Greg de Lima

While presenting Tuesday at Pivot Conference, Scott Brinker, president and CTO of ion interactive, explained why he believes organizations should take the next step toward digital proficiency by fostering a new breed of executives — the chief marketing technologist. Brinker explains this type of executive as:

“… someone who has a hybrid between business and technology, a strong background in engineering and IT, is an early adopter of technology, but someone who also understands the pragmatic realities of scaling technology. But most importantly, someone who brings those skills and combines them with a deep love and passion for the marketing mix. This is a technologist that reports to the CMO, not the CIO.”

Traditionally, organizations silo functions into categories — communications, finance, creative, operations, and of course, marketing and technology, to name a few. Brinker’s case for the Chief Marketing Technologist has legs, especially as marketing and technology functions are becoming increasingly intertwined. Your company may have seasoned marketers and top-of-the-line technologists, but it takes those who are dually knowledgeable in both marketing and technology to really make the right moves in Internet () marketing, as they are the ones who really understand the way the web works and what’s possible for marketing from a technological point of view.

Below are three missions that Brinker believes a Chief Marketing Technologist would be uniquely poised to tackle. We caught up with Brinker after his presentation and he elaborated on each of these points. Read on to see what he had to say and add your thoughts in the comments below.

1. Translating Strategy into Technology

The first mission for a chief marketing technologist should be to “collaborate with the CMO on translating strategies into technology with much higher fidelity, and vice-versa — also help in revealing new opportunities that technologies provide for new strategies,” Brinker said.

In our follow-up, Brinker explained the importance of having a middle ground between marketing and technology, in particular due to the lack of cohesion between marketing and tech jargon. “One of the challenges we see between marketing and the people who provide technology to marketers, whether it’s the IT department or outside vendors,” he said, “is that marketers have a certain language and nomenclature that they use to communicate their vision. And vice-versa, technologists spend years learning their lingo and perspective on the world.

“The idea of a marketing technologist is someone who’s natively versed in both languages and understands the concepts of what’s in technology and what’s in marketing, and they can serve as the translator,” he concluded.

2. Choreographing Technology Across Marketing

“Choreograph the entire collection of marketing, technology and data that we see throughout the organization. Find ways to tap the synergy between all of these different components,” Brinker suggested.

We asked Brinker what this might entail for a chief marketing technologist, including the type of data that he was referencing. He explained, “All of this technology that’s popping up all over marketing — web analytics, marketing automation, advertising behavioral segmentation — are all fairly sophisticated on their own. The problem is that behind the scenes, they don’t talk very well together. It’s not because the products can’t talk together — it’s because there isn’t really anyone connecting the dots.”

The effect of not having someone like a marketing technologist to bridge the gap between various data banks is an overload of inefficiently used data. “I think what we’re seeing here is more and more data,” Brinker said, “that there’s no one really finding ways of taking data from the web analytics, for instance, and feeding that into our conversion optimization testing. How do we take the experiences someone has on a conversion optimization path and feed that into the marketing optimization system?”

3. Infusing Tech into the Company’s Marketing DNA

“Perhaps most importantly, is to infuse technology into the DNA of marketing itself — our practices, our people, our culture,” Brinker said.

He recommended “having people on your team, in your group that have physical proximity to you who really get the technology, because they’re as eager to hear from you about marketing objectives and strategies, [as they are] to talk about what they’re doing in technology.”

Brinker explained that having technology-versed team members on a team helps facilitate “natural osmosis by raising the [level of] technical proficiency and familiarity” of an organization. He believes that a marketing technologist’s role is to seek out marketing candidates who have technical backgrounds. Employing tech-savvy people is a step toward infusing technology into a company’s culture and DNA.

Does your company support a position similar to Brinker’s proposed chief marketing technologist? If so, let us know in the comments.

See Brinker’s full presentation from the Pivot Conference below:

The Case for a Chief Marketing Technologist

View more presentations from sjbrinker.

This post is by Erica Swallow at Mashable

Permalink | Leave a comment »

7 Ways to Socialize With Your Employees

Thu, 12 Aug 2010 14:54:00 -0700

This post via Inc. Magazine

Whether you need to foster teamwork, get a major project underway, or just show your team a fun time, there's a wholesome - but not utterly nerdy - way.

By Inc. Staff | Aug 11, 2010

There's something to be said for birthday lunches or beers after work at the pub across the street. Simple, casual, all-staff events can foster a lot of camaraderie. But they can also exclude certain people – non-drinkers, parents with small children who need to get home right after work, and plenty of others. And who hasn't heard stories of company holiday parties that ended in disaster when someone (or several someones) tosses back a few too many?

We've been digging through the Inc. archives looking for the best examples of team-building social activities companies with great corporate culture have used. But not every social event is right for every company. So we've included some motivating factors for getting the staff together before prescribing social plans.

Goal: Nurture the sweet feeling of success.
Solution: Host an annual poker night.

Each February, Inphonic CEO David A. Steinberg holds a poker party for his top executives at Washington, D.C.'s Historic George Town Club. As a reward for their long hours, his executives are treated to scotch and cigars as they bluff and bet with members of InPhonic's A-list board of directors – top venture capitalists, famous politicians, and John Sculley, the well-known former CEO of Apple and Pepsi. The tradition feels bigtime and established, the kind of ritual befitting a company that keeps stern oil paintings of past CEOs in its wood-paneled boardroom. But InPhonic, which is in the very modern business of selling mobile phone handsets and services over the Web, is no such firm. It has existed for the grand total of five years and sports a founding CEO of the ripe age of 35. Instead, the annual poker night is one more way Steinberg creates the image of success and carefully guards it until, like wet cement, it sets and becomes real. Steinberg, says Sculley, "does a wonderful job of making you feel like the company is bigger and further along in its life than it is at the moment. It sort of felt like we were all grown up and we were only two and a half years old." Read more.

Goal: Making your business feel like a happy family.
Solution: Integrate casual game nights into a family-friendly office.

The Booksource, which is based in St. Louis, sells discounted books for use in schools. Employees describe this 36-year old family-run business as exactly that — a family. Weekly bingo nights, bowling outings, and the annual company picnic (which was held at a winery last year) create a true sense of community among co-workers. The family-friendly feeling extends into the office, too. The "Baby Policy" allows parents to bring their newborns to work for up to six months, or employees can choose to receive a $50 weekly reimbursement for day care. Read more.

Goal: Get a serious work project started with a tight-knit team.
Solution: Hold a company retreat.

What does your company really need to accomplish, fast? Bruce Withrow, the founder of Meeting Facilitators International, helps his clients start to plan their retreats by asking this question first: "If I could wave a magic wand and put it into your hand, and you could make a successful conclusion to your retreat, what would it look like?" It's important to be as specific as possible. "To just say 'strategic planning' isn't enough," says Withrow, who plans between 50 and 60 retreats every year. "It's such a plastic word that means so many different things to so many different people. What is it that you think is missing? What is it that you want?" CEO and founder of Tutor.com George Cigale says of his company's past retreats: "Slowing down time allows you to think a little bit differently about the way you communicate and depend on each other." Before you stress about where you will go and what you will do, remember that, from a business perspective, this is probably the least important part of planning your retreat. Cigale's company has held retreats at a dude ranch, Las Vegas, Florida, and, when the budget was a little tighter, at a conference center near the company's offices. But he considers each retreat to have been successful. It's fun to play golf, but is it really necessary? If you can afford it, adding some fun to the trip does have advantages. First, it can help get your employees excited about the retreat and somewhat compensate for pulling them away from their homes and families. Second, it can provide time for informal discussion and help your team get to know each other better. "Just the time together at dinner and talking about the Olympics or whatever, I think that that helps with communication," Withrow says. Cigale recommends sticking with about a 20 percent fun, 80 percent work ratio. Read more.

Goal: Simply understanding your employees better.
Solution: Do lunches with a focus on sharing.

No, this isn't as dorky as it sounds. One of our AskInc. users, who posts as Tiffany Smith, writes: "I work for a company that goes above and beyond to boost company morale. Just this week we all participated in a 'Dream Board' lunch. We were all required to present our Dream Board to the other team members and share with them our aspirations of where we wanted to be professionally and personally within the next 15 years. The owner of the company's philosophy is that he cannot reach his dreams until he helps us reach ours. I feel that this is a positive message and adds to the productivity of everyone at AchooAllergy.com. Every Tuesday morning we have a company meeting in which we all go around the room and start off with a one word answer to how we are feeling that day and a positive story (of any topic of our choosing) to share with everyone. We then go around the room and each person has three minutes to share what they have been working on the past week. Our meetings keep the communication open between everyone and the owner and keep things positive around the company. Read more.

Goal: Build teamwork in each department.
Solution: Quarterly team-building outings.

At SnagAJob.com, which recruits and places hourly employees in full-time and part-time jobs and is based in Glen Allen, Virginia, there's serious strategy involved in fostering employee teamwork. Every quarter, each department plans its own team-building outing, such as trips to the shooting range, cooking classes, fishing, and mountain climbing. They even have a “Culture Squad” that hosts a monthly event to bring staffers together; a company favorite was this year’s Office Olympics, featuring events like office-chair soccer. Read more.

Goal: Fostering a feeling of fulfillment.
Solution: Start a volunteer program.

"There are three horizons for volunteering: what the business wants, what the community needs and what the employees like to do," said Chris Jarvis, co-founder of the Toronto-based company Realized Worth. "Find something that makes sense for your brand." There is nothing wrong with throwing a one-day event. "Organizations like Habitat for Humanity are totally built for employee volunteering," says Jarvis. But remember to keep your goals in mind. Will a quick gig give your employees that feeling of fulfillment for the whole year? Will it build loyalty to the program? Will it give you the community presence you're looking for? If you answer "no" to any of these questions, ask the non-profit about ways the company can stay involved after that single volunteer day. Could you hold the event every quarter instead of every year? Remember, volunteering can be a crucial team-building strategy, and as any business owner knows, it takes time to build a team. Read more.

Goal: Extreme, all-out executive bonding.
Solution: Upper-management backpacking trip.

This extreme team-building isn't for the weak of heart – nor is it really good for the whole team. But as we reported back in 2007, the senior managers of Timbuk2, a San Francisco-based manufacturer of messenger bags, made it work for them. They, as Alison Stein Wellner wrote, "gathered on a gently sloping granite ledge at an altitude of 12,000 feet, overlooking the blue-gray shimmer of one of the dozen or so Ice Lakes, slopes of stubby pine trees, and beyond onto ragged peaks. It was the middle of June, but snow still mounded on the ground. A thunderstorm had just skirted the campsite and the wind screamed constantly, cold and fierce. These four men and two women lead a growing company of 70 employees back at sea level, where they'd typically be worrying about things like financing, brand management, e-commerce, and retail sales. But for the past four days they'd been in the backcountry, and their concerns had been somewhat more basic: Would that small blister turn into a festering sore? Would those dark clouds bring rain? Does that bear paw print in the mud mean there's an actual bear nearby? The group was halfway through a seven-day backpacking trip organized by the National Outdoor Leadership School, or NOLS. Accompanying them were two NOLS instructors and me; I'd tagged along to see what would happen. It had been nearly 100 hours since any of us had had a shower, or used a flushing toilet, cradled a cell phone to our ear, or run our fingers across a keyboard. As the sun started to set, the temperature, which had hit the high 80s when we'd set out from the town of Lander, Wyoming, just four days before, was hovering just above freezing." Read more.

Permalink | Leave a comment »

Dreams

Tue, 10 Aug 2010 12:02:00 -0700

The only dream worth having ... is to dream that you will live while you're alive and die only when you're dead ... To love. To be loved. To never forget your own insignificance. To never get used to the unspeakable violence and vulgar disparity of life around you. To seek joy in the saddest places. To pursue beauty to its lair. To never simplify what is complicated or to complicate what is simple. To respect strength, never power. Above all, to watch. To try and understand. To never look away. And never, never to forget.

- Arundhati Roy

Permalink | Leave a comment »

9 Tips For Better Writing

Tue, 13 Jul 2010 11:36:00 -0700

One of the things I like best about social media is the way it helps me discover talented writers. They remind me a lot of distance athletes with their deep conversations about seemingly minor details and long periods of time spent practicing alone.

The web also has a downside. There seems to be a growing belief that having mobile access to information negates any need to regularly consume quality writing.

Some writers point to the popularity of the Twilight series and say it’s a sign the general population no longer cares about quality. In my reply I always point to the wise commentary of Juan Williams:

Pandering to base interests is very different from catering to real needs. (Paraphrased from his commentary on the notion that people of color only want to watch MTV.)

It’s possible that you’ll make money by pandering, but there are a lot of people doing the same thing now. Traipse around online for a bit and you’ll find thousands of desperate writers trying to predict the next fetish in hopes of fame and fortune. It’s sad to watch them trying so hard because in the end they’ll have nothing to be truly proud of. I want to write things for which my only explanation for writing is not, “I needed the money.”

Do you? If so, you may find some portion of the following useful. I’ve gathered some of my favorite quotes from brilliant, prolific, and plain crazy writers and share them here with some tips I’ve found incredibly helpful in my own journey as a yearning writer. I hope you enjoy!

1. Write to make a point, not a target word count

Vigorous writing is concise. ~William Strunk Jr.

Nothing makes me grimace quite like hearing somebody say they’ve reached 50,000 words and so have completed their first novel. Remember dully typing toward a minimum word count for an academic paper you had no interest in writing? If you start to get the feeling about something you’re writing, it’s probably time to stop writing and do some more research (or bribe your editor/professor/mother into accepting the shorter piece of work).

2. Help another edit their writing

I try to leave out the parts that people skip. ~Elmore Leonard

I have a short, round-bellied friend who turned me on to this quote. That said, I’ve found that helping another writer edit their work often leaves me with more insight into my own writing than I gave to the other writer! If you can find a trusted friend to trade nascent work with, you will have found a wealth of improvement.

3. Write something every day that you do not intend to share

Fill your paper with the breathings of your heart. ~William Wordsworth

I have a private blog I update daily with rants, outlines, fears, and bits of nothing that stream out of me when I’m struggling to find focus for another piece of writing. You’ll never see it. There’s no value in my sharing it because the moment I know others can see it is the moment I no longer write just for me. I suggest you give this method a try. It doesn’t have to be a blog. A notebook would work just fine.

4. Outline before drafting & Don’t confuse fiction with dishonest writing

If any man wish to write in a clear style, let him be first clear in his thoughts; and if any would write in a noble style, let him first possess a noble soul. ~Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

I am still learning to to do the first part. I’ve taken great value from sharing outlines of my intended work with friends who are very logical and excel at criticizing arguments without muddling thoughts. The last part… is something I can only hope for. If I someday hear a reader say, “his writing is imbued with kindness” I think that will do.

5. Don’t get caught up in restating the obvious

The role of a writer is not to say what we all can say, but what we are unable to say. ~Anaïs Nin

As one who writes a lot for the web, I am continually tempted by the low-hanging fruit of trending topics and morning news drivel. Restating the obvious is easy, fun, and very retweetable. But the obvious rarely seems to translate into any sort of real legacy. If I only had a list of all the things my readers already know collectively, it would be so simple to stay fresh!

6. Befriend a dictionary

The difference between the right word and the almost right word is the difference between lightning and a lightning bug. ~Mark Twain

Imbue, conjure, nefarious… are just a few of the words I have as friends to help me clearly make a point, share an idea, or call something into question. There’s a joy in having the perfect words at one’s disposal that only a dedicated writer can appreciate. A thesaurus can be useful if you’re bored, lazy, or drunk. Nothing trumps having a word come to mind just as you need its help.

7. Keep a little notebook for moments of inspiration

Write down the thoughts of the moment. Those that come unsought for are commonly the most valuable. ~Francis Bacon

I use a moleskine to store my thoughts for later. Having thoughts and personal commentary all in one place has the added benefit of serving as a source of inspiration for later times of drought. Think of it as you would catching raindrops in a canteen. You’ll be glad for the moisture some day.

8. Not having a pen in your hand doesn’t mean you’re not writing

The best time for planning a book is while you’re doing the dishes. ~Agatha Christie

If you walked into my office at random, there’s a very good chance you’d find me sipping a glass of tea while staring off into space. Am I doing nothing? Not in the least. Contrary to my mother’s early suspicions, I’m not addled. I just like to silently try phrases out in my mind before writing them down. Agatha had a point about dishes, too. There’s no such thing as writer’s block. But there are times when washing dishes is a better use of time than staring at an empty screen!

9. Be kind to yourself

Every writer I know has trouble writing. ~Joseph Heller

I hope you are kind to yourself and forgiving when you cannot find the perfect phrase or paint a story just so! Writing, for me, seems a monumental task at times and I am always delighted to find others who understand my situation and reach out to help. There’s a joy in knowing that no matter how lonely a stretch of path may seem we are never entirely alone, no? We always have our writing and with it an entire community of people who care.

NOTE: This post was sent to me by my uncle - If you know the original author please let me know so I can give proper credit!

Permalink | Leave a comment »

Life Should be Like This!

Fri, 18 Jun 2010 17:58:00 -0700

See more funny videos and funny pictures at CollegeHumor.

Permalink | Leave a comment »

What Motivates Us? - Hint: Not Money

Tue, 01 Jun 2010 01:12:00 -0700

If you're an entrepreneur or small business owner, even if you're not, you need to watch this video. Only 10 minutes of your time, and some of the best insight around.

Permalink | Leave a comment »

7 Sites for Discovering Music

Sun, 30 May 2010 09:26:00 -0700

This past week Mashable! posted about 7 unique sites for discovering new music. These are all great websites, but I will forever be a fan of Grooveshark, their popular list is a great representation of the US top artists and songs. If you're not well of enough, you can try their 5 bests websites to find music to suit your mood; my preffered site is Aupeo!. Stereomood tended to not mix up their songs enough and their playlists were very limited with many songs overlapping depending on the mood selection.

Check 'em out! What's your favorite music tool?

Image by Marfis75

Permalink | Leave a comment »

5 Tips to Make Your Presentations More Social

Fri, 30 Apr 2010 00:18:00 -0700

Over at Mashable, the post on making your presentations more social, is absolutely phenomenal.

By creating anticipation, making socially friendly presentations, interactivity, and conversation, a presentation can be made social both online and off. Presentations have been receiving a lot of flak lately with, "Why Powerpoints Suck" and other similarly titled articles. But the truth is by using tools like Slideshare, you can really make people stik with you and be engaged outside of this online social world we live in.

Image by Matthias Mehldau

Permalink | Leave a comment »

Modern Maturity: Create More, Consume Less

Sat, 17 Apr 2010 05:40:00 -0700

"Masculine maturity used to be easy to spot and define: a man got married, sired some progeny, and got a job to support his family. He knew he was a grown man and everybody else did too."

The Art of Manilness is a phenomenal blog. It's not misgynistic, it's not flamboyant it's truthful. Ranging from grooming, dress, behavior, all the way to simplicity and nature.

In this post, it's an interesting take on men's natural habit to tinker, fiddle, repair, and in this case, create. Men are defined by their abilities day in and day out. By taking the opportunity to create something physical or otherwise, we begin to define ourselves and those in our company. Creation truly is Modern Maturity.

Image by Marvin345

Permalink | Leave a comment »

Stop Being a Spioled Little Brat

Wed, 07 Apr 2010 05:16:00 -0700

There a things a person comes to realize sometimes, and that for me has become that there are some spoiled-ass kids who don't respect their parents and take for granted everything they get.

Now, I have been luckier than most to have a range of experiences in my life, some of which include travels to 3rd world countries, lack of funds, working since I was 14 (earlier than most Americans my age). Experiences that make you look around and just say to yourself, "Damn, I've got it good."

So when your parents hand you dough enough for me to last a few weeks and you go and bitch to your mother about the way she cooks. My mother would slap me across the face and tell me to cook myself if I didn't like it. Or if I complained about something my dad did that I don't like. Just because you don't like it, or it annoys you, doesn't make you the boss. Your parents still feed you, give you a home, and pay for your college tuition.

Start thanking, stop bitching.

That is all.

Permalink | Leave a comment »

People Care

Mon, 29 Mar 2010 01:29:33 -0700

And, No, it's not just about "global warming"

People at heart truly want to do good things. They care, about their religion, their country, their people, wives, husbands, mothers, fathers. People Care.

The problem is, we aren't caring about the right things. We hoard ourselves into a life of self-centered arrogance where only the "I" takes presedence over the things we truly care about. It is time to take a look around us and change things for the betterment of other people. There are people in this world who don't have what you and I take granted for every day, and best of all we have the opportunity and the ability to change it!

Stop bitching about healthcare reform, and start helping others.

Stop bitching about immigration reform, and help their country so they don't feel the need to immigrate into another to better their life.

Stop bitching about hobos on the corner, and buy them a Big Mac don't just stare at him blankly and give him change so he can go score a hit, feed him.

The opportunity to do something good. Not for yourself, you don't matter right now. I encourage you to check out Brian Joyner's Blog and read about his new project, #saysomethingnice. Be sure to keep up on his Say Something Nice project and extend it beyond just saying.

Do Something Good!

Permalink | Leave a comment »

Keep Teaching

Mon, 29 Mar 2010 01:03:00 -0700

A couple days ago, TechCrunch posted about Why America Needs To Start Educating Its Workforce Again. A phenomenal perspective on why America's workforce now revolves around a quarterly bonus and why we're not giving a rat's ass about our employees anymore.

My take, stop caring directly about revenues and profits, but more your companies culture and the satisfaction of your employees. A much more important aspect is the affect of employees will to work with, and at a company depending on the culture and how they are incorporated into that system.

Time for a revolution in the workplace?

Image by Jeff B.

Permalink | Leave a comment »

Genius - Eric Whitacre

Thu, 25 Mar 2010 10:16:35 -0700

Eric Whitacre is a genius. Mixing viral, social, and technology all together to mash up YouTube videos submitted to make a version of Lux Aurumque.

Read Eric Whitacre's Blog to know how they did it.

Permalink | Leave a comment »