Preteen Educated

I’ve learned more about social media in marketing from my 10 and 12-year-old sons than any webinar or conference. While we’re all scrambling trying to figure out how to use social media in business, the next generation is busy building businesses using this technology.

by Journey Streams

Last summer both of my sons convinced me not to send them to summer camp for the first time because they wanted to have time to explore their own interests and not be forced into daily activities decided by camp counselors. They’re both excellent students so we felt giving them some unstructured time and allowing them to relax was a good call.

My son Journey, age 10, launched his media company: supertechnonerd.com. This wasn’t a complete surprise to me as our house is filled with his art work and he already self publishes a comic book and distributes it at school. (He holds “book signings” once a trimester.)

by Journey Streams

He story boards show ideas for his YouTube channel with his friends using iChat, they call them “board meetings,” and he uses his Flip camera and tripod to capture all the fun on video. His friends and their parents love it!

When my husband set up Jouney’s hosting account on GoDaddy he asked him if he minded having ads at the top of the page. My son’s response was, “It wouldn’t be a real website without ads Dad.” He also signed himself up for Google AdSense and monitors his web stats daily. He communicates with the YouTube subscribers by giving them incentives to subscribe and encourages his peers to get involved.

My older son, Harmony, came to me early in the school year and told me he was now a part of Journey’s production team and a member of supertechnonerd company.

Harmony reads a book every two days, fantasy fiction mostly. His love for reading makes it difficult to keep him in books so he tells us about new authors and titles that he discovers through YouTube vloggers turned authors and we order them on Amazon for him. He’s getting a Kindle for Christmas because his bookshelves are full in his room.

Harmony’s also my World of War craft level master. He made it to level 72 over the summer and recently reached level 80 and started a new character over the Thanksgiving break. He’s made countless friends through the game and they communicate sort of like old-school pen pals. (No WOW during school though, Mom has to set limits.)

The skills their building with these activities are enumerable. My plan is to keep feeding their interests and taking notes!

Persevere Mad Mens

Traditionally marketing has been an instant gratification, billion dollar business, reserved for only a select few. I’m a huge fan of the show Mad Men which perfectly depicts the beginning of an era and glorifies the hay days of the ad industry in spite of its contradictions with modern-day political correctness.

Social media is drastically changing the world of marketing in ways that other technologies, like radio and television were unable to in the past. It’s leveled the playing field for individuals, while leaving corporations in a sort of no man’s land.

In my last consulting position part of my role was consulting chief marketing officers (CMOs) of Fortune 500 companies. Of course, ad agencies were part of the plan, but the central question was always sustaining a direct connection with customers.

It seems the CMO’s have begun to solve this problem using social media.

As evidence, I went to a Twitter conference over the summer and attended a panel that featured a representative from Starbucks, his only job was to Tweet and respond to Tweets all day. Whole Food’s Twitter rep made sure all store managers set up Twitter accounts and connected with customers regularly in their area, rewarding those with the most followers. This is a good start.

Persevere.

I have a market research petri dish in my house in the form of my 10 and 12 your old sons. They tend toward individually produced content. Like Natalie on YouTube and her wacky CommunityChannel videos. She’s really sarcastic and better than any sitcom show I’ve watched.

My son’s trusted brands are people who have gained online stardom from millions of views on YouTube. This gives these YouTube people huge brands value with the youth generation.

I wonder if the “Mad Men” of today are considering this in their plans? I know I am!

Know Value

We place much weight on the word “value.” In business, calculating this variable is a complicated and elusive process even for professionals at the top of their industry; we uncovered this in the recent US banking crisis. Yet discovering our personal value proves most challenging and this responsibility is on each of us.

As a marketing major at NYU, I got flack from my finance counterparts who believed my major was a less challenging endeavor. I decided to see what all the hub bub was about and took a summer internship at Morgan Stanley. I made a naive observation. People base “value” purely on what they “believe.” I mean sure, there were numbers, facts and reports tossed about; but people based value on what they “believed” was going to happen and the perceptions of the companies.

I walked away from the experience thinking, when I believe in something, it will be more inspiring than some numbers, facts and reports; yawn!

Christain Faur

We derive our personal value from this same belief system. From a young age, we place a value on ourselves based on our grades, rewards and monetary compensation. However, at some point, we become keenly aware that these metrics are merely the warm comforter of self-esteem and perception.

It’s the belief in one’s ability to share and contribute that will build strong self value. The more value an individual projects the more others believe they are valuable. The value has nothing to do with grades or wealth. This has been proven over and over.

I admire people who are confident in their value and aren’t afraid to go do exactly what they want and believe.

I’m fortunate. I’ve had a great life. Many have seen me as more valuable than I’ve seen myself. I’ve used them as a mirror to see my value. This reflection, however, has provided no foundation for a belief in my ability to share my real self, therefore, little real value was derived from my view.

It is only now in my life that I am working to focus on seeing value through my own eyes; stop measuring myself with the old metrics and share with the world what is uniquely mine to share.

It’s only through this action that I will find meaning and belief in myself. I’m not relying on my stock ratings anymore.

Visceral References

The uplifting visceral connection I have with the color palate in peacock feathers has been the inspiration for my wardrobe choices for several years. It culminated in my design and creation of a costume to host my recent Halloween party revealing the Peacock as my alter ego.

At first I connected with the colors individually; green, blue, then indigo. I then began to wear layers of color in odd combination. I didn’t realize they existed in one object until I happened upon a piece of jewelry while style myself for a recent Twitter conference I attended.

Visceral connections to objects and people are the driving force in my life and in business. It’s often stated that women (and some guys) are too emotional. I have come to believe that it’s not emotion that I’m acting on, but a literal physical response to a person or situation.

People can make me feel sick to my stomach or euphoric and motivated; in person or just conjuring up a thought. This isn’t emotion, this is visceral. It affords me good instinct and foresight. For example, the thought of a person can make me feel nauseous, but lessons learned and positive experiences are easily remembered.

Applying visceral references to people and events in my life help to take emotion out of it. It allows me to logically see the greatness in experiences and keep positive memories, leaving feelings like sadness or anger for the non-verbal and physical part of my brain to process.

These visceral references in business an in life allow me to strut forward like a peacock, guiding me toward the useful insight and making me keenly aware of the rest. Regarding my choice in color palate; I’m pretty sure I’m over my peacock phase now; can’t wait to feel what moves me next.

Biting Bullets

The best ideas are packaged so simply you wonder, “why didn’t I think of that?” and your life is enhanced.

I find presenting work in a format that no one wants to read; surprise, won’t get read. Thought leaders have to present concepts in bite sizes, not “sound bites” but common sense thoughts. Breaking complex ideas and learning models into small relatable parts is the key to engaging your audience. The use of bullet point phrases is a basic concept, but a valuable tool for authors and speakers when used properly.

Write out your grand idea in long form, then identify and sequence key concepts that make your point. Eliminate the rest and begin to refine the vocabulary of your key message.

This is what I call “biting the bullet,” clench your message around the essential information and deliver it with power.