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An Interview with Ekaterina Walter of Intel on The American Dream

Posted by: Bob Pearson in Columns, Global Insights, Thought Leaders. on April 30, 2012

I remember my grandfather, Leo Didur, vividly.  He had left Russia with his family as a young boy to pursue the American dream many years ago. I grew up with all of the advantages of living in the U.S., but his reasons for leaving and his passion for what this country stands for have never left me.  His parents wanted a better future and an ability to pursue their dreams.  And they were willing to think generations ahead, since it wasn’t easy when they first came over.  It was the dreams of their children that would be realized.

My heritage is one of the reasons why I immediately connected with the inspiring story of Ekaterina Walter, who moved to the U.S. from Russia with her sister and is now an American citizen.  I already had tremendous respect for Ekaterina as a social media expert and influencer and someone who is always a pleasure to brainstorm with on what’s next.  But her personal story trumps all that and is worth listening to and reflecting on.

I asked Ekaterina several questions about the impact of social media on our world, of course. I’ve included her Ted talk, which is a must-hear, as well as a recent article in Forbes by our mutual friend, Shel Israel. Part 1 is here, part 2 here.   Together, they tell her story.

My Questions for Ekaterina

Q: You talked about the American dream and its importance.  If we think about the internet and its ability to open up opportunities for people worldwide, how is technology accelerating freedom and the ability for people to reach their dreams?

Enormously. My story is only one example. Not only it helped me realize my dreams but it truly allowed me to make an impact. But there are thousands of even more amazing and inspiring stories across the globe: from women in India who with the help of computers and Internet access start their own businesses by helping local villages farm smarter, to schools in remote locations that impact kids lives by opening up a world of knowledge to them. That is what collectively allows all of us create a better future.

We don’t look at something through a narrow lens any more. Internet and social media opened up a whole new world of possibilities, opportunities, and relationships. It fosters open-mindedness. It creates a global village which each one of us is a citizen of. There are no borders or limitations; there are no distinctions of race, age, or color. It is truly an exceptional phenomena that allows people from all over the world build invisible bridges in the most unexpected and rewarding ways.

Q: Unfortunately, many people still do not have the freedom that we experience and cherish in the U.S.  How is social media helping to unlock the voices of citizens around the world? 

It truly plays a critical role. I talked about this in my Mashable post “Why 2011 Will Be Defined by Social Media Democracy“.  In regions where official media has been heavily censored, the rise of personal access to the internet and social media networks has meant that populist movements now had a voice, and a voice that could reach the outside world and find support. ‘Day of Rage’ protest over President Mubarak’s 30-year rule is one example. The Egyptian government disabled cell phone towers and blocked Twitter in an attempt to censor the material, but pro-democracy sympathizers across the world shared the news on social networks. There were reports that households and businesses opened up their wi-fi networks in support of the protestors to allow the dissemination of information. The pictures and videos that continued to stream out across YouTube and Facebook trended on Twitter worldwide, inspiring and shocking at the same time. There is no doubt that there is no substitution for the incredible bravery of those who stood up to the oppressive regimes at the risk, and often cost, of their own lives. No technology will ever replace the human spirit – that is the key driver behind the change. But access to technology as well as the adoption of new technologies such as social media gave global voice to a local movement despite the serious censorship efforts. And that is the true power of social media.

Q:  Ekaterina, your home country is making progress in how social media is utilized by the citizens of Russia.  What are a few of the key trends you are seeing?

I see young people speaking up and reaching out to each other across the globe. I see optimism and hope. I see young people creating opportunities for themselves. I see courage and risk-taking more than ever. I see collaboration. I am truly encouraged by that. I am inspired by the desire of young bright generation to make their mark on the future of the country and undoubtedly social media is helping shape that.

Ekaterina, thank you. You have reminded me in a very powerful way how much I owe to my family to continue the journey started by my grandfather not all that long ago.   We can all make a bigger impact in today’s world, as well, to help unlock freedom, innovation and opportunity for our peers around the world.

All the best, Bob

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Live from Stubbs with Gemalto: Live from SXSW

Posted by: astrout@wcgworld.com in CMO, Live from Stubbs, Thought Leaders. on April 20, 2012

During this past South by Southwest Interactive conference (SXSWi), we had the good fortune of having Gemalto — the world leader in digital security — as the sponsor of our Live from Stubbs podcast series. You can read more about the who and when in our recap post, but the short version of the story is that we collected a ton of great interviews over a short period of time. Even more fun was filming these episodes in front of a live audience at Gemalto’s Idea/Next Lounge at the Hilton Hotel here in Austin.

To celebrate our partnership with Gemalto, we kicked off our interviews with the their vice present of marketing, Philippe Benitez. During our conversation, we talked about Gemalto’s participation at SXSW — attendance of multiple employees, investment in a lounge and the sponsorship of this podcast. We also talked about the evolution of Gemalto in an ever changing security world. Hear more of what Philippe had to say in the video interview below:

Next up, we caught up with director of eBanking security at Gemalto, Adam Dolby. In addition to us being fond of Adam’s roots (he’s a Massachusetts native like co-host, Kyle Flaherty, and me), Adam was able to impart some knowledge about the latest in mobile payments, mobile security and where he gets his latest musical advice from. While that last item may feel like it’s a non sequitor, it’s all part of the show’s format. We love to mix business, music and BBQ together to get a holistic view of our interviewees. Listen into more of what Adam had to say below.

Keep your eyes open for more episodes recorded live from the Gemalto lounge coming over the next few weeks.

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Why Big Data Matters and the Importance of Data Agility

Posted by: Bob Pearson in By Title/Expertise, CCO, CEO, CMO, CTO, Innovation. on April 19, 2012

Big data is becoming a popular term.  I half-expect my mom to toss it out in our next conversation.  At the same time, it is not a well understood topic.

Here is my view on why today’s company should be thinking about how they utilize big data to create new opportunities for their brands.

I’ll start with the current environment and I’ll keep it short.  It’s easy for any company to admit that they are overly dependent on databases and most of their data sources don’t “collaborate” to provide insights across departments, languages or even brands.  The corporate world is increasing its use of data, but in a decreasingly effective manner.  We could write an entire blog series on these issues.

What we all want is what I call “data agility”.  Think of data agility as having three key parts:

#1 – Human Patterns – we all believe we are snowflakes, which is wonderful. But we’re not.  We’re human beings who follow predictable patterns.  So, if we can analyze data going back 3-10 years for a brand or a topic, we are able to predict how people or communities will react to new content.  We are on the edge of real predictive modeling.

#2 – Real-Time Data Integration – if we think of the data we analyze, it is often telling us how one activity did from one brand.  With big data, we can harness the data streams from multiple departments inside a company, combine it with learning’s externally and build algorithms and filters that tell us what we need to do now.  Real-time data integration will lead to real-time action in the marketplace, eventually down to the individual street or store level.

#3 – Competitive Intelligence – we often hire people with industry expertise who have that 6th sense of what will need to occur to make a deal or launch a brand.  These folks will be even more valuable when they combine their expertise with the 6th sense of big data solutions.  For example, if you sell your brands via a retail store, wouldn’t it be nice to know the online presence/impact of 1,000 stores in priority order?  Or know exactly how your competitors have marketed their brands by store for the last year, which shows you where your specific opportunities are to break through the clutter? Or know which influencers influence stores in each state?

The companies and organizations who take the time to embrace big data and learn how it can work to their advantage will do well.  The folks who say “big data” in presentations, but don’t really know what it means will join an illustrious group of people who previously said “social media is important” or “content is king” or “mobile will change the world”.  It’s easy to talk….but far more important to transform the playing field together.  In my view, there has never been a better time for saavy executives to identify new opportunities for their brands.  The most innovative leaders will have ‘data agility” as one of their core skills.

That being said, Jim Weiss, our founder and CEO, always tells us to hire people smarter than ourselves.  We believe this also applies to companies, so we just acquired a company smarter than us in the area of big data, called Ravel.   We’re very pleased to accelerate our journey with the Ravel team.  You can learn more via our release and a brief vlog that Steve Blackmon of Ravel and myself did together.

All the best, Bob Pearson

PS/Ravel was formed with the Austin Technology Incubator.  More on ATI here.

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Live from Stubbs with Dan Brostek of Aetna: What’s Old is New

What business does a 160 year old company like Aetna have in sending employees to a cutting edge event like South by Southwest (SXSW) Interactive? Hint: it has a little something to do with the insurance giant’s willingness to do more to engage its customers using proven strategies and tactics of some of today’s younger and hipper consumer/tech companies.

During this video, Dan Brostek, head of member and consumer engagement at Aetna, takes time to tackle that question along with others such as “how can companies work better with compliance/legal?” or “how is it possible to get CEO buy in when it comes to new technology and social media?” If you are a company — in a regulated industry or not — it is worth your time listening in to Dan’s explanation of how Aetna is reshaping itself to be more in tune with its customers’ needs.

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Maybe 1% is all you need

Posted by: Spike Jones in Columns, Innovation. on April 9, 2012

Earlier this year, a report came out from the Ehrenberg-Bass Institute that I’ve seen popping up again and again with people talking about how only one percent of people who click the “Like” button on Facebook actually engage with the brand. (BTW, if you don’t know who Andrew Ehrenberg is, you need to find out.)

There are SO many directions we can go with this report, like going down that deep and dusty path trying to define what “engagement” really means. Or talking about the value of a like or a fan. Or what brands should really be using Facebook for.

But I don’t want to go down any of those no-win rabbit holes. Instead, I want to talk about that 1% (and no, not in the Occupy Wall Street kind of way). I don’t see why so many people are surprised at this number…because this has always been the case. The social media kids are saying that 1% is a terribly low number and then they’ll show you 10 tips on how to raise that number. But I have to tell you that even waaayyyy back in 2006, the Creating Customer Evangelists kids, Ben McConnell and Jackie Huba, talked about the 1% rule by citing data from Wikipedia and Yahoo that found that 1% of the users overwhelmingly create most of the content.

Breaking it down even more, there’s the 90:9:1 rule, which says that 90% of people who come to your site will lurk, 9% will contribute and 1% will create content.

My point? Don’t freak out about only 1% of people engaging with your brand. Especially on common sites like Facebook. Now, if you create a brand ambassador program and you only get a 1% participate rate, you’re doing something wrong. In fact, the average participation in brand community sites is less than 10%. That’s not so great. And I can tell you from experience that if you build it the right way, you can get a 30%+ engagement rate, which opens all sorts of doors.

So before you go wringing your hands about only having a 1% engagement rate on Facebook, think about it differently. Like what you can do with that 1%. Ohhhh, the possibilities. These are hand-raisers. These are evangelists. These are the people that already spread word of mouth about you (hopefully in a good way). Create offline experiences with them. Ask if they want to engage deeper on other platforms. Or learn about the inner-workings of your company and products. So yes, in this case we’re talking about quality rather than quantity. Because, as we are quickly learning, on Facebook and Twitter, numbers – unless they’re sales numbers – don’t mean a whole lot.

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