Things I write.

This is part of a larger essay on successful communication strategies in the Attention Age that I mentioned in the Alberta Music seminar on Social Media for Musicians.

More details will come but I wanted to post a quick-and-dirty summary immediately.  I apologize for the brevity!

You must know your purpose to be able to measure success: what goal you want to achieve? What fundamental objective does that goal serve?

1. Content - what is 'the thing' you want people to direct their attention to - high quality content wins high quality attention - quality measures include coherence, clarity, resolution, etc.
   
2. Context - where are you presenting your content - context provides meaning and nuance to the content - the context must be appropriate to your conversion goals
3. Distance - what is the gap between you and the people whose attention you are trying to command - relevance is the distance between your content and the viewer's interests - trustworthiness is the distance between your reputation and the viewer's perception (often influenced by time, your responsiveness, etc.) - locality may be the physical distance between you and the viewer's location or the distance between your values and the viewer's community's values - minimizing distance increases the chances that the viewer will convert a.k.a. take the action you desire
   
4. Sociality - how do the viewer's peers perceive your content and what reputation are they willing to afford you - sociality is leverage on influence - content has higher sociality if viewers are willing to share, recommend, or discuss it with their peers, OR discourage their peers away from your content - content with higher and more positive sociality is more likely to result in conversion
   
5. Action - do you thrust the viewer towards conversion by providing the means to convert - can they take the action necessary to have them achieve your goal (conversion) - is the conversion measurable

Example:

"I want to get 1000 followers on Twitter." This is not a properly articulated goal, because "so what?" if you get these followers.  Compare to, "I need 20 people to buy my CD so I can pay rent, so I want to get 1000 new followers on Twitter because I know that 2% of new followers will probably buy a CD." Just make sure your assumptions are correct!

1. Your content is the announcement about your new album. "I gotz anew album" will probably not be as effective as: "I just released my fourth album titled Super Disc #4 produced by Awesome Producer Guy, and here's the cover art: xxx.  It was inspired by my mom."

Strive to increase density and resolution, coherence, clarity, etc.  Spell check, use correct syntax and grammar.

2. Deliver your message through multiple contexts: place the full article on your blog, tweet a short version out, add the disc to your discography on your online artist profiles, etc.  Make your message personal for mobile/twitter because these are personal contexts (you're in their pockets, which is very personal).  Make your message more detailed and informative for your blog which allows for more space and attention.

3. If you are a local band and hand-delivering the CDs then local consumers are more important than people in Denmark. Reply to tweets quickly so you minimize any perceived gaps in trustworthiness. If you are a death metal band, don't send your message to devotional rock enthusiasts.

4. Provide a sample or a free track so viewers can make a judgement. Enable them to choose to share their thoughts with their friends. Give them a retweet button on your blog. Leverage the reputation and influence of music bloggers by getting reviewed.

5. Give every opportunity to have the viewer take the action you desire - a follow-me button for twitter, or a buy now button for buying your CD. Provide a promise of next-day personal delivery and post your mobile phone number, etc. Follow through quickly to reward their conversion and earn reputation/trustworthiness (reduce time distance).

Viewers clearly possess the motivation to have gotten to this point, now provide the means.

Keep track of your metrics so you can measure your success. Track sales so you know when you have sold your 20th CD. Test your assumptions ("So I started with 120 followers, and now have 400 followers, and I sold 35 CDs so my conversion rate of new followers to CD sales in this activity was better than my assumption of 2%")

Analyse what worked and discard ineffective processes.  Refine each step.  Adapt to new opportunities.  Be committed and enjoy the opportunity to learn, make mistakes, experiment and improve!

An article in The Guardian reported that last week was Purple Love Week in the UK, and while it may sound like the celebration of some strange sexual peccadillo, Purple Love Week is entirely wholesome: the only peculiar fetish being indulged here is a fetish for food.

PLW is the brainchild of Giles Henschel, co-founder of a Dorset, UK food company, and the yearly event is, essentially, an annual love-in for Britain's independent food retailers: delis, farm shops, butchers, bakers, grocers and good food stores of every conceivable kind. However, in this, its fourth year, the PLW message is less a rallying cry than a stark warning: Use or lose your local shops.

Last week, Alberta's provincial government revealed that the province is officially in recession and that our local economy should brace for increasing rates of lay-offs and bankruptcies.  The stark announcement arrives as no surprise to community-oriented small businesses that are already feeling the pressures of the recession.  They were the first to suffer from labour shortages and supply chain disruptions during Alberta's unprecedented boom, but are also the first to feel the pain of dropping demand and sharply rising overhead and input costs as their local economy contracts.

The Guardian also reported that, according to the UK's New Economics Foundation, every five pound note spent at a locally owned business circulates five times before it leaves the local economy.  In this way, the circulation is actually worth £25. On this basis, if two million people took part in Purple Love Week nationally, that would represent a £50m cash injection for Britain's independent food shops.

Britain's population is now in the depths of economic recession and even the D-word is on the lips of American policy makers.  Here in Edmonton, we have already seen the closure of a handful of local food shops (Lansdowne IGA, McKernan Fresh Market, Organic Roots Garneau) and the closure of some favourite independent restaurants.

As we too are drawn down this path, perhaps its now too late to make a rallying cry.  Instead it may be time to borrow the stark warning of the PLW: Use it or lose it!