FC Experts Blogs
Brian Reich
January 1, 2008
First Thought Of The Year: Media Rules!
In 2008, organizations will have to do better. They will have to change the way they approach communications if they want to succeed.
When it comes to communicating with an ever-evolving audience, today’s organizations have more than enough tools to get the job done -- television, radio, newspapers, blogs, podcasts, social networks, search, advertising, and much more. But something is missing. Something is not working. The combination of rapid technological innovation and continuous social shifts have left many organizations -- from the largest corporation to the smallest nonprofit -- struggling to stay focused and execute their ideas.
I believe the key is little 'm' media - the information, the experiences, and the stuff that we consume and share every day.
If organizations operate and communicate adopt a little 'm' media-centric strategy, putting information, experiences, or stuff -- not technology -- at the center of their activites they will not only survive, but thrive. If they look for new ways of operating, new models to better serve their audience and live up to the full potential that technology provides as a vehicle for delivering media, they will distinguish themselves and the audience will follow.
Happy 2008. Let's get started.
Brian is the author of Media Rules!: Mastering Today's Technology to Connect With and Keep Your Audience. • brian@themediarules.com • www.themediarules.com
Posted by Brian Reich at 9:34 AM
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November 6, 2007
Questions for the Crowd
My wife and I are days away from having our first child. We have been getting ready for months - building the nursery, picking out names, buying car seats, strollers, clothes, and everything else you can imagine. I am pleased to say I feel completely prepared, not really nervous at all about what is about to come into our lives. Ok, maybe I am a little nervous, but nothing that will stop me in tracks. Mostly I am anxious (in a good way), curious about what will happen to our lives, excited about having a new member of the family and all the things that I can help teach him/her (we don't know the sex yet), and what I will learn from him/her.
Of course, my head is full of questions about how having a baby will impact my work life. I will take some time off after the baby is born, probably three or four weeks, and then resume what I would imagine is a pretty normal work schedule. But I really have no idea what my life will be like in a few months, let alone a few years. Hence the questions.
Rather than keep all those questions inside, I wanted to ask a few of them to you, my Fast Company extended family. For those of you who are parents, I hope you will respond with your own thoughts and stories -- your experiences and recommendations from when you had kids. For those of you who aren't parents (or aren't parents yet), your experiences and opinions are just as valuable, so please leave a comment or shoot me a note as well.
Ok, here are the questions I keep thinking about:
- How will my feelings about work change? Will I still want to get up in the morning and go to work, if it means having to leave my baby for the day?
- How will my relationship with clients change? Am I going to be at a disadvantage because I won't be able to go out socializing with a client?
- How will my relationship with colleagues change? I work with a lot of younger people -- folks who are just getting married, probably not thinking about kids at all. Are they going to see me differently now that I am a daddy?
- Will I become more creative than I was before? Being a parent means an opportunity to meet all sorts of new people, read different books and watch different TV shows, learn about a whole new category of things. Will that help me come up with better answers and more ideas for my projects?
- Will my work habits change? I have this vision of working between baby naps, early morning and late at night -- wherever I can steal away a few seconds of uninterrupted time. Am I crazy to think I can do that, or that I will want to do that?
I know that parenting, like everything else, is about balance. And I know that most of my questions are heavily weighted towards one extreme or the other. And like I said abvoe, I don't think I am nervous about the changes that will occur - more curious, and excited. My way of learning is to collect lots of opinions and stories and then try to process what wilil work best for me. So, I hope that you will be willing to share some of your experiences about work life after having a baby. And maybe a whole discussion will come from this - I sure hope so.
As for the rest, I will keep you posted.
Direct of New Media, Cone Inc. • Boston, MA • breich@coneinc.com • www.coneinc.com
Posted by Brian Reich at 9:20 AM
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September 25, 2007
What's In Your Attic?
I put my fax machine in the attic over the weekend.
The fax machine works just fine. There was nothing wrong with it. My wife and I were cleaning out our home office to make room for baby (which arrives in November). And, we just didn’t use it any more. The attic seemed like a natural (final?) resting place.
Farewell my fax machine.
Continue reading "What's In Your Attic?"Posted by Brian Reich at 9:13 AM
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September 13, 2007
Innovation: Lessons From a Car Shopping Experience
My wife and I are shopping for a new car. We know what features we want and have narrowed the field to three different vehicles -- the Acura MDX, the Honda Pilot, and the Toyota Highlander (ideally a hybrid). This past weekend we set out to test drive all three vehicles to help determine which of the three vehicle best presented those features – and hopefully move us closer to a final decision.
Before I tell you what happened, let me share a quick thought about sales and marketing.
In my view, every interaction between an organization and an individual member of their audience is a transaction, of equal importance to the one immediately prior or the one to follow. Every review, every welcome you receive when you first enter an office, every e-mail or phone call to customer service impacts the decision-making process of your audience on an equally important level. Do that well, and you will be successful. Make mistakes and they will haunt you.
Our experience at the car dealership showed me how true this really is in practice.
Here is what happened:
Posted by Brian Reich at 10:26 AM
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July 16, 2007
Innovation: Age of Conversation
(Author Note: This post is partly about innovation, and partly about shameless self promotion)
Today marks the official release of Age of Conversation.
What is Age of Conversation? It is a precedent setting collaborative book-writing effort between 100+ bloggers and other new media types. It is a model for how information will be produced and shared in the future. Oh yeah, and its a book - something you can go online today and buy (with all proceeds going to charity) and get creative insights from the best minds in the new media space.
There is more information online at www.ageofconversation.com.
Keep reading for a little background on how it all came together:
Posted by Brian Reich at 9:26 AM
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July 2, 2007
Leadership: Giving 100%, 100% of the time
Is it possible to give 100% of your effort, energy and focus to your job, 100% of the time? Is it a good idea? And if it is a good idea, for how long can you reasonably keep up that level of activity?
That question is on my mind a lot today.
Yesterday, in a somewhat stunning announcement, Seattle Mariners manager, Mike Hargrove, announced that he was resigning his post. This was shocking on two fronts: first, the major league baseball season is in full swing - we haven't even reached the figurative halfway point of the season, the All-Start Break. And second, the Mariners are the hottest team in baseball, riding an eight game winning streak to a position within spitting distance of leads in both the AL West and Wild Card races.
What was he thinking?
Continue reading "Leadership: Giving 100%, 100% of the time"Posted by Brian Reich at 8:11 AM
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June 4, 2007
My Case for the iPhone
The iPhone will go on sale June 29th. That leaves you approximately three weeks to convince your VP of Technology (or similar) to invest in one for you to use at work. I put a very quick memo together last week to my VP of technology and thought I would share the salient points with you.
Keep in mind, my arguments (below) are designed to convince my office to invest in iPhones as additional devices, not replacements for our Treo/MotorolaQ/Blackberry devices that people already have and use widely.
Here you go:
Continue reading "My Case for the iPhone"Posted by Brian Reich at 6:03 AM
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May 29, 2007
Summer Vacation
The Tuesday after Memorial Day marks the unofficial beginning of summer. Congratulations! You made it! For the next three months you have permission to take it easy, slack off a bit, let your deadlines slide. Don't worry, everyone does it.
For many companies, summer hours are now in effect. Everyone is encouraged to leave the office around mid-day on Fridays. Go ahead, start your weekend early. That forty hour week thing, really it's only the Americans who observe it anyway.
Corporate outings are now going to take place at the ballpark, on the beach, or near a softball field. Don't worry - the client won't read that document until Monday anyway. Make sure to buy enough hot dogs for the grill before you arrive!
White shoes are now fashionably appropriate. Ok, that may not have a huge impact on business, or work/life balance, but it could if you really think about it. Wearing shorts to the office may be taking it too far, even during the summer, but just about anything else goes.
And don't forget to put your planned vacation time into the company schedule. We need to make sure and have appropriate coverage for all our projects. I don't know what appropriate coverage means, but it sounds like a good idea.
Continue reading "Summer Vacation"Posted by Brian Reich at 6:12 AM
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May 15, 2007
When is it Appropriate to Celebrate?
I fly several times a month for work. This week I flew from Boston to Los Angeles and back, via New York/Connecticut. Next week I will fly from Boston to Austin, then on to San Francisco and back. While I would love to fly on just one airline and get into a routine, it never quite works out -- so I see a lot of different terminals, use a lot of different carriers. I have seen the best and the worst of the airline industry.
Yesterday, while flying from Boston to Los Angeles, I had an interesting experience. The head flight attendant came over the PA system and announced that they had champagne on board -- get this, to celebrate their airline's emergence from bankruptcy a week earlier. Apparently to mark the occasion they had served all (of age) passengers with bubbly, toasting their own good fortune, and had some left-overs if anyone was interested.
Is celebrating emergence from bankruptcy an appropriate thing for an airline to do?
Posted by Brian Reich at 9:10 AM
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May 3, 2007
Are Business Books Useless?
I handed in the first draft manuscript of a book that I have written about the future of media and communications to my editor last week.
The day after I sent everything off, I read this post from Seth Godin:
Every year, more than a thousand new 'business' books get published in the US. Not textbooks or manuals, but general interest books about how to do business better. Some sell a few hundred copies. Some sell a few hundred thousand. One or two might sell a million. Out of a potential audience of 30 or 40 million white collar workers in the US.
He goes on to talk about how most business books are useless -- except for his own of course -- and that the conversation about how to be successful in business needs to change.
Are all business books useless?
Continue reading "Are Business Books Useless?"Posted by Brian Reich at 1:13 AM
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April 23, 2007
The Day After Yesterday, Now What
The environment is hot right now (no pun intended).
In the days and weeks leading up to Earth Day, businesses of all shapes and sizes jumped on the environmental bandwagon. Home Depot announced a line of environmentally friendly products and handed out a million energy efficient lightbulbs to customers for free over the weekend. Television networks and movie studios are rolling out green-themed storylines in their new shows this fall. The media got into the game as well with dozens of magazines publishing green issues and institutions like The Washington Post and National Geographic launching unique “green” content sites (the Washington Post's new site, for example, is http://sprig.com).
And that is just the tip of the iceberg (again, no pun intended)
Continue reading "The Day After Yesterday, Now What"Posted by Brian Reich at 4:35 AM
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April 15, 2007
Change the Baseball Schedule
Five of the fifteen games on the major league baseball schedule today are rained out (so far). A week ago, the Seattle Mariners and Cleveland Indians had a four-game series snowed out. And according to Billy-Ball, a daily rundown of baseball stats and analysis, "There have been 32 games this season in which the temperature has been below 45 for the first pitch. This is more than three times the total for the entire 2006 season (10)."
With Earth Day just a week away the issue of climate change is on nearly everyone's mind. But this post is not about the environment. I am not here to preach about global warming, its causes, or science in general. No, this is a post about how sports, and Major League Baseball in particular, need to consider changes to their schedule and the way they operate -- or risk becoming victims of our changing climate.
Continue reading "Change the Baseball Schedule"Posted by Brian Reich at 12:15 PM
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April 6, 2007
A Pitch for Innovation
Go read today's New York Times article about Pat Venditte.
Who is he? He is the only ambidextrous pitcher in NCAA Division 1 college baseball. I also think he is a metaphor for how organizations should hire and train their staff.
Continue reading "A Pitch for Innovation"Posted by Brian Reich at 5:06 PM
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April 3, 2007
Letting Sports Information Spread
This is one of the great weeks of the sports year. Monday marked the opening of the Major League Baseball season and the finale of NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament. Tonight the women will crown their own NCAA basketball champion. And Thursday, in Augusta, Georgia, the best golfers in the world will tee off for the the first major tournament of the year, The Masters.
Online sports reporting and discussion is big business -- fantasy sports leagues are a $1.5 billion business that is expected to grow exponentially in the coming years. And, thousands of sports blogs and other sites are buzzing around the clock with debates about everything from wins and losses to trades and scandals. But all is not well in the world of sports.
Continue reading "Letting Sports Information Spread"Posted by Brian Reich at 5:52 AM
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March 29, 2007
A Better Recycling Plan for Boston?
Will you help me create a better recycling plan for Boston?
I live in Cambridge and commute to Boston every morning. I subscribe to the print edition of the New York Times and read it every morning as I commute into work on the T. I always carry the paper into my office and recycle it when I get here -- the T stations I frequent (Harvard Square, Park Street, and Copley) don't have recycle bins. Most of my fellow commuters throw their copies of their morning paper (generally the Globe, Herald or the Metro - our daily tabloid) away in the garbage cans near the exit to the station.
This seems like a tremendous waste and environmental disaster that can be easily avoided. So, how can I get commuters in Boston to recycle more?
Continue reading "A Better Recycling Plan for Boston?"Posted by Brian Reich at 9:39 AM
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March 27, 2007
Can Wal-Mart become the new third place?
Wal-Mart, Home Depot (and surely many others) are designing smaller stores to help simplify the shopping experience and better address the needs of female customers. According to the retail giant (quoted in Marketing Daily), the company studied customers to better understand their preferences and habits. What was the result?
"The new design package is a great example of what we know customers are seeking in this type of store," the company adds. Aimed at women, the store has a "warm ambiance," lots of fresh and organic foods, a bakery, sushi bar and "a uniquely designed health and beauty department."
It sounds like Wal-Mart is trying to create more of a shopping experience -- perhaps because low prices alone are not enough to distinguish them from the competition anymore.
Posted by Brian Reich at 5:45 AM
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March 23, 2007
Lost Satellite
I travel a lot for work, and as a matter of practice will rent a car with a GPS navigation system included. My trip earlier this week – first to San Francisco and then to Los Angeles – taught me a valuable lesson. All in-car navigation devices are not created equal.
Posted by Brian Reich at 7:42 AM
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March 11, 2007
So, Design is Biased By Class. Now What?
The South-by-Southwest Interactive Festival (SXSWi) brings together many of the best and brightest minds in the technology, design, and communications/entertainment world for four days of panels and parties. The crowd here seems to be largely on the same page – they are comfortable with the (very rapid) pace of innovation in this space, desperately anxious for new insights on what the next big thing will be, and confident (at least on the outside) of their own abilities. Almost by definition, we are an elite group of thinkers and doers for this space.
The goal of the event, now in its 14th year, is to tap the collective brain trust of this elite audience and channel their knowledge to keep the interactive industry all on the bleeding edge. The secondary goal, of course, is to find better ways to engage the audience who will ultimately use the technologies and content we create. What does the bleeding edge look like to us? In the first four panels that I attended on Saturday (the first full day of events) the bleeding edge included things like advergaming, widgets, and the future of movie and television production and distribution via the web. From my perspective, none of those discussions pushed much beyond the basics and certainly didn’t challenge me to think very far (if at all) outside my current experiences and understanding. I’m sure there are lots of people who don’t live and breath this stuff every day that would have found it all very interesting.
Then the last panel of the day convened.
Posted by Brian Reich at 1:43 PM
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March 9, 2007
Are Websites Not Innovative Enough?
I asked a group of people recently what they thought were the most exciting things happening in the new media space right now. I got a range of answers: mobile messaging and advertising, games, social networking, video, even podcasting made the list. Nobody mentioned a website they were blown away by or something innovative that an organization, or even a media company, had done with their site. Sure, all the elements they mentioned live on or launch from a website, but they could just as easily be free-standing (and they have become destination elements for most of the people I talked with).
The consensus: Websites are pretty boring right now.
Continue reading "Are Websites Not Innovative Enough?"Posted by Brian Reich at 3:28 PM
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