25 Jan 2010

Presentation: Communicating in the Age of Streams

Last week during the launch of Seesmic Look in New York, I gave a presentation on communicating in the age of streams. You can watch the video here or below (if for some reason the embedded video doesn't go direct to my part of the talk, simply scroll to the 1:24:04 minute mark). My slides can be found here. I have embedded them below as well with the YouTube video too.

A quick summary ...

All of us - whether you're a stay at home mom or an executive - are going to have to cope with the firehose. There's more information coming at us than we can handle. Information will scale. Human attention is finite. This presents a major challenges to those of us who are in the attention business. It's like 25 lanes of traffic trying to squeeze into the Lincoln Tunnel all it once. Your marketing campaign is just one bus.

To mitigate this ongoing trend of streams, communicators will need to: 1) be as ubiquitous as possible, 2) adopt multiple messages, stories and formats and 3) make sure you allow your employees to get out there - in other words, use the force, don't fight it.

More in the embedded media below.

4 Jan 2010

Three Ideas for 2010 Part III: Lifelogging and Self Tracking

Happy 2010! Note this is the third in a three-part series on ideas anyone can ride in 2010 and beyond. - part I is here and part II is here.


Image credit: Evernote Web site

One of the great mindset shifts from the last decade is that today, finally, people of all walks are recognizing that what gets captured and measured gets managed (to quote Peter Drucker).

In 2010 and beyond we will become far more savvier about using data (both our own and aggregate streams) to make decisions large and small. Those who commit themselves to becoming data-driven will be in the best position to succeed both in business and in life - just ask Google. Consider leading yourself and inspire others to do live and work the same. In 2010 I am personally trying to apply data-driven tools, thinking and insights to all of my goals.

One way anyone become more data-driven by logging his/her life. This isn't a new idea. In fact, it's ancient. Consider former senator Bob Graham. He takes meticulous daily notes on the mundane to foreign policy in notebooks and has done so for decades.

"I start each month with a fresh notebook, the color which would follow the last notebook of the previous month.  On the inside cover of the notebook I write the information which will determine its overall position in the total collection of notebooks (the first notebook used in July of 2009 would be 7/09A), the date upon which the notebook was commenced and completed, and the information which would assist in recovery of the notebook should it be lost (address, home-office-cell numbers and email address) and, finally, an index of when the sections of notebook were completed by my having finished the “things to do” lists  in that notebook."

Self-tracking goes beyond just capture, though. You need to use the data to glean insights. Google Spreadsheets has a great way to do this with their gadgets. You can even set up forms for to make capturing the data even easier. For more on this topic, read Chris Brogan's "three words," Flowing Data and The Quantified Self. Other tools to look at include 23andMe, Nike Plus, Evernote and a host of others. 

Oh and if you think this is just for geeks, think again. Even parents are obsessed with data. For more, see the video embedded below or here.

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There's no doubt in my mind that if you dedicate yourself to using data wisely to plan and measure you will succeed no matter what your goals are. And, increasingly, the tools to make this happen are getting easier and more accessible all the time.

13 Nov 2009

The Next Big Trend? It's All About Curation

Fact: Information sources are exploding. More information will be created in 2009 than all prior years.

Fact: Attention is finite. We're becoming media agnostic, but when we're interested in something we dig down into our interests.

This is why I and others like Robert Scoble are really excited about digital curation. Facebook and Twitter lists are one level of curation. However, there are others. Posterous and Tumblr are fantastic platforms for soliciting contributions from groups of people around a shared interest. And they're platforms that will enable all of us to curate together.

Here are a handful of places where you can see curation at work (more in the gallery below as well) ...
  • My Parents Were Awesome is a group-contributed tumbelog that honors our elders. It has received national recognition.
  • PopURLs Brown by UPS curates information all around business news (UPS is an Edelman client but we didn't build this site)
  • Microsoft and Nissan have built entire brandstreaming sites that showcase conversations around their brand (Edelman built the Nissan site)
  • Sawhorse Media is creating a next generation media company by curating tweets in different topics like pets and now lists too
  • IBM is using Tumblr to curate ideas for a smarter planet
Do you agree that curation - both automated and human-powered - is the next big thing? This isn't just aggregation. As I wrote in my initial post on the subject it's about separating art from junk online.

           
Click here to download:
The_Next_BIg_Trend_Its_All_Abo.zip (1779 KB)

2 Nov 2009

Julio Ojeda-Zapata on the Potential for Newspaper Storystreaming

via Posterous powers "storystreaming" at the Pioneer Press

Julio Ojeda-Zapata explainsl how the St. Paul Pioneer Press used Posterous to solicit photos from readers in reporting the Packers-Vikings game over the weekend.

2 Nov 2009

Interviews on Blogging and Productivity

Here are two fresh interviews that might be of interest. The first covers blogging's place in a microblog world. The second captures the essence of my productivity system, how I work and the tools I use

 

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Steve Rubel's Posterous

Steve Rubel (bio) is SVP, Director of Insights for Edelman Digital, a division of Edelman - the world's largest independent PR firm.

He is charged with helping clients identify emerging technologies and trends that can be applied in marketing communications programs. Rubel also explores these topics on his site and in monthly columns for Forbes.com and Advertising Age. He can be found on Twitter and Facebook as well.

Steve can be reached via email at steverubel@gmail.com.

Note: Everything posted on this site is Steve's personal opinion. It does not represent the views of Edelman or its clients.

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