Greetings, dear friends and readers. First, I’d like to thank you for your comments, ideas, and critique over these past few months of the Post-Chaos blog. I enjoy writing these posts, although I’m realizing I’m getting older, and as I get older I get more grimy and curmudgeonly. Stay positive, Andrew! Jeez. I mean, really.
My frustrations in digital marketing are really human ones, not technological. Technology isn’t the problem. The problem—still—rests with humans being resistant to change in a field so wrought with change it becomes incredible to me that so many people are still employed. I mean that, quite honestly.
So, with that, I believe 2012 is the year in which lots of people and companies are going to be caught with their pants down. Here are a few ways in which that’s going to happen:
1. Mobile. HOT. HOT. HOT. Super hot. I understand there are 14 billion blogs written by people who have something to gain from the explosion in mobile. This isn’t one of them. But this is a blog that basically says one thing about mobile: There’s a good chance that your key customers are now on a smart phone and that’s how they access the Web. Problem is, your Web site doesn’t render on a smart phone screen. Do I need to go into any more detail than that? I do not. Go to your smart phone right now and bring up your Web site. Happy with what you see? Fix it. (Disclosure: My own site sucks on mobile. I’m fixing it right now.) Plus, if you’re an executive and don’t have a smart phone, get one. Flipping open your flip-phone or Blackberry in 2012 is not giving your direct reports (and maybe now your board) any additional confidence in you. Don’t be that guy (or gal). It’s showing a lack of curiosity.
2. Organizational Social Media. I read a B2B predictions blog from last year that said that social media will be pervasive throughout the organization by the end of 2011. Yikes. This is not happening. There are pockets where wide-spread, strategically driven engagement and relationship development is going on, but this is not pervasive. Many companies still don’t have a social media policy. Strike that. Most companies still don’t know what they’re actually trying to accomplish. Fix this. It’s 2012. We can’t operate companies as though our consumers have just heard about Yahoo for the first time.
3. Understanding All Customer Touchpoints. OK. I loathe jargon and “touchpoints.” I understand. The bigger word for this is “customer experience,” and I simply wonder who within an organization has truly mapped and understands how a customer really interacts with its brand, across all media, all people, and all relationships. If, for example, you claim to be “the leading company in ________,” but you have mega-lame digital presence or your people aren’t involved in online forums and social channels where real conversations are actually taking place, then you’re not. You’re simply not the leader. You may make great products but the paths you build to those products are increasingly complex. A good idea would be to fix this. Understand how your brand actually lives in the modern world.
4. The Talent Crisis. This year, those leaders and emerging leaders who truly understand just what the hell is going on are going to be rewarded. Of course, the other side of that coin is that those who don’t are going to be exposed. That goes for all of us. Agencies and consultants who claim to be “experts” but can’t deliver aren’t experts. They’re dabblers who push jargon around. I struggle with this every day at my own firm. Ask yourself every day, “Just what exactly am I trying to accomplish that has value to my shareholders, customers, and colleagues?” You need to have an answer—or many well-crafted, documented, aligned answers. If you don’t, pants down. Fix yourself first. Then fix your company.
These are just a smattering of critical needs right now in 2012. I would love your ideas as well, so please go through the trouble (ahem . . . ) of commenting below. Once again, please tell me if I’m full of it. Or if you have much better ideas, share them. We can all use the help.
Oh. And pants. Pull ‘em up.
