Revelnnovation

RevelnCoaches Mar 10, 2:12pm via Twitter for iPad

“@RevelnConsults: It's about authenticity. Be real. #b2bexpo Social Media Panel @AstralRoad1”. #SMCC1

dnrevel Mar 10, 4:11pm via Twitter for iPad

Rich Fahle Formerly of Borders. #b2bexpo @AstralRoad1” #SMCC1 video-commerce.org Also E-books, disruption. Sourcebooks is small & nimble.

3. My business persona is @RevelnConsults.   I use the @RevelnConsults feed on my Reveln Consulting Wordpress website.   RC had a bit to say about my video experience with @AstralRoad1 's presentation yesterday.  I was so glad I stayed & attended Rich's late afternoon session.  It was very worthwhile!

RevelnConsults 11:04am via Facebook

This YouTube video hits 4 EMERGING TRENDS right on the nose: Custom experience, integration, video and YouTube... http://fb.me/IK909uf8

 

RevelnConsults Mar 10, 4:19pm via Twitter for iPad

Video is premium delivery for authenticity. SEO loves video. Tell your story, naturally. 65% recall rate. #b2bexpo @AstralRoad1 #SMCC1

Note the different sources I use for my tweeting above, Facebook and my iPad.   I'm actually tweeting this blog post from Facebook and integrating it onto my front page website at the same time.

4.  My special niche for my business consulting is Change Management.  Therefore I tweet from @ChangeTools.   Ron is a business partner who tweets from @ChangeResults.    I like his title better.  Too bad I can't steal it.  :-)

changetools Deb, Ron

USING MULTIPLE TWITTER accounts:

I will sometimes retweet myself, attempting to do it at different times, per @CharlieCurve's good recommendations.  I've posted his video below about using multiple twitter accounts well.  Lesson learned!!  Charlie's videos are a GREAT example of how to use video well!

And here's @CharlieCurve's video on using multiple twitter accounts:  

Great tech trend visuals to capture David Pogue's presentation! Check out the full post regarding the overview of technology trends that will be affecting our lives. Pop Culture note: Ironman 2 is featuring many of the these trends. It's a geeky sci-fi, comic book guilty pleasure, spiced with AC/DC. See the world with data overlaid, that's a trend that is building in movie culture and technology that is already available today. -- Deb

Excerpted:

Innovation bringing about the next Michigan

Audio of the "Destination: Innovation" event in Troy, Michigan

• Opening
• Innovation defined
• Innovation defined part 2
• Innovation in action

Related podcasts:

• Soji Adelaja, Director of Michigan State University's Land Policy Institute talks with WWJ's Ron Dewey on the change in culture necessary in order to fix Michigan's economy.
• Jeff DeGraff, Clinical Professor of Business Administration, Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan, talks about how Michigan lost its edge. WWJ's Ron Dewey with the interview.
• Judy Johncox, Associate Vice President for Technology Commericialization at Wayne State University talks about what is at the heart of an entrepenuer. WWJ’s Ron Dewey with the interview.
• URC Executive Director Jeff Mason on Destination Innovation
• Terry Cross, executive in residence-entrepreneurship at Wayne State University discusses his program and innovation with WWJ's Beth Fisher.

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• Innovation requires a lot of variation - a lot of diversity, lot of touch points, a lot of pushing and shoving in a positive and constructive way…
• The more things are aligned, the more they create efficiencies and standards.
• But they eliminate variation, that is what fuels innovation...

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Photos from the event »

TROY, Mich. (WWJ) -- What will it take for Michigan to get its economic groove back? At WWJ's "Destination: Innovation" Business Breakfast in Troy, business and University Research Corridor leaders agreed that entrepreneurialism is the key.

During Thursday's event, WWJ had a chance to hear from some of the top minds in Michigan about how we can bring new business, new technology and jobs to our state.

Judy Johncox helps turn ideas into action at Wayne State University's TechTown. She said the key to being an entrepreneur is to surround yourself with other idea people.

...Jeff Mason is Executive Director of Michigan’s University Research Corridor, which is a collaboration between the state's three largest universities. "We've lost some of that 'mojo', if you will, in terms of innovation and entrepreneurship," Mason said.

"[We had] a hundred years of tinkerers and inventors and builders, and 'can do', and a sense of destiny -- I think that one of the things that happend in the 80's, in the downturn, is things got very conservative here," DeGraff said.

DeGraff says he sees these can-do people coming out of his classrooms. The roblem is, they take their amazing ideas out of Michigan. And DeGraff says that has to change.

...Rich Sheridan, CEO of Menlo Innovations...says...Michigan needs to "move away from an economy of entitlement and move toward an economy of entrepreneurship." Sheridan says, in his business, he loves to see creative conflict arise in the conference room, which, he says, fuels innovative ideas.

Experts to discuss how innovation can jump start Michigan's economy

Deb:  I was at an internet marketing gathering this past Thursday in Sterling Heights.  Featured speaker, e-book author Sylvia Hubbard mentioned how initially she wasn't taken seriously as a writer, was even excluded or shunned because of her focus on the e-book format.  As she has now met with success and has quite the literary following, her local experience in the Detroit area mirrors the New York Time report below from Amazon.  E-books, like other things digital; i.e. blogs, photography, music; is here to stay. 

 

 

via flickr.com

Don't worry book fans.  I don't believe print books will vanish any more than LPs have.  LP's are in resurgency with a small, but devoted music following who appreciate the analog, rich sound.  The news in higher education with the Fall advent of the iPad on campus, and my own affinity for Star Trek-like gizmos that lighten my load, fuel my own belief that e-books have now arrived.  Sony E-reader and iPad 2nd generation, here I come.  And my spine and back are more than a little grateful.

Excerpted:

Amazon.com, one of the nation’s largest booksellers, announced Monday that for the last three months, sales of books for its e-reader, the Kindle, outnumbered sales of hardcover books.

In that time, Amazon said, it sold 143 Kindle books for every 100 hardcover books, including hardcovers for which there is no Kindle edition.

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“This was a day...that had to come,” Mike Shatzkin, adviser to book publishers on digital change, predicting that within a decade, fewer than 25% of all books sold will be print versions.

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The pace of change is quickening, too, Amazon said. In the last four weeks sales rose to 180 digital books for every 100 hardcover copies. Amazon has 630,000 Kindle books, a small fraction of the millions of books sold on the site.

Book lovers mourning the demise of hardcover books with their heft and their musty smell need a reality check, said Mike Shatzkin, founder and chief executive of the Idea Logical Company, which advises book publishers on digital change. “This was a day that was going to come, a day that had to come,” he said. He predicts that within a decade, fewer than 25 percent of all books sold will be print versions.

...The big surprise, Mr. Shatzkin said, was that the day came during the first period that the Kindle faced a serious competitive threat. The Apple iPad, which started sales in April, is marketed as a leisure device for reading, and it has its own e-book store. Yet sales of the Kindle also grew each month during the quarter, Amazon said.

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 E-book sales have quadrupled this year through May - Association of American Publishers

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Amazon is being helped by an explosion in e-book sales across the board. According to the Association of American Publishers, e-book sales have quadrupled this year through May.

Amazon said its sales exceeded that growth rate. One reason Kindle book sales have held their own is that owners of iPads and other mobile reading devices buy Kindle books, which they can read on computers, iPhones, iPads, BlackBerrys and Android phones. But, except for the free uncopyrighted books, Kindle owners must buy or download content via Amazon. “Every time they sell a Kindle, they lock up a customer,” Mr. Shatzkin said.

via nytimes.com

Deb Nystrom, of Reveln Consulting blogs about innovation, leadership, emerging trends, social media, business strategy, news, higher education and fun stuff. You can learn more about her background & projects on the mothership at Reveln Consulting.

...if the web platform loses any market share at all, Google stands to lose the most. That's why I think they will lead innovation. 

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When GMail launched in 2004, it took one step forward and 10 steps backwards from the mail application I was using. Even today, the major features GMail is releasing are simply trying to match the features I've had on the desktop for years.

I think this is the tipping point for the web. The modern web had over 10 years to reach parity with desktop applications, and it couldn't even hit that. Now it faces extinction as innovation in native applications accelerates.

Browser innovation will happen. Google will drive it

 

 

Click to view large

Deb:   This seems to be a unique angle on branding.  This can drive innovation in new ways.

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"..it has never been more important to turn your brand into a service. Jaded, time-poor, pragmatic consumers yearn for service and care, while the mobile online revolution ...makes it possible to offer uber-relevant services to consumers anywhere, anytime.' 

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...brands urgently need to hone their 'butlering skills'*,  focusing on assisting consumers to make the most of their daily lives, versus the old model of selling them a lifestyle if not identity.    * For more about butlering skills...see this wiki.

[Trends]  Here's why consumers are embracing these BRAND BUTLER-style services:

• For consumers, time, convenience, control and independence are the new currencies: this need requires B2C brands to turn many of their 'campaigns' if not all interactions with their customers into broader services. In short: a shift from 'broadcasting' to assisting.

• Relationships with brands are now more down to earth and less reverential. From individualism to eco-concerns to decreased spending power in developed economies: for consumers, the practical and pragmatic rule

...That means a major opportunity to be amongst the first to roll out a cohesive suite of services, embodying the essence of your brand.

So... time to scan the iPhone App Store, Google’s Android Market, and Blackberry's App World.

In the 'real' world, brands obviously can’t be everywhere all the time. By default, they will be more expensive to execute as well. So 'offline' BRAND BUTLER services need to be prioritized by utter relevance and/or surprise.

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A hands-on start would be to

• establish the themes your brand is about, and

• dream up an integrated 'suite' of services, both online and offline.

• Use categories [listed, and] add a few categories of your own

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...Transparency has to do with giving customers access to vital (process or product) information that a company until now may have used for internal purposes only. 

...'In the know'. Not surprisingly, 'in the know' services are often offered by brands that in the end are (or want to be) all about lifestyle.

A few examples, from brands like Nike, Beck’s, Nissan, Domino's, MasterCard and more:

• Domino's Pizza Tracker allows US customers to follow the progress of their pizza order from preparation through to delivery via a web interface..=

• Nike’s True City iPhone app aims to give consumers ‘insider’ information on six European cities, while also allowing users to share their own tips and delivering exclusive Nike offers and information

• The Adidas Urban Art Guide is a free iPhone travel guide listing Berlin's best graffiti. Users can click on each marked location to retrieve images as well as information about the piece and the artist.

• Beck's Gig Finder app helps users to find local music gigs. The app's map and GPS interface allow users to see where he or she is in relation to the gigs.

A hands-on start would be to

• establish the themes your brand is about, and

• dream up an integrated 'suite' of BRAND BUTLER services, both online and offline.

• Use the eight categories above (Transparency and 'In the know', Saving money, Finding, Connectivity, Health, Nutrition & Exercise, Skills & Advice, Eco, and Tools & Amenities).

• add a few categories of your own as well.

 

EXCERPTED:  ....Five macro trends that will be shaping a New Way to Work in 2010 and beyond. Together, these five trends point to a New Way To Work in which creativity and innovation are more valued by employers than ever before and the traditional notion of work as merely an economic activity is being supplemented by ideas about happiness and well-being.

(1) Organizations will embrace Design Thinking.  ...most obvious examples are companies like Apple and Target, which have made breathtakingly-beautiful design part of their core value proposition.

(2) Women will play a more important role in re-defining traditional notions of work.   See Pepsi and competitiveness reference.

(3) Small business owners will become the new stars of economic growth.  ...Resilient small business owners around the globe are re-inventing their industries.

(4) "Happiness" will become a way to measure economic prosperity.   [Who has the] pluck and audacity to adopt the concept of Gross National Happiness?

(5) Personal branding will become the buzzword of talented workers around the world.

...This last trend is perhaps the most important of all five mentioned above. The Internet as a distribution channel for a personal brand is unmatched. For freelance workers, the Internet has made it possible to showcase their best work to anyone in the world, at any time.

Photo credit:  See-ming Lee 李思明 SML Flickr-CC

via endlessinnovation.typepad.com