Author: Carl Setzer

While reading the latest post of Don Dodge’s “Next Big Thing”, I was reminded of what I call the “blamearama”. We’ve all seen it. Something goes wrong in a project, or any other endeavor, and everyone points the fingers at everyone else. Rooted in fear, it’s a particular issue in large companies, where everyone is risk adverse and living in terror of failing. Oddly, so many companies afflicted with this also think they’re innovative. There is NO innovation without risk. One can incrementally improve, refine execution and such, but no innovation, no radical change will come out of that mindset.

Only in an environment where you can openly say “these are the things I would do differently next time”, and not worry about being fired, can innovation thrive. In a healthy, innovative and creative environment, you are encouraged to take risks and be open to new ideas.

I also believe that, even in large companies where risk-aversion is the norm, it’s still possible to focus on quality and abandon the need to blame. To be open to changing circumstances and assuming the best if your staff. At that point you can start to achieve execution excellence, to hear all points of view and all pieces of process. Openly understand where the breakdowns occur and find ways to overcome them. I do believe this is possible.

Speed is a core part of the blogosphere. Current event discussions happen fast, pretty much instantly. To be relevant in that dialog, one must write fast, post quickly. That’s dangerous, I fear. It’s how innuendo and rumor become accepted facts. We writers become so focused on relevance that we lose sight of accuracy.

Consider disaster coverage. Networks feel obligated to divert all coverage, even when there’s nothing to say. So desperate for something, and wanting to get the “scoop”, pure junk often gets dumped into the discussion. I’ve found that it often takes days to weed through the initial coverage to find accuracy.

Ironically, that said, I still feel a compulsion to watch that event unfold. I’ll remain glued, catching every detail, all the while knowing that a high percentage is pure bunk. I drive me crazy, I guess.

Another example, methinks, of change begins with me. I understand at a deeper level, so why do I engage the same way. I need to let my knowledge guide me. And don’t continue rewarding that media behavior. Ultimately, news is driven be views. Needing eyeballs upon itself, viewership (whether page hits or Neilson ratings) pays the bills.

Just read this piece over at PCWorld. Geez, it just seems that the parties involved are hell-bent on damaging their own brand. First, Facebook still is denying that they were trying to smear Google. Please! Gotta call BS on that. If this was about “the people”, then do it openly. Facebook seems to think we’re stupid. Own up, grow up and move along.

And Burson-Marsteller…the “pros”. I’m shocked they accepted this project, though give them credit for owning up and giving a mea culpa. But I’m stunned that they went and deleted a negative comment from their Facebook page. At times like this, you must be hyper vigilant and extremely sensitive.

Both Facebook and Burson need to grasp they’ve damaged trust. Angry denouncements only expand that divide. Every decision in the near-term needs to be focused on rebuilding trust. I don’t know if they’ll find themselves with lost profits or such, but the potential exists. Trust is the currency of the modern economy. Especially in social media (Facebook) and PR (Burson).

As I’m updating my resume and looking over past work, I came across some media tracking spreadsheets I’d crafted. The company is international, but the data I had was (mostly) national (US), with little bits of Canada thrown in. Anyway, what I received were spreadsheets from an agency covering all media stories. The main thing I did with this was break it down by focus (positive vs. negative, for the most part).

So, I’ve been considering what I would do differently now. This is just a stream of ideas, so please understand them as such. I would like to build reports with more depth. Look at regional coverage. Map out city by city, etc, across the globe if possible. Layer this on top of a map. Then with that report I’d break out positive, negative & neutral focus. It’s important to note that it’s hard to ascertain focus when one doesn’t see the coverage. Anyway, I also thought it would be good to look at what’s generating the coverage: new products, new markets, “issues” (which should be tracked by individual issues/campaigns. It would be elucidating to track how the issue moves across the landscape.). I also would add social media to this. I want to see/show how awareness is impacted by those tools.

On a technical note, I would not use Excel for data collection. Collect raw data in a database. The challenge is being proactive with the structure. I’d love to build something that was accessible at a more macro level. Perhaps with SQL and displayed in a Sharepoint site. I have an aversion to myriad individual databases globally distributed.

Anyway, I’m learning and growing.

I’ve been enjoying Storycorps for years. The ones aired on NPR always seem to touch me, either warming my heart and bringing tears. And each one seems to be my new favorite.

I’ve just discovered the little animated bits that they’ve been putting together with the articles. This one (below) follows the tradition of becoming my new favorite. The grandmother of this story reminds me so very much of one of my own.

So, enjoy!

I sit here watching one of those “save the world and starving children” pitches. You know the ones; watching some child in the ruins of poverty, tears flowing down their face. As I’ve developed a deep and abiding cynicism of marketing of any stripe, these tend to annoy me (and I’m a liberal). Yet, yet I know the reason these tactics are used; it works. It’s what gets people off the couch and to the phone/web. I suppose I should embrace this, the effectiveness. However, I wish that we could become deeper, that we could be reached by the logic and compassion of the need. That we weren’t so numb. I guess I shall continue with that wish for some time to come.