This Sunday, I would like to help you do whatever it is you do. No charge. No strings.

When I started this blog almost 3 years ago (sheesh!), I did it because I wanted to help. I’ve slowed down my posting recently, but the urge to help others and share knowledge cannot (and should not) be quelled.

Why The Hell Would You Do That?

Fair question. I’ve been reading Seth Godin’s Linchpin and he mentions the act of giving gifts – in fact, makes a case that our entire online culture is slowly turning to this type of economy. Well, I don’t know about the whole web, but I do know that helping folks – YOU – who read my blog makes me feel great.

Godin says:

“I don’t write my blog to get anything from you in exchange. I write it because giving my small gift to the community in the form of writing makes me feel good. I enjoy it that you enjoy it.” (page 169) and earlier: “The act of giving the gift is worth more to me than it may be to you to receive.” (page 155)

It so happened that I read those words this morning on the train to work. After my commute, I read the post, The Meme To End All Memes by Beth Harte and Geoff Livingston. It saddened me that one of their top 10 memes that should die included “#7: Requests for my time suck.”

Who moans about people wanting your help? Isn’t that why you started blogging in the first place? Ug, it makes me sick to my stomach. Sure, I ignore the Russian “SEO” requests and I’ve never been truly inundated, but I really cannot fathom responding with such vitriol.

So, I’m trying to counteract one of the memes Beth and Geoff listed. I’m not going to complain about all you people sucking up my time. I’m going to give it to you freely. It’s a gift, dammit.

So How’s This Work?

I’m setting aside 9am-5pm for you. Whomever you are. I will be available.

If you want help with plumbing, you probably won’t like the results. But for questions about online marketing, content strategy, and a tad about social media, feel free to send your queries to OnlineMarketerBlog [at] gmail [dot] com.

For instance, you could ask me to…

• Edit your business proposal
• Assess your new ads
• Do a brief website content assessment – where you should start, etc.
• Brainstorm business/marketing/writing ideas
• Develop a blogging strategy

As always, there’s some fine print (see the * below), but it’s basically a free-for-all. For 8 hours on my day off, I’m yours. How can I help?

(Don’t keep it to yourself, either. Share this post through your social network and subscribe if you’d like to receive updates. You can unsubscribe at any time – no skin off my nose.)

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Charlene Li, formerly of Forrester Research and co-author of Groundswell, does with Open Leadership what so few authors would find possible: making a convincing argument regarding a real and very powerful movement in the zeitgeist, despite it being inherently fuzzy to understand and difficult to prove.

But just because it is difficult to determine ROI, does not mean the elements of open leadership are not effective. From Li:

“In actuality, the activities taking place on [social sites] are inherently highly measurable, but we have not yet established a body of accepted knowledge and experience about the value of these activities versus the costs and risks of achieving those benefits.” (page 77)

The Value of Ethics

And not only is this leadership style actionable and (somewhat) measurable, but it also serves as a venue for your personal values. My favorite aspect of this book is the relation of an open leadership style to the leader’s own ethics.

Li writes in great detail about trust building, personal values and humility. Social technologies and open leadership simply allows broader activation of the leader’s (your) personal values.

When she speaks of humility, Li notes that open leaders accept “that their views…may need to shift because of what their curious explorations expose.” (page 169) She quotes Ron Ricci, Cisco’s VP of corporate positioning, as saying “Shared goals require trust. Trust requires behavior. And guess what technology does? It exposes behavior.” (page 198)

You begin to understand that Li isn’t railing against command-and-control operations nor does she dive off into kumbaya territory. But she does convince the reader that a world of ubiquitous social technologies, business transparency, and digital communication will require a different kind of leadership.

Open Leadership Isn’t Trying To Be The New Groundswell

As a huge fan of Li’s previous book, Groundswell, I couldn’t wait for Open Leadership. But they really are two different animals.

I found myself wishing there was more about the inevitability of openness. That – along with KPIs and a few other fundamentals – are given short shrift. Maybe there’s not a lot to say. Maybe not many studies have been done.

But unlike Groundswell, which was data-driven and highly intuitive, Open Leadership doesn’t provide enough ammo for younger leaders to march these ideas into the C-suite.

In order for these ideas to be enacted, one likely must already be in some position of leadership. While Groundswell provided the facts and figures for anyone to persuade doubters, Open Leadership does not. It’s an idea book, not a text book. That’s OK – just something to know before you begin reading.

Buy The Book

Overall, I wholeheartedly recommend Open Leadership. It’s innovative, smart, and unlike any book you’ve read before. All that and it’s highly convincing as well. Do yourself (and your employees) a favor and read this book.

[I received a free advance reading copy of this book from Jossey-Bass publishers, but that did not influence my review of the book. I profoundly apologize to Ms. Li for a stunningly late review of the book she kindly sent me. Better late than never, I hope.]

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(Photo courtesy of Fast Company)

This is a positive blog and I don’t take cheap shots. But when I find a book so disjointed and frankly unusable, I have to mention it.

A lot of people love Brian Solis and I’m sure he’s a good guy (this isn’t personal). But that makes his recent book, Engage: The Complete Guide for Brands and Businesses to Build, Cultive, and Measure Success in the New Web (whew!), all the more disappointing.

Engage reads like a few reheated blog posts tied together with twine and gum. Here are a few reasons I don’t recommend it:

• We’ve heard it all before: I could insulate a house with each book that’s been written as a social media primer. Solis offers only rote, near-impossibly-simplistic suggestions in the intro, manifesto, social media 101, 201, 202, 203, 203… Well, there’s a lot you’ve heard before.
• We’ve heard it all again. And again: Repetition is useful if ideas build on each other. Solis has few (if any) ideas that build on each other. (Just skip part 3 altogether.)
• Shotgun, not sniper rifle: This is the most untargeted book I have read on marketing. There’s no real audience. This book includes reams of information to the n00b and expert alike, but in such close proximity as to be confusing to both groups. Solis doesn’t identify a target and hit it; he loads up with buckshot and prays to hit something.
• Doesn’t add value: There’s just very, very little here that is useful to you in any way. For instance, chapter 20 – the “Human Network” chapter – merely collects lists of marketing frameworks without Solis explaining their relevance or reason for inclusion. We hear about McCarthy and Kotler’s 4 Ps. Lauterborn’s 4 Cs. Shimizu’s 7Cs. Heuer’s 4Cs of a social operating system. Armano’s 4Cs of community. Mishra’s 4 Cs of social media. Not to be outdone, Solis ends the chapter with his own 12 Cs of community cultivation. Why? What’s the connection? We’ll never know.
• Unusable: Solis provides prisms and compasses and all sorts of visuals. These visuals have tiny elements that make them look well-researched. And while he sometimes gives an outline (chapter 21), there is little explanation of how the heck you can use these poorly-copied visuals. Unlike other books, Engage doesn’t appear concerned with being usable.

The Good Stuff

That’s not to say there is nothing good about this book. The hidden gems are certainly hidden, but they are there.

If you do read Engage, here are the pieces not to miss: socially-based business (pg. 106), importance of syndication (pg. 114), targeted landing pages (pg. 123), listening (pg. 209), and conversation audits (pg. 222-223). Sure, you have to dig for them, but they are good.

For Reals

Let’s be straight: Solis makes way more money than me, people seem to love his advice, and he travels around the world to promote his books. Check out his Amazon and Barnes & Noble reviews – barely a critical word amongst them.

Maybe I’m the only one. Does my cheese stand alone? Or has no one had the balls to mention that the emperor has no clothes?

I’m not trying to start a fight or make this personal – but I truly do not understand the appeal. Engage is a dense, disappointing, unenjoyable slog through the new media landscape. Just avoid it.

Feel free to explain it to me or just tell me how wrong I am in the comments section below.

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Chip and Dan Heath’s new book, Switch: How to Change Things when Change is Hard, is not perfect, but it will certainly be useful to marketers.

The book focuses on ways to harness logic and emotion to guide the way to change (and the path that will help get you there). It’s a metaphor that business owners and marketing professionals will find especially useful.

I’ve already written about this book – you can find it referenced in recent posts – but I wanted to devote the sixth episode of my Marketing Minute podcast to the book.

Find my review directly below or on the OMB YouTube channel.

What did you think of the book? Am I correct in my assessment? I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments section below.

Read up on more of my recent book reviews or buy Switch on Amazon. You can also subscribe to the podcast for updates only when I post new videos. Thanks!

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Yesterday, I was in a tough meeting. We knew there was a problem. But we couldn’t figure out the answer. (Sound familiar?)

We talked about capabilities, functionality, and process. Nothing was clicking.

Taking a recommendation from Switch, I asked a simple question that (for me) turned around the meeting:

If this problem was solved right now, can you describe what it would look like?

Immediately, the conversation changed. Once the goal was identified, all we needed to do was come up with a plan to get there. As strategists, this is our golden zone!

It wasn’t until this morning that I realized why this was so important, especially in a creative agency.

Scott McCloud explains the six steps in the creative process in his (awesome) book Understanding Comics. The six steps are:

1. Idea/Purpose
2. Form
3. Idiom
4. Structure
5. Craft
6. Surface

For more details, just buy the book (you should – there’s a ton of great theory in there). But creation process aside, just look at those words.

Remind you of an agency at all?

Account folks give form to our projects. Developers build the structures that hold our creations. Designers use their craft to create beautiful surfaces. (I’m taking some liberties with McCloud’s list, but you get my drift.)

So where do content strategists appear?

We touch all points in the creation process, but our main impact is felt at the beginning of this process – shaping ideas from insights and determining how to satisfy users as well as the business objectives.

We all get stuck seeing only the trees instead of the forest from time to time. But strategists are required to see above the treeline and point the way toward the goal.

Asking someone to describe what a solution looks like in effect takes them from ground level where they worry about their position, their budget, their resources, their deadlines…and transports them to the end goal. Whew!

Once we imagine ourselves at the goal, it’s much easier to turn around and figure out how we got there. There’s less clutter. Less in-fighting. More solutions.

As the idea people – designers of the core content experience – it’s incumbent upon us to guide the idea-creation process. And sometimes to take that first step, we need to just imagine being at the last step and then figure out how we got there.

What do you think?

Have you found that asking your teammates to describe success has helped guide your strategy? What hiccups have you faced along the way?

I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments section below.

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