Update - Hearing about Border’s Books declaring closing is really bumming me out. I guess I thought that I might always get back to working at Borders again one day. Sure, I didn’t expect that I’d be a kid with wild hair, wearing a knit cap all day and night, sporting the same dirty Phish shirt for days on end, but I did hope that I might harness some of that ethos, professionally.

I’ve heard a lot about what people think went wrong at Border’s: Management turnover, real estate, not getting online and when they did, it was in a very non-Border’s kind of way (where was the innovation that made them BORDER’S?), and this  one from Jane Freidman, a professor of electronic media at the University of Cincinnati who said this on Michigan Radio:

“It’s a big sign of the larger transition we’re all making to digital books and digital reading devices. So we’ll probably see a further decline of the bricks and mortar stores and further movement away from people reading print or paper books and more people adopting digital devices.”

Sighing as I sit here and think about this… it dawns on me that I won’t get back to Border’s, it will just be a state of mind… there was nothing like Border’s in Ann Arbor in the summer… It reminds me that one day Google and Facebook will be in exactly the same spot if they don’t keep innovating. Border’s was one of the most creative and innovative places I’d ever worked, very Google-esque in the mid-90s… I think that what happened was that they just lost the vision, they lost the unifying principles of what the original Border’s brothers had built and with their departure, so too the vision died…

I think that if I was more business-minded and less idealistic I might try to harness what was at the original Border’s No. 1 in Ann Arbor, but for now, as another once-great Michigan company dies, I’ll just suck it up and move on. You don’t survive here, if you don’t do that… nostalgia is too costly a commodity around these parts.

From February 17, 2011

Thinking about the news of Borders declaring bankruptcy makes me reminisce. I loved working at Borders. It was the fall of 1996, I was a voracious reader, I passed their test and I was in. It was a crazy group of hipsters, book bums, introverts, and even a couple guys with numerous PhDs who found it easier to peddle books than to do something with their education.

It was a family. Everything was very low-key. The organization was new, growing and from Michigan, which made the whole thing even cooler. They also had these databases where you could find any book or CD with these egg head types (how we would have referred to them before computer geekery became cool) who came up from Ann Arbor to work on our systems well before the Dot Com boom.

I worked there about a year before I decided that I needed to make more than 4 clams an hour or whatever minimum wage was then, but as far as I was concerned, Borders was my numero uno bookstore. I still feel that way, even though they’ve changed.

It’s the changes that make for the segue.

In 1999, I couldn’t believe that even with their technical prowess and innovations, Barnes and Noble was online first with BN.com — that was a bummer, as B&N always seemed like the uptight republican uncle as compared to Borders young liberal hipster casually reading Karl Marx. Later, they were using Amazon for fulfillment or something, rather than having their own presence — pretty big leadership and strategic oversight if you ask me.

Through the years the stores sort of turned into a bloated, over-expanded corporate monster without much direction, and the mythos of what was awesome about them seemed to dissipate into oblivion.

Maybe the bankruptcy will bring them back to life, but I’m not holding my breath. Whatever it was that made them who they are, rather who they were, is gone, and it’s tough to come back from that.

In any case, long before Borders became a looming giant they were a pretty cool outfit created by two visionary brothers in downtown Ann Arbor who passed their idiosyncrasies down through the org chart and out into their bricks and mortar establishments. That’s the Borders I’ll remember. I guess the moral of the story is if you do awesome work, care about what you’re doing and bring passion to it, even if you’re a weirdo, well then you’ll probably do all right… just don’t change so that you can grow the business, that’s when things go awry.

That’s what happened to one of my email addresses today, or maybe it was yesterday. I don’t know, but I do know that it’s a drag and it’s forced me to do a little personal brand damage control. I think that the account was hacked and then after harvesting my address book to sell ‘sex services’ or something my account was used as a spoof address.

It’s kind of funny in a way, because I contacted the provider and, of course, heard nothing. Having witnessed these before I knew that it was something that in all likelihood, it would just have to run its course, and I posted a message to that end to folks in my address book as well as setting an auto-response. But as a Web services person we spend so much time and trouble trying to get the best possible security, and of course this hack could have been much worse, right now it’s just irritating more than anything else, not really harmful, but it definitely had me going through those ‘what-if’ scenarios, you know those worst cases that disaster recovery and internet security sales people use to prey on our worst fears and then sell us something to allay them, yeah, those…

Seriously, though, what if…? And I’m going to take a moment and get into the mind of a middle of the road technophobe… what if credit card info was exposed, or like with Facebook, a whole persona and dossier about you, probably better than the CIA could create was published, or personal, digitized documents, or PHI (personal health information). Thankfully, none of this was, but for about five seconds, I thought, ‘damn, we’re putting all this out there…?’

Now, I’ve been an online, digital citizen for almost two decades. I wouldn’t call myself an early adopter, but early on the Web just made sense to me. With any case where the unknown is contemplated there’s either much to be feared or much to be hopeful about. I guess I’m hopeful. Sure, this incident made me stop and think, but it didn’t scare me, or make me think that I should stop, but instead it made me think about being more careful with what’s out there, or putting all of it out there, hidden in plain view, if you will…

Whichever way one goes is personal and based on their worldview and beliefs. Of course, I don’t want to be hacked or exploited, but the convenience is great. I think many people feel this way, and I think that in time, between mobile computing devices and other electronic tools, it’s all going to be out there, all the time, and what will matter is how well organizations help their customers bounce back from these types of incidents, but that’s another thought-line for another day.

My experience is that collaboration can be very difficult, if not impossible, if a group isn’t working towards the same plan or goal.

A group or team can attempt to move forward without a plan or a clear set of goals, but the outcome, if any, isn’t likely to be very good or successful, and probably pretty painful.

Every group or team is different, complete with conflicting personalities, ideas, motivations and beliefs. I believe this kind of diversity makes the best kind of team, but if there isn’t a plan or goal to focus on, successful collaboration will be impossible, the differences will be emphasized rather than the common goals; chaos and piss-off will ensue.

I’ve experienced this many times, and I can’t believe how many collaboration and/or project managers still don’t understand this. The plan or goal will allow people to move past conflicts and differences towards successful completion of goals.

-Update-

In my best pirate voice all I can say is ARGH! So I was trying to link these posts to my LinkedIn status and wouldn’t you know it, the only way to update your status is via Twitter. So, for the sake of full disclosure, I went back and created a utilitarian Twitter account so I could post there, no “followers” please… now I’m a hypocritter Twitter would-be quitter <sigh> …the seeds of the empire have been planted…

—

Yep, I did it. Actually, it’s been a couple months now, but what’s the dif? Did you notice? Probably not. There’s so much rubbish on Twitter that’s it very, very hard to find anything of real value. Ok, to be fair, maybe their redesign will make this better, but I doubt it, and so I flushed 2,000+ “followers” – a troubling bit of verbiage, anyway — I mean who wants to be a “follower”  – down the drain.

Working in Web services and electronic communications some of my friends and colleagues think that this is a nutso move, but Twitter has just never panned out. It’s also something that only in the  rarest of circumstances can I recommend as a tool to an organization.

Now, it’s not my intention to hate on Twitter. A lot of people have found something of value with Twitter and maybe one day, I will, too, but I don’t now and haven’t in the handful of years of years I’ve tried to make a go of it, personally. I even used to believe that somehow that Twitter might actually bring some readers to my site, and at times there were spikes, but mostly it was a bust. You want real content, pick up my RSS feed or visit the site.

If you’re in this business and you’re not doing that, what are you doing? Communicating the message is the most important thing. It’s easy to get caught up in the minutiae of the daily work, concepts, designs, layouts, copy points, proofs, technologies, etc… but at the core the fundamental question is: Are you communicating?

Whether you’re a hobo panhandling downtown for your next bottle of hooch, or your a politician pressing the flesh to get re-upped in the next election cycle, you need to communicate your message. The hobo knows how to get his message out even if it’s by begging and being a nuisance, truly the master of his stage and the politician, usually does, as well, depending on which one of us slick communicators they’ve hired to help them look even slicker than we do. But of course, nothing’s ever that simple, not even for the slick communicator like us.

While you need to communicate, you have to make sure that your message not only fits and is applicable, but is also something that folks are listening for, if it’s not, well, then, my friend, your message will be a tree that’s just fallen in the woods with nobody around to hear it. Our job as communicators is to help direct the message using a variety of media and techniques that we think will best get the message out there.

As the title says, the point is to communicate, and in order to communicate we must have a strong understanding of not just what we’re trying to say, but who we’re trying to say it to. Communication is a two-way street, we put out the message, the message is received and we get feedback based on the message, and the cycles moves on perpetually.

This was a great infographic that I saw the other day and I wanted to make sure I shared it here. The Google algorithm thing for SEO (Search Engine Optimization) can be kind of confusing, and right or wrong, I thought that this was an interesting graphic. The graphic here is small, so I recommend going to see the large dude over here or here.

Infographic by PPC Blog

When doing anything with electronic or digital communications, either in the realm of PR or marketing, you can’t do much without a plan. It doesn’t have to be a super-detailed plan, because that kind of plan doesn’t allow for the organic expanding and contracting that comes with anything living. Yes, a plan is a living thing. Especially when people or an organization are living and breathing that plan every day. So you have to have a plan.

Without a plan there’s no strategy.
Without a plan there’s no way to calculate ROI – You can’t manage what you can’t measure.
Without a plan there’s a journey, but no destination.

Sometimes, it’s Ok to be on a journey without a destination, but other times it can lead to a feeling of purposeless meandering into infinity.

Even a very loose plan is better than being without any kind of plan whatsoever…

Or focus on the brief, pertinent message. This is so the key for doing anything with electronic communications. It’s not print, people. So to try and approach it with that old, anachronistic model in mind is a total fail. People scan, they don’t read, at least most of the time. Of course, if it’s something that interests them, or provides value, then they’ll read and read, subscribe to your feeds, join your email lists, etc… but not if they feel like you’re wasting their time.

Electronic Communications Rule No. 1: Don’t waste my time!

The title of this post says it all, as far as I’m concerned.

A lot of organizations have jumped on the Facebook thing. Some have done a really nice job, others: not so much! There needs to be a strategic plan for whatever you’re doing with regard to electronic communications. As I’ve said before, it doesn’t have to be much, but there has to be something.

A Facebook, Twitter, or any other social media presence that an organization has taken on, and doesn’t listen to, watch or update can be hugely problematic for the communicator. In the best case you’ve created something that demonstrates that you’re not able to follow-through with what you started and it becomes a ghost ship, in the worst case, you get haters using your platform to talk smack about your organization.

If you’re going to start with social media, start small, start with something you can manage with the staff you have. Social media and the maintenance of it takes a hell of a lot of time, real labor and quick-mindedness is involved. For instance, if somebody posts a negative comment, say on your Facebook page, do you have to go through four levels of approvals to respond, do you just delete the nay-sayer’s post, do you just let it go and do nothing, or does your quick-minded social media specialist post a rebuttal, from memory, on message, because they’re just that good ( P.S. They have to be that good, this can’t just be some college nitwit who’s good with the interwebz). Each of these situations have their own specific punishments and rewards, generally dictated by where your organization stands, and how your organization wants to be considered, as well as the way it’s position – Are you a company of the people for people, are you positioned for your service, or as a no BS, brass tacks kind of outfit who wouldn’t flinch at a hastily worded jab at anyone who dare defy you?

It’s not just a Facebook page, or a Twitter feed, it’s an extension of your brand and who you are. Before you go out there know you are, don’t be afraid to communicate it! These are the folks who are thriving with social media today.

I came across an interesting article in the New York Times called Blogs Falling in an Empty Forest by Douglas Quenqua. This article definitely touches on the other side of the blog coin, and that’s the number of blogs that go the way of the ghost ship. The ghost ship is a term that I first came across here, that could be defined as a site that had been abandoned by their authors or Web masters, and left suspended in time. The article talks about how the price of admission is so low to become a blogger, that many try, but give up, because of either time, dedication, or the absence of other perceived rewards for doing the work.

This article presents a perspective that I’ve come up against personally and professionally, and it’s often the reality just beyond the hype. Blogs take a lot of work and dedication. I’ve started a half-dozen blogs, only to get bored, and have them turn into ghost ships, myself. In fact, I’ve had the idea for this blog for three or more years, but I knew I wasn’t ready so I waited. I’ve had clients, numerous clients, who’ve wanted blogs, and I inform them about what’s involved with doing a blog and getting it out there, but after a while, the inspiration dries up or the sense of urgency that created the blog dissipates — ghost ship.

I don’t think that this is a reflection of the medium. The blog is a very powerful thing. Not everyone is going to be a Seth Godin, or Michael Arrington. However, that shouldn’t deter anyone from giving it a shot. The beautiful thing about the Web is that we have this tool for communicating to everyone that’s open to everyone; that’s a profund reality! With the openess, though, there will be some (Read: many) who get involved and can’t keep it going. That’s Ok, give it a shot. The next hot blog could be anecdotes from a rural plumber who always wanted to be a writer and shares stories of his life’s experiences, or the rants of house wife driven insane by ordinary madness, and uses the blog as a way to vent, and tell amusing stories.

Therefore, a few tips for a successful blog (whether professional or personal) might be:

1. Express yourself.
2. Do it because you want to do it, not as a means to an end (i.e. a book deal, praise, because everyone else is, etc…)
3. Be genuine; people will see disengenuousness a mile away and never come back…
4. Do these things, do them fully, and don’t put a time line on it… the universe and the Web works on its own time. If you’re doing items #1-3, then just doing those will be enough, allowing for item #4 to unfold on it’s own…

Hopefully, these tips will help you avoid the ghost ship, and give you a better idea of what’s involved with a blog before you get started.