Month: February 2009

Categories
Web sites

Lessons on Marketing from Twitter

I really don’t like referring to one blogger all the time, and I don’t even read his blog every day, but somehow I stumbled on this post and thought it was relevant to my post yesterday.  (And as I write this, I’m watching a Nightline story on Twitter, so I feel like I’m right on the cutting edge of relevance.)

There are two concepts that Chris demonstrates in his post:

  1. The new marketing is about personal, human contact that is easy now because of web tools, not the spam messages that are also easy with the new tools.  Spam is the lazy way, and the old school business model, which actually damages your reputation and is more detrimental to your business than the few sales or traffic you may get from it.
  2. The new web tools (and influence built with them) also allow changes to be made quickly, which makes your business nimble and responsive, able to address your customer’s concerns instantly.  And that is invaluable to your customer, in fact, so amazing that they might tell all their friends about how you treated them so well.  And that’s really good for you.

 

I guess the overall message is that we should be careful about every interaction we have with anyone, because that is who we are to that person, especially if they have no other information on which to base their impressions.

So this post actually ends up being about the new marketing and not so much about Twitter.  Because you can do good and bad marketing with other tools also.

Categories
Web sites

Everyone’s doing it

Okay, maybe not everyone.  I’m not even doing it on a regular basis.

But I know about it, and I dable.

What am I talking about?        Twitter.

Even if you think it is a complete waste of time and has absolutely no value, you should understand it, and how and why it works.

I’m sure people thought telephones, TV, the internet, and blogging were useless and of no value when they started also.  Hindsight is always 20/20.

It appears that people are really helping their business with it, along with plenty of other useful features, such as organizing live groups in an instant, emergency messages, and knowing what is going on in general.

So here’s a pretty good Beginner’s Guide I came across.  I’m sure there are many others. 

Check it out if you’re curious.

Remember, only the curious learn new things.

Categories
Books Web sites

Your Next Presentation

There are lots of books and web sites and people who give advice on how to give good presentations.  And if you give presentations (who doesn’t) it’s probably a good idea to learn as much as you can.

But even though there may be timeless principles on presenting a message, I think you’ll find that there are some new ideas that are challenging some of the old ones that have been around a while.

Check out this great post I found recently from Chris Brogan .  It seems to match some of the other concepts I’ve heard from successful presenters lately.

For the interested student, other current masters of presentations are:

 

Learn something different and make your next presentation a smash hit.

Categories
Thoughts

Virtue

What of virtue?

It’s not a word that is used very often these days, and depending on your background or worldview it can have various meanings.  But based on my limited research, most definitions of the word are good, and my only point in bringing it up is to try to get the word back into circulation.  I think it might help the world for this word to be part of more conversations.

Here’s why:

The first definition from Webster’s is:  conformity to a standard of right.

This implies that there is a standard of right that one should conform to.  Yes, we all may not agree on the particular details of that standard, but I think deep down, we probably have more area that we agree on than disagree.  Even those who don’t conform to the standard will agree on a right and wrong, they just usually have a reason or justification of why they might have deviated from the standard.

The second part of that definition is: a particular moral excellence.

Morality or having morals is about a system of principles or rules of conduct, and if having virtue is on the ‘excellence’ side of our rules of conduct then that means that someone is conducting themselves better or higher than whatever standard is normal.  And we usually respect those people who are able to live at a higher standard because we all know that being ‘excellent’ is more difficult.  Making a choice between something easy and hard is difficult, so choosing to be excellent is usually the hard side.

The other two definitions of virtue that I think are interesting to be both part of the same word are:

  1. manly strength or courage
  2. chastity especially in a woman

 

It appears to me that most concepts in the world today associated with manly strength or courage would not be associated with chastity.  In fact, probably the opposite, which is why I think the word virtue should be used more often, so that people can connect these two concepts:  that real manly strength, courage or valor involves protecting the chastity of women.

Categories
Thoughts

Do whatever you want (doesn’t that sound fun?)

I know it’s old news so I’m sure you’ve heard about how Google employees get to spend 20% of their time on what ever they want.  It’s not time to goof off, it’s actually working on a project that you either came up with yourself or that someone else came up with but you also find interesting. 

I’ve just been thinking about that concept lately and how innovative and productive that would be.  People always dream of being entrepreneurs and being their own boss, why not give them that thrill without all the risk and hassel of funding and other issues.  For the most part, people want to do good, and they want the company they work for to do well.  So if they can think of something that will benefit the company, or the group they work in, why not let them do it?

Being the boss and telling people what to do and how to do it assumes that you know more than the people you’ve hired.  And if you believe that, then that means that your boss must know more than you. (Most everyone has a boss.)  Now it may be true that high ranking executives or leaders are very smart and talented, but it is impossible that they are smarter in every area than every employee who works beneath them.  Therefore, they ought to be harvesting the talent, skills, and knowledge of everyone in the company to make the company better, more profitable, gain more market share, have a better working environment, or whatever ‘better’ means to the company and the individuals.

And what better way to do that than to say, hey at least 20% of your time should be dedicated to improving things.  I guess it really comes down to trust. 

I suppose people may work on things that may not be such a good idea, but the value that is gained by the improved morale and company loyalty is worth it.  Besides, there should probably be some kind of subjective evaluation to see if the effort is worthwhile.  But it shouldn’t be too detailed, only enough to determine if it will cause major negative repercussions.

 Anyway, that’s what I’ve decided I’m going to do if I’m ever in charge of a group of people.

Categories
Consultants Web sites

Fandom

fansHave you heard about creating fans instead of customers?

I’ve heard that all you need is 1000 true fans and you’re financially set for life.

Here is an excellent  slideshare presentation that talks about the new fan economy.

Wow, the things you learn when you know people (or the right people).  This guy, Bud Caddell, gets paid to sit around and think all day.  He reads about 300 blogs a day. (So I guess he does more than thinking.)

Maybe I’ll give him one more to read.

flickr photo by wvs

Categories
Thoughts Web sites

Do you trust us with the new tools?

Companies set up systems in order to produce their products, then they put their heads down and produce. tools

“We don’t have time for that new fangled mumbo jumbo, we’re busy doing real work here.”

I wonder when the first company decided that telephones were a good idea to give their workers?

And give a computer to every employee? That’s crazy talk!

I do remember when everyone in our company was given full access to the internet.  That was quite the controversy.  “They’ll just be surfin’ the web all day.”  Maybe, but it seems like each new advance in tools or technology requires a lot of trust.  Mostly because the most powerful tools can be used for good or bad, productivity or wastefulness, innovation or drivel.

Well, here we are in another phase of new tools – Web 2.0.  It seems like companies should be able to learn from the past.  And I think they are, but there is still resistance, and progress is slow.  Again, trust is a factor, plus a lack of understanding of the impact or potential that the new tools can provide.

Here is a great article from a reputable source (McKinsey) on how companies can make the new Web 2.0 tools work for them.  

The info is out there.  Companies really have no excuse for not understanding  and benefitting from new things.

flickr photo by docman

Categories
Thoughts

Build an Igloo (or do something else really hard)

Everyone should have the experience of building an igloo. 

That’s what I did this weekend.  And let me tell you, it’s not easy.

But I learned many lessons that I think could be applied in other situations.

1.  To get the great feeling of significant accomplishment, you have to do something really difficult.

     Spending 5 hours packing snow, shoveling snow and lifting heavy blocks is not a small task.  And it helps your motivation if you have nowhere else to sleep that night.  Commit to something big, and you’ll feel great when it’s over.

2.  Follow instructions.

     If someone has experience, or knows more than you, and has provided you instructions, it would be wise for you to follow them.  We had specific instructions for building an igloo, including layout size, block sizes, and techniques.  There were others who tried to  build igloos just based on what they thought was a good idea, but in the end, they didn’t turn out so well.

3.  Have faith in those with experience.

     This is similar to # 2 but there were times when the instructions just didn’t seem to make sense.  Only later in the process did we understand the wisdom of the specific instructions.  There were also times when we didn’t think the blocks were very stable and that the whole thing could come crashing down in an instant.  But we had faith, followed the instructions, and the structure turned out very sturdy.

4.  Persist.

     When you’re really tired, and nothing seems to be going right, and you want to quit… don’t.  Don’t give up.  The thrill of success will be so much sweeter when you’ve gone to the edge of defeat.  When one of our key large blocks broke, we thought we were done and had no way to finish, but we kept working it and figured out a way to make it work.  Only pure persistence got us through, because logically, we didn’t seem to have any options.

These probably sound like old fashioned lessons, but that’s why they’re so valuable, they have stood the test of time and apply to almost any situation. 

It took building an igloo for me to understand them at a deeper level.

Destroying our 7' high igloo
Destroying our 7' high igloo
Categories
Thoughts

Ideas, Money, and ???

What do you need for economic stimulus?

First you need business ideas that will generate income and make money for the owners and employees.

Done. 

Seth Godin and some friends provided 999 ideas.  That should be enough to get started.

Next, you need some seed money to make them happen.

Done.

Billionaire Mark Cuban has plenty of money for funding new businesses and he wants to give it away, but he has laid out specific rules and stipulations for the type of business he is looking for.  That’s okay because it’s his money and beggars can’t be choosers.

What else is needed?

Oh yeah… hard work. 

That’s the missing link.  

So it looks like we have unlimited money and ideas available, we just need the tough sweat equity work to make things happen.  Then we don’t need an economic stimulus package, we need a hard work stimulus package.

Let’s go do it.

Categories
Web sites

Buzz

Here’s a link that a friend of mine sent to me today.

It talks about the art of generating buzz, or word of mouth marketing which is so powerful.

Do you know how to do it?

Categories
Thoughts

Crawl, Walk, Run

Here’s a concept for you.  Before you launch that revolutionary innovative idea, or tackle that BHAG (Big Harry Audacious Goal), it might be wise to start small.

Maybe you should practice that skill at a lower level until it is mastered before you move on to the next step. 

Maybe there’s something you just can’t understand at that higher level without knowing what it takes to exist at the lower level.

Maybe you’ll give up altogether if it is too difficult to reach that final state.

Sometimes when we learn about how awesome running is and how it can get you places so much faster, we want to just do that first, and don’t have time for that crawling and walking stuff.  But sometimes it’s just not possible to really run correctly without taking the time to master the crawling and walking stages.

Are there things you could be better at if you went back to crawling or walking?

Are there things you’ve been putting off because you haven’t felt ready to run yet?  What could be a crawling stage to get you started?

Categories
Books Thoughts

Fear of Failure?

Fear of failure is overrated.

You’re likely not going to get fired over trying something new and radical.  So it’s not really failure that people are afraid of, it’s blame, criticism.

This is another great topic that Seth Godin elaborates on in his book Tribes.

He says that we’re afraid to launch that new idea or product or presentation because we’re worried, deep down, that someone will hate it and call us on it.  “That’s the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard!” “What a waste of money.” “Who’s responsible for this?”

Sometimes the criticism doesn’t have to be that obvious.  The fear of hearing “I’m surprised you launched this without doing more research” is enough to get many people to do a lot more research, to study something to death, and then kill it.  Hey, at least you didn’t get criticized.

Seth admits, getting a bad book review hurts his feelings, and it is about enough to ruin his day.  But it’s not enough.  It’s not enough to ruin his day because his book got noticed.   He realizes that a bad review is a badge of honor because it means that he confounded expectations – he did something worth remarking on.

So the challenge, as you contemplate your next opportunity to be boring or remarkable, is to answer these two questions:

1.  If I get criticized for this, will I suffer any measurable impact other than feeling bad about the criticism?  If so, how does that feeling compare with the benefits from actually doing something worth doing?  Being remarkable is exciting, fun, profitable, and great for your career.  Feeling bad wears off.  If you’ve decided to take the remarkable path, answer this one:

2.  How can I create something that critics will criticize?

Categories
Web sites

TED 2009

If you haven’t heard about it, you should, which is why I’m just another voice spreading ‘ideas worth spreading’.

I don’t know the history or too much of the background, but TED stands for Technology, Entertainment, Design, and it is basically a conference of amazing presentations regarding a wide variety of topics, some from famous people, some from everyday people who have a unique story to tell.  The presentations are video recorded and shown on their website for free.

There are two major events, the one in the US just ocurred in Long Beach CA with some interesting stuff from Bill Gates, and the TED Global conference in London in July.

I’m sure they’d be an incredible event to attend, but with all the video, you’re almost there.

You now have a lot of video to watch.  (Don’t worry, many presentations are short.  Just start with a quick one.)

Categories
Thoughts

Influence

So how do you do it?

The philosophy outlined in the previous post always sounds good in theory, but how do you actually do it?  How do you get someone to care about what you feel is important?

Here are 3 tips.

1.  Find out what is important to the other person.

When people feel understood and listened to, they are given a fresh breath of ‘psychological’ air.  They get the feeling that you are on their side, that you can relate to where they’re coming from, that you care.  But here’s the key point: you do have to really care.  You can’t just manipulate them with saying the right words, they’ll smell it, they’ll find out, it won’t work.  You have to show that you truly care about what is important to that other person. 

2.  Support others in acheiving their goals.

Do whatever you can to help people accomplish what they trying to do.  Go out of your way to do something that will be appreciated.  Add value to their efforts.  Spread the word about their efforts.  Give an encouraging word and sincere appreciation.  Again, it must be a sincere effort, something you do willingly because you want them to succeed, not because you expect something in return.

3.  Share what you care about.

Talk about what is important to you, in an honest and sincere way.  Don’t tell people why they should change, share how it has affected you personally.  Be truthful and honest.  Make sure your words and actions are congruent and that your integrity is clearly apparent. 

Then let people choose.

When people fundamentally share the same deep down beliefs and goals, they are willing to work together to accomplish great things.  When you follow these tips, you are connecting with people at a deeper level that allows real synergy for working together.  If people choose not to connect with you, or accept your help, or share the same fundamental beliefs, then maybe you don’t need them to.  You can’t force others to care about what you feel is important.  So don’t even try it, you’ll damage the relationship, making it even more impossible to have any influence in the future.

I’ve learned these concepts from various sources and experience, which I’m sure you can also relate to and validate, but these specific tips were articulated perfectly by Dick Axelrod in his ebook, so I just had to share them.

Categories
Thoughts

True Leadership

There are two ways to get someone to do what you want.

  1. Tell them to do it, and the reason is because you are the boss and they have to do what you say.
  2. Influence them in a way that they’ll want to do it on their own accord.

 

One way is easy and gets results.  The other way is difficult and results are not consistent.

One way makes things happen in the short term, but damages long term possibilities.  The other way creates a solid relationship with potential for even greater accomplishments in the future.

One way derives power from compulsion.  The other way derives power from true caring and respect.

Which type of leader would you rather work for?

Which way would you rather be known for?