The draw of social media is automatic listenership.
Which makes sense, considering people are lonely and want to be listened to. And when they can scratch that itch for free, instantly and everywhere, it’s hard to resist.
But the number of followers, friends and subscribers you have doesn’t necessarily mean people are listening. This calls for a heroic dose of humility.
Do people actually care about your feelings, or is it just simulated compassion? Do people actually dig your work, or did they just friend you so you would reciprocate back to them? Do people actually take an interest in your lives, or are you just a random number in another faceless, fake relationship? And do people actually want to connect with you, or are you just the next stop on their transcontinental digital pissing contest?
You may never know. And that’s the hard part about the social media world. Sometimes it feels like you’re winking in the dark.
All you can hope is that your work, the ambition that fuels it and the audience who consumes it is enough to make money, make a difference and meet your quota of usefulness.
Just something to think about before you publish your next tweet.
Prolific Interactive is a Brooklyn agency that loves crazy, creative minds with an interest in mobile strategy, design and development.
I sat down with their Co-Founder and CEO, Bobby Emamian and posed three crucial questions about belonging:
1.Good brands are bought, but great brands are joined. Why do you think your employees join yours?
At the root of our culture, we solve problems together. We go to battle together. And we all bring a different angle to the table. Many of our employees have a sports background, so there’s this want and need to help the team. At the end of the day, the passion and determination gets everyone fired up. When a lot of people in the room are doing things for the right reasons, it’s an absolute joy to walk in the morning.
2.The great workplaces of the world have soul. What do you do to humanize your culture?
Monday morning meetings are an awesome time for our company. We do a word of the week that’s connected to whatever theme is most important. Whether it’s growing or closing or launching, it’s a fun way to share and compare, to get the week started. We also have something we call Prolific Court. You can fine people a quarter to two dollars depending on the ‘offense’. For example, going home with the bathroom key in your pocket, leaving the AC on at the end of the night, or getting a beer for yourself and not asking if anyone else would like one, are all ‘offenses’. This keeps everyone on their toes and accountable, and the money always goes towards a company event. Lastly, the same attitude applies to our brainstorming. There are no limitations or boundaries to our thinking. And that allows for a comfortable, human atmosphere.
3.Belonging is a basic human craving. How do you remind employees that they’ve found a home?
Our culture makes people feel like they belong and have found a home, but just to remind them, we have a company Seamless account. If you come early or stay late, we buy you breakfast or dinner. We have beer stocked up, video games, sporting equipment and a few televisions. People are constantly collaborating, chatting and hanging out. And the collaboration, lending a hand to each other, makes it feel like a family. We succeed together and we fail together. And as long as we stick together, we grow and create the best products out there.
Thanks Bobby! Learn more about Prolific here.
True service isn’t about labor and time, it’s about intention and attention.
It’s not about bastardizing caring into a technique, it’s about broadcasting the willingness to and the consistency with which you do care.
When the restaurant has an hour wait, takes down my cell phone number on their iPad, encourages me to walk around the neighborhood and promises to send me a text message five minutes before my table is ready, consider me served.
When the financial advisor calls me the day the stock market crashes, spends a half hour briefing me on the state of the economy, then sets up a meeting to sit down and talk about the future of my investments, consider me served.
When the hotel concierge checks me in and wheels out a stack of every bible from every major religion, including a book on atheism, then asks me which book I would like to keep in my dresser drawer, consider me served.
These companies bothered to bothered. They dared to care. They took a minute to make a moment, showed up when it mattered, and did something tangible that made a difference.
If you want to get people hooked, give them a greater sense of occasion.
Turn a routine arrival, subscription, payment or membership into a happening, a big deal and a moment worth remembering.
When you practice yoga at Bikram Los Angeles, new students get their name written on a huge chalkboard in the lobby to commemorate their first class.
With you order speakers from Noogi, their trademark wooden shipping containers turn the routine chore of opening boxes into a substantial moment of celebration.
When you board the Disney Fantasy, crewmembers announce your family’s name on the intercom system for the entire cruise to hear.
When you buy tickets for Once, actors encourage audience members to join them onstage for preshow jam sessions and intermission popup pubs.
When you sign up for Zipwhip, employees celebrate new customer acquisitions with a whimsical automated flag raising to keep victories visible.
Each of these organizations makes the mundane memorable in a fun, unique and engaging way that’s consistent with their brand and worth sharing.
Generation is a branding and communications firm that works exclusively with clients in the non-profit sector. Their trademark thought process revolves around culturally and politically engaged human beings who don’t need foosball to be creative.
I sat down with president Tom Sternal and posed three crucial questions about belonging:
1. Good brands are bought, but great brands are joined. Why do you think your employees join yours?
We’re informal, small and there’s a high intellectual dialogue. What people are turned on by is an agency that’s deeply aligned with the social concerns & sensibilities of non-profit organizations. But we don’t spend a lot of time thinking about our own brand, even though we’re in the branding business. It’s all about the work we do with the clients. You get word of mouth by making other people happy, not by making your own brand the focus.
2. The great workplaces of the world have soul. What do you do to humanize your culture?
Our eyes have been known to involuntarily water at videos. And since the role of print is changing in the lives of our clients, last year we got into video to provide master narratives for institutions. Not to be exploitative, but to feel more like a documentary style. And what struck us on the first video project was that we were able to create emotion and give dimension to the client in the way print couldn’t. That’s soul. The next step will be merging all those visual assets that blend into a medium that is anticipated.
3. Belonging is a basic human craving. How do you remind employees that they’ve found a home?
We’ve been virtual for a while. Our environment has a great collegiality, but at the end of the day, people should be able to go about their regular business. We were never really the social hub like a lot of other firms. Everybody is out the door at six o’clock because we want our people to have a normal life outside of the office. That’s how we create a culture that simulates a liberal arts program at a college. Employees cultivate their interest and develop a visual vocabulary outside of the workplace. After all, the connections only become obvious when you’re not thinking about them. The city, for example, is a wonderful palette for that kind of exploration. There’s a nomadic quality for what we do. It’s the “invisible curriculum,” to borrow a phrase from our high ed clients.
Thanks Tom! Learn more about Generation here.
Treat them like adults.
That’s the simplest, cheapest and smartest way to deal with people.
Evernote gives their employees unlimited vacation time and a thousand dollar spending stipend to boot. Because they know that trust is cheaper than control. Don’t make attendance a form of punishment.
Commerce Bank allows their employees to kill any stupid rule that stands in the way of pleasing customers. Because they know service is more important than policy. Don’t demand their mindless compliance.
My friend Jessica, a social justice educator, insists that her students send texts during class. Because she understands it’s their lifeline to the universe. Don’t police cell phone usage.
Twitter keeps their users in the know with a detailed system status log and a corporate blog. Because they respect people’s time and patience. Don’t neglect elementary feedback loops.
My friend’s ad agency has a rule that you can be up to an hour late to work, as long as you bring donuts for the rest of the team. Because they know people had lives outside of the office. Don’t obsess over the clock.
It’s time to grow up and treat people like adults.
That’s all they want.
Huge is a full-service digital agency that transforms brands and grow businesses.
I sat down with president Shirley Hu and posed three crucial questions on belonging:
1. Good brands are bought, but great brands are joined. Why do you think your employees join yours?
We try really hard to have a flat organization. We don’t tolerate big egos in the workplace. For a lot of people, it’s attractive that the company is a meritocracy and employees are evaluated based on their smarts and hard work. At Huge, we do amazing work and build great products and experiences that people use all the time. If you look across our body of work, it’s clear that we have a point of view. We tirelessly analyze how users think and try to understand what they want to achieve when they interact with a brand—whether it’s setting up their wedding registry or doing something positive for their local community.
2. The great workplaces of the world have soul. How do you humanize your culture?
What’s interesting about Huge is that there aren’t rigid job descriptions or career trajectories, especially because the digital space continues to evolve so quickly. We’re very flexible in terms of allowing employees to move into different roles and disciplines, if they demonstrate talent and interest in a different area of the company. We aren’t strict about hierarchies or making people follow specific paths.
We also try to create a relaxed-yet-professional office culture. We want people to feel like they’re in a comfortable environment while they work. Employees can bring their dogs to the office, we provide free snacks and beer daily, we have indoor bike racks to accommodate employees who cycle to work and we celebrate everyone’s “Huge birthday”—the annual anniversaries of their start dates—with cards and treats.
Each office and department also tends to have its own organic subculture, which we try very hard to support without it feeling contrived. Our Huge Social program sponsors activities based on employee requests, such as company-wide kickball, soccer and bowling teams.
3. Belonging is a basic human craving. What do you do to remind employees that they’ve found a home?
In general, we have a very high retention rate. Many employees have left to work at other companies and actually end up returning to Huge. We give our project teams a lot of latitude and freedom to learn, create and grow along with their teammates. We give them the toolset and framework, and it’s up to them to figure out the best solution for the client, without micromanaging.
People come to Huge to work with the best people in the industry and to work really hard on things they care about. For most of our employees, when they find their workplace full of like-minded people with shared values, shared priorities and shared talent, that’s when it really feels like home. We work very hard to strip away the distractions so that people can focus on what they’re really here for—to make something they love and would use themselves.
Thanks Shirley! Learn more about Huge here.
Life doesn’t always let us be as disciplined as we want.
Sometimes all we can do is one thing to move the pile forward, clock out and call it a day.
And in these moments, it’s hard not to be hard on ourselves. When we can’t seem to steal enough moments from the crowded day, our default response is to grab the gloves and jab ourselves until we’re black and blue.
But while it’s not the most fulfilling or productive output, what matters is, we still tried. We still showed up, overstuffed schedule be damned, and did our work.
Even if it didn’t amount to that much.
The Joey Company is a full service integrated advertising agency. Their team of research nerds is known for their ability to see what is obvious, but not necessarily apparent.
I sat down with founder Joey Cummings and posed three crucial questions about belonging:
1. Good brands are bought, but great brands are joined. Why do you think your employees join yours?
Coming from Chicago, culturally we have a Midwestern work ethic, competitive spirit and non-bureaucratic, horizontal structure. We’re an agency of doers, not managers. A small, lean company that offers employees an opportunity to make an impact, even at a young age. Team members have the ability to contribute to the growth of client business, as well as the agency itself. And most of the people here like the idea that they can play a part as opposed to just being a cog in the wheel.
2. The great workplaces of the world have soul. What do you do to humanize your culture?
Our biggest assets go up and down the elevator everyday. And there’s a sensibility and respect for who people are, and the nurturing to help them grow. Because we are especially dedicated to understanding consumer behavior and insight, the work we do is based on human nature. It’s the stuff Shakespeare is made of. For example, we are fortunate to work on brands dealing with tough, scary or embarrassing issues. These are the companies like Trojan Centers for Disease Control. The ones ready to deal with serious human issue the moment they occur. And as a result, talent is necessary for entry, but integrity and humility are the highest employee characteristics.
2. Belonging is a basic human craving. How do you remind employees that they’ve found a home?
First, we make sure we’re picking like-minded, value based and quality people. Next, working between two bridges and next to parks gives us a huge taste of nature every day. We also invest in creating a contemporary, artistic, feng shui workplace that makes people feel comfortable, at ease and considered. Also, in the past few years, we’ve landed really great clients who have been growing through some tough economic times, which allowed us to grow too. That’s what feels like a home to us.
Thanks Joey! Learn more about her team here.
You’ve chosen an uncertain path. You’ve adopted an inconvenient lifestyle. You’ve embarked upon an unconventional journey. You’ve felt the voice inside you growing more urgent. You’ve committed yourself enough so you can’t turn back.
IN SHORT: You’ve decided to play for keeps.
This is the critical crossroads – the emotional turning point – in the life of every young artist.
And I’ve been there myself.
Here’s a list of suggestions to help you along the way:
1. It’s hard to be creative alone. First, without people to bounce our ideas off of, it’s like playing basketball without a backboard. Hitting nothing but net is hard to do every time. Second, when working in isolation, out of context, trapped in our own head, there’s only so much perspective we can bring to our work. Third, without a strong sense of we, without a real connection to the human family, we can’t access the full potential of networked knowledge. Fourth, without access to each other, without regular exposure to other ways of being, our work remains myopic and untextured. Fifth, without collaborating with and enlisting support from others, executing broader projects is a futile endeavor. The upside is, we are never alone in this world unless we want to be. Sometimes all we have to do is extend our arm. Which is hard. It makes us vulnerable and out of control. And it forces us to depend on someone beside ourselves. But anything worthwhile depends on other members of our species. Who do you play ball with?
2. Chaos isn’t a merit badge. You don’t need to keep reminding me how busy you are. The fact that you’re overextended, booked solid and barely able to juggle all the craziness that is your very important life, doesn’t impress me. What does impress me is when you ship. Execution is the measure of man, not bravado. If you’re inventing things to outsource to preserve the illusion of productivity, we’re not interested. If you’re wearing busyness as a badge of honor to inflate your ego, we’re not interested. And if you’re spending your time convincing competitors that you’re busier than you really are instead of creating work that matters, we’re not interested. Let your work do the talking, not your words. Are you spending your time creating work that matters or convincing your competitors that you’re busier than you really are?
3. Evolution is inevitable. If our work is the same it was a year ago, if what we do hasn’t evolved with who we are, we’re in trouble. Some of us fail to renew because we’re lazy. Others because we’re comfortable with the current level of our success and don’t want to let go of what’s working. Some fail to renew because we don’t think we need to evolve. And some of us fail to renew because we don’t think renewal is necessary to become great. But more often than not, we fail to renew because we fail to reflect. We fail to renew because we’re so busy with the day to day, wrapped up in the demands of the marketplace, that we forget to take time to step back from the work and ask ourselves what the work is evolving into. And as a result, we become prisoners of our own labors. Instigating a process of renewal is so essential. Without it, we don’t just grow stale, we grow cynical as we watch the evolvers pass us by. Are you telling the same story just because you know it’s guaranteed to get applause?
4. Nothing lives once anymore. Thanks to the beauty of the web and its abundance of access to the otherwise unattainable, any art we create – and openly share – has infinite shelf space, unlimited airtime and endless viewership. In one click, our work can live online, in perpetuity, for anyone in the world to experience, for free, forever. This is the best thing that ever happened to us. For the first time in history, there are no walls. No boundaries separating creators from consumers. No permission police preventing us from sharing the things we love. It’s one big transcontinental farmer’s market that never shuts down. Even better, we live in the age of the remix. Consider Shepard Fairey’s famous campaign poster for Barack Obama: It became instantly iconic not because it was brilliant – but because it was mixable. Originally, Shepard only sold a few hundred posters on the street the day it was printed. But once he converted his art into a digital image and invited other artists to create variations, parodies and imitations of his work – also known as communal recreation – the poster earned instant recognition. He made history because he bravely stepped back, let evolution do what it did best. Will you enabled your art to live more than once?
5. Originality isn’t about content, it’s about movement. If the work pushes us forward as human beings, it’s original. True creativity, unprecedented or not, will always result in change. You could argue that Glee isn’t original. It’s just another comedy drama about teenage angst with standard issue high school archetypes, cliché storylines and perfectly choreographed cover songs. Then again, Glee gives voice to the bullied and misunderstood. They ask questions the public is afraid to confront. They put a human face to cultural taboos like religion and sexuality. They bring social justice to the forefront of popular culture. And they show us that we don’t have to be weird alone. Maybe they’re singing an original song after all. Do you need to be original or in motion?
6. Make room for the new. Humans have a built in reluctance to let go of what’s working. Because it means we’re no longer in control. Worse yet, it means we have to trust ourselves, trust the process of change and trust whatever result emerges. Yikes. The advantage is, when we bow to the door of next, when we tear ourselves away from the safe harbor of certainty and let go of who we are, we become who we need to be. A few months after Seinfeld went off the air, Jerry recorded a live comedy special in which he vowed never to use old material again. He even opened the program with a mock funeral scene, literally burying stacks of paper in the dirt while celebrity graveside mourners wept along with him. Because he didn’t want to be a new guy doing the old guy’s act. Interestingly, Jerry’s special was nominated for a Grammy. Talk about a punchline. Sometimes we have to let go of what’s working today to make room for what needs to happen tomorrow. Sometimes we have to operate from the edges to allow the truest, freshest expression of ourselves to emerge. Are you making a joke or making history?
REMEMBER: When you’re ready to play for keeps, your work will never be the same.
Make the decision today.
Show the world that your art isn’t just another expensive hobby.
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