How do you stand out in a world of AI mediocrity and, more broadly, B2B same-ness? 

 

Where in the world?

Twenty years ago, I was five years into editing a weekly column by futurist and former BT CTO Peter Cochrane. His 100+ columns for his ‘Uncommon Sense’ series were rolled up into this book.  

Great as his column was – full of sage advice, anecdotes and sense-making – we heard the same thing time and time again: readers went straight to the end of each piece, where we always noted where Peter was working from that week.

The rise of Wi-Fi and 3G mobile had ushered in digital nomadism and next-level remote working. Peter was at the vanguard. A globetrotter. We had no complaints, embraced his behaviour, and were sure that a high proportion of the audience went back for the meat of each piece after finding out if he was in Tokyo or Seattle.  

 

Unpacking boss

More recently, we came across this video piece by management consultants Oliver Wyman. The firm shot a short video of its CEO unpacking his work backpack.

I know at least one contact who raised an eyebrow when I told him about the set up, and ‘unpacking’ or ‘unboxing’ videos are nothing new. But the episode humanised this senior executive and presented him as fundamentally accessible and down to earth. It works.  

 

EOW

Here at Collective Content we care a lot about our LinkedIn company page, though we only tend to talk about ourselves one day a week.

Our Friday end-of-week post (aka EOW), features photos and one-liners from our team: pets, wildlife, food (especially Friday night dinner), photos of meetings with clients and partners, the places around the world where we’re working, the books we’re reading, films we’re streaming. It comprises three examples: one written, one video, and a photo gallery. You get the idea.

And guess what? This is reliably our most viewed and engaged-with post of the week! People – whether they’re a would-be client or new hire, or freelancer – get to know our team. It’s also a chance to celebrate different, ‘off-guard’ aspects of work…and life! I think this says something about how audiences and clients want to understand who they’re doing business with.

Are our EOW moments always genuinely authentic and candid? Not 100 per cent. The examples are carefully produced, but they are also undeniably human, and that can’t be faked.  

Organisations of every size, shape and location need to talk about this kind of content more.