Perception, Happiness, and Getting Anything You Want
Posted on 02. Aug, 2011 by Jay Baer in Blog, Book Reviews, CD Baby, Derek SIvers, personal branding, Seth Godin, Small Business Internet Marketing, Small Business Marketing, Social Media Book, video
I’ve read a lot of books. But I’ve perhaps never been personally impacted as much as I was reading Derek Sivers‘ new book Anything You Want
I like this book so much, I bought some to give away to readers of this post. See below for details.
In the book, the life-long musician talks about:
- How he accidentally founded the company (he taught himself programming and digital commerce to sell his own CD)
- Intentionally kept it smaller than it could have been
- Refused all investor monies
- Eventually made himself superfluous to day-to-day operations
- Sold the company when he lost his passion for it
There are lots of books, and speakers, and training classes and such that espouse a philosophy of “if you love what you do, you’ll never work a day in your life.” Derek Sivers lives that principle 1000%.
From his new home in Singapore, Derek sat down for a Skype interview about his career, the book, and making decisions through a happiness prism.
I’ve done a lot of interviews (including the ground-breaking Twitter20 series), but this is my favorite one. It’s a little longer, but I sincerely hope you’ll spend the time to watch it.
If you sometimes find yourself wondering “is this it?” watching this interview and reading Anything You Want
We all have to worry less about what we have and how we’re perceived, and worry more about making our customers – and ourselves – happy. Thanks Derek for the reminder. For less than $10, Anything You Want
Let Me Send You a Free Copy
I believe in this book so much that I bought copies to give away here at Convince & Convert. In the comments (or on the Facebook page), tell me what about your business or company makes you happiest. The answers that are most interesting, creative, and true will win a book.
(links are Amazon affiliate. Domino Project sent me the book for free)
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Bad Content Marketing: 20 Reasons For It
Posted on 20. Jun, 2011 by Joe Pulizzi in bad content marketing, Blog, content marketing, content strategy, Fun Stuff, Seth Godin, Small Business Internet Marketing, Small Business Marketing
- It’s all about you. Your customers don’t care about you, they care about themselves. We often forget that point when we describe how wonderful our widget is (that no one cares about).
- You are afraid to fail. Taking chances with your content and experimenting a bit reveals the possibilities for your content marketing and uncovers new customer stories.
- You are setting the bar too low. Your content marketing should be the very best in your industry…better than all your competition and better than the media and publishers in your space. How can you be the trusted expert in your industry if it is not?
- It’s focused on tools not goals. First identify your return on objectives and coordinate the success measures (key performance indicators) for each content team.
- Not sourcing correctly. The majority of brands outsource some portion of the content marketing process. Don’t be afraid to find internal content champions and outside journalists, writers and content agencies to help you tell your story.
- Silos. Are you telling different stories in PR, corporate communications, social media, email marketing, etc.? (see #12)
- You don’t seek out discomfort. Seth Godin states in his book Linchpin that if we don’t consistently step out of our comfort area we are doomed to the status quo. Each quarter, do something completely unexpected with your content.
- No call to action. Every piece of content should have a call to action. If it doesn’t, at least recognize it as such and the real purpose behind why you developed the content.
- Too focused on one particular channel. Stop thinking email newsletter or Facebook. Think about the problem you are solving for your customer. Then look to tell that story in different ways everywhere your customers are at (check out this social media publishing model for more).
- You create a backup plan. There is try and reiterate…forget the backup plan. A backup plan (i.e., pay-per-click or sponsorship) is admitting to fail before you begin.
- Not thinking like a publisher.
- No content owner. Hire or develop a chief content officer.
- No C-level buy in. Organizations without C-Level buy-in are 300% more likely to fail at content marketing (source).
- Not immersed in your industry. Everywhere your customers are at, you need to be there (online, in print and in person).
- Not niche enough. You need to be the leading expert in the world in your niche. Pick something that is both meaningful to your business and attainable.
- Setting up the wrong measures for the right people.
- Too slow. As much as I hate to say it, speed beats perfection in most cases. Figure out a streamlined process for your storytelling.
- Inconsistent or campaign driven. Your content marketing is a promise to your customers. Think about the morning paper (if you receive it)…when it doesn’t come on time, how upset are you? You need to have the same mindset with your content marketing. Distribute content consistently and ON TIME. Develop your content marketing editorial calendar.
- Not thinking with search in mind. Most of your website traffic probably comes from search engines. If we tell pieces of our content with search in mind we stay focused on the problem and how customers communicate that problem. We also get found!
- What’s yours? List it below.
Find out the answers to literally all of these issues at Content Marketing World 2011.
The Facebook Fake Friend Fallout
Posted on 24. Mar, 2010 by Michel Fortin in Blog, customer, facebook, fan, follower, friend, helpdesk, Opinions, philosophy, profile, relationship, service, Seth Godin, Small Business Internet Marketing, Small Business Marketing, spam, spammer, tweet, Twitter
He was so incensed, he wrote me a personal message accusing me of being rude and insulting. He even remarked that I’m arrogant, and snarkily added that some of his “friends” seem to feel the same way.
Now, before I give you the reason, I’d like to share with you my philosophy on Facebook friendships in general.
To me, and I think it’s simply common sense, a friend is a friend. It’s someone you know, someone you have a relationship with, someone you want to stay connected with, and someone you consider a real friend — not a fan, follower, or worse yet, a spammer.
And the latter of the three is the one I can’t stand.
But there’s a difference between a “profile” and “page.” Between a “friend” and a “fan.” Those differences are not mine. They are Facebook’s. Their policies are pretty clear.
Personal profiles are not to be used for commercial purposes.
I know. It’s not only listed in their terms, but Facebook have also told me personally.
Befriending someone on Facebook can be just as problematic as following someone on Twitter. Just
“It is unlikely that anyone can actually read tweets from thousands of accounts which makes this activity disingenuous.”
Even Seth Godin calls mass-friending as “fake networking.” This applies to Facebook as much as it does to Twitter — or to any other social media application, for that matter.
I wanted to keep my friends list clean. I could have, like some marketers out there, dumped my profile entirely, or deleted my entire friends list, and started from scratch.
But I didn’t want to do that. Starting from scratch can seem just as disingenuous.
So in order to whittle my list down to the people I really do want to stay friends with, including family members, old school friends, and several marketers I have an actual relationship with, I’ve decided to remove friends based on the following five criteria.
If the people are not known to me (i.e., people I don’t really know, have never met, or haven’t some kind of personal relationship with), I remove the following:
Above all, I’m not on Facebook to provide customer support or free advice, or to do any networking. (Sure, I do network. But it’s not my primary focus.) So I also remove friends who send me a direct message in some obvious attempt to extract free advice from me.
Yes, I’m very selective with who I hang around with. But I don’t spend endless hours scouring my friend list searching for anyone who meets any of the above criteria. I only apply it to friends who happen to spam me and to those who try to add me as a friend.
Incidentally, when adding friends I prefer and particularly approve those who add a small message with their friend request. They’re making an effort in introducing themselves to me, and in sharing some commonality or reason why we should be friends.
Bottom line, I’m very protective of my time, my reputation, and my integrity.
Back to the “friend” who rebuked me for unfriending him. He added me as a friend, and spammed me with a request of some kind literally the next day. Now, spamming me is one thing. But spamming me within hours of adding me as a friend is another.
When people do this, it makes their friend request suspect.
Not only do I de-friend people who spam me, but I hesitate even less when the request comes in shortly after adding me as a friend. Facebook is filled with people who add “friends” for the sole purpose of pushing their offers, businesses, or opportunities.
(Sorry, but I’m not interested in your “opportunity.”)
I replied to this fellow and expressed that he should have given me a chance to explain before jumping the gun. His reply was just as perplexing when he counter-accused me of jumping to conclusions by unfriending him so quickly. (Uh, merry-go-round, anyone?)
With this situation, Seth Godin’s “permission marketing” comes to mind. Specifically, don’t ask me to marry you when we’re still on the first date. Get to know me first.
Nevertheless, I don’t have time to vet each friend request, much less every friend on my list. So following this “whittling” process seems to work for me.
It’s the lesser of two evils — removing undesirables one by one is a lot less daunting than deleting my entire friends list and starting over from scratch. Plus, in the end by cleaning out my friends list allows me to stay in touch with only the people I want.
If not adding everyone who asks as a friend, if being selective when choosing my friends, and if unfriending undesirables make me arrogant, then I guess I am.
Come to think of it, this argument is very reminiscent of the whole “auto-follow fiasco” on Twitter
Not following you back (or in this case, not befriending you) doesn’t make me rude, arrogant, or discourteous. This is a blatant myth propagated by some social media gurus who are using peer pressure to justify their attempt to grow their own lists.
Ditto with people befriending others in an attempt to usurp free advice or support. I do offer support. I have staff and a helpdesk for that purpose. And I do try to help whenever I can. But there’s a difference between customer service and customer support.
So if you want to become my friend, I only ask three simple things.
Ultimately, ask yourself, and be honest: would you treat a Facebook friend the same way you’d treat a real friend in the real world? If so, and if you want friends only to promote yourself, then your Facebook profile is not the place. There are better places for that.
They’re called tradeshows.
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