How do you measure social? If you’re a social media marketer, it’s pretty much guaranteed that your boss has asked you to provide results showcasing your efforts. You might have initially been baffled as to how you would measure values such as awareness, what your customers think of your brand, or how your efforts are impacting the bottom line, but thankfully this is where Website KPI metrics, come to the rescue.
In recognizing valuable KPIs, you can track not only your successes but campaigns that perhaps missed the mark. And there are many bad KPIs out there that will waste your time. But there are also many good website KPIs and KPI website examples to consider. Let’s move ahead.
More ideas for you: Amazing Ways to Create Winning Ideas for Change
In monitoring and measuring your KPIs, you can focus your attention and efforts to optimize all of your resources to those most valuable to your organization. However, it can be difficult to know where to start when wanting to zero in on your social media measurement strategy, so to help you know what to look for, we’ve rounded up a list of suggested KPIs to avoid unless you like wasting your time. However some you can tailor to suit your business goals.
For marketers, there are few skills more important than a deep understanding of Google Analytics and its conversion measurement capabilities.
After all, this is the tool that tells you whether your efforts are translating into results.
“Vanity metrics” (friends, followers, “likes”) are the most common metrics marketers use to measure the business impact of social media. Ones at the top of the list to avoid.
Just 14% of marketers tie vanity metrics to sales levels, and it is no wonder.
I get it. Seeing your follower count grow and grow and getting a lot of likes on Facebook feels great. But that is where it stops.
Learn to avoid these: 17 Disastrous Myths of Innovation You Must Beware
Other areas to skip over …
KPI website design.
KPI metrics … social media presence
The first area you want to examine and measure is your brand or organization’s social media presence. How prominently does your company appear on social? How many people are talking about your organization, product, or service? These questions can all be answered by taking a look at the following KPIs. Just in very little depth.
Number of mentions
A mention is “the act of tagging another user’s handle or account name in a social media message.” In measuring the number of mentions your brand is getting on social media, you can not only monitor conversations surrounding your company but get a good indication of your company’s overall reach.
Inbound links
This is about the number of links back to your blog or website you are getting from quality references. As Vital explains, “Link building should be a cornerstone of your SEO strategy. When someone links to your website it means you’re building your street cred within your given industry.”
Numbers reflecting your social media presence are valuable. However, knowing how engaged your audience says a lot more about the success of your social media campaign. The following KPIs offer insight into your engagement levels and will also reveal areas where you could improve.
Retweets
Retweets are “your Tweets forwarded by people who follow you to their network of followers. This gives you the opportunity to reach more people who may think your content is valuable. That new network of Twitter users who are exposed to your Tweets have the potential to become a part of your primary network if they come back and follow you.” Vanity, right?
Comments
While pretty self-explanatory, comments are messages and feedback left by other users and a great way of tracking your audience’s general sentiment and feedback.
KPI template dashboard … social media reach and influence
If a social media post doesn’t get a single like, does it still exist? Your message could be the most beautifully crafted piece of content on the face of the planet, but if nobody’s there to witness or engage with it, you are missing out on great opportunities for growth and reach. But good and bad ways to measure.
The following important KPIs will help you measure these areas, but will they ensure that your content doesn’t go unnoticed?
Share of voice
The share of voice is a metric for understanding how many social media mentions a particular brand is receiving about its competition. Usually measured as a percentage of total mentions within an industry or among a defined group of competitors.”
Sentiment
“An attempt to understand how an audience feels about a brand, company, or product based on data collected from social media. It typically involves the use of natural language processing or another computational method to identify the attitude contained in a social media message.
Different analytics platforms classify sentiment in a variety of ways, which confounds this measure. For example, some use ‘polar’ classification (positive or negative sentiment), while others sort messages by emotion or tone (Contentment/Gratitude, Fear/Uneasiness, etc.).”
Post reach
This is the number of users who see a specific social media post.
Here is a text with some awesome examples: Book Synopsis: Exploring New Age Marketing … Learning from Examples
KPI metrics … Action and ROI
Once your content is out there, it’s important to measure whether your social media efforts are resulting in your desired outcomes. What are the actions you want your audience to complete, upon seeing your message? What are your business goals and objectives?
While having users see your message in the first place is half the battle, it’s imperative that you see tangible results from your strategy. These KPIs offer ways to measure whether your messages are making their mark. Are they valuable … not to us.
Issues resolved
If one of your business objectives is to improve customer service through social media, a great way to measure the progress here is through the number of issues your organization resolves. As Visually explains, “More people are turning to social media channels for issue resolution than ever before.
In fact, 72 percent of customers expect complaints made on Twitter to be answered in an hour. Collect data on how people come to you for help or troubleshooting to make sure the busiest channels are monitored and staffed appropriately.”
Internal KPIs
While it may be tempting to concentrate on the KPIs determined by your customers and audience, your organization’s internal measurement tactics are just as important. Recognizing the output of your employees and business overall makes it easier to leverage your resources and keep track of where time and energy are being devoted.
In having an overall perspective of what your content team is producing, you have a much better chance of streamlining the process and offering your audience both quality and consistency.
Blog posts
If a blog is a part of your content strategy, take a look at how many blog posts you or your team is producing per week. It’s important to take into account how many hours go into the creation of a single blog post, and how many of these your brand is posting per week. What are the returns being seen on each blog post?
Consider all of these factors when determining whether your team is concentrating on the most effective strategies. But remember it is quality over quantity.
Social media budget
This is probably one of the KPIs most important to your manager. You will obviously want to set goals and keep a close eye on how much budget you are setting aside for social media. If you find that you are spending more than you or your boss would like, our blog post on how to decrease your social media budget can provide some guidance.
Need some help in capturing more customers from your social media marketing or advertising? Creative ideas to help the differentiation with your customers?
Call today for a FREE consultation or a FREE quote. Learn about some options to scope your job.
Call Mike at 607-725-8240.
All you get is what you bring to the fight. And that fight gets better every day you learn and apply new ideas.
When things are not what you want them to be, what’s most important is your next step. Call today.
Test. Learn. Improve. Repeat.
Are you devoting enough energy innovating your social media strategy?
Do you have a lesson about making your advertising better you can share with this community? Have any questions or comments to add in the section below?
Mike Schoultz is the founder of Digital Spark Marketing, a digital marketing and customer service agency. With 40 years of business experience, he writes about topics that relate to improving the performance of business. Go to Amazon to obtain a copy of his latest book, Exploring New Age Marketing. It focuses on using the best examples to teach new age marketing … lots to learn. Find them on G+, Twitter, and LinkedIn
Digital Spark Marketing will stretch your thinking and your ability to adapt to change. We also provide some fun and inspiration along the way. Call us for a free quote today. You will be amazed how reasonable we will be.
More reading on social media mistakes from Digital Spark Marketing’s Library:
I was always one who studied the habits of senior managers in any of the businesses with which I worked. I was amazed at the ones who could keep cool while having a bad day. And you guessed it. They were most often the most successful.
Bad days meaning.
We’ve all had those tough environments at work. A difficult client turns a productive meeting sour. Your boss berates you over something you can’t control. Or everything on a project just goes wrong within one miserable half-hour period.
Of course, you know that violence towards office supplies isn’t the answer and that it’s wise to keep cool despite the circumstances.
Having a bad day.
But in those infuriating instances, how do you get through the heat of the moment?
Luckily, there are a few things you can do to help release your frustration and refocus on being the calm, collected professional you are. You don’t want to be the tantrum-throwing child you feel like, do you?
Check out these simple ways to keep cool, no matter what comes your way.
Vent to an ally
Most of us have at least one close ally at work. You know, someone we can confide in about everything job-related. Someone that is a wise advisor in such situations. It can be most valuable to vent your aggravation with a person who understands your company’s unique environment and employee dynamics.
Next time someone gets under your skin, a brief dialog with this trusted comrade can help put things back in perspective.
Just be sure to do it out of earshot of anyone else—a nearby coffee shop may be a safer bet than your cube. Be sure it’s not a gathering spot for your other colleagues). And be sure to offer the same safe confidence next time your partner-in-crime is feeling spent, too.
Just breathe.
Just breathe
I am a big fan of Thomas Jefferson (and yes, I went to UVa). Thomas is quoted as saying when angry, count to 10. When very angry, count to 100.
Though your first instinct might be to open your mouth and snap back, close it and breathe instead. You’ve heard it before, right? Just count to 10. The point is simple. Buy yourself some time to step back and quickly get under control. The last thing you want to do is make things worse.
Having a bad day … seek support
Sometimes, what you need is support from a best friend or significant other. Good friends or significant others can be the perfect source for support in difficult situations. If you can sneak in a quick text or call and hear a familiar, friendly voice for a few minutes, it may be just enough to talk you off the ledge.
So even if your loved ones can’t offer the same inside perspective as a work comrade can, the personal boost can go a long way in cheering you up. They are good at reminding you that there is more to life than the current predicament.
Write it out and then hold for a few hours
Sometimes, finding that emotional release can be as simple as getting your feelings into words. So grab a pen and some paper and ink out your thoughts—just keep them to yourself. Never act while in an emotional state.
Emails are great assets that are easily saved for future editing. Your best bet: once you’ve exorcised your demons, rewrite the note.
Find a happy place
Take a few minutes to find something that can give you a great mental escape. I keep a set of quotations to read and calm me down after a particularly anger-inducing morning. Another favorite is to read about my favorite sports teams.
Taking that short break to distract yourself or focus on something that makes you happy can ease your stress and help you to return to work in a better mood.
Know who to watch out for
Before any conversation heads into the red zone, make a mental checklist of the people in your life with whom you should steer clear of if possible. Stay clear of those with these traits:
Short fuses
We all know someone who goes from zero to pissed off in about four seconds. Refraining from yelling right back is a great starting place. So is an ability to stay completely quiet and just listen. Many are like me, I am sure. I find that the more I engage in an argument, the angrier I get.
Never throw gas on the fire by trying to argue with someone who’s already upset. And avoid adding more evidence of things that will make them even angrier.
Serial Arguers
You know the type, spoon-fed speech and debate ones, these people will take an opposing position just for the sport. Arguing with them is like arguing with a wall. Avoid this action at all costs.
We have all experienced these types. You know, these are the people that are not quite angry, but they say things like ‘Can you believe it?‘ And rant on from there. Often they don’t mean what they say. And they aren’t looking for a conversation, either. It’s best to stay disengaged because you can’t take what you said back.
Contentious soapboxes
This is a bucket category that can include your soapboxing Uncle Mike to your stand-up-and-sneer office mate. These people are the ones you’ve had a previous conversation that devolved into verbal mudslinging. Plan to play dumb in the future situations with these types.
Take a break
If things are intense—say, you’ve just been had a situation where a colleague took credit for your great idea—one of the best solutions can be to remove yourself completely from the area. Take your lunch, grab a coffee, or just walk outside a bit—leaving your phone and email behind.
Getting out from the confines of those four walls can provide you the physical and mental distance you need to clear your mind, calm down and just relax.
At one point or another, we all have that day in the office where we get close to our breaking point. That’s OK. But be ready for it: Have a few tactics that you know work to get your head back into the control game. Keep your professionalism (not to mention your space) intact, no matter how bad it seems at the moment.
Not responding immediately allows the person you’re talking to a little time to self-correct a half-baked observation and prevents an otherwise working relationship from being damaged.
Note that research shows that people with high emotional intelligence are good at self-regulating and helping others regulate emotions in interactions. If you’re still working on developing EI, just sit tight to maintain your composure. Practice maintaining your composure when your conversation partner is losing theirs.
Don’t be a know-it-all
Playing dumb is simple, right? Just remain quiet until you can duck for cover in the restroom or retreat to your desk. Beware of this; it is certainly not simple. After all, because we are all human and tend to respond with comebacks, criticisms, and corrections.
Feel free to correct someone to prevent a mistake. For example, you’re not a know-it-all if you point out that the client meeting is at 2:00 p.m., not at 3:00 p.m. But never correct someone to make yourself look or feel better.
Never take the ‘bait’
You probably can’t use silence exclusively without making an angry boss or client even angrier. Most emotional types usually tire out once the initial wave of emotion passes through them. Never take the bait and do anything that will make the wave last one second longer than it has to.
Use attentive silence to signal that you are paying attention. If you can’t keep quiet, say things like “I hear you” to acknowledge you are listening without escalating the matter.
You can troubleshoot the root problem later, if there is one, once the initial wave of emotion has passed
Turn the tables
If someone is verbally dumping on you, do not interrupt, counter, or counter-attack in midstream, or you will only prolong and intensify their comments. When they have finished, ask, “Is there anything else you want to add?” Then say, “How can we fix this situation in a way you believe will work for us both?”
In effect, you are asking them to propose a solution to the issue they have raised. If they continue to complain or attack, acknowledge you heard them each time and, like a broken record, repeat yourself in increasingly brief language variations: “What will make it better?”
Need some help in capturing more improvements for your staff’s leadership, teamwork, and collaboration? Creative ideas in running or facilitating a team or leadership workshop?
Call today for a FREE consultation or a FREE quote. Learn about some options to scope your job.
Call Mike at 607-725-8240.
All you get is what you bring to the fight. And that fight gets better every day you learn and apply new ideas.
When things are not what you want them to be, what’s most important is your next step. Call today.
Test. Learn. Improve. Repeat.
Are you devoting enough energy continually improving your continuous learning?
Do you have a lesson about making your learning better you can share with this community? Have any questions or comments to add in the section below?
Digital Spark Marketing will stretch your thinking and your ability to adapt to change. We also provide some fun and inspiration along the way. Call us for a free quote today. You will be amazed how reasonable we will be.
More reading on learning from Digital Spark Marketing’s Library:
The Nine Most Valuable Secrets of Writing Effective Copy
How Good Is your Learning from Failure?
10 Extraordinary Ways for Learning to Learn
Continuous Learning Holds the Keys to Your Future Success
Mike Schoultz is a digital marketing and customer service expert. With 48 years of business experience, he consults on and writes about topics to help improve the performance of small business. Find him on G+, Facebook, Twitter, Digital Spark Marketing, and LinkedIn.
One of my favorite places to learn about psychological theories is Dave Straker’s Changing Minds website. This website is full of theories written in layman’s terms.
Psychological theories.
These psychological theories are organized neatly into specific categories and clusters for easy reference. One of those categories is persuasion, and Straker lists that deal with how to influence others.
Here is a brief snapshot of each of the ten theories, many of which might sound familiar to you. This is either because you’ve employed them in the past or because you’ve had others tell you about them.
This theory involves a persuasive person deliberately breaking one of the four conversational maxims. These are the four:
Quantity: Information is complete and full.
Quality: Information is truthful and accurate.
Relation: Information is relevant to the conversation.
Manner: Information is expressed in an easy-to-understand way. Its non-verbal actions support the tone of the statement.
Amplification hypothesis
When you express with certainty a particular attitude, that attitude hardens. The opposite is true as well. That is expressing uncertainty softens the attitude.
Conversion theory
Conversion theory.
The minority in a group can have a disproportionate effect on influencing those in the majority. Typically, those in the majority who are most susceptible are the ones who may have joined. This may be due to the fact that it was easy to do so. Or perhaps is was because there were no alternatives. And consistent, confident minority voices are most effective.
Sleeper effect
Persuasive messages tend to decrease in persuasiveness over time. The exception are messages from low-credibility sources.
Messages that start out with low persuasion gain persuasion as our minds slowly disassociate the source from the material. An example is a presumably sleazy car salesman and his advice on what car is best.
Priming
You can be influenced by stimuli that affect how you perceive short-term thoughts and actions. Here’s a smart example of Changing Minds:
A stage magician says ‘try’ and ‘cycle’ in separate sentences in priming a person to think later of the word ‘tricycle.’
Reciprocity norm
A common social norm, reciprocity involves our obligation to return favors done by others.
Scarcity principle
You want what is in short supply. This desire increases as you anticipate the regret you might have if you miss out by not acting fast enough.
Social influence
We are influenced strongly by others based on how we perceive our relationship to the influencer.
For example, social proof on web copy is persuasive if the testimonials and recommendations are from authoritative sources, big brands, or peers.
This approach, based on multiple years of research at Yale University, found some factors in persuasive speech. These included being a credible, attractive speaker. Consider when it’s important to first or go last, and the ideal demographics to target.
Ultimate terms
Certain words carry more power than others. This theory breaks persuasive words into three categories:
God terms: those words that carry blessings or demand obedience/sacrifice. e.g., progress, value
Devil terms: those terms that are despised and evoke disgust. e.g., fascist, pedophile
Charismatic terms: those terms that are intangible, less observable than either God or Devil terms. e.g., freedom, contribution
Shane Parrish of Farnam Street reads a lot of books—up to 14 each month.
For him it means something when he picks Robert Cialdini’s Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion as one of the most important books he’s read.
In the book, Cialdini outlines six principles of persuasion. Most of these will likely sound a bit familiar based on our previous discussion on psychology.
About the Six Principles
The Six Principles of Influence (also known as the Six Weapons of Influence) were created by Robert Cialdini, Regents’ Professor Emeritus of Psychology and Marketing at Arizona State University. He published them in his respected 1984 book “Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion.”
Cialdini identified the six principles through experimental studies, and by immersing himself in the world of what he called “compliance professionals”. These included salespeople, fund-raisers, recruiters, advertisers, marketers, and so on. These are people skilled in the art of convincing and influencing others.
The six principles are as follows:
Reciprocity
As humans, we aim to return favors, pay back debts, and treat others as they treat us. According to the idea of reciprocity, this can lead us to feel obliged to offer concessions or discounts to others if they have offered them to us. This is because we’re uncomfortable with feeling indebted to them.
For example, if a colleague helps you when you’re busy with a project, you might feel obliged to support her ideas for improving team processes. You might decide to buy more from a supplier if they have offered you an aggressive discount. Or, you might give money to a charity fundraiser who has given you a flower in the street.
Scarcity
Scarcity.
This principle says that things are more attractive when their availability is limited. Or it says we stand to lose the opportunity to acquire them on favorable terms.
For instance, we might buy something immediately if we’re told that it’s the last one. Or we’re told that a special offer will soon expire.
Visual Website Optimizer wrote an extensive post on all the different ways you can use scarcity to increase e-commerce sales. Have you noticed that Amazon tells people there are only a certain number of products left? That’s scarcity at play.
Commitment (and consistency)
Cialdini says that we have a deep desire to be consistent. For this reason, once we’ve committed to something, we’re then more inclined to go through with it.
For instance, you’d probably be more likely to support a colleague’s project proposal if you had initially shown interest.
Personally, consistency is the one I find myself most susceptible to. I identify with how Parrish describes the effect:
“If you ask people to state their priorities and goals and then align your proposals with that in mind, you make it harder for people to say no.”
That hit home for me. Parrish connects this to the Ikea effect, the way you love your IKEA furniture because you’re invested in it from building it yourself.
Liking
Cialdini says that we’re more likely to be influenced by people we like. Likability comes in many forms. One form is when people might be similar or familiar to us. Or, they might give us compliments. Or we may just simply trust them.
Companies that use sales agents from within the community employ this principle with huge success. People are more likely to buy from people like themselves. Or from friends, and from people they know and respect.
One way people exploit this is to find ways to make themselves like you. Do you like golf? Me too. Do you like football? Me too. Although often these are genuine, occasionally they’re not.
Liking is similar enough to the consistency that it bears pointing out the difference. Someone might say, “Do you like having more visitors to your blog?” They aren’t necessarily looking for a connection with you (as in Liking) but rather they’re seeking Consistency.
Of course you’ll say yes. In theory, you’ll have a harder time backing off that statement when you are pitched a product or service later.
Social proof
This principle relies on people’s sense of “safety in numbers.”
For example, we’re more likely to work late if others in our team are doing the same. Or to put a tip in a jar if it already contains money. Or to eat in a restaurant if it’s busy. Here, we’re assuming that if lots of other people are doing something, then it must be OK.
We’re particularly susceptible to this principle when we’re feeling uncertain. In this case, we’re even more likely to be influenced if the people we see seem to be similar to us. That’s why commercials often use moms, not celebrities, to advertise household products.
People will more likely say yes when they see other people doing it too. Social proof is not all bad. It’s one of the main ways we learn in life.
Authority
We feel a sense of duty or obligation to people in positions of authority. This is why advertisers of pharmaceutical products employ doctors to front their campaigns. It is also why most of us will do most things that our manager requests.
Job titles, uniforms, and even accessories like cars or gadgets can lend an air of authority. They persuade us to accept what these people say.
Something as simple as informing your audience of your credentials before you speak, for example, increases the odds you will persuade the audience.
Noah Kagan does this for the each guest post he publishes at OK Dork. He writes a quick intro on how he made the connection with the guest writer and all the amazing credentials the guest writer has.
Mike Schoultz is a digital marketing and customer service expert. With 48 years of business experience, he consults on and writes about topics to help improve the performance of small business. Find him on G+, Facebook, Twitter, Digital Spark Marketing, and LinkedIn.
One of the most beautiful compensations of life is that no man can help another without helping himself.
– Ralph Waldo Emerson
Keep learning: Small Company … 20 Struggles that Are Easily Understood
Why giving back to the community?
Some people claim their success has been justly earned without help from others along the way. But yet, this attitude is selfish, egotistical, and naive. Study results show that the zip code of your birth is more predictive of success than IQ, college grades, or genetics.
These results were detailed in Malcolm Gladwell’s book, “Outliers.” Nobody makes it through life entirely on his or her own merits, even if help is not obvious. As a consequence, everyone has a debt to repay – and a reason to give back.
Businesses that encourage and support community involvement distinguish themselves from their competitors. From this, they see many benefits, including loyal customers and happier employees.
82 percent of U.S. consumers consider corporate social responsibility (CSR). This is according to a May 2013 study by Cone Communications and Echo Research. Theses consumers apply CSR when deciding which products or services to buy and where to shop.
Giving back to the community by donating your time can be beneficial for many reasons. Not the least of which it is a win-win proposition for both you and your business, but also your community. Win-win decisions are the best. Not only can volunteering create a sense of achievement, but it can also help your business grow.
Here are a few of the areas where you may see value from your contributions and efforts to give back:
Expand your skills and experience
Even if you donate time doing the same type of work, volunteering provides an opportunity to try something new. You get to see more and experience more. You never know where you might learn a new skill, discover new ways, or expand your experience.
Ways to give back to the world.
Strengthen your networks and build new relationships
Getting out there and volunteering in your community puts you in a great position to meet new people. These new relationships are good for networking. They also help to create a group of people to consult with outside of your immediate business network.
Being active as a volunteer gives you a chance to continue collaborating with existing colleagues. Teaming up for a greater good is a powerful way to strengthen bonds and relationships.
Giving back to the community … build relationships within your community
Look at your community to see what’s important. Are the schools struggling? Does the animal shelter need donations?
As an example, Pizza Ranch franchises host “community impact” nights. Such events are where friends and family members bus tables to support a local cause. Pizza Ranch donates the night’s tips and 5 to 20 percent of the profits to the cause. Also, community members often provide extra donations.
The business benefits because it fills the restaurant on a typically slow night. Building relationships start by making genuine connections with your customers. They then find ways everyone can contribute.
Adding balance to life
Volunteering makes you more well-rounded as a person and a well-rounded business owner. When you volunteer, you have an opportunity to improve many different life areas.
Personal growth makes you a better, more fulfilled person. It also can identify more productive goals in your business. Both ultimately become more successful.
Marketing exposure
Sometimes the best marketing is marketing that happens naturally.
This can happen when you are focused on tasks involving collaboration and teamwork. It is natural for discussion about what you do in business to come up with a volunteer opportunity.
The people you’re working with may not be your ideal customers. They may remember you and your business the next time they interact with someone.
Ways to give back to society … improved employee morale
One prominent benefit of a business giving back to a community is the response from employees. When employees see their employer commitment to a community, they gain more respect. A work environment with a highly respected leader results in more communication and efficiency.
The morale is likelier to be improved in a work environment where the leader is trusted and respected.
Similarly, when a business gives employees opportunity to give back, employees feel more fulfilled. According to philanthropy consultant Erin Giles, the ability to volunteer provides employees with leadership opportunities. These can increase staff performance and provide a better sense of fulfillment
Benefits of giving back to the community … adding a brand plank
Everything you do on and off the job impacts your business brand. Giving back is one way to position yourself in a good light with everyone in the community. Spending effort for others, you are telling clients and colleagues that you are empathetic. That kind of positive action tends to be remembered over the long haul. Particularly if you are active and lead.
Go all in
If you’re going to do something, do it. Go all in. Doing it half in makes no sense at all to us. When a business has so many rules about sales that you wonder if they want to be bothered to sell you anything at all.
There is time
While not taking a lot of time, giving back can be the best thing you do to strengthen the business foundation. And it may even be something you enjoy and get a great deal of personal satisfaction from doing.
Clay Shirky has noticed the trend of talented people putting five or six hours an evening to work. Add that up across a million or ten million people, and the output is astonishing. He calls it cognitive surplus. He believes it’s one of the underappreciated world-changing stories of our time. We suggest that you and your business add to Clay’s list of talented people.
Do it, don’t procrastinate
We feel the words of Martin Luther King Junior spoken about a half a lifetime ago, apply well here:
“We are now faced with the fact, my friends, that tomorrow is today. We are confronted with the fierce urgency of now. In this unfolding conundrum of life and history, there is such a thing as being too late. Procrastination is still the thief of time. Life often leaves us standing bare, naked, and dejected with a lost opportunity. The tide in the affairs of men does not remain at flood — it ebbs. We may cry out desperately for time to pause in her passage, but time is adamant to every plea and rushes on. Over the bleached bones and jumbled residues of numerous civilizations are written the pathetic words, “Too late.”
More connections
Philanthropy can be a wonderful gateway into a network of professionals and leads alike. Each can help elevate a business from obscurity to prolific success. Philanthropy organizations include the “who’s who” of corporate bigwigs on their board of directors.
They understand how integral philanthropy is to a business’ success and public perception. If a business owner works with these types, they have the opportunity to grow their business at a rapid pace.
Similarly, giving to their community can provide a business with connections to local leaders. These include government or religious figures. They can rapidly make a business the local “go-to” for that specific niche.
A great example was Facebook donating $120 million to schools in their local community. This resulted in easing residents’ negative fears. Now, because of its local connections and giving, Facebook is revered in the community.
The lessons
It is a beautiful life compensation when man sincerely tries to help another without trying to help himself.
Goodness has a way of coming back; that is the nature of the beast. One doesn’t have to do good deeds for a return. It just happens.
Continuous learning for small business: Most Frequent Startup Companies Cardinal Sins
The lessons out of good deeds remain to inspire everyone to do same. One act of unselfishness stands out as a beacon for others to follow.
Have you found additional ways to focus and motivate good deeds?
Please share one of your stories on helping another with this community.
Need some help in building better customer insights from your customer engagement? Creative ideas to help grow your customer base?
Call today for a FREE consultation or a FREE quote. Learn about some options to scope your job of growing customer insights and pay for results.
Call Mike at 607-725-8240.
All you get is what you bring to the fight. And that fight gets better every day you learn and apply new insights that you have learned.
When things are not what you want them to be, what’s most important is your next step. Call today.
Test. Learn. Improve. Repeat.
Are you devoting enough energy to improving your continuous learning for and your team?
Digital Spark Marketing will stretch your thinking and your ability to adapt to change. We also provide some fun and inspiration along the way. Call us for a free quote today. You will be amazed how reasonable we will be.
More reading on small business from Digital Spark Marketing’s Library:
Business Partnership …13 Insightful Examples of Partnership Ideas
Mike Schoultz is a digital marketing and customer service expert. With 48 years of business experience, he consults on and writes about topics to help improve the performance of small business. Find him on Facebook, Twitter, Quora, Digital Spark Marketing, and LinkedIn.
Collaboration drives creativity because innovation always emerges from a series of sparks – never a single flash of insight. An awesome quote from D. Sawyer isn’t it? Success with building a creativity and innovation culture depends not only on coming up with great ideas and making them happen but also on establishing the culture with employees.
It’s also important to recognize that culture comes from the people—it is the people. Think about the individuals within your organization—what are their personalities like?
Who are they outside of work? What tickles their fancy? All of these things lend to the culture of your organization, and ultimately your products and services.
We live in a business world accelerating at a dizzying speed and teeming with ruthless competition. As most of the tangible advantages of the past have become commoditized, creativity has become the currency of success.
One of the most often told stories about innovation is that of Alexander Fleming and his discovery of penicillin. Returning after a summer holiday in 1928, the solitary Scottish scientist noticed that a strange mold had contaminated the bacteria cultures he was growing. That single observation would change the world.
At least, that’s how the story is usually told. What really happened is that when Fleming published his findings, no one really noticed because what he discovered couldn’t have cured anyone. It wasn’t until a decade later that his paper was unearthed by another group of scientists who engineered it into the miracle cure we know today.
The truth is that the next big thing always starts out looking like nothing at all because it arrives out of context. Great innovations not only change the world, but the world also changes them and while that’s going on no one really knows how things will turn out.
A 2010 study of 1,500 CEOs indicated that leaders rank creativity as No. 1 leadership attribute needed for prosperity. It’s the one thing that can’t be outsourced; the one thing that’s the lifeblood of sustainable competitive advantage.
Unfortunately, most companies fail to unleash their most valuable resources: human creativity, imagination, and original thinking. They lack a systematic approach to building a culture of innovation and then wonder why they keep getting beaten to the punch.
Creative culture and passion for innovation could become the main strengths of your company and the pillars of its long-term growth and success.
Here are some useful tips on how to convert virtually any company into a creative one.
Innovation culture.
Encourage curious, imaginative minds
We are big believers in curiosity and imagination. They contribute heavily to creative minds. We’re first curious about something, and it’s that curiosity that drives us to create.
Try to think of inventors who created something without first being curious or imaginative. Difficult isn’t it?
There was a study done recently wherein jazz musicians’ brains were monitored while they were improvising during gigs. Long, boring, tedious, academic story short — these musicians’ brains had essentially learned to “turn off” that little thing in there that tells you that this won’t work or will fail.
So without that stopping them, their imagination thrived, and you’ve heard many of the amazing results.
Innovation culture … foster creative learning
Creativity culture can be taught. There are many courses that teach people different creative techniques. Give your employees the opportunity to acquire skills that will help them become more productive and proficient in what they are doing.
“Culture isn’t just one aspect of the game,” Lou Gerstner wrote in the memoir of his historic turnaround at IBM, Who Says Elephants Can’t Dance? “It is the game. What does the culture reward and punish – individual achievement or team play, risk-taking or consensus building?” Culture is, in many ways, is how an enterprise reflects its mission.
Yet all too often, culture becomes an excuse for uniformity. Managers hire people like themselves and encourage their people to see things the same way, which can hinder a team’s ability to take on new ideas. On the other hand, studies have shown that diversity can create discord that can make it hard to get things done.
Clearly, we need to balance diversity with cohesion, but that not as easy as it would seem. It takes more than just putting people of diverse backgrounds and perspectives together and seeing what happens, you need a strategy to help them to work together. So while building a diverse team is a worthy goal, we need to put some thought into how to make it work.
Innovation culture examples … freedom of creative speech
People should be encouraged and inspired to openly and freely share ideas. There should be no censorship in the creative process… welcome everyone to contribute with their ideas, from the couriers and drivers to the top managers.
Create tribal communities and spirit
Your employees should feel members of one big family. They are the biggest assets of your business.
Creativity doesn’t often happen in a vacuum. As the author Steve Johnson says, chance favors the connected mind. When people are together, talking, laughing, thinking, exploring — they’re going to throw out ideas.
These ideas trigger something in someone else’s mind, and it snowballs. Before long, this group of folks has developed a creative solution that wouldn’t have been possible without the collective collaboration.
Don’t fall prey to the myth that only some people are creative and you’re not one of the chosen few. We are all creative; it’s just a matter of figuring out in what way.
So find things you’re curious about and that are interesting to you, use your imagination a little, stay motivated and work at it, and surround yourself with others who are doing the same.
Ziba, a top innovation-consulting firm in Portland, has an “Ambassador Program,” which allows employees to spend three months working in other disciplines, known as “tribes.”
During that time, the ambassador team member participates as part of those teams. This helps to create an understanding of another world. That diversity of thought and perspective, in turn, fuels creativity. It also translates to better business results.
Diversity in all its shapes, colors, and flavors helps build creative cultures. The diversity of people and thought; diversity of work experiences, religions, nationalities, hobbies, political beliefs, races, sexual preference, age, musical tastes, and even favorite sports teams.
The more diversity the better.
Foster Autonomy
We all prefer control over our environments. According to a 2008 study by Harvard University, there is a direct correlation between people who have the ability to call their own shots and the value of their creative output.
An employee who has to run every tiny detail by her boss for approval will quickly become numb to the creative process.
The act of creativity is one of self-expression. Granting autonomy involves extending trust. By definition, your team may make decisions you would have made differently.
The key is to provide a clear message of what results you are looking for or what problem you want the team to solve. From there, you need to extend trust and let them do their best work.
Innovation culture … fuel passion
Believe in what you preach. Give yourself 100% to the cause. Be honest if you want to be accepted. Lead by providing the example. Do not just lead – inspire!
Passion is the most essential ingredient for building a creative culture. Every great invention and every advance of humankind began with passion. A passion for change, for making the world a better place. A passion to contribute, to make a difference. A passion to discover something new.
With a team full of passion, you can accomplish just about anything. Without it, your employees become mere clock-punching automatons.
Start small
ITW is a diversified manufacturing company that produces a wide array of products from industrial packaging to power systems and electronics to food equipment to construction products.
It is a highly profitable company nearly 100 years old. Yet this big, old company, which is nestled in a traditional industry, thinks small.
The leaders at ITW believe that being nimble, hungry, and entrepreneurial are the ingredients for business success. As a result, any time a business unit reaches $200 million in revenue, the division “mutates” into two $100 million units.
Like an amoeba, the unit subdivides so it stays hungry and nimble.
The company would rather have 10 independently run an innovative $100 million units than a single, bureaucratic, and clunky $1 billion unit. Guess what? It’s working.
Companies that can stay more curious and nimble, have a better ability to change and adapt more easily. They have a stronger sense of urgency and are not afraid to embrace change. They put their curiosity, imagination, and creativity to work.
Gain motivated attitudes
Most of the time, you’ve got to want to be creative to be creative. You’ve got to work at being creative to be creative. I don’t feel that I’m terribly creative. Odd? Sure. Unique? Yeah, just like the rest.
But every once in a while someone will walk into my office, look around at the walls and ask how I came up with some of the ideas. Or we’ll be in a meeting and something will click for me as I’m scribbling in my little black notebook.
What most people don’t know is that I actually work on it. Yes and I actually practice. I think people think you’ve either got it or you don’t, but I think everyone’s creative in their own way.
So I started doing things to challenge myself to be creative. Sometimes they were business-related. Other times they weren’t.
And now I have an arsenal of things that I do on a regular basis to stretch my mind. It’s trying to make creative thinking and practice a consistent habit.
Encourage risk taking
Zappos as a company is known as much for its culture as for its innovative business model. The company has built a business that is growing rapidly by allowing individuals the freedom to take creative risks without that overwhelming sense of fear or judgment.
They tell their employees to Say what you think, even if it is controversial. Make tough decisions without agonizing excessively. Take smart risks. Question actions inconsistent with our values.
Another interesting example: A software company in Boston gives each team member two “corporate get-out-of-jail-free” cards each year. The cards allow the holder to take risks and suffer no repercussions for mistakes associated with them.
At annual reviews, leaders question their team members if the cards are not used. It is a great way to encourage risk-taking and experimentation.
Think this company comes up with amazing ideas? Absolutely.
Always look for alternatives, improvements, and non-standard ways of solving problems. Many of the ideas that your team will come up with will be unfit, some of them will be excellent and a few will be brilliant.
Sometimes one brilliant idea is all it takes to make a huge business success.
Accept failures
There is no success without failure. Ask any successful person and they will confirm that they have failed in life but that their failures made them stronger and even more determined to go on.
It is perfectly OK to fail as long as we learn from our own mistakes. Your employees should not fear failure because it will kill their desire to create new and unusual ideas.
In many companies, people are so afraid of making mistakes that they don’t pursue their dreams. The simply follow the rules and keep their heads down, which drives nothing but mediocrity.
James Dyson, the inventor of the Dyson Vacuum cleaner, “failed” at more than 5,100 prototypes before getting it just right. In fact, nearly every breakthrough innovation in history came after countless setbacks, mistakes, and “failures.”
The great innovators and achievers weren’t necessarily smarter or inherently more talented. They simply released their fear of failure and kept trying. They didn’t let setbacks or misfires extinguish their curiosity and imagination.
Failing means taking risks and increasing the rate of experimentation… and exploring. Some bets will pay off; some will fail. The key is to fail quickly.
The speed of business has increased dramatically and every minute counts. The best businesses try lots of ideas and let the losers go quickly and with no remorse.
Celebrate successes
Social norms in any culture are established by what is celebrated and what is punished. Consider more narrowly how they function within an institution.
Nearly every business’s mission statement includes words about “innovation,” yet risk-taking and creativity are often punished instead of rewarded. Rewards come in many forms, and often the monetary ones are the least important.
Celebrating creativity is not only about handing out bonus checks for great ideas—although that is a good start. It should also be celebrated with praise (both public and private), career opportunities, and perks.
In short, if you want your team to be creative, you need to establish an environment that celebrating their successes.
As you can see, some of these ideas do not take much time and money to implement. Start from small and transform your company step by step.
Creating a creative culture is a process that takes time, but as the first creative ideas become reality, and the first results show up, both you and your employees will appreciate the positive effects.
Is your business devoting enough energy in each of these areas?
Do you have a story about creativity and business adaptation you can share with this community? Have any questions or comments to add in the section below?
Need some help in improving the innovation process for you and your staff? Innovative ideas to help the differentiation with your toughest competitors? Or maybe ways to innovate new products and services?
Call today for a FREE consultation or a FREE quote. Learn about some options for innovation workshops to get noticeable results.
Call Mike at 607-725-8240.
All you get is what you bring to the fight. And that fight gets better every day you learn and apply new innovative ideas.
When things are not what you want them to be, what’s most important is your next step. Call today.
Test. Learn. Improve. Repeat.
Do you have a lesson about making your innovation learning better you can share with this community? Have any questions or comments to add in the section below?
Digital Spark Marketing will stretch your thinking and your ability to adapt to change. We also provide some fun and inspiration along the way. Call us for a free quote today. You will be amazed at how reasonable we will be.
More reading on creativity and innovation from Digital Spark Marketing’s Library:
Mike Schoultz is a digital marketing and customer service expert. With 48 years of business experience, he consults on and writes about topics to help improve the performance of small business. Find him on G+, Facebook, Twitter, Digital Spark Marketing, and LinkedIn.
Seth Godin once said: You can’t fool peopleall the time, not even most of the time. And people, once unfooled, talk about the commercial advertisement experience. Have you been unfooled by Vitaminwater? How about with the Vitaminwater advertising fiasco? We have been followers and fans of the way Coca Cola runs its business. Even thought of them as a very socially responsible business. Now we are not so sure. How about you?
Here is the thing that has us rethinking our position. Coca-Cola is being sued by a non-profit public interest group, on the grounds that the company’s vitaminwater products make unwarranted health claims. In this article we will give you the background to this 6 year old legal issue and what has happened recently.
Related: Brilliant Advertisements to Rise Above the Noise
The simple fact is that the product is basically sugar-water, to which about a penny’s worth of synthetic vitamins have been added. And the amount of sugar is not trivial. A bottle of vitaminwater contains 33 grams of sugar, making it more akin to a soft drink than to a healthy beverage. We don’t like that, but we certainly can live with it.
Doesn’t make Coca-Cola any less socially responsible in our minds. And calling the product Vitaminwater, while moving closer to the ethical, legal line, is OK in our minds.
This wasn’t the first time a law suit was filed on this issue. It was first filed in 2009 by the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI), and a group of Vitaminwater customers in New York and California. It alleged that Coca-Cola took part in deceptive labeling and marketing for the soft drink, which included claims that the drink could reduce rise for eye disease, promote healthy joints and support optimal immune function.
Coke has chosen to endure multiple public slaps on the wrist because its marketing has succeeded in insulating Vitaminwater from the negative health aura that’s engulfed soda and other forms of sugar water. The beverage industry’s school beverage guidelines, for instance, allow for sales of Vitaminwater in high schools because they have less sugar than soda. By comparison, a 20 ounce bottle of Coke contains 65 grams of sugar, or 15 teaspoons.
So where does consumer protection law stand on this issue?
It is ruled deceptive if it contains information that:
Is likely to mislead consumers acting reasonably under the circumstances
Is material to a consumer’s decision to buy or use the product?
Certainly looks like the series of Vitaminwater ads could be ruled deceptive, doesn’t it?
So what is Coca-Cola’s response to this lawsuit?
This part is the most difficult to swallow. They are defending their advertising and not backing down or changing their ads. Their argument? In surprising logic, lawyers for Coca-Cola are defending the product by asserting that “no consumer could reasonably be misled into thinking vitaminwater was a healthy beverage.”
Truly amazing. This pushes them over the socially responsibility line in our minds. No question in our minds.
Does this mean that you’d have to be an unreasonable person to think that a product named “vitaminwater,” a product that has been heavily and aggressively marketed as a healthy beverage, actually had health benefits?
And most important, does it mean that it’s okay for a corporation to lie about its products, as long as they can then turn around and claim that no one actually believes their lies?
Forced to defend themselves in court, they are acknowledging that vitaminwater isn’t a healthy product. But they are arguing that advertising it as such isn’t false advertising, because no could possibly believe such a ridiculous claim.
Double amazing.
Vitaminwater commercial advertisement examples … the lawsuit resolution
Coca-Cola-owned Vitaminwater has agreed to make certain labeling changes as part of a legal settlement with a health group that has criticized the brand’s marketing practices.
The settlement agreement, which has been filed in a federal court in New York, lays out ten statements that Vitaminwater cannot use in its marketing or labeling.
The banned statements include “vitamins + water = what’s in your hand,” “this combination of zinc and fortifying vitamins can . . . keep you healthy as a horse” and “specially formulated to support optimal metabolic function with antioxidants that may reduce the risk of chronic diseases and vitamins necessary for the generation and utilization of energy from food.”
A CSPI spokesman said Coca-Cola began removing many of the statements at issue after the group filed its lawsuit, but that the deal ensures those changes will be permanent.
A Coca-Cola spokeswoman said the company was pleased to reach a resolution. “Although we remain confident in our legal position, it simply made no sense to continue this costly legal battle,” she said.
The settlement also forces the brand to add the words “with sweeteners” on two parts of the label near the brand’s name. According to CSPI, Vitaminwater has 32 grams of sugar, equaling about eight teaspoons.
Coca-Cola words on social responsibility
Here is what the Coca-Cola Enterprise has to say about their social responsibility vision and commitment:
Energy conservation/climate change – reduce the overall carbon footprint of our business operations by 15% by 2020, as compared to 2007 baseline.
Sustainable packaging/recycling – reduce the impact of our packaging; maximize our use of renewable, reusable, and recyclable resources to recover the equivalent of 100 percent of our packaging.
Water stewardship – establish a water sustainable operation in which we minimize our water use and have water neutral impact on the local communities in which we operate. We’ll safely return the amount of water equivalent to that used in our beverages and their production to these communities and their environment.
Product portfolio/wellbeing – provide refreshing beverages for every lifestyle and occasion, while helping consumers make informed beverage choices.
Diverse and inclusive culture – create a culture where diversity is valued, every employee is a respected member of the team, and our workforce is a reflection of the communities in which we operate.
Seems like good words to live by, doesn’t it? What we would expect from a solid, socially responsible business.
The bottom line
Helping consumers make informed choices? Seems like a big discrepancy versus their Vitaminwater advertising doesn’t it?
So what good are a socially responsible vision and commitments if they are not followed?
The worst case of deceptive advertising out there? Absolutely not. But we would expect more honesty and social responsibility from Coca-Cola. Don’t you agree?
They eventually got to the right answers, but why and how did it take them 6 years? That answer would be a greatstory, wouldn’t it?
What are some of your experiences with advertising as a component of an integrated marketing campaign?
It’s up to you to keep improving your advertising designs.
All you get is what you bring to the fight. And that fight gets better every day you learn and apply new lessons.
When things go wrong, what’s most important is your next step.
Need some help in capturing more customers from your advertising? Creativeideas to help the differentiation with your customers?
Call today for a FREE consultation or a FREE quote. Learn about some options to scope your job.
Call Mike at 607-725-8240.
All you get is what you bring to the fight. And that fight gets better every day you learn and apply new ideas.
When things are not what you want them to be, what’s most important is your next step. Call today.
Are you devoting enough energy improving your advertising design?
Do you have a lesson about making your innovation better you can share with this community? Have any questions or comments to add in the section below?
Digital Spark Marketing will stretch your thinking and your ability to adapt to change. We also provide some fun and inspiration along the way. Call us for a free quote today. You will be amazed how reasonable we will be.
More reading on advertising from Digital Spark Marketing’s Library:
A How-To Guidebook for Creating Winning Advertising
Good ideas are common. What’s uncommon are people who will work hard enough to bring them to fruition. Technology is constantly changing, growing, and advancing. With these changes comes a great deal of speculation about what the result of these changes will be. The most significant issues that are affecting E-commerce corporations in the US are whether or not drone delivery systems should be legal and whether they will impact results.
While delivery drones do have a number of benefits, those which will be discussed below, there has also been a great deal of backlash, which we will also discuss.
Overview
Do you have the vision of package delivery from an e-commerce site to wherever you may be? Delivering packages wherever you want it, through the air, via drone in just 30 minutes – that is Amazon’s vision and the company just made another step forward.
On the heels of getting FAA permission for experimental test flights in the United States in March, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has published Amazon’s patent application for its drone delivery system.
The patent application reveals new details on just how this delivery system by drone would work. We will describe more details shortly.
For starters, Amazon is thinking beyond home delivery. They’re thinking delivery to wherever you are at the moment.
The delivery drones can cross-communicate to relay important details like weather conditions and help with route planning.
Drones will autonomously plan safe(r) routes when possible — “for example, if the UAV’s route must cross over a road… the navigation of the route may be adjusted to minimize the intersection between the UAV’s path and the road.”
Though the UAV’s will operate autonomously, pilots may be used to help land the devices. This landing data can then be saved to fully automate the delivery next time.
The drones “may constantly monitor for humans or other animals that may be in the path or planned path of the UAV and modify the navigation of the UAV to avoid” them.
The customer may be able to select a variety of delivery options, such as home, work, or “my boat.”
The drone will be able to deliver the purchased goods directly to the customer wherever they are, by using their current GPS location. The drone could then follow them using this GPS data so it is able to find them and deliver the item, even if they change locations.
Depending on the package being delivered, the drones may be a variety of sizes. And they won’t be restricted to the standard 4-blade quadcopter model — some “may include fixed wings and/or a combination of both propellers and fixed wings.”
Drone delivery service … pros and cons
Pros of a drone delivery system
The business model is pretty simple – delivery quality goods swiftly and at a low price.
By delivering products by drone, businesses will be able to further increase the influence and prevalence of its brand on the online retail market.
Those who order from e-commerce businesses utilizing drone delivery will theoretically receive their products within 30 minutes of purchase via a small drone device.
First and foremost, whoever is able to achieve its drone delivery system, and then its brand will be recognized as a revolutionary in product delivery. Currently, there are no other brands out there that have been able to institute a drone delivery system.
Another advantage of such a delivery system that is bound to heighten its brand image and increase client satisfaction is the promise of speedy delivery.
Most people may not think of this advantage, but the reality is that a brand stands to gain big from the drone delivery system, especially because it will portray the company as an environmentally conscious brand. With drone delivery systems, fewer transportation carriers will be traveling on roads and be polluting the atmosphere.
Cons of a drone delivery system
The disadvantages are not only societal in scope, but they also extend into the legal realm. Below are a few examples of the backlash being created by drone delivery system ideas:
One major contention regarding Amazon’s drone delivery system is that it may be a form of trespass on private property when it flies over the airspace above a person’s property. In addition to this problem, if the drone somehow fails and falls on private property, many people are arguing that the drone ceases to belong to the business operating the system, including the package that the drone is carrying.
Another very real problem with a drone system is that the Federal Aviation Administration has tacked on some strict and constraining rules on the delivery system. Under the FAA’s rules, the drones will not be able to fly over people and when the drone is in operation, there must be an on-the-ground observer monitoring the safety of the drone at all times.
These types of regulations pose severe obstacles. Having an on-the-ground monitor and preventing the drone from flying over people will add severe cost for the system.
Another field that the drone systems are going to affect is the insurance industry. One of the main purposes of the drone system, aside from meeting customer demand, is to reduce the cost of operation.
With the drone delivery system, these plans may be thwarted because regulators may require brands to have insurance policies on the drone system. The insurance policies that the brands will be required to institute will not be cheap, but very costly.
Finally, the drone system can lead to injuries to both the operational businesses and people who are subject to having drones flown over them.
Who’s who in delivery drones
Amazon Prime Air – Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos‘ December 2013 announcement that Amazon was planning rapid delivery of lightweight commercial products using UAVs was met with skepticism, with perceived obstacles including federal and state regulatory approval, public safety, reliability, individual privacy, operator training and certification, security (hacking), payload thievery, and logistical challenges.
In July 2014 it was revealed Amazon was working on its 8th and 9th drone prototypes, some that could fly 50 miles per hour and carry 5-pound packages, and had applied to the FAA to test them.
Related post: An Actionable Approach to Target Market Segmentation
Google revealed in August 2014 it had been testing UAVs in Australia for two years. The Google X program is known as “Project Wing” aims to produce drones that can deliver not only products sold via e-commerce but larger delivery items.
Matternet is a Silicon Valley startup developing small UAVs for the delivery of lightweight goods. It had its origins in 2011 out of Singularity University, based at the NASA Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, CA. Their transportation solution comprises small UAVs able to carry up to 1-kilogram goods over distances of up to 20 kilometers on a battery charge.
It’s been reported that Matternet is also developing automatic landing stations, where the UAVs would swap batteries to extend their range.
USPS has been testing delivery systems with HorseFly Drones. FedEx is reported to be testing integration of drone delivery with their existing logistics model.
UK based FPS Distribution and Switzerland’s Swiss Post are both developing drone delivery services for wide-scale use.
In December 2014 French mail services company La Poste unveiled experimental[ delivery drone project.
In July 2015 FAA endorsed Let’s fly wisely by Flirty an Australian startup to deliver medicines via drones in the USA.
Challenges Ahead
Like all autonomous robots, delivery drones have three fundamental tasks. They have to understand their position in the physical world. They have to reason where they should go next. And they have to actually execute the control maneuvers to get there.
It turns out that the basics of getting from one place to another, under ideal conditions, are not that difficult. Some hobbyist drones can fly through a set of waypoints on their own. Others can follow a signal down on the ground. But these capabilities are more in the realm of autopilot than autonomy: They simply hold a bearing, altitude, and speed. It’s kind of like cruise control in the sky. It’s a pretty huge leap from cruise control to self-driving cars and the same is true of the jump from autopilot to self-flying vehicles.
But what is hard is dealing with the thousands of unexpected scenarios and “edge cases” that would inevitably crop up if these systems were deployed at scale. It’s the sum of how the vehicles handle all those difficult situations that add up to a reliable technology.
Here is what is new in legislation.
What’s new in Legislation?
A cadre of startups are building, flying and selling them, and behemoths Amazon and Google have ambitious delivery projects in the works.
Now policy groups tied to these tech firms are scrambling to block legislation moving through California that could dash those dreams, seriously impeding efforts to deploy drones for commercial use.
Senate Bill 142 restricts the flight of unmanned aerial vehicles under 350 feet above properties without the permission of those property owners or legal entities. The bill passed the California Assembly recently, by a wide margin (56 to 13), and is heading to the state Senate for a vote soon. If passed, it would land on the desk of California Governor Jerry Brown.
If signed, advocacy groups that represent many of the largest Silicon Valley firms say it would create a litigious nightmare, hamper public use cases of drones and land a blow to a burgeoning tech market.
In June, the bill’s language was tweaked, moving from requiring the “consent” of property owners for drones to fly to demanding “express permission.” That new language, tech advocates said, refocuses the bill on property rights and tightens restrictions on potential uses.
Advocates said that the bill’s height restrictions (most drones now operate somewhere between 200 feet and 500 feet above ground) and consent rules would cripple future deliveries. How can you get a package at your doorstep if your neighbor’s yard is a no-fly zone?
California is not alone. According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, 46 different states have weighed 156 different drone bills in 2015 alone.
What’s to know about the testing status
Most of the firms experimenting in this space are keeping their testing results under wraps, though some information is beginning to leak out.
When Amazon announced it planned to deliver well with drones in December 2013, the news was treated with some skepticism, but since then it has pushed ahead with trials. Much of its testing has been carried out in the United Kingdom in Cambridge, due to restrictions on the use of UAVs in the United States (although the company was granted a license to conduct US trials by the FAA last month).
The first drone delivery approved by the Federal Aviation Administration went off without a hitch recently in Wise County, Virginia. Flirty, an Australian drone-delivery startup, piloted a drone carrying medical supplies from an airfield to a medical clinic.
As the Wall Street Journal noted, the July 17 trip from the supplying pharmacy to the clinic is about 35 miles, over windy roads. Flirtey’s drone, like most commercial drones on the market, isn’t able to stay in the air for that sort of distance, and so the company worked with NASA, which flew the supplies to an airfield about a mile from the clinic.
NASA’s plane was an experimental drone of its own—a modified Cirrus SR22 that can be controlled remotely.
Flirtey’s trip marked the first time the FAA has allowed a drone to deliver something in the US and could pave the way for future drone-delivery systems, like the ones Amazon and Google are trying to get off the ground. The FAA is in the process of finalizing its regulations for flying drones in public, which it hopes to have in place by next year.
Flirtey’s nine-minute flight showed the potential for using drones to deliver goods to remote or inhospitable areas, such as disaster site, but those areas are a bit different than the populated areas where Amazon hopes to use drones to deliver products in. As the Wall Street Journal points out, the proposals under consideration at the FAA suggest that drone deliveries, especially those in which the pilot cannot keep the drone within view, would still likely be banned.
In another example, an Australian test flight and 30 others like it conducted in mid-August are the culmination of the first phase of Project Wing, the secret drone program that’s been running for two years at Google X, the company’s whoa-inducing, long-range research lab.
System solution concepts
Amazon submitted its drone patent in September 2014, but the details are only now being published by the US Patent and Trademark Office after it approved the ideas.
For many, Amazon’s idea of delivery via drone was seen as pie-in-the-sky, but the details it provides in its system solution patent application suggest that the firm is taking the idea seriously and working hard to overcome a variety of technical and other obstacles.
Amazon faces many regulatory hurdles before its plans can be turned into reality. But Amazon is leading the effort to convince the US Federal Aviation Authority (FAA) to approve the widespread commercial use of drones.
According to the plans, Amazon’s drones will be able to update their routes in real-time. A mock-up delivery screen suggests that people will be able to choose from a variety of delivery options – from “bring it to me” to nominating their home, place of work or even “my boat” as places for packages to be dropped.
Other patent details include:
Amazon will employ a variety of unmanned vehicles depending on the shape and weight of the product
Flight sensors, radar, sonar, cameras and infrared sensors will be employed to ensure safe landing zones are found
The unmanned vehicle would constantly monitor its path for humans or other animals and modify navigation to avoid such obstacles
Amazon’s plans for drone delivery puts increasing pressure on the FAA to allow more US-based drone research and development.
It has been criticized for dragging its heels on regulation and losing the impetus on drone development which has gone to other countries, most notably the UK which will build a drone research center in London.
Recently the FAA did make progress towards relaxing its rules on drone use, giving the go-ahead for unmanned helicopters to be used for spraying crops in the US as well as announcing plans for testing news-gathering drones in urban areas in partnership with CNN.
It also said it would also test commercial drones that can fly beyond an operator’s line of sight for inspecting railways.
The bottom line
There are many things that brands who are considering a drone system can take away from this scenario. First and most importantly, brand expansion is the key to success. Customers are constantly looking for the better brand that is going to offer them the quality products and service that they are looking for.
At the heart of it, before implementing any strategy, brands need to weigh both the benefits and disadvantages of establishing the system. Clearly, there are many benefits. But at this stage of system development, there are far more hurdles (and costs) to outweigh the benefits. We’ll just have to wait and see if this system technology will ever make a clear impact on e-commerce results.
If you are looking for additional resources in innovation, one of my favorite experts is Stephen Shapiro. You’ll find lots of good stories and examples to learn in his blog.
Need some help in capturing more customers from your marketing strategies? Creative ideas to help the differentiation with potential customers?
Call today for a FREE consultation or a FREE quote. Learn about some options to scope your job.
Call Mike at 607-725-8240.
All you get is what you bring to the fight. And that fight gets better every day you learn and apply new ideas.
When things are not what you want them to be, what’s most important is your next step. Call today.
Test. Learn. Improve. Repeat.
Are you devoting enough energy to improving your marketing, branding, and advertising?
Do you have a lesson about making your marketing strategy better you can share with this community? Have any questions or comments to add in the section below?
Digital Spark Marketing will stretch your thinking and your ability to adapt to change. We also provide some fun and inspiration along the way. Call us for a free quote today. You will be amazed at how reasonable we will be.
More reading on marketing strategy from Digital Spark Marketing’s Library:
Case Studies to Evaluate New World Marketing Concepts
How to Frame Marketing Messages for Optimum Engagement
Some Great Story and Storytelling Examples to Study
Jaw Dropping Guerrilla Marketing Lessons and Examples
Mike Schoultz is a digital marketing and customer service expert. With 48 years of business experience, he consults on and writes about topics to help improve the performance of small business. Find him on G+, Facebook, Twitter, Digital Spark Marketing, and LinkedIn.
You can’t fool people all the time, not even most of the time. And people once unfooled, talk about the experience. That certainly is the case, Seth Godin. Have you been unfooled by Coca-Cola? We have been followers and fans of the way Coca-Cola runs its business. Even thought of them as a very socially responsible business. Now we are not so sure about their social responsibility. How about you?
This is the thing that has us rethinking our position. Coca-Cola is being sued by a non-profit public interest group. This suit is based on the grounds that the company’s Vitaminwater products make unwarranted health claims. Here is a short viveo on the meaning of social
The simple fact is that the product is basically sugar-water, to which about a penny’s worth of synthetic vitamins has been added. And the amount of sugar is not trivial.
A bottle of Vitaminwater contains 33 grams of sugar, making it more akin to a soft drink than to a healthy beverage. We don’t like that, but we certainly can live with it.
Doesn’t make Coca-Cola any less socially responsible in our minds. And calling the product Vitaminwater, while moving closer to the ethical, legal line, is OK in our minds.
This wasn’t the first time a lawsuit was filed on this issue. It was first filed in 2009 by the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI). CSPI is a group of Vitaminwater customers in New York and California.
It alleged that Coca-Cola took part in deceptive labeling and marketing for the soft drink. This included claims that the drink could reduce eye disease, promote healthy joints and support optimal immune function.
Coke has chosen to endure multiple public slaps on the wrist because its marketing has succeeded in insulating Vitaminwater. Insulated from the negative health aura that’s engulfed soda and other forms of sugar water.
The beverage industry’s school beverage guidelines, for instance, allow for sales of Vitaminwater in high schools. Why? Because they have less sugar than soda. By comparison, a 20-ounce bottle of Coke contains 65 grams of sugar or 15 teaspoons.
So where does consumer protection law stand on this issue?
Socially responsible business … What makes an ad deceptive?
It is ruled deceptive if it contains information that:
Is likely to mislead consumers acting reasonably under the circumstances
Is material to a consumer’s decision to buy or use the product
Certainly looks like the series of Vitaminwater ads could be ruled deceptive, doesn’t it? I think so.
So what is Coca-Cola’s response to this lawsuit?
This part is the most difficult to swallow. They are defending their advertising and not backing down or changing their ads.
Their argument? In surprising logic, lawyers for Coca-Cola are defending the product by asserting that:
“no consumer could reasonably be misled into thinking Vitaminwater was a healthy beverage.“
Truly amazing. Pushes them over the social responsibility line in our minds. No question.
Does this mean that you’d have to be an unreasonable person to think that a product named “Vitaminwater,” had health benefits?
Believe that a product that has been heavily and aggressively marketed as a healthy beverage, actually had health benefits?
And most important, does it mean that it’s okay for a corporation to lie about its products? Lie, as long as they can then claim that no one actually believes their lies?
Forced to defend themselves in court, they are acknowledging that Vitaminwater isn’t a healthy product. But they are arguing that advertising it isn’t false advertising.
Why? Because no could possibly believe such a ridiculous claim.
Here is what the Coca-Cola Enterprise has to say about their Social Responsibility vision and commitment:
Energy conservation/climate change – reduce the overall carbon footprint of our business operations by 15% by 2020, as compared to the 2007 baseline.
Sustainable packaging/recycling – reduce the impact of our packaging. They maximize their use of renewable, reusable, and recyclable resources to recover the equivalent of 100 percent of packaging.
Water stewardship – establish a water sustainable operation in which we minimize our water use and have water neutral impact on the local communities in which we operate. We’ll safely return the amount of water equivalent to that used in our beverages. And used in their production to these communities and their environment.
Product portfolio/wellbeing – provide refreshing beverages for every lifestyle and occasion. Helping consumers make informed beverage choices.
Diverse and inclusive culture – create a culture where diversity is valued. Every employee is a respected member of the team. Our workforce is a reflection of the communities in which we operate.
Seems like good words to live by, doesn’t it? What we would expect from a solid, socially responsible business.
Helping consumers make informed choices? Seems like a big discrepancy versus their Vitaminwater advertising doesn’t it?
So what good are a socially responsible vision and commitments if they are not followed?
The worst case of deceptive advertising out there? Absolutely not. But we would expect more honesty and social responsibility from Coca-Cola. Don’t you agree?
What are some of your experiences with advertising as a component of an integrated marketing campaign?
Do you have an advertising experience to share with this community?
Need some help in capturing more customers from your marketing or advertising campaigns? Looking for creative ideas to help the differentiation with potential customers?
Call today for a FREE consultation or a FREE quote. Learn about some options to scope your job.
Call Mike at 607-725-8240.
All you get is what you bring to the fight. And that fight gets better every day you learn and apply new ideas.
When things are not what you want them to be, what’s most important is your next step. Call today.
Test. Learn. Improve. Repeat.
Are you devoting enough energy to improving your enthusiasm?
Do you have a lesson about making your motivation better you can share with this community? Have any questions or comments to add in the section below?
Digital Spark Marketing will stretch your thinking and your ability to adapt to change. We also provide some fun and inspiration along the way. Call us for a free quote today. You will be amazed at how reasonable we will be.
More reading on brands and branding from Digital Spark Marketing’s Library:
Mike Schoultz is a digital marketing and customer service expert. With 48 years of business experience, he consults on, and writes about topics to help improve the performance of small business. Find him on Facebook, Twitter, Quora, Digital Spark Marketing, and LinkedIn.
Have you ever heard the remark that age is relevant onlyif you are a cheese? All of my career it seemed I was one of the youngest guys in the room. Then, overnight, I looked around and was shocked to discover I was the oldest guy in the room. Working on my third career, I don’t know why that should have been a surprise to me.
It was though … a reality check. But why? Who knows, especially since I have no fear about the value I bring and my ability to keep delivering relevance in a young person’s world going through rapid change. Luckily the feeling did not last long.
Marketing, at its best, is about the future. Unfortunately, we spend most of our time stuck in the past. We research what already happened and extrapolate forward to produce a plan. It’s not that we’re lazy, we simply know a whole lot more about the past than the present or the future.
We already know that marketing is becoming more social, local, and mobile, just as we know that big data and new interfaces such as touch, voice, and gesture are becoming increasingly more important. What comes next?
Here are my top 5 tips on how I focus on keeping ‘one step ahead’ of the cheese:
Look around mentoring minds.
Do not rest on past successes …
There is nothing more dangerous to life success than a great last result, is there? We are ‘only as good as our next result’. Stay paranoid.
Age is relevant … make yourself a project
Hairdressing icon Vidal Sassoon was famous for having said: “The only place you’ll find success coming before work is in a dictionary.” We have to work on ourselves. Put pressure on ourselves. Critique our days. Give back to society. Be our own very best coaches and cheering squads. All of this applies as much for our personal lives as for our business lives.
Related post: Lessons Learned in LIfe … Class Contiues Daily
Are you a mentoring minds reader?
Continue to add to your connections and be a continuous learner …
Woody Allen said: “85% of the secret of success is just turning up.” Turn up to events. Make that phone call. Read that book. Do that training. Have the courage to ask that question. Make the effort. Stay connected to what’s happening around you.
Age is relevant … is a priority ‘ninja’
Getting more of the important things done every day. Be obsessed with getting priorities rights, on what’s really important, every day, and make sure you spend the majority of your day on these priorities.
Creative minds online … embrace change
Darwin said it was not the strongest of the species that survived, but the ablest to adapt to change. There will be more change in the next five years than we’ve seen in the past 50. Get excited by change. Be part of the most movements that you can. Help shake things up.
The bottom line
“I knew that if I failed I wouldn’t regret that, but I knew the one thing I might regret is not trying.”
For some reason, many of us have been conditioned to be more afraid of failure than we are of inaction. However, failure, in addition to being inherently valuable as a learning process, contains within it the chance of success. And no matter how small that chance is, it’s better than the chances of success when we choose not to even try.
We’ve got one shot at our lives.
Work hard on yourself to stay relevant if you want the chance to avoid being the cheese.
All you get is what you bring to the fight. And that fight gets better every day you learn and apply new ideas.
When things are not what you want them to be, what’s most important is your next step.
Test. Learn. Improve. Repeat.
Are you devoting enough energy to innovate your social media strategy?
Do you have a lesson about making your advertising better you can share with this community? Have any questions or comments to add in the section below?
Mike Schoultz is the founder of Digital Spark Marketing, a digital marketing and customer service agency. With 40 years of business experience, he blogs on topics that relate to improving the performance of your business. Find them on G+, Twitter, and LinkedIn.
Digital Spark Marketing will stretch your thinking and your ability to adapt to change. We also provide some fun and inspiration along the way.
More reading on mentoring from Digital Spark Marketing’s Library:
