Take a minute to check out Modernista’s, a Boston agency, website.  I don’t want to give away the surprise. It’s a bold move, and I wonder what will happen if the eyes of the web shine differently on Modernista then they currently do. Specially, if Modernista receives negative online feedback will this change their strategy…

Risky but cool.

This is one of those blog posts where I am going to confess something to you. Something a little geeky, but nevertheless, something I love. It’s actually a moment, and for me it’s a moment of bliss. You may think I’m over stating this, and you might be accurate. But the moment I love each month happens when I’m working on a project for a client and an idea strikes me, often late at night. I’ll email the client and get a response back instantly at 11:20 pm. The client then adds to the idea. For the next twenty or thirty minutes we back and forth, as if we’re dancing. I don’t really care what time it is at that point. I feel completely, totally in synch with the client, the project, the idea. And that’s pretty blissful.

What’s interesting about this is how it actually brings you closer to people you work with-people who share that ability to step inside of an idea and become completely immersed by the world it presents.

What I love about what I do is the ability to step inside the world of ideas and then step back out to execute them.

I want the efficiency of online media buying to apply to the offline media buying I am placing for clients. In my dream there is a website that I login into, it’s called, “hyper-local Boston sponsorship opportunities.” There are no sales people in this dream.

I enter some criteria into the site. Like the neighborhoods I want to place my sponsorship dollars in and the type of impact I want to make. For example: 1. Help schools 2. Sponsor a local charity 3. Sponsor a little league 4. Name a dog rescue after my client’s company. You get the drift.

There would be a tool on the site to help me measure the impact sponsorship. The tool might measure things like: local impact; goodwill; visibility; etc.

Then, either I would bid on the sponsorship against other advertisers, or I will pay a flat rate for it. After I won the sponsorship, the people I sponsored /organization would have a set of responsibilities on which my payment to them would be contingent.

They would send pictures and updates about the sponsorship through the online tool. I could use these updates in reports to my clients.

This could be a total win-win. Good causes could enter into the marketplace, fill out a form and be found by the right sponsors. And swamped media planners could quickly look through 100s of totally local ideas to find good fits for their clients.

If the site exists, I’m ready to sponsor it. 

So I bought the book. The Age of Conversation. I bought the book because I admired its marketing efforts and all the proceeds from today’s purchase go to charity. Crowdsourcing is the equivalent of the social media community winking at each other. And when the wink is for charity, I’m game.

Rohit Bhargava is one of my favorite bloggers for two reasons. 1. His blog, Influential Marketing, is useful. I have actually printed off several of his blog posts for clients. 2. While he is an A list blogger, and soon to be NY Times best seller, he is completely down to earth. We met at SXSW and talked shop. There are no pretensions there.

I am excited to read his new book, Personality Not Included. This interview is about his book and his social media expertise. Make sure you check out all the interviews, and if you like this one, I would appreciate your vote.

1. What industries typically have personalities that are easiest to market in social media?

I’m not sure that there are industries that stand out as having an easier time developing a personality. I did note while I was writing the book that I tended to find lots of examples from industries that have a very direct customer service function (ie – retail, travel, etc.) so one way to answer this could be that more customer facing companies have an easier time with this … however cable TV and airlines tend to be two of the worst industries so this classification doesn’t really work. Ok, final answer – I’m going with “it’s tough to relate ease of use in social media to industries” because it does vary. Sorry about the non-answer, I hate giving those.

2. 2. If the global business community adopted the practices you recommended in your book as gospel, what business behaviors would you like to see change?

I think the biggest change would be the removal of what I have called in the book the “employee silencing policy.” Keeping employees quiet as opposed to engaged in talking about a brand is a bad idea because it represents a great missed opportunity.

3. 3. Is personality a culturally specific thing—will these ideas work as well in Tokyo as they will in Detroit?

I think the way that it manifests itself will certainly be different from Detroit to Tokyo, but the idea of letting people in so they can connect with your brand is a very universal idea because it is based on the human principle of knowledge. The more we know, the more affinity we can potentially have with something. I see that as a very basic core concept that is global in scope.

4. 4. What book of literature has inspired you the most?

Good question. I used to be a big fan of Shakespeare because of the mastery of language you would find within. And one of my favourite author/playwrights is Steve Martin because of how he captures human dialogue. In terms of business books – I do admire Seth Godin and Guy Kawasaki for their writing styles and I think some of the most readable business books come from the word of mouth experts like Andy Sernovitz, Jackie Huba and Ben McConnell and Emanuel Rosen. And I’m a big fan of the large body of work from Al Ries and Laura Ries too.

5. 5. What aspect of this book has been the most challenging for you to concisely explain?

Why there are chickens on the cover! Just kidding, actually the book itself is heavily based on stories and the concepts are pretty straightforward so its not a complicated book. I realized early on, though, that the real trick with promoting this book is to get people to understand and believe that personality matters in their business. For that reason, my entire marketing campaign for the book has the tagline of personality matters. It is what I am calling the book blog which I will launch this week, and it’s also what I will likely talk about in many interviews. My thinking is, if you believe that personality matters for your business … my book is the first and only guide on how to do that. Hopefully it works!