mktg@msft

Business is Personal

Jennifer Rice comments that she's working to make her blog more personal. Darren Rowse, Wayne Hurlbert, and David St. Lawrence pick up the conversation. Like me, they're finding it challenging to strike a proper balance between professional, relevant and personal, human. I know I probably don't write enough about my own motivations, frustrations, challenges, or mistakes. I know my management team (occasionally) visits my blog, and I know regardless of my personal feelings, I represent my company to some degree (dispite my disclaimer!).

When it all comes down to it, I'm not sure we can (or should even try to) disconnect the personal from the business. Brands are about reputation. Business is about trust and reciprocation. Contracts are covenants. Marketing is communication. Selling is a dialog. Business partnerships, even at a transactional level are about shared goals, common vision, commitment to each other.

The thing that appeals to me about blogs is that they allow a deeper conversation to occur. They reveal the person behind the words. The motivation behind the advice. The human behind the company.

To me, the biggest problem in business (and in communities, and in schools, and churches, and in marriage, and in nearly every social situation) is lack of trust. And trust can only come when people know your motives. And that can only come when people really know each other.

My blog continues to evolve, but like Jennifer, I'm working on being more open, not less. If people don't want to wade through my posts about my kids, or my frustrations, they can move on to other posts, or for that matter, other blogs. I like hearing about Robert's wife and his relationship with his son. I like hearing about Beth's robot dog, and Dare's frustrations with Robert, and Diane's triumphs at work. It helps me realize they're not corporate drones who only care about selling more Microsoft software.

In the meantime, the value I've found in blogging comes from getting to know others that share common values of mine, whether it's customer connection, management values, personal development, work-life balance, or family connection.

SmartMobs Lecture at Stanford

Micah Alpern points to a fascinating lecture on the Open Mind Initiative by SmartMobs author Howard Rheingold, given at the People, Computers, and Design series at Stanford University. Rheingold has been involved in researching online communities long before many people realized there were online communities. Fascinating stuff.

Seattle Times Reports on NEDS

I know Jerry Lawson's not crazy for pop-psychologists and alarmists, but I agree that too much time in front of a computer can be a bad thing.

The Seattle Times wrote a story about the same meeting I wrote about a few days ago. From the Seattle Times article:

In (Tim) Sanders' case, the syndrome meant restlessness at night and never seeming to be emotionally present at home. He began to have relationship difficulties at work because he used e-mail, at one point, to communicate everything to his employees, be it good or bad.

"When you're good with a hammer, you treat everything like a nail," he said of his bluntness via e-mail. "All of sudden, I forgot my manners." ...

"Sanders said he's learned to balance his use of technology with stronger relationships at work. He turns off his computer monitor, for example, when someone comes into his office. He sits down more with colleagues and makes eye contact.

"I realized the relationships were my resiliency — that the friends and the colleagues that I had during the day made all the difference because the weekends and evenings weren't cutting it," he said. "It wasn't enough to recharge me. That evaporated in traffic the next morning."

My Marketing "Community of Practice"

Just had breakfast with Denise Klarquist from Cheskin. We had a great discussion about blogging (though just a small amount of time spent on that!), and consumer research. Since I'm in town to do some focus groups (see the pictures in my Photo Album), it's topical.

Without going into too many details about exactly what we're doing it or how, we talked about how consumer research is making a difference at companies like Microsoft. I was fascinated to hear about some of the work other parts of our business are approaching customer research.

We talked a bit about how blogs are evolving in the business world. Cheskin is doing a good job getting blogs published, but Denise admits there are still a lot of questions from those outside--and inside--their company.

I reminded her of one of the business benefits of blogging. I read a lot of blogs (and very few email newsletters, by the way), and I'm drawn towards things I care about as a marketer. One of them is research. I'm fascinated by anything that has to do with consumer research, and getting to know consumer behavior better. It's why I read Dina Mehta, Denise Klarquist, Rick Bruner, and some of the Jupiter Research blogs. If you know of others, let me know!

I'm getting to know these guys, and I'm coming to trust them. I was anxious to meet Denise since I was coming to San Francisco. And the more I get to know her, her company, and her work, the more I'm prone to take my business to her. In fact, I hadn't heard of Cheskin two months ago when we were selecting a firm to work with (the research we're doing now is with a competing company), but I would certainly have at least sent an RFP to Cheskin if we were choosing a firm today. (Remember, too, I hadn't heard of a blog five months ago!)

The main reason I blog is to build my own "community of practice" around marketing, management, leadership, and "fast" thinking. Blogs help me do that, and I'll send my business (or Microsoft's business) to people I know and trust (starting with members of my community).