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.
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A January post highlighted the plan to broaden Brainzooming through social media. Specific tactics included Twitter, capturing story ideas with Flip video, and participating elsewhere online.
Since many readers have asked, here’s a progress update: the opportunities, connections, and possibilities from implementing the plan have been beyond my expectations. For those considering using social media in your personal brand efforts, here are some highlights:
- Since grabbing the @Brainzooming Twitter name in January 2009, it’s grown to a focused network of several thousand, including great thinkers globally on innovation, creativity, marketing, and branding.
- BrainzoomingTM blog activity is up 3 times for the biggest month in 2009 vs. 2008. It’s increased through Twitter, answering questions and updating activities on LinkedIn, sharing links on Business Week Business Exchange, and commenting on other blogs.
- Twitter led to connecting with @sethsimonds, who’s helping revamp Brainzooming, moving it to WordPress (and Brainzooming.com).
- Posting “Taking the NO Out of InNOvation” on Slideshare, being selected as a feature ebook, and sharing the link broadly generated nearly 3700 views in six months to broaden the Brainzooming audience.
- I worked with a talented team to live tweet, blog, and video the Business Marketing Association conference in June 2009. We’ll build on the experience for the October 2009 American Marketing Association Market Research Conference I’m chairing. We’re building a Twitter presence with @amamrc, recording webcasts, bringing live tweeting into presentations via ParaTweet, and exploring unconference and Pecha Kucha presentations (which yes, I learned about through Twitter).
- A request came through Twitter to participate in a Sydney, Australia innovation event with two stories shot on the Flip and posted on YouTube. There have also been new speaking opportunities on social media and innovation (in person, on radio, and the internet) and writing connections with 24 Hours of Innovation, World Creativity and Innovation Week, and Braden Kelly’s Blogging Innovation website.
- Brainzooming is listed among top innovation blogs on IdeaConnection. (If you have a minute, please go there and vote up Brainzooming!) Brainzooming has become more of a recognized outpost for innovation thinking, with a wonderful group of Twitter-based guest bloggers contributing and PR outreaches from people wanting to be featured on Brainzooming.
- Finally, Googling “Brainzooming” in December 2008 would have yielded about 40 hits. Doing it just now, “Brainzooming” returned thousands.
One learning has been that taking a strategic approach to social media for me means concentrating efforts on only a few sites. That’s why there’s little presence from me on Facebook or Plaxo. I will be trying though to make a concerted attempt to get back to some high impact sites and explore new ones. One is Bulbstorm.com – a crowdsourcing beta site allowing individuals and businesses to solicit input on ideas while still protecting fundamental, proprietary elements of the ideas through varying access levels.
What a partial year so far of learning, meeting new people, and discovering new opportunities! Email or DM me with questions on your social media effort or suggestions for mine. - 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.
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Beyond sharing creativity, innovation, and strategic thinking ideas here on the Brainzooming blog, I’ve had several opportunities recently to be involved with other channels to get ideas out. These are free and available for all of you to download!
“Fascination” – An Interview with Sally Hogshead
I recorded a webcast interview with Radical Careering author Sally Hogshead on Fascination and the triggers that make brands, ideas, and people fascinating. The webcast, in support of Sally’s keynote speaking appearance at the American Marketing Association Market Research Conference (which I’m chairing by the way) debuts Tuesday, July 21. It will be available on-demand for one year afterward.
Having known Sally for several years, it rocked to get the opportunity to talk with her about fascination since it’s the topic of her upcoming book. Her discussion on why Michael Jackson is fascinating is worth the listen alone!
And if you’re involved in market research, you should really attend the Market Research Conference. We have a tremendous lineup of speakers addressing how market researchers and intelligence-based marketers need to prepare for “What’s Next” to drive business success. Beyond traditional conference approaches, we’ll be incorporating social media heavily into the event to extend & deepen the learning experience. For updates, http://www.twitter.com/amamrc.
Hosting Eye on Small Business
Kelly Scanlon hosts the “Eye on Small Business” radio program on 1510 Hot Talk in Kansas City. I’ve been on Kelly’s show previously talking about “Taking the NO Out of InNOvation.” She asked me to substitute host for her on the topic of “What Can You Do When You Can’t Do What You’ve Done Before” with guests Jan Sokoloff Harness and Kate O’Neill Rauber. You can listen to the broadcast and grab the guerrilla marketing tools questions we discuss later in the show.
Some More Brainzooming Stuff
Here are a few more free Brainzooming download sources:
- High Velocity Radio appearance on “Taking the NO Out of InNOvation” with Stone Payton
- Live with Jay Liebenguth radio appearance on Strategic Thinking
- “Taking the NO Out of InNOvation” ebook on SlideShare – 8 perspectives for more innovation
Hope you find these beneficial, and let me know if you have questions on any of them. – 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.
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Even amid positive energy from activities during World Creativity and Innovation Week, we all may experience times when we become self-destructive to our innovative instincts by telling ourselves, “No, I can’t _____________.” You can fill in the blank with whatever negative self-talk you usually use.
One way to fight this tendency is to ask, “If I tried _____________, what’s the worst that could happen?” When viewed in this light, so many activities that initially fill us with apprehension show themselves to have far more dramatic upsides than negatives.
Try this approach as another way of “Taking the NO Out of InNOvation” and creating a sense of “InYESvation.”
InYESvation? I’ve been talking about “Taking the NO Out of InNOvation” for 4 years and had never finished the idea by replacing the “NO” with a “YES.”
Credit for this new word goes to @rainesmaker (Glenn Raines) who tweeted this great word to me last Friday. Yet one more example of the benefits of being hooked up with so many wonderfully creative people on Twitter. Thanks Glenn for doing my work for me!
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.
Follow Me:
“Taking the NO Out of InNOvation” touches on eight perspectives and approaches to enhance innovation in you and your team. And on May 14, I’ll be presenting it at the Kansas City American Advertising Federation- KC (AAF KC) Get Charged Up symposium along with author Sally Hogshead who will be rocking the place with her afternoon session!
If you’re anywhere near the Kansas City area, and you’ve read or heard me talk up Sally since I met her 4 years ago, take advantage of this opportunity to see her live. In case you can’t make this Kansas City event, here are the 8 perspectives that can help you realize more innovation by personally being:
1. Introspective: Be more introspective and understand your creative strengths.
2. Diverse: Embrace diversity & build a creative team with complementary strengths.
3. Forgetful: Figure out how to selectively forget conventional wisdom to refresh your perspective.
4. A Borrower: Borrow thought starters & ideas from new sources & put your own twist on them!
5. Open to Possibilities: Open yourself to all kinds of possibilities by finding new ways to look at situations.
6. Inquisitive: Become more inquisitive and ask great questions to bring out new ideas within you and your team.
7. A Creator: Prioritize ideas and bring them to fruition – actually create something with your creativity.
8. Persistent: Be persistent & tenaciously pursue possibilities since “No’s” can provide insights to help you change & get to a “Yes.” – 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.
Follow Me:
It was a pleasure to do a segment Monday on High Velocity Radio with hosts Stone Payton and Lee Kantor talking about a variety of innovation topics. I met Stone initially via Twitter back in January, and appearing on Stone’s show was part of the prize for winning the IDEF140 contest he sponsored.
We covered a range of issues, so beyond a link to the radio show, here are links to many of the topics we discussed during our conversation.
- Slideshare link to “Taking the NO Out of InNOvation” ebook
- Getting comfortable with sharing credit for innovation and the power of “we”
- Why it’s important to have diverse perspectives among an innovation group
- Why it’s helpful to be forgetful when it comes to innovation
- Ways to be more strategic on a personal level
- Making sure you’re able to prioritize ideas
- My creative instigation partner, Jan Harness, her Creative Instigation blog and our upcoming book
- Appearing at a Sydney, Australia innovation event as a result of Twitter
- Following me on Twitter: @Brainzooming
- My Most Memorable Business Mistake
Thanks again Stone and Lee for the opportunity to be on the show, and I look forward to being able to do it again in the future!
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.
Follow Me:
Not sure how long it will be out there, but check out “Taking the NO Out of InNOvation” on the Slideshare homepage. You can view the ebook on Slideshare by clicking here.
Thanks for viewing it. Don’t forget to “Favorite It” and leave a comment while you’re there, please!
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.
Follow Me: