You’re So Vain, I’ll Bet You Think This Post Is About You
July 28th, 2009
The one thing social media has taught me above all else is that we humans are a bunch of selfish, self-centered people. A new third party application called TwitViewer (no link because I don’t want to promote them) was recently released that ties into your Twitter account. According to its marketing, it allows you to “see who’s stalking you on Twitter.” I heard about this application because a few of the people I trust highly on Twitter seemed to be suddenly recommending it by sending out tweets that said, simply, “Want to know whos stalking you on twitter!?: http://TwitViewer.net”.
Well, of course I want to know who’s stalking me on Twitter! The application says it will show you the last 200 people who accessed your Twitter profile. That fact that ANY 200 people might be accessing my profile is of interest to me, but, yeah, I’d love to find out who’s checking me out. Like many third-party Twitter apps, it asked for my Twitter username and password, which should have been my first red flag. We’ve been taught since forever to never give your username and password for any service to anyone. Until recently, however, Twitter had no other way for third-party applications to access their system. Though the recent introduction of the Twitter API has changed this, not every application has begun using it. So, while I should have thought twice about it, I relied on the recommendation of a few of my trusted friends and entered my Twitter username and password.
As soon as I pressed “Submit” I realized why it was a bad idea. Sure, the application showed me about 200 user icons of people who supposedly had viewed my profile recently (though there’s no way to verify whether that’s true or not) but it also immediately sent a tweet to my followers using my account. And what did that tweet say?
“Want to know whos stalking you on twitter!?: http://TwitViewer.net.”
I learned three valuable lessons from this:
- Social networking sites that allow you to follow “trusted” people are only as secure as the “trusted” humans. And humans are not always that trustworthy.
- Never, under any circumstances, no matter what anyone says should you give your username and password for any service to ANYONE. It’s the first time in more than 20 years that I have violated this rule. The question, then, is why did I do it now?
- The answer: We are, on the whole, an incredibly self-centered society, and sites like Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and others are glaring proof of that. Not long after I signed up, I saw several more of the people I follow tweet the exact same message, indicating they had also fallen for the trap. The combination of recommendations from one or more trusted sources and the allure of gratifying our egos was too strong to keep us away.
This may seem like a rather cynical point of view, but I don’t agree. I don’t believe anyone acts in a completely selfless manner – even Mother Teresa believed she would be rewarded for her service in the afterlife. Knowing that we are appreciated, that we have some kind of social status, is a great motivating factor. This is as apparent in Facebook users who update their statuses thinking their friends actually care what they ate for lunch as it is in disgruntled employees who silently sabotage their companies because they feel they are under-paid and under-appreciated.
Acknowledging the importance of self worth and self status, and allowing people to feel their own improving, is a no-fail way to motivate employees to work better, customers to buy and even friends and family to show you more respect. If you make other people feel valued and respected, they’ll usually return the favor by working harder for you, sending you their business and telling others about you, and showing you even more love, warmth and respect so that you feel like the most important person in the world.
And, really, isn’t that all you want?
Will a Dead Computer Destroy Your Business?
July 5th, 2009
I’ve been doing a lot of heavy work on my laptop, which has slowed down under the load. Time to upgrade the RAM. So, I took a little trip to my local Fry’s.
They had exactly what I needed at a price I couldn’t beat, so I asked the sales person to write it up. Unfortunately, their computer-driven inventory system happened to be down. If you have any experience with Fry’s, you probably know they’re still running an old DOS-based system that, I’m reasonably certain, is connected to a mainframe. If this is gibberish to you, I’ll put it this way – Fry’s sells blenders that are more advanced than their inventory system.
That the computers were down didn’t surprise me – how they handled it did. The sales person had no idea how to take my order without using the computer. He vented his frustration as his supervisor demonstrated how to manually enter the product information and price on a slip of paper. When it was filled out – in pen, a device with which he seemed to have little familiarity – I took it to the front so they could pull the RAM sticks out of the parts cage and complete the purchase
The cashier brought the RAM up and set it on the counter before me. Since the order had not been entered into the system, however, he was unable to ring it up. I stood at that counter for 20 minutes, credit card in hand, memory sticks tauntingly inches away, watching other shoppers buy fans, sodas, videogames and other products with their credit cards with no problem. After several promises that the manager was working on it, that they were on the phone with corporate, that the system was almost fixed, the cashier finally said, “The system’s still down and, at this point, it doesn’t look like anyone is going to fix it. You might want to try coming back tomorrow.”
This is beyond puzzling to me. Had I stood there with cash in hand, they STILL couldn’t have let me purchase the items in front of me because their inventory system was broken. They had the product number, the serial number, a pen and thousands of pieces of paper. Still, they couldn’t ring me up. Given the number of other angry, frustrated customers standing next to me at the counter, hand-written sales slips in hand, my guiess is this little computer snafu will wind up costing them a bundle.
I did ask the cashier if they had a way to manually process the order. “Yes, we do,” he told me, “but none of us really know how it works. We’re on the phone with a manager trying to figure it out now.”
So, Here’s your goal for this week – review all of your processes, especially any process that generates revenue. Ask yourself, “What would happen if all of our computers suddenly died?” Do you have a Plan B? If not, create one – NOW! If you already have one, does your team know how to implement your offline Plan B? Quiz them on it. Better yet, set aside some time to actually drill them on it – shut down the computers for an hour during a slow period and see how well your team manages. Review what you learn from the experience.
I do love technology – it speeds up transactions and can enhance security when done right. But, when it fails – and it will fail – you’d better be ready for the fallout.
What Is a Small Business?
June 3rd, 2009
I’m taking a break from tech talk for a day to try and handle a rather sticky problem – what, exactly, is a small business?
On its face, this seems a ridiculous question, but it seems there are multiple definitions floating around. Wikipedia defines it as “a business that is independently owned and operated, with a small number of employees and relatively low volume of sales.” All fine and well, but what happens when sales volume increases but employee numbers stay the same? The SEC widens the field financially by stating that any company with less than $50 million in annual revenue can be considered a “small entity”. And doing a “Define: small business” on Google returns all kinds of wide-ranging results.
Why does it matter? TechKnowMe targets small business owners as customers, and I know a number of you do as well. When you try to define exactly who your target customers are, however, “small business” turns out to be a rather nebulous market segment. I usually define it as a company with 1-50 employees, completely ignoring the revenue question as I’m convinced that a well-run company can just as easily make $100 million a year as a 500-person corporation.
Using Demos and Education to Boost Online Sales
June 2nd, 2009
I really want a BlendTec blender. They sell for about $400, which is far more than I’ve ever paid for any kitchen appliance (including my beloved Kitchenaid standup mixer). But, after seeing it blend an iPhone, I know this is a device I need.
Not that I make iPhone smoothies on a regular basis, but if it can do that to a popular electronics device, it should easily handle my frozen pineapple and mango chunks. And therein lies the brilliance of “Will It Blend” – now that I’ve seen what the BlendTec can handle, I’m confident it’s the blender for me.
The fact that I’m excited about a blender – one of the more boring items on the market – should clearly demonstrate the importance of a solid marketing strategy. You may have the most boring product in the world, but if you can find a way to make it exciting, you’ll increase sales. You don’t even need to do anything as impressive as blending an iPhone – you just need to show your customers what your product can do.
SEO is Dead: Ringing the Death Knell
May 28th, 2009
Search Engine Optimization is dead. The folks charging thousands of dollars a month to place your site in the top ten search results are vultures desperate to prey on your lack of knowledge and empty your pocketbook to fill their own.
If you run a website, you’re already getting the emails promising pie in the sky traffic by associating your site with certain keywords. The truth is, it works – it’s not that difficult to drive thousands of visitors to your website, even without using so-called “gray” tactics that threaten to blacklist your site with the major search engines. But what kind of traffic are you getting? And how many of those visitors are becoming customers?
Where Does Your Website Fit Into Your Online Strategy?
April 30th, 2009
As the economy slumps and small business owners find themselves with a bit more free time, the smart ones are finding ways to use that time to reach more customers. Sprucing up the ol’ website is the best place to start.
Now is the perfect time for an overhaul – a web site should never remain static for too long. But, before you post an ad for a designer on Craig’s List (or, ahem, hire the fine folks at TechKnowMe), you need to figure out where your website fits in your overall online marketing strategy. If your website is your online marketing strategy… we really need to talk.
Your website is only a single part of your overall web presence – probably the most important one. Your web presence consists of every mention of you or your company on the Internet, including links from vendors and trade organizations, customer reviews, online articles that feature your company, posts you’ve made on message boards and even your profiles on social sites like LinkedIn. Search for your company on Google – your web presence consists of those results that link directly to your web site.
Not seeing many results? You may be tempted to run off and pay some SEO “expert” thousands of dollars to guarantee top-ten placement in the major search engines. but I implore you: FIGHT THAT TEMPTATION. I’ll show you better ways to build your web presence in the coming days. For now, let’s focus on creating something worth visiting.
Facebook as a Marketing Platform
April 14th, 2009
It seems every time a new Internet technology hits the wires, the marketers flock to it seeking opportunities to exploit it. Facebook started out as a way for students on college campuses to stay in contact with their old friends while making new ones at their new school. How it became a worldwide phenomenon attracting professionals in their 30s, 40s and 50s is still a bit of a mystery to me, but the creative interactivity inspired by Facebook applications – themselves created by members of the Facebook community thanks to the system’s open programming libraries – is one of the biggest reasons people keep coming back to spend hours on the site.
Facebook overtook competitors like MySpace and Friendster because of the trust it builds within its community. In order to add friends and view their information, you must first know where to find them, then request that person confirm you as a friend. This level of protection over one’s information helps keep the site engaging and relevant to its users without the spam and fluff found on similar sites. Once someone has confirmed you as a friend, you begin watching their activities in your newsfeed. This can quickly become overwhelming, but Facebook provides a number of controls to help you see only what you feel is really important.
This level of control builds a sense of trust in Facebook’s postings, which makes it an incredible marketing opportunity for any business trying to gain exposure. It also builds a wall that is incredibly difficult for marketers to penetrate.
Cool Link: LogoTournament.com
April 3rd, 2009
Stumbled across this today: LogoTournament.com – Get 50 to 200+ custom logos designed for yuou business for as little as $250. This site takes advantage of “Crowdsourcing” – you submit the requirements for a project to a public forum and dozens of people (or more) bid on and complete the project for you. It’s a rather elegant solution that, judging by the active “contests” listed on their homepage, produces some phenomenal results. I have not had any experience working with these folks, but I love the idea and I love what I see. I may be putting my own $250 down on the idea soon…
The Most Important Piece Of Your Small Business Website
March 30th, 2009
If there’s a running theme in my blog posts here, it’s this: If your web site is not generating sales, you need to fix it immediately. The point of a web site for a small business is to make money – not build your brand, not prove your legitimacy, not make it look like you’re all “Web 2.0″ – MAKE MONEY.
You need to treat your web site as an active member of your sales staff. When anyone visits your site – whether you send someone to the site or whether they stumble upon it by accident – it needs to make the sale. It needs to get your visitors attention, pique their interest in your service or product, fuel their desire to buy from you and drive them to take action to close the sale.
It’s this last one that most often gets missed. It’s not enough to provide a phone number and hope someone remembers to contact you when it’s convenient for them – you need to provide a strong, clear call to action that the user can take immediately, otherwise you’ll lose them forever. This action is called a “conversion” – the moment your visitor converts into an actual customer. Nothing is more important to your small business website than conversions, and you need to know how well your web site is converting to know how good a sales person it is.
Dealing With Content Thieves
February 26th, 2009
At the most recent seminar I did at the Contra Costa Library, a number of members from a local writing guild showed up to learn as much as they could about promoting their work online. After the class, I had a fascinating conversation with them in regards to their concerns about putting their art online. Specifically – how do you prevent people from stealing it?
The short answer: you don’t. If someone wants to steal your content bad enough, they will find a way no matter how hard you lock it down. Thus, if you don’t want your content stolen, don’t put it online, not for sale and not for free. Of course, keeping your work offline is like burying your head in the sand – how else will unknown artists build their name if they can’t take advantage of digital distribution?
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