Showing posts with label Remarkable. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Remarkable. Show all posts

Tuesday, July 20, 2010

Social Media for Authors a smash success!

Tonight I taught the Social Media for Aspiring Authors class at Changing Hands bookstore in Tempe. Not to toot my own horn (again), but I think it was smash success. The audience really seemed hungry for the content, and kept leading me right to my next point. And I only had to pull the "It's 2010" card once! Based on the feedback, I'm certain that Brandon and I will be working on a more formal workshop schedule. Excellent!

For those that made it: thank you. I truly enjoyed all of your comments and feedback. Thank you for being such an attentive audience.

And for those who didn't... well, it's hard to convey what we covered. I considered posting my outline, but I don't think in complete sentences. And I sure as heck don't outline that way. But here are the broad strokes:

  • We spent a good deal of time talking about the power of free. This is always a contentious topic, especially when talking to authors. And while I received a few questioning looks when I started, I think I won them over. Not that I attempted to convince them to give their stuff away for free. Not at all. But I did convince them that some authors are finding ways to use free to gain readers, book deals and real sales. They also walked away understanding this trend isn't a flash in the pan -- it will continue. And they have to try and work in that world.

  • I introduced my "Three Tees that Plague Underpublished Authors" concept. It went over well and I think made my further points hit home that much stronger. They are:

    1. Quality -- Can you hire the rest of the production team to make your book exceptional?
    2. Quantity -- You need more where that came from. Period.
    3. Obscurity -- By and large, people aren't waiting to steal your work. Because they don't know your work exists.

    Who said anything about them starting with "T"?

  • Done is better than perfect, great is better than OK, but success comes when you create something that is truly remarkable. Those terrible books that are terribly popular? They are so because they are remarkable. How do you create something remarkable? [Insert Your Answer Here]

  • Yes, we got specific on social media properties. But it wasn't the focus. Nor should a talk like this ever focus on tools. Tool-specific talks can, but not a survey class. We covered Gmail (there was and is a purpose, trust me), Google Alerts, Facebook, LinkedIN and blogging. Notice anyone missing?

    One common misconception I had to correct at least twice -- updating once a month. That's not nearly enough. How much is enough? Well... more is better than less. If you're trying to do weekly, someone is successfully doing it daily. YMMV.


[caption id="" align="alignleft" width="200" caption="Evo Terra signing Anne's book, courtesy of Nick Bastian"]Evo Terra signing Anne's book[/caption]And then suddenly, the two hours were over. Yes, like that. And someone brought a copy of one of my books and asked me to sign it! Thanks, Anne!

But not to worry. I'll be back. Based on the questions during the class and the feedback I heard afterward, there's a great need for more of this. Let's do it! Keep watching here and the Changing Hands website. I'm sure you'll see more -- and more formalized -- classes with me starting up quickly!

Quick question: do I stick with "for Aspiring Authors" or switch over to my personal favorite " for Underpublished Authors"? I'm obviously biased, and much of this depends on what CH wants to do. But your comments would be helpful to steer us in the right direction...

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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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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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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