MarketingMuses

Reading Steve Jobs

“I wanted my kids to know me.  I wasn’t always there for them, and I wanted them to know why and to understand what I did.  Also, when I got sick, I realized other people would write about me if I died, and they wouldn’t know anything.  They’d get it all wrong.  So I wanted to make sure someone heard what I had to say.” – Steve Jobs reason for having Walter Isaacson write his biography

 

I did not intend to read this book.  

I did not know Steve Jobs, but I know several people who did, including a few who worked with him.  Most described the experience of working with him as 1) priceless, and 2) one that no amount of money could get them to repeat.  I have heard many stories of his brilliance and brutality.  I have read several books about Apple (the early years and after Jobs returned), and watched an excellent documentary on Pixar.  And I don’t usually read biographies.

The fact that I did read the book is testimony to the genius of Steve Jobs (and Jeff Bezos) and the talent of Walter Isaacson.  I was in a hotel room one evening having trouble falling asleep, and downloaded the first few chapters of the Kindle edition (for free) to my iPad.  No one has approached Jobs’ genius for creating an immediate, exhilarating user experience in the digital age, and it’s hard to imagine he could have chosen a better biographer than Isaacson.  Within fifteen minutes, I was hooked.

Isaacson clearly did his research, and the fact that Jobs gave him complete access to his life, and encouraged friends and foes (in Jobs life, many people are both) to speak honestly about their relationships and experiences with Jobs gave him the detail he needed.  But his talent allows him to tell a richly textured, deeply affecting story from cover-to-cover (undoubtedly, an antiquated expression for a digital book). 

As a father of an adopted son, I was especially moved by the description of an incident when Jobs, at six or seven years old, told a neighborhood girl he was adopted, to which she responded, “So does that mean your real parents didn’t want you?”

“I remember running into the house, crying.  And my parents said, ‘No, you have to understand.’  They were very serious and looked me straight in the eye.  They said, ‘We specifically picked you out.’  Both of my parents said that and repeated it slowly for me.  And they put an emphasis on every word in that sentence.”

Throughout the book, Isaacson reports similar details that give the reader keen insights into the events that shaped Jobs, without injecting amateur psychological suppositions.  The result is great reporting delivered in a wonderful narrative.  As I read the book, I realized that my image of Jobs, while accurate, was a caricature.  By the end of the book, I had a fully formed picture of a brilliant, passionate, and deeply flawed human being.

Steve Jobs never read any part of the biography.  He gave Walter Isaacson complete control of the story, although, after seeing the initial design for the book cover, he threatened to kill the project, until he received complete creative control of the cover design.  Initially, I was amazed that someone who had guarded his privacy so closely would relinquish control of his life story.  But then I realized that he simply followed the process he had used in business. 

Jobs did not personally create technology, films, commercials, etc.  But he carefully selected incredibly talented people, provided them the resources to create “insanely great” products, and exerted absolute control over product packaging.  Steve Jobs, the book, is not insanely great, but is an informative, interesting, and worthy result of his and Walter Isaacson’s creative process.

If you prefer to watch, rather than read, I strongly recommend the 60 Minutes video story and interview with Isaacson.

 

Groundswell: A Guidebook for the Social Media Journey

“A social trend in which people use technologies to get the things they need from each other, rather than from traditional institutions like corporations.” – Definition of the Groundswell

Groundswell is, without a doubt, the best single book I am aware of for understanding the power of social technologies and learning how to use that power effectively.  It is full of data that supports its premise, and is a detailed guidebook that shows you how to successfully navigate the best path to reach your desired social media destination. 

There are several powerful tools described in the book.  The first is the Social Technographics profile, which is similar to demographics and psychographics but focuses on social technology behaviors.  The tool allows you to understand how social technologies are being adopted by a group of people, which, in turn, allows you to build an appropriate social strategy for that group (e.g., your customers). 

First, it segments seven levels of social technology use as shown below.

 

Second, it provides two simple Web-based tools: a consumer profile tool and a B2B profile tool.  The tools allow you to view the profile of your target group versus a benchmark reference group.  For example, the following profile shows the behavior of U.S. small-business owners relative to the behavior of [a representative sample of] all U.S. adults.

  

The profile of your target group is used in the first of a 4-step social media planning process called POST—an acronym for people, objectives, strategy and technology.  Answering these questions, in this order, is the best way to formulate a social media plan. 

People: What are your customers ready for?  This is determined from the social technographics profile.

Objectives: What are your goals?  Following are the five primary objectives that companies successfully pursue in the groundswell, and how they relate to business functions.

  

Strategy: How do you want relationships with your customers to change?  By answering this question, not only can you plan for the desired changes, but you can also figure out how to measure them once the strategy is underway.

Technology: What applications should you build?  After having decided on the people, objectives, and strategy, you can move on to select the appropriate social technologies—blogs, wikis, social networks, etc.

Social technology is a powerful tool with the potential to help marketing perform more effectively.  Unfortunately, many marketers are, “going about their strategy backward.  They start by thinking about technology.”  In Groundswell, Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff have given marketers a guidebook to avoid the pitfalls and chart a course to social media success.  Read it, absorb it, and use it.

Think Like a Publisher (to become a more effective marketer)

What works is a focus on your buyers and their problems. What fails is an egocentric display of your products and services.  When you understand your audience, you can construct an editorial and content strategy just for them.  In order to implement a successful strategy, think like a publisher. – The New Rules of Marketing & PR by David Meerman Scott

Scientists are a special class of B2B technology customer.  They are very skeptical of advertising and publicity, which they consider to be largely “hype and spin.”  On the other hand, scientists live to publish.  One way to take advantage of this inclination is to publish a high-quality periodical. 

Case studies are one of the most effective means of addressing a potential buyer’s question, “How does a product or technology meet my specific business need.”  Case studies are also very effective in helping an emerging technology “cross the chasm” by providing a, “well-established reference,” as to how, “other people have fared with the product.”

At Symyx Technologies, a scientific software company, we produce Molecular Connection, a semi-annual scientific R&D publication, as our primary thought leadership vehicle.  It includes state of industry commentaries, by industry analysts and experts, and technology reviews.  But the core of the publication is the customer case studies from scientists, laboratory managers, and information technology professionals at biopharmaceutical leaders AstraZeneca, Bristol Myers Squibb, Elan, Eli Lilly, Johnson & Johnson, Pfizer and Millennium.  The case studies have three common characteristics: 1) they name the company, 2) they describe the benefit the user derives from the product or service, and 3) they liberally quote specific users.

We print a small quantity of the publication (about 1,000) as a leave behind for sales personnel (they rate it as their most effective sales enablement tool) and we use it as our primary handout at major events.  In fact, it is the only collateral we still print (all other collateral is only available in electronic format).  The case studies also are used individually in electronic format for automated direct marketing campaigns, where they are our most effective incentive for demand generation, and on our website, microsites, and blog. 

While the case studies are powerful new media assets, I am certain that it would be difficult or impossible to obtain the cooperation of customers to produce them if they were not part of a print publication.  Think like a publisher, and become a more effective marketer.