Showing posts with label Business. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Business. Show all posts

Wednesday, February 9, 2011

5 Tips for Digital Authors in 2011



[caption id="" align="alignleft" width="147" caption="Image by Mooganic via Flickr"]Robot typing 02[/caption]


Lately it seems my worlds are colliding. I've made my living as a digital business strategist for over a decade now. And for nearly that same amount of time, I've been peripherally involved in the publishing world. The chocolate of one is mixing with the peanut butter of the other.

Here are five themes to help authors adapt and relate to the digital world of 2011 (and beyond) I'm noodling over currently. They appeal directly to authors -- fiction, non-fiction, screenplay... you name it. In the next few weeks(?), I'll flush them out in greater detail, perhaps ad nauseum.

But until I do, here's a taste to whet the appetite:

  1. Promote you, not your book
    It's a personal and connected world out there. People are more influenced by people than promotion. And you should be working on your career as a writer, right? So before you spend another minute planning the most epic website ever for your book, see how your personal digital credibility stacks up.

  2. No, you can't have a private life
    Because of what I just said, this isn't an option. Boycotting social media on principle is premptive career suicide. People will find out where you live. Fans will find out where you are going to be. Your privacy is an illusion. Deal with it.

  3. Fail fast
    The future is unwritten. Authors who try interesting digital experiments will fail more often than they succeed. The trick isn't to avoid failure, it's to quickly recognize it, bail and move on to the next new idea.

  4. Publishers won't help you
    Publishers aren't evil. Some are even pushing the forefront of technology. But they are here to make money. As long as they can make money off of you, they'll be on your side. But they aren't your friend. Nor should they be. It's just business.

  5. The past has passed
    Publishing doesn't mean the same thing as it did 50 years ago. Hell, it doesn't mean the same thing as it did five years ago. Adapt, or die.


Feel free to agree or disagree below. As I said, I'll dig into more of this stuff in the coming [unit of time]. And I'm looking forward to concentrating more on the publishing world!


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Monday, April 12, 2010

Effective SEO: The ONLY 5 Things That Matter

Buring Money
Image by purpleslog via Flickr
Don't run away just yet. I promise not to turn this blog into one more place where some SEO1 expert moron spews out stuff they know nothing about. In fact, this will probably be one of the few times I talk about SEO. I promise.

But it's an important topic: The SEO "industry" has convinced everyone that this stuff is hard. Sorry, but it's not. I'm a firm believer that the most effective approach is to teach your designers and developers the basic and fundamental concepts behind good website design, architecture and implementation. Done properly, your web pages will get the rank they deserve. And you can worry about running your business instead of wasting money trying to find ways to subvert Google. Because you're never going to win that game.

Below is a talk I gave at Social Media Club Phoenix last week. I typically lead a "social media 101" discussion prior to the meeting. My class was about double the size from months prior. I have to assume that at least some of it was the topic: Dispelling SEO Myths -- something you wouldn't typically hear spoken about at Social Media Club. And because of that swell in attendance, I decided to post it here. Seems like lots of businesses are struggling with this. As usual, I have a simpler way to handle it.

Yes, just those five things. No, I'm not kidding. You could go deeper, but you're wasting your time if you haven't done those five things. You're also wasting your time if you can't do those things so are considering hiring an outside firm to do something else for you. That's wasting your money, because "something else" won't work. Do the things I tell you. If you can't, spend your money trying to get that changed so that you can do those things. Or if you want, give half of that money to me. I'll at least be upfront with you and tell you nothing will happen. Your expectations will be properly set and you'll know you're wasting money, rather than finding out what a waste it was six months from now. I'm kidding, obviously. Save your money until you can spend it on something that will work.

Preemptive strike for you SEO-types -- Don't bother. You may have examples upon examples of how your trick or technique works. I don't care. You and I both know the tricks you try have limited chances of working and only work for a limited time. You and I also know that every time it doesn't work, you blame it on the client's inability to implement your plan. I get that. See above. I'm trying to fix that. But no, I don't think you should be able to charge stupid amounts of money each and every month to unsuspecting clients who haven't the foggiest how your efforts actually help them sell more stuff. Because they probably don't. You can't argue me out of my position. I can't argue you out of yours. Let's just agree to disagree on this, OK?

Preemptive strike for those who want to hire me for SEO work -- If you want me to help you come up with a strategy to dump your outsourced SEO firm and bring it in-house, I can help. But if you're looking for someone to "just do the work", that's not me. I know plenty of very nice, very smart and very fair people who do SEO work and am happy to make a referral. That is, if any of them are still talking to me after reading this post.

1 - Search Engine Optimization. I hate the term and much prefer "SEF", or making your pages Search Engine Friendly.

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Monday, March 22, 2010

Remarkable Online Content from Remarkable Offline Business

The modern portrayal of Santa Claus frequently...
Image via Wikipedia
You could make an argument that Santa Claus has the best customer service in the world. Think about it. Traveling all around the world delivering the perfect gifts to every boy and girl? Beats the heck out of UPS, right?

Come to think of it, that means he's got the most remarkable products in the world to. Anyone who can get that many spot-on gifts for so many hard-to-please kids is the very definition of remarkable.

It would be a great business story, except for one problem. Yes, you guessed it: he's imaginary.

And so is your great customer service and remarkable product if evidence of that greatness and remarkableness doesn't exist online.

[pauses for food-throwing to stop]

Yes, I know that you do business in the real world. The transactions between your company and your clients happen there, not here. And not only do you not want to transition your business online, you can't! You can't fill a cavity remotely. You can't wow a crowd as a keynote from your desk, and people can't virtually sleep in your 1,000 room hotel.

But you can talk about those who did.

You need to build and publish content online that talks about those great and remarkable things about your company. Getting online is easy. Pushing out content like a publisher isn't. It takes a new set of skills. A new set of priorities. And a whole new way of thinking about the daily interactions between you and your customers.

How is your content? Where is your content? When will you start making the creation and publication of your remarkable content a priority?


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Friday, March 19, 2010

5 Simpler Ways to Lead Your Business to Social Media

Desert Leader
Image by Hamed Saber via Flickr
Getting your business started in social media isn't hard. But considering the amount of businesses that stink at it, maybe it should be harder. Or maybe businesses deciding to take the plunge into social media need to have a leader with a plan. What a concept.

Takeaways


  1. Monitor your brand. Google Alerts is a good place to start. Go wider with socialmention. Get serious and use Radian6 when you need to.
  2. Find employees who care. I'll be shocked if you don't have someone on staff who gets this stuff. This is their new job. Tomorrow.
  3. Let all departments play. This isn't one person's dominion. Social Media touches every aspect of your organization. Embrace that.
  4. Education matters. You're new to this. We aren't. Why make the same mistakes all over again?
  5. Demand results. If your team can't show you how this impacts your business, you may have the wrong team. Although you need to give them the tools and time to succeed.

    Juicy Details


    My friend Jay Baer suggests that your company make a commitment to do more than just do social media. He says -- and I agree -- that a truly successful company has to figure out how to be social. In the first, you're just going through the motions. Trying out one more new thing. And probably shuffling it off fast as you look for something else to try in passing. But the latter, actually becoming a social company, is something entirely different. It will change your organization -- for the better. But it won't do it by itself. It takes you, the leader of the company, to make the commitment. To see it through.


    Skeptical? You should be. So don't go off half-cocked. Here are five simpler ways to getting your business involved in Social Media. Do them right, and you'll see the changes I'm talking about.


    Up Periscope. You know all those conversations and all that engagement various pundits have been talking about for the past three years? Yes, that advice and information you've been ignoring. Guess what? It's happening. And the people having those conversations and engaging with one another don't really care if you are listening or not. They're having conversations about your brand. They're engaging with other people -- some of whom may be your employees. You're blissfully unaware. And they don't care.

    Or maybe that isn't happening. Maybe your product or service is so utterly unremarkable that no one is talking about it. No one is engaging. No one cares? Sure it's possible. It may even be likely. But you'll never know if you don't stick the periscope above the water line and take a look.

    Better said, you should start listening. The social web is inherently discoverable. Sharable. Social, if you will. Because of that, anyone can jump in and join the conversation. Or just listen. And that's where I want you to start -- by listening. Not engaging. Just listening. Listen first. Evaluate the landscape. Take the collective temperature. Then, and only then, can you take the next step.

    Listening to the social sphere starts out free. You can learn a lot by setting up Google Alerts on your own brand. You'll get emails sent to you every day when matches are found. When you're ready to broaden your search, give socialmention a try. Steve Farnsworth has a list of dozens of other similar free services. At some point, you'll want to graduate from free tools and do it like the pros. That would be me. I like Radian6, but selecting the right tool depends on the unique needs of each company.


    Let Your People Go. No, don't fire them. Well, maybe some. But I'm talking about the people who work for you who are already involved with social media. And if you don't think there are any: you're wrong. Someone in your organization has created a facebook group. Someone is tweeting about what they had for lunch. And someone has just checked in on Gowalla. It's happening. I promise. Right now, they're doing it under cover of darkness, because they think you'll flip out when you discover that they don't spend 100% of the 40+ hours you ask them to put in on strictly business-related work.

    But you can change that. You can find that person -- those people -- and understand that they are better at this stuff than you are. You have the power to give them the power to make their current clandestine operations a part of their jobs. Maybe their only job. Because you can't hire out for this stuff. We'll get to training and education in a minute, but you have to have the people responsible for being social for your company an integral part of your company. And why wouldn't you promote someone who's already intimately familiar with your company and is an active social media denizen? Yes, they currently perform valuable jobs for your company. No, they can't do that job and become the social springboard for your company. But you can always find someone else to do their current job. Do that. Now. Before your competitor comes along and offers them a job.


    Break Down Walls Between Departments. You don't get to have a Social Media Department. Sorry. This doesn't work like anything else you've tried before. Social media touches every aspect of your business. Marketing, PR, Customer Services, Tech Support, Operations, Biz Dev, HR... even Accounts Payable! The last thing you want to do is develop a formal inter-departmental policy for sharing of information up and down the chain. That way lies madness! And huge inefficiencies that simply won't be fast enough to allow you to respond at-speed in the social media world.

    Ultimately, you need social media team members in all of those departments! No, you're not going to make a new position within each one. You're going to let communication inside your company develop as naturally as communication develops outside of it. You're going to keep your lawyers and training staff at bay and busy drafting communications guidelines that clearly provides guidelines -- not rigid rules -- for how they should represent your company. And then you're going to tell the lawyers and training staff to relax and cut it down to a one-pager. This isn't about process. This is about providing a framework to allow your social employees can get their job done at the speed of social. And keep you out of hot water.


    Look Outside for Thought Leaders. The social world is changing fast. And no, it's not going away. Just like the internet didn't. And once you start letting your existing staff become internal social media experts, they are quite naturally going to start refining their social media skills as they currently relate to your organization. They are going to become the best experts in your industry... if you let them. Unfortunately, the world of social media is going to keep evolving outside of your industry. They won't have the bandwidth to keep up with everything new and learn how other industries are leveraging tools, techniques and tactics to increase efficiencies. Many of the strategic advances taking place elsewhere won't trickle down, and your company could be missing out on better opportunities.

    Combating this from the inside is hard. If not impossible. Your best bet? Go outside for strategy and realignment sessions. No, I don't think you should outsource your social media efforts. Yes, I do think that your company needs a frequent "sanity check" from independent and active social media practitioners. Things change fast in this world. That doesn't mean you should adopt every trend. Far from it. But you need someone you can rely upon to bring innovative ideas to your business. And unless you want to free up an employee to spend half their time pontificating, blogging and attending every possible social media conference, you're better off looking to the outside for this. I know a guy...


    Set Expectations and Demand Results. You're a business owner. You understand the business success metrics. You understand your goals. A big part of your up-front job is effectively communicating these to your social media staff so they can define hard measureables that you both agree upon. It's no good having you define those measureables. You don't know what can be measured! And it's no good having them come back to you with charts that show how many times a coupon was re-tweeted. But together -- probably with the help of the person above -- you can figure out what you should expect out of those conversations and engagements.

    Yes, social media can and should have a positive ROI. With real numbers you can take to your CFO and have him embrace. Easy? Nope. Critical? Absolutely.


    So... that was a long post. As much as I'd love to hear your feedback on the contents, I'm also curious what you think about the format? I rather like the idea of putting the takeaways at the top of the article. That way you can decide if you care enough to keep reading. But maybe I'm giving away the ending. Though... it's not like this is fiction, right?


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Thursday, March 18, 2010

What Business Can Learn from Trololo

I normally save the "fun" stuff for my other blog, keeping this one focused on online business and the more professional side of me. But today, we have attained crossover. Yes, the web is often a silly place. But the story I'm about to tell shows how silly can lead to something more meaningful. Though I'm a big fan of silly for silly's sake.

In 1966, Russian singer Eduard Khil preformed1 a lyrics-less tune on Soviet television. The tune goes by the unfortunate name of I 'm So Pleased As I'm Finally Returning Home. The lyrics, according to Blippiit, were considered anti-Soviet and had to be removed. Ah, repression.

Then time passes. About 44 years worth of time, actually. Due to the unaccountable weirdness that often is the internet, Eduard's performance surfaced on YouTube and has amassed well over 3 million views. So far. It's been seen on network television. It's been parodied by late night television. And the song with the horribly long name has now become the internet meme Trololo.

Normally, that's where the story would end. Yet another short-lived curiosity of the web, waiting to be overtaken by what's next.

But it turns out that Eduard is still very much alive and kicking. When he found out about his new internet fame, his reaction wasn't what you might expect from a man who's probably pushing 80. He got it. From what I've seen, he got it immediately. And he reached out in kind using the same medium that propelled him to this new-found fame in attempt to push the meme even further. Not with more silly parody skits. Not with a re-enactment. And certainly not with a "Ah, you silly Americans. You buy my music, yes?" request.

Eduard is encouraging others -- anyone, really -- around the world to add to the song. To use the collective connected world to add their own lyrics. To develop and broadcast live a new imagining of the song for 2010. That. Is. Cool! that is... remarkable.



What Trololo can teach businesses, organizations and entrepreneurs
  • Embrace the silly. Some things you just can't plan for. No one could have predicted that YouTube would cause a 44-year-old video to find fresh legs, travel around the world and (potentially) spawn something new.

  • YouTube's captioning of videos is ground breaking. And not just for foreign language content. It's easy. It's powerful. I'm of the mind that you should probably caption every video where the words are an important part of a message. How-to, interviews... all of it!

  • Engage and trust your audience. Eduard is one person. But hundreds or maybe even thousands of people will want to jump in and help with the next stage of this. Sure, there will probably be spoilers in there. But they'll quickly be out-voiced by true supporters. Eduard probably doesn't have a product to sell, a message to spread or a brand to boost. But you do. Do you encourage your current customers/supporters/fans to get involved. Why not?


Turn and face the strange. Ch-ch-changes. Are you paying attention yet?

1 - OK, so it was probably lip-synched. So what? The man is a born performer!

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Friday, March 12, 2010

You're doing it wrong in the bathroom

I get the need to market yourself. I really do. It's a down economy. You've got bills to pay. You want to make sure you make the most out of every opportunity to sell you product, service or business.

But isn't this going a little to far? Forcing your business cards on everyone you accost meet at an event is a bad idea. Littering every table in the venue just wastes business cards. But when you strategically place said business cards in the men's room on the urinals... you've taken the concept of wrong to a whole new level. And you certainly haven't figured out the meaning of the word strategic.

I snapped this picture at a local internet marketing event I attended this week. Yes, I said a marketing event. And no, it wasn't staged. And yes, both cards were placed in this configuration by the president -- the president! -- of the company. He placed others on the wash basin counter, but they didn't quite capture the same spirit as this shot. Remember: marketing event. [sigh]

Laughable? Yes. Hell yes. Remarkable? Yes, but not in the way he wanted. Plenty of remarks were made.

Let this be a cautionary tale. Your ill-planned attempts at drumming up business might do more harm than good. Seek business wherever you can, but know that some places are off-limits.

And I'll start off the puns -- What a piss-poor attempt! Have fun in the comments!

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Wednesday, March 10, 2010

Building your skills as a connector

Close connection - Verbundenheit
Image by alles-schlumpf via Flickr
As we progress closer to the post-scarcity world, it seems that nearly everyone is developing unique skillsets. Copywriters, mobile application developers, HTML5 experts, local business specialists, video optimizers... and those are just people I met yesterday. Mix in the countless jobs and specializations that have been around for years and you'll see that entrepreneurs and business owners now have a nearly endless talent pool.

If, that is, they can find them.

That's where the connector comes into play. Connectors know people. They know the skills that people offer and have a general understanding of how that skill fits into the marketplace. Connectors understand the rules of the new economy and are keen at spotting trends. As the economy improves, the need for well-positioned connectors will grow. Do you know one yet?

Building your connecting skills

Being a connector takes certain skills. And any skill can be honed. Here are some tips on doing just that, and a call for help at the end.

  • Build a network.
    There isn't an end-goal to a connector's network. We don't have a certain number of friends or followers in mind. We don't select a handful of social networks and ignore the rest. More important, we build out network outside the online world.

  • Stay informed.
    Connectors have become masters at drinking from the firehose. Yes, it's an ungodly amount of information. But along the way we've developed techniques and adopted tools that help intelligently filter out much of the noise so we can focus on the signal. Still, it's not easy.

  • Be visible.
    It's all for naught if the people looking for a connector don't know you exist. Offer to speak at conferences. Teach at events. Lead panel discussions. Create SlideCast presentations and share them with the world. Blog! Get used to creating copious amounts of material. Think like a publisher, and share everything -- and everyone -- you know.

  • Cultivate your list.
    Here's that cry for help: I'm lousy at this part. While I'm pretty good at recalling information and figuring out who's the best person when I'm asked to make a connection, my network has grown to the point where it's no longer efficient. I tend to keep going back to the same wells. Or I see the same person multiple times and fail to remember what unique skill set they offer.


How do you cultivate and care for your list of connections?

While there are plenty of contact management systems out there, they tend to be aimed at casual relationships or sales leads. The former seems more what I need than the latter, but the latter tend to be much more robust than the former. But too robust leads to clunky, and I don't have the time to spend on that.

I want an Evernote-simple tool that I can both dump info into and quickly pull info out of. I want to know who does what, and I want to know who's doing what new thing right now. I want magic, I know that. But Evernote proved that magic in the form of advanced technology does or will exist. I'm just waiting for the application in this space. Unless it already exists and I missed it? Help a brother out!

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Tuesday, March 9, 2010

Promoting may not be the best way to spend your time

Wacky Waving Inflatable Flailing Arm Man
Image by jcrew270 via Flickr
Conventional wisdom tells us that time, money and energy need to be spent on promotion. Whether you work for a business, are in business for yourself or maybe you are the business of yourself, you'll feel the pressure to promote. And you'll find countless examples of others who spend lots of time, energy and money on promotion. Promote, promote PROMOTE!

But what if you took all that time you spent promoting your business, your venture, your product, yourself... and spent that time instead being truly remarkable?

How much time would you need to spend promoting if you were truly doing remarkable things?

The fact is that most things that are promoted aren't remarkable. They aren't that much different than other similar things, of which there may be dozens, hundreds or thousands. In effect, they are terribly average -- even if they are quite good. So someone has to promote these average things to take away mind-share from other interchangeable average things. If these things were instead remarkable, people would make remarks about them. In turn, other people would make remarks, and others... And the cycle perpetuates. Sans promotion, perhaps?

Of course, you can't be remarkable in a vacuum. Someone has to have knowledge of "the thing" before they can make remarks about "the thing". And to do that, someone needs to put "the thing" in front of the audience most likely to make those remarks. But is that promoting? Or is that just smart marketing? Or is it something else entirely?

So given the choice of spending time, money and energy on either promoting or being truly remarkable... which will you choose?

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Thursday, February 25, 2010

Starting a Blog for Your Business? Start With a Business Case

Longleat Hedge Maze
Image by Howard▼Gees via Flickr
"Blogging is easy. Every business should have one."

That's often the only argument you'll hear consultants give when advising clients on the merits of blogging. After that, they wax poetically on a litany of benefits you'll get from blogging. Increase search traffic & better engagement with customers usually top the list. And while I agree with the last two, you lost me at "... is easy".

Relative ease does not a business case make.

A business case for blogging? You must be mad. It's easy!

Didn't we just cover that? And just so we're clear, strategic blogging for a business is certainly not easy. The mechanics alone are daunting to a the vast majority of people who don't let words spew forth from their keyboards naturally. It's a tactic that takes time and understanding to develop the necessary skills. And that's just to learn how to write. Now do it frequently. Against a schedule. On plan. And fit it in with the dozens of other things a business owner has to do every day to keep their business a going concern.

OK, Ok... ok. It's not easy. But a business case?

Yes, a business case. Listen: anytime you invest time or money in something for your business, you need to understand what you're getting yourself into. Don't get me wrong; I'm a sucker for spontaneity. Some of my best ideas were crazy "gee, I wonder if..." ideas that were launched shortly after the concept germinated. But the ones that are still going all -- without exception -- had at least a rudimentary business plan. I'm not talking about a 60-page document that needs to be ratified by the Board. The last business case I put together for a client was a simple spreadsheet.

But to my initial point, "it's easy!" isn't a business case.

Here are 3 questions you need answers to before you jump on the blogging train:

  • Do we have the content? If you're a retailer that relies mostly on your vendors to supply you with information about the products you sell, this may be a problem area. By and large, you can't repurpose collateral and have that be blog-worthy content. You need original material, written from your company's point of view and in your company's voice.

  • Do we have the time? If you're working your employees at close to maximum, they won't have a lot of bandwidth to dedicated to blogging. And the time it takes you to read a blog post has nothing to do with how long it took someone to write it. 2 - 3 hours per post isn't an unrealistic numbers. How will you balance that time against other productive work time from your employees?

  • Do we have the dedication? Every new blog starts out with the same number of readers: zero. Almost every blog grows at about the same rate: incredibly slow. Even with gangbuster content right out of the gate, you shouldn't expect any sizable audience for 6 - 12 months. Maybe 18. Are you committed to generating exceptional content on a schedule that entire time and accept slow and steady progress?


And for fun, here are 3 questions you should never ask yourself about blogging for your business, for the answers are abundantly clear:

  • Should we outsource our blog to someone else? Oh hell no. Yes, there are professional writers out there who perform copywriting services on a consulting basis. I'm one of them. But you do not want to outsource your blog content. There are many ways in which you can use these services to help your blog be better, but don't ever think you can hand the reigns over to someone else. The best business blogging comes from within. Hire, train or allow for personal development. Don't outsource.

  • Is our business interesting enough for a blog? Oh hell yes. You obviously think it's interesting or you wouldn't be doing it. And if the whole thing isn't all that interesting, there are some parts that are. Focus on those. If you can convey the interesting parts of your business in a blog, you've just made inroads with potential customers when they discover it. And isn't that what your sales people try and do anyhow?

  • Is there an audience who cares? This goes hand-in-hand with the last point. Don't assume your business blog has to appeal to tens of thousands of people. It doesn't! Interesting content will attract the right audience to it, and that will expose people to your business. Key words include interesting and content. No one cares about a blog full of posts about products. Blah.


So... ready to blog now? It may not be for you. Yet. Don't feel pressured. But don't ignore the question. Keep asking it. Some day, you may be ready.

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Monday, February 22, 2010

What the Flip can teach you about the power of a simple presentation

J's Super, Super 8 Video Camera
Image by jhmostyn via Flickr
Is your marketing campaign too complex? Maybe you think it needs to be. Maybe you're right. But sometimes all it takes is one new player in the market to change the game, and all that complexity falls away.

Take the consumer electronics and personal camcorders, for instance. My uncle's super 8 video camera from the 70s was pretty simple, yet looked rather intimidating. All I know is that I wasn't allowed to touch it. The first camcorder I purchased around 1990 had more buttons and dials than I could possibly master. And it seems that every year that passes requires at least one more bell or whistle to be added.

Enter the Flip, playing the role of game-changer to the market. Small, inexpensive and a built-in compulsion field. Hold the thing in your hand and you can't not start taking video. Yeah, it's that cool.

But not as cool as how it came to be. Business Week ran a story called Lessons in Simplicity from the Flip a few days ago. It's pertinent to anyone in business, and covers quite a few of the key points I like to harp on. Like the power of a simple, elegant presentation. Simon Fleming-Wood was responsible for convincing retailers to stock this new camera. A new camera that eschewed the standards of what modern video cameras should look like and what they should do. He states that...

... he spent 50% of his pitch on one very simple slide. He asked [retailers] to "reimagine" the category. The slide contains photos of two camcorders—a traditional video camera and the Flip. Under the traditional camcorder are the words: "Use this for special occasions." Under the Flip are the words: "Use this for everything else."


It's no secret I'm a fan of simple things. Hence, the name of this blog. I've been a reluctant marketer for over a decade and been in more battles with complexity than I care to imagine. Sometimes, things need to be complex. But much of the time, they don't. I'm reminded of that each time I pull out my Flip.

And while this story is ostensibly about a game changing product, it's more about a game changing approach. It takes guts to hinge your success on a single slide. It takes foresight to resist the temptation of shoving in more and more data to your presentations. Above all, it takes confidence in yourself, your knowledge, and your ability to convey your message in a way that will resonate with your audience.

Oh, and practice. :)

Your turn: How do you fight complexity in your presentations?

Doing a talk in Ignite or PechaKucha style will help. But not everyone can do that. Pass along your tips in the comments.

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Tuesday, February 16, 2010

Is Social Media Bookmarking for Etailers BS?

DSC_0081
Image by holisticmonkey via Flickr
I've just spent 8 hours of my life -- wasted, some may say -- investigating the efficacy of social bookmarking for large etailers. Social bookmarking sites -- Digg, reddit, StumbleUpon and literally hundreds of others -- have a variety of uses. I'll even grant you that they may have some value in increasing traffic and helping search rankings. But here's the punchline: the amount of bullshit artists touting bullshit advice on how to use social media bookmarking is of astronomical proportions.

Yes, I know. Bad advice on the internet. Go figure.

[sigh]

So is social media bookmarking worthless?

No, not at all. Millions of people use sites like those listed above to not only save interesting sites and web content, but also to discover and share new and interesting content. It's the social part of the name that's important. And often forgotten about in a rush to gain the oh-so-powerful backlink.

So let's start there: Social media bookmarking is a complete and utter waste of time without compelling content.

If you're an etailer selling the same stuff available at any number of other online -- or offline -- retailers, even if you're selling it for a lower price than anyone else, understand this: the fact that you sell something does not constitute compelling content. To be blunt, we don't care.

Ok, smartass. So is social media bookmarking worthless for online retailers?

Maybe not. But it does require a strategy to develop the content worthy of sharing. Compelling content. Remarkable content. And if you're not willing to do that, then you might as well stop reading. You won't like the rest of this.

Here are a few tips on building compelling content as an etailer that may be worthy of sharing:

  • Interesting packages - Just because you don't make something doesn't mean you can't pair that -- or triad that -- up with something else to make it interesting. Smoking deals are always relevant. And it's often times better to discount a group of items with a mix of profit points than to slash everything by 25%. Create pages that feature deals that your customers want and your competitors can't touch. And for the love of peat (I like scotch), hire a copywriter to convey the awesomeness of the deal without sounding like a used car salesman!

  • Copy from Groupon - This rapidly growing site features city-specific, super-discounted deals that only kick in when a certain number of people sign up. To get the deal, interested parties share the deal with their network, and it's not uncommon to see Groupon deals all over the various social media bookmarking sites. Offer up the same idea, but base it on the number of times your site's offer page is Dugg, for example. Or even easier: put a coupon code on the offer page and add in "share this" type links loudly to encourage sharing.

  • Data mine and publish quirky behaviors - We've all seen the funny "those who bought this also bought..." suggestions Amazon often makes. Chances are, you have some real gems in your database, too. Or maybe you see a spike in orders of one type of product during the year that seems a little odd. Mine your data looking for patterns people might find interesting or funny, then build content around those patterns. If it's compelling, share it!

  • Go ahead and list your "special" pages - You should submit more than just your home page. Just make sure the pages are good entry points and have good content. No one wants to see your "here's all the brands we sell" page. But someone may want to see the special storefront you made for Doodiddly Diodes. Be smart about using this, and always ask yourself if the new page you've created is worthy -- in the social bookmark users' eyes -- of being included on those sites. If the answer is "I'm not sure", then it isn't. Move along.


That'll get you started. Once you've figured that out and created the content, you've got the lion's share of the work done.

But what about that "share this" button I've placed on every page of my website?

It's probably a waste of time. Even worse: it may be impacting your conversion rate. Ouch! You won't know until you test, but anything not directed to get someone to buy on a purchase page is diverting attention. A better approach might be to send that "share this" button along to the customer a few days after the sale with a "if you loved it, share it!" message.

Your turn now. Did I go too far?

I'm certain that a fair number of "seo experts" will jump in with stories of how they've managed to boost rankings, build boatloads of traffic and generally refute my initial arguments. If that's you, can I ask one question? Please provide specific examples related to the business of etailers. I'm trying to be specific with my lambasting. I hope you will be, too.

Now for that worthless "share this button". No, wait. I'm not an etailer. Different rules apply, see? ;)

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Sunday, February 14, 2010

Measuring ROI for Social Media

Weeks ago I gave a presentation at SMAZ -- Social Media for Business in Arizona -- that was all about measuring ROI for social media. This is a topic that gets bandied about quite a bit. It's also something that gets made up, brushed under the table or completely ignored. And that's a shame. Because, yes, there are ways to measure ROI -- real ROI -- for social media efforts. It's not easy. It's not glamorous. But it's growing more necessary all the time.



Special thanks to Olivier Blanchard for helping shape much of my thinking about ROI and social media. Even more special thanks to all those in attendance at my talk for the outstanding questions. I love that so many of you realize the need to understand this piece of the puzzle. Thanks for the great ideas you gave me and the audience during the talk.

For those new to me, no... I usually don't dive this deep. But this is a growing trend, and even CFOs need a simpler way of thinking about things, right?

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Monday, January 25, 2010

Finding the value of social media conferences

Classroom at the Old Site
Image via Wikipedia
The Social Media for Business in Arizona -- SMAZ for short -- has concluded. Once again, it was a great event. And yes, my presentation on measuring the ROI of social media will be up on Slideshare soon.

As the day was winding down yesterday, I was asking various attendees -- many of which I had met for the first time at the event -- their opinions on the day. Their answers were universally positive, even though each person took away something different. In an interesting twist, I was asked by one of those people what I learned that day.

That was an interesting question. While many new to the social and digital marketing scene walked away with their brains overflowing with information... this isn't my first rodeo. I speak at a variety of events, including this one. I knew many of the speakers and am intimately familiar with the topics on which they presented. I've been doing social media marketing for more than a few years, so was there anything I could learn?

Duh. That's an obvious and great big yes!

What did I learn? The same thing I almost always learn from events like this: that there are plenty of things I'm not doing as well as I could be. Things that I advise clients and compatriots on all the time, but neglect to do myself. There are a lot of moving parts to figuring out the right digital business strategy for a client. All too often, I neglect to fully implement the tactics that support those strategies for myself.

So for me, events like SMAZ provide me plenty of notes with "You know this, dumbass" in parenthesis behind them. And that's why I'll keep going to events like this: I sure could use that constant reminder to keep toiling away and to keep doing better.

Your turn...

What is your takeaway on this idea? Do you got to events as "the expert", or do you find ways to learn something along the way?

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Wednesday, January 13, 2010

Fauxcrastination

You've all heard the phrase "tilting at windmills". It refers to the tale of Don Quixote, a fictional knight that -- among other things -- confused ordinary windmills for ferocious giants. The resulting "battle" with such a creature is rather one-sided and of little consequence to the windmill. When we say someone is tilting at windmills, we mean to say that they are wasting their time on a pointless battle that can't be won.

In reality, most of us wouldn't go charging into battle against a ferocious giant armed with nothing but a sword and trusty steed. Most of us would seek to avoid drawing the beast's attention. That's a much safer path than drawing the ire of the beast. Nor would we fight against a windmill. What would be the point, right? Slam on the shingles all day with your sharp iron stick, and that sucker isn't going to budge.

But what if that perception isn't reality? What if the windmill you see isn't real? What if that seemingly insurmountable challenge is a trick of your imagination?

This happens in business all the time. It's happening in my business today more than I care to think. Hence this blog post. I need a term to describe these people who see obstacles where none are. For those who assume that the effort to fix what is obviously broken is greater than the reward... when a much simpler solution exists.

Enter my friend Encaffeinated ONE. He proffered this gem:

fauxcrastination: \ˈfō-ˈkras-tə-ˈnā-shən\ noun
: putting up false roadblocks
: imagining challenges where none exist*

I love it. Now where did I put that sword... and my horse!

* - Late addition courtesy of Matt Selznick

Monday, January 11, 2010

My future can beat up your present

In the great rush to take advantage of all the new possibilities the web offers, we often fail to reach beyond the familiar. Our "strategic thinking" looks more replicative than revolutionary. Consider how many of these failed technologies you've seen:

  • A "virtual counter person" greeting visitors of a retail site.
    Web visitors do not want the same experience as they have in store. At least, not in that way. That helpful avatar either isn't or is dipping into the uncanny valley. And it's not that "the technology just isn't there yet". It's that people don't want to interact with your site that way.

  • Online magazine forces you to "turn pages" just like an offline magazine.
    Do you know why we turn pages of physical magazines? Because we have to. Not because we want to. You'd be better off putting a screen and a keyboard on a magazine. Oh wait.

  • Business card-shaped CDs.
    Granted, it's been almost a decade since I've seen these. Maybe they're all dead now. The concept was silly, but they sold like hotcakes. Now if we can just kill off physical business cards all together.


The best inventions are transformative. They make use of new technological advances to advance something, often times convenience. There's that pesky arrow again.

There are good reasons why:
  • printers aren't powered by armies of miniaturized scribes hyped-up on coffee,
  • planes don't flap their wings,
  • submarines don't swim like whales, and
  • robots WON'T (trust me on this) walk like humans in the future.


But sometimes silly is good. The current implementation of virtual worlds are pretty terrible. They'll stay terrible as long as avatars are controlled by mouse and keyboard strokes. But some good stuff can -- and does -- come out. But for now, silly.

Augmented reality is also rather whimsical. Putting virtual furniture around your living room is a lark. It's also a far cry from how your room will really look when pixels are replaced by upholstery. But the exploration of the technology will certainly lead to some breakthroughs. It's just got to get out of my webcam and into my life.

But I'm not giving up on these new ideas. You shouldn't either. Nor should you be afraid to play with emerging technologies. But be skeptical of those gizmos that promise to make the digital space "just like the real world". To steal a line from a squirrel, that trick never works.

Monday, January 4, 2010

Participate or die

"If you don't participate and take an interest, you'll always be outcompeted by those who do."

I stole that line from Cory Doctorow's Makers. Great book. You should get it.

It may not seem that there is much insight in that phrase. After all... it seems pretty obvious. But if you'll reflect on it a moment, I think you'll find many areas that you have consciously chosen to ignore. The older we get -- OK, the older I get -- the more likely we are to fall into the trap.

When is the last time you paid attention to your Facebook account? You probably missed that the "News Feed" on your home page doesn't include all of your friends. Nope. It only includes the most active ones. The same goes for everyone else's profiles. Are you active enough to show up to them?

Google's been dropping relevant and real-time results from the social sphere in their search results pages. I've said before that social will become one of those things that business simply can't afford to ignore. Google made it a reality faster than even I thought.

It's a wake-up call to you experts, too. Sure, you've got plenty of business supporting your outdated language or platform. But for how long? Switching costs are dropping. Data will only get more portable. Are you going the way of the cobbler?

And being outcompeted isn't necessarily about real competition. It's about being informed, having experiences and not worrying that you'll wake up one day and find the world around you has changed. I'm OK with getting old. I just don't want to be outdated.

Saturday, January 2, 2010

It's OK to make money with social media

If your company gets involved in social media this year, will you make money from it? If not... don't bother.

Yes, I realize that your customers want you to get involved with social media. Many of them would also like you to give away free beer, but you probably don't do that.

Yes, it's true that your customers are having conversations about you that you aren't aware of. But do you think that didn't happen before social media? Please.

Yes, your competition may have hundreds of people engaging with them in the social sphere. But are they doing anything truly remarkable, or are they just chatting? More importantly, are those people buying more stuff because of those conversations?

You won't succeed at social media on accident. And success probably isn't measured by mentions and followers. Success for your business is measured in dollars, not sentiment. In sales, not conversations.

Social media playtime is over. Business just getting involved today don't have the luxury of figuring it out as you go along. It's time to stand on the shoulders of those who've come before. Time to learn from the mistakes of others. And to extend on the wins many have made.

Three questions to think of:
  1. Is your social media crew up to the challenge? The right crew will have a blend of business acumen and real-world social media skills. Balance is important.
  2. Does your agency talk in the language of your business? The only metrics that matter are the ones you care about.
  3. Are you demanding return and payoff from your digital marketing efforts? If it costs money, it should return more money. Period.



Your answer to all of those should be an emphatic yes. If not, put those responsible on notice.

Thursday, December 31, 2009

Connect with communities to build your brand

I learned today that I've been listed as one of Roost’s 50 RE people you should follow on Twitter. No, I'm not a real estate agent. Yet I'm on the list, and it's not on accident, I've been assured.

My involvement with the real estate industry is two fold. First, I've been fortunate enough to have been asked to speak twice now at the National Association of Realtors® national convention. The topics I speak about to their members are the same topics I cover here -- doing business in the digital world. My first talk from 2008 -- New Media Business Strategies for Real Estate Professionals -- is up at SlideShare. It's my goal to create a slide case out of this year's talk -- Digitally Expose Yourself: Building Your Web Presence -- but I haven't made it that far. It's on the list!

My second connection comes from the friends I've made here in the Phoenix area who are involved in real estate. Phoenix has been blessed - or plagued -- with some of the most prolific social media-aware RE folks in the country, and I'm proud to count many of them as my friends. They've even been so kind as to keep inviting me to talk at RE BarCamp Phoenix, which I'm happy and excited to do.

There's a lesson here. There are communities everywhere you look. If you can add value to that community with your knowledge, presence and involvement, do it. The RE community is rather tight-nit. I've received so many referrals -- and not just from my friends -- to do work that I've had to turn many away. That's a good problem to have.

So if you're lightly involved with a community, consider shoring up that relationship. No, don't show up at meetings passing around business cards and stories of what a great expert you are and how much they need you. Show up at meetings, make friends, join conversations, add value and get involved. Then you'll be showing them what a great expert you are, and they'll quickly realize how much they need you.

Thursday, December 24, 2009

The battle between the biggest and the best

Tug of War
Image by daftgirly via Flickr
It's hard to become the biggest at something. For companies, it often means understanding market opportunities, what the masses want and beating the hell out of the competition in price. It's not a field in which individuals can play without being a part of -- or leading -- an organization.

It's hard to become the best at something. Becoming the best often means relentless dedication to excellence, innovation and detail. Here companies and individuals are on more of an even field.

But becoming the biggest and the best at something? It seems those two things are at odds with one another. And if you take stock of the companies that purport to be one or the other -- or both -- you'll see how rare it is.

The brand of beer that outsells all the rest by orders of magnitude? That doesn't make it the best. I'd argue all the ones in my refrigerators (Yes, I have more than one. I like beer.) could vie for the best, but they are a proverbial drop in the bucket when sales volume is examined.

The author making the rounds on the talk-circuit with a book that's burning up the charts? Neither are the best. But any that hard-core book fans would agree is the best is likely unapproachable by the masses.

Though it's argued often, biggest is a quantitative measurement that leaves little to interpretation. I understand that best is subjective, but it's a demonstrable qualitative characteristic. So while companies often say "we're the biggest and the best", they aren't. They may be one or the other, but it's difficult to be both.

Or is it? Here are a few examples of where I think the biggest is also the best. I'd love to get your opinion on these as well as some other examples.
  • MP3 players - The iPod reigns king in sales and in usability.
  • Ketchup - Not that I use it, but I have it on good authority that Heinz is pretty tasty.
  • Blizzard Entertainment - I'm no gamer and I understand there is a wide-range of opinion on this, but WoW seems to be one of those waves that didn't quit. And when Diablo 3 hits the stands, it'll do it again.
  • Search engines -- Google. No further discussion required, though I'm sure some of you are Quixotic enough to try.


There have to be others. Please discuss in the comments.

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Monday, December 21, 2009

The missing revolution

Image representing Contenture as depicted in C...
Image via CrunchBase
What if you threw a revolution and no one came?

Contenture is shutting down. No, you probably never heard of them and probably won't miss them. And since I didn't even know of the company until I saw notice of their demise, I won't presume to offer cogent reasons why their business model never got off the ground. But here's the key reason they gave on their blog:

[W]e were unable to get any big publishers to use the service, which was going to be the key to our success. Without any large publishers, the economics just don’t work.


I bring this news up here as a cautionary tale in two parts:

Labels are important.
Contenture billed their service as "The Micropayment Revolution". That phrase was part of their logo on their blog. That revolution lasted exactly 192 days from launch-date to shut-down announcement. And as they say above, the revolution wasn't adopted by key entities. Revolution is a pretty serious word. It brings up serious connotations.

Lesson: Be sure the words you use match the reality of your intent.

Don't ignore the Convenience Arrow
After reading the links above that describe the business model, it seems to go backwards. Sure, blocking ads would be nice, but it does little to enhance convenience. And it's certainly not worth paying for. At least not to me. And obviously, not a lot of other people either.

Lesson: There exists a difference between annoying and intruding. One I'll pay you to get rid of. The other I'm really good at ignoring.


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