So the air has set since the first Keynote without Steve Jobs, with the introduction of the new iPad on March 7 — But something was different, very different — and that is, of course, looking beyond the obvious fact that Steve Jobs no longer is the one holding the keynote.

The company known for its non-compromising branding and impressive and gorgeous simplicity was suddenly performing below par, revealing some unimaginable inconsitencies and minor flaws never seen when Steve Jobs were holding the wheel, keeping the Apple-ship at a firm course.

There is no doubt that Steve Jobs was the pure embodiment of a brandividual.

Steve Jobs = Apple and vice versa

Something was missing in the presentation, something that was hard to put the finger on at first, but it was just something off, something wrong. It was… sloppiness. The Apple Keynote was sloppy, imprecise, lacking that final touch that Steve clearly brought to the table. He was a perfectionist, demanding everything be at its best, down to the last detail, before going on stage — ready to satisfy the need of all the journalists and Apple evangelists in the world, sitting there in pure excitment, waiting to see the new hot Apple product they just “need-to-have.”

Apple needs to take care and tighten things back into the Jobs standard, because if things are starting to slip after such a short amount of time, they will lose their special spark that we all love, and will just become a device company. Still delivering great designed products, but lacking that extra Jobs-magic.

This is the danger of the brandividual — that the person becomes bigger than the brand, or actually is the spirit or soul of the brand. There is a saying — you are only as strong as your weakest link — and in this case, with Steve gone, Apple is showing weakness. I know it is just minor details that glitched — but still — the devil is in the details.

I do believe in the power of the brandividual — we’re in the era of the brandividual, or as I call it; the Brand You economy. We are all a brand, and everything we do online is part of our personal marketing and communication plan to build ourselves and reduce the gap between our profile (the way we are perceived) and our image (the way we want to be seen). For a company it is imperative to have a clear vision, mission and strategy when they allow for a brandividual to build and appear online on their behalf, so that the ideas and principles are based on a mutual understanding of what is to be achieved on behalf of the brand. They have to be a team working together to achieve the defined and set goals. Brandividuals are driven by the desire to be seen, acknowledged for their skills and ability to get attention. The company should be in the forefront, giving support, not to be kind and nice, but to protect and make sure that the attention is given to the company/brand as well — and it’s a simple way to make sure the brandividual stays loyal and feels as an appreciated member of the team.

Back to Apple — is this the start of Apple’s demise? I don’t think so — but I do think they need to focus and stay on-brand, which is to make sure Steve Jobs still stays in spirit, hanging over their shoulders, demanding the absolute best, not accepting sloppiness and whipping the crap out of them in spirit. I was pretty fast in tweeting out an article written by the ever smart Jolie O’Dell adding the hashtag #ImissSteveJobs

Apple’s press conference showed a brand unraveling: bit.ly/Axlg93 /by @jolieodell #ImissSteveJobs — Arnt Eriksen (@arnteriksen) March 8, 2012

- because, to be quite honest, Steve Jobs would never have given the GO on the keynote and the launch of the Resolutionary “New iPad’ (still in shock about that one)!

Will Apple to lead itself back into Steve Jobs zero tolerence of sloppiness?

What do you think?

The above posting is my column for The Huffington Post. I cross-post it here with all the links and tags for your reading pleasure. If you want you can check out the original version online here:

the Huffington Post :: the Post Jobs Era

This article from Business Insider enlightens some (a lot) of the questions one might have towards the use of Pinterest and the copyright issues connected to the fast-growing social network.

A  woman named Kirsten decided to look into the legality of Pinterest.  After all, she’s a lawyer with a passion for photography.
What she found scared her so much, she shut down her Pinterest boards entirely.
Read the whole article here

It’s been a ton of articles about Pinterest and the vast possibilities of the service, sharing your interests and inspirations, commercial use and what have you – and it only proves the fact that we love to get connected with new and excisting ‘friends’ and share stuff that somehow gives us a profile, identity, indication of who we are and what interests us. We truly live in a narcissistic society where it is all about being seen and get some attention, mostly based on other peoples creativity and knowledge. Don’t get me wrong – I do it myself, but I’m getting more and more aware of the complications and consequences that might come in the aftermath of our desire to overshare anything and everything. We are loosing perspective of what is ok and not, being overshadowed by the drive of getting attention by gathering stuff to show how ‘interesting’ we are.

I am no legal expert, but the article above and others, have shed some light about what might turn out to become a problem. I guess a lot of creatives; photographers, graphic designers, illustrators, painters and others that are producing original material are happy for the spread and attention, but at some point someone might use the material that, for the person behind the original work, might not approve of. If they have the resources, it might have severe consequences - not for services like Pinterest, protecting themselves behind their “Terms of Use”  putting all blame on the user of their services, even making sure that if it turns out to become a legal issue, their legal costs are to be covered by the end-user.

One might draw parallels to the tobacco industry or even the drug cartells – being simply the provider of the services –  not forcing anyone to use them, but really happy that they have people that are users and ‘addictives’ – since it is their means of making money. I know it’s an extreme parallel, but given the worst-case-scenario, it might have severe results for the person that was only trying to build a cool and interesting online-persona by sharing content.

I don’t know where this might lead, but I’m certain there will be some cases in the future that will force some kind of protection and responsibility placement to companies and services like Pinterest and others.

It only proves the necessity to be more aware of what we become an active part of and the consequences it might bring.

What are your thoughts?

The above posting is my column for The Huffington Post. I cross-post it here with all the links and tags for your reading pleasure. If you want you can check out the original version online here:

the Huffington Post – Pinterest and its True Colors

So – this is a big day for me, as I was invited to become a blogger for the Huffington Post. I’ve been a huge fan of the site for many many years, and I have followed Arianna Huffington from the beginning up to where she is today – and there should be no doubt that she has made both impact and huge difference on the way news are created and spread. She has been a game-changer,  and some love or hate her for that. I have a huge amount of respect and admiration of her achievements, and that is what I can reflect on, since I have not yet had the pleasure of meeting her in person.

And now I’m a part of their great big family of bloggers and writers, which to me is awesome. How did this happen? Well – I’m working and planning not only on re:think Vol 02, but Vol 03 and Vol 04 as well, and in this process I contacted the Huffington Post in regards of the conference and possible speakers. I sent an email describing the concept of the conference, the idea behind it and the principles that I want to present, and they contacted me and asked me to be a voice for them. If I was a teenager I would probably be jumping up and down like crazy being overly excited – which I must admit, that at the age of 40 that is actually what I did. I’m sorry. But to me this is huge. To have a voice at a website that gathers close to 30 million unique readers every month, it’s a huge opportunity. Huge!

So – please – this is my first contribution (of many to come) at the Huffington Post, and it is titled: Corporate Employee Abuse

You can also find my channel here

Please tweet, retweet, share, like, spread and subsribe if you like my writing.

I’ve been working within the communication industry for the past 20 years, the last five of them focusing on the new media; – digital- and social media. To stay up-to-date I attended conferences …many conferences. Well – I thought that was the best way to obtain knowledge. 
I thought “hey – if the thoughtleaders within this playfield are speaking there, then that is the place to be, to get the latest and greatest directly from the source” …right?

Have you ever attended a conference, being left with the sense of a mashed up brain with an overload of information from great (and not so great) speakers, but without the chance to acutally talk to the speaker. That’s what we want, right? To ask the tricky questions, the ones most relevant to you – engage them in dialog and get to know them just a little? Well then, that makes two of us!

Talk the talk, but then walk the other way?
This is what provoced me – the fact that all the great topics, speakers, subjects and content, was treated with such little respect. How can someone create a conference, invite a full list of speakers (sometimes way too many, so that it’s hard to choose) and have them speak so passionately about social media, the importance of being present, approachable, engaging, build conversations and such. Claim that the world of communications has moved from monologe to dialoge – “we’re all a part of a huge cocktailparty where everyone is interested in shaking your hand and speak with you” – only to experience that the basics of the conference is still a one-way street, it’s monologue. The instant the speaker is done, they’re off – gone – unavailable, back on the plane to return to their busy schedule. That made me think about this in a whole new perspective, to challenge this way of thinking. It actually made me re:think.

What do I mean ~ re:think?
I attacked the conformaty of what a conference is and try to create something different. I wanted to remove everything I hated, and add everything I appreciated from the idea of what a conference should be, and there it was – the mission was clear:

• re:think is going to push the (nordic) corporate world forward by having the best international speakers on stage
• the speakers are challenged to deliver tangible actions, ideas and value to the attendees
• encourage and facilitate questions and dialogue
• all access to the speakers throughout re:think, they are obligated to be available

“re:think is about providing tangible tools and actions for your business by creating an intersection between you and brilliant thought-leaders within communication.”

It’s about making new and interesting connections using passion, inspiration and creativity as tools between people to find ways of getting and sharing knowledge. It’s a place where we want to ignite and share extraordinary ideas of individuals, teams and organizations by bringing together different disciplines and cultures to ignite a spark…

…and it all starts by understanding the principles, knowing the methods and use these new channels in a creative and innovative way.

“Same sh** — new wrapping?”
I’m fully aware that the easiest thing in the world is to find flaws and errors in others and brag about your own achievements. Well – it is the victorious that creates history, so I guess I’ll let the attendees and speakers of the conference be the judge of my success or utter failure with re:think. My goal is to change the definition of what being present at a conference in the 21st century.

So has everyone met @arnteriksen and @kleinjinx? You should. They threw an awesome event #rethinkOSL and are awesome people. @missrogue / Tara missrogue Hunt

It’s all about timing – and network
I’ve been lucky enough to enter this new arena in the early stages – so that I actually had a chance to build valid and sustainable connections with brilliant, creative and skillfull thoughtleaders that challenges the way of thinking commununication, and how to make things happen. The same people have become close online relations and I’m blessed to be in a position now to invite the same people to come to Scandinavia and join me on stage of re:think create the link between the speakers and the attendees that want to take their business to the next level.

Networking is key – I’m a living proof – and the way we communicate with each other makes it easier and possible to connect with anyone, anywhere at anytime. It truly is a small world – and my vision is that re:think will play a part in creating an intersection of ideas and principles within communication in the years to come.

arnt eriksen // curator of re:think

Sometimes you start on a journey you kind of don’t know where it might take you, but after you’ve started, are so glad you did. I’m in the middle of that state of mind right now. As I’ve written previously, I planned this baby of mine – re:think – for months, even years. I must admit though – after the first one was over, I was exhausted. It seemed like I had managed to sustain such a high level of energy to make the whole thing happen, and on the day itself, I had to perform at my best being both the curator and one of the speakers as well. So the day after  the conference – all the air had gone out of the balloon. (me, that is)

Then – after a few days of well deserved and needed R&R, I felt ready to get started with the next one. Crazy – I know. But it was just such a great kick to actually make it happen, and the feedback from all the attendees and speakers was actually overwhelming and gave me fuel.

So – I did it… again.

First, I defined more specific and clear what I wanted the conference to be all about,  concluding with the following:

re:think is an intersection of ideas and principles within Social Business Marketing 

I’m quite pleased with that one. Next I had to define the different topics that would provide and deliver on this vision of what I want re:think is all about. Granted, there are a lot of skillful people out there, but not all of them have the business savvy that has credibility within the corporate world to be looked upon of being those thought-leaders that can be relevant and provide true value. With some research and reaching out to my network of colleges – I found them.

Look at this lineup:

• Valeria Maltoni from Conversation Agent will speak about the Principles of Business in the Age of the Social Customer
• Gini Dietrich will provide insights behind the Principles of Online Reputation
• Maggie Fox, and the Principles of Corporate Marketing
• Mitch Joel will rock on stage speaking about the Principles of Future Marketing
• Chris Brogan will come and present the Principles of “the Next Big Thing” for Business

The scary part of this is that getting these amazing speakers is merely 20% of making the conference happen. It’s a matter of getting the website be as presentable and clear in it’s message as possible. Make the call-to-action, easy and accessible. Get the necessary amount of sponsors to have the guarantee financing in order, find the right venue, the right suppliers and define all the details around the customer journey for the attendees.

Next step – when all the above is done – is all about selling the tickets and get the people aware of the conference, make the message clear and prove that it is different than the rest of them. Hopefully convince media to write about what is to come, which is not an easy thing, since a conference is a commercial event and it’s not looked upon as relevant to the free press – they might write about the speakers, IF the angle is right.

That’s where I am now. I’m done with everything of planning and the nitty-gritty details. Now it’s just to make everyone aware of the conference, it’s great speakers and the content we’ll provide and in the end sell tickets. That’s it… it’s that simple, yet that hard.

But I’m confident about the vision, concept, strategy, speakers, content, and topics. This will be the conference that will provide the true value of how to have success within Social Business Marketing. Well, that’s what I hope will be the perceived experience when March 29. is done and over with.

The fun thing is – it started as a consequence of me re:thinking my life and career – and it made me re:act and make change. That’s what I want to pass on. I want to ignite a spark, bring ideas and prove that by focusing on the Principles of Marketing, take a step back and re:think the whole in perspective of the digital age, it will make a difference.

So – now I would like to ask you, what is your thoughts about the content and idea of the conference? (click to get to the site) any input you would like to give? I’m all ears and open to all thoughts that can make it an even better product than what it is now.

//arnt

Came across this great post by a online-friend of mine, Maria Popova who shares amazing content via her twitter account and her blog. Today I came across one of her posts with a 46 second long interview of Steve Jobs, which I just wanted to share.

I’ve seen a lot of interviews of Steve Jobs since he passed away, and I’m well into the book about him as well, and I’m truly amazed about how complex, interesting and out of the ordinary Steve Jobs truly was.

Well, here is the link to the article by Maria, and here is the 46 sec interview:

Enjoy! =)

//arnt

This is indeed exciting times. I started this journey a long time ago, actually back in the summer of 2009 in New York. I was going there to attend an event for the launch of Mitch Joel‘s then, upcoming book – Six Pixels of Separation - which in it self was an awesome experience… but it was also the beginning of great connections and the small seed that now has become re:think. You see – the agent of Mitch Joel, David Evenchick has some pretty good connections, and when we started to talk it became clear that there were some thoughts and principles I had about communication and social media, that he thought would be interesting to use to create an conference. The day after I had the pleasure to meet Chris Anderson, the curator of TED – and we had an amazing meeting that even made it more clear to me what I wanted to do as a concept for a conference.

Since that summer, things has kinda been like a roller-coaster! I’ve used my international connections and got in touch with so many interesting and inspiring thought-leaders I truly admire to ask them to come join me in creating an event beyond the ordinary concept of a social media event. Thankfully the response have been positive. Almost all the great speakers and friends I have asked have said that they would love to come to re:think at some point.

The 3 speakers I have for the first re:think conference, October 11th is:

Tara Hunt, Pioneering expert in online communities and marketing

Jacob Morgan, Principal and co-founder of Chess Media Group and expert on Social CRM

Rohit Bhargava, Best selling author, Professor in Marketing and Senior VP of Ogilvy Group

…and myself

What a lineup! and I’m not talking about me in that sentence… but it has to be the best collection of speakers to kick off my conference. I’m truly happy, proud and grateful that they all said yes to be a part of this.

I’m going to write more about re:think in the days to come, so please stay tuned

arnt // curator

I came across this infographic at TNW this morning about How People Tweet. I found it to be a bit surprising, but it just shows that twitter has done something right. I remember a couple of years ago, the number of users that used twitter.com as the main place to tweet was around 50%.

As for myself, since i have multiple twitter-accounts (@arnteriksen, @arntnor, @sofaprat, @time2rethink, @rethinkmusic) I primarily use Tweetdeck on my main computer. Since I love Google Chrome as a browser I also sometimes use TweetDeck as an app in the browser as well. To send updates and schedule various tweets I use Hootsuite which I find to be both simple to use and with nice analytics following each tweet and the iPhone/iPad app is also really sweet.

On my mobile devices – iPhone/iPad – I primarily use the official twitter-app to read and reply to my tweets, but more and more I catch myself just dropping by the twitter.com site to check out specific tweple or check the history of a tweet or retweet.

I have yet to find that one optimal app that gives me a beautiful UI, optimal UX and simplicity to read and post tweets, retweet, reply  and schedule stuff in my different streams – and provides stats connected to my tweets in the different networks where I’m present. I have a “system” that works for the moment, and I’m not sure if it would be possible to have an app that satisfies the complex needs that I have accumulated over the years.

Which client do you use to tweet?

I just love infographics. They give a clean and simple visual view of any kind of information – in this case about Social Media and Your Business Communication Strategy. It’s a brief assembled insight with statistics related to the topic, but it gives a nice POV. Of course – one must not forget though that statistics is kinda like leaning to a lamp-post – it’s comfortably supportive, but only highlights a small piece of the whole picture.

You can find the original post here:
#E2sday: Social Media and Your Business Communication Strategy | The Future of Work 

 

Facebook is according to AdAge, the number one company in online display ads as well, surpassing Yahoo and Google with more than 500 million dollars. Quite impressive, and once again just proves that the social network is one kingpin of a player to be reckoned with not only in regards to membership numbers but also as the leading online diplay marketplace:

Facebook doesn’t really have to try to become the biggest player in digital media; it simply is.

The social network is estimated to book $2.19 billion in ad revenue in the U.S. this year, all of it classified as display, according to the latest eMarketer research. That sum takes on new significance now that Yahoo and Google are estimated to make less in display than predicted. The firm projects Google will make $1.15 billion in display ads for 2011, down 10% from an earlier estimate, while Yahoo is expected to bring in $1.62 billion from banner ads, down less than 2% from an earlier analysis.

While mighty TV still commands the biggest slice of the ad business at 16%, compared to the internet’s 7%, according to ZenithOptimedia, more advertisers are making big branding bets online, an arena that has long been dominated by Google search and the direct-marketing companies that that kind of advertising attracts. In 2010, display advertising, which includes video, grew 23% — faster than search — according to the IAB.

Recognizing that challenge, Google has made aggressive moves into this area, bolstering its adv offerings on YouTube and recently paying $390 million for Admeld, a startup that helps publishers sell premium advertising. Yahoo and AOL have been offering bigger ad units that mimic the distracting nature of TV ads with videos that command the entire screen.

› read the complete article here

There was reports the past weeks that Facebook had lost users in the US, which was claimed by the company to be wrong… and judging by the numbers it seems like there is now more drive in the social network than ever.

What is your take on the future of Facebook?