Category Archives: Social media

Jonathan Fields’ Great Title Idea

Books, Marketing, Social media, Twitter, Writing

This is so cool. I’m really jealous. As he finishes up his next book, Jonathan Fields turns to the web and his so-called tribe for help with the book title. In Help Me Choose The Title Of My Next Book, he put a poll onto his blog and promoted in there and in Twitter, Facebook, etc.

Why am I jealous? Because I didn’t think of something like this for any of my books. What a great idea.

Choosing a book title is hell. It’s really hard to do, critical to the content, and critical to sales and success. Could there possibly be a better way? Much as I complain about dumb polls and over-researched decisions, this is a great use of so-called crowd sourcing.

In my defense, it’s easier now than in 2008 when my most recent two were published. But Twitter had already started, and this blog was already here, and so was my other blog Up and Running, on entrepreneur.com. I could have done it. And I don’t want to sound ungrateful for how much help I got from Jere Calmes and the team at Entrepreneur Press, but still … damn!

Whatever the eventual title, I expect Jonathan’s upcoming book to be really good. When he interviewed me for it maybe a year ago, he was talking to a lot of people and asking some very important questions. He went into deep core issues about entrepreneurship and creativity, like dealing with fear, finding time for silence, and balancing needs and wants. That interview left me thinking about related issues long after.  I’m really looking forward to reading the book that comes out of that.

Twitter is the Brush, Not the Painting

Marketing, Social media, Technology, Twitter, ,

On one hand, twitter offers a positive change in business landscape, a brave new world of business possibilities, and you’re crazy to ignore it. On the other, it’s just a distraction, a shiny new thing, that gets in the way of the real business.

Can both hands be right? Yes.

The one hand: I spend hours every day now watching, playing, posting, and reading twitter.  That’s gotten me mentions in Business Week and The New York Times. I find myself speaking up for social media on public forums, spouting phrases like “changing business landscape” and “you’re crazy to ignore it” and “great new low-cost road to market” or “marketing tool.” Twitter is essential to my blogging. Its a window to what’s going on and who’s doing and saying what.  It’s great for my business.

The other hand: You can use it to send useless text clutter to nobody. You can use it to pretend you’re working when you’re just watching the world go by in cute sayings, headlines, and interesting pictures. It can be a total waste of business time.

The synthesis: Twitter is the brush, not the painting. It’s a tool for a new kind of self publishing with a different kind of reach. Talk of business benefits of Twitter are like talk of business benefits of the telephone, or of conversation, or of advertising. It’s all in how you use it. Who or what are you trying to be in Twitter, and what does that have to do with your identity, your message, your business, your self.

Tools enhance power. What matters is not the tool, but what you do with it.

(Image: enhanced from a photo by Victures/Shutterstock)

Why Would You Ever Make a Cold Call Again?

Marketing, Social media, Technology, ,

This interesting exchange comes from a NYTimes interview with Eric Lefkofsky, 40-year-old founder of groupon, serial entrepreneur, who Forbes says is worth about $750 million. The interviewer asks him: Do you think that every business needs to rethink what social media means to its future? He answers:

Today, I think that every business is again in serious flux because of the rise of all these social tools. Take telemarketing sales, for example. Why would your business ever make a cold call again?

When pressed, in follow-up questions, Eric insists that “every business that wants customers” needs to look at social media.

Sure, it turns out, by the bottom of the interview that he’s invested in a tool to help businesses manage social media, so his views are a bit like me insisting that every company needs better business planning. Still, it’s an interesting view, from a very successful Internet entrepreneur. And it makes good sense to me.

For the full interview, here’s the link:

Eric Lefkofsky, Groupon Founder, on Why Social Media Is Hot – NYTimes.com

An Older Entrepreneur’s 10 Takeaways from the Facebook Movie

Current Affairs, Reflections, Social media, , ,

I saw The Social Network last Friday night, and enjoyed it thoroughly. When it was over I was surprised. “What? Two hours already?”

Here are 10 (mental) notes I took as I watched:

  1. This movie is fun. Aaron Sorkin (of West Wing and Studio 60) does a great job making entertainment from reality.
  2. The plot feels real. I have no first-hand knowledge of Mark or Facebook, but I’ve done angel investing, raised VC money, and was a founding director of a software company that went public. And it feels to me like how these things happen.
  3. The Mark character rings true. He’s brilliant, obsessive, extremely productive, abrasive, selfish, and driven. I’ve known some people like that. They get things done. They bump people around on the way, more from blind obsession with their goals than on purpose. They’re not real good at seeing two sides of any question. They build empires.
  4. Ideas have little or no value. Implementation is what matters. Facebook grew out of some similar ideas that others had first. Mark took them and made them Facebook, and those others didn’t.  When reminded that others had a similar idea first, the Mark character points out that if it had been left to them, it would never have grown into what Facebook became. I agree. The race goes not to the alleged originator of the idea, but to the person who took that idea and built a business out of it.
  5. This movie is not bad for Facebook or for Mark Zuckerberg. We should all be so lucky. What happened with Facebook is a one-of-a-kind business phenomenon and this movie reinforces that. And the Mark character isn’t bad guy or good guy, he’s techie nerd obsessed business founder. It won’t hurt him at all. Mark can cry all the way to the bank. I like Ben Parr’s Mashable post on the real Mark Zuckerberg’s feelings about the movie after it rolled out. And I like this NYTimes.com analysis (you may have to register to see it, but registration’s free) of Facebook’s lack of legal options to do anything but watch.
  6. I don’t feel sorry for the three guys who came up with the original idea. The idea was obvious. They didn’t implement it. Mark stalled them with misinformation, which isn’t nice, but then ideas aren’t owned, so they can’t be stolen; just implemented.  (Corollary to note #4)
  7. The guy who wrote checks has a better argument. There are at least two sides to his story, and I doubt that the movie tells his side very well.   It doesn’t add up right. I do believe that writing checks into a business early on gives you some real ownership.
  8. Always get it in writing. There’s a lesson for entrepreneurs everywhere: sure it’s awkward among friends, but even if it’s not a legal document write it down and sign it. Maybe it’s just a reminder for you and partners later. Maybe you keep it in terms you understand. Ideally, you work with a lawyer to make it legal. It’s very important to do this early, before success or failure, because that keeps motivations cleaner.
  9. You have to protect yourself, not trust in friendship, good will, or ethics. Good intentions and verbal promises get lost in the shuffle. Business is like that. Never trust what somebody tells you a legal document says; read it. When somebody else is working with an attorney, get an attorney.
  10. The real world is full of great stories. It doesn’t take a space fantasy or super hero to make a great movie plot. Real people, the real world, and even real business can be very entertaining. And hey, if we get a few lessons along the way, everybody wins. Right?

For the record, the notes here were mental notes only. I didn’t get my phone out and type into it during the movie. So movie goers, don’t worry. That wasn’t me.

And I Thought I was a Friend and Colleague…

Business Mistakes, Nonprofits, Social media, Twitter,

Don’t you hate it when this happens? With social media and all, I connect with somebody, seems like a smart person, we have some email and even telephone interactions, and then, dammit, I end up as a prospect.

Sad. Quite a demotion. From friend and colleague to prospect.

You do know what I mean, right? A “dear Tim” message that’s obviously based on a single message barely customized to change the first names? And when you get it, don’t you feel just like I do, as in “Damn. I thought I was a friend and colleague. And it turns out I was just a prospect.”

Are you doing that with your email campaign? Or with Twitter, LinkedIn, or Facebook? Because if you are, then I’ll bet you it’s not working.

(Image: Blazej Lyjak/Shutterstock)

Influence is Silent Power, and Clever Builds Traffic

Marketing, Social media, Web/Tech, Weblogs

Fun, interesting, and the power of 140 characters. Last week Klout.com offered t-shirts as prizes for good short descriptions of what influence means to them. My favorite, by Adrian Lopez (Krownz on twitter), was this one:

“Influence” to me is that special something people have that keep you coming back to them. It’s silent power.

I really like that last three-word sentence. Influence is silent power. You can see all of the winners here.

I’m intrigued as well by how well this simple contest idea worked. It was a one-day thing on Twitter, promoted solely on twitter and the Klout.com blog. It generated more than 60 entries, plus several dozen retweets, all of which meant twitter traffic, eyeballs, and interest for Klout.

And it’s a nice link to what Klout does too: its tagline is “measuring online influence.” The connection is obvious.

And all it cost was five t-shirts and some thought.

I might try the same thing myself. I’m thinking a contest for the best 140-character comment on why businesses want to plan. Maybe on the right relationship between business plan and planning process? Any suggestions?

And Who Can Blame Her for Cutting Off Comments…

Social media, Weblogs

Damn. It’s been a long day, some of my sites got hacked, a car didn’t start, and … well, you know how that goes. You have those days too. This will go up tomorrow morning but I’m mad as hell tonight, while writing it.

Just look at this picture:

What a damned shame. Who can blame her for shutting off comments? I don’t. I do blame the people who have about the same contribution to thought, writing, or culture as slash and burn vandals.

So here’s what happened:

I was settling in after dinner, checking some of my favorite sites, and I ran into Jolie O’Dell’s well researched, thoughtful women in tech: a realistic look at the numbers. This is an important subject, and she’s obviously done some real work digging into it. Like a journalist, I might add. I’ve been trying to cover this myself too, but she went beyond opinion, into some real numbers. It’s an excellent post.

I went to the comments, and WHAM, no comments. That’s disappointing. Then I discovered this, also by Jolie, a few days earlier: The Commenting Free for All is Over. At one point she says:

For the hundreds of nasty insults I’ve had to wade through, delete, or publish at my own peril, there have been only a handful of insightful comments that actually contribute to the conversation. In between the great comments and the crap ones, there are a sea of “me too” or “good for you” notes that, while encouraging, don’t necessarily justify having a comments section open to all.

You read a blog post, well written, well researched, and serious; and you get to the comments and welcome to real world ugly. Why is it that the gender inequality issues seem to heighten the stupidity underneath? Is that just me, or have you seen the same thing? And do I get the impression that this kind of trashing things behavior increases when the author’s a woman?

(Image credit: it was posted on Jolie O’Dell’s blog. You can click here for the original).

5 Reasons Not To Build That Online Community

Social media, Technology, Web/Tech,

Trends? “Let’s develop a community,” they say, meaning an online community. Search google for let’s develop a community and you get 23 million hits. You tell me: is there a marketing meeting brainstorming web opportunities that doesn’t include an online community?

So, contrarian hat on my head, I want to list some reasons not to develop that online community you and your team have been talking about. I don’t want to be negative … but still …

1. So many communities already.

How many logins can anybody manage? We’re lost in a sea of communities. Each assumes we’re going to log in regularly, check messages, look around, see what’s new, respond to people, and interact. Realistically, though, how many times are you going to do that in a single day?

We’re dealing with several hundred already-established social media communities. There’s Twitter and Facebook and LinkedIn, plus all those others. And then there are those school sites, alumni sites, home town sites, media sites, fan sites, in sites, over sites, and hind sites … never ending. Who can deal with that?

2. Ning, a cool idea, grows up. And gives up Free.

Do you know Ning? One of Marc Andreeson’s brainchildren, it produced hundreds of millions of dollars for its founders, and countless similar-look-and-feel community sites that all did one version or another of community, with log-in, profiles, friending, posting, and so on.

I’ve had notice in recent weeks as one after another of those sites closes shop. Ning is focused on the corporate enterprise market, where there’s money to be billed. And all of those community sites were competing with all of the other ones for your and my limited time available. It wasn’t working.

3. Oh the spam! The never-ending spam!

I’ve been involved with maybe half a dozen serious efforts by major business media and related organizations to build an online community of entrepreneurs, small business owners, and assorted interested parties. I won’t mention names here because I’m involved with most of them, like the people, would like them to work; but they don’t.

The self-serving shallow sales message, some of them thinly disguised, most of them blatant, end up flooding these sites like sewage from a failed treatment plant. Who wants to look at messages when they’re all that? The supposed or alleged interaction, the likes and votes and all, are similarly polluted with commercial sludge. It’s a shame, but it’s also reality.

4. Those disappointing messages.

The business community sites are also flooded with messages that ask authors and experts to summarize, presumably in a couple of paragraphs or so, the thousands of pages already published on that same topic. I know these people mean well, and I like to answer questions. But it would be a lot nicer if they’d look at the site they’re on first, rather than just asking for a three paragraph summary of 50 good pieces already posted.

I get it. They’d like to have it all in a personal message. But it isn’t really that simple. It takes reading all the ins and outs and on the other hands. So that email doesn’t work. And the authors who get it are disappointed, because they thought they’d already answered that question, and put it on the web where people could get it.

5. The molten lava landscape is cooling into solid ground.

I doubt it’s coincidence that two of the three Ning sites I think of first are giving up the Ning model and moving over to Facebook like instead. It’s human ability to support so many different motifs that ends up pushing us all towards a few big ones. With Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn, we have consolidated logins, comments, links, suggestions, and updates.

It seems to happen a lot. The winners emerge, the also-rans fade, and the business landscape solidifies.

Please, don’t do that online community you were thinking of.

Do, however, focus on one or more of the already-existing online communities and make it work for you, and your business.

The Really Simple Math of Social Media

Social media, Twitter,

Here’s a walk down memory lane. Those basic math properties we had to memorize in the seventh grade. chalkboard

Transitive Property of Social Media

This one is taken from the transitive property of equality, which, in case you don’t remember your seventh-grade math, is that if a = b and b=c then a = c. For social media that’s

If social media increases transparency, then it’s as good or as bad for your business as is having the customers see you better.

I kind of like this. In the old days, we saw the business as what its advertising agency and marketing budgets were able to construct for as its facade, also called brand. Nowadays, to the extent the business is operating in Facebook or Twitter, we get a better view. Is it still all corporate and snazzy and artificial?

People are discovering that they like the story and the people in the business, aside from its paid advertising. I’d like to think this helps real people, and small business, compete against manufactured images and big marketing budgets and large business. Fingers crossed.

Applied Elasticity in Social Media

According to Wikipedia, elasticity is the ratio of the percent change in one variable to the percent change in another variable.

According to me, elasticity in social media means that the percent change in the number of active social media participants will be matched by the percent change in the number of social media experts and social media coaches. So the active social media population will always be 50 percent social media experts and 30 percent social media coaches.

Oh-oh. Does that sound cynical?

(Image credit: Marc Dietrich/Shutterstock)