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Inspiration

Shooting Higher & Teaching Kids About Food

February 12, 2010

This morning a little voice inside my head told me that I need to shoot higher with my goals, and in that moment, I realized that I have not done a very good job of aligning my desires with what I’m ultimately seeking in life.  I have focused on short-term goals as of late, and it’s time for me to look a little further out if I ever expect to get there.  As the morning progressed, I was fortunate to run across a very inspiring piece of content through Twitter.  I took the time to watch and I now have some much needed clarity on what I want to do next.

My friend Sean Wood tweeted about a TED award winner, Jamie Oliver that is advocating for what could prove to be one of the most important movements of our time – teaching kids about food.  In his words: “I wish for everyone to create a strong, sustainable movement to educate every child about food, inspire families to cook again and empower people everywhere to fight obesity.” This may not sound very exciting or conjure up the imagery that other major issues in our society bring forth, but trust me – this is a big one.  Perhaps this is even the biggest challenge we face in our ‘modern’ society today.  Check out this must-watch video (embedded below) and see if you don’t agree.  Hopefully it might even change your life.

In recent years, I have come to appreciate food more and certainly have a respect for fresh, local ingredients and home cooking.  I prefer to eat food that I have prepared myself or that friends, neighbors, and family have prepared with health in mind over eating out where I am less certain about what is on the plate in front of me.  Paying attention to the food that I eat has made a huge difference in my life, and my body is much happier now than it has ever been because of the good fuel that I’m feeding it regularly.

So, what does this have to do with shooting higher?  It occurs to me that this movement needs some serious attention and a coordinated effort by many different entities.  Governments, corporations, individuals, communities, schools, etc. all need to band together to fix the problems that we are facing in our food supply, which of course cause major health problems that cost everyone a lot of money and ultimately a lot of lives.  This is a big problem to tackle that will not be solved easily, so shooting high is necessary to make meaningful progress.  How do we start?

We are in an age of hyper-connectedness, which means that spreading the word about any topic you can imagine is easier now than it has ever been, particularly with kids.  The recent Pew Social Media & Mobile Internet Use Among Teens and Young Adults Report confirms that kids have more access to the internet and mobile phones more than ever, which of course is no surprise.  This provides an incredible opportunity to engage these kids in creative ways and help them understand the concerns and also the opportunities around food.  Consider the following statistics and charts:

  • Three‐quarters (75%) of teens and 93% of adults ages 18‐29 now have a cell phone.*
  • In the past five years, cell phone ownership has become mainstream among even the youngest teens. Fully 58% of 12‐year olds now own a cell phone, up from just 18% of such teens as recently as 2004.*
  • As of September 2009, 73% of online American teens ages 12-17 used an online social network website. *

*Pew Internet & American Life Project, Social Media & Mobile Internet Use Among Teens and Young Adults

Pew Internet & American Life Project

Pew Internet & American LIfe Project
Even more interesting is the fact that kids and adults are actively searching online for information on health and dieting.  Check out the charts below:

Pew Internet & American LIfe Project

Pew Internet & American LIfe Project

Now is the time to educate kids and adults on food and its importance to health and well-being.  People are looking, so we need to make sure they are finding good information, especially in social and mobile channels, which are clearly important connecting points across a broad spectrum of the population.

I also believe that the opportunity exists to transform the conversation around diet and health due to the extreme attention that has been paid to our health care situation in America as of late. The question is, who will be the key players that can frame the discussion for positive results?  I’m inspired by what the First Lady, Michelle Obama is spearheading with the Let’s Move initiative, which focuses on childhood obesity, diet, and exercise.  This is the kind of leadership that the issue needs in order to pick up steam.  Allison Rose Levy wrote a great article about the initiative yesterday.  Check it out here.   Looking ahead, who are the brands and organizations that will step up and become a driving force in this area?  Perhaps you work for one of them?  If so, let’s talk!

The opportunities are rife to expand this conversation with kids and young adults using social and mobile tools, and we need to shoot high to propel the message into the mainstream.  My goal with this post is to expand my own thinking and find out who is doing the ground work in this area so I can connect with them and discover how I can plug in.  It has been my intention to do meaningful work that makes a positive difference in the world, and I can’t think of a more worthy pursuit than this one.

This is what I’m doing today to shoot higher.  What about you?  Are there big ideas that you are working on?

Inspiration

Shooting Higher & Teaching Kids About Food

February 12, 2010

This morning a little voice inside my head told me that I need to shoot higher with my goals, and in that moment, I realized that I have not done a very good job of aligning my desires with what I’m ultimately seeking in life.  I have focused on short-term goals as of late, and it’s time for me to look a little further out if I ever expect to get there.  As the morning progressed, I was fortunate to run across a very inspiring piece of content through Twitter.  I took the time to watch and I now have some much needed clarity on what I want to do next.

My friend Sean Wood tweeted about a TED award winner, Jamie Oliver that is advocating for what could prove to be one of the most important movements of our time – teaching kids about food.  In his words: “I wish for everyone to create a strong, sustainable movement to educate every child about food, inspire families to cook again and empower people everywhere to fight obesity.” This may not sound very exciting or conjure up the imagery that other major issues in our society bring forth, but trust me – this is a big one.  Perhaps this is even the biggest challenge we face in our ‘modern’ society today.  Check out this must-watch video (embedded below) and see if you don’t agree.  Hopefully it might even change your life.

In recent years, I have come to appreciate food more and certainly have a respect for fresh, local ingredients and home cooking.  I prefer to eat food that I have prepared myself or that friends, neighbors, and family have prepared with health in mind over eating out where I am less certain about what is on the plate in front of me.  Paying attention to the food that I eat has made a huge difference in my life, and my body is much happier now than it has ever been because of the good fuel that I’m feeding it regularly.

So, what does this have to do with shooting higher?  It occurs to me that this movement needs some serious attention and a coordinated effort by many different entities.  Governments, corporations, individuals, communities, schools, etc. all need to band together to fix the problems that we are facing in our food supply, which of course cause major health problems that cost everyone a lot of money and ultimately a lot of lives.  This is a big problem to tackle that will not be solved easily, so shooting high is necessary to make meaningful progress.  How do we start?

We are in an age of hyper-connectedness, which means that spreading the word about any topic you can imagine is easier now than it has ever been, particularly with kids.  The recent Pew Social Media & Mobile Internet Use Among Teens and Young Adults Report confirms that kids have more access to the internet and mobile phones more than ever, which of course is no surprise.  This provides an incredible opportunity to engage these kids in creative ways and help them understand the concerns and also the opportunities around food.  Consider the following statistics and charts:

  • Three‐quarters (75%) of teens and 93% of adults ages 18‐29 now have a cell phone.*
  • In the past five years, cell phone ownership has become mainstream among even the youngest teens. Fully 58% of 12‐year olds now own a cell phone, up from just 18% of such teens as recently as 2004.*
  • As of September 2009, 73% of online American teens ages 12-17 used an online social network website. *

*Pew Internet & American Life Project, Social Media & Mobile Internet Use Among Teens and Young Adults

Pew Internet & American Life Project

Pew Internet & American LIfe Project
Even more interesting is the fact that kids and adults are actively searching online for information on health and dieting.  Check out the charts below:

Pew Internet & American LIfe Project

Pew Internet & American LIfe Project

Now is the time to educate kids and adults on food and its importance to health and well-being.  People are looking, so we need to make sure they are finding good information, especially in social and mobile channels, which are clearly important connecting points across a broad spectrum of the population.

I also believe that the opportunity exists to transform the conversation around diet and health due to the extreme attention that has been paid to our health care situation in America as of late. The question is, who will be the key players that can frame the discussion for positive results?  I’m inspired by what the First Lady, Michelle Obama is spearheading with the Let’s Move initiative, which focuses on childhood obesity, diet, and exercise.  This is the kind of leadership that the issue needs in order to pick up steam.  Allison Rose Levy wrote a great article about the initiative yesterday.  Check it out here.   Looking ahead, who are the brands and organizations that will step up and become a driving force in this area?  Perhaps you work for one of them?  If so, let’s talk!

The opportunities are rife to expand this conversation with kids and young adults using social and mobile tools, and we need to shoot high to propel the message into the mainstream.  My goal with this post is to expand my own thinking and find out who is doing the ground work in this area so I can connect with them and discover how I can plug in.  It has been my intention to do meaningful work that makes a positive difference in the world, and I can’t think of a more worthy pursuit than this one.

This is what I’m doing today to shoot higher.  What about you?  Are there big ideas that you are working on?

Social Media Strategy

What Do Consumers Really Want from Brands in Social Media?

November 9, 2009

Important

Razorfish has just come out with their very smart FEED report that digs into behavior of ‘connected consumers,’ which are the ones that most of us are trying to reach with our online and social campaigns.  The report goes into detail about what these connected consumers are doing and how they are engaging online.  The statistics are pretty amazing, although not altogether surprising (to me at least).

According to the report:

“Based on our 2009 Razorfish Digital Brand Experience Study, 65% of consumers report having had a digital experience that either positively or negatively changed their opinion about a brand. Of that group, a nearly unanimous 97% say that their digital experience influenced whether or not they eventually purchased a product or service from that brand.”

This is pretty straightforward, and should definitely grab some marketers’ attentions.  I certainly hope so!

The piece in the report that caught me was that consumers are looking for deals on social media, and they are not necessarily there because they share the brand’s values.  This definitely raises an important point and it’s a good idea to probe a bit on this to figure out how best to capitalize on this insight. Here are a few thoughts on this:

1. Economics. I think it’s worth noting that we are coming out of a recession and naturally consumers are looking for deals online.  I bet this explains some of the info on what people are looking for in social channels.  But beyond just money, people want something unique or different – something that the average consumer isn’t getting.  Of course, the easy thing to do is just offer a discount or some kind of sale.  But there’s more that we can offer to satisfy consumer appetite in social channels. Let’s not throw the baby out with the bath water just yet please.

2. Unique Content. There are other ways to reward consumers for being a friend/fan/follower of a brand outside of the typical discounts or sales.  Interestingly, in the FEED report, Whole Foods was cited as one of the brands that is ‘getting it’ and offering info on weekly specials AND shopping tips.  The latter is something that probably costs them very little, but helps customers have a better shopping experience with Whole Foods.  Is this valuable?  You bet it is.  This is getting more into the mind of the customer and really helping them outside of just financial rewards (discounts).

3. Advance Info. Social channels give us the ability to make announcements quickly, and give fans, followers, friends, etc. a ‘heads up’ that something big is happening.  Making big announcements via social channels is a great way to reward these fans that make public proclamations of their brand support.  And of course, the mix of communications is important here.  We don’t want to fall into the trap of only pushing out messages that we want our audience to respond to, but those messages should be peppered in along with other messages that are truly useful to the community.

4. Limited Editions. Nothing groundbreaking here, but this is a concept that can be utilized in social channels to keep fans happy.  If there is a limited edition item that can be announced and made available through exclusively social channels, then this can be used as a thank you to the members of the community.  This not only rewards the community, but it encourages the viral effect, because those who don’t have access to the limited edition item will no doubt want to know why.  When they find out, it’s a good bet that they will join the community so they are in the know the next time around.

5.  Special Events. Inviting fans to a special event is another easy way to show appreciation and reward them for sticking around.  Another old-school tactic, but one that translates well into social channels.  How easy is it to send out an invite to an event via social media?  Pretty easy.  Is this something that the community would value?  Probably so.  This one may cost some money, depending on what the event is, but the potential upside may be worth the investment if done properly.

These are just a few thoughts that come to mind after reading the FEED report.  I certainly think that providing deals and discounts is a strong proposition for many brands, particularly in the current economic climate, but this isn’t the only way to generate loyalty in social media.  In the end, it’s not about the channel – it’s about Marketing.  Some things don’t change just because there is better technology and more communication channels we can use.  Sometimes you have to get back to the basics and figure out creative ways to connect with your audience without falling back on price cuts or sales.

Download the full FEED report here.

Special thanks to @gschmitt and the Razorfish crew for this outstanding report.  It’s a must-read for any marketer.  Give it a read and I’d love to hear your take on what this means for brands.

Social Media Strategy

The 60% of 'Non-Pointless Babble' on Twitter

August 21, 2009

BabbleA recent study conducted by Pear Analytics raises some interesting questions on the opportunities for brands and marketers on Twitter.  Of course, many of the subsequent articles have focused on the 40% of ‘Pointless babble’ that was the highest scoring answer.  Let’s be honest – it would appear on the surface that the survey selections were skewed to show Twitter as an unfavorable medium for marketing with ‘Pointless babble’ being a choice in the survey.  Wouldn’t a more neutral choice such as ‘General chatter’ or something that is less biased have been more appropriate?

Either way, that still leaves the other 60% of tweets that have potential value for marketers.  For example, the second highest scoring selection was ‘Conversational’ with 37%.  If we are doing our jobs as marketers in social media, isn’t this really the sweet spot we should be focusing on?  Throw in the ‘Pass along value’ and ‘News’ tweets, and you have what is arguably a substantial volume of activity that has potential to provide value to marketers and consumers.  I think the glass if half full here.  Babble or no babble, there is real opportunity for those who choose to tune in and participate.

If another report came out tomorrow that concluded that a low percentage of people used TV for ‘Watching dumb commercials’, should we call into question the effectiveness of advertising on TV?  Of course not. Perhaps this is just a case of people not understanding how to filter out the noise and benefit from the dialogue on Twitter.  Email spam is a big issue too, but most people haven’t stopped using email to communicate.  There is no reason to throw the baby out with the bath water here.  We can choose to ignore the babble and focus on the real value that lies in the conversation.

Social Media Strategy

The 60% of ‘Non-Pointless Babble’ on Twitter

August 21, 2009

BabbleA recent study conducted by Pear Analytics raises some interesting questions on the opportunities for brands and marketers on Twitter.  Of course, many of the subsequent articles have focused on the 40% of ‘Pointless babble’ that was the highest scoring answer.  Let’s be honest – it would appear on the surface that the survey selections were skewed to show Twitter as an unfavorable medium for marketing with ‘Pointless babble’ being a choice in the survey.  Wouldn’t a more neutral choice such as ‘General chatter’ or something that is less biased have been more appropriate?

Either way, that still leaves the other 60% of tweets that have potential value for marketers.  For example, the second highest scoring selection was ‘Conversational’ with 37%.  If we are doing our jobs as marketers in social media, isn’t this really the sweet spot we should be focusing on?  Throw in the ‘Pass along value’ and ‘News’ tweets, and you have what is arguably a substantial volume of activity that has potential to provide value to marketers and consumers.  I think the glass if half full here.  Babble or no babble, there is real opportunity for those who choose to tune in and participate.

If another report came out tomorrow that concluded that a low percentage of people used TV for ‘Watching dumb commercials’, should we call into question the effectiveness of advertising on TV?  Of course not. Perhaps this is just a case of people not understanding how to filter out the noise and benefit from the dialogue on Twitter.  Email spam is a big issue too, but most people haven’t stopped using email to communicate.  There is no reason to throw the baby out with the bath water here.  We can choose to ignore the babble and focus on the real value that lies in the conversation.