The Brainzooming Group

There’s clearly a sub-theme running through social media content I track (now that the brainstorming doesn’t work theme has died down a bit) saying if you’re not pissing someone off, you’re not innovating or doing anything remarkable. And there are certainly social media stars who have built public personalities around the concept that the strongest differentiation comes from the lone wolf visionary innovating in ways status quo lovers will hate.

While I get the social media attraction of the message that pissing off status quo-oriented people represents innovation, I am never going to be there strategically. It is just not in my DNA, or if it ever were, it has been consciously unwound and left by the wayside somewhere along my business career.

Instead, the foundation shaping my personal view of business brainstorming and innovation success is at the other end of the strategy spectrum. In fact, the saying that best sums it up is actually a Bible verse (which has probably never appeared in popular social media channels) that is on my mind particularly today.

Innovation Based on Participation, Brainstorming, and Sound Strategy

I have lectored at 6:30 a.m. mass nearly every Tuesday for perhaps twelve years. Every two years on this Tuesday (during the 32nd week of the liturgical year), my favorite business-oriented bible verse is part of the first reading at mass. It is from the letter to Titus (Chapter 2: 7-8):

“Show(ing) yourself as a model of good deeds in every respect, with integrity in your teaching, dignity, and sound speech that cannot be criticized, so that the opponent will be put to shame without anything bad to say about us.”

As I said before, basing your approach to innovating on this Bible verse from the letter to Titus is definitely the opposite of demonstrating your innovative nature by telling social media followers to forget brainstorming and concentrate on pissing piss off people!

Innovation Success through Creating Attraction

For me, the height of innovation success comes through demonstrating a sound strategy, making a compelling logic-based case, or successfully appealing to another’s emotions. When you create such an attractive strategic alternative that even those who initially disagreed with your innovative perspective (perhaps out of fear of innovation) have no choice but to embrace it.

This isn’t about people pleasing.

It’s about creating something that people WANT to be a part of because they see the connection between where they are now and the opportunity of the new innovation – even if the connection pulls them far away from where they are right now.

The possibility of creating innovation that is clearly different than the status quo, developed through brainstorming and ideas from a variety of people, and makes all the sense in the world for people to embrace?

That is what the innovation The Brainzooming Group helps organizations achieve is all about.

Maybe that point of view doesn’t generate as much social media buzz, but if THAT innovative approach sounds attractive to you, let’s work together to make it happen. - Mike Brown

If you enjoyed this article, subscribe to the free Brainzooming blog email updates.

If you’re struggling to create or sustain innovation success, The Brainzooming Group can be the strategic catalyst you need. We will apply our  strategic thinking, brainstorming, and implementation tools to help you create greater innovation success. Email us at info@brainzooming.com or call  816-509-5320 to learn how we can help you figure out how to work around innovation and implementation challenges.

Mike Brown

Founder of The Brainzooming Group, and a huge fan of strategy, creativity, and innovation. Mike is a frequent speaker on innovation, strategic thinking, and social media.

More Posts - Website

Follow Me:

Continue Reading

A fundamental part of effectively building a social media network is positively and beneficially interacting with other social media users. Another part is being able to successfully  ask members of your social media network for assistance and participation – either collectively or individually. Doing this successfully directly relates to the social media etiquette you display when you’re making a big social media “ask” of your audience.

There are clearly better and worse ways to ask your social media network for action. And based on requests we have received lately, there are a variety of basic social media etiquette practices social media users (even prominent ones) don’t know, selectively follow, or choose to blatantly ignore.

11 Keys to Seeking Social Media Network Help

When it comes to seeking help from your social media network . . .

• If you solicit people in your social media network to leave comments on your new blog post, be prepared to check for pending comments throughout the day and APPROVE them as they are made.
• When asking your social media network to “Like” or “Follow” your new social media presence, start sharing content in advance so your social media presence looks like an active one.
• If you’re going to direct message someone to prompt them to retweet your important new social media content, make sure the link you include works – every time.
• When you request guest blog posts, offer some direction on who your audience target is and provide activation support within your social media network after the guest post appears.
• If you want to become a guest author on a blog, first show up and participate on the blog (or other social networks where the blogger is active) instead of simply making a request out of the blue.
• When writing a guest post for someone else’s blog, don’t send the same post to multiple bloggers.
• If you ask for a review of your book, webinar, or speech, be willing to adapt to a blogger’s writing approach (and actually supply the discount code you promise will be available to the blog’s readers).
• When throwing out a question on Twitter or Facebook to other social media users, be ready to interact with members of your social media network who respond.
• If you insist on sending an auto-direct message to someone who newly follows you on Twitter and include a question in the tweet, follow them back beforehand so they can respond to you with a direct message.
• When asking someone within your social network to do something for you, do something for them first.
• Use “please” and “thank you” liberally – even if it means sending someone another message (or two) to say them.

There are certainly more than these eleven social media etiquette tips, but these provide a solid foundation for cultivating greater social media network success.

What other social media etiquette tips would you add?

What social media etiquette miscues do you see when people make requests via social media? And what successful social media etiquette practices do you appreciate within your social media network?  - Mike Brown

If you enjoyed this article, subscribe to the free Brainzooming email updates.

If you’re struggling with determining ROI and evaluating its impacts, download “6 Social Media Metrics You Must Track” today!  This article provides a concise, strategic view of the numbers and stories that matter in shaping, implementing, and evaluating your strategy. You’ll learn lessons about when to address measurement strategy, identifying overlooked ROI opportunities, and creating a 6-metric dashboard. Download Your Free Copy of “6 Social Media Metrics You Must Track!”

Mike Brown

Founder of The Brainzooming Group, and a huge fan of strategy, creativity, and innovation. Mike is a frequent speaker on innovation, strategic thinking, and social media.

More Posts - Website

Follow Me:

Continue Reading

Okay, first, this has to be said: the Business Communicators Summit sponsored by the Kansas City IABC was INCREDIBLE!

While I leave many conferences feeling like, “Oh crap, I’m so far behind and won’t ever figure out the cool things other people are doing,” nothing could be further from the truth after yesterday’s conference.

Leaving Kansas City’s Uptown Theatre at day’s end after hearing Steve Crescenzo, Chris Brogan, and other great presenters, my brain was zooming with pages of ideas including some breakthrough ones which only seem to emerge during a highly-creative day removed from the regular routine.

Rather than writing presentation summaries, here’s a sampling of innovation instigators from throughout the day.

• If you’re in B2B, continually watch the consumer world for ideas to co-opt. People make every B2B buying decision. Appeal to what motivates people as individuals, not as businesses. And people care about people, so put actual people with genuine stories in communications.
• Great refresh of the tired old “Ask for forgiveness, not permission” quote from Steve Crescenzo: “Proceed until apprehended.”
• If you’ve got customers who are spending time on social networks, then there’s got to be a customer service dimension to whatever your company’s considering in social media.
• A pivotal mashup idea from the mouths of Steve Crescenzo and Chris Brogan: Communicators need to be talent scouts. That implies looking for people inside the company who are passionate and ooze the brand. These are your communicators in social media channels, regardless of what department they live and work in. Time-saving tip: when you start your talent hunt, begin in customer service.
• Deliver people an artifact as quickly as you can, even if it’s a rough version of a concept. People unfamiliar with new concepts will say “no” until they’re presented with something tangible. That means you start big ideas before you get permission, and share tangible stuff before you get perfection.
• Customers don’t give a crap about the mechanics of what you do. They’re interested in recommendations, and most importantly, the results. Go there first and fast!
• Just like “-ista,” adding “-ati” to the end of a word makes it sound like a bigger, cool deal.
• Great presentations are example and story-based. Are you (and by “Are you, I mean “Am I”) taking dramatic steps to make sure your presentations reflect that? Now I’m completely rethinking a blogging presentation scheduled for next Thursday.

This is simply a smattering of ideas triggered by the innovative content on social media and broader communication strategy.

If you attended the BCS (and there were a few Brainzooming readers I talked with), please share what big revelations you had in the comments section.

If you weren’t in Kansas City or were and didn’t make it to the Business Communications Summit (go ahead and kick yourself – no need to wait for permission from me), check out the live tweet stream, while it’s still available. Or as another cheat, here’s a link to notes from Chris Brogan’s presentation the day before.

Thank you KC IABC. What a day! So glad I attended. – Mike Brown

Mike Brown

Founder of The Brainzooming Group, and a huge fan of strategy, creativity, and innovation. Mike is a frequent speaker on innovation, strategic thinking, and social media.

More Posts - Website

Follow Me:

Continue Reading

F. Scott Fitzgerald’s “The Great Gatsby” begins with its narrator, Nick Carraway, recounting his father’s admonition that not everyone in the world is provided the same advantages. The comment led to Nick’s inclination to “reserve all judgments,” a “habit that…opened up many curious natures” to him.

This opening passage of “Gatsby” has shaped me dramatically. Amid growing up in an environment of clear rights and wrongs, these words were a reminder to delay judgment in order to better understand people, even those who are objectively well outside my behavioral beliefs.

Given the importance of suspending judgment in the early stages of originating new ideas, this practice has been fundamental to helping businesses imagine new possibilities for potential opportunities. There’s a time for judgment, but initially, ideas have to emerge and “breathe” first.

It isn’t all glorious, however, when you reserve judgments. As Nick notes, it led to him being “the victim of not a few veteran bores.” I’ve certainly found that to be the case. It’s also led to having a diverse set of friends (really fun) who at times can’t stand one another (not so fun). Their distinct differences, which I tend to overlook, often make them incompatible.

In all, delaying judgments is a beneficial practice. So what do you think? Are there a few situations in your life right now where you’d be better off to suspend judgment and see how they play out first? The interesting things you’ll experience and learn will FAR outweigh any bores you might encounter. Just go with me on this – okay?

BTW – Want a little “fun” with “The Great Gatsby”? Watch this video of Andy Kaufman trying to read the book to a reluctant audience. You can skip ahead to 2:40 to hear the passage that inspired this post!

Note: This is one of a series of posts on life-changing gifts. – Mike Brown

Mike Brown

Founder of The Brainzooming Group, and a huge fan of strategy, creativity, and innovation. Mike is a frequent speaker on innovation, strategic thinking, and social media.

More Posts - Website

Follow Me:

Continue Reading

“Forecasters who extrapolate from today inevitably get tomorrow wrong…(but) by pitting multiple scenarios of the future against one another and leaving many different doors open, you can prepare yourself for a future that is inherently unpredictable. Brainstorming pays off. And the more possibilities you can entertain, the less likely you are to be blindsided.” - Peter Coy and Neil Gross, Business Week, August 30, 1999

I use this quote often in presentations because it has so dramatically shaped my thinking. It’s at the heart of the philosophies, disciplines, and tools I’ve sought to learn, compile, and develop in the past 10 years.

And when nothing is getting more certain, there’s even greater value in bringing smart, multi-disciplined people together to expand your view of the future, work through possibilities, and act on them.

Ideally, you’re finding that’s what Brainzooming is all about. - Mike Brown

Mike Brown

Founder of The Brainzooming Group, and a huge fan of strategy, creativity, and innovation. Mike is a frequent speaker on innovation, strategic thinking, and social media.

More Posts - Website

Follow Me:

Continue Reading

Times, standards, and expectations all change. As we near July Fourth, let’s use a Founding Father to illustrate. Here’s a Thomas Jefferson quote someone tweeted several weeks ago:

• “The most valuable of all talents is that of never using two words when one will do” – Thomas Jefferson

Great quote, wonderful language, very true statement.

But way too long. If Jefferson were true to his words and writing for business today, he’d need to cut it by nearly 30 percent:

• “The most valuable talent is never using two words when one works.” –”Edited” Thomas Jefferson

And on Twitter, even more editing and a twist would be expected:

• “Most valued talent? Not using 140 char if 100 work.” –Thomas Jefferson Updated – 51 characters

Do you get the meaning from each version? Yes.

Is the Twitter version as elegant as Jefferson’s original? Absolutely not.

The key is understanding the setting, your audience, and their expectations to make sure you are using exactly the right number of words to get your point across.

Mike Brown

Founder of The Brainzooming Group, and a huge fan of strategy, creativity, and innovation. Mike is a frequent speaker on innovation, strategic thinking, and social media.

More Posts - Website

Follow Me:

Continue Reading

This is a screen grab from my Tweetdeck this morning. The first three tweets of the day themed up nicely, so I wanted to share them, including the live link for the Brainzooming post on “Shooting for the Moon.” Have a great weekend!

Mike Brown

Founder of The Brainzooming Group, and a huge fan of strategy, creativity, and innovation. Mike is a frequent speaker on innovation, strategic thinking, and social media.

More Posts - Website

Follow Me:

Continue Reading