Today I had the opportunity to meet and interview bestselling author, and host of Discovery Channel’s Daily Planet, Jay Ingram. I’ve been a long-time fan of Jay’s – his book The Barmaid’s Brain is one of my favourites – and I can’t express how thankful I am.

If you are in Saskatoon tonight (Jan 16) you should definitely pop down to the Prairieland Park to hear Jay speak. He’s sure to be both entertaining and informative (I’ll be there). For more information visit: http://www.spectrum.usask.ca/ and be sure to RT:

RT @Spectrum2010: Jay Ingram from @DiscoveryCanada here in Saskatoon tonight at Prairieland! Tickets only $15! www.spectrum.usask.ca

Realizing that you are replaceable is hard for individuals and organizations to come to terms with. Yet, the reality is that 99.9% of the time we are completely interchangeable. Accepting this is the first step to increasing your odds of success.

When businesses (industries) fail it’s because they ignored the fact they were replaceable. Newspapers are being decimated by the internet. The local bookstore is being replaced by Chapters. And, Chapters (and the local bookstore) is making way for Amazon.

Innovation means change, and people fear change. But, the fastest way to ensure your demise is to try to ignore innovation. Bill Gates once said, “People feared electricity when it was invented, didn’t they? People feared coal, they feared gas-powered engines… There will always be ignorance, and ignorance leads to fear.”

I heard a marketing colleague say to me the other day, “Isn’t Twitter over yet. I was hoping it would go away.”…

Post Script:

I love this comment from Kari, “Hmmm. Keep replacing yesterday-you with tomorrow-you. And keep making tomorrow-you smarter, more experienced, more connected, less mired. Tomorrow-you should make yesterday-you look stupid, which is a hard thing to do. Most of us don’t like looking stupid, even if it’s in-the-past-us. Twitter isn’t going away, thankfully.”

The big problem with advertising is that it’s getting more difficult by the second to be effective, and poster blindness is rampant making getting attention an almost an impossible, and increasingly more expensive, task.

On the flip side social media tools are generally easy to use, have very little direct cash costs and can be quite effective at reaching targeted audiences. However, leveraging social media is not necessarily the Utopian picture that many pundits try to paint.

First, using social media effectively is not a ‘fire and forget’ tactic(s). You can’t buy your way in. You can’t bribe the bouncer at the door. It’s a long-term venture that requires a deep organizational commitment to open two-way communications which is authentic and transparent (no small challenge to say the least). And, despite what some say, social media is not free. It’s a strategy that needs continuous input and monitoring – both of which cost time (equating to money).

At the very least, as a general rule of thumb, I would estimate that for each social media tool you are using it will take a minimum of a half hour of work each day. This should cover making quick updates, monitoring/reporting activity and responding to comments. So if your involved in Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn plan to spend roughly 1.5hrs. As well you should be spending at least a half hour each day monitoring (For a great read on building your own ‘listening post’ please visit this .eduGuru article: http://doteduguru.com/id3764-building-your-own-listening-post.html).

If you are also blogging, plan for about 1-2 hrs of time for every post. This should cover the writing, research and editing etc. So, for a blog that is updated daily you would be spending roughly 10 hours a week on your blog.

So, let’s add this up:

Social Networking: 1.5 hrs per day (3 tools) x $20/hr* = $30/day
Blogging: 2 hrs per day x $20/hr = $40/day
Monitoring: .5 hrs per day x $20/hr = $10/day
Total = $80/day
Monthly (x 30 days, as social media doesn’t follow the work day schedule) = $2400
*rate used for illustration purposes only

Finally, depending on the size/complexity of your organization you should account for time in building support for new tools. For a small business this time may be negligible, but for large organizations each new tool could require up to 50-60 hours in consultation time.

As you can see all of the ‘soft costs’ associated with social media can add up in a hurry. So, if you came to Facebook looking for silver bullet solutions then you may be better off just buying an advertisement.

Five predictions for 2010:

1. Increasing transparency (decreasing privacy). The lines between online and offline will dissolve. Your online identity will be your identity. Privacy will be a quaint notion that we conjure for nostalgia. Google buys Facebook and your Facebook profile will be your key to the internet. You are now part of the Borg collective.

2. Time will become further entrenched as the currency of social media. Will you spend your time consuming my content? Will you spend your time sharing my links? Can you spare a moment to read my blog post? “Hey brother spare some time?”. By year’s end Google engineers perfect cloning.

3. Mobile will become the de-facto standard. Being chained to a desk (or a laptop) will be an antiquated form of low-grade torture. We will be always on, from anywhere.

4. The lines between what’s real and what isn’t will start to fade. QR codes and augmented reality will increasingly be used to add interactivity to tangible objects.

5. Robots. Evil Roombas will plot to destroy the world. Judgement Day is real.

In the new year a typical advertisement will read: “Hello Mike Klein, do you have 15 seconds? How’s that Starbuck’s coffee you are drinking at the corner of 45th and 3rd? Your friends who bought coffee this morning also enjoyed a bagel. Click here (a button is projected onto your cup) to purchase a bagel and a robot will bring it to you shortly.”

When you speak to your customers do they trust you? Or, do they wonder what angle you are working and how much is it going to cost them?

Do you wear a white jacket and a stethoscope? Or a fancy suit?

Does your relationship start with a friendly hello and end with a lollypop? Or, does it begin with an non-disclosure agreement and end with a bill detailing 15 minute increments?

Do your customers confide in you? Or do they make jokes about you being on the bottom of the sea?

Trust (permission) is systematically established through consistently positive interactions. It takes a long time to build and only a short time to destroy.

What are you doing to build trust? What makes people distrust you?