Ian Alexander, Principal/Storyteller @ Eat Media spoke at Custom Media Day. Other speakers included: Jeannine Rossignol from Xerox, Jim Hopkinson from Wired magazine, Dan Blank from We Grow Media

Thanks to Junta42′s Joe Pulizzi for the gracious invitation, knowledge and opportunity to spread a little CS love.

—Ian

Hypothetical iterations are difficult to digest but even more difficult to prescribe and present. Too often clients (and vendors) are stuck with a concept, framework or a rule set that extinguishes the possibility of creativity at a corporate level. Other times we are lazy. Sometimes we are fearful of presenting an idea that will be shot down or perhaps lack the energy to push for a radical change.

We often hear that an idea is only as good as it’s execution but we rarely hear that execution is only as good as the investment in the idea. The beginning of any project begins with an assessment of satisfaction. “This is good but could be better.” “This is terrible.” Or, “This is no longer relevant.” Whatever the present state of the project — something, or someone, ultimately decides that change is necessary.

This is your fork in the road. This is your opportunity. Do different to get different.

—Ian

Storytelling moves all great marketing. And the synergies of interactive, social and print mediums is what drives those stories.

—Ian

*thanks to Griffin Farley

Are you on Twitter? Where in your company’s organization chart do you reside?

In the construction world carpenters who specialize in remodeling earn considerably more than those who build homes from scratch. If you know how to use a plumb bob, a square and a level you should be able to build a decent new home. Remodelers on the other hand have much broader set of challenges requiring a more comprehensive toolset in order to maintain aesthetics and work around existing infrastructure.

Many of these lessons can be transferred to content strategy and interactive solutions. If you want a new website and have never had one, you also don’t have legacy systems to untangle, databases to rejoin, layers of stakeholders to appease and vector versions of your logo to track down. In short you have a blank slate. While I am not advocating starting from scratch for many reasons including — SEO ranking, branding and resource allocation for starters — It is imperative to understand that working with an existing site presents both unique challenges and opportunities that require deeper digging. Dig deep my friends, dig deep.

—Ian

Eat Media Window Quotes:

“Being obscure is great position to be in.” — Jason Fried	“Let’s make something stellar. Or, keep rockin’ that same-old, same-old.” — Ian
“Language is weird somewhat whimsical governor.” — D. Sheilds	“We need to stand up and fight for two things at all costs: great ideas and company culture.” – D. Oyrt
“An out of date footer is like a limp handshake.” — Ian	“Work calmly, joyously and recklessly with whatever is at hand.” — H. Miller

I just listened to a presentation by the super cute and wicked smart Liza Kindred from Lullabot. Presenting at DrupalCon San Francisco last April, Liza gives us a peek into Lullabot’s company’s structure, core beliefs and business strategies. You can listen to the full presentation, but here are some highlights:

1) Make mistakes.

Lullabot prides themselves as an awesome place to make mistakes. When an employee made a terrible data error, co-founder Matt Westgate told her, “You made a giant mistake, and you really screwed up here. That is why you are now Lullabot’s data import expert.” The company also bought her a massage.

Environments where people can’t admit mistakes become very hostile and dishonest work environments.

Fess up to your mistakes. Make them a highlight of your weekly team calls.

2) Room for stupid.

Smart people can ask stupid questions. “Take your stupidness and help other people become less stupid.”

3) Give it away/Have faith

Find out the awesome things you do and give it away. (But not all of it.) Have faith that by giving it away, you are making the pie even bigger.

Out-teach. Out-share. Out-contribute.

(Props here to 37Signals)

//

But one of my favorite parts was how they select clients.

When a potential client comes to Lulllabot, they need to meet 2 out of the 3 criteria:

1) They are a nice person.

2) They have a healthy budget.

3) They have a fun project.

“And one of them has to be that they are nice.”

How’s that for a rule to live by?

–Britta

Here is my (edited) talk from June 2nd 2010. Rick Allen and The Content Strategy of New England Meetup organizers and attendees were gracious hosts.  My presentation was a call to action for content strategists to expand their repertoire of elements, understanding and vocabulary.

Check it out fullsize

—Ian

Recently I have seen Jared Spool and Jeffrey Zeldman start to be more public about supporting content strategy as a practice — works for me. Simultaneously, I have also started to hear backlash from web all-stars wondering aloud (see Twittering) if content strategy isn’t just rehashed “web-strategy”— I see both sides of that coin.

Then there are the noted “web/content strategy folk” saying we shouldn’t be spending time arguing about the hierarchy of practices—to that, I disagree.

Here’s why:

1. A little disagreement never hurt anyone. Perspectives are gained, knowledge is transferred and opinions are challenged/strengthened. We don’t argue enough or correctly if you ask me.

2. Budgets are being slashed and agencies are specializing: we just do strategy, we just code, we just do PSD’s, we just do CMS,  just IA here, etc. This does not bode well for these people called “clients” who are increasingly unclear what they need, who they need and how they are going to manage the project/vendors.

3. The practices, do not have clear working boundaries, systems or languages and arguing/defining and redefining hierarchies starts this conversation.

I have found the practice of collaborating with other practices, or intra-practice, a crap-shoot—some great experiences and some nightmares. But I believe the goal of agency symmetry is incredibly important and something I am committed to spending more time, money and energy pursuing. This Ad-age article from a few weeks ago really hit it home for me. I hope it inspires you.

“As agency specialization continues, the holding companies have not worked to force and enable coordination, de-duplication and value creation. Instead they have allowed creative agencies to be marginalized. In my view they have enabled massive inefficiency driven by duplication and, sadly, have enabled open strife and conflict in full view of marketers, which only serves to diminish the value of all agency parties in the eye of marketers. The holding companies need to confront this issue fast or they risk being marginalized. Agencies need to collaborate amongst themselves to create client-focused value vs. playing out strife in public view of their clients. This, in my view, is killing agency credibility and value among marketers.”

Kimberly-Clark CMO Tony Palmer

Read the full article

Mustering up the motivation to create anything fruitful is tough on a Friday afternoon, especially with the long weekend to look forward to.

Here’s what inspired us over at Eat Media this week. Hope it gets your wheels turning.

Ian:

Web Analytics 2.0: The Art of Online Accountability & Science of Customer Centricity and the DIY ethos of Hip-Hop culture—lifting yourself up and making things happen. Not waiting for a handout. The Jay-Z story.

Wendy

Islamic dress. MTV did this great True Life documentary on kids in Saudi Arabia gracefully refusing to accept the societal norms of their parent’s generation.  I can’t stop thinking about Fatima, a 20-year-old from Jeddah who is making and selling her own brightly colored abaiyas. They’re beautiful and I want one.

And M.I.A.’s Agitprop Pop by Lynn Hirschberg. I still can’t decide if I like M.I.A. more or less after reading Hirschberg’s profile, if she’s smarter than all of us, or just feeding into her own idea of what a rebel should be. A good profile will keep you guessing even after you’re done reading.

Lindsay

This talk by Pulitzer Prize winner and bestselling author Rick Bragg at a recent conference. The video is half comedy routine, but it’s a nice refresher on feature writing.

And 1st Books: Stories of How Writers Get Started, a site that offers insight into how to get started if you’re a first-time author.

—Wendy Joan