Hey, who wants to change the world?

Steve Jobs photo courtesy of Wikipedia

Steve Jobs, deep down, wasn’t a tech guy, or a business guy. He was an artist - an exceptionally great one. His paint brush was technology. His canvas was all of us. With it, Steve painted a masterpiece. In a world that just talks thinking different, Steve Jobs did different. And a whole world loved him for it.

Where most of Steve’s contemporaries simply wanted to make products under the “façade” of different, Steve’s longing was to change the world and be that “different.” And boy, did he do it. In a high-stakes game of focus groups, market research, product research, you name it, Steve said nah, not me. He “painted” what he loved and the world will never be the same.

Invite someone for the first time to Steve’s Art Gallery - we call it an Apple Store, let them experience the genius of a Steve Job’s masterpiece, and probably, what you’ll hear, without hesitation, is, “I gotta have that.”  His  creations had  to always be something he loved, so we could love them too.

But there is one more thing...

Meet the New Corporate Boardroom – But Not Yet

As a result of the Web, Social Media and all its parts have taken us by storm. They’ve caused an unprecedented shift in transparency, ease, speed and reach in the distribution of a message in almost any form you want. But I think the biggest shift is in the level of transparency that’s come out of it. So powerful is this shift that all the brands we know so well are feeling the heat to comply to survive and grow by being a “part of” rather than “aloof to” the consumers and people in general – and really mean it. They had to change.

All Great Causes Begin as a Movement, Degenerate into a Business, and then end up as a Racket.

Like most other enterprises in the beginning, these hyper-successful Online products and services ala’ Social Media were not the makings of a corporate boardroom. Then somewhere along the way they thought they should develop a corporate board.  In came the Venture Capitalists with the boardrooms and the meetings. The different and radical thinking that got these startups to where they are gave way to acting like all the other guys.

The transparency that has “gingerly” nudged brands into conducting themselves with more responsibility and sensitivity in regards to the consumer has yet to reach the boardroom level with the old school “behind closed doors” approach to things. Money changes everything so things can stay the same – but times they are a changing.

Because the speed, reach, and transparency of a message is only going to continue to accelerate and evolve , I believe an entire new breed  of Venture Capitalists are going to emerge that’ll look through different eyes and take different risks and find a way to use the transparency and everything else to their advantage. They’ll adapt and change out of sheer survival.  In other words they won’t fight this paradigm shift created by Social Media and they won’t want to. They’ll leverage it.  They’ll think like the very people that created these game-changing products and services. The end users will become the boardroom.

Understanding the name itself, “Social Media” tells the tale. It is “Social” meaning involved, part of, engaged, responsive, mindful, and eventually transparent. All parts of a solid relationship. One Tweet can alter a business’s approach drastically in action – or non action at their peril, (depending on if they are even paying attention.) The corporate boardrooms are holding on for dear life to protect the status quo.  But how long do you think before the boardroom has to do the same as other aspects of their brands and become Social on a level I don’t think they want to look at yet?

Blackball Online Marketing provides SEO Pittsburgh Services and Pittsburgh Online Business Consulting services.

Twitter Monetizes - Finally

…or the Big Dog needs to eat if you want him to hunt.

…or feed the Big Dog if you want him to hunt.

Unless I just missed the memo why didn’t Twitter simply Tweet their intent to monetize and leverage the invaluable feedback they'd get from the very people who have incorporated a steady diet of  Tweeting in their daily professional and personal lives. Twitter could approach this in a number of ways while having a lot of fun with it. Twitter could Tweet surveys, ask for ideas, maybe even a contest for the best Twitter monetization idea, and simply asking what do you think - we’d love to hear from you.

Twitter would be asking input for one of their most important business decisions from the very people that make Twitter soar. The effect could prove to be very positive. Imagine the creativity from all that input.  There may not be enough bandwidth to hold the explosion of involvement. You could say this has the air of opportunity. If you want to engage and rally a community, here it is. And with such a radical and different approach to a corporate business move it just may create “pause” with those “other guys” and/or possibly raise the bar - if not change the bar’s direction.

I’m saying this because I’ve read some excerpts here and there that Twitter was fretting over their decision to monetize, to what degree only Twitter knows, but this is where Twitter turns the fretting into freedom by way of a dialog that simply says “we’re in business, we want to stay in business, and we’re pretty sure all you Tweeters want us to stay in business, so what do you think, how do you feel about this, and what are your ideas.” Twitter is a fantastic, intelligent and innovative product and with us in the SEO, Social Media and information business. We’re finding new ways everyday to use Twitter to help our clients do business better which makes the deal this - what took Twitter so long?

Twitter is a business, and this is America, so why would Twitter fret over this decision? First a little peek into their history tells us something. And what it tells us is this; Twitter began to help, to solve a problem, not so much to make money, and before you know it Twitter is a business, better yet, an “accidental empire.” With this in mind, maybe human nature is the reason for Twitter’s monetizing angst, based on the “fear of offending” which we all struggle with at times. But hell, what do I know, I’m just speculating. Only Twitter knows for sure.

I don’t think Twitter has a thing to fret about.