The Human Element: Ultimate Business Intelligence Differentiator

The beginning of this week was quite exciting for me. I accepted a job offer to work at the Ironside Group and managed to pick away further at pieces of my novel. While on the surface these events may seem to have no correlation, the combination of the two got me thinking. As you know, my prevailing philosophical tendency, as I elaborated on in the context of electronic music not long ago, is to pursue avenues that increase connection and proliferate values of communication. What's interesting is that the company that I just joined espouses these same values and puts them into practice to create a cutting edge approach to business intelligence, something else I've spoken about in a previous article.

Ironside's bread and butter is technology consulting, specifically around IBM's suite of business intelligence products, such as Cognos. They book professional services engagements with companies across the US, helping these business partners to implement and learn about how the products that Ironside supports can improve their knowledge of and control over their infrastructure. In addition to helping with planning, installation, and setup, Ironside also offers training services that enlighten clients to the vagaries of these oft-complex technological solutions. This, my friends, is where things get interesting.

As I've said before, it's not only a matter of providing a service, it's also about providing the opportunity for people to learn about and implement that solution. You may have already asked how it is that a company like Ironside can survive on the technology of another company, and this opportunity is the space in which the answer lies. The expansive vision of Ironside stems from the company's ability to take IBM's technology and run with it. These consultants and trainers innovate on and bring their own perspective to the products, pushing the envelope of the customer's experience and addressing the individual needs of their unique business infrastructures.

Would you look at that. It came back to a Deconstructionist principle again. I'm sure you're all making shocked faces. What makes Ironside innovative? It's their ability to take into account the myriad perspectives floating around in our vast universe, coming into contact with as many as possible to broaden their scope and create the most impactful ideas possible. This human element is their differentiator. No more is simple reliance on the cold, binarial logic of machines sufficient. We must translate; we must play with the interpretations of these interfaces. Only then can we learn and grow.

I'm sure you've anticipated that this is a windup to your next challenge. Its goal is much like the others I've given, though this one may seem a bit more practical. I ask you to try to re-envision a process that you execute every day. Try to see it from someone else's angle. Would it work in a different environment? Where and why? Where and why not? When we start exploring these questions, we unlock the many points of existence around us. Keep on flexing them expansion muscles, people. As a wise, literate man who was once on Star Trek says often, I'll see you next time.

Engagement: Applying Social Action to Business

There was a certain prevailing notion about business that I and many others from my generation experienced as we ascended the rickety and treacherous ladder to adulthood: it is by definition amoral. Profit is the holy grail, and any people, animals, or environments in the way of that goal were to be swept aside. Well, another part of adulthood is also sweeping aside the preconceived notions fostered in the boiling cauldron of teenage angst, so with that said, I'd like to put forth a proposition. The strongest businesses are those that can actualize and engage their intended audience. Social action is as large a deciding factor in the marketplace as it is when rallying for causes. People need to feel involved. With the advent of social media, we are all connected for better or for worse. There are no more numbers, only names. That's a liberating thought, isn't it?

As a result of this movement, it's no longer easy to get away with inundating potential customers with impersonal spam. Instead, it's necessary to learn about and nurture the connections you wish to make (see my lead nurturing article for more on that). An effective marketing campaign in the modern corporate landscape should take more cues from non-profits and social change efforts than it does from risk analysts and financial planners.

An emerging company that embodies this new mode of thought is Dailybreak. They market not only a product, but an experience as well. How? Through interactive snippets of content called challenges. These unique digital packages encourage consumer participation, what Dailybreak calls, aptly enough, social actions. Whether through a bite-sized game, a photo contest, a public vote, or an abundance of other options, Dailybreak pulls people in and makes them feel as though they are a part of something. This may sound familiar, as it is a very similar model to the one that Kiva uses, which I discussed in an earlier post. Social responsibility influencing corporate culture. Who'da thunk?

Anyway, I find Dailybreak's approach so fascinating because it can be applied almost anywhere. Just find the interactions most appropriate to your particular line of interest and off you go. The best part is that there's no way to be disingenuous here. To follow such a model necessitates a deep understanding of your audience and a genuine interest in connecting with them on a personal level. The old methodologies of simple trickery go out the window in this scenario. Corporations now have to be responsible in order to even attract customers.

Bravo, I say. Bravo to the Age of Information. As Neal DeGrasse Tyson put it, "We are all connected to each other biologically; to the earth chemically; to the rest of the universe atomically." The more that business assimilates this truth, the more ethical practices will prevail and the more people will get what they need instead of just meeting a series of transient, fleeting, implanted wants. Keep that in mind the next time that you advertise, and I wish you the best of luck in finding those in the world who need what you have to offer. They're out there, I promise.

Killer Keywords: The Tip of the SEO Iceberg

The blogs just keep coming hot and fast these days. It seems there's more in my mind than usual, which of course results in even more content than usual. Today, I'd like to talk about yet another concept I've just started learning about: Search Engine Optimization, better known as SEO. This fascinating process is an excellent example of something that began as a simple technology innovation and has since been leveraged to gain attention for a variety of interests across the web, from businesses to causes to blogs. Now, I preface this article by saying I am a rank beginner in this subject. The intention of this particular blog is not so much showing my expertise, but rather giving others an idea of where they can get started with this daunting analytical practice. There. Now that the tip of the iceberg has been sufficiently mapped, let's begin.

In order to start grasping the philosophy behind SEO, you first need to get the history. The particular echoes from the past informing this technological phenomenon began where many thoughts of its kind do: with engineers. Back when the web was young, it soon became apparent that organization was going to be paramount to its success. What good were all these electronic resources if it was impossible to find them without knowing an exact location? Enter the search engine. Using programs known as crawlers or spiders, engineers gained the ability to map out the giddying peaks and bottomless valleys of the online world. These programs pulled the information into organized indexes, what we now see upon entering a search on sites like Google or Bing.

But what makes it possible to create such an index? Wouldn't you still have to know exact addresses to mount an effective search? Relax, my friends. I present to you the heroes of our time: keywords. By tagging websites with words and phrases related to the content contained within them, we can search in a more general way and receive results from a plethora of sources based on their relevance to our query. This is the beating heart of SEO.

Once businesses realized that it was possible to use keywords in this manner, they took the next step and tried to optimize keywords to get noticed. By using consistent terms, matching the titles and URLs of websites to internal content, and researching the keywords that got the most use, companies became able to predict where their pages would be most successful in shouting their brand to the void. In fact, there is now an entire industry built around creating analytical tools for and performing the functions of SEO. Once again, language at play creates valuable connections.

I've done a simple scratching of SEO's surface here, but if you are interested in more information, I've found SEOmoz to be an unparallelled resource. In addition to creating tools and analytics that help you build a successful SEO strategy, SEOmoz also provides numerous free resources for learning about the subject. I've found their Beginner's Guide to SEO to be quite enlightening. Check it out, and start spreading your echoes to those around you. I hope these resources help you to keep expanding your perspective and to meet many other unique points of contact.

Revitalization and Notes Toward a Marketing Career

"How did Gandalf get ahead of us?"
"He comes and goes at will. He is a wizard, you know."
- The Hobbit (1977)

Jobs are much like wizards; they come and go at will, but (hopefully, at least) they always show up when you need them. My recent departure from RSA has caused some contemplation in this regard. The unexpected does not send you a calendar update on Microsoft Outlook, it simply happens. However, while it may be uncomfortable, it opens up a host of new, previously unexplored realms of opportunity. These are the things that, in my humble opinion, it is most productive to focus upon.

The chiefest sin of becoming entrenched in a daily routine is the impulse toward inattention. As my significant other says, "You can't just let life wash over you." This is a sin to which I have fallen prey over the last year in particular. Many of the facets of life that I most enjoy have fallen by the wayside as I encased myself in a firm wrapping of petty day-to-day concerns. One of those facets is this blog. The sounding board has suffered from a failure to resonate for over a year now. It's high time I remedied that situation.

As a first step, rather than keeping it all contained in the grey matter between my ears, I'd like to discuss my plans for the future upon reentering the murky waters of job searching. As I said in "I Swear to God I Can Copywrite" back in prehistoric times, marketing is the career area in which I think I can make the greatest impact. In terms of having a channel for boundless creativity, you can't get much better. The myriad products and services floating around in the ether of our global community all need direction, expansion, and targeting. Whether it's a video game, an automobile, or the latest breakthrough in cancer treatment, the only way for it to become useful is for it to be known.

Now, I know many may accuse me of lionizing a career that is essentially a glorified, electrified form of peddling, but if you look a little deeper, "take the deeper dive" as the managers I've had are fond of saying, you will find a vibrant community of individuals as imaginative as any science fiction writer. After all, marketing is the science of connection, something that has fascinated me since my MA studies. Think of it not as simple selling; that's not the point. The actual motive is a far more complex process involving the interweaving of emotions with people, acts, and objects. Ask yourself: what makes me treat a Roomba like a pet that happens to like eating my dirt? Why is it that the kind of computer I use signifies a certain set of personality traits to others? Marketing at work, folks :).

Now, my intention here is not to have everyone go off in a half-cocked, paranoid state a la the movie Branded thinking "the corporations are eating my brain." True, these powers have been and can be used for nefarious purposes, but there are other ways as well. Caution is called for, yes, but consider this: social and political causes need marketing too, as do products legitimately attempting to progress the well-being of humanity. For instance, despite the fraught nature of the individuals involved in its inception, the Kony 2012 campaign did succeed in highlighting the crimes being committed toward children in Africa and grabbed the attention of the global community in a very tangible way. In fact, three of the four goals established for the project were met in the same year in which it started. That's a pretty solid result any way you look at it.

Another sterling example is Kiva. Realizing that the biggest barrier to philanthropic activities is convenience, the people behind this organization created an online micro-lending platform that allows for instantaneous small donations to various individuals across the world. The best part? It's a loan, so the money will come back to you, and you can use it again to help more. All this from your comfy chair at your first-world computer desk. I can't think of a better use case for market targeting.

In short, marketing can change the world. It's a process that follows the best possible portions of the deconstructionist vision: using the play of language to engage as many points of human connection as possible. Through this enterprise, we can not only create successful businesses, but also expand our perceptions and raise global awareness of the infinite subject positions inhabited across the earth we share. In this spirit, I encourage you to learn about others; learn what they need, what preoccupies them, what they think and feel. It's not about manipulation, it's about actualization and proliferation. In this way, we can all be marketers.