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.

Fanciful Friday: Social and Deconstructionist Benefits of Electronic Music

Today, an idea struck me. Since my interests range across such a wide gamut, I've made the executive decision that Friday will be a day on which I diverge from my typical subject matter and pluck a topic from the ether to discuss. Today, I want to delve into a genre with which I've grown increasingly enamored of late: Electronica. Encompassing an unfathomable amount of different sounds and techniques, from the calculated dissonance of Dubstep and DnB to the sweeping melodies of Trance and House, this genre is redrawing the barriers of sonic experience and redefining the public opinion of musicianship and music in general.

In recent years, electronic music has gained a great deal of headway due to its increasing integration into the pop music scene. Artists such as Ke$ha, Lady Gaga, and even rappers like Flo Rida have capitalized on electronic influences to gain notice. While many deeply knowledgeable genre devotees dismiss these appropriations as a cheapening of the electronic tradition, I'd like to offer a different perspective. As a disclaimer, I am new to Electronica, but as such I think that I come at it from a different trajectory than those who have been embedded for a longer time period. To me, it seems that though the co-opting of electronic styles does of course lead to a certain degree of washout, overall this is a striking opportunity for a generalized improvement in music as a whole. You see, Electronica has something that can push pop in a more positive direction: an accepting, nurturing culture.

I'm going to introduce you to four letters that have been a potent driving force behind the general ambiance of electronic concerts: PLUR. Standing for Peace, Love, Unity, and Respect, this philosophy in many ways appears, when combined with the genre it supports, to be a sort of technologized, transhumanist Buddhism. On a basic level, it means that while engaged with others in the enjoyment of music, acceptance and the expansion of perspective are of chiefest importance, and that the narrowing of this experience via the vectors of intolerance or violence are not permissible. Sound familiar? It should, if you've been reading my blog for any amount of time. These principals mirror in many ways the particular brand of Deconstructionist philosophy of which I'm most fond.

To give a two-bit summary, Deconstruction at its highest level speaks about the instabilities present in our language. It teaches that meaning is only ever partial because a portion of it is always already deferred into another related piece of language, causing an unending chain of signification that never quite gets to an authoritative, universal concept. Confused yet? To make it even more simple: words don't allow us to fully sum up the world around us or to express the fullness of reality.

Often, this idea becomes conflated with a downward spiral into a neverending abyss, but that's a somewhat reductive way of looking at it. True, this perspective does strip away our certainty regarding how we categorize and catalog our daily experience, but that doesn't mean living is pointless. In fact, here's the kicker: Deconstruction is negative and generative. It both wipes away our surety and encourages us to play in the new, amorphous space to which it sends us. The social applications are striking: The further you follow the chain of meaning, the more people, subject positions, and general wonders you will encounter.

Now, with that tangent out of the way, how does all that high-mindedness relate to the Nero album that Steve bought yesterday? Well, it's not as complicated as you might think. Electronic music prioritizes this kind of thinking. PLUR, Deconstruction, whatever you call (or don't call) it, this particular genre is a hotbed for thinking that increases social awareness and equality, and its impact has reached many corners of music.

Let's do a quick breakdown of two examples: Enter Shikari and Lady Gaga. Polar opposites, right? Nope, and I thought I already told you that the entire concept of binary poles was right out. While not electronic artists per se, both have clear, strong influences from the genre in their songs. What's clearest, however, is the social responsibility that these artists exhibit. Lady Gaga has championed the cause of acceptance, telling people to embrace difference and flux. She also played a key role in the fight to get Don't Ask Don't Tell repealed. Enter Shikari's music is brazen in its political messaging and advocates for the shattering of national borders as well as promoting government responsibility and economic/environmental sustainability. My argument? I think these impulses, at least in part, stem from engagement in electronic music culture. Exposure to PLUR and other principles like it promotes an ethos of discovery and enrichment that carries through into the lives and work of the people listening, whether they create music or finance reports.

If you're interested in learning more about the many facets of this genre, I've found Earmilk to be an excellent site for reviews, commentaries, and introductions to newer electronic musicians. As usual, I end this post with a challenge: Resist the impulse to fall into the trap that media outlets have laid regarding Electronica. This particular sector of the musical environment is not simply the domain of drug-addled escapists. In actuality, it is the province of dreamers and activists pushing for the kind of social and mental growth that needs to become all the more frequent in our society. If we are to evolve, we must look beyond the fictional polarities and reach out beyond our comfort zones. The beeps and beats can teach us; we just need to listen.

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.