Is your on-line privacy an illusion?

January 10, 2010 / Robert Pease / Leave a comment

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg is creating a bit of buzz with his comments in a recent interview about privacy essentially saying that had he to do all over again users' information would be public not private.

Am I concerned about it? No. Why? Look, Facebook is free to use and that means you are getting all this great functionality, the ability to share, reconnect, publish, etc. at no monetary cost. By your actions, your answers to "what Star Wars character am I most like", and the products/services/causes you support, you are being segmented, profiled, and analyzed. That this is a surprise to many is too bad.

I have a certain perspective on this jaded by many years working in the compliance and e-discovery sectors as well as time spent blogging and otherwise putting myself out there. If you don't want to have to answer for it publicly, don't put it in an email. Better yet, don't conduct any sensitive or potentially harmful (to you) discussion in any electronic media. It is all discoverable and archived (generally) on a corporate server of some kind. The web is no different and actually potentially worse because "Google never forgets." Put something out there and it will get indexed and made searchable for the entire world for a long, long time.

If you want a truly private and secure way to connect to friends, share pictures, etc., be prepared to pay for it. Yes, old school but you cannot avoid the "you have to give something to get something" reality of capitalism. Pay for your privacy or choose not to pay and caveat emptor although you are not a buyer but a consumer of services. I'm not sure it is any company's responsibility to protect us from ourselves. Don't be an idiot and share personal information in what are public or semi-public forums. This is not rocket science people.

Maybe all this transparency will elevate human behavior and make us all better people because we are actually sharing in a more public way than ever how we spend our time and what we are thinking. Ok, maybe that is a stretch but something to think about…

Taking inventory and looking forward as the year comes to a close

December 31, 2009 / Robert Pease / 1 Comment

I am seeing and reading lots of posts and updates about reflections of the past year and predictions for the new one. This new year is even more reflective/prediction-oriented as we are entering a new decade (although it doesn't truly happen until the end of next year).

Ten years ago I was on Kiawah Island, SC to ring in Y2K and, as I recall, didn't think the world was coming to an end and or that every computer system was going to crash but believe I had a bit of extra cash and provisions (other than alcohol) just in case. I was working for my first start up in Atlanta and the bottom had not dropped out of the technology sector yet.

Fast forward 10 years and I am on a different coast (Seattle) and working for a start up (Gist). The more things change, the more they stay the same…

2010 will bring many things we expect and more that we don't…like every year I suppose. Here are some thoughts looking forward to the new year:

World

The world is a dangerous place and we are the biggest target around (regardless of the billions we spend in humanitarian aid around the world). As such, vigilance and assertiveness are our best defenses. I still remember what it felt like on September 11th, 2001. I fear many have forgotten.

Nation

I hope that our national leadership either begins to lead or is replaced by those who can. Corruption, arrogance, and polarization benefit no one and will continue to feed the populist movement afoot in the rest of America. Fiscal responsibility and the nurturing (not ownership) of the US economic engine must be a priority.

Financial Markets

The capital markets continue on minus the casualties and blood letting of the past couple years. I have no idea where the Dow ends up and don't care much but would like to see profits, earnings, and equity appreciation trend up (see point above) creating jobs and prosperity along the way.

Technology

Technology will continue to advance and as we become more personally connected electronically and share our own electronic narratives I hope our live personal interactions do not suffer. I connect with many every day through various electronic media but treasure most a face-to-face conversation.

I look forward to 2010 with anticipation. I am excited to watch my girls continue to grow and will stay focused on treasuring every moment that passes. I will continue to run, eat, work, and write doing my best to have life experiences along the way and will endeavor to share them succinctly here for your enjoyment.

Happy New Year!

A year off every seven years?

December 16, 2009 / Robert Pease / 1 Comment

Sounds like a good plan to me.

Listen to what Stefan Sagmeister has to say about the power of time off and think about how you'd pull this off. This is about taking a few less years of retirement and living a little more during your working years.

Thanks to the folks from the TED conference for sharing this and for Stefan for making us think about it. This event is definitely on my list to work my way into at some point.

The 3 Most Important Trends Affecting Business, Technology, and Communications

December 14, 2009 / Robert Pease / 3 Comments

I was recently asked about the three most important trends affecting business, technology, and communications. Here is what I answered along with some additional thoughts on each:

1. People are now able to rapidly connect based on shared needs, beliefs, or interests in ever smaller groups.

Connecting and sharing is now easier than ever with Facebook, Twitter, Ning, blogs, etc. The list of ways to connect and share is very long but the important point here is that you don't need massive numbers to form an affinity group or micro-segment.

2. Constant connectivity is blurring the line between personal and professional lives.

We all now come to work connected with our own mobile devices and computers as "work days" are evolving into a mix of personal pursuits and professional obligations that start way before 8am and end well after 5pm. We all now have the ability to publish and build our individual brands so I am not just an employee of ABC company that does job X, I am a person with expertise who currently happens to work at ABC. Read a few LinkedIn profiles and you'll see what I am talking about.

3. Individuals are getting their news and information from places other than traditional media and are relying more on those with whom they are connected.

The turmoil traditional news sources, especially newspapers, are going through is widely known. The cost structures of paper-based, advertising driven news does not translate to real-time news circulating on-line. There are efforts underway to control access to news content and try to get to a workable new business model. It is great to watch but I am darn glad I am not in that industry. As "news" evolves and peer-based information sharing proliferates we will be informed by those we know or are connected to much more than by arm's length journalists.

My answers are not the product of extensive research but rather how I see things coming together around me as I spend my days dealing with business, technology, and communications. What do you think?

Social Overload

November 15, 2009 / Robert Pease / Leave a comment

I am definitely beginning to suffer from this.

I'm not talking about being social with people (old school social networking), I'm talking about all the ways I can "be social" while staring at my computer or my mobile device including all the activity streams coming from multiple sources across multiple accounts flowing in many directions.

I maintain accounts both personally and for work across a variety of networks including Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn and use a variety of tools to try to keep up (Tweetdeck, Google Reader, Echofon, Twitterberry, and a few others) with what is being said to me, about me, about my company, about competitors, and about interesting things related to the previous. This doesn't even include the effort required to share relevant and valuable content back into this swarm of status updates, likes, and shares. I currently have 343 feeds coming into Google Reader spanning various keyword and content alerts plus blogs that span messaging, collaboration, venture capital, start ups, marketing, capital markets, personal finance, and various towns and cities that I like to keep an eye on. Oh, and don't forget about news outlets like The Wall Street Journal and CSPAN (yes, I really do follow CSPAN on Twitter).

And I won't even begin to bore you with the email volume in four different work and personal accounts.

The challenge is to actually listen to what is being said versus just talking and, more importantly, hear the important things and be conversational.

It may seem like a shameless pitch (I work there) to mention the value Gist currently delivers to me to make sense out of this massive flow of information. It gives me the ability to get an update on people who are important to me, companies I am interested in, and all of the associated content, status updates, and related news. I don't even need to worry about not being hip to the latest trendy micro-messaging, sharing, friending thingy because if it is available as a public feed, Gist will find it and associate it with the right person.

More great stuff is on the roadmap to address my social overload and it can't come too soon.

Fifteen Great On-Demand Tools for Your Small Business

November 5, 2009 / Robert Pease / Leave a comment

I am lifting this list from the Seattle Tech Startups discussion thread because this response from Ksenia Oustiougova is too good not to share broadly. Ksenia runs a great company here in Seattle called lilipip! that does animated marketing videos.

Here is her list in response to the question of "what tools do you use to manage your personal workload." Her answer is a great snapshot of the tools used to run a small business and an example of how any company can access a wide variety of really great products on-demand and at relatively low cost these days.

Project management – Basecamp
CRM – Batchbook
Documents (signing contracts) – EchoSign
Docs automatically stored if sent by fax via eFax
Invoicing – Freshbooks
Taxes – OutRight
Operations (manual, overseas VPA's, etc) – Google Docs
Scheduling – Google Calendar
Voice – Google Voice
Newsletter – MailChimp
Birthday/Thank you cards – Plaxo
Conferencing – Skype
Video management/hosting/tracking – Wistia
Money transferring (anywhere in the world) – Xoom
Sending huge files – DropBox and YouSendIt

This is a great list. I think I'd add a few like a blogging platform (Typepad or WordPress), a wiki/collaboration space (like PBWorks), and various Twitter tools (like Tweetdeck & CoTweet) as well as the fact that you can address all your email needs with Google Apps. Other adds would include marketing specific items like PRWeb for press releases, Jigsaw for lead generation/list building, and, of course, Gist for personal relationship management.

Blogging will change your life

October 15, 2009 / Robert Pease / Leave a comment

Don't believe me? Then listen to what Tom Peters and Seth Godin have to say about it. Good friend Max Effgen at 12Sided posted this some time ago and I flagged it to share here.

It is short and captures the essence of why I started blogging and the fulfillment I get from doing it. It forces you to more fully and thoroughly think through things, truly grasp why you believe the way you do, and structure those thoughts and beliefs for others to consume. I write as much for myself as I do for others and am thankful to those of you who think my posts are worth reading and keep coming back for more.

Heading to the 140 Twitter Conference in LA this week

September 21, 2009 / Robert Pease / Leave a comment

If you are going to be there, drop me a note robertcpease at gmail dot com or find me on Twitter – @ReplytoAll.

Should be an interesting gathering and look forward to sharing how we are using Twitter as part of our core customer/user outreach efforts and learning a few new things from some smart people.

Marketing Mayhem

August 22, 2009 / Robert Pease / Leave a comment

Over the past year plus, I have been working with a whole new set of tools to understand and reach customers/prospects/users. This includes Twitter, Linkedin, Facebook, blogs, blog comments and the associated technology to access and analyze what is being said and who is saying it.

Unlike mainstream marketing thinking, what I have been doing has cost very little money and utilizes new tools to reach people in the new places they are spending their time. More importantly, the leverage in selling resides disproportionately with the buyer these days. They have instant access to information about you, your competitors, and even the ability to connect with your current and former customers all without your help or involvement. Understand this is reality and embrace it.

So, what should you do if you are trying to sell something, launch something new, or just expand market share within existing target market? Set up and make use of a Listening & Engagement Framework. Check out my previous posts on it to understand what the heck I am talking about.

I have been making extensive use of this type of framework at Gist and put together the presentation embedded here to highlight both what we have been doing as well as the thinking and assumptions behind it all. Check it out and let me know thoughts and feedback. One thing I have learned is that the rules are still being written and best practices emerge daily on the best way to use all this stuff as a business.

Marketing Mayhem – Can You Hear Me Now?http://static.slidesharecdn.com/swf/ssplayer2.swf?doc=marketingmayhemnewrulesv1-090822185333-phpapp02&stripped_title=marketing-mayhem-can-you-hear-me-now

View more presentations from robertcpease.