Transparency with a hint of narcissism

Posted on May 8, 2010 by michelle.mack

Photo: limowreck666 on Flickr

The more I use social media tools to communicate with people the more I ponder the long-term rammifications of such systems. I know there was a time when people were a little nervous about using a little newfangled tool called the telephone. Similarly, when email became a viable communication tool in business, the C-suite got their panties in bunches because everything anyone said would become written record. Now, in the days of Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, Flickr, MySpace, forums and the myriad other social networking sites out there, EVERYTHING is a matter of written record. Personal, professional, not-so-professional… everything.

The one thing I find absolutely fascinating about these sites is that it takes a certain kind of person to start a conversation. There is definitely a sort of narcissistic tendency that drives status updates everywhere. Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn all have a status update field, and updating one’s status is like starting a conversation without knowing who you’re talking to… it’s sort of akin to running out into the street and screaming, “I just ate pancakes for breakfast!” to see who might respond. The business equivalent is like standing in the subway yelling, “I improved sales by 23% over last year by implementing a new CRM system!” What kind of person starts a conversation without someone on the receiving end?

Almost everyone.

If that is the case, are we creating a narcissistic society? What does the future of social networking look like?

The simple fact that I have a blog probably makes me a bit of a narcissist if I’m being honest. I’ve never met a blogger who didn’t get a sense of accomplishment from checking their site stats; some even go so far as to set up full Google Analytics and track conversion rates for email and feed signups. It’s not that I think there’s anything wrong with that, but it is just evidence of the ego boost that goes along with knowing people are interested in what you have to say.

I’ve always been a little awkward in new situations or when I’m put on the spot; it’s the reason I’ve become so incredibly truthful in every situation – sometimes to my own detriment. Somehow I find being completely transparent makes life easier… not to mention, I don’t have to try and remember what I said in any given situation. In light of my mildly stunted personal skills, social networking and communicating online gives me the opportunity to think through what I want to say before I blurt out something ridiculous. This is good for me.

I am excited at the prospect of a transparent world.

Ten years from now, everyone will be online sharing status updates and leaving a trail of evidence to their lives behind them. No longer will anyone have a public and a private persona. No longer will people have to worry about not getting a job because they had some college party photos on their Facebook; companies will barely be able to find anyone who hasn’t posted something that shows them enjoying a drink, wearing something too revealing (or nothing at all), or doing something embarassing. What will happen, though, is that we’ll all have to evaluate every relationship by looking at the total person with all their dirty laundry hanging out for the world to see. We will have to consider everyone from a different perspective. I can’t tell you how often it has shocked me to see CEOs use the phrase “WTF” on Twitter. Seriously. It shocks me. But ten years from now it won’t. I will just get to know that those people will likely drop the F-bomb in the office too and decide if that’s okay with me.

I’ve already said more online than many people and maybe that will come back to bite me in the butt one day. But I’m happy knowing I’m true to me and if someone chooses to overlook me for a given opportunity because I’m a born-again Christian or because I’ve had postpartum depression, because I once bashed a reality TV star or because I have written about the joys of colon cleansing so be it. I’m okay with that. The kind of opportunities I’m looking for are those where my skills can make an impact and those that allow me to be as nerdy as I want, let me try out new ideas and allow me to do what it is that I’m passionate about.

I can’t and won’t be someone else just so more people will like me. After all, I think I’m pretty great and that’s all that matters.

I dare you to copy your most recent status update to the comments…

BCAMA Vision Conference 2009 Notes

Posted on May 8, 2009 by michelle.mack

Today I had the privilege of attending the BCAMA Vision 2009 Conference at the Four Seasons Hotel Vancouver. It was a fantastic event with excellent speakers.

I thought I would post my notes here for anyone to reference. Some may not make as much sense as others, but there are some key takeaways I found that I’ll share at the end of the point-form notes for each speaker.

Speaker #1: Ken Schmidt

Former Communications Director, Harley Davidson Motor Company, Leading Fortune 500 Consultant
Topic: Revving up Customers to Make the Big Noise

In 1900 people could choose 2 modes of transportation: horse or bicycle
Harley Davidson was born with a vision to adding a motor to a bicycle
At the same time, Ford was building the first cars
Bad guys ended up using cars; police ended up using motorcycles
Big ideas were missed at that time: 1) Motorcyclists liked to gather together, and 2) Groups of motorbikes attracted a crowd
Motorcycle races became one of the world’s biggest sporting events – racers would go over 100mph with no brakes
Only Harley-Davidson and Indian survived the depression
Used the downtime to play with colours and stylistic changes
During WWII all Harley-Davidson bikes were built to support allied troops in the war effort
After the war, soldiers who had used motorbikes in the war wanted to ride them for fun
Pilots were also drawn to riding
An elite group of flyers were called the “Hell’s Angels” – after the war they focused on motorbikes and started removing all unnecessary parts from their bikes i.e. mufflers (called chopping = choppers)
Media determined that motorcyclists were to be feared
Harley-Davidson had always tried to have a brand reputation based on being clean-cut, simple and useful. They tried too hard to show a clean image.
Honda then appeared on the scene with very good quality bikes and a slogan of “You meet the nicest people on a Honda”. Millions bought Honda bikes.
By 1985 Harley-Davidson could barely sell 30,000 bikes worldwide
The media then basically printed Harley-Davidson’s obituary by telling Americans they could get better quality from overseas
The best way to make change is to simplify. Don’t make it more complicated.
Harley-Davidson was not creating demand. They were focused only on product: Creating a great product
Standard operating procedure, as a rule of thumb, is wrong and shortsighted. Don’t do things the same way everyone else is doing things.
At that time, Harley-Davidson came out with the world’s first V-twin engine – the first new bike engine in 20 years. Media jumped all over it and it graced the covers of all industry magazines but people were still not buying.
Only tried and true Harley riders were still buying.
Quality message had no impact because the entire industry was high quality
Everything they’d done had failed; what would they need to change?
There was no such thing as a motorbike test ride at that time so they decided they’d take truckloads of bikes to where blue collar guys were congregating and let anyone who was fit enough to ride one take a bike for a spin.
While they were on the road at these events they talked to people. Loyal customers were upset at where the company had gotten to – the brink of bankruptcy – and wanted answers. Over that time they developed some answers to the questions so they could have those conversations.
Each test ride was an opportunity for market research, so they asked the question, “What do we need to change to make you want to buy it?”
Every single answer was something to do with customization – handlebars higher, wider, further forward, further back, lower seat, higher seat etc.
The key was customization. Ask the customer what they want, build it, then sell it to them.
The 1986 Harley-Davidson parts catalogue was 56 pages; it is now 1500 pages.
Customers enjoy giving suggestions; people want to be listened to. They want to be important to you. They want to be heard
People want someone to do something special for them.
All things are equal to someone who doesn’t own your product yet
Every employee models the behaviour of their leaders
People need to be nurtured and made to feel special
Create a great culture; people need to love their jobs
People support what they feel they helped to create (employees and customers)
Harley-Davidson then started a Harley Owner’s Group club – a social club that gets together at their home dealership. There were chapters all over North America.
Customers and staff were becoming friends
Word of mouth ->advocated -> ambassadors
We go where our friends tell us to go
We are an invisible species; all of us want to be noticed. Look at me I’m important.
A new Harley-Davidson slogan was created: “We don’t care how everyone else does it.”
What are you willing to do differently today than you did yesterday?
Sales in 1985 were 30,000 bikes; in 1989 they sold out at 70,000 bikes and in 2005 sold 320,000 bikes.

Key Take-Aways

It’s about customization. People want something that’s cusomized for them and they want to be a part of the process. They want to know their ideas are not only heard, but found to be valuable and implemented. People take ownership over things they are involved in creating; they want to be on the inside. If you involve them in the processes, they will be loyal to the outcome. This applies not only to consumers but to employees. People model the behaviour of their superiors, so if you have a behavioural problem, it’s quite possibly a top-down problem. If you lead by example and embody the corporate culture, people will follow suit and create success.

Speaker #2: Brad Gamble

Senior Director of Marketing, McDonald’s Canada
Topic: still lovin’ it

In 2001 sales were trending down within restaurants; sales growth was coming only from new restaurants.
McDonald’s was operating under the philosophy of “build it and they will come”

What needed to change?

They needed to increase sales at each location; they needed to be more customer-focused; they needed to build a rock-solid foundation; they needed to ensure the right organizational structure
and they needed to make their brand more relevant.
Growth comes from being better, not bigger.
Five drivers of superior customer satisfaction: people, products, place, price, promotion
New products were brought in: salads, angus burger, ciabatta buns, sandwiches etc.
New décor that was more inviting “come and stay a while” feel
Those 5 drivers would be the way to achieving enduring profitable growth

What were the results?

6 straight years of same store growth
25% increase in guests served; now 58M daily
In 2008, same store sales growth was 7%

Building Brand & Retail Energy

Surprise and delight the consumer
Challenges: navigating new and ever-shifting landscape; consumers are equal partners in brand formation; raised bar on flexibility and transparency; everything moves at the speed of light; your brand is global
How do you build a true relationship? Create a connection, an intimate bond. Be relevant – trends, build on emotive connectivity. Become their favourite. Make them say, “I like what they offer.”
Think like a brand; act like a retailer. Provide retail solutions that fit their needs.
Internal – perfect execution, commitment to improvement, engaged staff, collaboration at all levels
External – all touch points must reinforce brand vision: design, menu, packaging etc. Positive talk value = personal endorsement ->brand loyalty. Do the unexpected
Surprise and delight = Retail Energy
Transform brand ‘friends’ into brand ‘lovers’
Cannot create enduring profitable growth by discounting
No one touch point will do it; it’s a process

Key Take-Aways

I didn’t particularly care for this presentation. Don’t get me wrong, I can see how McDonald’s is a very high profile brand that has worked very hard to grow and maintain market share in an ever-fragmented world, but I felt it was a bit self-congratulatory. If there were any take-aways for me they were change, evolve, stay relevant.

Where I think McDonald’s does do a fantastic job is in their commitment to operational excellence and consistency. Having said that, as I sat with an old colleague of mine we couldn’t help but notice the brand new coffee cup they have just rolled out (which they left for each delegate) is non-recyclable and has a cute little drawing on it showing it should go in the garbage can. That kind of rubbed us both the wrong way in this age of environmental responsibility. I also have a hard time getting on board with marketing that aims to sell food products that have made a huge impact on the North American population’s obesity epidemic, but that’s a whole different discussion I guess.

Speaker #3: Jim Carroll

Futurist & Marketing Trend Consultant to Fortune 500
Topic: Innovation in the High Velocity Economy
Jim Carroll’s Website
Jim Carroll on Twitter

Cell phones, blackberries, iphones to become the credit card of the future
People are looking for inspiration; we need to know things are getting better
Broadcast and entertainment industries are changing rapidly
Location intelligent professionals; technology is being used to create competitive advantage e.g. using google earth to do market research and target communications by house size
For people completing science degrees and trades, ½ of what is learned in 1st year is obsolete by the time they graduate. Technology is changing that fast.
Product lifecycles are significantly reduced. The typical digital camera has a product lifecycle of just 3 months before it will be rendered obsolete by the next development.
The world is evolving. How do we respond fast?!
Regular ongoing terrorism in the press – economy, layoffs, stock market, mortgage crisis, swine flu etc.
We have been here before; recessions are not new.
We always overestimate the change that will occur in the next 2 years and underestimate the changes that will occur in the next 10.
What can we predict with 100% certainty? Economic growth. We just don’t know when.
When do we innovate? Now or once the economy starts to rebound?
We have to innovate, change and adapt faster than we’ve ever done this before in order to survive.
The time to innovate, change and explore new opportunity is NOW.

Future Trends & Opportunity

Relentless focus on growth; find a new growth opportunity every day – business or personal
Need an ability to respond faster to market change; business cycles are way faster than they used to be e.g. a new video game launch produces 55-75% of it’s profit within the first 4-5 days of launch. Everything MUST be in order.
Ask, “Are we seeing increased signs of velocity in our business? Are we able to respond as fast as the velocity change?
How?” 1) Faster time to market, 2) Rapid ingestion of new technologies/methodologies, 3) Rapid refocusing of resources for opportunity or threat, 4) Operational excellence
Customer service is more important than EVER
Response to volatility
How do I structure my team? How do we transition products, image and experience to remain relevant? Evolve product, image and experience.
Brand image will be continually refreshed and re-enforced at every touch-point
Hyperconnectivity. Experience will be far more engaging
Rapid experimentation with price and product mix with operational excellence
We’re going to increasingly take our digital lifestyles outdoors
The world is a global idea factory – look around
There’s a changing source of innovation from North America to Asia
Leading R&D is taking place in India and China
A shift from corporate R&D to open R&D – global ideas machine. Open source. Crowdsourced?
Smaller organizations work faster and accelerate development
There’s a shift from hidden innovation to public innovation
Re-orienting our creativity will allow us to move faster and respond quicker
Brands are like people: they get stuck. They resist change and become irrelevant. They have lost touch with their core essence.
Your brand is not what you say it is; it is what THEY say it is
It costs substantially more to maintain brand relevance today; interactivity is the most significant part of brand image
Invest heavily in experiential capital – take the risk to try something out
Experiential capital = we’re not sure what’s right but we’re investing anyway
Don’t wait until the economy picks up

Ten Steps

Observe
Think
Change
Dare
Banish (banish idea killing)
Try
Question
Grow
Do
Enjoy!

Learning is what most adults will do for a living in the 21st century

Key Take-Aways

I loved this session. Even thought the key take-aways seem quite simple, it was a very inspiring presentation. It made me feel like I’m on the right track with my goals and philosophies. So here’s what I got from this: Now is the time to innovate. Evolve your brand. Move towards mobile. Connect. Engage. Try new things. Keep learning and changing.

Speaker #4: Richard Bartrem

Vice-President, Culture and Communication, WestJet
Topic: Five Secrets to Success

Airline industry is tough – net loss of 14B over the last 58 years. It has not made money.
63 Canadian airlines have gone under in the history of passenger airlines
In the mid 90’s, WestJet’s founders looked at Southwest Airlines and wondered why no one was using that business model in Canada; they visited and studied them and learned.
There are 7800 WestJetters (employees), 1200 unsolicited resumes received weekly, 270000 guests per week, 4,150,000 cookies consumed each year.
The coldest day ever for TAC (turn around crew) was -54C
Management and executive help out with TAC at Christmas
They have had 432 marriage proposals on board WestJet flights
All new staff get a 3-hour presentation from the company President and various VP’s
Hire intelligent people and then empower them to decide where they can be loose with the rules and where they should be tight with the rules
Their fastest ever aircraft turn time is 6 minutes. Every WestJetter traveling on any plane whether for work or pleasure cleans up the plane before deplaning – including management and exec.

WestJet’s Paradigm Shift

New way to price fares – simple with few rules, cost structure allowed massive reductions and breakthrough pricing; competition unsure how to react
The right language – Team Leaders (vs. Supervisors), People (vs. Employees), Promises (vs. Policies), Guests (vs. Passengers)
Unique culture of care – understanding what your people need to succeed: 1) appreciation, 2) sympathy to personal problems, and 3) feeling “in” on things
All employees have a mission/vision/values statement on their lanyard at all times and refer to them during the decision making process
Their culture supports a great guest experience, which delivers great business results
“We succeed because I care” – mantra of all WestJetters

The 5 Secrets:

1. We Care to Plan – Culture Department
Create a remarkable experience – CARE Department (execution arm of Culture Department). For every WestJetter who has a death in the family, new baby, marriage, graduation or special moment, each receives a hand-signed card from the President and all VPs.

2. We Care to Share
Employees share purchase plan. Owners try harder; over 80% of WestJetters are shareholders. Profit share parties – their people have earned over $155M in profit share since inception – twice yearly party where a % of profit is divided amongst WestJetters

3. We Care to (REALLY) Listen
Listen to their people: culture connection, tech talks, airport visits, test ideas – uniforms, commercials, snacks on planes etc.
Listen to guests: e.g. every commercial is tested with guests and WestJetters before going to market

4. We Care to Design
Design all experiences and processes to 1) make sure our WestJetters can be proud and successful, and 2) ensure our guests are getting value in everything we do
WestJet Care-antee

5. We Care to Celebrate and Have Fun
Profit share, kudos, birthday parties, new destination launches, incorporating family, fun is part of the fabric of our culture

Key Take-Aways

Wow. WestJet really leads the pack when it comes to treating people well – looking at people in a way that is so fundamentally different than how traditional business looks at people. This session got me thinking about how engaging people online is really just an easy way to build relationships and talk about stuff. When that stuff is business it’s a win for the company. Again, it’s all about people – people being made to feel special. People going out of their way to create great experiences, people being encouraged to share questions, concerns and suggestions and being really heard. It will become absolutely imperative if it isn’t already.

Speaker #5: Brian Scudamore

President & CEO, 1-800-GOT-JUNK?
Topic: Corporate Culture Turns Local Entrepreneur into Awarded International Brand

A company is a group of people; a brand is a group of people working together towards a common vision
You can never compromise on the quality of people
Business became boring because he had no vision
Print the picture, tell the story, get everyone on board. Don’t worry about the how, just look to the vision
Tough times are the impetus for change; innovate now
All new employees read the story before doing anything else; they need to be on board
Always know what you stand for – what you’re about
If you don’t have a vision, how will you get there? How will you know where ‘there’ is?
You can’t motivate people; you can inspire them to take action
They use a “Can You Imagine” wall of ideas. You can add your idea to the vision and it can be a really big dream, but you have to put your name to it and it’s there permanently.
It’s all about people; at one point in the early days, he fired his entire staff of 11 people and started over.
“It’s all about people” became an accountability statement; it’s what they stand for
People don’t fail; systems do
Know your values. Values are who you already are, what you’re about.
Systems are results by design
Communication was the #1 problem during growth.
Every day they have a 10:55am huddle – good news from the field, celebration of successes, new business intelligence, update from one department (different each time), Q&A, good news and then a group cheer (teambuilding)
Systemize your priorities. Every employee should have top 3 priorities for each week and adhere to them; don’t give in to the pressure to complete less important tasks because they’re easier

Key Take-Aways

You need to have a vision. You need to make that vision public. You need to paint the picture, tell the story, work towards the vision. Imagine it. Believe. Know where you’re going and make sure everything you’re doing is advancing that goal. Everyone has to share the vision because it is all about the people.

The Yahoo! Big Idea Chair: Panel Discussion

Kerry Munro, General Manager, Yahoo! Canada
Ken Wong, Acclaimed business professor, author, strategist
Maggie Fox, CEO and Founder of Social Media Group (Maggie on Twitter)
Clare Meridew, VP Creative Director Interactive, GREY Canada

Intro from Kerry Munro:

Why do companies not have ratings and reviews on their websites? That shows a lack of interest in your customers and a lack of engagement with them

Initial statements from Maggie Fox:

Origins of social media: connecting with people who share like interests
You need to know what you want to accomplish with social media for it to be effective
Ex. Yamaha corporate blog explained the 8month recall process which, in turn, significantly reduced negative online buzz
Social Media press releases can net huge returns as they did for Ford. Give people the tools to share your information with the right info and images.
Social media is not cheap; it’s only slightly cheaper than face to face

Statements & opposition from Ken Wong:

Opposing view of social media use – parable: Everyone agrees it’s important to be in top physical condition; we all know how to obtain top physical condition; we have not all committed to do that.
How to market in a recession:
1) Do NOT cut price
2) Do NOT cut spending
30-40% of companies will cut marketing spend in the face of a recession to justify price cuts
What this tells us is that CEO’s believe marketing is a business expense, which means it must be made up this year. It’s not seen as an investment in the future.
If we make a promise and don’t keep it, it’s a lie. Marketing has to impact operations.
Hold steady with budgets and plans; the economy will begin to pick up in 2 quarters (plus a lag for unemployment, which is the last thing to be reversed)

Intro and Show & Tell from Clare Meridew

Stop interrupting what people are interested in; be what people are looking for
Dare to be different. Be brave, but be relevant.
Augmented reality ads; interactive is not just on computer screens anymore:
Case: GE Plug Into the Smart Grid
Mini Cabrio augmented reality magazine ad (Video here in case the one in page doesn’t work)
Viral example: Whopper Sacrifice – Facebook Campaign

General Panel Discussion:

What’s Hot? Social responsibility/cause marketing, recession marketing (making things cheaper, last longer etc), mobile, personalization
Where are we going? Screens merging, there will be one single platform, content will be (even more) personalized, pay for performance?
Answer the question “How are you creating value?”
Traditional segmentation is useless
Average Facebook user is mid-30’s; fastest growing segment is women over 55
How do we buy media now if stereotypes/demographics don’t work anymore?
You need an insight channel; get the information from the web but do something with it
There is so much insight to be gained but you need to implement change as a result.
You must have the right person on the ground to implement corporate social media engagement; they need support, budget and staff
We need to retrain marketing teams – universities don’t teach marketing well at all i.e. most students will receive 90 minutes on market segmentation when it’s one of the most important concepts
We make excuses for the brands that ‘get it’ i.e. WestJet, 1-800-GOT-JUNK… because it’s too hard, too daunting, too challenging and calls for change
If frugal is the new black, blatant materialism is not going to cut it
Back to the original question: why aren’t you putting your customer service surveys online?
Negative feedback is generally self-moderated by the community of loyal brand enthusiasts; it’s an opportunity to address a legitimate customer service concern.

Conclusion

Over all I was really happy with the event. I left with a really great feeling about much of what I’ve already started doing in my business life. Now I want to create a Jerry McGuire style manifesto that’s either going to inspire a leap into the future, or it’ll have me looking for a new job

Bloggers Without Boundaries Indeed

Posted on March 1, 2009 by michelle.mack

Photo: Spartan Soldier on Flickr

I just read a post by Darren Rowse over at ProBlogger that had my skin crawling and made me feel very uncomfortable. Darren put into words that which I have never had the nerve to say in either spoken word or type. He described me as he spoke of the early hours of Sunday morning:

“…you wander over to your computer, check your blog for comments, check your subscriber and traffic stats and maybe crank out a quick post or video. Then, you jump on twitter to check your timeline, follower numbers and reply to any @’s or dm’s.

A few minutes later, the kids wander out and your day really begins. Breakfast, then the day’s activities. It’s all great fun, yet, you still find yourself reveling in those random moments in the rest-room, where you linger a few extra seconds to check your e-mail, IM, twitter and stats once more on your trusty iPhone.” [Bloggers Without Boundaries]

Well. Ouch.

I find myself looking inwardly and feeling convinced of two things: 1) That I’m abiding in the gratification I get from engaging with a huge group of people on a regular basis and 2) that Darren might just have a hidden camera in my bathroom. Both are equal cause for concern.

The Sermon That Hit Home

This morning I was listening to a fantastic sermon that I am going to transcribe – as soon as I have enough time in the bathroom I guess – and put here. It was really impactful and it confirmed everything I’ve been thinking, fearing and worrying about: this imbalance and loss of boundary between work and play.

Today’s sermon was on The Secret of Soul Rest, based in Matthew 11:28-30

²⁸Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. ²⁹Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I amgentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. ³⁰For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” [ESV from bible.com]

… and John 15:5 (well, I’m adding verse 4 here too)

⁴ Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. ⁵I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.
[ESV from bible.com]

The thing that my pastor kept nailing home for me was that if you’re not abiding in Jesus, you’re abiding in something else. There is no other way. You live somewhere. You benefit from something. You gain from something… what are you benefiting from? Where are you putting your focus? Your energy? Your love? And how’s that working for you?

We numb our fears, our discontentment, the unfulfilled parts of ourselves with addictions… “other lovers” as my pastor put it. True. The list of addictions is so long… drink, food, drugs, sex, sports, porn, perfectionism, money, status, position, blog subscribers or twitter followers, studying, church, ministry even. Getting our sense of wellbeing, no matter how temporary or false, from the wrong stuff. Getting our egos stroked somewhere… most of which is unhealthy and causes unnecessary anxiety or busy-ness in our lives. All things that do not glorify God.

It pains me to think I’ll lose blog subscribers for even writing this.

Photo: parl on Flickr

I think about all the plans I have regarding my blog, my writing, my ability to market myself as a consultant or contractor and my reasons for doing so… and the reason is good: by the time my son starts school, I want to be 100% self-employed and working only during school hours or after my son is asleep at night while earning enough money to support my family. But in the meantime, my drive for this is taking away from my relationships with my family… it’s taking away from my relationship with God.

I’ve been abiding in the wrong stuff.

I’m not sure what this means for the future of my blog. I’m not sure what this means for my pet project: Urban Shore. I’m not sure what this means for the other projects I’ve been offered ‘on the side’ because I’ve come to realise there is no ‘side’; there are only 24 hours to every day.

God is right now bringing me to a place where I have to accept that I’m not in control of any of it. I’m in a place where all I can do is get on my face and pray… because I have no idea what the future holds. I’m not sure how life may change in the days and weeks ahead and honestly, I’m really at a place where I’m open to anything…

What I do know, though, is wherever I end up, I want to abide in my faith. I want to abide in the Love of God. I want to abide in the Word. That’s where the soul rest is.

Everything else is noise.

6 Super Simple Tools for Small Business

Posted on February 7, 2009 by michelle.mack

Photo: UrbanShore on Flickr

If you’re in business, you may have heard lately that you should be doing “Social Media”… “Web Two Point OH”. You should have a YouTube Channel. You should start a viral video. You should write a blog.

Um, why exactly?

I’m sure when you’re already working 14 or 16 hours a day on your day to day business operation, the last thing you want to do is sit down at the computer and add more to your task list. If your business is small or local – you own or manage a coffee shop or have a small fitness studio or an urban retail store – you’re already trying to do a lot with a little. Besides, the web is for big business right?

Wrong. It’s for everyone.

Here’s the thing: There is so much information online already, that you stand to gain a wealth of insight from it. And many of those people putting in their two cents are your customers… they may just not know it yet.

Here are a few super simple tactics that can help you use some of today’s web-based tools to tap into that information, streamline tasks and grow your business. I’ve broken them down into 3 categories: Listening, Building Relationships, and Home Base.

Listening

Google Alerts

Google Alerts allow you to track what’s happening in your industry by allowing you to conduct a search for keywords or phrases of your choosing and then sending you every article written about them in real time. You can search for your company name, your competitors’ names and industry keywords or prases. You can have the results sent to your email or to an RSS feed (more about these later).

Here’s the super simple way you set up a Google Alert:

Go to google.com/alerts
Enter your first search term (your company name, likely) in the text field
Select “Comprehensive” – this will look for news, websites, blogs, video, and even some forums
Select how often you want to receive them (if you’re sending to your email, once a day may suffice)
Enter your email address and click “Create Alert”

It’s as simple as that. Google will send you an email with what looks like search results, only everything in the list will include the keywords or prases you requested.

If you want to receive alerts for multiple keywords or phrases, I recommend creating a Google account (you may even have one already if you have a Gmail account, Google Analytics account, Blogger account etc.) and creating a more comprehensive alerts system. But a simple email alert for your company name is a great start.

Twitter Search

You’ve probably heard the word Twitter. Twitter is all abuzz in the tech/marketing world but it has yet to reach the mainstream. Having said that, the people on Twitter are almost exclusively bloggers and influencers by the very nature of their extensive social networking.

Knowing what these influencers are talking about and finding a few in your industry or location is never a bad idea.

If you don’t want to sign up to Twitter, that’s fine. It can be a life suck anyway – if you joined Facebook you know how much time that can take up if you’re not careful. But you should use the Twitter Search function. And just like setting up a Google Alert, it’s super simple.

Go to search.twitter.com and enter a keyword. Now, keep in mind, people using Twitter only have 140 characters to talk to one another. The keywords will pick up exact words they are including in their ‘tweets’. What you’ll get in the results is a list of statements from people using Twitter to communicate. A quick browse will give you an idea of what people are saying about your business or industry.

Building Relationships

You need to make sure you have an ongoing relationship with your customers. It doesn’t matter what business you’re in, encouraging repeat business takes less effort than acquiring new business. Repeat customers are the ones who become your advocates. Repeat customers keep your business open. Sometimes all it takes is a friendly conversation… in person or online.

To build and grow that relationship, find a way to connect with your customers – either via email or mobile messages – and then offer them information that’s relevant to them in the way they want.

Side note: I believe marketing can help people to improve their lives via your product. I don’t believe in selling people something they don’t want. I don’t believe in shoving information down peoples’ throats. What I do believe in, is providing relevant information via relevant media that simply show people how they can benefit from a product or service.

Email Marketing

While email marketing in general seems to be on a decline because of the prevalence of other communication methods, it’s still the most comprehensive way to share information with people who want that information. Blogs with an RSS subscription present another way to share that in-depth type of information with your customers.

You can use a simple tool like Vertical Response to collect and store contact information. You can create different lists based on whatever attributes you like – types of purchases, gender, age category – and then send them updates that are relevant to them: new product lines, special events, sales. Vertical Response has a huge set of pre-made email templates to choose from, they send in both HTML (with pretty pictures and stuff) and text so no matter what type of email your customers receive, your message will be intact. And, you only have to pay for what you use – there’s no monthly fee. You can also use it to conduct surveys or, if you collect full contact information, you can even use it to send direct mail postcards.

The cost starts at just $0.015 per email you send e.g. if you have a list of 1000 addresses, the whole email will cost you only $15. If your list is larger, the cost per message goes down from there. Or, you can pay a monthly fee based on the size of your email list and send as often as you’d like – currently for up to 2,000 addresses in your list it would cost you $28/month.

Tagga Mobile Marketing

Tagga is a really innovative new tool that allows anyone to use SMS or Text Messaging for any reason they like. You could create a tagg (or an SMS message) that people can text in to receive. You change it whenever you’d like and let people know they can text KEYWORD (whatever you choose, provided it’s not already taken) to 82442 (TAGGA) and they receive your message to their mobile phone. Alternatively, you can set up a subscription where people text in the keyword to 82442 to subscribe. You then send out a message to your subscribers.

You can pay for service and use the full 120 character text message for yourself – the cost is about USD$0.20 per message – or you can opt to send your messages using only 80 characters and pay nothing; a sponsored message (using the remaining 60 characters) at the end of the text will cover the cost. Note: it is really hard to squeeze a message into 80 characters, but at only $0.20/message with no month to month cost, it’s a great way for a small company to get in on mobile marketing.

Where mobile is really effective is last second deals to improve upon low yield times/days.

You own a bakery? Blow out the end of day inventory at a discount – send a message at 4pm that says “Get 25% off today’s baked goods at XYZ Bakery before 5pm today” (that’s only 62 characters, incidentally). Empty coffee shop? Send a message saying “Large coffee for the price of a small at Tasty Coffee Company; today only.”

Your Home Base

WordPress.com

I know, I know… I said earlier you don’t need to blog. And you don’t. BUT, if you don’t have a web presence at all, WordPress.com is a quick and easy – and FREE – way to create one. Just sign up for an account at wordpress.com for free. Then, select from a number of visual themes, upgrade to a custom URL (it’s only $15), purchase your preferred URL from a domain name provider (I like Namespro.ca) and redirect your ‘site’ to your custom URL.

You can use wordpress.com as a free web content management system by using the ‘Pages’ functionality to create all the pages your website may need (see above where it says “About Michelle”? That’s a page – if I add more they’ll make a line across the top). You can then go into the settings and redirect your home page to one of the pages you’ve created and you don’t actually need to blog at all… unless you want to.

RSS Feed Reader

The last thing I want to mention is using RSS to keep track of everything. Almost everything is accessible with RSS nowadays. RSS allows you to take the content of blogs, media sites, twitter, google searches, and any RSS enabled website and aggregate that information in one place.

I use Google Reader. When you find an RSS link – like the one at the top of this page that says “Subscribe in a reader” – you can click the link and add it to your Google Reader (or another feed reader of your choosing). You can, incidentally, sign up to have your Google Alerts also go to your Google Reader. You can also sign up to an individual’s twitter stream, a twitter search stream, your favourite news site etc.

The benefit to doing this is you go to only one site to read all the information you want to see. I go to my Google Reader and get something that looks like this:

You can see I have 579 unread items that I can review by topic; I have categorized my subscriptions into Social Media, Tourism, Vancouver, Snowboarding and the ones at the bottom of the list are uncategorized at this point. If I open any one topic I get a number of sources and I can review by source, by topic, or the whole list.

This, incidentally, is my personal reading list; I also have another Google Account for my work and have another reader account with everything I read pertaining to my employment.

I know that may look overwhelming, but I usually access my reader by utilizing the web browsing on my mobile phone and read whenever I’m waiting for something or have a few moments to spare.

Clear as mud?

Hopefully I haven’t overwhelmed you. This is meant to highlight just a few very inexpensive ways you can get involved no matter what your business or your budget.

If you have any super simple solutions you think I’ve missed, please do leave them in the comments. Alternatively, if you are looking for help to develop a plan further, you can contact me at michelle [at] imseekingbalance [dot] com.

It may not be sexy, but it’s what sells…

Posted on December 2, 2008 by michelle.mack

Photo: Laffy4k on Flickr

Amber Naslund, over at Altitude Branding, blogged yesterday about “Real Work Isn’t Sexy.” Oh how true that is.

I just finished my first outside-my-day-job consulting project. It was more of a testing ground for me to figure out some new tools, find out what challenges I may face when selling myself as a consultant and building a portfolio of case studies to present to future clients.

The first thing I noticed was that almost everything that needed doing on an immediate basis was implementation.

First, I had to help my friend get his business current, digitally speaking. He needed a new website and he needed to digitize his contact list (think written address book); he needed a way for people to sign up to receive information from him via email. He needed to ensure people can watch his videos online without having to download a 50+MB file to their machine to do so. After all, he sells entertainment. That is his business. If people can’t preview it, he’s got nothing.

It is only now that all of that is in place, however quickly and inexpensively it was done, that he is ready to have me help him look at future strategy, customization, driving awareness etc. But just getting him current took real dirty, non-sexy implementation work.

Even a new site on a free wordpress.com theme took copying all his existing web content over to the new platform. It took setting up his URL and DNS and it took formatting images and video. It took uploading mp3 files and linking them up. It took revisions to his graphics in the creation of a new banner and wordmark, and it took setting up the widgets ordering the pages.

Digitizing his contact list was an even more arduous process. Manually populating excel spreadsheets with the required data is not on my list of favourite evening activities. While someone else did that initial data entry work, when it came time to uploading the files to his newly implemented email management tool I found the “name” was all one field vs. first name and last name, so I manually separated them… another hour or two. But that hour or two was quicker for me to just go ahead and get it done rather than look for someone who wanted a couple hours of admin work yada yada.

Having a well rounded skill set as a social media marketer is a good idea. Even as a marketer in the general sense, it’s a good idea to be able to manipulate graphic files, layouts, web pages etc. Experience with Adobe Creative Suite, html coding, Office suite, and any other software packages you can get to know will only serve you well.

You don’t want a conversation to go like this:

Client: So I need a new website, can you build it?

You: No, but I can hire someone to do it for you and I can help with managing the build from a best-practices perspective. There’s the guy I know who is fantastic and has an awesome client list. I’ll set up a meeting with him.

Client: Oh, okay. I’d also like it to look different than it does now… like a new identity, sort of. Maybe a new logo and colour scheme… Can you do that?

You: No. You need a graphic designer, but I know a really good one. Hey, I also think you should optimize all your photos so they don’t take so long to load on your site.

Client: Oh yeah, that’s a great idea. Can you do that?

You: Um, no.

Client: So, you do what, exactly?

Awkward.

I think it’s important to remember that it’s the doing that clients need. Especially when it comes to small business. Larger companies probably have some resources to handle some of the doing, and maybe that’s where you want to focus your efforts entirely. In fact, that may be where there is more money available anyway. Small business, on the other hand, needs someone to help with realistic implementations that will drive leads and sales. Bottom line.

Even the longer term strategy of this current project will require even more doing: a custom theme, adwords, blog tagging and editing for SEO (and teaching him to do this himself), monitoring…

If you’re like me, and you have a heart for small businesses having equal opportunity for harnessing the power of the internet in their marketing efforts, a little hands-on skill goes a long way… even if it means an hour or two of data entry every now and again.

Corporate Marketing & Social Media Brain Freeze

Posted on November 6, 2008 by michelle.mack

Photo: striatic on Flickr

I am the first to admit I’m into the internet. I have always verged on a little nerdy and somewhat socially awkward in my younger days. I can do face to face, particularly for business, but I’m much more comfortable in my jamies behind a keyboard. I like talking to people, interacting, and learning from people like the ever-so-amazing Gary Vaynerchuk and Social Media guru Chris Brogan. I love knowing what is going on in the world around me, and the internet and today’s technology provides a way to learn and interact with far more people in a day than you ever could in real life.

Oh and by the way, the internet IS real life in 2008. We’re no longer talking to ‘anonymous’.

When I first started working in the marketing department for Grouse Mountain, it was 1999. The state of technology was vastly different than it is now. My favourite memory that makes me laugh, and maybe cry a little, is that we had only a few email accounts and not everyone could have their own. If I wanted to send an email I had to get up and kick the administrator off her computer, sit down and send it. Then I was at her mercy to let me know if I got a response. Funny to think back about it now.

Today, the situation is very different; I’m connected 24/7.

I started diving head-long into social media when I returned to work after my maternity leave in February 2007. I had been a forum junkie since about 2002, spending a huge amount of time in places like karateforums.com, coolrunning.com, weightwatchers.ca, familylife.com and justmommies.com. When I went back to work I was determined to seek out all the best places online in order to figure out who was where and what they were talking about. I signed up to MySpace, Facebook, LinkedIn… I now have accounts I don’t even remember creating. I’m pretty much connected to YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, Flickr etc. all day long and even have to use two different browsers to stay logged in to two Google accounts. I have corporate accounts and personal accounts and the list goes on… and the lines blur…

My newest fascination is WordPress; I wish I hadn’t taken so long to discover it.

I switched this blog to it a couple of months ago and have built a new one now for UrbanShore.ca – my new pet project. I’ve also built one for Whistler Water and have one that I’m building for a friend. I also have a really exciting new wordpress site in the works for Grouse Mountain’s terrain park community that will launch very shortly.

Anyway, all this is to say I sometimes feel like my brain is going to explode. I would hazzard a guess I’m not the only one working with Social Media that is feeling this way, but I think if we’re not careful and place some limits on its use, we could easily integrate it to unhealthy levels. Who knows? Maybe I’m already there.

If social media were the only thing on my plate, maybe I would just get used to it, but it’s just a piece of my duties as a marketer and my life as a human being in 2008. I still have print ads, and signs, and brochures and documents and image requests and TV and videos and websites and planning and strategy to attend to. It’s actually the variety that keeps me loving my job, but it can tax the senses a little. Add to that the personal commitment to blogging outside of work and connecting with friends using social media and I really never leave my computer and mobile.

Such is my life, and I wouldn’t have it any other way.