Tweets and Plurks - there is a difference!

Are you twittering and posting tweets on Twitter?


Do you Plurk?

It's a way for friends or fans to keep an eye on what you are up to. Just tweet or plurk throughout the day and soon your fans or friends will learn about those exercise classes you take every week but never really talk about. They'll learn about your Sunday routine or, as my friends are finding out, how late I'm actually working these days (too embarrassing to mention!)

I've posted 185 tweets and 27 plurks, as of this writing. The Twitter format is very linear and text based. Plurk is more colourful and organizes plurks in a timeline so you have a sense of the day and time of the activity. I thought I had to like one over the other when I realized they are completely different.

Tweets are written in the first person "I'm...(insert what I'm doing in the moment here)"

Plurks are written in the third person "Romana Mirza loves/hates,/is, (insert what she's feeling here). When you Plurk you tend to talk about your feelings. When you tweet you're talking more about your actions. Well, that's what I was doing.

Tweets are about your activities, Plurks are about your intentions.

Tweets are a linear list of your activities and Plurks are about your perspective, what you love, hate, do, or want.

Plurk is dynamic content, colourful and Canadian!

Find me on Twitter or Plurk as romana_mirza! Tweet Tweet Plurk Plurk, oh what a....mmm, that's not working for me.

A Rapid Prototype

It's a rapid prototype - the party that was inspired by a list of women in a contacts database. An idea was born over dinner with a respected colleague, a date chosen, a 'save-the-date' email sent out - a much needed virtual assistant was hired and we're off. On July 16, 2008 Studio Pinpoint and Romana Mirza are hosting "The Accomplishment of Women" summer party at Grano in Toronto.

The beauty of the event is two-fold. On the one hand it's just being pulled together, and there seems to be some momentum building. I'll report back in a couple of weeks on that one. The other is everyone at the party will be separated by one degree. Because this was inspired from one person's contact database everyone will know at least one other person in the room. A nice change from the more formal businesswoman's networking events held in every city where you walk in knowing no one except the friend you convinced to come with you!

Creativity and Innovation, rarer still

"Businesses that aspire to creativity and technological innovation are rare and prized. And the people who see the possibilities of their own creativity are rarer still." - Dan Gibbons, CEO of Carrie & Danielle

As a visionary for your organization do you aspire to creativity and technological innovation?

What holds us back? The day-to-day? The trees? Or, as Dan Gibbons puts it - perhaps its our inability to realize the possibilities of our own creativity? Or, perhaps, the inability of leaders to see the possibility of creativity in the teams that they lead?

Where do you get the motivation, the inspiration to connect to the possibilities, to dream of innovations? And how do you translate that into a vision for what you are doing?

The beautiful thing for those who do translate their aspirations into a vision and their vision into action is that so few do it -- those who do reap the rewards, and make the world a better place.

Quiet Confidence

Quiet confidence captures the attention of a room when it enters. Quiet confidence is humble, articulate, confident yet not arrogant. It is pleasing and attractive. Quiet confidence is aspirational.

From Larry Barnett, Ph.D. website:

• It is not arrogance, conceit or selfishness.
• Quiet Confidence is a more modest but real feeling of balance and stability.
• Quiet Confidence is a sense of self-reliance that allows one to be at ease and cool under stress.
• It involves the ability to live in the present and to see things as they are.

I want to see more corporate brands exude the qualities of quiet confidence. Presenting your company and the sum total of who you are with quiet confidence instills trust with your stakeholders, customers, and employees. Be who and what you are and step out into your marketplace with quiet confidence - that's what will get you noticed.

Some quiet confident brands:

Where do you find creativity in your world?

This blog was created to provide a place for people, who don't work in design-focussed businesses and industries, to come and find inspiration. To open the door to another world, if only for a moment, with the intention of being exposed to something outside of their known world, a glimpse into another that may inspire a creative idea or help with a problem.

Carmina Perez, creator of the blog Mogulette-in-the-making lives in the world of entrepreneurship. Not a traditionally design-driven world and yet she is continually coming up with inspiring and creative content. So, I asked her a few questions about how she finds creativity in the world.


How do you keep up your relentless pursuit of providing support and resources to entrepreneurs?
I'm passionate about new media and web 2.0 as they apply to building a business so I regularly read Inc., Entrepreneur, NY Enterprise Report. I also follow a sampling of blogs on my RSS reader, among them Small Business Trends, BizSugar, How To Change the World. I also talk to entrepreneurs directly, I find them very inspirational. And lastly I attend conferences to make sure I’m plugged in.

How do you put the spark back into your work when you are feeling stuck or uninspired?
To move out of this mindset is no easy feat, but luckily I've learned a few tricks that help me snap out of it. One is to call a trusted friend, share my fears and ask for feedback. I also check in regularly with my "action partners" - colleagues that have businesses they want to grow just like me. That forces me to include others in my decisions and not figure things out by myself. Having others there to support and encourage me is essential.

What inspires you outside of the business world?
My business is my creation - it's my blank canvas, which is why I'm so drawn to artists and their creative process. I especially like modern and contemporary art - Frida Kahlo, Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothko - I see how these ground breaking pioneers followed their gut and painted what they felt, even when others couldn't appreciate it. They didn't get discouraged by their struggle. They kept working because that was their purpose in life. In my business I feel I need to be equally as fearless about what I want, about my vision, and to pursue it purposefully and without judgment. A beautiful building, a great piece of music, a fire red sunset - they all give me a sense of awe, an appreciation of life, of being on this earth. A good book will stay with me long after I've read its last pages, and I love when I'm transported by a good movie.

Who inspires you?
My favorites are John Jantsch (Duct Tape Marketing), and Guy Kawasaki (How To Change The World). John is an author, publisher and consultant, while Guy is a venture capitalist and author. They are so successful at what they do and make it seem effortless.

What was your last creative moment?
Yesterday, while jogging! I came up with a creative campaign idea to pitch one of my sponsors.

Are you a slasher?

Blogger Carmina Perez of Mogulette-in-the-Making asked me to write a guest blog on branding for entrepreneurs posted here. The posting is geared to very new entrepreneurs but is equally fitting for established brands renewing their positioning in the marketplace.

You'll read about the:

• 3-D perspective all visionary leaders need to have when building their brands
• importance of developing a brand strategy
• 4 pitfalls of brand development

It's a quick study on the Studio Pinpoint approach.

Splash!

Stuck? Need to get away? Need a break? Check this out!
Just click here.

It works better in Mozilla Firefox.

Jackson Pollock, painter.

Design = Strategy

In the world of design: products, interiors, fashion, architecture and so on it is all about fit and finish. Discerning customers know when fit and finish is above average.

• Have you ever put on a suit that fits like a glove?
• Walk into a space that inspires an emotional response?
• Seen a building that overwhelms you yet fits right into its environment?
• Used a product that is so intuitive and good looking you take for granted what went into it?

This is fit and finish. How do you achieve perfect fit and finish? Through design, of course.

If the design phase of any product or effort is cut short you get just another suit, another interior, another building, another product. All of which lose their appeal quickly.

Design is what makes the difference. You can design something so that it can be manufactured economically with exceptional fit and finish. You can manufacture something more expensively that was just engineered, not designed. Design and the resulting fit and finish is not about high or low value, it's about how beautifully your vision becomes reality. The greater the investment in design the more beautiful the outcome.

In business, design is strategy. Whether it is your 5-year plan, your launch plan, your brand, your hiring habits. The greater your investment in strategy, the more beautiful the outcome.

Your business strategy is your design phase. Invest the effort and the time. Expect nothing less than exceptional fit and finish from your business. If you don't like talking about strategy, if strategy has been eluding you, then design!

A Brand: start with one word

On a recent project I was brought in after several failed attempts to revitalize the brand for a 100-year old company. The last effort had centered messaging around worldly, exciting and fun. The problem was that nothing about the company was worldly, exciting or fun. The company was not able to sustain a believable and authentic brand. The brand positioning that was developed kept the needs of the target audience in mind without giving one thought to the company, its people and its culture.

So what's missing in the way brand strategies are being developed today? No one ever checks to see if the message reflects the culture of the company.

If you want to ensure you're developing a brand that works then make it an authentic reflection of your organization. How do you start? Start with one word.

Often, when I work with organizations one word will surface. The word embodies the core values of that organization. It's a word that, to me, reflects the essence of who they are. This usually happens the very first time I meet them - even before I get hired to do the work, it's the first impression.

Here are some examples of that one word:

RESPONSIBLITY - as a developer of residential communities in the suburbs and urban centers, it was clear within the first two meetings that this architect-owned company had a deep sense of responsibility to people, communities and the urban landscape. A refreshing change from their competitive marketplace. The brand platform we developed for Liza Communities reflects their commitment to life and exudes this sense of responsibility throughout.

COLLABORATION - this design firm exudes the essence and spirit of collaboration in all its work. They are open to change, open minded and they truly approach each client with a clear sense of purpose. In developing the brand platform for this firm, the purpose is not to talk about collaboration, as many design firms do, but to use the word as inspiration for developing the brand. When this is done the brand will be an authentic and truthful reflection of the culture of the design studio. The brand will embody the spirit of collaboration in its personality.

BALANCE - a multi-disciplinary design and engineering firm is faced with the challenge of defining its strategic growth model. What came to the forefront in this organization, where the left brain work of the engineers is as crucial to the business as the right brain work of the designers is that the company has struck a balance internally that is well managed and respected. This balance, although not the core brand identity, must be reflected in the brand personality, in the messaging and in the way they craft their strategic growth model.

PLAYFUL - an industrial design firm well known in one industry is on the verge of growth. Six years into their business they must define their brand and develop a strong platform from which to grow or they may fall into the trap of speaking the way all design firms do about their work: "we are innovative". To grow from being well known in one industry to being well known in many this firm must clearly see that a sense of playfulness is what is inherent in their approach to design and in the personality of the people that work there - and reflect this in their brand.

What's your word?