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The Technology Power List for January

The Power List for Tech

Happy New Year and welcome to The Technology Power List for January! You can view past Tech Power Lists here.

The Technology Power List curates the top corporate pros working in the Technology industry, who are also active on Twitter. If you want to view all the candidates for the Tech Power List, follow this list on Twitter. If you work in the tech space and would like to be considered for the Power List, then follow me on Twitter and reply to me and ask to be included.  Please state clearly in your profile bio what company you work for in tech, and your position. And the Power List isn’t limited to just big brands, startups and smaller tech companies are just fine.

Sponsorship options are now available for The Power List for Technology! If you want to sponsor this month’s list, click here for prices and info on sponsorship levels.

The Top 10 will be ranked 1-10. There will be a number after their name in parentheses that shows the change in their score this month versus last.

Here is the Tech Power List for January:

1 – Pat Gelsinger, CEO at Intel, Power List Score – 91 (-). Pat had another solid month. His posting volume wasn’t quite as high as previous months, but it was December, and I’m not going to grade anyone on this or the Tourism Power List too harshly for a dip in volume at the end of the year. Also, Pat has a body of work over the last several months to fall back on as well. Besides, his volume of posts in this first week of January is already back up to his normal levels. Congrats to Pat for continuing to hold onto the #1 spot as he has every month the Power List has been ranked!

2 – Sushail Kakar, Developer Relations @ Livepeer, Power List Score – 88(+1). Very strong month to close out 2023 for Sushail. Excellent volume of posts, good mix of content, what I like about Sushail’s content is that even his ‘work’ content has a personal touch to it, it almost feels like he’s sharing his hobby or interest moreso than work projects. Good job!

3 – Greg Joswiak, SVP of Marketing at Apple, Power List Score – 83. (-2) Quiet month for Greg, only two tweets.  Not surprising since it is the end of year, he’s already got a couple of new tweets up for this month so his score will likely bounce back a bit in Feb.

4 – Lauren Cooney, VP Java Cloud Services, Oracle, Power List Score – 82 (-1) Quiet end to 2023 for Lauren as well.  We’ll see what 2024 brings!

5 – Krithika Muthukumar, VP of Marketing @ OpenAI, Power List Score – 81 (-3) Only one tweet in Dec for Krithika, and it was a repost. Was hoping she could build on a solid November.  Let’s see what this month brings!

6 – Meagen Eisenberg, CMO @ Laceworks, Power List Score – 80. Congrats to Meagen for a re-entry into the Power List! Meagen had a very solid December, wonderful volume of posts, and she also mixed in some tweets with her thoughts, so she wasn’t simply reposting other people’s content. Well done, Meagen, welcome back!

7 – Maria Poveromo, SVP and Chief Communications Officer @ Cisco, Power List Score – 79 (+3). Decent December for Maria, good to see her rebuilding on her re-entry into the Power List last month, and this month she moves up higher. You love to see it!

8 – Sarah Luden, Communications @ Dell Tech, Power List Score – 78 (+1). Quiet month for Sarah, as it was for most on the list.

9 – Chloe Jones, Gaming Brand Manager @ Lenovo, Power List Score – 77 (-1). Only one tweet in Dec for Chloe, hoping eSports and her tweets heat up in 2024!

10 – Jennifer Davis, Corporate Affairs @ Dell, Power List Score – 75 (-). A quiet month for Jennifer, but most all of the Power List had a slower month in Dec.

 

Overall, volume was down for most of the list in December, which is not surprising. A couple of entrants took advantage and moved up as a reason.  A bit of separation for Pat and Sushail in the Top 2 spots, we will have to see if someone else on the list can rise up and challenge them.

Please make sure you are following each of these wonderful people, you can click on their name and follow them from there. All the candidates for the Power List are on this Twitter list.  If you aren’t on the list and want to nominate yourself or a peer, follow me on Twitter and then tweet me and let me know so I can add you to the list of candidates!

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Where Have All the Conversations Gone?

2023 ended up being a significant year for this blog. For the first time since 2014, this year’s traffic increased over the previous year’s traffic. Just barely, but for the first time in a decade, yearly traffic is up on this blog.

As for what I did to spark the increase, well I did increase my posting volume this year, this will be my 79th post this year versus 38 for 2022. That likely accounted for most of the increase.

But as I as diving into my stats, I started looking at the numbers for the life of the blog.  This blog started in 2009 so it’s been around for almost 15 years.  In crunching the numbers, I noticed that around 2014, there was a profound change that happened on this blog, and I suspect it’s indicative of what happened at most blogs around the same time.

First, let me show you the number of comments per post each year for the lifetime of this blog:

2023 – 0.5

2022 – 0.2

2021 – 0.1

2020 – 0.7

2019 – 5.4

2018 – 4

2017 – 2

2016 – 5.4

2015 – 3.5

2014 – 5.6

2013 – 6.3

2012 – 13

2011 – 18.1

2010 – 17.8

2009 – 8.2

What’s interesting about these numbers is 2011 was the best year for comments per post, but it was also the year where I wrote the most posts. I wrote 192 posts that year. That’s an insane amount of engagement on this blog, especially when you compare 2011 vs 2023:

2023 – 0.5 comments per post from 79 posts

2011 – 18.1 comments per post from 192 posts

 

Another stat I wanted to focus on was the number of visits sent to this blog from Twitter over time. Twitter has always been the social media platform that I’ve devoted the most time to, and it’s always sent me the most referral traffic. So we can just look at the number of yearly visitors I got from Twitter, and use it as a sort of proxy for all social media sources as a whole.  Here’s the number of Twitter visitors this blog has had each year:

2023 – 556

2022 – 295

2021 – 613

2020 – 509

2019 – 524

2018 – 2357

2017 – 3150

2016 – 2383

2015 – 5827

2014 – 12,700

2013 – 18,700

2012 – 10,600

2011 – 18,000

2010 – 8,999

 

So looking at both sets of numbers together, we can draw some conclusions:

First, the number of comments per post was super high here till 2012. It was down a bit from 2013-2016 (still solid numbers), then dipped again after that and totally cratered from 2020 on.

Second, the number of referrals from Twitter was quite high until 2014. Starting in 2015 it began to fall almost every single year.  The highest amount came in 2013 with 18,700 visitors from Twitter, and 2022 had just 295.

What those numbers suggest is that around 2014 or so, Twitter started to get ‘sticky’. Users were less likely to leave Twitter to come here and read my blog. They were more likely to stay on Twitter than come here. This makes sense, as Twitter was really growing around this time, and it was becoming an online ‘destination’ in a way that blogs had been for years.

Social Media Killed Blogging

I think the comments and Twitter numbers together tell us the story of what happened here. One of the benefits of being a content creator on social media platforms for almost 20 years is I have the advantage of being able to compare the social media and blogging environment 10-15 years ago versus now, and to also spot trends and changes.

Around 2010-2012 is when Twitter and Facebook really started to get mainstream popularity. As this was happening, bloggers started to wonder what this would mean for their blogs. Plugins started popping up around this time that would let you take Facebook comments and send them straight to comments section of your blog posts. So many thought that the rise of Facebook and Twitter would actually boost readership on blogs as well.

It turns out, that wasn’t the case. In fact, Facebook and Twitter seems to have actually siphoned off blog readers onto their platforms. As well as the bloggers themselves! Prior to 2010 or so, most bloggers spent the majority of their online time either on their own blogs, or reading and commenting on other blogs. It was a very decentralized experience.

One of the so-called advantages of the rise of social sites like Facebook and Twitter was that now we were all in a centralized place. In some ways that was a good thing, but in others, it was bad.  If you weren’t a big blog reader and just wanted to stay in touch with friends and family, Facebook is perfect for you.

But if you were an avid blog writer and reader prior to Facebook and Twitter, you’ve probably lost a lot of that in the years since.

Here’s a question for those of you who have been reading and writing blogs for over 10 years:  How much time did you spend on blogs 10-15 years ago, versus today? I’m betting you spend far less time today.

In 2008, if I wanted to find someone and see what was happening in their life, I went to their blog.  In 2023 if I want to do the same, I visit their Facebook profile.

In the process, I think we have traded having a deep connection with a few people online, to having very superficial connections with many. I know that when I started blogging full-time in 2006, I had a small group of about 5-10 bloggers who I read every day.  I commented on their blogs every day.

Today, I follow thousands of people on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter. A good portion of them are connections I made years ago, who I have never spoken to.

When social media took off, the cost associated with it was the loss of our blogging communities. Not all, some bloggers are still thriving. But there are very few bloggers from the pre-Facebook/Twitter days who are enjoying today anything close to the traffic and engagement they saw before Facebook and Twitter.

I miss the days of having fewer and deeper connections. I miss getting emails telling me about Seth Godin’s new blog post. I miss reading Gaping Void and seeing a new post about the new post that Kathy Sierra wrote.

We traded the decentralized blogging experience for the centralized convenience of social media. We traded having a few good blogging friends, for having hundreds or thousands of ‘connections’ on social media.

If we could turn back time and make the decision again, I wonder if we choose differently?

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A Merry Christmas to All

One of the recurring themes that skeptics of the Bible offer is they challenge the idea that the Bible wasn’t written by man.  Christians believe that the Bible was written by men who were divinely inspired by God. In effect, Christians such as myself believe that God told biblical authors what to write.

As I began reading the Bible daily, I was immediately struck by how both the good and bad deeds of the main characters of the Bible were recalled.  Men such as Moses, Abraham, David, were all showcased as being righteous men of God, But each man had his moments of weakness where he gave way to sin, and those moments were detailed in minute detail.

Several months ago I heard a biblical scholar make a wonderful point: If man had written the Bible, would he include his own shortcomings? Moses is thought to be the author of multiple books of the Bible. Yet in those books, the sinful behavior of multiple men who the Bible details as being righteous are detailed. Including Moses. So the biblical scholar offered this as evidence that man had help in writing the Bible, and I agree with that line of thinking.

Another strike against the theory that man wrote and invented the Bible comes in the Christmas story involving the birth of the Messiah, Jesus Christ.

Let’s look at this story logically, assuming that man was going to simply invent a messiah that was destined to save the world. What would such a person’s origin story be, if conceived by the imagination of man? If man was going to create the story of its own savior, what would that story look like?

I suspect the savior of mankind, according to man, would likely be born to a prestigious family.  Likely, the most powerful family in the world. And he would likely grow up to be a great military leader, who would conquer the world, creating one unified empire through nothing more than a swath of brilliant military conquest after conquest.  And he would spend his life being beloved by all that knew him. He would be a hero from day one of his existence and everyone would hail him as the hero that was coming to save all the world.

That could likely be the origin story of the savior of mankind, if man invented such a person.

Contrast that with the true story of Jesus Christ.  Jesus was born to a virgin teenager who was married to a carpenter. His mother Mary gave birth to Him in a manager because His mother and father were in Bethlehem for the census. Joseph attempted to purchase a room at an inn so Mary could give birth, but the owner told him there were no rooms available. The wife of the owner took pity on the couple, and let them stay in the manger.

The savior of the world was born in a manger next to livestock. He was berated and vilified every where He went, all His life. He was told to leave communities because He was healing the sick and it was ‘causing a disturbance’. He was eventually crucified even though He was guilty of no crime, and He was betrayed into Roman custody by one of His trusted apostles.

Does all this sound like an origin story that was invented by men?

Also, remember the Three Wise Men who came from the East? They were tracking the stars and knew that the King of Kings had been born. But they went to Jerusalem looking for the Messiah, they assumed that the larger city of Jerusalem, central to the Jews, would be the King’s birthplace. Not tiny Bethlehem a few miles away, and certainly not in a manger!

I think there’s so much that we can take from the story of the birth of Jesus that tells us why God came to this world in the form of a man, and for what purpose.

Recall the story of Jesus eating dinner at Matthew’s house. The attendees are described as ‘tax collectors and sinners’. The religious leaders in the area rebuked Jesus for eating with sinners, to which Jesus said that sinners are the very people He came for. It’s a theme that Jesus repeated throughout the Gospels; He didn’t come for the righteous, He came for the lost.

Jesus’s entire life was spent lifting up the smallest, the weakest. Most of his Good Works recounted in the Gospels center on His healing of the sick, the weak, the sinners. It’s as if the savior of the world made a conscious effort to first help the lowest of the low.

He first helped the people that needed Him the most. I think about that as we celebrate Christmas around the world.  The birth date of Jesus Christ.

I think about how Jesus came into this world bearing gifts for us all. Usually when we celebrate birthdays, we give gifts to that person. But Jesus did the opposite, He gave everyone else the gift.

Let us accept and treasure the gift we have been given

The Gospel of Luke may be my favorite of the four Gospels.  While all 4 Gospels tell of the birth of Christ, Luke also explains to us how John the Baptist was born, and how he literally ‘cleared the way’ for the coming of Jesus.  First, Gabriel, the herald of Good News, appeared to John’s father, to let him know that he would be given the gift of a son who would be John the Baptist:

 

5 In the time of Herod king of Judea there was a priest named Zechariah, who belonged to the priestly division of Abijah; his wife Elizabeth was also a descendant of Aaron. 6 Both of them were righteous in the sight of God, observing all the Lord’s commands and decrees blamelessly. 7 But they were childless because Elizabeth was not able to conceive, and they were both very old.

8 Once when Zechariah’s division was on duty and he was serving as priest before God, 9 he was chosen by lot, according to the custom of the priesthood, to go into the temple of the Lord and burn incense. 10 And when the time for the burning of incense came, all the assembled worshipers were praying outside.

11 Then an angel of the Lord appeared to him, standing at the right side of the altar of incense. 12 When Zechariah saw him, he was startled and was gripped with fear. 13 But the angel said to him: “Do not be afraid, Zechariah; your prayer has been heard. Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you are to call him John. 14 He will be a joy and delight to you, and many will rejoice because of his birth, 15 for he will be great in the sight of the Lord. He is never to take wine or other fermented drink, and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit even before he is born. 16 He will bring back many of the people of Israel to the Lord their God. 17 And he will go on before the Lord, in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the parents to their children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous—to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.”

18 Zechariah asked the angel, “How can I be sure of this? I am an old man and my wife is well along in years.”

19 The angel said to him, “I am Gabriel. I stand in the presence of God, and I have been sent to speak to you and to tell you this good news. 20 And now you will be silent and not able to speak until the day this happens, because you did not believe my words, which will come true at their appointed time.”

Because Zechariah doubted the word of Gabriel, Zechariah lost his ability to speak for a time.  When his son was born, the family’s neighbors asked what name he should be given.  His mother wanted to name him John, but others asked him why that name, no one in their family was named John! They turned to Zechariah and asked him what name the child should be given.  Zechariah asked for a tablet to write, and he wrote “His name is John’. Immediately, Zechariah regained his ability to speak.

After delivering the Good News to Zechariah, Gabriel then visited the virgin Mary and told her that she would birth the future savior of the world, Jesus Christ:

26 In the sixth month of Elizabeth’s pregnancy, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, 27 to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. 28 The angel went to her and said, “Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you.”

29 Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be. 30 But the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary; you have found favor with God. 31 You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus. 32 He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, 33 and he will reign over Jacob’s descendants forever; his kingdom will never end.”

34 “How will this be,” Mary asked the angel, “since I am a virgin?”

35 The angel answered, “The Holy Spirit will come on you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called[b] the Son of God. 36 Even Elizabeth your relative is going to have a child in her old age, and she who was said to be unable to conceive is in her sixth month. 37 For no word from God will ever fail.”

38 “I am the Lord’s servant,” Mary answered. “May your word to me be fulfilled.” Then the angel left her.

Whereas Zechariah questioned because he didn’t believe, it seems Mary questioned because she didn’t understand. Then Gabriel assured her that “For no word from God will ever fail’, and Mary did not question further, she accepted the gift she had been given.

We all have been given a wonderful gift in a savior, Jesus Christ. I pray that I, along with everyone who reads this, will accept that gift, and use it as God intends for each of us.

I hope you have a wonderfully magical Christmas, and may God bless us each and every one.

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The Tourism Power List for December

Welcome to The Tourism Power List for December! The Power List features the Top 10 professionals in the tourism industry! You can view the previous Power Lists for the Tourism and Hospitality industry by clicking here.

Sponsorship options are now available for The Tourism Power List! If you want to sponsor this month’s list, click here for prices and info on sponsorship levels.

If you want to be eligible for The Power List, do this:

1 – Follow me on Twitter. Make sure you have your position and the technology company you work for listed in your profile.

2 – If you want to nominate someone else to be on the Power List, tweet me their username on Twitter and I will be happy to check them out.

 

Here’s where you can find all the candidates for The Tourism Power List. If you’re on that list, you are eligible for the Power List.

Here is the Tourism Power List for December.  There will be a number after their name in parentheses that shows the change in their score this month versus last:

1 – Kathryn Shea Duncan, Sr Director of Social Media, Lake Charles CVB, Power List Score – 95(+1). The Queen stays on top! Congrats to Kathryn for holding down the top position yet AGAIN. And this really is a testament to how well Kathryn uses Twitter/X to amplify and promote events and happenings in the Lake Charles and surrounding areas. The competition at the top of the Power List is very strong, and Kathryn continues to lead the pack. Her volume of tweets if off the charts, but it isn’t quite overwhelming. She shares a mix of media: Articles, podcasts, images, videos, she has it all, and all focused on the Lake Charles and surrounding areas. Well done, once again!

2 – Jim Hagen, Sec of Tourism for South Dakota, Power List Score – 93 (-). Jim keeps cranking out solid month after solid month.  Good posting volume, good mix, he does a great job of highlighting South Dakota and why you should want to travel there. The amount of talented tourism pros at the top of the Power List is just insane. Jim, congrats on another stellar month, I have no doubt an even bigger 2024 is in store for you!

3 – Ben Berthelot, Lafayette Travel CEO, Power List Score – 92 (-). Ben just keeps getting better. Good volume, love how he adds a little bit of personal view on most content he shares. Jim and Kathryn, if Ben has another big month like this in December, I think January’s Power List could be in for a change at the top. Good luck guys, and well done Ben!

4 – Leisha Elliott, Executive Director, Marion Co, WV CVB, Power List Score – 88(-3). So this is where comparisons hurt Leisha’s score a bit.  Leisha posts a lot of content, but 100% of it are reposts. It helps to have some variety and add in some personal takes on the content you share. It can simply be a sentence or two, but it helps the rest of us understand why your content is worthy of our attention.  Kathryn, Ben and Jim all do this, and if Leisha could start working in some personal additions to the content she shares, her score would quickly jump back up to the 90s. Still, 88 is a very solid score!

5 – Chris Landry, CEO Louisiana Travel Assoc., Power List Score – 85 (+2). Another good month for Chris. His posting volume isn’t as frequent as the Top 4, but it’s still pretty good. He has a nice mix of content, works in some personal comments as well. Volume is really the only difference why his score wasn’t even higher.  Keep it going, Chris.

6 – Kyle Edmiston, President/CEO of Lake Charles CVB, Power List Score – 84 (-1). Not a bad month for Kyle, posting was a bit inconsistent. But honestly, the competition on this Power List is so strong, the slightest hiccup can cause a score drop, and that’s the case here. No worries, it will be easy to see a bounce-back month for Kyle soon!

7 – Adriana Cruz, Executive Director, Texas Economic Development & Tourism, Office of Gov Greg Abbott, Power List Score – 80.(-1) Volume of content falls a bit for the rest of this Power List. Adriana’s content is always focused more on economic development in Texas than tourism. If Adriana can increase her posting volume and have more of a focus on attractions and destinations in Texas, her score could easily jump 5-10 points.

8 – Jessica Blankenship, Exec Dir of KY Music HOF, Rockcastle Co Tourism, Power List Score – 77 (-2). A fairly quiet month for Jessica. Of all the tourism pros in the Power List, I think Jessica is the one I want to see more content from the most.  I would love to see more content on the music and country music scene in Kentucky, as well as info on the state as a whole. I know she wears many hats, but so do many members of the Tourism Power List.

9 – Diana Plazas,CSMO Caribbean & Latin America at Marriott International, Power List Score – 75. (-2) Diana’s profile is like that scene in a horror movie, “It’s quiet…too quiet!”  I would love to see more content as she works in an adjacent industry (hospitality). Let’s hope we see more activity on Twitter/X from this talented tourism pro in 2024!

10 – Kari Eakins, Dir of Strategy and Business for the Wyoming Office of Tourism, Power List Score – 72 (-).   Kari does just enough to stay in the Power List for a second week.  Congrats Kari, I hope you can build on that next month and go even higher!

 

So that’s it for the final Power List for Tourism for 2023. I love this group, it’s so strong, especially at the top.  A round of applause for all of you for shining a light on the attractions and destinations in your area! I hope each of you have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Please follow the people that made this list, you can click on their name and it will take you to their Twitter profile so you can follow them. If you would like to nominate yourself or a peer for inclusion in The Tourism Power List, please follow me on Twitter, and make sure you have your position and the company you work for clearly listed in your Twitter profile. That’s it! All candidates for the Power List are on this list.

Would you like to sponsor The Power List for Tourism? Here’s information on available options as well as prices.

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The Technology Power List for December

The Power List for Tech

Welcome to The Technology Power List for December! You can view past Tech Power Lists here.

Why have a Power List for the Tech space? Because I wanted to highlight workers that are doing a great job of leveraging social media to connect with customers, partners and clients. It’s damn hard to work in the tech space and still carve out time to create engaging content for social media. I am hopeful that by putting a spotlight on a few of the tech all-stars, it will make their jobs a little easier.

If you want to view all the candidates for the Tech Power List, follow this list on Twitter. If you work in the tech space and would like to be considered for the Power List, then follow me on Twitter and reply to me and ask to be included.  Please state clearly in your profile bio what company you work for in tech, and your position. And the Power List isn’t limited to just big brands, startups and smaller tech companies are just fine.

Sponsorship options are now available for The Power List for Technology! If you want to sponsor this month’s list, click here for prices and info on sponsorship levels.

The Top 10 will be ranked 1-10. There will be a number after their name in parentheses that shows the change in their score this month versus last.

Here is the Tech Power List for December:

1 – Pat Gelsinger, CEO at Intel, Power List Score – 91 (-). Broken record time, another solid month for Pat and another week at #1. Pat has been #1 for every month so far in the Tech Power List. I will say that these rankings do have a bit of judgment involved, actually a lot of judgment. For instance, Pat is the CEO of a major global tech brand. He wears many hats, and to see him carving out time to engage regularly on Twitter impresses me a bit more than say a Social Media Manager at another tech company that also engages on Twitter. I think his commitment to Twitter/X also encourages more Intel employees to engage. Good job, Pat!

2 – Sushail Kakar, Developer Relations @ Livepeer, Power List Score – 87 (+3). Sushail has been hanging around the Top 5 of the Tech Power List for a while now just waiting to move higher, and now it’s happened.  Sushail does a wonderful job of seamlessly fusing personal and professional content in a way that makes it more engaging.  His content is very techy, focused on developers in the web3 space, but he adds in a dash of personal takes and memes that makes the content very relatable to his audience. His content volume is solid, not a firehose, but pretty consistent. A good November for Sushail and his December is already off to a strong start as well.

3 – Greg Joswiak, SVP of Marketing at Apple, Power List Score – 85. (+2) Nice bounceback month for Greg.  Good volume, he does a good job of adding some person comments on the content he shares. His content is exclusively promotional for his company, Apple. I would like to see a dash of non-Apple content on occasion, but that’s not a huge quibble on my part.

4 – Krithika Muthukumar, VP of Marketing @ OpenAI, Power List Score – 84 (+6). Very nice November for Krithika, she had several tweets on the unfolding OpenAI/Sam Altman saga, which was to be expected.  Good volume, her early December results are a bit slow so hopefully it picks up for her as the year closes out.

5 – Lauren Cooney, VP Java Cloud Services, Oracle, Power List Score – 83 (-3). So Lauren’s activity dipped a bit in November, but still not bad at all. She suffers more from stronger competition than anything else.

6 – Sergio Raguso, Regulation Manager @ Siemens, Power List Score – 82. (-3)  Earlier I mentioned that judgment calls are often made in ranking the members of the Power List. One of the ranking criteria that I constantly have to make a judgment call on is posting volume for members of every Power List. In almost every situation, I’m looking at what’s the minimum amount that person needs to maintain their current position, or improve. Sergio is very rare in that he actually posts too much content, IMO.  In terms of content creation on Twitter/X, Sergio is a firehose.  He often posts dozens of times, every single day. And the vast majority of his tweets are reposts, even of his earlier shares. Sergio shares a ton of useful content, but none of it really has much time to ‘breathe’ on its own, as another tweet is coming just a few minutes later. I can appreciate his obvious love of Twitter, but I think a bit less (ok a LOT less) content would actually help the visibility and engagement of his content.

7 – Chloe Jones, Gaming Brand Manager @ Lenovo, Power List Score – 78. Congrats to Chloe for re-entering the Tech Power List AND jumping up to #7. Love the content on eSports and how Lenovo is working in that space. Hope to see more content from Chloe as the year draws to a close.

8 – Sarah Luden, Communications @ Dell Tech, Power List Score – 77 (+1). Nice jump up for Sarah, hope to see a bit more content as that would move her even higher.

9 – Maria Poveromo, SVP and Chief Communications Officer @ Cisco, Power List Score – 76 (-). Welcome back to the Tech Power List, Maria! She returns this month along with Chloe. Hopefully this is the start of a trend as I do enjoy Maria’s content a great deal.

10 – Jennifer Davis, Corporate Affairs @ Dell, Power List Score – 75 (-7). A bit of a dip in November for Jennifer, but it looks like her December is already shaping up to be a bit better, so we may see her jump back up in the next Power List.

 

So that concludes the final Power List for the Technology industry for 2023! Congrats to all who have made the list, in this month as well as the previous ones. Your dedication to your craft is setting the standard for your peers, your fellow colleagues, and the industry as a whole. Salute to you all, and I hope each of you and your families have a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Please make sure you are following each of these wonderful people, you can click on their name and follow them from there. All the candidates for the Power List are on this Twitter list.  If you aren’t on the list and want to nominate yourself or a peer, follow me on Twitter and then tweet me and let me know so I can add you to the list of candidates!

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Elon Musk Illustrates the Problem With ‘Authenticity’

In a shocking turn of events, Elon has posted something on X that caused controversy. I’m not going to comment on what Elon posted, mainly because I didn’t see it or the aftermath. Due to many of Elon’s erratic decisions recently regarding X, I have been spending less time there and more time on LinkedIn.

But I did read what Elon said, and his response to the backlash. From what I can gather, Elon’s stance is that he made a short comment and didn’t completely explain his thinking behind that comment. Doing so led many people to form an opinion about him that he claims is untrue.

One of the recurring themes around social media since it started seeping into mainstream consciousness about 15 years ago was the value in being authentic. We were told that brands (personal or company) who are authentic, who are ‘real’ are the ones that will win. That people crave honesty, we crave authentic communications.

But is that accurate? Do we really want people to be ‘real’?  Love him or hate him, but Elon is about as ‘real’ as it gets. He says whatever he is thinking, whenever he is thinking it. He is so ‘real’ and open with his communications that he often makes people very uncomfortable with what he says.

And I think that’s the problem. The problem with authenticity is that it leads to people like Elon saying whatever pops into their heads at any moment.

Now, as you read that bolded part, you likely had one of two reactions to that statement:

1 – You thought “Yes, this is it absolutely!’

2 – You thought “Wait, how is that a ‘problem’, and who is it a ‘problem’ for?’

 

I’ve seen people in media and online say some variation of that same point. That Elon thinks he can say whatever he wants, whenever he wants.  A lot of people don’t like that.  Watch this interview that Elon gave yesterday with Andrew Sorkin. I will warn you ahead of time, there is some NSFW language at the start.  It’s a long video, the salty comments that Elon made that everyone is talking about came in the first few mins:

What struck me about this video wasn’t Elon’s comments. Elon makes very blunt comments in most interviews like this. Elon is an introvert, and you can tell that he is socially awkward to a degree, and I think a byproduct of that is he doesn’t seem to filter his comments as much as most people would.  Especially in the business world.

What struck me about this interview was actually Sorkin’s comments. I noticed he kept going back to this idea of regret.  He kept trying to get Elon to admit that he regretted his comments.  That he needed to be more careful with his language.  That he needed to think more carefully about what he says.  Sorkin repeatedly asked Elon if he has ever said anything he wished he had not.

I’ve seen other interviews with Elon where the host has chosen a similar stance. It’s clear that the interviewer is desperate to get Elon to admit that he doesn’t think about what he’s saying. The interviewer is clearly trying to discredit what Elon says.

To what end?  I believe the media wants to discredit what Elon says, because Elon often says things they don’t want to hear. Elon often criticizes the media.  And Elon is argubly the most influential person on the planet.  People listen to him.

So do we want authenticity, or not?  Do we want free speech, or not?  I’ll be the first to admit that I have a love/hate relationship with Elon. He can say or do something that I think is absolutely brilliant, and 5 mins later say or do something that makes me want to delete my X account that I opened in 2007.

But at the end of the day, I think we as a society need to think about what we want free speech to mean. Do we want people to have the ability to speak freely, or do we want someone’s speech to be restricted? And when we discuss guardrails to speech, how do we determine where those limitations are placed, and who they affect? Do they affect everyone equally, or only the people who say things that we don’t want to hear?

I believe people like Elon Musk are gathering so much attention because we are hungry for honest conversation. We have gotten so far away from the idea of having honest and open conversations with each other, that when someone comes along that says whatever they want whenever they want, we listen. In a perfect world, Elon’s behavior would cost him a lot more than it does. Society as a group would push back and say “Hey Elon, do you have to use that language to get your point across? Do you have to be so brash, so controversial? It detracts from your message, which has some value. But by framing your message in crude and incomplete terms, the focus is put on you, rather than your ideas. Is that what you want?’

If we were truly in a place where we as a society encouraged the free-flow of ideas, even ones we disagree with, that would be the response to Elon. Instead, the response is either ‘You need to shut up’ or ‘Keep going!’

Our response is either to tell Elon to stop sharing at all, or to share even more. And the breakpoint for which response we choose falls on whether or not we agree with what Elon is saying at the moment.

That’s not authenticity. That is censored speech. And we need to decide which one is more important.

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How AI Can Revolutionize Your Company’s Loyalty Program

Using AI With a Loyalty Program

One of my core competencies is helping companies design and execute customer loyalty programs. I’ve written before on what makes an amazing loyalty program. Today, I want to talking about using AI with a loyalty program.

In the competitive landscape of customer retention, businesses are increasingly turning to artificial intelligence (AI) to elevate their loyalty programs. AI offers unparalleled opportunities to personalize experiences, predict customer behavior, and optimize reward structures. Let’s explore four compelling examples of how AI can be seamlessly integrated into loyalty programs, transforming them into powerful tools for customer engagement.

Disclaimer: Whenever you are designing a loyalty program or improving an existing one, always focus on improving customer experience. The experience and relationship that your customer has with your brand is what drives loyalty. If your loyalty program focuses strictly on encouraging additional transactions, then you run the risk of having the customer assign loyalty to your price or sale, rather than your brand.

Remember, you build loyalty after the purchase, not before.

Four Ways to Use AI to Improve Your Loyalty Program

Personalized Rewards with AI Algorithms

One of the most impactful ways AI enhances loyalty programs is through the implementation of sophisticated algorithms that analyze individual customer behavior and preferences. This enables businesses to tailor rewards and incentives with remarkable precision.

Example: Starbucks Rewards Program

Starbucks, a global coffeehouse chain, leverages AI to analyze customers’ past purchases, preferences, and even the time of day they visit. The Starbucks Rewards program uses this data to offer personalized rewards, such as favorite drink discounts or exclusive promotions. This level of personalization not only strengthens customer loyalty but also encourages higher spending and more frequent visits.

You can view an in-depth write-up on how Starbucks is using AI to improve its Starbucks Rewards loyalty program by clicking here.

Predictive Analytics for Anticipating Customer Needs

AI-powered predictive analytics is a game-changer in loyalty programs, enabling businesses to anticipate and fulfill customer needs before they are explicitly expressed. By analyzing historical data and patterns, businesses can proactively offer relevant rewards and incentives, enhancing the overall customer experience. When done correctly, anticipating future purchases before the customer realizes they actually need those items or services provides convenience to the customer. And that helps drive loyalty and advocacy.

Example: Amazon Prime

Amazon Prime utilizes AI-driven predictive analytics to recommend products, personalize shopping experiences, and anticipate user preferences. In the context of their loyalty program, this translates to tailored recommendations, exclusive deals, and timely offers based on a member’s browsing and purchasing history. The result is a highly individualized and engaging loyalty experience that keeps customers coming back. Additionally, member-specific discounts and services help drive demand for Prime and encourage signups.

Bonus: Amazon is also leveraging AI to shorten delivery times as we head into the Christmas shopping season. This means more products can be eligible for Prime’s magical 2-day shipping.

Chatbots for Seamless Interaction and Rewards Redemption

AI-driven chatbots have become integral to modern customer  service, and when integrated into loyalty programs, they offer a seamless way for customers to interact, inquire, and redeem rewards. This not only enhances customer convenience but also ensures a consistent and personalized brand experience. When leveraged correctly, AI-powered chatbots can actually deflect customer service tickets, leading to a significant cumulative cost savings.

Example: Sephora Beauty Insider Program

Sephora’s Beauty Insider Program employs AI-powered chatbots to assist members in real-time. Customers can inquire about product recommendations, learn about new arrivals, and even redeem rewards through the chat interface. The AI chatbot not only streamlines the customer journey but also provides personalized assistance, fostering a deeper connection between the customer and the brand.

Sidenote: I love how Sephora clearly illustrates the perks at each level of its Beauty Insider program right on its homepage. The visitor can clearly see which perks are for each tier, and how to level up to the next tier. BTW, here’s a very detailed review of the Beauty Insider program with a focus on its perks an rewards.

Fraud Detection and Enhanced Security

AI plays a critical role in safeguarding loyalty programs from fraudulent activities, ensuring the integrity of rewards and the trust of program participants. By employing machine learning algorithms, businesses can detect and prevent unauthorized access, fraudulent redemptions, and other security threats. This can help drive program signups as members feel their data, information and rewards will be protected.

Example: Delta SkyMiles Program

Delta Air Lines utilizes AI to monitor and identify irregular patterns in SkyMiles account activities. This includes detecting potentially fraudulent mileage redemptions or unauthorized access. The AI system triggers alerts and takes preventive measures to protect the integrity of the loyalty program and the rewards accrued by its members. Many SkyMiles members will accrue miles for years and set them aside for a special trip, so giving them additional peace of mind that account activity is being given an additional monitoring layer via AI is a comfort to members.

Conclusion:

In conclusion, these examples illustrate the transformative impact of AI on loyalty programs, from personalized rewards to predictive analytics, seamless interactions, and enhanced security. As businesses continue to embrace AI technologies, the future of loyalty programs promises even more tailored, engaging, and secure experiences for customers in all industries.

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Monday’s Marketing Minute: Sam Altman Back at OpenAI, Cyber Monday Sales Set to Surge, Twitter Beats Facebook and IG for Referral Traffic

Happy Cyber Monday, y’all! I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving week with friends and family. We have now officially entered the ‘lull’ part of the year for most of us. The rest of the year will primarily be focused on the holidays, our families, and planning for 2024.  In both our personal and professional lives. I hope you have a wonderful close to your 2023 and that it sets you up for an amazing 2024! Here’s some of the business stories I’ve had my eye on this year:

 

Sam Altman is back as CEO of OpenAI. The rumor is that OpenAI had recently made a ‘massive breakthrough in AI that could threaten humanity’ and Altman didn’t notify the BOD. Sounds like a cover-story, but if true, it makes no logical sense. If the BOD is worried that OpenAI will eventually have a breakthrough in AI that will pose a huge threat to humanity, why does the company exist?  Obviously, when you take some of the world’s brightest engineers and coders and put them together on a project, you can expect huge advancements in short order.

An interesting side note to this story is that when Altman was fired, almost every OpenAI employee signed a letter saying they were going to Microsoft if the board didn’t resign and re-hire Altman as CEO.  It looks like that’s exactly what happened, so that’s quite a testament to the support Altman has from his employees.

 

I think we all could use good economic news, so here’s some: Cyber Monday sales are projected to spike 8.4% over last year. Online sales every day since Thanksgiving are up solidly over 2022 levels. Let’s hope this is a sign that the economy is starting to finally rebound from the pandemic bottom.

 

I’m not a huge fan of sharing info with such little sourcing, but here you go. I tend to believe this since referral traffic from Facebook in particular has been falling for a long time, mostly by design as Meta keeps creating barriers to keep traffic locked on its site. Of course, if all three sources are going down, does that change the value of the information? Hmmm.

 

So that’s it for this week’s edition of Monday’s Marketing Minute. I will likely have another post up later this week.  Possibly one over the weekend as well, I have a few ideas from my Bible studies that I am mulling over for a post.  Till then, I hope you have a wonderful and productive week!

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Monday’s Marketing Minute: Sam Altman Fired as OpenAI CEO, Executives Worry About AI, Google Introduces Notes

Happy Monday, y’all! I hope you had a restful weekend and are ready for a productive week! It’s Thanksgiving week here in the States, but it seems like we are still in store for a crazy news week, as you can see in our first story:

 

So on Friday, OpenAI’s Board of Directors unexpectedly fired CEO Sam Altman.  That set off a chain of events that is still playing out at this moment.  Where we are right now:

  • The BOD for OpenAI fired Sam Altman as CEO
  • OpenAI co-founder Greg Brockman quit OpenAI in protest
  • The hot rumor at this point was that the BOD was going to cave and bring back Altman and Brockman.
  • Instead, they hired Mira Murati, the CTO, as interim CEO
  • Then, Emmett Shear was named interim CEO
  • Then, and this is the biggie….Microsoft hires Sam Altman and Greg Brockman to head up a new AI initiative at the company.  Microsoft is an investor in OpenAI.
  • Then, 500 of OpenAI’s 770 employees write a letter to the BOD saying if the BOD doesn’t resign and reinstate Altman and Brockman to their previous positions, that all 500 employees will quit OpenAI and join Microsoft to work with Altman and Brockman

And that gets you up to date as of this moment.  By the time I finish this post there could be a breaking development, so I better write fast.

 

On the heels of that crazy first story, guess what area executives are worried about? Artificial intelligence, of course! AI contains the perfect mixture of potential and mystery to keep it top of mind for decision makers at every company.

 

Years ago, Seth Godin launched a product called Side Pages (I think) that was basically a browser extension that let you add notes to any page on the internet. So you could visit a page and see notes that other users had added about that page.  That project didn’t last long, but it sounds like Google is looking to incorporate a similar functionality into its search results with Notes. Notes is being tested with users of Google’s Search Labs, and would basically allow users to add notes and comments to entries in search results. I think it could be a useful feature, if implemented properly.

 

So that’s it for this week’s edition of Monday’s Marketing Minute. This is Thanksgiving week in the states, so I hope those of you that are traveling will do so safely, and have a wonderful time with your friends and family. I’m honestly not sure if I will have any more posts up this week or not.  I hope you have a wonderful week!

 

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Soon You Will Have to Pay for All Social Media

BOLD PREDICTION: By the end of 2024, all Facebook, Instagram and Twitter/X users will have to pay to continue to use the sites.

Since taking over Twitter/X, Elon has progressively moved the platform toward a pay model. He offered a ‘Premium’ version of Twitter, and has now started adding multiple tiers to the offering. Features that were once available to all, are being incorporated into the ‘Premium’ plans. Now, he has begun charging new users in certain countries a small fee to tweet.  This is being sold as a way to ‘combat bots’.

Make no mistake, it’s a way to eventually rollout fees to all Twitter users.  That’s where we are headed.

And Elon’s moves to make Twitter pay-to-play has opened the door for other sites to follow suit.  Facebook and Instagram will begin charging users in the EU to avoid ads. This move is being sold as necessary to combat changes in privacy laws, but as with Twitter, it will likely be used to introduce the idea of charging all Facebook and Instagram users.

Should Social Media Sites Charge Users?

These moves and their inevitable end point will prompt the logical question: Should social media sites charge users?  At the end of the day, like it or not, Elon and Mark are running businesses, and they have every right to charge users to access their sites.

That’s not the question that interests me.  What I want to know is Does Twitter, Facebook or Instagram offer an experience that is worth paying for?

In my mind, that is a far more relevant question. And in their present forms? Absolutely not.

The irony is, I would have happily paid $10-20 a month for the experience I got on Twitter from say 2007-2012.  Today? No way. And I would pay for Twitter long before I would either Facebook or Instagram.

Which makes this whole episode confusing to me. The time to attempt monetization for these sites has long since passed.  Say what you want about Elon, but he’s a very smart businessman.  I have no doubt he will figure out a way to turn Twitter into a money-maker.

But I’m not interested in paying for an experience that has been degrading on his site for years.

Social media sites started out as being free for the most part.  Monetization came through selling ads. As the saying famously goes ‘If you aren’t paying for the product then you ARE the product’, or something like that. Most of us just accepted that these social media sites were collecting our data and selling it to advertisers, and in exchange we get to use their site for free.

To me, this always seemed backwards.  The time to attempt monetization was at first, while the community was being built. Get a core group of enthusiasts, tap their brains and roll out premium features that they want. Charge them extra for extra features that are relevant to how they are using the site.

But What About LinkedIn?

Did you know that LinkedIn generated almost $15 Billion in revenue in 2022? Numbers fluctuate, with some sources claiming 21% of LinkedIn users having a Premium account and some say it’s more like double that.  Either way, LinkedIn has done a great job in offering premium features to users that they actually want.

I think a lot of this is due to positioning.  LinkedIn isn’t positioned as a social media site. It’s positioned as a career development site that has some social elements. If you are on LinkedIn, then it’s almost certain you are either looking for a job, hiring for a job, or networking to find your next partner, client, etc. LinkedIn is a very purpose-driven site in a way that Twitter, Facebook and Instagram simply cannot match.

Will We Pay to Use Twitter, Facebook and Instagram?

Overall, I don’t think we will. I do think Twitter and Meta will have some success with their monetization efforts, but I don’t think it will be as much as they will need to sustain the model.

So, what will that leave us with?

I would like to think it would lead to many of us changing our behavior and turning back to writing and reading blogs, listening to podcasts and turning away from centralized social media platforms. But I’m not expecting that to happen.

What will hopefully happen is blogs, podcasts and owned media will see a bit of a revival. But past that, it will hopefully lead to new social sites and tools that are more thoughtful about their monetization efforts. Twitter and Facebook should have always been founded with the idea that this will be a money-maker. So to that end, the user experience should have been designed in a way that provides an experience that’s worth paying for. The community should have been involved in strategic planning and development from the jump. This would have led to users being more invested in the platforms and their success. So when monetization options were rolled out, the moves would make sense to the users, and the users would be the biggest sellers of the new offerings.

Think of it this way: How many Twitter users have told you that you need to get the Premium version?  I haven’t had a single Twitter Premium user promote the service to me.  But I’ve had many LinkedIn members tell me that it’s worth the money to upgrade to its Premium service.

A social media site’s monetization efforts should be driven by providing utility to members that improves the user experience. Not by trying to make a fast buck to fix a broken balance sheet.