The Best 15:37 of Your Day: Rob Forbes on Ways of Seeing

This TED talk delivered all the way back in 2006, is even more relevant today. Looking at the world and interpreting the patterns and designs around us becomes more difficult by the day.

Rob Forbes, the founder of Design Within Reach, and more recently PUBLIC, a design-based alternate transit business, takes us on a tour of how he views the world.

Mr. Forbes shares some great ideas in his TED talk. Here are a few more ideas to consider when working to spark your own creativity:
1. Walk the streets. Walking in places both familiar and new will bring new ideas and patterns to you. You will be able to experience them with all of your senses and consider how they function collectively.

2. Put down the phone. You can only experience the world when you are in it.

3. Pick up your phone, but as a camera. Archive your experiences. This can be accomplished by photos, notes, sketches or verbal notes. Whatever works for you. Organize them in different ways. Consider viewing your various collections by color, or subject. You might be surprised what ideas develop.

4. Small can be huge. The smallest vignette sometimes brings the biggest ideas. I like to call them the 'unexpected delight.' These can be a sidewalk pattern, a handwritten sign, most anything.

5. Be a consummate student. Ask questions. Read, read, read. Then read some more. Learn about the bridge you walk over daily. Find out why that sculpture you enjoy is there. Knowledge is truly power.

6. Don't view the world with a commercial mind. If you are seeking a specific product to develop or monetize, you won't get the full value of your experience. File away your specific challenges, but stay open to simply experiencing the world around you. Then overlay later how those ideas may be used to address your challenges.

7. Frequency equals success. The more often you can turn your mind to truly viewing the world, the more you will get out of it. Try an attempt it once a week on your walk to lunch. Then continue to increase the frequency.    
       
As we enter 2013, we should all take a fresh look at how we view the world. We are entering a time that Mr. Forbes saw forming years ago. An age that values fewer material goods, but ones that are quality and well-designed. An age of curation over our lives and our possessions. It is exciting, but will require that the innovators work hard to interpret our world and respond to it.

Enjoy. Then start really seeing your world.

The Best 3:51 of Your Day: The Technology of Storytelling

Do you know Lothar Meggendorfer? You probably don't, but you most certainly have enjoyed his invention as a child and perhaps as an adult. This talented 19th century German illustrator is credited with inventing the pop-up book. The self proclaimed story telling artist and creator, Joe Sabia (on Facebook) gives us a brief and entertaining glimpse into the technology of storytelling. Using his own humorous style based in technology, he gives us a nice starting point for further conversation.  

Does technology harm our storytelling abilities? I would say yes, but it doesn't have to. 
Did we falter in creative storytelling when moving from oral tradition to written? How about to movable type, or radio, television, computers... These are all simply devices that are there for us to shape and use. A child can explore amazing worlds sitting in the pile of dirt with a stick, but having the majority of all human knowledge at their fingertips shouldn't be the limiter to that exploration. Shifting how we educate our children is what will preserve, and even grow our creative spirit and our storytelling abilities. 

Robert Sabuda "Wizard of Oz" 

It is crucial that we encourage freedom of exploration and allow kids to explore the full gamut of storytelling traditions. Give them the basic tools of language and grammar to fully tell their story and stop fighting so hard to confine their learning to standardized tests. We are already seeing that simple acquisition and retention of knowledge is not what sets us apart anymore. It is the ability to efficiently seek out knowledge, curate it, build off it, create new ideas from it and convey it to others. Funny enough, these are the same skills that most employers need to be looking for.

Once again, TED has given me fodder for exploring my own new ideas and storytelling. Thank you.   

Joe Sabia: The Technology of Storytelling

Most Valuable Digital Consumers: An Infographic

Nielsen recently released an interesting infographic related to how consumers use social media.

They followed that up with one highlighting mobile use and local social media engagement. 

Not surprising is that 64% of parents use social media to learn about brands before purchase. 

The group most likely to comment on social media posts are age 20-27. What this means to me is that looking solely at analytics and judging who is influenced is the wrong approach. There are a lot of lurkers who don't interact much but are influenced by social media. 

This is especially true in localized and mobile. The growth of people using mobile devices to find a business or product is growing exponentially. The days of focusing active mobile and local engagement in key high-use markets such as San Francisco are gone. 

Creating an effective, if not robust, presence is ideal. I posted recently on how curating your presence is the key to social media success. This is especially true when you understand how and where consumers are engaging with your online presence.

Understanding how people engage with your brand online is important, but if you don't know your customer and have a strong brand all of your social media activation will be wasted.   

via NielsenWire

Via NielsenWire

Via NielsenWire

Curating is the Key to Social Media Success

Recently I wrote about the benefits of "curating your life" in the post Buy Less, Benefit More. The theory is that by simplifying your life, buying fewer but more meaningful things will improve your life. I also posit that retailers and business will benefit from more consumers leading smaller, more meaningful lives.

Today I want to talk briefly about your social media life. Well, your brands social media life. Most experts contend that you are doing your brand a disservice by not embracing the social media world fully. They will talk about multiple touch points and active and passive engagement. Indeed, it is true that you need to be available and accessible via social media. Geo-locating is also crucial for most retailers in this new world. A new study by JiWire that we referenced yesterday in the post Your Mom Buys More Online Than You, clearly shows that the majority of consumers research and find information about your products online. They study reviews and price compare, they geo-locate to find the nearest retailer and increasingly they buy online. But there is a problem with this.

When you build social media channels for your business, you are creating rooms for consumers to experience your products and services. Those virtual rooms must be branded, updated, staffed and managed. Just as you would not open a retail store and then ignore it for months, you must actively engage and manage your virtual store. A brand management plan must be created. Staff must be trained and customers responded to. ROI must be assessed. Investments must be made. That is where we get to the curated part.

I am not saying that any business should abandon a channel in social media. However, depending upon budget and ability you may have to consider converting some social media channels to sign posts. Feeder areas that direct people to an actively managed "room" where they can gain the contact and brand experience you want them to have. That does not mean that you still shouldn't actively monitor all of your social media channels. After all, you don't control your social media rooms fully. Others have the ability to influence for you. For effectively monitoring your online reputation and activity we have been excited to explore Datasift, a real-time data feed monitor. 

Finally, curating what you convey to your customers is vital. Mark Twain was once credited with saying "I would have written you a shorter letter, but I didn't have the time." Just as in Mr. Twain's time, curating your message takes time and is hard work, but it is more valuable than ever. Clear and on-brand messaging will set you apart from the cluttered world of social media. Create a curated and managed social media life, align that with a curated offline presence that matches and then run both as you would a great retail store and you will be on the way to success.