Editor’s Note: Scott Monty is a leader in digital thinking. As the former head of social media for Ford and a good friend of Convince & Convert, we are excited to share a first look at his popular This Week in Digital series here on our blog. Think of it as an appetizer of the most important trending stories of the week, and sign up for the “full Monty” to receive the rest of the news straight in your inbox on Monday morning: http://candc.ly/montyminute
Enjoy!
Amazon: Too Big to Get a Fair Shake
Over the course of the last week, there was a clamor over a New York Times hit piece on the white collar working conditions at Amazon. The revelations–which even the Times now admits were anecdotal at best–caused longtime customers to renounce their Prime memberships (at least to their Facebook friends) and resulted in a, “I knew the company too good to be true,” reaction about the world’s largest retailer from the online mob.
Whether it’s this specific news or something negative about another major brand, society has a tendency to believe the worst about a company–particularly when the company is large. Think Walmart, GM, or Google. Regardless of how committed a company is to improving the world in which we live or giving back to the communities in which they do business, the prevailing reaction amid a crisis is schadenfreude. Society takes glee in the misfortune of successful companies.
So, when The Onion ran a piece claiming that Jeff Bezos had Amazon HR working 100 hours a week to address employees’ complaints, people were willing to believe it because they expect the worst out of a large business.
The more you can humanize your company and make real people the heroes of your stories–employees, customers, suppliers, community members–the more likely it is that people are going to relate to your brand.
Personalized Curation
I once knew a bibliophile who bristled at being called a collector. He claimed to have the selectivity of a vacuum cleaner and was more comfortable being called an accumulator. When it comes to choosing, archiving and sharing links–otherwise known as curation – having the mindset of a collector is essential.
If done well, curation is an assemblage of content, arranged in such a way that it tells a story–or at least provides a backdrop to a story that the curator wishes to tell. And because every collector or curator is different, they want tools that allow them to personalize their presentation and create a path for themselves and those with whom they share their work. It’s not enough to create a dumping ground of content; the smart curator understands the power of context.
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