After watching the “Disaster in the Gulf” for three months now, and the very public feud between Cavs owner Dan Gilbert and Cleveland Public Enemy #1 LeBron James – its very clear to me that one thing we could use right now in America is a little more citizenship.A little less “me” and a little more “we.”
We need more people, more private companies and more public institutions admit what they already know, that we are all in this together; we need them to step up and be better citizens.
I also believe that today in America, good citizenship is good business.Based on everything I know from 20 years of talking to Americans about their lives – and how private and public brands and institutions fit and are thus put into context – I know that brands that make people feel good, brands that connect people and communities, are the ones that will thrive today and in the future.
Sadly, not everyone on Madison Avenue agrees. In fact, very few seem to agree. The latest example comes from some innocent Facebook chatter from some friends of mine in the Boston-advertising community who lampooned the recent branding campaign of Citizens Bank ("Good Banking is Good Citizenship") as being an unnecessary civics lesson.
I think its brilliant, just what they need, albeit a little on the corny side…
At a time when big national banks are rolling in, foreclosing homes, killing small business growth by refusing to loan capital, Citizens Bank is tacking the opposing tack -- squarely telling their customers and other stakeholders (do not underestimate who else in watching...) that "everyone carries their weight, business and bankers," banks are "supposed to be, a facilitator pf prosperity" -- and "good banking is good citizenship and good citizenship is good business."
The Internet May or May Not Make Us Smarter, It Does Make Us Safer
Written by John Della Volpe
Monday, 07 June 2010
Over the last few days, seems like we've been deluged with the question, "Does the Internet makes us smarter or dumber?" On Saturday, the Wall Street Journal ran competing essays by Clay Shirky and Nicholas Carr -- and according to their reader's poll, "smarter" wins in a landslide, 65%-35%. For the record, smarter is my vote as well.
Today's New York Times' most e-mailed story has a similar take, "Hooked on Gadgets, and Paying a Mental Price," with a rather ridiculous profile of someone supposedly so engrossed in his digital world that his wife and kids hate him --and probably for good reason -- seems that he was too busy online to notice an email from an investor who wanted to buy his company for $1.3 million. It went unanswered for 12 days. Seriously, how connected can this guy be? He has three monitors, 2 iPads, who knows how many smartphones -- and skips over an email that like could change his life.
Regardless of whether the Internet makes us smarter or not -- the one thing it does do is make us and our men and women in uniform safer. Check out this piece from the New York Times that profiles the way in which young Air Force and Marine officers are using military chatrooms to flatten the world and save lives. It basically works like this:
Traveled to eight cities listening to Americans talk about the state of our country -- Columbus, Baltimore, Los Angeles, Atlanta, Denver, New York, Memphis, Austin and not done yet;
Watched the U.K. election results with British ex-pats in a Beacon Hill brownstone;
Broken bread with one of China’s leading social media academics;
Judged a Pakistani blogging contest;
Briefed military leaders on the changing face of America;
And tomorrow morning, I will be part of a panel discussion with diplomats from around the world talking about social media and nation branding.
Actually, as I write this, it’s been an insane month.
While I may need a little time to take a breath and collect my thoughts about all I have learned, here are some very quick take-aways that have been a part of most every interaction and discussion I’ve had.
Earlier this week, I had the opportunity to do what The Pretender's Chrissie Hynde suggested about a million years ago ... I went back to Ohio.
And I suggest everyone who cares about or sells something to America do the same. I believe that if you, or your brand, want to sell something to someone, it helps if they like you. Disagree? Check the endorsement money behind Ben Roethlisberger, Tiger Woods and Michael Vick this year.
Best way to get that done is build a relationship based on a shared understanding of what's important. And to begin to know what's important, head to the midwest -- Columbus, Indianapolis or St. Louis are good places to start.
In the 1990's I spent many many nights in Ohio, listening to voters talk about politics, the budget, welfare reform among dozens of other topics. Working with the White House, we mostly chose Dayton because Dayton was most representative of Ohio, Ohio representative of the country, etc. etc. It worked.
Last year, as part of my Millennial research with the Harvard IOP, I returned to speak with Ohio State students and other Millennials not in college about life during recession. I heard specific, sometimes heart-wrenching stories about sacrifice, murky futures, and ideals related to service.
I headed back to Columbus for a few days earlier this week -- and feel more connected to the pulse of America than I have in a long time.
There's no good excuse in my mind for any company or organization engaged in the American economy not to do the same. In a few hours of focus groups, and other conversations, I learned that:
Well, the bright side of about an inch of rain in 24 hours is that my 8 AM plenary session at the SunGard Summit in San Francisco was well attended.To keep my ego in check (NB, the organizers said that my session was the most attended of any session in 3 years, SRO 1500+ people) – I bumped into someone afterwards who said that he’s been to a bunch of similar talks and most of the time, they were “…Ehhh” – and mine was better.“Better than Ehhh I said? I’ll take it.”
Like my session at SunGard’s Executive Summit last year, I got as much as I gave.I learned a lot about the state of social media in Higher Ed preparing for the conference -- and even more when I arrived and met with college and university leaders from across North America.
My presentation is available here – and following are a few of the more prevalent insights pertaining to social media and Higher Ed:
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