I see so many motivational quotes on Twitter, I thought I would take a moment to share a few of my favorites:
How will you know the depths of your ineptitude until you try something you’re unsure of?
If you fail to plan, you’ll have a lot more time to do the actual work.
I have never failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work. Don’t you wish you could screw up 10,000 times before you got fired? You’re not Thomas Effing Edison, pal.
Give a man a fish, feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish, feed him for life. Teach a man how to exploit disadvantaged workers in the third world, build a multinational seafood empire and feed his family for generations.
Some see the future with anxiety, some with hope, and still others as the inevitable approach of the apocalypse replete with biblical plagues, pestilence and alien invasion.
I hope I’ve helped brighten your day if only a bit.
Domino’s Pizza’s new Pizza Turnaround campaign set off a wave of discussions in the social media world. The Pizza Turnaround video, which was produced by Domino’s, features Domino’s employees, including its head chefs, and some of the company’s marketing executives, admitting outright that the pizza sucks. Some of the quotes in the video include “Domino’s pizza crust is to me like cardboard,” a sentiment expressed in a focus group but echoed by Domino’s executives. “Doesn’t feel like there’s much love in Domino’s Pizza,” says another focus group participant.
This is, to be sure, a bold move, and many are applauding Domino’s for publicly owning up to making bad pizza. Everyone’s talking about transparency, but not many companies are really doing anything about it.
There’s a reason for that, of course. Only an idiot is 100% transparent.
Setting aside literal definitions, what does “transparent” mean? For publicly held companies, “transparent” has come to mean conducting business and doing accounting according to GAAP (Generally Accepted Accounting Principles). Every company is supposed to report its financial situation using the same measures as every other company, and using the same measures every quarter, to ensure that shareholders and regulators can read them and make valid judgments and comparisons.
In the social media world, transparency extends beyond finance, meaning something like “using social media to expose to the public the inner workings of the company and the candid thoughts of its executives and employees.”
So where does the publicly held company draw the line? The CEO can’t be 100% transparent on his or her blog. Comments about the company’s finances are regulated by FASB and the SEC. Comparisons to competitors are regulated by the FTC. When, what information, and in what format an officer of a publicly held company can disclose information is all strictly regulated.
One could argue in fact that Domino’s admission that its pizza isn’t up to par is contrary to its obligations to shareholders to maximize value. In fact, Domino’s stock traded around $11.39 today, not far from its 52-week high, and nearly triple its 52-week low of $4.76. So how bad can the pizza be?
Maybe we expect too much transparency from the companies we do business with. How transparent are you? Do you tell everybody everything you are doing and thinking, or are there some things you might omit? If you want to be 100% transparent, you would have to walk down the street saying out loud, “That’s an ugly shirt.” “You look so cool with your Bluetooth.” “Your girlfriend is way too hot for you.” We wouldn’t call that transparency, actually, we’d call it Tourette Syndrome.
Why then do we expect the companies we do business with to overexpose themselves? I think the social media “movement” has pressured companies to act irresponsibly. OK, the Domino’s thing is clever and is attracting a lot of attention. And maybe Domino’s feels it’s “working.” But I think these guys are subjecting themselves to an unnecessary beating. The following (with one letter masked) was displayed by Domino’s on its Pizza Turnaround site:
When counseling clients on blog commenting policies, and the use of RSS feeds and Twitter feeds on their corporate sites, I remind them that they still own that real estate, and while they can’t control what people are saying about them out in the blogosphere, they can control their own Web sites. For example, no public company should permit racism, gratuitous obscenity, out-of-control bashing of the company or its competitors, etc.
I used to argue that companies should not surrender their brand to consumers, but should share it. Some things require careful branding and messaging, some things should be more open and participatory and a lot of things are simply beyond the company’s control. Domino’s has raised the stakes by inviting consumers to trash talk the company and its pizza. I wonder what’s next?
Nick Sobrak-Seaton and I, and maybe a few surprise guests, will be on KSCO Santa Cruz AM radio this Saturday talking about social media as a marketing and communications tool for businesses and non-profits. Some of the topics we’re thinking about covering include:
Developing your brand online
Facebook
Twitter
Video, such as YouTube and 12 Seconds
Ethical social media business practices
Social networking Etiquette
Using social media for career development and job hunting
Location-based services like Brightkite, Foursquare and Rally
New technology, like augmented reality
Social media policy for businesses
We’ll be on the air from 10 a.m. to noon this Saturday, January 23. Tune in or catch it streaming.
Two hours is a long time for two average guys from the 831 to carry the show, so please call in during the show to discuss anything related to social media and business. And we’d love to hear from Santa Cruz and Silicon Valley social media entrepreneurs discussing or shamelessly pitching their latest endeavors. The call in number is probably 1-831-479-1080, but we need to verify that. Hope to talk with you Saturday!
In an e-mail to users, SocialToo announced it is discontinuing a feature which automatically unfollows accounts which unfollow the SocialToo subscriber. Apparently, Twitter asked SocialToo to make this change:
“I just wanted to make you aware of a change we’re making on SocialToo at the request of Twitter. As of February 1, we will no longer be offering the service to automatically unfollow those who unfollow you. We have turned off the ability to purchase this service if you had not previously purchased it, but you can run it as many times as you like until February 1. I encourage you to read more about this on our blog at http://blog.socialtoo.com/2010/01/14/per-twitters-request-were-removing-auto-unfollow/ where we explain more about why Twitter is requiring us to remove this feature.
Removing this feature is as disappointing for us as it is for you and we are sorry for any inconvenience this may have caused you. We are working on solutions in the meantime that will hopefully replace this feature and have Twitter’s blessing at the same time.”
Undoubtedly Twitter was not happy with the feature because it automatically reduced the number of people who were being followed, which is at the heart of the notion that a Twitter user’s “reach” or influence is exponentially enhanced by their second- and third-order followers.
Described on YouTube as “Pub scene from Bremner, Bird and Fortune’s ‘Last Show before the Recovery.’ Two old blokes chatting about media trends,” this video is a great send up of new media, blogging, and Twitter.
“If you write in Twitter: ‘I’m talking to Peter in a pub,’ then everyone would know and act accordingly.”
“Act accordingly, how?”
Frederic De Meyer of Cisco Brussels posted this great video on his blog, and I enjoyed it so I’ve posted it here.
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