• Make it personal: The holidays are an ideal time to reach out to your followers on an individual basis and make them feel unique and valued. Never underestimate the power of unexpected or random acts of kindness. The element of surprise can enhance gratitude, which in turn can create a strong positive association with your brand.

Social Media Gift

• Show your human side: Additionally, there are few better times than now to let your fans know that your company is made up of hardworking people just like them. It is a great opportunity to post pictures, videos, and messages from your team members, whether a junior employee or the VP of digital, as they take part in holiday shopping, family fun, and celebrations.

• Be genuine: As Christmas has become increasingly commercialised over the years, a certain amount of related consumer fatigue has developed, which makes many particularly sensitive to holiday campaigns running just to take advantage of the season. Thus, this time of year is an especially critical time to avoid being cynical, overly commercial, or corporate in your social media activities. All content, from text to images, should be infused with a real enthusiasm, honesty, and appreciation for everything this time of year represents to people around the world.

• Offer real value: If you are running competitions, or posting content about special holiday promotions, make sure they are a step above the others and provide meaningful experiences that your brand will then forever be associated with. Avoid clichés, gimmicks, and being too slick. Some worthy examples could include last minute travel to see relatives for Christmas or New Year’s Eve, catered holiday parties, and all expenses paid trips for shopping at holiday markets in festive locations. For smaller budgets, prizes like sleigh rides, ice skating rentals, and cooking classes focused on baking holiday treats or preparing party foods are all good ways to take part in the joyful spirit of the season.

• Remember others: Keeping in mind the generosity celebrated this time of year, now is an excellent time for promoting charitable donations through your social media activities. You can also bolster these by offering to match employee or fan donations to certain charities. Additionally, it is important not to forget that different countries have different Christmas and New Year’s Eve traditions, and that these aren’t the only holidays being celebrated at this time. You should tailor content to cover different regions and recognise the diversity of your followers. During December people around the world observe dozens of holidays, including Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, Saint Nicolas Day, St. Lucia’s Day, Las Posadas, and a plethora of winter solstice celebrations like DongZhi in China.

So while this time of year might seem to be holiday overload for some in social media, a bit of sensitivity and originality will go a long way toward ensuring your brand’s voice is not only heard, but also appreciated.

My current title might be different from the previous one (VP of Digital), but it still refers to the same mission: to use technology to simplify life and create greater engagement with Barclaycard.

The past few months have been remarkable and have left me with little time for commentary. As Barclaycard has been developing its contactless payment systems across a wider range of digital platforms, I have thrown myself into its varying digital initiatives.

Products like PayTag, a small credit card tag that can be used for contactless payments, are all about simplicity, which is right up my alley. Basically, a PayTag is a little stick-on credit card that can be linked to your regular credit card. You can wave it like a magic wand to pay for things, using whatever object you choose to stick it on. For many, this is their mobile phone, effectively transforming it into a payment vehicle.

Anyway, innovative solutions like this are ideal for alignment with social media campaigns, especially when targeting the majority of consumers that will use a PayTag on a mobile they already use to connect to their favourite social networking sites. It is a glimpse into our digital future where our wireless phones have become wireless wallets and mobile devices are mobile worlds in of themselves. It’s all about simplifying.

I focus a lot of my time on simplifying:

• Working with my team to turn complex issues into manageable decisions
• Working to deliver a strategy that is easy to comprehend and digest across the business, but equally one that the team can pay into and deliver against everyday
• Turning 30 slides into 5, transforming text into pictures.

How about an app that could turn your slideware into an infograph – What a killer app that would be? (Padley Patent Pending)

For me Simplicity = comprehension = success.  Why is it then we are conditioned to reject and fear simplicity?

“Are you simple?” says the condescending teacher/parent, incredulous at the mistake made by the innocent child.

Simple maths are not as good as complex maths. Better to use longer words than be monosyllabic. If it is complex and only a few people get it, then it must be “clever” and therefore right.

Maybe the world is turning full circle on this as we are all struggling to find actionable insight in our personal and professional lives and siphon the 24/7 deluge.

Look at Dove Simple’s commercial success and the simplicity of Apple Design.

“I would have written a shorter letter, but I did not have the time” may or may not have been penned by Mark Twain but I love that quotation. Equally, a great story that personifies the impact of simplification is found in reference to the 13^th Century artist Giotto. When asked to demonstrate his skill for the Pope, Giotto drew a perfect freehand circle. You can search YouTube with some very entertaining examples of this today.

In my career I have had the fortune to present and work with the most senior management of a company.  These ladies and gentlemen are time poor, meeting rich and simplicity of report and communication is key if you want to gain support and interest in your projects.

My slides take far longer to prepare for the C-suite as I desperately attempt to make sure that there is no room for interpretation and comprehension is instantaneously achieved on viewing the material.

As we all know the best ideas are the simple ones

Ben

I will try Alan but unless Arthur C Clarke imparts his genius for foresight onto me from beyond the ether I will have to make do with three shots in the dark.

1. Download will be classified an obsolete word by the Oxford English Dictionary

I was not convinced on streaming (even as a YouTube fan) until I used Spotify a couple of years back when it first launched in Europe. My behaviour has changed as I have access to content at the touch of the button. However, we are in this weird middle world where we don’t have ubiquitous access to the cloud. How boring is the London Underground…but one day…when high speed Wi-fi is available everywhere…who knows? Maybe my kids won’t know what download is.

2. G+ becomes H+

H+ is new upcoming TV series by one of my favourites Bryan Singer.

At its core, this focuses on the transition of the internet from an externally accessed medium to one that is integrated into our physical make up.

Observe right now how quickly Desktop Internet access is being superseded by Smartphone access and how companies like Apple are bringing people closer to technology through Human gesture interfaces like pinch, zoom and swipe. This is the stuff of a William Gibson novel. Would you implant the Internet in your brain?

3. Profit orientated companies will fail

In the transparent, social media world where organisations and consumers now are bedfellows, companies better be good. Beyond this, they better give back. I follow with growing admiration Tony Hsieh’s mission to build the ultimate customer experience which has resulted in the deserved financial success of Zappos. But where Tony is truly a pioneer is that this drive has clearly transcended into a genuine mission to make the world a better place. In the future will there be a place for a company whose only goal is to make money?

A topic for the next blog

Ben

The hate bit is not with the platform per se but with its misuse.

I abhor the way people treat it like Exocet missiles when they fire and forget a task onto the next person. This is the sort of person you don’t want to hire. Someone who says they have done a good day’s work when they have cleared their inbox.

The sort of person who gets delegated a task and then in turn emails a load of people (internal/external). When the boss chases on the status of the action the reply is “I have sent out an email”.  Job done then. This is the sort of person who calls you or walks up to your desk and says “I sent you an email.”

You are so not on my not to hire list I think to myself as they stand there with the look of a Michael Palin from the Spanish Inquisition sketch.

the trouble with email

The Love bit: At the same time email is fabulous as a group communications tool. Effective one way messaging.

It is a great for working across different time zones, akin to playing a remote game of chess.  When you are in the same time zone and start pinging to a colleague or friend I always pick up the phone.

Then there is spam. How the ? did I end up on your email distribution list? Apparently Spam is declining, but not in my experience and you are always guaranteed a deluge of unsolicited correspondence after attending a conference.

Then there is some sort of perverted Moore’s law where the more you clear the more you get.

And you know what this diatribe highlights is the issue itself. There is too much variability and not enough standardisation or “rules” by which we should all conform when it comes to email.

It is too loose.

How many of you have tried to enforce an email policy at work by which you put prefixes like ‘action’ or even bizarrely ‘read’ in the header. Works for a week then people revert to individual behaviour.

Is this one of the reasons why text messaging, Facebook, Twitter or even IM have been adopted at such a voracious rate? Some people complain at the lack of flexibility of Twitter but that is what makes it successful.

Future gazing it is most probable that email will be overhauled. There are already things happening in this area and start-up companies looking to capture an opportunity.

How many of you read an email that needs a mouse click to take you below the fold of your screen?

Regards

Ben

By majority, read here “everyone”.

In a business context, your corporate sense and leadership skills would result in a behaviour where you would listen and recognise that the majority rules. This would normally mean holding a mirror up to yourself and challenging your own views.

But what if you are right? “To find yourself think for yourself” – Socrates

Reputed occasions where the CEO points at an employee and asks “What have you contributed to the business today?”  are now modern folklore.

But I was wondering if we could apply this to modern world. How cool would it be to have an app that gave an outward projection of your efficiency?

Some sort of meter that hung like a virtual rainbow above someone’s head with a needle pointing to the efficiency rating.

I always try to judge people by their output rather than by how many emails they send me or by how many hours they work. Equally, it is human nature to raise questions if someone repeatedly leaves the office early or is unavailable on their phone.

I could really do with this app.

My tone is deliberately sarcastic as how many of you really work in companies that truly support this behaviour with complete end to end (manager/HR/board) endorsement of trying “something new”?

Usually change management programmes are assigned because existing company processes do not permit or empower the development of doing things differently or because the initiative is radically different to the existing company focus.

Change of Direction

The fact is very very few companies have set up their organisation in a way that ensures constant development of ideas contrary to the core business focus.

“We make 99.9% of our revenue doing this “….” and now we are going to pay an individual to do something on a long shot.”

Hmmm not a common occurrence.

That said, I have had the fortunate opportunity in my career to be involved in a few change management initiatives where something new is not encouraged by the hoi polio.

I have concluded that I keep being tasked with these projects either because:

• I am good at it or
• Flexible enough to take on the challenge or
• There is no-one else either brave enough (read here naive enough)

I say fortunate because without fail they are huge learning initiatives that have always forced myself to develop in ways I could not possibly fathom at the outset.

On reflection,  I have also initiated some of these programmes so I am my own worst enemy – I just hate working in an environment or situation where I know that if we did things differently it would be “Better”.

Ok so let us say a peer/boss/group come to you and say “insert employee name here” we want you take on this initiative “X, Y, Z”

My usual response is to immediately question the desired outcome/timeframe/budget/support -> not about whether I want to do it. In my opinion if you are asked to do you don’t say no. A topic for another blog.

You must question this framework because all things being equal if your are given the task you need the tools.

Without appropriate budget, persons and alignment on deliverables and timing you are doomed to failure.

Tips for Change

My personal lessons in change management:

Lesson one – Alignment

• Have scope and deliverables agreed by ALL stakeholders. Don’t let the chance for fame or doing something different to the day job cloud your business common sense.
• Make sure it is embedded in corporate strategy or sponsored by a senior stakeholder.  Change management projects that come from the side are successful for as long as they are successful. If not endorsed by the core business watch all your supposed friends and supporter running for the hills when the project starts to hit challenges.
• Any change management initative will hit challenges.

Lesson two – Storytelling

• Change management requires consistent consistent consistent story telling to new audiences daily and an absolute personal willingness and ability to learn and apply that learning damn quick.
• Working agile? Try seat of your pants bravado while holding a pair of twos bluffing a full house
• Have Three slides MAX that are introduced in every meeting/conference call etc that highlights what you are doing and why. Make these visual with iconography and a catchy project name. Get people enthused and talking about your stuff in an exciting way.
• Consistency breeds understanding and recall. As soon as people get bored seeing the same slides you have started to get through your message.

Lesson three – Simplify

• A key skill I would cite is being able to consistently translate the journey of learning to your peers and superiors into digestible chunks.
• It is all too easy to forget or underestimate the knowledge gap with your peers on your programme and what you have discovered and consider “basic” understanding
• Something new is inevitably something foreign ->  also ensure your learning is understood by senior management in the equivalent of one image or 15 second elevator pitch.
• Soundbytes are key. Personal example-> When explaining Search to management I start by saying did you know that half our web traffic comes from search? So if we do not have the correct SEO programme in place or correct messaging around our products in the website that matches what consumers are typing in Baidu/Bing/Google we lose the eyeballs of half of all our global consumers? I can still hear the sound of the ahas from the audience now.

Lesson Four – Listen

• On the journey of change management there will often be an individual who says “that won’t work” or “that will take longer”.
• Don’t pigeon hole them into the same box as the rest of the guys and girls who sit there with crossed arms as you explain what you are doing and why.
• They are hard to spot but usually are highly intelligent and seen by others as “difficult” -> Listen Listen Listen and understand from these persons.
• Swallow your pride – I have asked certain members of my team to give me weekly educational sessions on “new stuff” in digital. They are the experts, I am only a manager.
• Always take on external expertise or advice. Especially applicable if these individuals have been on similar journeys.

Lesson Five – Bullshit

• Probably not in any business manual but sometimes you do need to say “yes we have considered that”, “yes this is endorsed by x,y,z” at the point of questioning because if you do not you lose credibility and pace – particularly in group meetings. Just make sure you immediately resolve afterwards and check the question/align with key stakeholder x,y,z.”
• Confidence breeds confidence. Any hesitation or erring will have people laughing at you in their heads or perceiving the programme as a waste of time or doomed to failure.

“I look at the world and notice its turning while my guitar gently weeps;  With every mistake we must surely be learning”

– George Harrison ‘While My Guitar Gently Weeps’

Ben

Wasting Time

I hate wasting time. I mean I have an abnormal, unhealthy abhorrence of it. My rantings about this has led one colleague to nick-name me “Defense” in reference to the Michael Douglas character from Falling Down. I now keep my tirades bemoaning why does British Airways check your ticket when you board a plane when they have already checked it at the gate, to myself.

Michael Douglas - Falling Down

Needless to say I was one of the very first people to sign up to the Iris scan for British Passport control which shortcuts the increasingly long  passport queues in favour of an automated scan of your retina.  Now you can find me on Thursday nights in Terminal 3 becoming very twitchy when a person stands in the perspex booth ahead of me and negotiates with the eye scanner for longer than the unsaid allowance of one adjustment. “move a little closer…move a little backwards”

I know I am not alone. The George Clooney character personifies the modern mobile office worker.  On the plus side, I have never taken any moment for granted. But I do find myself in that weird no-man’s land of wanting to make the most of my life counter-balanced with the need for security and routine.

I have a friend who has a beautiful tattoo on his wrist which transpires to be a foreign language and the words “One life. One chance.”  I asked him what he was doing working in a global corporation and he looked at me kinda funny.

Ben