Monday without mad men

First monday after a while without the new episode of mad men. Every sunday evening aired in US on MNC, thus early monday morning a copy of the show usually reaches the rest of the world though internet. It is currently the only series about the world of marketers and advertisers for all the sympathetics. Mad men is set in the 1960s, initially at the fictional Sterling Cooper advertising agency on Madison Ave, NY. The show centers on Don Draper, creative director and those in his life in and out of the office. It also depicts the changing social norms of 1960s America. In few first seasons Mad man has received critical acclaim for its historical authenticity and visual style, as well winning several important awards, including Emmy award for outstanding drama series and three Golden Globes.

Last week I have witnessed excellent finale of the third season in its last episode – “Shut the door and have a seat”. One can learn a lot about business world watching it. Human brain plays out to be a key asset in an advertising agency or any other knowledge based firm, and Sterling Cooper owners PPL could not manage resource mobility issues even through binding employment contracts to sustain creative brain/client relationship advantages. Interaction of formal vs. informal organization, equity ownership as insufficient governance tool, motivation for cooperation aspect, – all crisp and clear leads to what’s inescapable. Sterling Cooper might be gone, but the key players can always start over and do a better job at Sterling Cooper Draper Price. Over the end credits of the show, Roy Orbison sings, “The future is much better than the past.” We shall see.

P.S. And by the way AMC announced ordering Mad Men season 4 in early september already. So Yes! Let’s wait for it!

Opening up social media for business

To begin, I’m not a media analyst of any kind, just want to share my insider thoughts on the topic. The social networking phenomena is with us for a several years already and constantly growing, starting with largest lithuanian network one.lt, largest user growth in the world in facebook.com, career profiles on linedin.com, social messaging idea from twitter.com or video messaging in 12seconds.tv, and continuing with many specialized sites such as last.fm for music, sailingnetwork.com for sailing communities or even lastmessagesclub.co.uk for your last words after death… The graph by Google Trends below represents internet traffic in leading lithuanian websites one.lt social network (red), delfi.lt news portal (blue) and facebook.com (yellow). If the unique website visitor trend continues we will approach fundamental internet media transformation in few coming months.

Delfi.lt / One.lt / Facebook.com internet traffic flows development

While this social media phenomenon is here with us, the knowledge on how to make the best use of it is still lagging behind. Obvious that it opens up a range of opportunities, especially for small and medium sized companies, entrepreneurial start-ups to create awareness and brand their products as well as interact with customers in a low cost manner, but that’s not it! Further in the post I put up several distinct social media use areas, which comes to my mind and could be highly leveraged by businesses today:

1. Advertising. Compete for attention, increase brand awareness, engage loyal consumers.
2. Customer relationship management (CRM). Those who are lazy or shy to call your quality line, might post you a message. It’s one more way to add to your brand and your consumer friendship.
3. Consumer research. Possible in open or hidden (e.g. quiz) formats, sampling might be difficult, but its an obvious low cost option for SME’s.
4. Co-creation in product development. Ask for advice in no cost, your customer is willing to help you improve “his” product.
5. Open innovation. Access to worldwide network of specialists, some of your product inventions may come from outside the company.
6. Recruitment. Who’s your current employee and who’s the prospect. Make informed recruitment decisions.
7. Employer branding. Specialized career networks will make employer image way more transparent for future employees.
8. Enterprise architecture. Analyze informal networks within your company, try to avoid network biases and bottlenecks by reshaping your organization accordingly.

I believe it is possible to get even more creative with this list, please post your ideas in the comments below