By MATT SCHULER, Digital Architect, Marx Layne

At Future Midwest, Jason Schmitt’s topic was one that had me most perplexed.  “What New Technology Firms Can Learn from Detroit Rock and Roll.”

“It is an unusual juxtaposition,” Schmitt writes on his blog. “I’ll give you that. But yes, I am in fact having the gumption to suggest the most modern of new tech startups, and iconic behemoths like Google and Microsoft, might want to peruse other creative ecosystems, like Detroit rock music — and to investigate these sites with the hope of better understanding their continued market relevance.”

Detroit has had a tremendous amount of creative success, and Schmitt would say the city is “getting somewhere in an information age where creativity is seemingly the king pin commodity.”

The key to true success is relevancy and in particular staying relevant for a long period of time.  It’s not enough to be a one hit wonder. You have to be edgy, defiant even.  You can’t follow the herd—you have to stay unique.

According to Schmitt, “most new tech firms are hardly a blip on the longitudinal timeline of creative success.”  And he’s right.  Taken in the context of history, the 13-year history of Google, seven-year history of Facebook, five-year history of Twitter and two-year history of Foursquare and two-month history of Color are a pittance.  They are blips right now and 100 years from now could be viewed as a passing fad, or as a titan of industry.

The comic xkcd illustrates how quickly change happens with its maps of online communities.  Part one, released spring 2007, is a dramatically different landscape than part two, released Spring/Summer 2010. That was just three years.

“Detroit has waded through the decades without majorly altering its course,” Schmitt writes.  “Detroit has been able to keep its compass aimed in the same direction: making good, truthful, gritty rock music. To continually do this, Detroit acknowledges the most recent fads and fashions with a grain of salt.”

Continuity is important. We don’t need a time machine to stay relevant.

This is the second of a seven-part series taking a look at how we can be a force of change for those around us.

Introduction: Back to the Future Midwest

Part 1: We don’t need a time machine…to predict the weather.

Part 2: We don’t need a time machine…to stay relevant.

Part 3: We don’t need a time machine…to know where we’re going.

Part 4: We don’t need a time machine…to tell the future.

Part 5: We don’t need a time machine…to live in the clouds.

Part 6: We don’t need a time machine…to bridge the digital divide.

Part 7: We don’t need a time machine…to drive the conversation.

By MATT SCHULER, Digital Architect, Marx Layne

In our world, a storm is always on the horizon. Josh Linkner opened up Future Midwest 2011 with a clear point, how are you going to prepare and what are you going to do to confront the storm?

You see we don’t need a time machine to predict the weather. In the world we live, the landscape is changing faster than it ever has before.  Entrenched properties are being dislodged.  We need “new skills for the challenges of the day,” Linkner opined.

You may have heard of Linkner before. He’s the CEO/Managing Partner of Detroit Venture Partners.  He’s also written a New York Times best seller and updates a weekly blog.

Among the challenges set forth, we need to be looking forward to anticipate the storms.

“Most companies are heads down on the problems of the day,” Linkner said.  “When you’re heads up, you notice new trends and what’s happening… It’s time to double down on innovation and creativity.”

You see there’s a problem in our American culture today.  There’s a dearth of creativity, as children become adults.  Linkner cited statistics that report 98 percent of kindergarteners say they are creative.  That number drops to a startling 2 percent at high school graduation. These kids became adults and something sapped their creativity and killed off their innovation.

The problem as Linkner puts it, is that we destroy the creativity of kids.  “We teach normal but we reward the opposite.”  You can look at the standardization of testing as a problem because if a young student doesn’t fit inside these guidelines they’re considered failing.  “Our bureaucracies beat out the creativity from us,” Linkner said.

Creativity is 85 percent learned behavior, Linkner said, citing another study. “We attribute labels to creativity. It doesn’t matter what your job is. You need to be creative.”

The movie Black Swan springs to mind, the story of a dancer, played by Natalie Portman, who could dance perfectly.  Of course the movie is about more than that, but Portman’s character was chided for lacking the creativity and emotion to dance the Black Swan.  She was like that, because she was brought up to dance perfectly, to do things within the lines and not to break the mold.

We’re scared to break the mold because we might look foolish.  We hide behind timidity.  “The world doesn’t need another me too anything—it needs creativity.”

Originality matters.  We should reward remarkable thinking. We all have a choice.   We can be the storm in the eyes of the competitor. We can be the disruptive force.  We don’t need a time machine to predict the weather; we need new skills to meet our challenges for today.

This is the first of a seven-part series taking a look at how we can be a force of change for those around us.

Introduction: Back to the Future Midwest

Part 1: We don’t need a time machine…to predict the weather.

Part 2: We don’t need a time machine…to stay relevant.

Part 3: We don’t need a time machine…to know where we’re going.

Part 4: We don’t need a time machine…to tell the future.

Part 5: We don’t need a time machine…to live in the clouds.

Part 6: We don’t need a time machine…to bridge the digital divide.

Part 7: We don’t need a time machine…to drive the conversation.

By MATT SCHULER, Digital Architect, Marx Layne

One of my favorite movie trilogies of all time is the “Back to the Future” series. Sure there are others out there that may have more drama, or more laughs, but there’s something special about Marty McFly and Doctor Emmett Brown that delights me.

I love the thought of time travel, and the prospect of doing good things, or fixing wrongs.  When I think about the Future Midwest conference held for the first time this year in Downtown Detroit, I think of this trilogy, namely a particular quote from Marty McFly that ends Part II and begins Part III.

“I know. You did send me back to the future. But I’m back – I’m back from the future.”

If you’ve seen the movies, then you know the course of events that has the duo time traveling from 1985, to 1955, to 2015 and all the way back to 1885.  Think about the future that the filmmakers envisioned for us.  We’re almost to there, a scant four years away but we’re driving innovation in dramatically different ways.

That innovation was on display at Future Midwest.  I didn’t get a chance to attend all of the talks, but from the ones I did gather, there was a tremendous amount of insight from some really creative minds in the digital field.

We don’t need a time machine to impact the world.  Join us for our seven-part series taking a look at how we can be a force of change for those around us.

This is the first of a seven-part series taking a look at how we can be a force of change for those around us.

Introduction: Back to the Future Midwest

Part 1: We don’t need a time machine…to predict the weather.

Part 2: We don’t need a time machine…to stay relevant.

Part 3: We don’t need a time machine…to know where we’re going.

Part 4: We don’t need a time machine…to tell the future.

Part 5: We don’t need a time machine…to live in the clouds.

Part 6: We don’t need a time machine…to bridge the digital divide.

Part 7: We don’t need a time machine…to drive the conversation.

By MATT SCHULER, Digital Architect, Marx Layne

Millions of people were watching President Barack Obama Sunday night as he declared American forces had killed Osama Bin Laden.

It was a late-night speech. If you had gone to bed early, there’s a good chance that you didn’t hear the news until the next morning.  But the White House drove viewers to the president’s speech and they did so through social media.  You don’t “break” news on TV or in the paper any more, and a lot of people knew what was going on before it was announced on the news.

Jon Stewart made the point a few minutes into “The Daily Show” on Monday.

While the media was broadcasting a preview, people were talking about what was actually happening on social networks.

Maggie Fox make the point in her post Osama Bin Laden, The White House and Social Media.

“I stand in awe of the White House and their masterful understanding of how news is now realtime, and the role that Twitter plays in the information cycle as “circulatory system”. Knowing that seeing the President announce that Public Enemy #1 is dead, and making that emotional connection, human to human, is of critical importance, the White House brilliantly managed information release around the announcement.”

Fox also has an exceptional timeline of the events as they unfolded that evening:

10:00 – watching CNN, we were informed that there was to be an important announcement regarding “national security” at 10:30 – Twitter immediately lit up with speculation

10:20 – the announcement is delayed, and strong speculation that it’s about Osama Bin Laden’s death starts to emerge

10:25 – Twitter is on fire, with a tweet from a CBS news Producer (with fewer than 4500 Twitter followers) confirming a leak that Bin Laden is dead retweeted over 1000 times

10:50 – The White House invites Facebook users to discuss the pending announcement (where the Presidential address is also scheduled to be broadcast)

10:53 – print media demonstrates where it can’t compete so well, with a journalist for a major national magazine noting that this announcement was going to “profoundly screw up” their Royal Wedding edition.

11:15 – Osama Bin Laden’s death confirmed by the White House

11:22 – We’re still waiting for the President to speak on TV

The administration used social media masterfully to drive the audience to the television. By doing so, the ratings were huge.  In fact, if you look at the picture below from Mashable, you’ll see that it was his highest rated speech of his presidency.  The president’s speech drew half as many viewers as the Super Bowl.  A lot of people tuned in and it’s there’s a good reason why.

Then it all goes back to the man who was tweeting live as the operation was taking place.

In the end, the world’s most wanted terrorist is now dead and the Barack Obama administration provided a textbook example of how to channel an audience through social media engagement.

By MATT SCHULER, Digital Architect, Marx Layne

“Social Media has created a human filter for quality content,” writes Vadim Lavrusik for Mashable. It’s the lede of his article on “Why Social Media Reinvigorates the Market for Quality Journalism.”

I’d like to take the premise a step further, because social media really reinvigorates the market for nearly everything.

Just as ten years ago, Google made it easier than ever to search for something online, now with social media it’s easier than ever to get a friend’s or acquaintance’s opinion to help you make a better decision.  That decision could be any number of things, from the meaningful decisions we seek guidance on every day, to the less meaningful ways to spend five minutes on the internet: looking at a captioned picture of cats, watching a video of a adolescent girl turning to the Dark Side, reading an article of what happens next in the latest Facebook lawsuit.

In both respects, social media is raising the quality of sharing information. There are funnier times being spent on the internet and more informed decisions are being made every day.  Just recently, a couple of friends were looking to buy a new car. They turned to Facebook and their friends there and ended up making a great purchase.  Then a week later, a mutual friend was starting his new car purchase.  He was told to look back to the previous advice shared on the social network and is closing in on making his decision as well.

We can trust the personal recommendations that our friends make because they are friends. Similarly, there’s a growing value in the social media space because of that human filter for quality content. We don’t have to rely on an algorithm; we can rely on a person. In social media, if someone makes a bad recommendation or if that link just wasn’t funny enough, it’s easy to unfollow them. Similarly, if someone keeps making quality suggestions and gives informed opinions, it’ll be easier to take their advice when looking to make the more meaningful decisions we often face.

By MATT SCHULER, Digital Architect, Marx Layne

There’s some great information to be had in a new infographic making the rounds today. Click on the image to the right to see it full-sized.

One of the most interesting bits, taken from the data, is that there seems to be a search plateau over the last two years.  People are still joining social networks at high numbers, but they’re getting to them in different ways.

Another fascinating point on the graphic is the networks that are on the decline. MySpace and Friendster are both showing a rather precipitous fall since 2009.  All the while, sites like Tumblr, StumbleUpon and Reddit are taking off.

From my perspective, I like the quick-sharing nature of the sites like Reddit. I can glance at the top stories, see if there’s anything interesting and if I want to dive into the comments, I can.  Reddit even offers motivation for submitting stories and making worthwhile comments with its Karma system.  People can get up-voted or down-voted accordingly to the content they submit.

There’s a lot of good information on the graphic, including some interesting extremes. Click the image to expand the view.  Of course, the largest social network is still Facebook and Twitter still has nearly 200 million accounts. It’s good to see where the tremendous growth is happening.

By MATT SCHULER, Digital Architect, Marx Layne

If you’re running your own business, you’re living a busy life. 40-hour workweeks are a starting point, and more likely you’re pouring in 60+ hours. This doesn’t bother most entrepreneurs though, because their business is their passion.  They want to see a grand idea through to its end. No one knows the direction of a business better than its founder, but should that founder be doing everything?

Even in a small business, doing everything can be overwhelming.  The layers of strategy to successfully promote, manage and run a business are adding up every day. Reminded of the children’s movie “Shrek”, run a business successfully and you’ll have a pretty big onion.

“There’s a lot more to [businesses] than people think,” says Shrek. Of course, I substituted “businesses” there for “ogres” but the point remains the same. If you’re successfully running a business, there are going to be a number of areas that you need support on.

Mashable asked the question in an article this morning, “Should You Outsource Your Social Media Efforts?”  At Marx Layne, we manage a number of social media accounts successfully for businesses of varying size, so emphatically I’d answer yes.  There can be a great advantage to giving social media control over to a firm that understands your goals and has an appreciation of the layers of your business.  It’s a partnership.

The Mashable article references a survey of 8,500 small businesses across the U.S. that reports more than two-thirds of small merchants use social media.  In the same survey, more than one-third of those companies say “lack of time and resources is their top online marketing challenge.” Combining the two, it’s easy to come to the conclusion that Mashable does, small businesses need support for social media.

Outsourcing your social media efforts can be benefical, but each business is different and has different pros and cons to outsourcing the work.  Mashable has some great questions you should ask yourself if you’re looking to ease the burden on social media. The questions and some snippets are below, but make sure to check out the full answers in the article.

Can effective social media drive your business growth?

While investing in social media might make sense for an online merchant or local restaurant, a small tax preparation service or local plumber may have more difficulty justifying the time and effort. These businesses may get a better return on their time and money by ensuring that their business shows up in online searches, or by engaging with customers for positive reviews.

How well is your social media working today?

An experienced social media marketing consultant has the advantage of thinking about social media 24/7 — with multiple clients, they’re also sharing the cost of staying ahead of the curve. They not only know what works, but they also have the luxury of experimenting and trying new things with different clients.

Could outsourcing free up your time to focus on business operations?

Even if you’re pretty savvy when it comes to social media, you wear many hats as a business owner… and you probably want to have a life outside of work. For some businesses, the choice to outsource social media comes down to the relative value of their time.

How do you measure ROI?

Make sure you’ve established some measurable goals to ensure that your social media spending is moving the needle for your business.

By MATT SCHULER, Digital Architect, Marx Layne

Social media is here; it’s huge and it’s growing.  Establishing an online and social media strategy has become essential for businesses that want to connect with customers, clients, employees and other stakeholders.

Clients come to Marx Layne with questions on how to best utilize this tool and how to integrate it into their marketing.  Delivering and managing online reputation is a part of the creative communications we provide.  No two businesses are alike, and neither are their social media needs.  Our approach is specifically tailored to meet the needs of particular products, services and brands.

With our depth of experience, we combine the most effective social media strategies to help our clients enhance brand equity and reputation, sell products and services, create credibility, shape public opinion and solidify relationships with consumers and other stakeholders.

Marx Layne & Company understands that being on a social network is not the final goal for businesses.  We actively seek out new and innovative ways to inspire social media fans and friends to take action so that businesses and brands can see real results.

Our professionals have analyzed the best practices in the public relations industry and have identified how specific online communities respond through engagement and interaction.  This attention to detail translates into better outreach as companies look to optimize content for users.

At Marx Layne, we regularly work with local, regional and international clients to meet their social media needs.  Our social media and digital marketing experts guide and manage those needs for daily success in social networking.

Marx Layne’s digital marketing and communication practice can:

• Develop Social Media Campaigns With Two-Way Conversation
• Enhance Brand Equity
• Monitor the Social Conversation
• Optimize An Internet Presence
• Foster Customer Loyalty Through Interaction
• Generate Video, Apps and Content
• Drive Internet Advocacy While Maintaining The Social Dialogue

First and foremost, a good social media campaign has concise, compelling editorial content written by people who clearly understand the brand.  At Marx Layne, we facilitate the sharing of videos, photos and branded messages that match our clients’ expectations. Creating editorial content and understanding the client’s brand is the backbone of the work that we do at Marx Layne.  Social networks are a continuation of that content and writing style.

How different clients work with us

Our clients range in size from privately held companies with a local or regional presence to Fortune 500 corporations and non-profit organizations.  Each has a different need when it comes to social media.

Some want us to set up, manage and facilitate the daily conversation with their social media audience.  Others want us to coordinate the social media strategies that they can conduct themselves. Still others are looking for guidance to get started, while looking to eventually become independent participants in the social media world.  All of our clients are asking us how to integrate social media as part of their website.

Reaching out and engaging the community is a vital part of what we do, so that we can foster a sense of achievement among customers as they create, manage and participate in the discussion themselves. To optimize the response and engage audiences appropriately we can track the “buzz” that is being generated.

By MATT SCHULER, Digital Architect, Marx Layne

At Marx Layne, we know the perceptions of Detroit are muddled.  We know this city still has what it takes to be the best.

From a public relations perspective, it’s good to see some positive light being shed on the city in a series from Palladium Boots called Detroit Lives.

“Once the fourth-largest metropolis in America—some have called it the Death of the American Dream. Today, the young people of the Motor City are making it their own DIY paradise where rules are second to passion and creativity. They are creating the new Detroit on their own terms, against real adversity. We put our boots on and went exploring.”

Watch the story below, embedded in three parts.  There’s even a bonus feature embedded.

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Bonus feature

By MATT SCHULER, Digital Architect, Marx Layne

Google CEO Eric Schmidt recently talked at the 2011 Interactive Advertising Bureau Annual Leadership Meeting.  Mashable highlighted it here: “Mobile Growing Faster Than ‘All Our Predictions’”

You can watch the full video of Schmidt’s keynote speech embedded below. He makes a lot of great points about how mobile search is the future.

Some of the key statistics that Schmidt points out for mobile mentions come from YouTube, which sees 200 million mobile views per day.  Schmidt points out more mobile growth statistics related to the Super Bowl.

Remember that fantastic Chrysler commercial that aired during the big game? Well, mobile searches for Chrysler saw a 102x increase—while there was only a 48x increase on desktop searches according to Schmidt.  To me, that makes sense because more people were watching the game with a mobile device in hand versus sitting at a desktop computer.

Schmidt also cited other mobile search statistics, saying 78 percent of smartphone owners use their phones in stores.  In the video, Schmidt says “this is the future and everybody will adapt because are fundamentally better off with a better and smarter and more empowered, if you will, customer.”