chat validates an action that immediately puts the onus on the other guy to respond. "I've done my part... it's now on your court to tell me you want to do this deal." We've become complacent and lost the thrill of negotiation, or the trusted handshake. We've become lazy and have refused to use these very channels to build trust, relationships and credibility.

We've become passive-aggressive

Is it easier to be critical and aggressive through email and get your point across? Of course. Would you do the same in person? Perhaps, but why when you can hide behind the veil of an electronic medium? In some way, it makes cowards of all of us. Why face a potentially stressful situation when you can avoid it by email or even Twitter. I've seen some of the best "public" battles on Twitter that have have left prying voyeurs anxiously awaiting the next 140-character "slam." Would these guys hammer it out offline, if they had the chance? Probably not. They have a willing audience, anxious to see who wins the battle. And, they have centre stage. Who wouldn't opt for that opportunity? Not me... but perhaps those who want their 15 seconds of fame.

This article says it all, "Face-to-face communication remains the most powerful human interaction... As wonderful as electronic devices are, they can never fully replace the intimacy and immediacy of people conversing in the same room and it has worked for thousands of years."

Had that young man made a real connection with one of his friends, would his life have been saved? We still haven't lost our own abilities to hear the torment in someone's voice, the desperate cry for help in their eyes. As humans we are inherently attuned to each other. We have that connection. We can't allow ourselves to lose sight of its importance.

In honour of my friend, Faheem, I would like to quote a line from Death of a Salesman, "In those days there was personality in it... There was respect, and comradeship, and gratitude in it. Today, it's all cut and dried, and there's no chance for bringing friendship to bear -- or personality."

Avoiding the Bullies in Cyberspace

2012-04-27T16:18:14-04:00

Some time ago I wrote an article titled: Cyberbullying Hits Home. Following that article I was approached by some organizations who had so much more information to provide. Trend Micro's Lynette Owens, who runs the Internet Safety for Kids and Families program, provided some amazing insights as part of this interview. As a strong advocate on this issue, Lynette is very involved in her community, and her efforts in Massachusetts have made an impact in establishing it as a state at the forefront of developing laws to address these unsettling issues.

According to Trend Micro:

"While many schools are taking a step in the right direction, many parents are still unclear about what they can do to help their kids. Eighty-three per cent of parents claim to be very concerned about their child's online security, yet only 30 per cent report visiting their child's social media profiles."

Proof points:

According to the Cyberbullying Research Center, almost 21 per cent of American youth between the ages of 10 and 18 have been the target of some form of virtual harassment or "cyber-bullying."

According to the 2011 Consumer Report -- 20 million kids used Facebook over the last year. Of that, 7.5 million were younger than 13. The social-networking site's own rules prohibit users that young. Clearly an indication that kids are at a high risk of online threats.

Here's the interview with Trend Micro's Lynette Owens:

Has the Internet amplified the incidences of bullying?

Yes and no. Bullying is still bullying, which has been going on for ages, however, the Internet has enabled methods of bullying that did not previously exist. It is no longer limited to school grounds, the audience (and witnesses) can be a larger group, and for reasons good and bad, it can be more public and better documented.

Does the Internet create a protective veil that subjects people (who may not normally be labeled as bullies) to be vindictive and hurtful online?

For adults and teens alike, there are some who may be more emboldened to 'say' something online under the presumption of anonymity. Or, even when your identity is known, if you are not interacting live, you aren't faced with the hurt and pain that you inflict, you don't have to 'own it' the same way. To bully someone in person, you have to be immune to that... most people aren't.

Additionally, something benign said online can be misinterpreted. Humour or sarcasm cannot always come across clearly in ones and zeros. And this misunderstanding can then escalate into conflict that might never have happened if the conversation was done offline only.

Can you provide statistics on Cyberbullying? What are the incidences of bullying? For example the differences in race, sexuality etc. Where do these occur? Social platforms?

From the most recent research by the Cyberbullying Research Center (CRC), it is about 20 per cent among 11-18 year olds, though it depends on age. Online bullying tends to be reported more frequently among female than male teens per research by both the CRC and Mass. Aggression Reduction Center (MARC ), and peaks around 10th grade (then starts to decrease after that). Common types (as per MARC) are:

Name-calling -- 29 per cent

Rumours -- 23 per cent

Revealing info that should not have been shared -- 22 per cent

Rumors over text messaging -- 20 per cent

What is being done to raise awareness of this?

There are multiple effort going on nation-wide and internationally to address the issues of cyberbullying, including:

legal action (state laws requiring schools to take more responsibility for preventing, investigating, and addressing bullying online and off)

education initiatives within schools, at all grade levels

efforts by both non-profit advocacy groups and for profit technology companies in terms of producing educational materials (blogs, tip sheets, etc.), direct advocacy, volunteerism, technology innovations, and funding initiatives that promote education, awareness, and further research of the issues

parent education initiatives (such as the Internet Safety night program that PTO Today and Trend Micro have engaged in, now in its second year)

Are laws starting to catch up and help identify and mitigate occurrences? Do you foresee changes within Facebook, YouTube etc. that include disclosure of information and closing accounts where incidences of Cyberbullying occur? What about screening for user age requirements?

There have been bullying laws in multiple states for some time, but only recently have several states expanded these to include bullying done over electronic means. I think it is still too early to tell what the impact of these changes in the law have had, but the fact that many of them are defining the role of schools in preventing, investigating, and addressing cyberbullying is a very good development. Previously, schools' roles were limited to what happened on school grounds only.

As far as the role of social networks to address bullying, all such sites have terms of service and community guidelines. If you break these rules, you will be kicked off the site. And if you see someone breaking these rules, there are usually links or email addresses to report such behaviour. This applies to ALL users, not just teens, and not just limited to bullying. Spamming, etc. are considered prohibited behaviours on social networks.

Screening for age won't address the problem. Most bullying is occurring among teens who are old enough to have a social networking profile anyway (13-18).

What are schools doing to educate kids and build awareness for this?

On a nation-wide basis, more and more schools are starting to look at cyberbullying in a larger context. More and more districts are adopting internet-connected technologies for educational purposes. The more evolved districts realize that teaching kids how to use technology safely and responsibly is an important part of that education process. Cyberbullying is one of the many areas addressed in what is known as Digital Citizenship curriculum. When you teach kids how to be good digital citizens, you teach them about what they see and download as much as about what they post and share with others. Some of the curriculum that covers digital citizenship in schools are from Common Sense Media, the iKeepSafe Coalition, and NetSmartz.

Can you give case examples where action has been taken to bring more attention to this?

In Natick, MA, as in many districts, a peer leadership program is now in place at the middle and high school levels. This program encourages students to take an active role in helping to minimize the incidences of bullying in school. Additionally, a parent group called the Natick Anti-bullying coalition was formed by a group of concerned parents, experts, church leaders, afterschool programs and sports coaches to address/prevent bullying that might happen outside of the school environment.

I appreciate the contributions from Natalie Severino, Lynette Owens of Trend Micro, as well as Jyostna Grover of AirfoilPR.

If you see changes happening in your province or state, please let me know. I want to call out progress against Cyberbullying.