ChaosScenario

Trish Forant: Honor, Courage, Internet

We are at war. Yet, today, through the advances in technology we can do instantly what in previous wars took weeks, even months to achieve: With the click of a mouse, we have the ability to send immediate support to a military service member.

We can send morale-boosting emails, filled with news from home and feel-good stories of Americans united. We can form online support groups collecting much needed items for care packages. We can share photos of the newest Marine in need, stories of the soldier who just became a dad, and patterns for cooling neckties we can create and ship to our guys and gals in the sandbox. We can rally our citizens to support our troops from the comfort of their computer chairs. We can do all this and so much more.

This is the new world. This is social media at its finest.

Through social media we’ve created a community of kind and caring individuals across the globe willing to take a little time out of their busy day to send and show support to our military service members. They are people of all races, religions, political parties, and nationalities with a common goal.

They come together for the sole purpose of supporting our troops on sites like MySpace, Facebook, Yahoo Groups and Twitter to name a few. They blog across all platforms and they use the power of their podcasts to send inspirational messages of support to our US Armed Forces.

These people realize that regardless of our personal political views, our troops deserve our respect, support & encouragement.

I’ve seen it firsthand because I use all these services to promote and encourage troop support through eMailOurMilitary.com. eMail Our Military is a charitable organization that supports U.S. military service members through morale boosting email correspondence, letters and care packages. eMail Our Military was created in 2001 as a response to the DoD's cancellation of the "Any Service Member" and "Operation Dear Abby" mail programs.

As a safe alternative, eMOM picked up where these programs left off.

Using social media we’ve teamed up with companies like Utterz to send multimedia messages of goodwill to our troops over the holiday season, Seesmic to support service members in Iraq, Qipit to provide fast, free alternatives to copy shops and Babble Soft to keep military families with newborns separated by deployments on the same parenting page.

Now more than ever before we have the ability to support our heroes in the easiest of ways using our computer, the internet and various forms of social media. Reaching out to our troops is simple and only limited by how much or how little you wish to be involved. We’ve got something for everyone and we encourage everybody to get started today by visiting eMailOurMilitary.com, deciding if you want to support a service member one on one or participate in a general support project.

You make the commitment, and we’ll help you connect with a military service member. It’s that easy. - Trish Forant

Trish Forant is the daughter of a veteran, a military wife and a staff writer at Veteran’s Today. She now serves as President of eMail Our Military, the charitable organization she founded to support U.S. military service members. She blogs regularly at Honor, Courage, eMail.

Gannon Beck: Not Just Another Holiday

I don’t care for Memorial Day.

I don’t like the notion that there is only one day designated to remember those who have made sacrifices for the nation and its ideals. All holidays are lost on me for the same reason – birthdays too.  Those who expect a card from me on a specific day will be sorely disappointed; however, I strive to show daily the appreciation I have for people and values I cherish.

I think we should buy flowers for our loved ones when it’s not Valentines Day; we should read about Martin Luther King, Jr. and Rosa Parks even when it’s not Black History Month, and we should be respectful and grateful to those who serve, even if it’s not Memorial Day or Veteran’s Day.

If something is important to the nation, our conversations should hover around them all year long.   Honoring veteran’s who gave their lives for us isn’t just for Memorial Day any more than freedom is just for the 4th of July.

So when Cam asked me to write something for his blog for Memorial Day, I had a hard time thinking of something “special” for the occasion. The truth is, I think about veterans and write about them all the time. Each post is special, because the subject matter is special.

Here are some of my posts about veterans, not written for any particular occasion:

Well Mannered Warriors

Not Accepted to Harvard? Join the (Junto) Club.

Heroes Have Heroes

Leadership Philosophies of Marines and Civilians

Mentorship and the American Revolution

Mitchell Paige

Marines: Break Out in Case of Emergency

Marine Poet

Always Faithful in a Marine’s Potential

Toys for Tots Literacy Program

Thank you to those who have served and continue to serve.

Semper Fidelis. - Gannon Beck

P.S. Happy belated birthday, Cam

My brother, Gannon Beck, is a Marine Corps veteran who owns and manages OO-RAH.com, an organization dedicated to serving Marines. He is a highly skilled illustrator who blogs regularly about art, the military, and education at gannonbeck.com. 

Lewis Green: Service Matters in People’s Lives

In 1965 I enlisted in the Air Force, following in the footsteps of my aunts and uncles on the Green side of my family. And although my mother was concerned because I abandoned college to do so and because the Vietnam War was heating up, she understood my reasons. It was expected that young men serve; at least that was the expectation in my small New Hampshire town and in my family.

Like everyone who disembarked the bus at San Antonio’s Lackland A.F.B. for basic training, I was scared. A feeling that was so new, I didn’t have words for it. Within a few seconds, we went from hometown heroes to scared zeroes. My high school sports letters didn’t impress the TI’s (training instructors). They yelled, screamed and harassed us all the way to the supply depot, where our hair was shorn and our identities replaced by drab, over-sized fatigues.

Seven-plus years later, in 1972, that 19-year-old child that arrived at Lackland seven years earlier had been made over into a 26-year-old adult who understood and personally experienced for the only time in his life the meaning of sacrifice for an ideal based on a 200-plus-year-old document that promises hope and freedom. In May of that year, I left the military for the University of Florida, where I excelled primarily because of my military service and what those TIs, and then later my fellow sergeants and officers taught me by example—sacrifice, hard work and individual responsibility are required of every person to protect freedom and to achieve personal success. Today, as I run my third consulting firm, I attribute much of who I am to those years of service.

One need not serve in the military to display those qualities or to learn the importance of responsibility in achieving our goals, in serving our families and friends, and in showing those who might not have the advantages that come with gaining those attributes in their youth how to secure a better life. What I did for seven-plus years and what I gave in military service were insignificant and minuscule compared to the many fallen veterans and their families and those civilians who give so much every day of their lives as volunteers, moms and dads, and everyday good people.

Through military service with other men and women and the examples given by so many Americans who never wore a uniform but who understand the ongoing and urgent need to serve both ideals and their fellow humans, I and many like me are far better people.

So, during this Memorial Day Week, please join me in prayer of thanks for all those who have given and continue to give so much, so others can live a better life. - Lewis Green

Lewis Green is an author and Air Force veteran who runs his own PR consulting company and blogs regularly at bizsolutionsplus and Marketing Profs Daily Fix. His latest book, Lead With Your Heart, is available at Amazon.

Photos downloaded from http://www.af.mil

Direct marketing inequities

Cam wrote a great post last week about the new rules that are in effect for email marketing. He correctly pointed out that CAN-SPAM regulation has come about because email marketers have abused the trust of consumers by 1) not honoring their right to control what brands communicate with them and 2) playing tricks in an attempt to get consumers to opt-in (or opt-out) of communication.

I wonder, though, if email isn't being singled out unfairly, especially compared to direct mail and even telemarketers. With direct mail, not only are you not required to opt-in, it's virtually impossible to opt-out. Lists of addresses are available from literally hundreds of sources. Even though telemarketers are supposed to create and obey "do not call lists" these lists expire after five years and then you have to re-register. Telemarketers get 31 days to remove your number from their list where email marketers received 10 days. (more on recent FTC changes here).

Frankly, I'm against this type of direct marketing. I'm tired of too much junk mail, telephone sales even though I've registered and, yes SPAM. As a marketer, I understand how it dilutes a brand and I'm not convinced that it's all that effective. I wonder, though, if more attention should be paid to offline SPAM.

- Paul Herring

Jim Stroup: Where are the Heroes?

Sitting before me was a company of Marines freshly graduated from boot camp, just beginning their training for the infantry. I had shown them a documentary describing how even a century ago the special esprit de corps of the Marines was somehow forged from Americans of backgrounds so diverse as to be almost mutually incomprehensible.

Afterward, I talked with them about the meaning of that special martial brotherhood, and the unique spirit of Semper Fidelis – “Always Faithful” – of the Corps. I told them stories of the heroes that helped build the heritage they were now taking upon their own, young shoulders.

Men of every generation, every war. Men who led Marines through withering fire to take desperately defended islands in the Pacific during World War II, who rallied their units to hold off swarming Chinese units 7 or more times their number during the bitter cold of the Chosin Campaign in the Korean War. Others who created legends in every struggle from the Vietnam War back to the Spanish-American War and beyond. We talked of one of our Commandants who was so dedicated and who served in that position for so long, that he willed the Commandant's residence – a public building – to his daughter.

We talked, wondered, and even smiled about these great Marines, who had helped create the peerless combat record of our Corps, its rich traditions, and its inspiring heritage that these men before me had come, in their turn, to carry, to share.

And then one of them asked me:

“Sir, where are the heroes like that, today?"

"Where will Marines like that, who can do what they did, where will they come from?”

Well, I suppose I should have seen that coming, but I was caught flat-footed for the moment. All the Marines regarded me intently. They never doubted that I would have an answer to this question, as I had to all the others. I tried to maintain an outward appearance of gimlet-eyed certainty, but inwardly I desperately glanced around for clues, ideas, anything that would get me out of this predicament with some honor, some respect for them.

Because the truth is, they were a young, awkward, incompletely-trained and -tested bunch, and they looked it.

They were eager to prove their mettle, but equally fearful that they might stumble, letting each other down, as well as these mighty legends who had preceded them. They wanted to know: will we measure up? Are we really Marines – Marines like those we have been talking about?

I scanned the loose school-circle of men sitting before me. What a jumble! Lanky boys from the hills, sharp-eyed denizens of simmering city streets, quiet types from the plains, stalwart bravos from the sea towns, others from the mountains, tireless and strong – as well as a good number from privileged backgrounds, at once cocky and unsure of themselves. These Marines – what combination of patriotism, altruism, and even, it might be ventured, creative deal-making from the justice-system, had brought them together before me, asking this question, waiting intently but patiently for the answer?

Still searching for that, I looked more closely, trying to find a way out. They leaned forward, eagerly awaiting my judgment. A sea of faces – for all their diversity and even today, to some degree, plain ignorance of the lives, the worlds, each had come here from – blurred into a relentless focus on the question, and on their investment in the answer.

And that's where I saw it: in their eyes; in the hopes, fears, aspirations – in the insistent pride brimming there. I knew that some of these fellows would serve whole careers in the Corps. Some might move on to specialize in other fields – some might even eventually enter a commissioning program and become officers. Others would get out after their initial enlistment expired and return to the civilian world.

But for all the varied experiences that had brought them here, and for all the multitude of paths they would soon follow, one thing had happened that would forever divide their futures from their pasts. They had become Marines. It was there, in their eyes, in their anticipation of my answer, in their fear and eagerness to hear it. It was in that – their deep instinct and need to believe – individually and as a new generation of Marines – that they would prove equal to the traditions of the Corps.

And so that's what I told them, and it was the truth: the heroes they sought to discover were sitting among them, looking back at me. We could not know who they would be at the moment when they were called upon to appear, but they were there in the dynamics of their pride and faith in the Corps and each other.

I told them that each generation of Americans produced its own Marines, each new generation of Marines wove its own story into the history and traditions of the Corps, and that in so doing each new generation produced its own heroes, its own legends. I told them that those waiting to hear my response were themselves the answer.

When I finished, there was a deep silence. No cheering, no smiling faces, no back-slapping celebration. Just a sea of eyes looking at me, but without seeing, nodding slowly, almost imperceptibly, quite unconsciously. They sat straight, and absorbed it. Yes, I could see them thinking, we will take these colors of the Corps, and we will carry them forward. We will do the job; we will not falter. Our contributions will be woven into the greater traditions of the Corps. We will pass them along to our successors, and we will be proud – they will be proud – of what we have added to the heritage.

And where we need heroes, we – like our fellow Marines before us – will produce them.

I felt it: the quiet, irresistible, immeasurably gradual but implacable shifting of the present and future of the U.S. Marine Corps onto the shoulders of these young men before me, these new heroes.

And so we bequest our values, our beliefs, and our culture to those who follow. They are different than we, and they will live the story in their own way. But the story itself – its moral, its heroes – well, we will always share, and ever renew, those across all the generations. - Jim Stroup

Jim Stroup served as both a noncommissioned and commissioned officer in the infantry of the United States Marine Corps, where he later moved into the Foreign Area Officer program. He now works as a management consultant and spends most of his time in Istanbul, Turkey. He blogs regularly at Managing Leadership and has written a book by the same name.

...Some Gave All

Jesse Allen Taylor's birthday promised more of the same grueling work and discomfort that the previous seven days bore. The date was August 29, 1967. Although I wouldn't be born for another seven years, it was on this day in the hot tropic climate in an even hotter combat zone that 19-year old PFC Taylor saved my life.

He just joined 3rd Battalion, 26th Marine Regiment the week before. The monsoon season created a lot of mud in the parapets, which made it more difficult to rotate the artillery that sat in them. To fix this, a contingency of about 25 Marines stationed at Khe San were sent off towards Lang Vei to retrieve some sand. They knew placing the sand in the parapets would enable them to point the guns in the right direction more quickly.

While on this important mission, a tractor got stuck down at the river bank, and the Marines called in some help from some Seabees attached to a special forces unit to help recover the vehicle. PFC Taylor was the assistant gunner for a .50 caliber machine gun that was mounted on a 2.5 ton truck.

Without warning, a firefight erupted. It was an ambush!

The gunner on PFC Taylor's truck shouted instructions to the driver and immediately returned fire, along with the other Marines, in the general direction of the enemy whose weapons they could hear, but whom they could not see.

The battle was persistent and furious. Both sides had one goal in mind: Kill them before they can kill us.

In the midst of the chaos, one member of the North Vietnamese Army slipped through and managed to successfully throw a chicom grenade onto PFC Taylor's truck, where it bounced around for what must have seemed like a lifetime. Without free range of movement, the gunner was unable to get it out of the truck. PFC Taylor, with the same goal in mind, picked up the grenade and attempted to get it out of range of himself and his fellow Marines.

While performing this heroic act, the grenade exploded, taking PFC Taylor's life. In the process of his attempt, though, he blocked most of the fragments from the grenade from his Marines - both the driver and the gunner who lived on to, seven years later, father his third son -- me.

My dad's unit suffered 100% casualties that day, but PFC Taylor was the only one who died.

Had it not been for PFC Taylor and all of those other brave men who came to their aid in the short span of a few minutes over which the battle was fought -- the two platoons of montagnards or the Green Berets (who would later suffer mightily at the fall of Lang Vei during the Tet Offensive) -- I would never be here to tell you the tale.

A few months after that firefight, my dad, having recovered from his wounds, was able to run through a bombardment to get to the plane that would eventually take him safely home.

He intended to make it on with his friend, LCpl Bernie Kridler, but because the plane was full, LCpl Kridler had to take the next flight. Tragically, that plane crashed, killing everyone onboard.

Do you think this has no meaning for you?

Perhaps you didn't know someone who served in any war -- let alone Vietnam. Maybe you don't think Vietnam had anything to do with our personal freedom, as we understand it.

But without life there can be no liberty, and without PFC Taylor's actions in Vietnam, I would have no life, and therefore could enjoy no liberty. The same can be said, in some way, about most of you.

You may not have had family who served in Vietnam like I did, but there are others who did so that your family was not required to. Pulled a high number in the draft lottery? My Uncle Gary, did not. He did not explicitly volunteer, but he still did his duty to the very end -- even when given a chance to opt out.

For the sacrifice these brave men and women of the military made -- and all the peace and prosperity it makes available to us -- we give our deepest thanks, in solemn appreciation. We honor them, I hope, by continuing the legacy of freedom they've preserved for us. And we never, ever forget them. - Cam Beck

Our Wonderful Inheritance

In honor of and appreciation for those who gave their lives for us, next week we will be running a series of articles written by military veterans and spouses. I only asked that our guest authors write from their heart something having to do with (however loosely) the topics we cover here (business, marketing, technology) in a way that honors our fallen heroes. All titles are tentative.

Schedule

• Monday: ...Some Gave All - Cam Beck
• Tuesday: Where are the Heroes? - Jim Stroup 
• Wednesday: Service Matters in People's Lives - Lewis Green
• Thursday: [This Title is Top Secret] - Gannon Beck
• Friday: How to Say 'Thank You' the Right Way -  Trish Forant

In the meantime, I encourage you to read Jim's touching post today, before you head off to carry out your weekend plans, to remember those who made such things possible. - Cam Beck

A Long View of Email Marketing

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) recently made modifications to the CAN-SPAM Act of 2003. Rather than go through great pains to differentiate between "opt-in" and "opt-out" (which I've done before), I'll explain what the general rules are, how you can get more information and why, regardless of what the law says, it's in your best interests to set a goal to do what is right instead of simply meet the minimum legal requirements.

Here's the rule in a nutshell, if you send out commercial emails (including those sent by non-profit organizations, but excluding "transactional or relationship" messages).

• You must give recipients the ability to opt-out.
• You cannot require anything but a recipient's email address and opt-out preferences to allow them to opt-out.
• You must include an accurately-registered address established by the U.S. Postal Service in the emails.

For more information, read the entire 109-page regulation here: FTC "Final Rule" for CAN-SPAM (312 Kb PDF).

The reason rules like this are created is usually because someone has flagrantly abused the wishes of the public, and the public consequently sought redress of their grievances through their representatives. The representatives, most of whom are lawyers, wrote a law that ceded authority to make some rules concerning the subject to the FTC (who, if they aren't lawyers, at least have a considerable staff of lawyers to help write the regulations).

As a result of that, anyone who wants to send out emails must become familiar with and conform to the regulations that they create. This entails:

• Finding out about the rules (to my knowledge, the FTC didn't send anyone an email letting them know the rules have changed)
• Reading the rules
• Auditing your processes and policies
• Adjusting as necessary

If everyone already did the right thing, none of this would be necessary!

So before you embark on a strategy that will result in the creation of so many 109-page documents that the rules are impossible to navigate without a team of attorneys, please -- just do what's right. I know you want your audience's email addresses, but they would be so much more valuable to you if they want to hear from you -- which you'll know if you asked them, in clear language, to opt-in, not opt-out.

Besides, attorneys are expensive. - Cam Beck

The Navigation Exception that Proves the Rule

Via Tangerine Toad's post, I came across this website for The Brooklyn Brothers, which, as far as I can tell from a brief look, is some sort of marketing agency. In a lot of ways, the website is unfortunately typical for a marketing agency. However, they do something good that a lot of companies are afraid to do -- that is, inject an interesting personality.

Usually I caution against getting cute with symbology and navigation names. It rarely aids in navigation and ease of use. I have to admire the personality they injected into their work, though. They're not goofy, but they don't take themselves too seriously, either.

None of it is really persistent navigation anyway. It serves as the content -- which allows them to get away with being more clever within the context of page than typical persistent navigation would allow them.

Of course, the first thing I clicked on was the skull and crossbones icon warning users not to click it. How could I resist?

Some of the payoff the site offers could use some work, and I can't hyperlink past the home page because they didn't build their Flash file in a way that would allow it. However, that's not to take away from the positive lessons we can learn from it.

For more on how to find and incorporate your personality in your marketing communications, see Rohit Bhargava's excellent book, *Personality Not Included. - Cam Beck

Only the Fools Brand Lightly

Some people believe I am anti-advertising. I'm not. I just am often skeptical about the effectiveness of the executions. I understand that people need to know about products, services, etc. before they can buy them, and that there are plenty of ways advertising can help to build that awareness. However, we should call advertising what it is and not confuse it for "branding." That would a colossal mistake that could actually harm more brands than it helps.

A brand is a promise.

A promise implies both a promise maker and a promise keeper, which is often -- but not always -- the same entity. However, the person to whom the promise is made reasonably assumes that they are the same entity, or else the promise maker would have no standing to make the promise in the first place.

As such, the wise make promises only if the following conditions are met:

• They are capable of keeping the promise.
• They intend to keep the promise.
• Circumstances make keeping the promise highly probable.

In addition, the wise realize that a promise has implications beyond the promise itself.

• Always low prices does not mean it falls apart the moment you get it home.
• America's best warranty does not mean your car is always in the shop getting warranty repairs.
• We try harder does not mean we are always second-best.

A promise sets an expectation.

The unwise make promises hastily. They concern themselves with convincing -- by making the promises -- but they reject all responsibility for fulfilling the promise. That's the domain, they say, of operations or customer service. This lack of ownership and accountability is why most advertising fails.

To compensate, these companies sometimes resort to withholding any explicit promises that stand on their own legs. Instead they make fun of the competitors. (Think cable vs. satellite).

This is a shrewd way of making a promise without actually making one. The problem is that it sets an expectation either way, and failing to meet that expectation causes just as much harm as had the company made an explicit promise.

Expectations can be either met or unmet.

There are actually three relevant outcomes once an expectation has been set.

• The company does not meet the expectation. The brand reputation is damaged by this outcome.
• The company meets the expectation. The brand reputation is helped by this outcome, but unless the promise was so extraordinary that people want to talk about it, it is unlikely to generate a lot of word-of-mouth. There are certain things -- like good customer service -- that never get old, so much of your efforts should be concentrated here.
• The company exceeds the expectation. This is difficult to sustain because as you exceed expectation, people come to expect more, but is not impossible on a brand-by-brand basis, since so few brands actually make the attempt. Disney is a good example of this.

Sometimes, though, companies don't even get to set the expectation. This is especially true if they are an online retailer. Even if they are part of some obscure niche, Amazon sets the expectation for response times and, in many cases, fulfillment.

Nobody said life was fair. But that's the reality.

Advertising is not evil.

Maybe you do have access to one of the greatest tools around for your particular audience, and by right you not only can inform people of this tool, but if the tool makes life better, cheaper, more efficient, etc., you have a responsibility to let people know about it.

But don't confuse what you're doing with "branding." Advertising is one tactic of many you can use that can help build awareness and interest. If your company is not equipped to deliver on the promises that are explicitly or implicitly made by the advertising, fix the processes, change the advertising, or both. - Cam Beck