Durex Condoms In Social Media Flop

My friend Eileen Brown brought a delightful social media #fail to my attention today in her column on ZDNet.

You’d have thought Durex Condoms would always play it safe, but their latest Facebook marketing campaign has turned into a bit of a flop thanks to a remarkable lack of planning (or should that be foreplay?)

The trouble begins with a curious “insight” that some couples don’t think to buy condoms in advance, but they are foresighted enough to install an app from iTunes allowing them to request an emergency delivery as long as they have previously ensured they will only be in coitus in a city where the service exists.

Of course, there’s no way Reckitt Benckiser could promise rapid deliveries of “SOS Condoms” to every corner of the world, so they ran a vote on a microsite, promoted via Facebook, inviting would-be consumers to choose the city where they would like the emergency service to next be available.

In the true spirit of the empowered consumer, voters were left to their own devices to pick any place in the world rather than having to select from a shortlist of pre-qualified cities. Quite naturally, this resulted in some online jokers looking for ways to spice up the outcome. And, you guessed it, the most requested location for SOS Condom deliveries was Batman, a city in Turkey.

Well done Batman! You amassed more votes than Paris, London and New York combined, and your residents can now look forward to breathlessly opening the door to fresh supplies less than one hour after ordering. Whether the service is now off the ground is unclear but we can only hope that uptake is strong from Turkey’s luckiest amorous couples.

Durex has conceded that its campaign was hijacked and has closed the voting, possibly prematurely. I’m sure its intentions were good (or should that be bona fide?), but this is a timely reminded to all marketers to carefully think through the implications of allowing full crowd ownership over the outcomes of marketing campaigns. Surrendering control to the social web is sometimes a smart tactic, but without sufficient attention to detail and crisis planning your next activity might not be heading for a happy ending.

What Social Businesses Can Learn from Improvisation

Many years ago I was privileged to learn improvisation skills at a week-long business retreat. My teacher, Neil Mullarkey of The Comedy Store, has remained a good friend to me over the years and the concepts he taught me have stayed fresh in my mind. The recent emergence of more social businesses—where staff can openly share ideas and opinions through online platforms—has made me revisit these improvisation principles and ask how they could be applied in the digital workplace.

Improvisation, where actors play out a scene without a script or rehearsal, relies on a few core skills that we often forget in the midst of a busy workplace. But their usefulness within a social business seems to me beyond doubt. After all, in the modern business world we are simply the actors, and the workplace our stage.

So, here are some of my preliminary thoughts on how improvisation skills may help you become a better social player within your organisation:

Active Listening: The improviser who fails to listen to those around him will soon come unstuck. Every actor on the stage is there to ‘offer’ something to the others to help the scene develop. By always listening carefully to what’s being said we can make more informed, spontaneous contributions that build on the topic and take it in a positive direction. The same applies online; don’t spend all your time talking, it’s far more valuable to listen intently and only speak up when you have something useful to add.

Not Being Clever: In order to be natural and ‘in the moment’, improvisers are taught the importance of not trying to be clever. In fact, the last thing you want to do is to try to be clever as it both makes things difficult for the other actors and can destroy the authenticity and naturalness of what you say. Following this advice online too makes a lot of sense. There are no prizes for being a know-it-all and most of us can contribute more value by building on the ideas of others rather than seeking to kill off discussions with our genius.

Relax and Have Fun: In improvisation, the most entertaining and memorable scenes happen when the actors are “in the zone”, loving the experience. They’re looking to slip into a mental state which psychologists call ‘flow’ where they are fully immersed in a feeling of energized focus to the task at hand. The same should apply in our work lives. When we truly focused on something that we feel is worthwhile we feel energized and able to actively engage our whole brains. If we can find this same state when using a social intranet or following an online discussion between colleagues, we should be better placed to make a full, valued contribution.

Don’t Judge Others: Suspending our natural tendency to pass judgement on others is essential in improvisation. Of course, we should try to understand others and empathise with them, but judging their contributions is an unnecessary distraction and energy drain. Likewise, we can help the social workplace run smoothly by allowing people to express themselves freely without fear of being judged or criticised. By creating a trusted environment, we are each more likely to bring our best ideas to the fore so others can build on them.

Yes and…: One of the easiest exercises that Neil taught me is to build on what has been said before. We’re trained from an early age at school and college to spot flaws in others’ arguments and we can help unpick this habit by simply starting every response with “Yes, and…” This modest phrase helps force us into a collaborative mindset where we build on what has gone before rather than shooting it down with the usual “No, but…” response. The next time you see a comment on the social intranet that you disagree with, try looking for the positives in the idea and building constructively with a “Yes , and…” reply.

Thrive In the Ambiguity: By its very definition, improvisation requires actors to enter a world where they are completely out of control of the situation. If you try to drive the agenda, another person can snatch it away and drag you in an unexpected direction. Life in a social workplace is very much like this too, with discussions and comments ebbing and flowing to the tune of the crowd’s sentiment. Learning to welcome and indeed thrive in this uncertainty is an essential skill for today’s employees.

In a world now shaped by distributed voices and opinions, we’re all learning new skills to help us survive the modern workplace. But perhaps we can learn most from some of the oldest tricks in the book, as used by actors for generations to create, innovate and entertain.

How could this approach help you? All comments to begin “Yes, and…” please.

3 Simple Steps to Creating Daily Content Gold

We’ve all been there; it’s every community manager’s nightmare. Staring at that blank screen, racking your brain for fresh ideas about what to post to your social networks today.

When writer’s block strikes sometimes the best thing to do is to walk away and formulate a new plan on how to avoid an idea logjam in future.

But there’s good news at hand. Here’s my super-simple, no-nonsense approach that could make a huge difference to your daily content marketing results:

1. PLAN IT
Set aside 15 minutes at the end of each working day to think about tomorrow’s content plan. Create some quiet space where you can reflect on your goals, what seems to be working for you, and explore content areas you’ve not yet developed.
Your goal is to come up with just one new idea that you can put into action tomorrow.
Remember, you have just 15 distraction-free minutes to do this. You don’t need to develop the idea; just jot down your thoughts, maybe draft a blog title or note down a few sites you’d like to research to refine your idea.

2. FORGET IT
Store your idea notes somewhere safe. I leave my written notes under my closed laptop lid so I find them when I next turn it on. Now, go and do something completely different, like living your real life, having fun with friends or enjoying your favourite sport.
This stage is all-important. It allows the most powerful parts of your brain to start working their magic.
If your ‘Plan It’ stage was sufficiently focussed and intense, your brain will subconsciously begin processing your idea, making new connections and developing it for when your rational, logical thinking brain needs to step back in.
Sleep well, tomorrow’s going to be a great day!

3. CREATE IT
The next morning you already know what your first job is going to be. Set aside the first working hour of your day, when your body is fresh and your brain at its most alert, to bring your content idea to life.
Your aim is to have published some original content, either live or scheduled to go out later, before the hour is up.
This may require you to create another distraction-free space so you can focus on producing the best content you can. If it takes less than an hour, great! But if it’s going to take longer, your idea was either too ambitious or you’ve not knuckled down properly to the task.
When you’ve published your original content your day can now begin, safe in the knowledge that writer’s block cannot strike.

Now do it!

Try this simple approach for a couple of weeks. You have to be disciplined and strict with yourself; reading emails or tidying your desk do not count as focussed content creation time!

After a fortnight, you decide if this is working for you or not. But give it at least two weeks. It takes both time and practice to instil new habits and adjust to working at highly productive levels.

And please let me know how you get on. Has your content creation benefitted from this working pattern or do you think you have a better approach?

Think Different

Is it just me, or does Apple’s current iPad advertising bear a startling resemblance to rival Microsoft’s “Life Without Walls” ad campaign of almost five years ago?

Of course, not every idea can be completely new. But it does make me a little sad to see this, another example of Apple’s innovative streak fading away.

How to raise $500k for a start-up

I like Buffer. It’s a great tool for posting staggered updates to social media channels and, as of last week, you can even schedule retweets now too.

I also like their great customer service.

But what I like most of all is their openness and generosity; two key ingredients for start-up success on the social web.

It’s these attributes that led Buffer to sharing the pitch deck they used to secure a $500,000 investment into their start-up, as well as the thinking process behind the slides.

We can learn a lot from the simplicity of Buffer’s pitch, as well as their use of compelling ratios and tangible proof of the traction their business was gaining.

Read the full story at OnStartups.com or flick through the slides below:

The slide deck we used to raise half a million dollars from Buffer