A Blog About Everything That Makes The Truth Worth Sharing – Founder and CEO of Honesty Stockholm
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Wow. My friend and mentor Magnus (@trendymagnus) just spoke at TED. I’m sorry, but this is as cool as it gets for any speaker. Read his backstage account on his blog. VERY cool.
Looking forward to hearing the debrief on our Wednesday lunch Magnus.
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“I did not have sex with that woman… miss Lewinsky” is not a good strategy. Why? Because it’s untrue. If you think back at the Clinton/Lewinsky-affair, the big issue wasn’t really that Bill was unfaithful, but rather that he kept lying himself into a corner. Tiger Woods did the same thing.
In Sweden we have a politician called Fredrick Federley who is using the exact opposite approach. He’s being brutally honest and says precisely what he thinks about anything.
Here are some examples: He has admitted trying cocaine and pot, opposed the FRA-legislation, is homosexual and dates a person from the Let’s Dance jury, has an alternate drag persona called Ursula, parties hard and is pretty open with this in a variety of images. For example this one:
Imagine being a politician trying to get away with all this while lying! Pretty hard, right? Now however, with the brutally honesty approach he has, it all just blows past. In fact, it actually strengthens his brand. Honesty works.
On top of this, Fredrick Federley is a social media natural. He is very active on twitter and on his blog, and does it incredibly well. I you know Swedish, you should look and learn. Also, check out this amazing performance in a television interview. This is how you do it!
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@simonnystrom drew my attention to a new and highly creative SEO-strategy a few minutes ago. Perhaps this could be an idea for agencies if they don’t want to change their head-in-the-sand-internet-strategy?
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It’s just one of those days. Twingly launches it’s Twingly Channels, Google launches Wave, and (admittedly somewhat smaller) Stockholm School of Economics’ MCXL launches their new website. From what I can tell from the site, the latter is in test-phase right now, so I’ll post the link later.
We were actually planning to launch some stuff today too, but it feels like the attention economy i running a bit low on the supply side right now, so we may postpone for a week. We’ll see. 
Anyway, if interested in the progress of Honesty, please join the @HonestySTHLM news feed on Twitter. We’ll always post news there first.
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We may have some exciting news in store for you for tomorrow, so today is a non-writing-all-working day. Instead I’ll show you my favorite clip from my favorite sport, which was posted on my favorite web service by one of my favorite tweeps.
Enjoy.
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In these times of economic downturn and agencies firing people left and right, perhaps a couple of ideas for job applications could be in order:
I see a lot of people applying for work with us by sending an email with a CV and a personal letter. Most of the time these are people that I’ve never heard of before. I’m sure they are brilliant and everything, but they are missing one thing: We at Honesty are REALLY into communication. We would never dream of recommending our client to send our an unsolicited email containing a sales letter and a spec-sheet. What we WOULD recommend is to build your brand, build interest, engage in conversation, and do interesting and valuable things within reach of the potential customer’s radar.
So. Engage with us. Create value. Move within the scope of our radar. We may not be able to afford you or have need for your particular skills right now, but you’ll become part of our network, our extended family, and our daily reality. That way we’ll have a relationship for the day when we need PRECISELY you, or when somebody else in our network needs you. Or perhaps it will be the other way around by then, and we’ll come knocking on your door. Who knows.
The point is that relationships should be built BEFORE they are needed.
So come on down, get to know us, have some virtual coffee with us on Twitter or whatever other virtual coffee shop, and when we get to know each other better, we’ll have a real cup on Södermalm.
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I had a dream last night. In my dreams there are often all kinds of strange inventions and artifacts that don’t exist in real life. Most of the time, these are really weird and just plain dumb. But every once in a while something truly useful pops up. Last night was one of those times.
In my dream somebody called me on my phone, and when I looked at the phone there was not only the name of the person calling, but also the subject of the proposed call. Caller ID with a subject line. Just like with email. Wouldn’t that be really useful? If you’re anything like me, you often answer a call, even when busy, just to “see if it’s anything important”. With this functionality, that would not be necessary. You could also see on your missed calls what they where about. I think that would be absolutely awesome!
Wouldn’t it also be fairly easy to implement? At least in a service like Skype?
If you’re in a position to do so, please steal this idea and implement it. Consider it a Creative Commons license.
If you’re not, help me spread this idea so that we can get it implemented. I just want to see it happen. If you’re on Twitter, link back to this post and use #CallerSubject.
[EDIT: There seems to be some similar patent out there already. I guess that's why it isn't implemented. What can we conclude from that? And what should we call it? #ideasquatting maybe?]
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Here comes a short story on how not to answer customer complaints, a story that I’ve had the benefit to study closely over the past couple of months.
Long story short, my wonderful girlfriend got what we in Sweden call “värdelös service” (worthless service in English) from Elgiganten, a chain of stores selling consumer electronics. She had bought a MacBook there with an expensive insurance program, which Elgiganten didn’t want to honor when the computer died in an accident involving a glass of water. You can read the whole Elgiganten story on her blog. (It’s in Swedish, but hey, that’s why we have Google translate).
Anyway, after being met by rude people all over the place, and finally receiving an SMS where they try to make her pay more than the price of a new computer (!) for the failed repairs…
…she eventually loses her temper and writes the blog post above. But she also tweets about it…
Recently, I’ve had very good experiences with Twitter as a traffic driver. Retweeting of juicy content just works really well to boost a story. And nothing says juicy gossip like bad service. I don’t know why, but this stuff really pisses people off, and makes them really help out with RTs.
And Elgiganten are not there to answer. The closest thing I could find to Elgitanten is this…
…which doesn’t look so good (or genuine) to say the least.
Within a couple of hours, this thing has grown so big that Elgiganten’s head of service posts a comment on my girlfriend’s blog, personally taking responsibility for settling this affair and sorting out what has happened – complete with his phone number (again, foreigners, use Google Translate):
Hej Katja,
Mitt namn är Robert Jensen och jag arbetar som servicechef för Elgiganten. Jag blir uppriktigt sagt ledsen och besviken över att du som kund hos oss har fått en sådan dålig upplevelse. Detta går helt emot våra principer och policy om kundvård inom bolaget. Om du ringer 08-580 866 00 och söker mig och lämnar dina kontaktuppgifter kommer jag att kontakta dig under morgondagen för att hjälpa dig få ett avslut på serviceärendet. Det ska själklart inte behöva gå till såhär, varför jag också kommer att följa upp detta intert så snart jag har all information om ärendet.
Jag beklagar det inträffade.
Mvh
Robert Jensen
Servicechef
Elgiganten
Great response I would say, with one major problem: Being reactive is not a good and sustainable way of working with customer relations. What you (yes, I’m talking to you now Robert Jensen) are experiencing right now is just the beginning. You need to figure out a way to manage how you participate in the discussion about your brand, and you’re among the lucky ones to get an early heads up here. Take advantage of that.
Who did you say your agency was? 
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Thanks to all for your interest in yesterday’s post about Forsman & Bodenfors, Svenska Kyrkan, and Google. It led to many interesting conversations both in the comments of the post, on Twitter in my email inbox, on Facebook, and over the phone. Wasn’t quite prepared for that kind of response. So, thanks!
Today I want to talk to you about something else. I want to talk to you about clients. Because even though it is our responsibility as consultants to provide know-how and ideas, clients also need to take their share of responsibility. In short – everybody needs to do their job.
Yesterday I met a prospective client who had great knowledge and understanding of communication and the internet. He almost cried over how he had to actually teach his expensive consultants how to do their jobs. Clients such as this one are a pleasure to meet, and the projects with them always turn out great. They have passion and they understand their role in a successful project.
But sometimes… just sometimes… you bump into something dark and completely different. Let me tell you one of these stories:
On one April morning earlier this year I sat on the balcony with at cup of coffee and a copy of Dagens Nyheter in my hands. I started reading about a topic that I have a particular interest in – computers and learning. The project described in the article is called Skolwebben (The School Web) and is intended to be an information hub for teachers, students, and parents alike. A great idea to be sure! The internet could be an amazing tool to move
learning into a whole new era, but only if competence and ability is
blended into the mix. Here, this didn’t happen.
As I continued reading, I almost choked on my coffee. This project took on enormous costs. 17 000 000 SEK was poured into the project which was to be carried out by TietoEnator. For anyone of us who has ever worked with communication systems 17 000 000 SEK is a huge sum. For that kind of money we could create amazing strategy, amazing tactics, and amazing implementation. The money would be put into streamlining efficiency for the users based on their actual behaviors, and would be built on open source technology. But this is not what TietoEnator does. Instead, the produce a buggy, complicated and expensive system, hated by teachers, students, and parents alike. From what I could tell from the article in Dagens Nyheter, the project was on it’s way to the garbage can and would then be restarted from scratch.
There is plenty to read about this project and you can find much on Google. Try for example this search. But be prepared to get upset.
As I was sitting there on my balcony, I felt I had to do something. I picked up my computer and wrote an email to Anette Holm, the IT-director of Stockholm City, and also the person who had been commenting the story in Dagens Nyheter, explaining to her my ambition to help out. I told her that I would put mine and my agency’s resources at her disposal to figure out how to turn this catastrophe into something useful. I offered to do it for free*(see edit below).
When I received her answer I had to read it over and over five times before I could believe what it said. I could have understood if she wasn’t willing to involve a new agency into the project, but I had never expected this. It was just too much. Here is the email:
“The School Web is not primarily a matter of communication. Thanks for your offer, but I don’t see the need.” I read in the email.
Not primarily a matter of communication! What?!?! Suddenly it didn’t seem so strange anymore that projects governed by this kind of thinking would make communications projects crash, and take 17 000 000 SEK of tax money with them in the fall. How could anyone with the title of IT-director even write something like this, apparently without flinching? It’s almost Kafta-like.
I sat there looking at the email for a while, trying to figure out what to do with it. It just felt so hopeless. I printed the email and posted it on my wall for while see if I would eventually figure this out. “Not primarily a matter of communication…” echoed in my head. What is it a matter of then? If not communication?
A client like Anette Holm is one that I wouldn’t take on. Good projects can’t emerge from somebody who’s philosophical view of the internet doesn’t include the word communication. I would recommend you all not to take on such projects either. Eventually, we’ll get the clients we deserve, and our clients will get the brilliance they deserve.
Excellence is a business of ideals.
Edit:
FYI, here is a link to the email I sent.
Edit:
The offer was intended as free, though I realize now that I’m looking back at the email that it could possibly have been interpreted otherwise, as commenters “vän av ordning” and Magnus Nilsson have rightfully pointed out. The main point however, is not whether or not we actually did offer our services for free, but that Anette Holm’s thoughts on the project were that “…the school web is not primarily a matter of communication…”.
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If they only knew what a great idea they really had! Forsman & Bodenfors just came up with a new site for Svenska Kyrkan (The Church of Sweden) where you can submit your prayer to the site. The prayer is then keyworded on the site so that you can find other prayers on the same topic.
What makes this idea so great is that it suddenly makes The Church of Sweden relevant for a vast number of current topics like swine flu or economic crisis. Just like the church is relevant across a broad spectrum of topics in real life, it becomes equally relevant online. It also produces thousands of pages with relevant cross links. Brilliant.
Unfortunately this is also where the brilliance ends and it becomes apparent that Forsman & Bodenfors haven’t understood what a great idea they really had. Why is that? Well – much of the power of this idea, say a potential 20-50% of visits to the site, comes from the fact that the church becomes a relevant hit on Google for so many different topics. Or would have become just that, if they would have been at all visible to Google. And they aren’t, simply because F&B don’t know Google. Forsman & Bodenfors have chosen Flash as their technology for this campaign, which in it’s standard form isn’t indexable by Google. And they haven’t done any of the standard workarounds to make it so. To Google, this looks like thousands of identical and uninteresting pages with different names. Google looks at it, scratches it’s head, and throws all of them in the garbage without indexing anything. Let alone indexing on a wide variety of topics.
You can see above what the site looks like. You can see the selected prayer in the middle with keywords in different colors and the share buttons. Pretty, but utterly useless from a Google perspective. Because if you take a look at how Google sees http://svenskakyrkan.se/be, this is what Google sees:
Google sees three pages instead of the potential thousands. One containing the main page containing the Flash file, the Flash file itself described with this beautiful text: “txt Header instructions txt1 txt2 txt3 txt4 Header instructions txt Header instructions txt txt Lorem ipsum. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, …”, and the fail page “the prayer doesn’t exist”.
In plain English this is a complete failure, and an awesome display of the problem most agencies are facing – they are smart, but they live in the past.
Besides the Google perspective, there is also the perspective of user behavior. Users want intuitive interaction. It is not intuitive to use an embed-code to embed text. For video, there is a purpose for the embed code, but for text? No. People naturally want to be able to copy and paste the text directly, preferably with links and colors and everything. That way we also get relevant links all over the web linking back to the Church of Sweden site on relevant topics. THAT would have been brilliant.
Conclusion – This is really an excellent idea, but the excellence is there by mistake, and is not taken advantage of at all simply because of lacking knowledge of basic SEO. It’s really sad. Especially since it would have been so easy to solve by using DHTML or even underlying indexable content.
One thing puzzled me though. How could something like this receive thousands of entries? Truly a mystery. At least until I switched on the television in my hotel room and saw television commercials for the internet campaign! Advertising for… advertising! What on earth?! To get traffic to the site you try to buy this traffic with television dollars?! A site like this one should get at least 20-50% of its traffic via search, which would have been free, self regenerating, and incredibly easy to achieve.
Suggestion – (Hi friends at F&B, I know you’re reading this and you know I love you, but I HAD to write this, since it’s such a great example to learn from. Please accept my free advice here as a return favor).
What if you would have used existing and established services such as Facebook status updates and Twitter posts (#whatever) to complement your web interface as a way to input prayers? And an email adress (spam filtered of course) and an SMS-service (free of course)[edit: they have SMS-input]? What if your output of the prayers would have been much more flexible, mashable, widgetized and projected at the churches of Stockholm? Or whatever. Make it bigger. Give it presence.
But more than anything – learn SEO. Optimize that thing! Optimize it! Because really, what you came up with, apparently without realizing it, was a really good idea! You have great brains! But by implementing it the way you did, you created a bomb without a fuse.
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For some reason, this image comes to mind.
Yeah, we're down with social media.
[Edit: Article about the site in Swedish: ]
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