Or is it?
Our instant reaction is that being exposed is a bad thing, that is only if we have something to hide, which for most people is nothing. But that is our first reaction. No thanks, I’ll stay in my safe warm place. However…
Every threat is also an opportunity and every opportunity is also a threat.
It’s just nice to think, that being exposed, also exposes you to good opportunities, good things, it’s not all bad.
Creativity is like getting fit, often you need to nurture it to be more creative.
At a basic level, creativity is creating new links between existing ideas. The Wikipedia definition is excellent:
“Creativity is the ability to generate innovative ideas and manifest them from thought into reality. The process involves original thinking and then producing.”
So how can you be more creative? It’s all about creating new patterns, but here are some ideas:
Go, try one of them, get creative! If you think you’re boring, I bet you’re not, we’re all creative in our own ways – just give something a go.
Great question Duncan asked me the other day, it’s a nice way of putting it, and answers the why, why we exist, why we do what we do.
As Simon Sinek discusses below, why we (as an organisation) do something is often underlooked, and those that understand why they do something perform magnitudes times those that don’t.
Give Duncan’s post If You Were a Charity What Would You Do? a read and watch Simon’s video below.
A good mantra to have “know what works but accept that it isn’t permanent”.
Just because a solution works today, doesn’t mean it will tomorrow, or next year.
And vice versa, what doesn’t work today, may work next year.
Holding this mantra true keeps you proactive, receptive to new ideas & opportunities but most of all creating a habit of questioning everything. And that’s not too shabby a habit to have.
It’s redundant.
Who isn’t busy?
If we’re all busy, why state it?
Come on, let’s retire it, at least for now…
In particular language. Keep the language barrier low, about 12 – 14 years, that’s a level that you can reasonably expect most people to understand.
Remember that language is self selecting, if you want to talk to graduates raise the bar…
Funnily enough this was the difference between Google & Microsoft in the battle for search engine market share. When a misspelled search occurred Microsoft would say ‘try rephrasing or using synonyms’ whereas Google said ‘try different words’.
Subtle changes but profound effect.
Especially when you realise that if you’re employed:
1) Your employer covers the costs of your mistakes (within reason)
2) Keeps you accountable
3) Will (in most cases) invest in your knowledge
However, if you think you can bear the cost of your mistakes, keep yourself accountable and most of all generate enough profit to continually invest in yourself… it might just be the time to make the leap.
“You don’t refine ideas, you refine the borders for within they need to operate”
There are some incredibly smart people which read the blog, here are a couple:
Robbie Mackay (@rjmackay): His blog posts, whilst short and sporadic deliver bursts of insight.
Andrew Weaver (@drewmaniac): Mixing it up, he shares great content, ideas and my favourite photo finish friday.
Louis Rosas-Guyon (@louisrosasguyon): Great ideas, from a technical focus, give it a read.
Give them a read, follow them, send them a tweet. At the least subscribe for a few weeks, get a taste of what they’re up to.
And I’ll be honest, I can only highlight and engage with those who I know are reading, if you have a blog send it my way… the worst that’ll happen is I place a comment or two.
First page of Ricardo Semler’s book “The Seven Day Weekend”.
This has to be one of the best openings to a book I’ve ever read.
It reads:
1. Why are we able to answer emails on Sundays, but unable to go to the movies on Monday afternoons?
2. Why can’t we take the kids to work if we can take work home?
3. Why do we think the opposite of work is leisure, when in fact it is idleness?
—
Nevertheless it has set a high bar.
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If you haven’t read it, grab a copy, also grab his first book Maverick it’s incredible.
A favourite of mine:
“#11 of the bwagy marketing manifesto:
“You are always wrong, you just need to be less wrong than your competitors.”
It is so true – no matter your stance someone can always come up with a solid reason why you are wrong.
Don’t stress about being 100% right, you just need to be less wrong than those you compete with.
(And take action.)”
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Original here.
Tom Peters share’s an amazing analogy in his book The Little Big Things. A colleague of his said instead of saying to kids, you’d better eat your food there are kids in Africa starving he was saying you’d better study, there are millions of kids in India studying to take your job.
Huge switch in mindset. But as markets open up it makes complete sense.
If you’re not pushing, innovating or rethinking – what are you doing?
Chasing mediocrity.
You know the kind, “can’t do that, it’s not my job”.
It’s very easy (for me or anyone to say) they shouldn’t exist.
Truth be told, the fact that they exist in an organisation often reflects the companies culture.
However if you can change their attitude in such an environment, it’ll help, make the swing.
Reward initiative, reward ideas, reward risk. Most of all reward those that sidestep their job description to get the job done.
Just wish more small businesses would do this!
Communicate for what you want to be, not for what you are.
In their outward communications, sending a strong message, which is bigger than what they are. Then they can actually grow to that point.
It’s that confidence and reassurance that helps you get there. Consumers can smell insecurity a mile away.
[Here’s a sneak peak of an upcoming Herald post]
It’s as if you snap your fingers and wham you’re idea has gone viral. At least that’s what clients seem to expect. And as such the three words, “make it viral” get appended to a brief.
That’s all fine and good but hey, how often do things actually go viral? 24 hours of video is uploaded every minute to YouTube and growing. But only a very tiny miniscule percentage of those go viral.
So what actually does going viral mean? Wikipedia to the rescue sums it up beautifully:
“The buzzwords viral marketing and viral advertising refer to marketing techniques that use pre-existing social networks to produce increases in brand awareness or to achieve other marketing objectives (such as product sales) through self-replicating viral processes, analogous to the spread of pathological and computer viruses. It can be word-of-mouth delivered or enhanced by the network effects of the Internet.[1] Viral promotions may take the form of video clips, interactive Flash games, advergames, ebooks, brandable software, images, or eventext messages.”
Every marketer will give you their view on what it takes to go viral, however I like to get scientific with it. As mentioned above the phenomenon is based on viruses, so what makes a pathological virus tick? How do you get an idea to replicate itself?
I have my own description but for the purposes of this post, let’s lean on HowStuffWork’s content.
“Regardless of the type of host cell, all viruses follow the same basic steps in what is known as the lytic cycle .
A virus particle attaches to a host cell.
The particle releases its genetic instructions into the host cell.
The injected genetic material recruits the host cell’s enzymes.
The enzymes make parts for more new virus particles.
The new particles assemble the parts into new viruses.
The new particles break free from the host cell.
So what does this mean for marketers?
Well a virus is only one or two genetic sequences, it relies on the host cell to finish the process. In other words keep the story short and let the receiver interpret and built it out. In other words you start it, the receiver finishes it.
Further your message needs to be in the right place at the right time to attach to a host (and receive it). Virus can then infect the person and carry on.
There are varables which ‘halt’ the process, ie antibodies and frequency. If the virus (or idea) is not new to the subject, they have a latent repulsion to it, that is they are less likely to be overcome by the virus and spread it. This is often the hinging component in viral marketing, is this idea novel enough to our market? As if it isn’t it won’t spread. It needs to be different enough to overcome the antibodies.
Frequency of infection is also something else to consider, if you are constantly surrounded by sick people you are also likely to get sick. Marketers need to consider the frequency of which they expose people to their message.
Then the virus will spread. You can then achieve a ‘viral effect’. However even in this case, you don’t want everyone to be infected with your idea, you just want a target market to be. It’s a waste of time and resources to try and attract people who have no interest in your topic. This is where companies have a real opportunity to infect a hive of people with their idea.
Narrow down your market, make it super specific, then apply the methodology above. You are far more likely to get a viral effect, I know it won’t have the millions of views that boost your ego but hey effective communication is going to help you out more than being popular on YouTube for 15 minutes of fame.