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:

1. 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.
2. 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.
3. 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.

We were able to talk to a handful of folks who attended our training seminar last Friday. We grabbed them while they were walking out the door of an info-packed day. Cut them a break if they look a little tired. We worked them.

Dick Morgan

Joe Brandli

Barry Sheehan

Richard Criste

Jonathan Nelson

Brandon Marsh

Josh Crist

Greg Rittler

Brody Bond

Recently, Mike Metzger of the Clapham Institute wrote a piece called “Peer Pressure”. Metzger described a research study that looked at what message motivated people to reuse their towels in a hotel. Here’s the summary: appealing to folks to “do the right thing” didn’t work. Instead, telling folks that “most guests in this room reuse their towels” did work.

The conclusion? Metzger writes, “People tend to conform to social customs, or what others call peer pressure. When people discover what most of their peers are already doing, they’re more likely to begin doing it themselves.” (Emphasis mine.) When there is “social proof” that something is a good idea, more people hop on the bandwaggon.

So how can you get your customers socially proving that other people should spend their time or money with you?

First of all, we need to understand that people have an unprecedented number of options when it comes to finding the goods and services they want. Additionally, the providers of goods and services now have new and innumerable ways of communicating about their brand. Both are largely the result of the forces of the internet.

In light of this, brands and organizations need to start adopting tribe mentalities. Meaning, your best chance at success is through ever-expanding influence. For more info on tribes and marketing, google Seth Godin.

In a tribe mentality, you as the leader (the brand that people love) need to create your own cultural norms, customs, and even your own language. These all contribute to a shared experience amongst your fans and members – and they create the dynamic that is the tribe. Metzger puts it this way, “People tend to convert to what their surrounding culture tells them is normative.”

Never before has this been so important, and never before have there been so many tools to do this. Social media is a key set of tools you can be strategically using to create your own normative culture. Social media is the easiest and fastest way for you to gain social proof that you’re worth the attention of others.

Make sure that you are creating customer experiences that make them want to vouch for you. Once you do that, make sure you’re helping to create venues where they can share their experience. The tools exist. Ever hear of a “re-tweet”?

We’ve been learning and experimenting (ok, playing) with Foursquare recently.

What’s Foursquare?

Basically, every time you go somewhere – your favorite restaurant, coffee shop, office, gym, appointment (anywhere that’s a destination) – you “check in” as being there. Typically, this works best with a GPS-enabled mobile device like an iPhone.

For instance, last night a friend, my wife, and I go out to dinner at Holy Frijoles, a Mexican restaurant in Hampden, Baltimore. When we get there, I launch Foursquare on my iPhone, it locates my position, and gives some probable options for where I am. I check in at Holy Frijoles, and voilà, the world knows where I am:

“I’m at Holy Frijoles (908 W 36th St, @ Elm Ave, Baltimore). http://bit.ly/3QuNYy“

Of course, my friends on Foursquare get notified about this (often through a text message, if they have that feature turned on). But my Foursquare updates are linked to my Twitter account. My Twitter updates are linked to my Facebook account. Soon, and through a one-click process, I’ve told my entire circle of influence where I am.

Great… another tool for over-sharing, right? Not so fast…

What happens if I went to Holy Frijoles every week? What happens if I went there so often that Foursquare claimed that I was the “Mayor” of Holy Frijoles? What happens if someone else wanted to chase that crown and started eating there more? What happens if I was proud of my position and started eating there even more to keep my title?

What happens if there was an incentive for the Mayor of Holy Frijoles? You’d be surprized what I’d do for a free margarita.

Meanwhile, everytime we’re “checking in” at Holy Frijoles, we’re personally vouching for that brand visibly through our entire networks on Foursqure, Twitter, and Facebook. Talk about word-of-mouth advertising (the free kind). Wow!

But what’s this whole business about being a “Mayor”? Basically, Foursquare keeps track of what you do, when you do it, etc. There are different point values you earn by doing certain tasks. For instance, if you go to a gym enough times in a month, you earn the badge “Gym Rat”. If you go to you gym enough, you’ll soon be the Mayor of the gym. For more information on this points system, Mayors, and badges, check out Foursquare’s web site.

Foursquare is a developing platform. The number of titles and badges available to earn is certain to grow. It’s a game. But it can be played (and won) by anyone – including your customers.

Now the question is, how is your organization going to become a prize?

Wordswell can help you coordinate a plan Foursquare for your business as part of a larger social media strategy. Drop us a line any time.

Wordswell has recently gotten some press.

First, Brody had a “tweet of the week” according to Bmore Media. See Brody’s famous Twitter update here.

Also, Brody was on the local news recently. WMAR-TV (Baltimore Channel 2) brought him in as a social media expert to talk about the plague of over-sharing on Facebook. Despite the horribly dumb look on Brody’s face at the beginning of the interview, it’s a good discussion on some social media theory.

This billboard in New Zealand may be controversial but I guarantee it will get good results. It reminds me of the recent PSA about texting while you are driving but this is even more compelling to me.

This video speaks for itself. Wordswell helps organizations navigate this new reality as part of a brand development process.

You’ve heard that social media is all about “engagement” – and it certainly is. But it is also about serving your clients. More about that in a later post…