from the minds of imagination.

Ipsos today released its annual version of The Business Elite Study http://www.ipsos-na.com/news/pressrelease.cfm?id=3922, which tracks the C-suite and its media preferences. Those of us who are interested in reaching the C-suite for the most part still choose to do it via print. While it’s true that print is the perfect vehicle for conveying a high-quality image and for creating a lasting impression, the assumption that C-level executives do not use digital media is false.

The study shows that using a publication’s website is a part of the daily routine for 38% of those surveyed. The number who consider a website an important part of a publication’s overall offering jumped from 50% last year to 73% this year.

The embrace of digital media has not diminished executives’ reliance on magazines. Rather they have become greater consumers of business-related media by adding the Internet and cable TV to the mix.

The feeling that C-suite executives do not use the online medium is usually based on the assumption that they are older and, therefore, not as tech-savvy as younger, possibly more junior managers. That is also not the case.

• Almost three out of four own a cellphone with a camera and multi-messaging. More than half own HDTV and almost half own iPods.
• More than a third own Blackberries and satellite radio.
• A very healthy percentage (68%) download videos and 49% have streamed or watched videos on their computers.
• The use of blogs is increasingly steadily, with almost a third of those surveyed reading them and a small number contributing.

The study shows that we can’t rely on one medium to reach this highly influential audience. The use of blogs alone should compel us to look at adding such functionality. The marriage of print and digital media seems ideal for the audience—not one or the other but both working together.

In the midst of all this, I started thinking about value. I started wondering why at the last association conference I went to (about globalization) not a single participant mentioned their magazine unless I brought it up. Whereas at this conference, member communications was all anyone talked about. Digital communications rather than print, but even so.

I’m wondering whether the feeling within associations is that technology creates value whereas publishing is just a product that communicates value already created. Have associations been publishing for so long that they’ve forgotten that for many members the communications they receive–print or online–is the brand? If it’s true that most members are what you’d call “mailbox members,” those that never come to a meeting, never join a committee, never participate in any way, the magazine, the website, the e-newsletter is their only contact with the association. And if that’s not creating value instead of just repackaging other association offerings, then we might as well all go home now.

Why say it, when you can show it?

I love the direction of this blog, but sheesh, I think it could use a photo or two. I’ll get us started with a few new favorites of mine.

1) Show it, don’t brand-ver-marke-licit it.

2) What we sometimes foolishly assume when we design for a digital experience.

3) Never forget the power of the unexpected.

Ok, these were sorta silly, but I think it conveyed the power of images to progress or spark a conversation-the right images can sway someone. Think about it next time you flip through a stock photo catalog.

Imagination’s SVP of Digital Media, Laura Chavoen, was part of a panel discussion yesterday at American Business Media’s Spring meeting in Palm Springs. The topic of discussion: Where Social Media and Publishing Collide.

Laura and three other panelists talked about why B2B publishers and marketers must (yes, must) use social media to 1) learn about their customers’ wants and needs (passive social media) and 2) communicate with their customers (active social media).

Learning about your customers and communicating with them through social media.

Hmmm. The scary part for some, I suppose, was neatly summed up by Laura in this way: “You have to be willing to change the way you do business, see how your brand is being talked about externally.”

Change can be scary. But it’s necessary. No one ever grew up, grew old, or grew a business without changing. And even the biggest businesses are trying to figure out how and when to do it.

Earlier this week, CNET published a transcript of a Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer addressing his “troops,” speaking about the future of the now-dead Microsoft/Yahoo! deal:

First, this from Mr. Ballmer:

“The future of the way people consume information, the way people socialize and connect is going to change a lot more in the next 10 years even than in the last 10.”

And then, this:
“ … we need to change the game. We need to change the basic experiences of how people communicate, how people consume information, how people find information, not just in search but in a lot of different areas. … So, we have a strategy and we have ideas in each one of those categories, things that we’re doing, strategies that we’re working on, that we’re excited about.”

The Microsoft/Yahoo! deal didn’t pan out. But the point is this: The way we communicate with customers is changing. Publishers and marketers must change how we do business. And that change involves listening, and learning how and when your customers want to communicate with you.

I’m here at the American Business Media conference, an annual gathering of the major B2B business publishers from around the world. The talk at all the sessions and the cocktail hours centers on what’s happening to the traditional publishing business and what can be done to regain momentum. Mortgage crisis, higher prices and consumer uncertainty has publishers scrambling for answers as advertising revenues drop and readership wanes.

Yet in the midst of all this, the attendees here continue to be baffled by the continued, unabashed growth of everything digital. Talk of blogs, community, rich media, social networking, SEO and analytics are everywhere but traditional publishers who have been slow to react wonder if this is a bad dream and will all just go away or if it’s already to late to jump into the pool. One of those publishers, David Calhoun, CEO of Nielson warns that “this time you’re not going to be able to budget your way to success” and goes on to say “that this is a new world where the customers and readers are totally in control and are making choices minute by minute”.

Edward Abrams, Vice President of Marketing for IBM followed by agreeing that IBM has come to the say conclusion. That first, the customer is in control. Second, that customers and the marketplace are having a conversation. And third, that companies like IBM must participate in that conversation or be left behind.

Of course, the enabling source of these conversations is the digital world where every customer has a voice and information is transmitted and accessed instantly on a worldwide basis. Conversation cannot be controlled but they can be invaluable in learning about what customers, readers or members think about your company’s products and services and then moving quickly to satisfy needs. In this way a company can become part of the conversation and over time create advocates worldwide that spread your message to a larger audience than you can ever afford to reach through traditional advertising.

“In the end,” Abrams says, “the power is with the customers and a conversation with customers is far more valuable than pushing marketing messages at them”.

“This is the point when we probably should acknowledge that all our search sucks,” Chris Anderson told the audience of Digital Now in Orlando today. The author of The Long Tail was responding to a question about improving member experience online, about helping users find what they need in the overwhelming mountain of content on your site and everywhere else.

The first take-away, the easy one, is to let Google help you. Many association sites are behind firewalls, require sign-ups and have all sorts of barriers to effective search. Take them down, get out of Google’s way and become Google friendly. Your members will likely start there anyway unless they’re extremely familiar with your site and even then, they may go to Google first. How much the better if they do a Google search and you turn up? You could expand their opinion of you in a couple of clicks.

The second more important take-away is that context has deposed content as king. All content must be put in a context where it makes sense.

Listing your programs doesn’t help anyone. First, I need to know what you mean by program. Then I have to be interested enough to click and scroll through that list of offerings. And now, you’ve lost me and I’m back to Google.

You’ve added rich media and, likely as not, it’s listed under something like “podcasts.” Again, not helpful. Podcasts about what? Put the podcasts everywhere they make sense. Write headlines that tell me what I’m going to get.

The secret is proximity. Make your search work and then put like content with like in a way that creates context. Let tools like Digg and clouds do some of the work for you. Every page becomes a home page of its own, a little environment where users can feel at home.

You’ve already got the content. Just make it easier to find.

We are all at the point of having to ignore an awful lot of relevant content because we just don’t have the bandwidth to deal with it. Good content and relevance are nothing without good search functionality and going the extra step to create context.

Your members like you. They paid their dues, didn’t they? They’re predisposed to you in ways that should give you an edge. Make them like you more by letting them find what you’ve got, save yourself the trouble of pushing so much at them, and then see where they go so that you can get ever better at giving them what they want.

As the launch of the new Imagination website approaches, the redesign team decided it was time to unveil a preview of the new look and feel. The chosen direction in the end was very close to our existing interim site. The team explored many different options, but in the end decided that we weren’t that far off when we first started this process. As is often the case with creative work, you have to fail a bit before you can come to a desired outcome.

The team included in this process was extremely diverse. Not only designers that crossed a lot of mediums – but account directors, management staff, writers and business development staff. There are a lot of different backgrounds within Imagination therefore it was necessary to gain perspectives that are outside of interaction and visual design.

There is always the temptation to go wild with your own website as the only limits are ones you set yourself. But in the end it’s the limits that add focus to the work. With that in mind we placed a few limits around where we were going:

• The site had to be extensible. Without the ability to grow and adapt organically we would ultimately be revisiting this process within a year. We would be remiss to think that even we know exactly where this site will be in two years.
• While we wanted to embrace the current marketing campaign, the site could not rely on it to survive. Marketing campaigns will come and go, but the site needs to survive that transition if you wish it.
• Use a simple clean design to allow content to come to the fore. In the end what you are interacting with is the content anyway.

The website is targeted for a mid-May launch thanks in no small part to all of the people involved in the effort. No matter how much strategy and thought goes into a site, the skills of those people involved are what make the project a success. We would like to thank all those that are on the team for a great job thus far.

James Meyers, President
Doug Kelly, EVP Creative Overview/Design
Rebecca Rolfes, EVP New Business Development
Laura Chavoen, SVP Digital Media
Michelle O’Hagan, VP Marketing
Erin Slater, Director – Business Development
Jane Hamilton, Broadcast Director
Gretchen Kirchner, Senior Art Director
Christian Campos, Art Director
Dave Barrick, Senior Media Producer
Ethan Smith, Senior Designer – Digital Media
Chris Mickshl, Designer – Digital Media
Tony Anasenes, Designer – Digital Media
Pat Rovito, Designer – Digital Media
Joel Witmer, Broadcast Intern
Allen Tieri, Digital Media Intern

That’s today’s lesson.  Actually, a lesson from last week.

I received a response to my email last week, and it was very clear and concise if not appreciative of the decision we’ve made to move forward redesigning our website in a transparent manner.

I’ve edited the email for brevity and to remove any potential identifiers of the author.

“Laura, can I get you to stop sending me these messages? I really don’t care about your web site, your thinking about your web site, what you think about the nature of conversations, or any of that. What I want is for you to do a web site in total silence, without continually asking me what I think, without self-conscious, self-aggrandizing self videos, without displays of how clever and progressive you and imagination are. Your web site is your preoccupation, not mine.

So please, take me off your mailing list, and save all of us the continuing harassment of that insecure question, “what do you think?” It is unseemly and completely inappropriate, a waste of time, a waste of effort, etc.”

The point that is clearly being made is that conversations are not a one-way street. If someone is not interested in a conversation, they close the door.  Initiating a conversation is always an opportunity, but sometimes that path doesn’t lead anywhere.  And that’s okay.  But if you don’t reach out, try, engage, you’ll never know what people are thinking….both good and bad.

The respondent is right about a few things.  We are trying to show how progressive we are.  We are doing this because our clients HIRE us because we are smart, forward-thinking, strategic.  The respondent is also right that our site is our preoccupation.  In today’s business environment, and in our industry, our website is one of our primary marketing tools. As such, it needs and deserves a great deal of attention.

The respondent may also be right that my video was self-aggrandizing.  It was not meant to be that way, nor did I think it turned out that way, but that is certainly feedback that I am taking to heart, and will use to help vet future content for the site, as that is NOT one of our business objectives nor a brand attribute.

And although you can all mock me for this, please, let me know what you think of this email.  I need to know so I can make better, smarter, informed decisions moving forward.

P.S.  This also speaks to knowing your customer before you try to engage them and start a conversation.  I’m planning to call the author of this email because it is a perspective on my business that is important to me, and I’d like to know what channel or medium would be *best* for engaging him/her.  This is what we do here at Imagination!

A conversation I had with Bud Caddell last week generated this little tidbit:

User-generated content is more than content, it’s business intelligence.

This concept extends deep into every aspect of every action in every channel.  What “digital media” enables is the ability to track/trend.  And  it goes on your permanent record.

But to me, content (and business intelligence!) is food for my brain.   And today’s world is the WILD WILD WEST of content…and I’m loving it!

–Laura

Your weekly hors d’oeuvre plate of tasty social media morsels.

SocialScan shows your web site’s social networking stats

Drop in your URL and get stats from 12 separate social networks, including the big dogs like Digg, Delicious, StumbleUpon, Reddit and some of the up-and-coming little guys.

Top 10 reasons why your customer service fails

#1 You’re doing all the talking – my grandmother used to say: “we have two ears and one mouth for a reason. They are meant to be used proportionally.”

#2 You are not doing anything about it – you don’t follow through with the feedback you request.

#3 Your customer service reps don’t have the power to help – you are putting the most junior and least supported staff up front.

Retail experience: the Nokia store vs. the Apple Store

It’s the difference between a regular museum and a do-touch museum. Nokia has some work ahead of itself now that it has to share the mobile market with everyone else. Oh, and there are rumors that Microsoft wants to open stores for its products, too. Oh so me2.

How are buying decisions made?