Monthly Archives: July 2018

July 9, 2018 · 12:08 pm

The Company We Keep

I’m sure you heard the same thing from your parents as I did. Don’t hang around with a “bad” bunch of kids because you get known by the company you keep and their lousy reputation will stick to you whether or not you’ve engaged in the same bad behavior. You probably haven’t thought about that quote in terms of your business but there are some things going on these days that might cause you to do so. Let me explain.

If you’re a brand (and every company is) and especially if you’re the person responsible for marketing that brand, you’d have to be under a rock not to be aware of what’s going on with social media and data protection. I’m not talking about hacks in which data is stolen. I mean the willful use of your private data by these companies as part of their business model in ways that you never contemplated nor to which you explicitly agreed. I received an email the other day from the folks at Business Insider which contained some of the results of a study of confidence in social media companies’ ability to protect users’ data. The study was conducted among their “BI Insiders” (disclosure, I’m one of them) and the results aren’t great news for Facebook in particular:

Over half (56%) of Facebook users have zero confidence in the platform’s ability to protect their data and privacy. This was the lowest level of confidence of all platforms and highlights the uphill battle Facebook faces to regain the trust of its users. To be fair, users weren’t all that confident in the other platforms either, but the gap between Facebook and the others is significant — at least 18 percentage points from all other platforms. Meanwhile, LinkedIn came out on top for the second year in a row.

The problem for you is that your mom was right: you’re known by the company you keep, and if your brand is active on these services, your reputation is damaged as well. According to the Edelman Trust Barometer study...

Consumers are not forgiving when it comes to brand safety. About half of the survey’s respondents said that it was a brand’s own fault if its advertising appeared alongside hate speech or other inappropriate content online; 47 percent said that the points of view appearing near advertising and marketing are an indication of that brand’s own values.

This is what I found to be of great importance to any brand:

70 percent of digitally connected people around the world think brands need to pressure social media sites to do more about fake news and false information proliferating on their sites, and that 71 percent expect brands to pressure social media platforms to protect personal data.

In other words, if you’re keeping company with social media and they’re misbehaving, you need to exert the influence you have as a client and get them to change. Leave the platform if you must to get their attention – that’s what consumers are doing. If you don’t, you’re risking getting blamed for their bad behavior.

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July 6, 2018 · 10:32 am

Foodie Friday After The Fourth

While in theory today is a workday, I’m pretty sure most folks have continued the July 4th holiday straight through. In the spirit of being as lazy as the rest of you relaxing over this lovely break, I’m reporting a Foodie Friday post from a past holiday weekend. It was Memorial Day of 2008 (yes, I’ve been at this that long) and what I wrote then still makes sense to me. How about to you?

This weekend sees the celebration of the Memorial Day holiday here is the US. Traditionally, this weekend marks the start of Summer (OK, maybe that’s July 4th but I love Summer, so…) and that means it’s time to fire up the smoker. While one can achieve great BBQ on everything from a Weber kettle to rigs costing thousands, my preferred weapon of choice is the Bandera, which used to be made by The New Braunfels Company.English: Image of a propane smoker in use. Dia...

We had a bunch of folks over to enjoy ribs, smoked turkey, beer can chicken, the odd bit of smoked bratwurst (I couldn’t find a Hebrew National baloney to smoke which, as an aside, is the closest thing I know of to meat candy when spiced and smoked). The thing they all were wondering about was why does good “Q” take so long. Those of you with a love of smoked meat know that “low and slow is the way to go” and that getting the temperature in the smoker above 225 F is a formula for shoe leather.

Which, of course, got me thinking about how many people seem to do business today. Just as one cannot make BBQ in the microwave, fixing problems via the proverbial microwave for a quick fix is, in my mind, not getting you where you need to go. Now, some folks insist on cooking ribs for 8 hours; I think I’ve proven you can have damn good results in 3.5 – 4. However, I am talking about using the right tools, taking the right amount of time, and, if you can, using the guidance of someone who has been there before (I ruined a lot of racks and quite a few briskets in my day until I got it figured out).

There is a Slow food Movement of which you may be aware and I love what they have to say. However, sometimes you’re late for work and DO need to toast that Pop-Tart and go (eeew). Sometimes problems won’t wait. But I think many operations would be a lot better off if they made the quick fix the exception rather than the rule.

And now I’m off to enjoy some leftovers!

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July 2, 2018 · 12:56 pm

Reading The Declaration

As we head toward Independence Day here in the U.S., I usually do something that I’d encourage you all to do as well. I read The Declaration Of Independence. Why you might wonder, would I read the same document that I must have read at least 50 times? Because like almost everything, context is almost as important as content and since the context seems to change constantly, how I’m reading the document does as well.

You probably know some of the “big” parts:

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.

What you probably haven’t read lately (maybe ever!) is the laundry list of “Facts” the colonists were accusing the King of imposing. They run the gamut from messing with the legislature and the legislative process to obstructing immigration to using the military to keep the populace in check. There are limits in trade and imposition of taxes, and of course, “He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.” It’s quite a list and if you haven’t read it, you can here.

I raise this for a couple of reasons. First, you will see some current issues on the list. 242 years later we’re still arguing about things such as immigration, taxes, trade policies and other things on the list. Second, you might ask yourself what your customers, partners, vendors, and employees might say if they were asked to construct a similar list about you and your business. I think before they declare independence from you, they probably do just that even if they don’t write them down and publish them.

As we celebrate the birth of our country, we might also think about how that birth came about. That same process might result in affecting your business since I believe one message of the Declaration is that leaders need to listen. Are you?

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