I recently read this little story in the Monday Morning Memo (a weekly column you NEED to be reading). The lesson will be obvious. If you need help learning to not be a wimp in your messge and advertising, call us at Wordswell.
My partner Peter Nevland recently bumped into the owner of a bottled water service who asked him for some free advice. Peter asked, “Why should the customer of another water service switch to yours?”
“We’re locally owned.” “Ten percent of our profits go to charity,” blah, blah, blah.
Peter was unimpressed.
Exasperated and grasping at straws, the man mentioned his water had recently been voted “Best Tasting” by the readers of an obscure, local business journal.
“Why do you think you won?”
The man hung his head, “We cheat.”
“How?”
“Our water is saturated with dissolved oxygen, twice the amount found in regular water.”
“What does that do?”
“Dissolved oxygen is what makes water taste good. It’s why cold water tastes better than warm water. Cold water contains more dissolved oxygen.”
“You’re saying your room temperature water tastes like cold water?”
The man nodded his head.
“Do you always saturate your water with dissolved oxygen?”
“Yes, why do you ask?”
SAD ENDING: Peter was unable to convince the man to promote his better tasting water with dissolved oxygen. I swear I’m not making this up. The man remained convinced his ads needed to say, “We’re locally owned and give ten percent of our profits to charity.”
Eric Miller, a real estate agent in Jacksonville Beach, Florida has hired Wordswell to help him get more leads from home buyers and seller.
We have created a website that will specifically focus on Jacksonville Beach real estate. The site will have house search functionality, tools to help buyers and sellers, and information about the following communities:
Neptune Beach
Jacksonville Beach
Atlantic Beach
Ponte Verde Beach
Intracoastal West
We think the design is really cool. Eric looks engaging, and there is clear communication of how to get in touch with Eric. We will be adding contact forms and other sources of lead generation shortly, and of course, we’ll help Eric navigate the social media world to contribute to his success.
White space is typically a term used in graphic design that means the space between elements in a composition. It’s often the mark of simple, clean, and clear design.
The past month we’ve looked at white space in new ways.
In “White Space (Part 1)” we note, as did Da Vinci, that “simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.” Often complex ideas can be best explained by using metaphors or examples. By utilizing these techniques, we can all bring a greater understanding to what we do.
“White Space (Part 2)” looks at how the internet is creating another sort of white space. By having multitudes of information always available when we search for it, we can relax, clear our brains, and be ok with decentralized knowledge.
All of these approaches to white space lead to a hopeful reality for our emerging world:
Great ideas will win.
This is largely due to the technological changes happening right now, in real time. The internet is redefining “authority”.
Culturally, the playing field is leveling. It’s less about how much influence you can buy and more about how much influence you can earn. It’s about how good your ideas are and, of course, how well you communicate them.
Here’s why:
We’re in an opt-in world. Increasingly, we only consume the information and media that we want to. We self-select the influences we want to have and so we care more about what those people and brands say. Time-shifiting products like TiVo, DVRs, podcasts, other on-demand services, and even Google itself, mean that we get what we want when we want it. The role of interruption-based messages (like traditional advertising) is changing drastically.
Communities are evolving, and they’re going online. Instead of turning to big media outlets to tell us what’s happening and what’s cool, we are looking more and more to our hand-picked communities (or, as Seth Godin calls them, “tribes”). These tribes are developing online where we can create and digest tons of content, stay in touch with more people than ever, and essentially leverage our time, our expertise, and the value bring to the table.
All media is becoming “social media”. This means that we can engage with and/or contribute to the messages we consume like never before. Walls are down. Gatekeepers are dead. Ideas can spread with the click of a mouse or cell phone button. For example, if one of your Twitter messages is “retweeted” by a few folks and again retweeted by some of their friends, you’ve reached an audience of thousands within seconds. We have more potential for influence and power than ever before.
The real question is, what are we going to do with it?
Brody
P.S. A great example of this whole concept is that in a matter of days, over 1,000 people signed to participate 40 Days of Water, a Blood:Water Mission campaign to bring clean water to our neighbors in Africa. In the 2 days after launch, about 10,000 people had visited the special website dedicated to the campaign. All of this happened almost exclusively through social media and word of mouth. It’s incredible.
Wordswell had the privilege of building the website and software application that is supporting this campaign. You can sign up to participate by making water your only beverage for 40 days. Otherwise, if you’d like to donate to the cause, visit my profile page at http://40Days.bloodwatermission.com/brodybond.
It’s why we should all be excited about emerging web technologies. Here’s why:
We will no longer have to wade through the mire of content packed into tight, unsearchable places.
The old way
Jam lots of content into a printed newsletter. Force people to have to read though everything to find the pieces of content they actually want. Make sure none of this content is ever accessible again. Do not leverage this content outside the scope of your current audience. Oh, and spend lots of money to print and mail it.
The newer way
Put all of your content online – text, pictures, audio, and video. Allow users to see titles, summaries, categories, and tags to find what is useful to them. Make all this content searchable, both so that it can be found in the future and so outsiders might find something valuable to read. Store all this content for free (regardless of how many people see it). Allow folks to comment, share, link to, and otherwise engage your content.
The web lets us spread out information. It allows us to find information on demand. It’s like a proxemic white space.
It allows us to find those needles in the haystacks.
It allows us to breath.
It also levels the playing field of influence… but more on that in Part 3 next week.
“Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication” according to Leonardo da Vinci.
He’s right.
The best teachers, consultants, pastors, artists, and leaders all do the same thing: they make the complex simple. Does what you do fall into any of those categories?
What should you do when you have to explain something complex? How do you make it simple? Find a metaphor.
If someone doesn’t understand something, figure out a way to say, “Well, it’s just like…”.
Is he still not getting it? Use careful examples. Starting a phrase with “For example…” is one of the most powerful ways to bring meaning to what you are saying.
In graphic design and web design, simplicity is achieved through the use of white space.
What’s white space? Well, it’s just like what you would have when you clear away all the hay to find the needle.
For example, look at how simple it was to donate to Haiti relief efforts through the way this iTunes store page was designed and written:
When you look at something while listening to music, the thing you’re looking at takes on stunning new meaning. Music creates mood. That’s why great music is key in film and key in the communication of a message.
Music also implies story. Both music and story require the passing of time for them to even exist. Music is completely incoherent if all of the notes of a piece are played at once. Music only has meaning when notes are spread out over time and played in rhythm.
May I make an odd suggestion? Make sure that you have a strategic adviser that’s either a musician or someone who “gets” music deeply. Here’s why:
Music is art that is directly tied to time and process. What’s happening at any given moment only makes sense in the context of what has already happened and what will happen.
There’s movement. There’s change. There’s direction. There’s preparation. There’s fluidity. There’s purposeful tension and dissonance… that resolves. There’s story. And there’s meaning in it all.
Sound like something your organization needs? Music people get it. Have them write your song.
Mike will often talk about the concept of “ordering your loves.” Let me explain how I understand the idea:
Imagine you have these 3 ideas, goals, or let’s call them “loves”: vacation, money, and time at home. Let’s first note that none of those things are intrinsically bad (or good).
If you love vacation more than than you love time at home, that will directly affect how you plan your year. Just because you love vacation more than time at home doesn’t mean you’ll never be home. Rather, one priority informs the other, and in this case, you’ll be heading to the beach!
Now, let’s say you love money more than vacation. All of a sudden, there is a different and higher priority that informs your decision making. Now, though you love vacation more than time at home, you may actually be more inclined to stay at home so that you can save money. It’s a worthy sacrifice because you’re responding to a greater love.
Here’s the twist: let’s say you love your family more than you love money. Now what do you do? Which is more critical to the success of that even-greater love: vacation or staying at home (or saving money)? Moreover, what is a greater love than even your family? Your career? God? The environment?
There isn’t an answer. But there is a guiding principle: How you order your loves will directly affect the decisions you make.
What does your organization love? What are the order of those loves? What hills do you die on – and in what order?
Do your customers care about knowing those things? Absolutely.
This post is by Krister Dunn. He is the writer for “Connectivity,” a blog about relationships in the professional world.
Have you ever heard little kids laugh when they hear something they think is funny? My wife and I have 2 fantastic little boys, ages 4 and 2. They explode with laughter every time they hear Bono sing the line: “Ju Ju man, Ju Ju man” in Breathe… which they call, “that breathe song”.
The first time it happened I about jumped out of my skin. We were bouncing around town together while they were talking amongst themselves in the back seat. I was focused and already thinking of the next stop to make, pondering the lyrics earlier in the song, and wondering where to score my next cup of coffee when all of a sudden the explosion of laughter and “that guy said Ju Ju man, Dad!” came out of the back seat with a volume to rival any rock concert in history. The only thing that mattered to them in that moment was that they just heard some guy say, “Ju Ju man.”
Have you seen an example of the same message being heard in two different ways? Have you ever been through the same event with someone else and realized that you both had completely different experiences?
As a leader you may be focused on where you are going, what your organization is about, and how to keep yourself going; but what about your team? What about the people figuratively in your back seat? What message are they hearing? What is their experience along the way?
My kids experienced a great laugh. We had a family bonding moment. That’s personal. (And in my opinion, awesome.) However, in business, if your employees aren’t dialed in to where your organization is headed; if they aren’t focused and energized… then you might as well be zipping around town with the latest tunes crashing through the speakers. Which again, in your personal life can be a memory to treasure. Professionally speaking though, it may not be the best way to lead an organization. Just sayin’.
