Sheep Guarding Llama

Like I often do on Fridays, I worked from home for a little bit this morning.  Then it was off of to the office.

Today was crazy busy.  I did manage to come home and hang out with Liesl over a very, very late lunch that I had to shorten considerably as it was so late that it was running into the evening deployment schedule.  So it was a rush back to the office and a very busy afternoon for me.  It was so busy, in fact, that I had to turn off my Microsoft Communicator at the office and tell people that I was turning down any work that wasn’t production support.  Exhausting.

After work, Watson came over from Dallas and picked me up then Jeff and Dan came along shortly later and we all went over to Blue Fish for happy hour.  This was my first time going to Blue Fish.  The place feels like a Manhattan (well, Queens or Brooklyn) bar but the drink selection was definitely Texan.  The food was really amazing though.  I ate a number of the happy hour samplers and that made a great dinner.  The salmon tar-tare was especially awesome.  I’ll be going back there again for sure.

I got dinner to go for Dominica and Watson dropped me home.  The evening was spent mostly just relaxing.  I did need to work a little bit this evening but mostly it was time for Dominica, Liesl and I to hang out and watch 30 Rock.

We’ve been doing some house buying research and have been finding some stuff that we are really interested in up in Carrollton and in Lewisville.  We are encouraged that the houses up there are looking even better than the stuff in Irving.  There are more houses in our price range.  And it is only about five minutes farther from the office and La Cima than we would be in Irving.  Farther than we want to be but not so far for it to be a problem.

Today, Dominica discovered a house that had just recently gone onto the market up in Carrolton that was way too cheap for the pictures that we could see on Trulia so we called our agent and rushed up there to take a look at the house.  We were hopeful that the house would be perfect for us.  The pictures online looked great and the price was amazing – so we knew that something was wrong.  It had to be.

This was our first time looking at a house up in Carrolton, a town that neither of us have even ever been in previously.  The guys at work had turned me on to Carrolton as a good option for getting houses in the area.  So we expanded our search to include that town and this amazing-looking house had come up on our radar today.

Before we even went out to look at the house we found out that it was a short-sale that is already under contract.  There was a chance to put in a backup bid, however, so we figured that it was worth our time to go look at the house anyway – especially as it would give us a chance to see the town as well.  So worth the effort either way, we figured.

The neighbourhood of the house was great – located on a quiet culdusac with rear alley access which is pretty nice.  The front of the house was awesome.  The inside was pretty good, lots of community space but small bedrooms.  The yard, which we had been pretty excited about, turned out to be mostly a disaster.  The house had shifted significantly and the patio and foundation had ripped apart.  The outside of the house was supposed to be the highlight and turned out to be where the most work and money would have to be spent.  Not what we were hoping to have found.

Our excitement was a bit tempered.  It was good that we came out to look at the house today but we are undecided, but unlikely, to put in a bid on it.  It is probably selling at a very good price but the overall house is just not well suited to us – especially the backyard dominated by a pool that we would have to completely fence inside of the small yard ruining the backyard completely.

Back to work, disappointed that we still have no plans for a house.  We need to find something in the next two months.

After work, at six thirty, several of us from the office as well as Dominica and Liesl went out to Las Nenas for dinner.  It was nice getting out with the work crowd and my family as well.  We had a nice dinner but were not out very late.  We left the restaurant at nine.

Dominica had some shopping that she wanted to do at Target so we headed there.  Our most important purchase was a new set of cordless phones for the house.  Our old set has been driving us insane.  They have not been working at all for months now.  When someone calls they will ring but the moment that you attempt to answer them the phone itself will crash, likely due to battery issues, and reboot itself so you have no way to answer the call.  It used to be a matter of careful battery management and learning to answer the phone very, very quickly.  But now there is pretty much nothing that we can do to get it to work.  So we bought a new set of phones.

I finally bought the Apple iPad that I have been eyeing for a while.  I got the WiFi only, 32GB model.  It seemed the most practical model for me.  I don’t plan to use it while traveling extensively, 32GB is a good amount of storage and I didn’t want too spend too much on a first tablet as it remains to be seen how much user we will actually get from one.  I anticipate quite a bit but that might be quite premature.

I sent up the iPad tonight and am already loving it.  Using it while sitting on the couch is better than I had thought that it would be.  Almost instantly Liesl got interested in it and started playing with “My First App” which is a cute colour-matching video game designed for toddlers that only cost $.99.  She was able to use it the moment that she saw it.  The touch screen interface is perfect for toddler hands.  This is going to be an amazing learning tool for her.  Way better than the junk that they make dedicated for toddlers.  This is a high quality, general purpose device with good toddler content available.  We are very excited to see how the iPad and iPod can be used for her education.

It’s been a long week.  I am very thankful that this is considered a holiday weekend coming up.  I do not have the energy to deal with this week and a break will be quite wonderful.

I ended up working from home for a little while this morning.  Just too much to do and I slept in rather late today.  I’ve been losing sleep for the last several days and today turned out to be my day to make it up.  I had gone to bed at a good time last night too!  I guess that I really needed it.  I certainly felt better when I got up this morning.

Busy but uneventful day.  Late this afternoon a friend of mine from Austin stopped by the office and after work we stopped by Rockfish for some drinks and to grab dinner.  He is in town until Friday morning.  We had appetizers while waiting for our dinners to be prepared and then went over to the Chaat Cafe to pick up some fresh naan for Dominica.  Then I got dropped off at home and he headed over to his hotel.

At Rockfish this evening our bartender had a sample of New Amsterdam Gin that he let us try.  He had been saving it for some serious gin drinkers, and we more than qualified!  Gin is my most common drink.  All three of us thought that it was the best gin we had ever tried. Far superior to anything that I have had before.  We told the guy who handled the liquor orders for Rockfish to get some for us as we would definitely be ordering it in the future.

Spent the evening with Dominica and Liesl watching 30 Rock.

As predicted, I got pretty much no sleep last night.  I got to sleep somewhere between twelve thirty and one and I was awake after three thirty.  I checked email, sent some messages and snuggled Oreo for a while but by around four thirty I was sick of my laying in bed waiting for morning to come.  To I got up and worked at the computer for a little bit before jumping in the shower and heading into the office.  I got in, again, between six thirty and seven in the morning.  A nice, dark, brisk walk from home to office.

I went down to the cafeteria and got a breakfast taco and coffee to get me through the morning.  I was pretty hungry today for some reason.  Jeff brought in donuts too from Story Donuts so I made out really well today.

For lunch today I went home at one to get the family ready to drive over to Dominica’s one thirty ultrasound appointment (hint, hint).  We got over there just in time, always a challenge with me working and having a toddler and an old Boston Terrier.  The ultrasound went really well.  We are ten and a half weeks pregnant!  The little one is doing well.  Heart rate was 150 and we could clearly see him or her on the ultrasound being able to make out the head and body without any issue.  Due date is at the end of April.  Hence the desire to find a house sooner than later.

After the ultrasound I got dropped off at work without having had a chance to get lunch.  Good thing that I got breakfast and that there were donuts today.  I had more donuts to make up for missing lunch.

Watson and I had a rough day dealing with the same issues that I mentioned from last night.  So we went over to Chaat Cafe for dinner and drinks before heading home for the evening.  That gave us a chance to actually talk about what was going on – and to have a few drinks which we needed after today.  I ended up running into several guys from the office at the Chaat Cafe.  People who worked for other divisions but it is hard to hide when you are from my office – the lingo gives you away.

After Chaat Cafe Brian dropped me off at the apartment and I delivered Dominica her dinner, took care of Liesl, walked Oreo, etc.  Dominica ate dinner and we watched some of 30 Rock.  Since I have never really watched the show except for a few episodes here and there and since Dominica has not seen it in a long time we decided to go to the beginning and start watching it from there.  So I got to see the first few episodes tonight.

Tried to just relax tonight as much as there was time to do.  Liesl went to bed fairly early and we were not very far behind her.  I’m a bit tired from losing sleep the last several nights.

Online communities represent a significant challenge for traditional marketing departments to tackle.  Online communities are active conversations – the kind that Levine, Locke, Searls & Weinberger talked about.

Traditional marketing happens in a broadcast mode, whether television, billboard or conference.  Think of the traditional community as a park full of individuals strolling about each doing their own thing.  Then someone with a megaphone shows up and announces a new lemonade stand has opened.  Simple.  Lots of individuals have now been informed that there is lemonade.  Some will check it out, some will ignore it.

This is how marketing worked when there was no conversation.  It was one voice directed at many individuals.  Communities are not individuals, however.  But most marketers still love the megaphone.  It is a metaphor that they understand.

Imagine now the park is not full of individuals but groups of friends who have gathered together.  One group, six friends having a picnic, discussing work and home life and enjoying themselves sits at a picnic table.  The marketer approaches, megaphone in hand, and announces, in the midst of hearty conversation, that the lemonade stand has opened.  Do people get up and get lemonade?  No, they cover their ears, throw half eaten hot dogs at the marketer and after the marketer has departed discuss amongst themselves how rude the lemonade people are and how they should avoid buying their products.  The opposite of the desired effect has occurred, but should not come as a surprise to anyone.

The problem here is that the marketer is still attempting to speak at the conversation, not to join it.  That’s not how to win friends and influence people.

Instead, the marketer needs to put down the megaphone, saunter on over, make a casual introduction, join in the conversation, earn trust and respect.  Eventually many people will be more than willing to discuss the lemonade stand, in a friendly, non-aggressive manner.  They might have questions too.  Is the lemonade organic?  Is the water filtered?  How much does it cost?  Is there a volume discount?  When does the stand open and close?

Not only does joining the conversation give the marketer a chance to inform in a generally non-aggressive way; it also provides opportunity for customer engagement where a bidirectional exchange can provide feedback to marketing and information to customers.  Everyone wins.

A common mistake that companies make is sending out a marketer prepared only for the broadcast mode and throwing them into a conversation with non-peers without proper support.  In technical circles especially, people involved in the conversation are likely to have questions for the marketer attempting to promote their product.  In broadcast mode marketing it is relatively trivial to hide or gloss over product defects – such as ignoring the fact that the lemonade doesn’t come with a straw for easy sipping.  But in a conversation mode, people may ask what type of straw is included with their purchase.  If the marketer avoids the topic, people will begin to discuss reasons why there is no “straw disclosure.”  Perhaps the straws are defective, cost extra or do not exist.  Maybe there is so much pulp that a straw wouldn’t work or maybe the lemonade stand has never actually sold lemonade before and isn’t ready to open yet even though they have started marketing.

Silence in the conversation leads to speculation.  Speculation is nearly always very bad in a conversation mode.  People will assume that the worst case scenario is true.  Open communications is absolutely critical to healthy marketing in the conversation.

I have seen this first hand.  A marketer gains access to an online community, posts some at marketing and generates enough interest to get the community talking.  But almost instantly the community has questions, and tough ones, for the vendor.  The vendor goes silent.  In the days it takes for the vendor to arrange a spokesperson to be assigned to the community the vendor’s reputation is destroyed within the community through speculation and independent research done without the vendor present to counter claims, provide additional details or just be a part of the conversation.  The results were public relations disaster for a product that might actually have been quite good.  It destroyed the product’s position in the community and heavily tarnished the vendor – prompting them to abandon that channel entirely.  All because they were not prepared to participate and thought that broadcasting at the conversation would be sufficient.

The same effect will happen in real-life communication groups as happens in online communities.  User groups, for example, can be real world analogues to online communities – general familiarity between members, common topical uniting factor.  Marketers attempting to utilize the user group as a platform must consider the group to behave just like the online community – but perhaps a little more real time and slightly more polite, but the basic mechanics will remain the same.

Attempts to market at a user group will generally result in the marketer being excluded from the conversation with the conversation being focused heavily upon criticisms of the marketer or product.  Without participating in the conversation, the marketer’s position is weakened as there is no ability for defense or explanation.  This is best case –  assuming that the marketer was invited and welcomed to the group but fails to participate.  If the marketer is not present via invitation the results can be actually hostile as the marketer can be considered an invader violating the group’s identity.

Effective participation in the group dynamic is important for a marketer to gain access to the community or group.  Only after joining the conversation can a message be effectively presented, discussed and supported through healthy group interaction.