Tag Archives: Chicago

Calling Out Athletes Who Tweet Irresponsibly

“If he was on my team, I’d be looking at him sideways.”
– Asante Samuel

“All I’m saying is that he can finish the game on a hurt knee…I played the whole season on one.”
-Maurice Jones-Drew

“Hey, there is no medicine for a guy with no guts and heart.”
-Derrick Brooks

“If I’m on Chicago, Jay Cutler has to wait ’til me and the team shower, get dressed and leave before he comes in the locker room!”
–Darnell Dockett

Pretty damning stuff from players around the NFL about Jay Cutler after Sunday’s loss. But now I’m calling out players who think they can just tweet and run. I’m sure this will be taken as bitterness from a Bear fan, but this issue didn’t start on Sunday and it won’t end there either. Tweets against other teams and other players can be harmless “trash talk,” but these tweets were not harmless. They were over the line and misinformed. Even before the full extent of Cutler’s injury was known or that doctors had advised him not to return to the field of play, his peers in the NFL were taking shots at him via Twitter.

Which begs the question: When do agents and teams step in to allow a balance of what is and isn’t fair game?

We know this much – if a tweet was about giving away team secrets, such as plays or observations from practice, the athlete in question would be in trouble through an immediate fine. Beyond that, however, there’s a gray area that needs to be better defined. So let’s do that.

Athletes should be allowed to tweet.
It’s a beautiful thing when athletes and celebrities become that much closer and down to Earth to the rest of us through social media tools. For all the flack Twitter gets as a social media tool compared to Facebook, we’re paying plenty of attention to it. We’re listening to Lebron, Shaq and others who are firing off tweets without giving it a second thought. People in the city of Chicago are talking as much about the aftermath of a game as the game itself because of Twitter.

I don’t blame Twitter, I blame the tweeter.
Limiting athlete usage of Twitter won’t solve anything. Just as I say regarding policies in the corporate world on this subject, you can’t ban social media completely. But you can put guidelines in place to be followed so that while your employees should feel free to use social media, they shouldn’t be allowed to embarrass those they represent without consequence. By the same token, athletes need to remember who they represent. They are employees of companies and endorsers of products. Maurice Jones-Drew is an employee of the Jacksonville Jaguars. He did not represent his employer particularly well upon firing off his tweet. But Twitter was not the problem. We know Twitter can be used just as powerfully for good causes. Instead, would it have killed any of these experts like Maurice Jones-Drew to turn to a person near him and say, “I’m going to rip Jay Cutler on Twitter. Do you think I should do it?” I doubt an agent or a coach would approve, so why did you do it, Maurice?

And now guess what? The next time the Bears see some of these tweeters, don’t be surprised if they put a little something extra on those tackles and blocks. Is it that different than the pitcher in baseball who throws a 95mph fastball suspiciously close to a batter and then the opposing team’s pitcher does the same in retaliation? Is it that different than the basketball player who performs a flagrant foul on another player going for a breakaway dunk?

It’s only different because it didn’t occur on the field of play. And that’s what makes it almost worse. The Bears are angry at themselves but they have a right to be angry at those who disrespected their Quarterback while sitting at home or in a studio. It appears semi-calculated, not in the moment. It was spiteful and jealous from players who were sitting at home, not something that developed on the field between opponents who are otherwise friends off the field.

Guidelines, guidelines, guidelines.
Just as we see in the business world among corporations that allow their people to use social media responsibly by outlining do’s and don’t of using it – and I applaud those who take this more realistic approach to guiding without eliminating – teams have to provide their players with guidelines for using social media tools. It’s not as bad as it sounds. If they can follow a playbook, they can follow rules on how to use social media in the right way. Keep the guidelines sensible instead of restrictive so that the players can have a certain degree of freedom. But in the same breath, establish what constitutes a violation, such as openly questioning the manhood of another player to the world.

I’m not asking them to stop tweeting or posting. I’m asking them to have common sense when they do. To treat the people who worked hard to get their same level with an equal amount of respect. Otherwise, I’m worried what starts as a comment taken the wrong way in the online world is going to turn into a consequence that hardly resembles professional sport in the offline world.

Selling to people who couldn’t care less (at first)

“Hi Mr. Decision-Maker at XYZ Company. This is (your name) at (your company). We’ve been in business since (year) and people love us for our (product/service attribute).”

Click. In case you’re wondering that would be the sound of Mr. Decision-Maker stopping and deleting your voicemail message.

Admittedly, for a long time I sounded kind of like this when I approached marketing decision-makers. Until I realized that they have zero time to talk, they view unsolicited voicemails and e-mails as an intrusion and that’s IF you can get past the gatekeeper secretary.

In other words, they are not waiting on pins and needles for what you’re selling. But I’ve come to learn that with careful study of listening for potential customer pains, you can briefly but firmly whet the appetite of a person to continue the conversation with you. How did I learn this? Primarily from a woman named Jill Konrath, author of “Selling to Big Companies” and the new “SNAP Selling.” She taught me that whether it’s writing a letter, leaving a message or crafting an e-mail, you don’t have to tell your entire story to get someone to take interest in you. You shouldn’t. Instead, she shows you how you can convey an understanding of that prospect’s situation here and now, ultimately leading them back to what you have to offer.

In fact, I learned that Jill Konrath will be coming to the Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce on February 10th at 7:00am (speaking at 8:00am). If you have a spare couple of hours that morning, I highly recommend you check it out and pick up her books. If you follow her advice, you’re sure to open a few more doors as the economy improves.

To register for the event, visit the Chicagoland Chamber’s website at chicagolandchamber.org and click on the Event Calendar for February 10th.

 

 

 

Chicagoland companies planning to hire in 2011. Now’s the time for HR to get creative.

Good news from the Management Association of Illinois: A new survey says that 52% of Illinois companies plan to hire new workers in 2011 or bring back workers they laid off in 2010. Not only is this encouraging to hear but Illinois also beats the national average here as well.

This leads me to believe that this is a good opportunity for companies in Chicagoland about to hire to think beyond the basics of common benefits as they ready that classified ad or online job posting.

Don’t get me wrong, benefits are great and nobody should take them for granted in a day and age where our economic recovery still has a long way to go. Yet, just as you have to position your company’s brand to the right target audience, recognize the opportunity to position it here again above the other voices in the crowd who are hiring toward the right type of individual who will fit into your culture. In considering that one extra unusual perk that include in your benefits package, don’t choose it for its ability to get you some extra press. If it’s creative but isn’t really something that’s going to be utilized, there may not be much point in adding it to the mix.

Instead, choose the unusual perk because it is an accurate reflection what makes your company different. For example, I’ve run a company where preserving family time and the bonds that go with it were very important to me. I’m close to my family, my partner is close to his family and we’ve had people on staff who can’t imagine missing out on a child’s school play or field trip. We wouldn’t want them to. So my partner and I make sure that vacation days are not in short supply and the people who work for us get a terrific amount of days right off the bat. Let’s just say it’s more than the traditional 2 weeks most companies give when someone is hired (obviously they have to get their work done far enough in advance of that time off, but it’s definitely there).

Or let’s say yours is a company where the majority of the employees and managers have a very strong bond to their pets – they consider their pets to be members of the family, want to bring their pets to work (a perk in itself) and will basically spend any amount of money to ensure the well-being of their canines, felines, hamsters and assorted creatures. For this and other companies like it, offering pet insurance coverage might be a nice reflection on the company to show how they understand what’s important to most employees.

Some other unusual benefits I’ve come across, courtesy of Fortune Magazine’s 100 Best Companies to Work For:

  • Paid Sabbatical
  • Education Reimbursement
  • Same-Sex Partner Benefits
  • Unlimited Sick Days
  • Referral Bonuses
  • Even an On-Site Farmer’s Market!

I’m not suggesting you do all of these by any means. What I am suggesting is that few people ever started a conversation about a company over the fact that it offers health and dental insurance or a 401K (again, nice to have and important, but rather expected if it’s the typical plan). What I am also suggesting is to start with one perk or allow your people to have a hand in voting for the perk, provided you can swing it financially.

Company incentives can play a part here too.
As my friend Rob Jager of Hedgehog Consulting would suggest, you may want to consider how you can give performance incentives to unlock some of these perks so that they aren’t merely “given.” You have your base of benefits that people have typically heard of, but then you have that special perk or perks that is out there if company goals for the quarter/year are met.

I’m extremely optimistic about 2011 is going to bring for businesses – after what we’ve been through, why dwell on where we’ve been? – so if your company plans to follow the hiring trend that this recent survey says Illinois companies are in for, remember that employee recruitment can provide yet another way for your business to bolster its brand. And the right creative perks that reflect your culture just might fuel those conversations between job hunters on the bus or the El – because if you’ve ever been packed in on any of those commuter rides, you know that a conversation between two people is really a conversation among twenty.

If your company has a benefit or benefits that you feel sets it apart from the pack, I’d love to hear about it. Maybe we’ll post some of the best ones here too.

(Source: Chicago Sun-Times, January 11, 2011)

The Day the Borders to E-Readership Came Down

In the age of the Kindle and the iPad, the concept of traditional book stores closing these days is becoming commonplace. I fought this trend in my own mind because as much of a digital person that I am, I enjoy the physical nature of a book. Traditional books speak to my sentimental side too — I can remember my grandparents having a marvelous collection of titles that they had accumulated through the years. As a kid, I didn’t know what most of the contents were, but it spurred the imagination to see so many books lined up high and back-to-back against a wall.

So when a flagship book store closes like the one Borders Books and Music had across from Water Tower Place on 830 N. Michigan Ave., it serves as the official signal that, like it or not, the e-reader has won. Think about what a store like this had going for it: A prime location on the Magnificent Mile. Close proximity to shopping and restaurants. 3 floors of regular activity.

And yet, even here, it wasn’t enough. Soon, I believe we’ll be looking at book stores the same way we look at the occasional record store these days – “wow, they still have these things? Who goes there?”

In other words, if you think the Kindle and iPad are popular now, you ain’t seen nothin’ yet. Of course people have them. But I’m talking about a different tier than where we are now. You know how every 3rd person on the street has a smartphone in their possession? This level of mainstream adoption of the e-reader isn’t far behind. The way it is unthinkable for most of us to not have an iPhone, Android, etc. in this day and age will be the way we view the concept of not having an e-reader. Laptops and smartphones will be more important to our daily lives and for connecting with others, but gaining information for news and entertainment purposes in a format that is the most akin to a book or magazine will rank high on our priority list too.

For marketers, it represents a potential new opportunity to a degree. I don’t know how receptive someone might be when immersed in an e-book to suddenly see an ad float nearby but some may put up with it to pay less (not unlike other models where you need to pay extra for ad-free). Personally, I’m skeptical until I see numbers that this will lead to converted sales, but if the goal is more brand awareness without annoyance, it may not be a bad route to at least evaluate in the right circumstances.

What I’m interested in is, now that we’re being pushed toward this medium, how will different audience segments adapt to e-readership and what does it mean for even greater interaction electronically. For example, what does it mean for awareness of transit advertising when even more commuter eyeballs within that bus or train are drawn to Kindles and iPads? Does the age ceiling of the audience raise higher and become older than ever?

In a world without Borders or Barnes & Noble or Virgin Megastores (A library? What’s that?), the choices we’ve had as far as physical options for books are falling like dominoes. The challenge from here for agencies and marketers will be how to engage in sophisticated media planning when the media for the masses we’ve known is looking ever more like a Personal Cloud of media controlled by the consumer. The noise you heard from Michigan Avenue of the doors locking at Borders is just one more pillar to fall in that direction. But as I’ve said before with newspapers, the desire for news and entertainment didn’t die. The format for how people desired the content merely evolved. There’s no point in fighting this evolution either. But make no mistake as a result of this one and other evolutions like it: Marketers need the technological tools for understanding media consumption and shifts in audience behavior to be more advanced than they’ve ever, ever been.