Warning: addictive, disheartening, thrilling or banal… often in combination.
Visiting twitter search will allow you to track what the anonymous masses are saying about you, your favorite politicians, your brand, whatever…
You can grab an RSS feed of any search you do, so your rss reader will be always updated with what’s going on with the buzz on things you care about.
It’s sort of like a 24 hour a day focus group, a never-ending riff on what people are buzzing about. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.
PS if you use twitter, remember that what you say is not just seen by your few followers. It’s seen by anyone who searches.
October 14, 2008
Every time you visit a new website, enter a new airport, visit a new store, examine a new book… the question you ask first off is, "what’s this like?"
At a strange airport, if it’s ‘like’ your airport, you know just what to do. It’s easy. If it’s totally different, you have to stop, regroup, and start to understand what’s involved.
If a book has cheap color separations, the wrong sort of gloss on the cover and the wrong hue to the paper, it just feels cheap and self-published and unlikely to be the real deal. It doesn’t matter a bit what’s inside, who wrote it, anything. You’ve already decided because this book reminds you of untrustworthy books you’ve encountered before.
Visit a website with a brown on brown color scheme, a stock photo of a nautilus, some flashing graphics, a bunch of widgets and a typeface that’s not quite right, and you’ve already decided how you feel. Entirely based on the fact that this site is like those sites, and you didn’t like those sites.
Meet someone at a conference who is dressed perfectly, with shined shoes and a great suit (but not trying too hard) and you’re inclined to trust and respect him… because he reminds you of someone in a similar situation who was trustworthy.
Obvious, right?
So why do marketers so often miss this shortcut? Before you make what you’re going to make, find something you want people to be reminded of. Feel free to discard this model if you want to make a point (the ipod did not remind you of a Sony CD player), but discard it on purpose. If you’re writing a book, for example, your goal (probably) isn’t to reinvent what it means to be a book. You’re merely trying to reinvent the words and ideas. So when it comes to the jacket and the type, steal relentlessly. Your audience will thank you, because it’s one less thing to process.
When in doubt, ask your colleagues, "what does this remind you of?"
October 13, 2008
A bonus quote for a Sunday afternoon:
A rock star is not someone who takes the temperature, who gauges the
marketplace before he creates his "art". A rock star is someone who
needs to create and is willing to tolerate the haters along with the
fans. He’s someone who incites controversy just by existing. That’s
what we lost in the dash for cash. Unique voices. I’m not saying we
haven’t ended up with some pleasant music, but it just hasn’t hit you
in the gut, it’s the aural equivalent of Splenda, it might do the
trick, but it’s not the real thing. The real thing grabs your
attention, drives down deep into your heart and lodges itself there. A
rock star doesn’t follow conventions, doesn’t go disco or add drum
machines just because everybody else does. A rock star exists in his
own unique space, and if you met him you probably wouldn’t like him.
Because he tends to be self-focused to the point of being
narcissistic. Because he cares. He needs to get his message out.
Dilemma: This is a quote from Bob Lefsetz (his blog is profane, direct and will make some people uncomfortable). Bob is, in fact, a rock star. But it’s his blog, not yours, and you should only read it if you want to be provoked. And you shouldn’t read it if it bothers you to read things online that you disagree with. Some people will be upset by Bob’s blog, which means that they’ll be upset by my quoting any part of it. At some point, though, the web comes down to bumping into things we might disagree with. That’s my favorite part. It’s where the learning happens.
October 12, 2008
Last week, I had interactions with two organizations that did exactly what they said they would do. Thanks to Brad and his team at Catalyst and to Christoper Justice at Sparkskight. Neither asked or expected anything in return, they just did great work.
There are very few endeavors where perfect is possible (bowling is one, of course). It turns out that when you take on a complex task like putting on a conference or shooting a video, you won’t deliver perfect. 300 is a random event, not something achievable.
In those situations (which means most of the time for most of us) the question is, "what do you do when things don’t go exactly the way you planned a month ago?" And it turns out that if your bias is to always make it right, to use grace and flair to overdeliver at every turn, you’ve just discovered the single most important secret of marketing. Because when you amaze and delight, people talk about you.
From an interview I just did with Hugh at gapingvoid
Everyone isn’t going to be a leader. But everyone isn’t going to be successful, either.
Success is now the domain of people who lead. That doesn’t mean they’re in charge, it doesn’t mean they are the CEO, it merely means that for a group, even a small group, they show the way, they spread ideas, they make change. Those people are the only successful people we’ve got.
October 11, 2008
I figure that the cliche was never, "the last hour," but for a long time, it was, "waiting until the last minute." In our ever-faster society, now we wait for the last second.
Of course we do. Why shouldn’t we? The last second eliminates the need to make a decision, most of the time, because the last second doesn’t arrive, thus saving us the angst. And when we do take action, there’s no penalty (usually) for waiting.
Airlines and others penalize people for planning ahead by instituting non-refundable fares. We don’t get treated like royalty for signing up early, and the penalties for waiting often seem fairly small.
In Florida, on the other hand, where dinner is half price before 5 pm, the restaurants are often packed.
Every time I’ve posted a job or an offer with a deadline, I get amazingly well-written and thoughtful notes one day after the deadline has passed, begging for another chance, or quoting time zones or some other sort of nonsense. Of course, it’s all because we’ve persuaded ourselves to wait till the last second.
With less than two weeks to go, my event in New York has officially reached the last minute. If you want a seat, today is the day, as there are only 38 left. The first five people to buy a seat today (here’s the link) get a free copy of my DVD set. Early bird special, you know.
October 10, 2008
After Tuesday’s debate, one study of undecided voters showed that 35% of them considered the outcome of the debate a tie.
A tie?
I can imagine believing that Obama won. I can concede that some people thought McCain won. But a tie? How could a rational person call it a tie?
Of course, they didn’t really mean it was a tie. Just like the prospects who don’t buy your stuff but don’t say no aren’t really in search of more information so they can make a considered decision.
Here’s the formula of what’s really happening:
Fear of making a decision > Benefit of making a decision.
And that, for marketers, is the pox of the undecided. We think that people are undecided because they don’t know enough about our features or our competitors, or because they don’t have enough money or they are waiting to hear from their friends. In fact, most of the time, they’re undecided because they are afraid of deciding. No is scary and yes is scary.
The reason that so many people don’t vote is the same as the reason that so many people walk past your store every day or click past your site every day. Because inertia is compelling. Inertia absolves them of responsibility.
Forewarned is forearmed. Now that you know that your competition is called inertia, you can sell against it more effectively. A ticking clock is a marketer’s best friend. A no is better than a maybe, any day. At least you can learn from a no.
Here’s a simple quiz:
- Can you capture something you see on your screen and paste it into Word or PowerPoint?
- Do you have a blog?
- Can you open a link you get in an email message?
- Do you read more than five blogs a day?
- Do you have a signature in your outbound email?
- Do you have an RSS reader?
- Can you generate a PDF document from a Word file you’re working on?
- Do you know how to build and share a simple spreadsheet using Google Docs?
- Do have a shortcut for sending mail to the six co-workers you usually write to?
- Are you able to find what you’re looking for on Google most of the time?
- Do you know how to download a file from the internet?
- Do you back up your work?
- Do you keep track of contacts using a digital tool?
- Do you use anti-virus software?
- Do you fall for internet hoaxes and forward stuff to friends and then regret it?
- Have you ever bought something from a piece of spam?
Can you imagine someone who works in a factory that processes metal not knowing how to use a blowtorch? How can you imagine yourself as a highly-paid knowledge worker and not know how to do these things… If you don’t, it’s not hard to find someone to teach you.
October 9, 2008
People really want to believe effort is a myth, at least if we consider what we consume in the media:
- politicians and beauty queens who get by on a smile and a wink
- lottery winners who turn a lifetime of lousy jobs into one big payday
- sports stars who are born with skills we could never hope to acquire
- hollywood celebrities with the talent of being in the right place at the right time
- failed CEOs with $40 million buyouts
It really seems (at least if you read popular media) that who you know and whether you get ‘picked’ are the two keys to success. Luck.
The thing about luck is this: we’re already lucky. We’re insanely lucky that we weren’t born during the black plague or in a country with no freedom. We’re lucky that we’ve got access to highly-leveraged tools and terrific opportunities. If we set that luck aside, though, something interesting shows up.
Delete the outliers–the people who are hit by a bus or win the lottery, the people who luck out in a big way, and we’re left with everyone else. And for everyone else, effort is directly related to success. Not all the time, but as much as you would expect. Smarter, harder working, better informed and better liked people do better than other people, most of the time.
Effort takes many forms. Showing up, certainly. Knowing stuff (being smart might be luck of the draw, but knowing stuff is the result of effort). Being kind when it’s more fun not to. Paying forward when there’s no hope of tangible reward. Doing the right thing. You’ve heard these things a hundred times before, of course, but I guess it’s easier to bet on luck.
If people aren’t betting on luck, then why do we make so many dumb choices? Why aren’t useful books selling at fifty times the rate they sell now? Why does anyone, ever, watch reality TV shows? Why do people do such dumb stuff with their money?
I think we’ve been tricked by the veneer of lucky people on the top of the heap. We see the folks who manage to skate by, or who get so much more than we think they deserve, and it’s easy to forget that:
a. these guys are the exceptions
and
b. there’s nothing you can do about it anyway.
And that’s the key to the paradox of effort: While luck may be more appealing than effort, you don’t get to choose luck. Effort, on the other hand, is totally available, all the time.
This is a hard sell. Diet books that say, "eat less, exercise more," may work, but they don’t sell many copies.
With that forewarning, here’s a bootstrapper’s/marketer’s/entrepreneur’s/fast-rising executive’s effort diet. Go through the list and decide whether or not it’s worth it. Or make up your own diet. Effort is a choice, at least make it on purpose:
1. Delete 120 minutes a day of ‘spare time’ from your life. This can include TV, reading the newspaper, commuting, wasting time in social networks and meetings. Up to you.
2. Spend the 120 minutes doing this instead:
- Exercise for thirty minutes.
- Read relevant non-fiction (trade magazines, journals, business books, blogs, etc.)
- Send three thank you notes.
- Learn new digital techniques (spreadsheet macros, Firefox shortcuts, productivity tools, graphic design, html coding)
- Volunteer.
- Blog for five minutes about something you learned.
- Give a speech once a month about something you don’t currently know a lot about.
3. Spend at least one weekend day doing absolutely nothing but being with people you love.
4. Only spend money, for one year, on things you absolutely need to get by. Save the rest, relentlessly.
If you somehow pulled this off, then six months from now, you would be the fittest, best rested, most intelligent, best funded and motivated person in your office or your field. You would know how to do things other people don’t, you’d have a wider network and you’d be more focused.
It’s entirely possible that this won’t be sufficient, and you will continue to need better luck. But it’s a lot more likely you’ll get lucky, I bet.
October 8, 2008
Items in the future are closer than they appear.
If you’re going across town, you’re very specific: "188 Fifth Avenue, on the east side of the street please."
On the other hand, when you go on vacation, you tell people, "I’m going to Paris," not "we’re going to 8 rue du Cherche-Midi." And if you’re going even farther than that, you skip the city and country altogether and just say, "we’re going to Africa." One day, Richard Branson will take you all the way to Mars–all you get is the name of the planet.
This makes sense, of course. We don’t need to know which crater you’re going to, just that it’s far away.
Marketers spend a lot of time describing a future and making it real. The more general you are in describing it, the farther away people imagine it is. "We’re going to launch a new product next year" sounds a lot more distant than handing someone a prototype and saying, "this launches on January 3rd at 2 pm at CES."
Short version: If you want people to embrace your version of the future, talk about it like it’s right around the corner, not on another planet.
October 7, 2008
