Consider these Tipsheets: there are over 300 of them, and they certainly don’t “sell” anything.  Each week, I give away a small nugget of information, and tie it to an immediate action.  These non-salesy Tipsheets, like the vast majority of blogs, are designed to credentialize expertise and build trust, slowly over time.

Interestingly, I recently received an email from a reader saying that he was about to unsubscribe, but he wanted to give me “a chance” and explain why, in person.  As this reader was in the same city as I was, I took him up on his offer to meet for a coffee.  Social Networking translated into real-world networking.

Beyond the introductions and pleasantries, what I received was a high pressure sales pitch for their marketing services.  As the service wasn’t needed, the meeting ended relatively quickly.  There was no follow-up email post meeting.  And a few weeks later this person unsubscribed.  (It’s ironic – he is the one that needs to see this post!)

Lessons learned:

• Developing relationships takes time, both in the real world and in Social Media.  Trying to make a quick sale over coffee is great if you’re selling coffee, but bad if you’re selling something more complex – like anything.
• Bait-and-Switch is a bad networking strategy.  If the invitation to meet is for one purpose, don’t trot out something different.
• A blog is a great place to develop and explore ideas over a longer term.  And in so doing, a blog is also a great place to develop trust.
• Follow-up after a network meeting is critical.  Like the blog, a real-life meeting and a follow-up email are merely steps up the relationship curve.

Social Media can be used to sell, but one of the most effective strategies has to be Give to Get;  the sale will take place, but only when you’ve demonstrated your expertise, earned the trust, and the buyer is ready to buy – which may take years.

This week’s action plan:  Where does your blog fit on the sell/no-sell continuum?  If you’re not happy with it there, make a change.  If you don’t blog, look back at your favorite blog (besides this one!) and evaluate it: where does it fit on the continuum?  And how would you feel if it was changed?

Note: The Make It Happen Tipsheet is also available by email. Go to www.RandallCraig.com to register.

Randall Craig

Check out the latest brochure, advertisement, billboard, or business card, and you’ll see that ubiquitous square:  the QR Code.  For those who don’t know what about them, here is how they work:  a special “app” on your smart phone takes a picture of it, decodes it, and (usually) sends your smart phone’s browser to a specific web page.

To create a code, just Google the words QR Code and you’ll find a number of no-cost web-based QR Code creators.    To read the code, go to your smart phone’s app store and do a similar search, then install what you find.  (My favorite is ScanLife.)  Here’s an example code that takes you to my (no cost) blog course registration page:

From a marketer’s perspective, this simple code bridges the real world to the web: it is the stimulus that begins the social conversation.  Here are seven key considerations for using them:

1) Set the goal of your QR code:  why would a person actually scan the code?  Is it an impulsive registration or purchase?  Or is it to provide deeper knowledge beyond the ad or brochure?  If there isn’t a reason to scan, the QR code is merely clutter that detracts from the message.

2) Create a mobile-friendly landing page: since you know the user has a smartphone, why send them to a regular web site?  A special-purpose landing page, optimized for mobile, will result in far greater conversion.

3) The shorter the URL. the less dense the resulting QR code will be.  This means that there will be fewer errors when users scan it.  Use a URL shortener (bit.ly, budurl.com, etc) to shorten the URL significantly.

4) Print the QR code in a high contrast area: not black on grey, and not superimposed on a picture.  Black and white, for once, trumps color.

5) Deploy QR codes only in places where there is data access.  It never ceases to amaze me when I see dough-brained Social Media “agencies” creating QR code advertisements that are placed in the subway.  No data access there!

6) Test the code before printing it.  And then test it again.

7) For advanced marketers:  QR codes can actually do far more than just send people to a web site.  Depending on the user’s QR reader software and their smartphone, a QR code can send a text message, display a contact record, show a calendar event, and much, much more.

This week’s action plan:  Where might a QR code work for you?  If you haven’t yet, begin experimenting.  Here is an idea: create QR codes within proposals or product brochures that link to product videos, testimonials, and other visual content.  (And if they don’t like this idea, you can always put one on your resume that connects to your LinkedIn profile…)

Web Trivia:  QR stands for Quick Response.

Note: The Make It Happen Tipsheet is also available by email. Go to www.RandallCraig.com to register.

Randall Craig

Consider the newest words entering our vocabulary: Kindle, eReader, Nook, iBooks, and Kobo.  Let me add one more:  iCensorship.

If the stats are to be believed, our eBook purchases on these devices are fast eclipsing traditional print books. This isn’t surprising, as eBooks are not bulky, don’t kill our forests, and they’re cheaper.

Despite these advantages, they are not perfect.  Putting aside the challenges of sharing books or battery problems, there is the problem of the walled garden. Once you have committed (say) to purchasing an ebook through Amazon, you can only read your book on a Kindle. While you can get a Kindle “App” for your iPad, this would be a different App from Apple’s built-in iBooks. Having a plethora of different readers and remembering which book is in which App is nonsensical: consumer behavior will be to choose one and stick to it.

This “App” problem is just one skirmish in a long-brewing war between the ebook distributors.  Consumers may not realize it, but ebook distributors have another weapon – a dirty little secret actually – to use in their fight:  censorship. Yes, censorship.

My latest book (Online PR and Social Media for Experts, 5th edition), was just submitted for electronic distribution, but was rejected because within the manuscript there were several links to the Amazon web site.  Not links to the Amazon store, but to two Amazon services that are important for the target audience – AuthorCentral and Askville.  I was told that if the book was to be sold on a Nook, Kobo, Apple iPad, Sony eReader or others, this content would have to go.  Guess what went.

In the olden days of traditional bookstores, this could never happen.  While you may be saddened  to see the death of so many independent bookstores (and some large ones), you should be more disturbed by the inappropriate use of the monopoly power by these new centurions.  Is what they are doing unlawful?  Not being a lawyer, I couldn’t say.  You may not care about my specific book, but what about others?  Imagine where this slippery slope might take us:  Will Amazon only agree to carry a product if the publisher adds only-for-Amazon extras?  Will Apple or Kobo only carry the product if an author changes the political angle of their manuscript?

I do support the right of ebook distributors to choose what they wish to carry.  But their behavior imposes yet another burden on a beleaguered publishing industry.  And it is an attack on the editorial freedom of writers.  Why should it fall to publishers, authors (and ultimately consumers) to be the pawns in their high-stakes world of ebook poker?  Let the competition be on an even playing field, without iCensorship.

This week’s action item:  Where are you buying your ebooks?  Before you decide to plunk down your cash, remember that you are not just deciding on a book, but an entire ebook ecosystem. 

Postscript for ebook distributors:  I am happy to update this article to note your policy of never rejecting a book because it contains a reference or link to a so-called competitor within the content of the manuscript.

Note: The Make It Happen Tipsheet is also available by email. Go to www.RandallCraig.com to register.

Randall Craig

Ever feel slighted, ignored, disenfranchised, “sold to”, taken for granted, or just plain commoditized? For many prospects, these feelings are what prevent a sale from taking place. They prevent repeat sales, prevent referrals, and encourage negative word-of-mouth.

Clearly, great customer service – supported by great training and great management – are fundamental, but how can social media be used to improve the experience?

Before the sale:

• Set expectations about the customer experience
• Provide access to support forums and other customer-only tools
• Curate and encourage interested bloggers and a “fan” community

At point of sale:

• Orient the customer about YouTube how-to’s and peer support forums.
• Create a “quick-start” page where veteran customers can add their ideas, videos, photos, etc.

After the sale:

• Use surveys to uncover latent service requirements, and use this information to create social service content
• Implement social monitoring tools to identify hot spots – and opportunities. At the very least free tools such as Google Alerts and Hootsuite. If the volume is higher (or you want better functionality), use a paid tool such as Radian6.
• Staff up for direct-to-customer triage on Twitter to address issues on a quick-response basis. Empower these front-line workers to actually resolve issues – not merely empathize and apologize.
• Reward customers who provide peer-based support with status, early information on what’s new, product samples, etc.
• Beyond posting static manuals, allow the customer community to comment on each page, add their own content, and share through social channels.
• Make it mobile: Convert the existing static content into a mobile friendly format, with one click telephone support.  No PDFs or Flash files!
• Automate the collection of testimonials and case studies. After the sale, auto-send a request that would generate feedback that can be used in a social setting.

This week’s action plan: Great customer service starts in the real world, and speaks directly to the strength of the relationship between you and each person you serve. Social media can amplify the good or the bad, and it can serve as an additional communications channel:  what it can’t do is fix a fundamentally flawed experience. This week, identify one aspect of your product or service to improve. Then cover your bases so that you are as responsive through social media as you are through traditional channels.

Postscript: Sharing your success in the social world is far more satisfying than fighting a rearguard action regarding complaints and being unresponsive.

Note: The Make It Happen Tipsheet is also available by email. Go to www.RandallCraig.com to register.

Randall Craig

If you spend 10 minutes on LinkedIn each business day for the last two years, you’ve made an investment of 86 hours… or two weeks of vacation. Up that to 15 minutes, and you’ve gobbled three weeks over the year.  How satisfied are you with the return on your time investment?  If you’re like most, then the answer is… you know you can do better.

If you’re going to spend so much time on LinkedIn – let alone Facebook, Twitter, YouTube or the other social networks, here are eight practical ideas to improve your ROI:

1. Be intentional: What specifically are you hoping to achieve with the tool? Professional support/professional development? To close more business? A new job? Or something else?
2. Complete your profile: This means being thoughtful in your use of keywords, not just filling in blanks.  And writing for your reader
3. Change your status strategically: You are judged by the quality and frequency of your status updates. Irrelevant or too frequent posts harm your personal brand.
4. Multi-lingual profiles: If you are fluent in another language, create a mirror profile in that language. If someone searches for keywords in this other language you’ll show up.
5. Add a blog to your profile: Not only does this improve your search results, but it also lets people know how you think. Don’t have a blog? Check out Six Steps to Strategic Blogging at http://www.randallcraig.com/six-steps-to-strategic-blogging (no cost)
6. Be more active in groups: Choosing the right groups (and participating in them) is really today’s version of networking. The ‘transactions’ of asking and answering questions translates directly into reputation and relationships.
7. Connect to the real-world: Use LinkedIn proactively before real-life meetings. Check out your connection online before speaking to them directly, and reach out to people who know both you and them.
8. Measure and manage: Set your calendar for three months time from now. If you haven’t made progress towards your goals, then re-examine what you’re doing with your social media time.

This week’s action plan: Most people already have done 3-4 of these items. But what about the rest? This week, improve your LinkedInvestment by changing how you spend those 5-10 ‘social’ minutes each day.

LinkedIn Trivia: Where are you on the LinkedIn pecking order? It’s not the number of connections, but how long you’ve been using the tool. LinkedIn assigns each person a unique serial number – starting from 1: The longer the number, the more of a veteran you are. Find your LinkedIn number by clicking on the “Profile” menu, and looking for a long string of numbers in the URL.  (My number is 1566001 – what’s yours?)

Note: The Make It Happen Tipsheet is also available by email. Go to www.RandallCraig.com to register.

Randall Craig

How do you know if you are successful at Social Media?  While the answer a few years ago may have been it’s so experimental, we’ll have to see, the answer from some today is similarly dissatisfying:  Social Media ROI is comparable to computing the ROI of a telephone. We can do better than this – we are no longer in the age of experimentation.

Consider these four approaches:

Relative to plan:  Before embarking on a Social Media program, forecast the impact of your efforts:  how many page views, likes, new connections, user-generated submissions, sentiment, comments, tweets, retweets, or shares are you expecting?  And in the real world, what are you expecting in terms of real-world change: decreased customer service phone or email volume, increased leads, or increased product sales?  You need not forecast everything – just what is important to you and your organization.  Forecasting specific numbers at the outset puts a stake in the ground, and improves accountability… measurably.

Change from prior period:  Instead of a comparison to plan, consider measuring growth over time.  Be careful though: the growth number is only useful when the investment (time and budget) are also compared over the same period. A 50% year-over-year growth in Twitter followers is meaningless if the work effort to achieve the growth grew by 200%. 

Relative to an industry benchmark:  A 15% return might seem great, but if everyone else is getting 30%, then 15% is not very good at all.  The social web has been around for a few years now, and benchmarks, common practices, and rules-of-thumb are just now starting to become more common.  We recently completed a national survey of 400+ associations and not-for-profits; the benchmarks are invaluable.  (The 100+ page report is available at http://budurl.com/2012csae.)

Business impact:  It’s far more powerful when a Social Media activity directly impacts a real business measure – something that is on the financial statements, either revenue or cost.  Some examples: Increased sales due to a YouTube campaign. The effectiveness of Twitter to improve customer retention. The reduction in recruitment fees when using LinkedIn.  

While all four measurement approaches are valuable, business impact measures are by far the most.  If you are tracking relative to plan, to changes, or to industry benchmarks, follow the measure back to the impact on the business itself.  If it doesn’t impact the business, then why measure it at all?

This week’s action item: Create a Social Media Scorecard, highlighting your most critical measures.  Not only will it keep you focused on achieving your results, the scorecard is a great way to communicate progress to your colleagues.

It’s always easy to look at other organizations – or other people – and marvel at their incredible foresight, acumen, and investment.  To look at some of the most successful companies and their products – Apple and Google come to mind – and say “They were just lucky” is too easy, and unlikely.

Few people think of the many failures of these successful organizations, and the sometimes-connection between the failures and later success.  Remember the Apple III?  Or the Apple Newton? Or Google Wave?  Or Google Buzz?  These have been easily eclipsed by the iPhone, iPad, Google+, and Android.

What are the drivers of their success?  Here are a few that come to mind:

• Hire smart people, then invest in them so that they grow.
• Network and develop relationships with complementary organizations and people.
• Allow some free time for innovation, beyond the present corporate goals.
• Take risks, accept failure, but learn from it.
• Focus on the market and adding value to it; it’s too easy to be transfixed by what you see in the rear-view mirror.

There are a number of other factors (capitalization, IP ownership, etc), but these five success factors have one thing in common: people.  In fact, most recruiters in the tech world lament about the war for talent.  And some tech companies are being valued not on sales or profitability, but on the number of engineers.

This week’s action plan: While it may be tempting to look elsewhere when things are not going particularly well, don’t: these five factors apply equally at the individual level.  This week, choose one activity: invest in yourself, network, innovate, take risks, and focus on the market instead of yourself.  When you do, you will be taking one step in making your organization more successful… and also yourself.

Do you play the milestone game with your Social Media accounts?

When you first sign up, you aim for ten connections.  Then 50, 100, 250, and finally the coveted 500 – you’ve arrived.  And then you aim for 1000.  How many is too many?

As I look at my own LinkedIn and Facebook accounts, it struck me that most people give precious little thought to how, or why, they say yes when asked to connect. Yet this is one of the most important things to do if you are truly hoping to use Social Media productively.  Consider these guidelines:

1) Set a policy:  For each Social Network, choose an appropriate-for-that-network connection policy – one that ties directly back to your goals for using (or not using) it.  For me, I accept friend requests on Facebook from everyone who asks.  On LinkedIn, however, I only accept connection requests from two groups: those who I have a real-world relationship with, and those who are members of the same professional associations.  Other people may set different connection policies: people they met once, people at their workplace, school, etc.

One approach that is not recommended is the so-called “LION” (Linked In Open Networker) approach; these people seek to be connected to everyone, whether there is a relationship or not.  While acceptable for recruiters who use their connection lists to connect to job candidates, others who use this strategy often use their vast connection lists to send spam status messages.

2) Communicate politely:  It is flattering – and a credit to you – when someone asks to be your connection.  But if you don’t want to add them, reply to them with thanks, then suggest an alternate way of connecting with  you: perhaps in person or over the phone first, or perhaps via Twitter.

3) Cleanse your connections:  Spend time going through all of your connections, and prune those who don’t measure up to your current policy standards.  Unlike when you make a connection, disconnects are not broadcast throughout the LinkedIn (or Facebook) systems.

This week’s action item:  It is easier to measure network strength through numbers, but the value of your network is best measured through the quality of your relationships.  Setting a policy, communicating it, and cleansing your connections won’t help you reach your next quantity milestone, but will increase your network quality.  This week, if you don’t have a Social Media connection policy, set one – even if you may need to change it later.

Bonus insight: The act of thinking through your policy will help you clarify how to better use your Social Media time.

PS:  For the record, I have 997 LinkedIn connections…  and 210 invitations from others I am ignoring.  Yes, I probably have too many “friends”.

While corporations are trying to figure out how to use the Social Media carrot to entice their customers to buy, their customers are using a powerful Social Media stick when it comes to expressing their disappointment and dissatisfaction.

In the olden days, corporate policy may have been the customer is always right. Today it is a bit different: no returns beyond 30 days, and no returns without the bill. At Costco, a ‘prison warden’ inspects your purchases and cash register tape before you can leave the premises. And if you wish to cancel your cell phone or internet service prepare to be soaked for hundreds of dollars. A wonderful corporate policy that assumes the customer is always wrong.

So it isn’t surprising, therefore, that customers are also developing “policy”: armed with smartphones with Facebook-a-ready, they are documenting, sharing, liking, commenting, and virally broadcasting their experience. Witness, several years ago when a sleeping TTC transit worker was caught sleeping on the job in his subway booth. Embarrassing for all concerned.

With this in mind, I found myself on the transit system recently where a simple question to a TTC subway operator was answered in a “non-customer-friendly” and nonsensical way.  Here’s the dilemma: do you record the event on your smartphone? Do you take a picture of the offending employee? Or do you do nothing?

In this particular case I took a picture, but decided not to publish it. With 10K + readers of this blog, the “slap” of public embarrassment for the operator would (in my judgement) be excessive.

On the other hand, other people may have different judgement. This is why customer service and Social Media training for all employees is so critical. It’s not just the CEO and the PR person who “speak” for the organization – all employees do. And those on the front line will always be held accountable in the court of public Social Media opinion.

Today, we find that policies designed to protect the organization (“The customer is always wrong“) have whittled away loyalty so much that it isn’t surprising that customers are so easily wielding their Social Media stick.

Hint to Corporate America: fixing your real-world problems must happen in the real world. Investing in Social Media in order to build loyalty can only go so far, when front-line staff or the policies they enforce are idiotic, unfeeling, or disrespectful. (This brings to mind the idea of putting Social Media lipstick on a pig; in the end, no matter how much you put on, it’s still a pig…)

This week’s action plan: As an individual, how strong a stick do you wield? And do you also wield carrots? As an organization, how much easier would your Social Media strategy be if you weren’t fighting a rearguard action due to poorly thought-through real-world policies and practices. This week, spend some time on the front-lines thinking like a customer…with a smartphone.

Note: The Make It Happen Tipsheet is also available by email. Go to www.RandallCraig.com to register.

Randall Craig

No CEO wants to be known as a hypocrite.  But unfortunately, many are precisely that – here’s why.

There is an interesting conundrum that many companies face when expanding beyond their borders. A key reason for their success at home has been that they could take advantage of the homegrown business environment. They operated in a framework of laws, competition, and a well-understood social contract.

The challenge, however, is that when moving into a new market, companies are moving into an entire business environment which also includes foreign (to them) laws, competition, and a different social contract. They must follow one of two paths:

• Stick to their better-from-home approach, and hopefully “disrupt” the market to their advantage.
• Change their practices (and possibly ethics) to fit: When in Rome, do as the Romans do.

The key benefit of changing to fit is that the organization can truly take advantage of local advantages. The problem is when the local customs are fundamentally in conflict with home country ethics and laws.

The key benefit of bringing your ‘foreign’ perspective is that thinking differently can possibly bring a competitive advantage. And you don’t need to compromise your ethics.

While this is all relatively theoretical, there are practical implications to these choices.

Consider, for example, the development of the web and Social Media in China. This market is big, entrepreneurial, and as sophisticated as any in the west… except for their laws regarding censorship.  Local competitors (Baidu and Sina Weibo, for example) are thriving under these laws; reportedly Sina Weibo has 700 internal censors on the payroll.  It’s no surprise, then, when the international search engines and blogging platforms also become complicit in censoring their content.  Or when Twitter inserted a back-door “spying” entrance into their product.

Yes, social networks can be used for both good and bad. Witness the Arab spring, or how the police are using the tools to help identify perpetrators after riots. But let’s put aside this argument (net good / net bad), and speak to the obvious reasons why authoritarian regimes have problems with the tools: Social Networks are instruments of communication, collaboration, and community building. And when people are unhappy, these 3 C’s foment opposition, and sometimes even rebellion. It’s in the authoritarian interest to clamp down, control, and curtail (a different 3 C’s) the social web in their countries.

Many of the companies that seek to profit from those markets choose to be complicit, and bend to the local laws.  They are enablers of the “bad” 3 C’s – shame on them.

How ironic, therefore, that even if they feel uncomfortable with their complicity, many have similar policies internally themselves: closing access to – and monitoring – their employee’s social web access. For those unenlightened leaders who need it to be spelled out, choosing the right 3 C’s means greater connection to the market, greater collaboration internally and externally and a greater community of interest amongst clients and employees alike. This translates into higher employee engagement, better retention, more effective marketing, and higher sales. It’s hard to argue “open” in an international market, when their fears are shutting their social sphincter shut.

Yes, even the most enlightened organizations have concerns over productivity and business risk, so the need to control supposedly solves this problem.  These arguments are red herrings: the risks can be mitigated easily through policy, training, and communication. Unlike dictators who fear openness, corporate leaders would do well to embrace it – and model it – no matter how scary it may seem.

Is there a conflict between your organization’s policies externally, and the ground rules it enforces internally? In today’s world of many-to-many contact and community-building, philosophical alignment is no longer optional.  And without alignment, there is hypocrisy.

This week’s action plan: This parallel also works at the individual level, and well beyond just Social Media. If countries should be open, and corporations should be open, then surely we should be too.  (Are you?  Which 3 C’s are you most comfortable with?)

Note: The Make It Happen Tipsheet is also available by email. Go to www.RandallCraig.com to register.

Randall Craig

Even from the most committed employees, one question comes up over and over again: how to use Social Media to find your next job.  It might be couched in different language (How do I develop professional profile/How do I take advantage of Social tools for support, etc), but the question remains.  How can you use Social Media to find your next role? 

Given the competition and the tough economy, all of the stars need to align to best give you a chance.  Test yourself: how many of these steps have you really done well? 

1) Complete your LinkedIn profile:  This doesn’t just mean adding your experience, but soliciting meaningful recommendations, adding “real” connections, and using descriptive keywords so that you can be found when searched.  It also means adding a summary, education, certifications, etc.

2) Cleanse your social thumbprint:  Too often we don’t consider who might read our personal profiles, and whether what is posted – by us or by others – might possibly disqualify us from consideration.  Cleansing your profiles of out-of-brand pictures and inappropriate content is a great first step.  Managing your personal brand proactively and strategically is far better.  And if you understand the privacy controls, use them.

3) Move from passive to active:  Before meeting with any networking contact or interview, search for the person in LinkedIn to identify the common relationships.   Instead of clicking “connect”, pick up the telephone and ask your connection about the person you are going to meet.  This will yield a significant benefit for when you meet, and will also strengthen your relationship with your connection.

4) Stay up to speed:  Keep up-to-date with the latest issues and trends in your industry, through LinkedIn groups, by following thought-leaders on Twitter (I’m at @randallcraig…), by monitoring Twitter hashtags, to participating in web discussion groups.  Nothing shouts relevance than a person who understands the issues, and their impact.

5) Strategic Status updates:  Most Social Media sites, including Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn allow a status update.  Instead of being verbose (and perhaps irrelevant), use your Tweets and Updates to showcase your value and connection.

6) Start a blog:  Social Media and your resume have one thing in common – they speak to what you have done.  A blog speaks to how you think, and allows your network to understand the depth of your expertise.  While there are downsides to a blog (time commitment, writing quality, etc), it can improve your profile significantly.  A simple blog where you write 3-4 paragraphs weekly is all that is necessary to gain these benefits.   Here’s my quick (free) course on blogging.

7) Monitor and respond:   Listen to what is happening on the web using monitoring tools including Google Alerts (for new pages on Google), and Hootsuite (for the latest status updates).  Beyond monitoring your own name, monitor for positions requiring your expertise, target companies, and key industry terminology.  Finding out what is happening in real time means that you can be the first to share that news with your network… or the interviewer.

Interestingly, the same things that will make you more valuable to another organization, will make you more valuable to your current one.  And the more valuable each person is to their current employer, the more valuable the entire organization becomes.

This week’s action plan:  Which of these seven steps have you not yet addressed?  This week, choose a few, and put them on your to-do list.

Note: The Make It Happen Tipsheet is also available by email. Go to www.RandallCraig.com to register.

Randall Craig  (Follow me on Twitter at http://www.Twitter.com/randallcraig)

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If you’re reading this, the chances that you are on Facebook are relatively high. And sadly, the chances that you personally will duplicate Mark Zuckerberg’s business success are relatively low. Very few of us will take our companies public, let along profit so handsomely during our careers.

What we can do, however, is learn from this success. And particularly, learn from the Facebook IPO.

The key to this is the prospectus. This document gives a prospective investor all of the information they need to make a knowledgeable investment decision.  Unfortunately, most investors – or members of the general public – never see the prospectus. Test this amongst your friends and family: how many of them have personally reviewed the Facebook prospectus, the most publicized IPO in the history of the world? Likely, very few. 

If we dissect the prospectus document, there are three items that are highly relevant – and that most “non-IPO” leaders should consider:

1) Risk Factors:  This is a multi-page, open-the-kimono look at everything that might possibly go wrong.  Everything from tech trends to competitive threats to internal weaknesses, and then some.  Insight:  How often do companies – or people – openly and honestly look in the mirror?  (It’s easier to believe your own PR.)

2) History:  For several years prior to an IPO, the company must run their organization in a squeaky-clean, financially-sound manner, and their audited financial statements in the prospectus must reflect this.  Insight:  It is impossible to turn back the clock.  Three years from now, if you want to look back at a history of great results, then the great results must start in the present.  Interestingly, this is also true of our reputations, something that many people and organizations forget when it comes to Social Media. 

3) Transparency:  If the goal of the prospectus is to ensure that all investors have what they need to properly make their investment decisions, then there should be no “hidden” areas of nondisclosure.  Within the document, you can find details on the controlling shareholders, executive compensation, legal considerations – and more – on 186 pages, plus exhibits.  There is complete transparency.  Insight:  Many organizations aren’t particularly transparent, instead rationing information to their employees, clients, suppliers, and other stakeholders.  Or worse, “spinning” it.  While not advocating the words of Facebook’s CEO Mark Zuckerberg (“privacy is a thing of the past”), what’s the worst that could happen if those around you knew “too much”?  Perhaps alignment, accountability, and better decision-making?

This week’s action plan: While writing a prospectus is probably not top of your to-do list, spending a few minutes on one of Risk Factors, History, or Transparency is probably doable.  Answer one of these questions this week:  What are the Risk Factors in my organization?  History: is there anything we should do now (or stop doing now) that will be important several years from now?  Transparency:  Where can we be more open with our colleagues, clients, suppliers, and other important relationships?

Postscript:  If you are interested in reading the Facebook IPO prospectus, it’s available here.

 Note: The Make It Happen Tipsheet is also available by email. Go to www.RandallCraig.com to register.

Randall Craig

Chances are that you are not a blogger.  But chances are relatively high that you like the idea of being one. 

During my last 100 or so presentations, I asked the audiences if they blog: only a sprinkling of  hands typically go up. When asked if they like the idea of blogging, most people put up their hands immediately.  The reasons for this aren’t surprising – doing a blog is tough:

• Takes too much time during the day
• Not skilled at writing
• Not able to commit to regular posts
• Not sure what to say
• Not interested in debate or being ridiculed
• Other higher priorities
• Questionable ROI
• and so on…

Yet, the benefits can be huge: personal or corporate profile, business-building, connection, improved search engine ranking, etc.  Inevitably, clients ask the question about balancing these competing pressures, and if there is a way to improve the “return”, while reducing the downsides.  The answer is yes.

This week’s action plan:  Whether you decide to blog or not, now is the time to explore the possibility in greater detail.  Even if you never write a word, understanding how to do it means that you can ask great questions of those in your organization who do.

For our clients and friends:  We’ve put together a six-segment series on Strategic Blogging, designed for senior executives, professionals, and marketing pros. Check it out  (There is no cost.)

Note: The Make It Happen Tipsheet is also available by email. Go to www.RandallCraig.com to register.

Randall Craig

For those reading, or watching) the news, you may have seen me recently. I’ve been quoted, or have appeared) in the following newspapers, magazines, or TV shows:

• Globe and Mail, Feb 14, 2012
• IT Business, Feb 1, 2012
• CBC National News, Jan 31, 2012
• Huffington Post, Jan 24, 2012
• CHCH TV News, Jan 2, 2012
• Globe and Mail, Dec 30, 2011
• CFRB Radio Toronto, Dec 28, 2011
• KKZZ Radio, Ventura California, Dec 8, 2011
• CTV News Channel, Dec 5, 2011
• Globe and Mail, Dec 2, 2011
• Global TV, Dec 1, 2011
• IP Marketing Advisor, Nov 2011
• CTV News, Oct 15, 2011
• Education Today Magazine, Fall 2011
• The Charlatan, Sept 19, 2011
• The Motts Syndicated Radio, Aug 10, 2011
• Procurement Insights, July 25, 2011

Randall Craig
www.RandallCraig.com
www.ptadvisors.com

Wake up, wash, dress, and eat breakfast. Scan the headlines, scan LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, and Blog comments. Read and respond to comments in your communities. Then start the day. Check voice mail. Check email, and respond to emails from LinkedIn groups, Facebook, and Twitter direct messages. Then see if there are any comments on YouTube. And write your daily blog post. Then Tweet.

In this day of social connection, it doesn’t take long for your Social Media “obligations” to quickly expand to fill any and all available time. As we layer more and more complexity, we become enamored by the exciting advances in Social Media functionality, and shiny new Social Media sites.

Here’s the fundamental question: Is it time for you to wipe the slate clean and start again from first principles?

• Who are you hoping to engage with?
• What business or profit (or personal) goal are you hoping to achieve on Social Media?
• How will you measure success?
• How much time each day/week/month will you devote to the endeavor?
• Can you afford the time to do so? And if not, what is plan B?

This week’s action plan: Where has your momentum taken you? If you’re like most, you have either done far too little, or far too much in Social Media. This week, go back to the basics, and make sure that the time you spend is getting you where you want to be.

PS:  Go behind the scenes each week as I interview another of the nation’s thought-leaders.  I send out a quick note each month with links to each interview.  Subscribe on the PSTV home page.

Note: The Make It Happen Tipsheet is also available by email. Go to www.RandallCraig.com to register.

Randall Craig

Have you labored over your blog, Facebook, LinkedIn, or Twitter for years, only to suddenly find a huge drop in your traffic? 

As managers begin to probe the Return on Social Media Investment, an unexpected reversal is frustrating – and can have  direct impact on the organization’s brand… and those responsible for it.

Determining the reasons for an abrupt change requires some detective work. For a blog, here are just a few of the possible reasons for a drop:

• Another site that linked to yours no longer does. 
• You may have been dropped from a blogroll.
• Because your content is duplicated on several pages throughout the internet, Google may be penalizing your search engine ranking.
• Google is now increasing the weighting for the searcher’s location – if your content is hosted “far away”, this may be hurting you for a segment of your audience.
• You’ve changed the domain of the blog, or you’ve changed the way the URL paths are coded.
• The writing style on your blog has changed, and your readers don’t like it.
• You’ve changed topics slightly, and your blog no longer appeals to certain readers… or to certain web sites: you may have lost both readers and links.
• The blog design has changed, and people don’t like it.
• You are now using too many (or too few) pictures.
• The physical server your blog is hosted on is overloaded, resulting in a too-slow page load.
• You’ve added more plug-ins, which have slowed your site even further.
• The growing segment of mobile users don’t like your mobile interface. 
• A new smartphone or tablet was released, and your blog doesn’t take advantage of the platform.
• A new version of a browser has been released, and your blog looks terrible on it.
• The online advertising strategy (or spend) has changed, and fewer users are drawn to the blog.
• The blog’s URL is no longer featured in off-web advertising, collateral, or communications.
• A highly marketed competitive blog has started.

Key to determining the source of the change is a review of the analytics. For blogs, the key tool is Google Analytics; Facebook, YouTube, and other social platforms provide their own analytic tools as well.  Some questions to ask:  has the drop occurred because one particular source no longer providers users?  Or one particular browser is no longer supported?  (Or screen size?)  Is there less click-through to secondary pages?  And most importantly, did the drop happen all at once, or gradually over several months.  Pinpointing the precise time that the change manifested itself – the inflection point – is key to diagnosing the source of the problem.  And when the source is found, a prescriptive fix can be applied.

There are a number of situations when a drop in traffic may be expected.  For example, if the Social Media strategy calls for a change in the blog’s focus, then it is perfectly natural – and even desirable – for non-target readers to quit.

This week’s action plan:  If you are not reviewing your analytics on a regular basis, this is the week to start: 10 minutes is all it takes to quickly scan the numbers and charts.  Not only does this provide an early warning of potential problems, but it also is the first step in measuring ROI. 

My recent trip to India has once again sensitized me to an assumption that writers and speakers too often make:  that everyone understands what you mean to say.

Test yourself – what do the following three words mean?  Flyover, Subway, and Removalist.

If you are in India, a Flyover is a local bridge that “flies over local traffic”; elsewhere, it has something to do with airplanes.  In much of the world, a Subway is a road or pedestrian path that goes underneath another road; in Toronto a Subway refers to the Metro.  In Australia, a Removalist is someone who transports your possessions when you move houses; elsewhere this person is called a house mover.

When the mother tongue of the audience isn’t English, the problem intensifies further.

Avoid making bad assumptions: before delivering a critical presentation or posting a widely read blog or Twitter post, answer the following questions about your audience:

• What is their English comprehension level?  Do you need to do part of your presentation in their language?  Or at least open with a local phrase?  I give a number of suggestions to address the issue in this Tipsheet.
• Which English do they know? (American, British, Canadian, Indian, Australian, Hong Kong, etc) Does it make sense to test your content with a smaller group first?
• Can you use local examples to help the listener or reader better relate?  Or is it better to keep with universal principles – lowest common denominator – to avoid making an embarrassing mistake.

One of the most important reasons for a Social Media strategy is that it helps define your target audiences, and  lets you focus the version of your language squarely on this target.  Without a strategy, it will become increasingly difficult to use the “right” language to have an impact.

This week’s action plan: Whether you have a strategy or not, spend a few minutes defining who the primary audience is for your Social Media initiative – then review your last few status updates, blog posts, or videos to see if they are using the “right” language to make an impact.

Note: The Make It Happen Tipsheet is also available by email. Go to www.RandallCraig.com to register.

Randall Craig

One Billion.  You may think I’m referring to the number of Facebook and LinkedIn users, but I’m not.  I’m referring to the approximate population of India.

Note the wide variety of merchandise: from cigarettes to life insurance

While on a trip there, I decided to take pictures of local businesses, then compare the “real” with their Social Media presence.  Sadly, I was unable to find more than a handful on the web, let alone on the Social web; the notable exception being a few of the global brands.

Instead, I found a thriving entrepreneurial culture, where everyone – from the richest to the (almost) poorest – is connected in two ways: by cellphone, and in the real world.  The majority of the billion (95% to be exact) are busy living, rather than voyeuristically watching others live via Facebook – they don’t even have internet access.

The 5% have their favorite Social Networks, including Facebook, LinkedIn, Ibibo and Bharatstudent.  But for those of us who spend significant time with our own Social Media favorites, 95% is an important reminder:  most of the world is connected with real world relationships – not virtual ones.

This week’s action plan:  Is it possible that you have been neglecting the part of your network that isn’t regularly online?  Or isn’t online in your chosen social network?  This week, look through your electronic black book for those who are missing, and reach out to them in a way that is comfortable for them.

PS:  This is another example of how sprinkling more Social Media “juice” over an opportunity will not magically create more opportunity.  Organizations need to crack the relationship nut, and Social Media is but one vector that can help.

PPS:  While in Mumbai, I recently spent some time with fellow professional speaker Lea Brovedani for dinner.  While we did coordinate our plans using LinkedIn, we actually met in person at the restaurant.  Real-world networking in action!

After spending a few days in India, I have a new-found appreciation for the horn. Unlike in North America (or Europe), Indian drivers have developed an entire language with this instrument. In a land where lane markings are ignored at best, as each vehicle (autorickshaw, car, motorcycle or truck) approaches from the side or rear, they honk their horns as if to say, “I’m here”. The response is a quick honk back, “I heard you”, to which the passing vehicle will sometimes honk back, “Thanks”. All very civilized.

But to someone new, the cacaphony is jarring, rude, noisy, and an illustration of anything-but-civilized dangerous driving.

Here’s the question: are you aware of the signals in the world of Social Media? Or are you oblivious to them? Each Social Media community has developed it’s own signals, sometimes quite distinct. Linking, Retweeting, Thanks for the RT, Following, Following back, Unfollowing: they all mean something to the “locals”.

Like my Indian journey, the only way to discover the signals is to spend time “traveling” in each Social Media venue, learning to feel comfortable – and becoming more sensitive to – the signals around you.  Yes, learning from others is important – this Tipsheet, my books, my presentations – but there is no substitute for getting on the plane and experiencing the signals first-hand.

This week’s action plan:  Are you (and your organization) sending the right signals when you’re using Social Media?  Perhaps blowing your own horn a bit too loudly?  Or perhaps you may not be aware of the nuances of each site? This week, spend enough time in your most important Social Media community to become aware of – and comfortable with – the local signals.

Note: The Make It Happen Tipsheet is also available by email. Go to www.RandallCraig.com to register.

Randall Craig

If you are reading this and profess to have some expertise in Social Media, then you may be offended by my next comment: it soon won’t matter, and your “expertise” is fast becoming irrelevant. Your long term career is in jeopardy, and your short term prospects are also questionable.

Note that I didn’t say that Social Media is becoming irrelevant; exactly the opposite is true. If you value your Social Media expertise, consider the impact of these two converging trends:

1. The general population – and certainly the business world – is fast approaching your level of knowledge. No one will be willing to listen to (or pay) for common knowledge.
2. There is a dramatic shift from learning about Social Media, to learning about how Social Media can support real business goals. Core expertise (Strategy, Marketing, Finance, Sales, HR, Operations, etc.) has enduring value much more so than expertise on using a tool. While it is true that some people make their living as driving instructors (tool: car) and call center trainers (tool: telephone), at best these are niche professions.

This Week’s Action Plan: Unless you see your long-term career as a Social Media expert, it’s time to focus on the basics of your expertise, and not just a single tool of your trade, Social Media. This week, consider where you’re spending your time: If you’re spending too much time on the tools and not enough getting better in your core, then flip your priorities… or eventually become irrelevant.

Note: The Make It Happen Tipsheet is also available by email. Go to www.RandallCraig.com to register.

Randall Craig

1) Resolve to become more proactive:
Social media is a great resource for connecting with people, but it is the most powerful when it is used to “amplify” real-world relationships proactively.  This year, get in the habit of checking a connection’s profile before a meeting.  Get in the habit of recognizing others online for work done offline.  And get in the habit of asking a common connection to make a real-world introduction.  Social Media is no longer just a passive add-on:  it’s a key tool for both communications and engagement.

2) Resolve to separate the personal from the professional
Instead of thinking that Facebook is for personal and LinkedIn is for professional, consider what you actually use these (and other) tools for.  Too often, people mistakenly think that spending entertainment time is Social Media professional time.  It isn’t.

3) Resolve to diversify your approach to Social Media
Social Media should be used for support and growth, not just job search.  In the olden days, this could only come from in-person attendance at industry events and conventions.  Today, Social Media has incredibly robust discussion groups, question and answer areas, blogs, and the like.  Growing within these communities – gaining support and providing leadership – is a long-term investment in your career.  You get the benefit along the way, and a network that will help propel your career far beyond your current job.

4) Resolve to not neglect the real world
While Social Media provides an incredible depth of opportunity – relationships, support, information – it doesn’t replace the strength of real world relationships.  Think what can be accomplished pending time, one-on-one, with a key connection at a local coffee shop.  Or think of the nuance that can only be seen when you’re face-to-face with your manager (or staff, or prospective client).  As you spend more time using Social Media, you can easily squeeze away these real-world interactions – when in fact, these interactions might be the key reason for your success.

5) Resolve to update your profiles
Just like you probably do with your old-style resume, look through all of the Social Media profiles that you have, and do a quick update.  Even those profiles that you rarely use (MySpace, anyone?) are indexed by Google and thus available.

Note: The Make It Happen Tipsheet is also available by email. Go to www.RandallCraig.com to register.

Randall Craig

Are you one of those people who have given up on New Year’s resolutions?  If you are active on the Social Web, an annual review – and a few resolutions – can make a significant difference to your effectiveness.  Here’s my take on a few you should consider:

This Week’s (Year’s) Action Plan:

1. Review and update all of your profiles. Once a year isn’t so often to update your profiles.
2. Remove out-of-brand comments and photos from profiles.  They creep in from others, but impact your brand directly.
3. Disconnect and ‘Defriend’ connections who use the tools to fill your page with irrelevant and time-wasting comments.
4. Isolate your personal from your professional Social Media time: nothing wrong with playing Farmville – but this isn’t work, it is  entertainment, no different than sitting in front of the TV.
5. Figure out Twitter if you haven’t already. Hint: it’s about the relationship, not the broadcasts.
6. Think about doing a blog. If you’re not sure how to start, click here for a few ideas.
7. Link your profiles together to improve your personal productivity and spread your perspective further. For example, you can embed a blog within your LinkedIn profile, and wire in your Twitter feed at the same time.
8. Begin monitoring your social footprint. Use Google Alerts, and sign-up for the free version of Hootsuite.
9. Set some goals: If you’re going to spend time on this activity, it pays to think about what you will get for your efforts before you start.
10. Use Social Media to connect to people in the real world. A computer won’t buy from you or give a job – a real person will.
11. Participate in one relevant discussion group or online forum. Not only will it expand your network, it will provide context and connection to what is happening in your field.
12. Take advantage with what your organization is already doing in the Social Media world: Connect, comment, vote, blog, tweet and retweet.
13. Finally, stop doing what isn’t working and focus on what is.  (What might be working:  not getting traction, it’s taking too long, not enjoyable, not enough ROI)

Today’s Action Plan: Unlike most New Year’s Resolutions, this list isn’t actually that hard.  Why wait for a special invitation: choose one of these and take care of it today.

And here’s a question for you:  do you have any Social Media resolutions of your own?

Note: The Make It Happen Tipsheet is also available by email. Go to www.RandallCraig.com to register.

Randall Craig

…and all the men and women merely players.  Shakespeare may have said this in the 1600′s, but it is more true than ever today.

Politicians, celebrities and others have always known that an audience was watching and judging. Today, different paparazzi watch and judge us – we call them followers, friends, and connections. We narcissistically seek them out, and using words like engagement, networking, and relationship-building, retreat into a comforting shell where we are “liked” by people we don’t even know. 

The name of the stage may have changed – Facebook, Flickr, YouTube, LinkedIn, Google +, and so on – but if you are on these stages, you are still merely a player, whether you realize it or not.

This week’s action plan: Actors, musicians, and politicians are often most successful because they know how to use their stage. They are intentional, they practice, and they seek to connect at an emotional level with their audiences. This week, take a page from their script; be less narcissistic and more strategic with how you use your time on stage, and remember that everyone – and Google – is watching, all the time.

Note: The Make It Happen Tipsheet is also available by email. Go to www.RandallCraig.com to register.

Randall Craig

Ever wonder about the impact you made with those you’ve touched? Whether you would be remembered or not? And for what?

Every so often, we get a stark reminder of this: someone doesn’t remember you – but you think they should. Or someone comes up to you and reminds you about a special conversation – but you have no idea who they are.

Recently, I had an experience that reminded me about the importance of connection – the real world sort. I was invited to a reception for the most senior, respected, veterans of the speaking world. (I was just elected to a board and the invitation was a courtesy.) This was something I was quite looking forward to, so it might seem surprising that the first 15 minutes of the reception were not spent with the honorees. They were spent with Mahamood – one of the waiters.

Seven years earlier, I ran a series of public seminars – about 45 of them – at the Marriott Eaton Centre in Toronto, Canada. Every Tuesday night I would show up to the hotel with video projector, screen, and supplies, and begin preparing for the evening’s workshop. And every Tuesday night, Mahamood did the room set-up.

Fast forward: when I showed up at the reception, Mahamood was one of the waiters. He recognized me instantly and thus began our conversation. It was wonderful reconnecting after so many years.  This reconnection is what made the event so special.

This week’s action plan: It’s not just the number of connections you have, but the impact you make. This week, answer the question: Are there any Mahamoods in your midst?

Postscript: I’ve written to the Marriott Eaton Centre, and shared this story with their management. The hospitality industry is filled with many Mahamoods, but this one is special… and has a great memory.

Have you ever considered how many ways there are to express one of your ideas? Here’s a short list:

• A book
• A whitepaper
• A case study
• A brochure
• A blog post
• A newspaper op-ed
• A voice message or phone call
• A tweet
• A magazine article
• A TV series
• A documentary
• A sitcom
• A news commentary
• A TV (or radio) commercial
• A comment in a web forum
• A video or audio podcast
• A real-world conversation
• A meeting
• A workshop
• A course
• and so on.

Have you ever considered why this list is so long? There are three primary reasons:

1. Supply: we each may feel most comfortable using one method over another.  Not everyone can write (or wants to write) a book or deliver a speech, but writing an email is relatively easy for everyone.
2. Demand: The audience for our ideas also have preferences. For example, some prefer to ‘consume’ in depth, others prefer a short presentation, while others want it boiled down to a quick paragraph.
3. Channel: The proliferation and innovation in social media means that new modes of communication are always being invented. Beyond the printing press, telephone and TV, we can now add Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, and Blogging to society’s grand inventions.

In contrast to the olden days of television, where the dreaded “repeat” meant that nothing was on, savvy communicators use the concept of “re-purposing” to reach different audiences through different channels in different formats.

This week’s action plan: What were your best ideas during the last month or so? This week, choose a way to re-purpose them in a different format through a different channel.

Note: The Make It Happen Tipsheet is also available by email. Go to www.RandallCraig.com to register.

Randall Craig

In 1997 there was no Google. In 2002 there was no Facebook. There was no Twitter in 2004, and the iPad only made it’s debut in 2009. There is no indication that the pace of innovation will slow, so how can you plan for the future when the target is moving , and moving quickly?

At a corporate level, three-and-five-year strategic plans are being shredded by external market shifts that change the very assumptions on which the plans are based.

At the personal level, many are finding it tough to keep up, and are “opting out”: either purposefully avoiding science and technology, or lashing out at society and joining – or sympathizing with – the Occupy movements. (We don’t see, interestingly, any Occupy Facebook movements, despite the fact that the Facebook ownership group are amongst the richest on the planet.)

There may not be a simple answer to the question of how to plan when change is constant, but here is some perspective that might help:

1. Be the change: If there will be change, it is far better to be setting the agenda, than reacting to it. This suggests that organizations that are flexible, entrepreneurial and invest in “the new” will be more successful than those who are set-up only for the status quo.
2. People are key: Dofasco, a large steel mill, used to advertise “Our product is steel – our strength is people.” While the name may have changed slightly (they were acquired), the slogan stands: A thinking workforce that can track the market and reinvent itself as conditions change is critical. Furthermore, within each organization there is an internal social network, teams, processes, and infrastructure — that functions because of the people. To do list: recruit the best, invest in them, and let them reinvent themselves – and the organization.
3. Partnerships: No longer can one entity hope to have 100% of the skills internally for any eventuality – or to take advantage of any immediate opportunity. Partnerships can be set up for the long or short term, for all or some of the value chain, to provide a non-core capability, or to provide peak production capacity. Planning for an uncertain future requires an understanding that anything might actually be possible, when looking beyond your internal capability.
4. Intellectual Property: We’re only now seeing the beginning of the patent wars between Microsoft, Google, Apple, Samsung, and others. These organizations have realized that a sustainable competitive advantage is only sustainable if they have something unique that differentiates them in the market. IP does this, and so does Brand. Not surprisingly there is a direct connection between the quality of the people, and the quality of the IP. In an uncertain future, IP is critical: can be exploited, licensed, and sold.
5. Competitive Intelligence and Market Research: Especially amongst larger organizations, it’s too easy to focus on the internal, instead of the external. A sensitive antenna – market research and competitive intelligence – provides an early warning of potential paradigm shifts. And this early warning allows the organization to react accordingly.
6. Directional Planning: While three-year strategic plans will always be done, a slight shift in approach can increase the organization’s resilience. Instead of choosing an endpoint, and then choosing tactics to achieve that goal, consider the opposite approach: Set the direction first and then forecast the year one-two-three endpoints. If there are any major market changes, then a mid-course correction can easily be made, and new end-points can be established.

Planning for an uncertain future is difficult, but it can be made far easier when the organization itself is built to thrive in a changing world.

This week’s action plan:  What are you doing as an individual to make sure that you survive and thrive in a world where change is constant?  Look through this list again through a personal filter:  Are you setting the agenda or reacting to others?  Are you investing in yourself?  Do you seek support from others?  Are you generating your own IP?  Are you aware of what’s happening in your field? Do you have a plan for your career (and your life)?

Note: The Make It Happen Tipsheet is also available by email. Go to www.RandallCraig.com to register.

Randall Craig

Have you ever been “captured” by an activity, finding it almost impossible to let go? Marathon runners call it the runner’s high. Smokers call it an addiction. But what is it called when you can’t tear yourself from Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube or other social networks?

If it is part of your job, then some would call it your passion: when your work isn’t work, then it isn’t work (it’s fun). But what if you can’t tear yourself away from it in the evenings? On the weekends? Or if you find yourself “checking in” when you’re out with friends, or eating a meal with your family. This too may be an addiction.

Do you control Social Media, or does it control you – test yourself:

1. Don’t check your smart phone at meals or whenever you are with someone. If you feel the urge to check, or feel guilty you haven’t, then you may be addicted. (Your family, friends, and colleagues will appreciate your full attention.)
2. Don’t use Social Media for 24 hours each week – at all. In the olden days, this was called the sabbath, where people… rested. If you feel disconnected when you take this day – you may be addicted. (Hint: it’s not a bad thing to use this time to reconnect with those closest to you.)
3. When you completely disconnect from the world on your vacation, are you still tethered to the social web? Most addicts will find a way to get their fix, either by finding an internet cafe, bringing a laptop, or even worse, bringing a smart phone and accessing Social Media continuously on demand. (Is this you?)

This week’s action plan: ‘Addict’ isn’t a particularly positive word, but sadly, too many of us slip into this mode of dependency, one step at a time. This week, assess your dependency by going cold-turkey whenever you’re with someone else. Or if you’re truly courageous, do it for a 24-hour period.

Note: The Make It Happen Tipsheet is also available by email. Go to www.RandallCraig.com to register.

Randall Craig

Every organization – and every individual – can find themselves somewhere on the three-tier Social Media Engagement Index.  Where are you?

Passive:  At best, passive users have a profile on a few sites, but do very little within Social Media except for responding to the occasional connection request.  Benefit: passive users will be found when someone is doing a search.  And they have more time for “real-world” activities.

Broadcast:  Broadcasters are not particularly interested in interaction, preferring to spend their time sharing their ideas with (and sometimes shouting to) the Social Media World.  Benefit:  This is an inexpensive way to repurpose content from newsletters; for individuals, this is a quieter, quicker, less formal way  to update status than email.

Engagement:  If you are here, the Social Networks are an important two-way communication medium, where you are engaging on others’ platforms, as much as they are doing so on yours.  Benefit:  A relationship can only be improved when there is dialogue – and this only happens when there is a genuine desire to engage.

An interesting metaphor for these tiers can be found with the telephone.  Passive users have a phone, and their names are in the phone book, but they are sitting on the sidelines waiting for a call.  Broadcasters mistakenly think that the telephone is really a radio broadcast, and not of the call-in variety: they don’t want (or expect) any feedback.  Engagement is very much like a telephone conversation; the call continues because it has value to all parties.

This week’s action plan:  No person – or organization – magically has traction in the Social Media world immediately – it happens one step at a time.  If your strategy is Passive, make sure that you are using appropriate keywords to improve the probability that you will be found.  Or, move to a Broadcast strategy.  If you are a Broadcaster, then invite feedback by ending your Social Media posts with a question or feedback request.  Or, move to an Engagement strategy.  And if you are Engaged, step back, and make sure that you are engaging with the right group, for the right reasons.  Developing relationships (and a reputation) in an area that doesn’t pay off is a waste of time.

Note: The Make It Happen Tipsheet is also available by email. Go to www.RandallCraig.com to register.

Randall Craig

www.RandallCraig.com
www.ptadvisors.com

www.ProfessionallySpeakingTV.com

How long does it take to make a sale?  And is it faster using traditional marketing and sales techniques, or Social Media-based ones?

In traditional marketing and sales, advertising informs prospective customers about a product or service. Those who have a need show up and make their purchase. In the more sophisticated business-to-business sales process, it’s pretty much the same: find prospects and tell them about your products and services.  Those who are ready to buy will buy, while others won’t. The whole paradigm is based on identifying prospects, informing them, and selling them.

Social Media marketing is based on engagement – the conversation – and developing the relationship. Only when the relationship is strong enough – when there is trust – will there be a possibility of a sale.

Some implications:

• Trust takes time. As they are getting to know you, they will identify your capabilities. Contrast this with traditional marketing, where expertise leads, and then relationship follows.
• Social Media “sales” are more pull than push. It’s more likely that they will initiate the sales process when they are ready – after all, they know their needs better than you ever will.
• You still need to ask for the sale (sort of). Asking for the sale prematurely may do more harm than good. But exposing your expertise over time within the context of a two-way, non-broadcast relationship, is a far more powerful implicit ask.  (This is precisely why I have written these posts for the last half decade.  Many of my prospects and clients reach out after reading a concept I describe here.)

This week’s action plan: Do any of your Social Media activities shout Buy Me? Or do they seek to improve your credibility and grow your relationship? This week, make sure everything you do falls into the second category – not the first. How long does it take to make a sale?  It depends on how quickly you earn it.  Trust takes Time.

Additional note re Professionally Speaking TV:  Many of my readers also follow my weekly WebTV show.  I recently interviewed Tonya Surman of the Centre for Social Innovation – fascinating!  Check it out at www.professionallyspeakingtv.com/tonya-surman.

Note: The Make It Happen Tipsheet is also available by email. Go to www.RandallCraig.com to register.

Randall Craig

www.ProfessionallySpeakingTV.com

Picture this scenario: An employee gets charged with a serious offense and the company’s name gets mentioned repeatedly in the news reports.  The reporters found the connection to your organization by scanning through Social Media.

Or this scenario: A subcontractor tweets (or posts pictures) celebrating the conclusion of a major, confidential project. This alerts competitors, customers, and suppliers, resulting in millions of dollars of lost sales.

Or this one: Someone looks at your Facebook (or LinkedIn) profile, peruses your “friends” to determine your mother’s maiden name, then grabs your birth date and other freely available personal details. Then they call your bank and gain access to your account by “verifying” your identity.

Too often, we (or rather “people”) rarely think about Social Media Risks, let alone how to protect against them. As individuals it is caveat surfer, but at an organizational level, the responsibility for protecting corporate assets, including customer information, trade secrets, and ultimately the brand, falls to IT security professionals. They sometimes even have the job of protecting us from ourselves.

Sadly, they are inadequately equipped to do this job, for many reasons:

1. IT departments are stretched, and often don’t have the resources to stay ahead of every possible new security threat.
2. More technology comes through the door each day via smart phone, and these devices are completely beyond the control of the IT department.
3. Many managers assume that 100% of the responsibility for information security sits with IT staff, particularly in the area of employee productivity. (Technology can help, but productivity is a management issue; risk reduction is really the responsibility of everyone.)
4. Innovation in Social Media is happening so quickly that many (both marketers and IT) have outdated assumptions about what appropriate Social Media usage looks like. Poor assumptions cause poor decision-making.
5. Many organizations don’t even have a comprehensive Social Media policy. With no standards, everyone makes their own rules about what is right and what is wrong. It is impossible to police, let along protect.
6. Rarely are staff trained in how to use Social Media, and particularly, how to use it responsibly so both the organization – and themselves – are protected.

Clearly, for an organization to manage Social Media risk effectively it needs to delegate information security responsibility well beyond the IT group. Yet this is a challenge when many managers cannot even identify more than a small handful of potential problem areas.  (Test yourself: without reading onward, how many can you name?)

Here is a basic Social Media risk list; note that some are marketing risks, some are HR risks, some are technology risks, etc:

• Identity theft
• Mistaken identity
• Brand hijacking
• Bandwidth contention
• Social Media venue consolidation / data loss
• Privacy / confidentiality breaches
• Legal and regulatory breaches
• Intellectual Property theft
• Productivity loss
• Human rights violations
• Libel / slander
• Contest fraud
• Trojans and malicious code
• Unwanted publicity
• Inappropriate recruiting practices
• Social engineering

With such a broad range, how might one embed a Social Media security mindset within an organization?

Consider the following five step process:

1. Executive Briefing: Senior management must be educated both on Social Media strategy, but with an embedded risk management context.  It is no longer acceptable to propose a strategy without acknowledging – and protecting against – the risks.  Senior managers ask great questions; an executive briefing gives them the data points to do so.
2. Develop a Social Media policy to reduce risk. Going through the discussions and knowledge transfer that occur as the policy is being formulated is far more powerful than merely adopting a generic off-the-shelf policy.
3. Develop a Social Media strategy: Usually done concurrently with the policy work, the strategy binds the organizations goals to specific activities at an individual or departmental level.
4. Communication and Training: This is the mechanism to connect the policy to the people. It’s not possible to manage (or measure) without first letting people know what’s expected of them, or how to actually use the tools.
5. Monitoring: Monitoring fulfills the dual objectives of evaluating the effectiveness of strategy, while at the same time surfacing risks.

This week’s action plan: Where are you in this process as an organization? This week, assess where you are and commit to doing one thing to reduce your organization’s Social Media risk level. And while you’re at it, check your own Social Media profiles and remove any information that might be used by a fraudster to impersonate you at the bank.

Note: The Make It Happen Tipsheet is also available by email. Go to www.RandallCraig.com to register.

Randall Craig

www.ProfessionallySpeakingTV.com

While Build It and They Will Come might work in the movies (remember Field of Dreams?), it doesn’t quite work that way in the world of Social Media. Yes, you can put up a Facebook page, LinkedIn profile, or YouTube channel, but how can you truly attract followers?  And how can you truly drive engagement?  If you are going to the effort and expense of creating a presence, presumably some effort should also be spent marketing it.

Here are 15 ideas that will help; some basic, some more advanced, but all in one place:

1. Create great content that people will actually want to read.  If it is compelling, they will pass it along.  Quality content is central to everything.
2. Create Action Hooks:  A call to action that invites engagement and activity.  This can be as simple as asking the reader for their opinion, or asking them to share it with their network.
3. Write for your reader, but keep Google in mind.  Embed keywords within the post title and body, so that people can find your post over a wider number of searches.
4. Syndicate and integrate:  particularly, if you have a number of websites (but even if you don’t), connect them together through RSS syndication so that your content – not just the links – appear embedded within multiple sites.
5. Take advantage of Widgets:  Most Social Media sites have widgets – snippets of HTML code that you can embed in your website – which brings your live content to other sites.  Offer a widget with your content to customers, suppliers, employees, and any other person or organization that might be interested.
6. Create great content, take two:  Focussed, on-task, aimed at a specific target audience.  It demonstrates your depth of expertise, and will generate reader loyalty.
7. Reference other web pages, and solicit cross-links in return.  The more inbound links you earn, the greater your natural readership… and the better your search engine ranking.
8. Consider pay-per-click advertising.  Both Google and Facebook allow incredibly precise targeting, and can find your target user in places where you can’t.  Even if only a small number of people click through to your Social Media site, everyone will still see your ad, improving their awareness of you – at zero cost.
9. Think offline, not just online:  Business cards, Marketing collateral, Trade show booths, Public presentations, Promo items, PR, and everything that you do in the real world should drive people to a purpose-built Social Media landing page.  This will drive engagement and action right from the start; it’s no longer enough just to put your website address everywhere.
10. Use QR codes to direct mobile users to specific blog posts and socially-enabled pages.
11. Use contests, surveys, and other interactive mechanisms to increase engagement… and learn more about your readers.
12. Use your email list to introduce readers to your blog; just remember that there has to be an actual reason why they should go there, otherwise they won’t go.  Sometimes all you need is a link at the bottom of each newsletter item that says “join the conversation” or “share your experience”, linking to a corresponding blog post.  (You should also use your blog post to grow the number of mailing list subscribers.)
13. Send a Tweet (and update your Facebook and LinkedIn status) pointing to your new blog post.  Multiply the impact by asking those close to you to Retweet (or comment) on your post… which will amplify your message even further.
14. Again, write great content, and do it frequently (and consistently) enough that people add you into their schedule.  Your audience forgets infrequent posts… and so does Google.
15. Add your perspective on other’s blogs, either through guest-blogging, or through insightful comments; in both cases, you can link back to your blog, or even better, to a specific blog post or other Social Media page.

This week’s action plan:  Re-evaluate how you get the word out, then adopt at least one of these new ideas.  Build it – and promote it – and then they will come.

Two more requests:
1) Do you have anything that has worked particularly well for you, that isn’t on the list?  Add your experience by commenting on my blog, or sending me an email with your thoughts.
2) Please forward this post to the person responsible in your organization for Social Media – it might make the difference between success or failure.

Postscript:  I didn’t just add those two Action Hooks to demonstrate how to phrase requests – I actually would appreciate your ideas, and I actually would appreciate you forwarding this on.  But look at the wording:  it clearly points out why it is in the reader’s interest to act.

Note: The Make It Happen Tipsheet is also available by email. Go to www.RandallCraig.com to register.

Randall Craig

How often have you struggled to show up on time for a meeting, only to be kept waiting as others stumbled in 5-10-15 minutes later? Or have you ever tuned in to your favorite TV show, only to find that it was “rescheduled” for some other time? Or travelled to a faraway store, but finding it had closed an hour early and you couldn’t get in.

Research (Berry & Parasuraman) shows that by far, the two most important determinants of service quality are responsiveness and reliability. If you are not reliable nor responsive, your “brand” quickly reflects this. And you agitate those around you.

While most of us understand this implicitly in the real world, our behavior in the Social Media world is often completely different. Several ways to be more reliable and responsive when being “Social” online:

• Choose a consistent date and time to post your blog and status updates. If people come to expect a weekly post from you, skipping a week hurts your credibility. As does posting at a variable date and time. If they expect an update by 9am, then you need to deliver it at 9am, consistently.  Don’t show up late.
• Set your topic focus. People will come to expect your posts… to be what you post. If you’re always posting on random topics, then those who are looking for your deep expertise (or unique perspective), will become disinterested and leave. If they expect certain content, then you need to deliver it, consistently.  Your favorite TV show is your favorite because all of the characters are consistent from episode to episode.
• Set expectations for how often you respond. Do you respond or comment on all posts, some, or none? Whatever your frequency, you also need to deliver it consistently.

This week’s action plan:  Your reputation is defined more by what you actually do – your behavior – than anything else.  If you are using any Social tools (status updates on Facebook, Twitter updates, Blog posts, etc), calendarize your interaction.  Not only will you become more productive, but you’ll also directly affect your reputation.

Note: The Make It Happen Tipsheet is also available by email. Go to www.RandallCraig.com to register.

Randall Craig

Steve Jobs was a visionary:  incredible focus, a market disruptor, a tech genius, a serial entrepreneur, and so on.  All true, but there is also something else – a thread that underlies and connects everything that Apple does: their focus on the empowered customer. 

From day one, this was reflected in the user experience. It was reflected in the industrial design.  It was reflected in the customer service experience.  Whenever there was a gap – whenever the consumer’s needs weren’t being addressed, Apple innovated to satisfy the need.  Genius bars in Apple Stores solved the problem of where to get hands-on Apple support.  The Apple stores themselves solved the problem of where to actually purchase the products.  The iTunes store solved the problem of how to easily (and legally) download digital music.  The iPod solved the problem of taking your music with you, much like the Walkman did a generation before.  And most of all, the Mac user interface made computing accessible to the general public – not just tech enthusiasts. 

There are dozens of other examples of innovation (their ad campaigns, from the 1984 superbowl ad to the recent “I’m a Mac” campaign, the iPhone, the iPad, etc), but each one was designed starting with the customer in mind.  This allowed Apple to break the conventional wisdom:  While their competitor IBM had the word “Think” as a corporate motto -  Apple used “Think Differently”.  (As an aside, I have an analog “Think Differently” watch from Apple where the hands move counter-clockwise.  Very Cool.) 

Of course, Apple had it’s missteps: the Newton (I still have mine, packed safely in a box, in a place of honor).  The decision to license clones (quickly abandoned when Steve Jobs came back), and their inability to penetrate the corporate market to name a few.  Interestingly, if Apple didn’t take these risks, perhaps they wouldn’t have taken the risks that resulted in all of their great products.

During the summer of 1985, which was the school term just before I graduated, I had an internship in the marketing department at IBM.   While it was a great opportunity, I was frustrated because of their total ignorance of what I now know as user-centered design and user-centered marketing.  I decided to fix this, with the grudging permission of my manager.  I brought my Mac into the office each day, both to educate my colleagues, and also to be more productive.  I still recall putting together hand-outs for customer workshops, printed (desktop-published) beautifully on my home printer.  I learned about marketing IBM-style, while my colleagues learned quite a bit about the Mac; my manager learned enough to not give me a full-time job offer.  (In retrospect, very bad call on their part.)

That Macintosh cost me $3200, or at 16 pounds, $200/pound.  It had 128K of RAM, and a very noisy 400K floppy.  Today, my Macbook Air cost $1600, weighs 3 pounds, has 4,000,000K of RAM, and a silent 256,000,000K solid state drive.  Progress indeed, but this is just the “output” of Steve Jobs’ genius.  The real progress is how many other organizations – inside the tech world and out – have begun to truly focus on the needs of their clients.  And surprisingly, how many still don’t. 

This week’s action plan:  Is your product or service (or you) truly different than your competitor’s?  Is everything that you do completely focused on empowering your customer – both today’s and tomorrow’s?  Being more like Steve means bringing an exceptional focus on the customer to whatever you do.

Note: The Make It Happen Tipsheet is also available by email. Go to www.RandallCraig.com to register.

Picture this scenario: you get an email from your manager, letting you know that a complaint (or a picture, or a video) about your organization has gone “viral”.  You check it out, and indeed it is embarrassing… and it is everywhere.  What do you do?

In a previous post, I suggested several things to consider before posting a complaint, but in this situation the shoe is on the other foot and the damage is spiralling out of control.

Here are ten Social Media Damage Control tips:

1) Acknowledge the issue publicly and openly: it is critical to ensure that the story doesn’t morph from a specific complaint to how you are handling the issue.  If it does, the impact of your behavior will linger well after the issue is resolved.

2) Tell your side of the story: sometimes the twitterverse/blogosphere/general public is upset because the facts that are presented are incomplete, or are framed to show you in the worst possible light.  While respecting rules of confidentiality and privacy, adding the facts as you see them to the discussion adds important data points… and empowers those who might advocate on your behalf.

3) Mobilize your allies:  Employees, families, customers, and suppliers all have a stake in your success.  If asked, most would be happy to either chime in on your behalf, or strongly advocate for you.  Mobilizing can be done in two ways:  through the informal posts of individual people, and through a formal “ask” of a few key friends of your organization.  No longer is it exclusively the job of a corporate spokesperson to get the message out.

4) Engage in the conversation:  Use official channels (Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Discussion groups, Blog, etc) to address individual queries, and to actively participate in the conversations that are occuring.

5) Ignore:  There is always a risk that your reaction – however small – will instead actually inflame the issue further. One possible counter-strategy is to ask one or two allies if they can comment on the offending post, instead of you doing it directly.

6) Redirect:  Issues have a shorter life when other items become more newsworthy.  Creating positive news redirects the general public’s attention to something that contradicts the underlying assertions made by the complainer.  A great example of this (although executed quite clumsily) was Mark Zuckerberg’s attempt to redirect attention away from the movie The Social Network, where he was portrayed in a less than flattering light.  Zuckerberg made a donation of $100 million to the Newark NJ public education system, at precisely the same time the movie was released.  Was the strategy successful?  As one part of a larger overall strategy, it played it’s part. But expensive!

7) Enforce terms of service:  Some online behaviors may be contrary to the terms of service of the particular Social Media venue.  A complaint  to the venue may spur them into action, removing the offending item – and thereby removing some of the issue’s viral “fuel”.

8) Legal action:  When the issue crosses the line into the area of slander, libel, trademark infringement, or some other cause, legal action – or threatening it – can provide some relief.  On the other hand, people may harbor even greater suspicions about you, as you were unable or unwilling to debate or address the issue in the open.

9) Solve the problem beforehand:  Many crises go viral because of a service gap, product malfunction, or the insensitivity of an employee to a customer’s feelings.  Avoid viral crises by preventing them from happening in the first place: improve your service quality, improve your product quality, and improve the customer experience.

10) Monitor:  Use tools to monitor the social web for relevant posts and user sentiment, so that you can quickly address issues as they appear.  Without monitoring, you may think the problem is solved, but the “virus” merely moved to another social media venue.

This week’s action plan:  What would you do if you got that phone call today:  a major Social Media crisis has just sprung up, and you had to deal with it and fast.  This week, put together a Social Media crisis plan: based on several disaster scenarios, how would you react?  What would you (or others) do first?

Note: The Make It Happen Tipsheet is also available by email. Go to www.RandallCraig.com to register.

Randall Craig

Have you ever been disappointed, frustrated, or annoyed with an experience with a person or organization? In today’s Social Media world, suffering in silence need not be your only option. You can Tweet, Blog, post to Facebook, create a YouTube video, write on a review site or even create your own complaint site. You can galvanize your network by sharing publicly – perhaps for the first time – the nature of your grievance. Especially when you’re in the right, you can wield your social network powerfully.

But should you?

Once your complaint is public, it can never be retracted: What if you were wrong? Or you didn’t have all the facts?

It’s true that many organizations have staff monitoring Social Media, and that many are empowered to head off crises, but still: once your complaint is out, it’s out. Before you hit the “submit” button, here are six questions that you should ask yourself first:

1. What is the point of your post: is it to accomplish something specific, or merely get some emotional satisfaction?
2. Are you sure of your facts?
3. Imagine that your manager reads your post – what would they think? And if it were your parents reading the post – what would they think?
4. Imagine your post appearing in the newspaper, or on a billboard next to your home. Are you comfortable with it?
5. Would your post provoke a legal response against you? Sometimes posts can cross the line: does yours?
6. Ten years from now, how might your post be interpreted by others? You don’t want the “tomorrow you” to appear small-minded and petty. (Thank you Google.)

This week’s action plan:  This week, test these questions whenever you have an important message to send. These questions are just as important for any communication transmitted across the social web.

Special note: As you may have guessed, I was recently disappointed by someone who did not keep their commitment. It was tempting to send a blistering note about them into the blogosphere, but cooler heads – and these six questions – prevailed.

Note: The Make It Happen Tipsheet is also available by email. Go to www.RandallCraig.com to register.

Randall Craig

Have you ever thought about how to become more creative?  One way is to expose yourself to ideas just beyond “the usual”: ideas that challenge you to think differently, or expose you to experiences that are well beyond your immediate knowledge.  With so much available on the web, it is easy to forget that books were first designed for this purpose.  Here are ten books that are worth a look:

Who Moved my Cheese? (Dr. Spencer Johnson):  All about change management; A fable where four characters take a different approach to change.  It’s a great way to recognize unhelpful behaviors from your colleagues… and yourself.  A quick read.

Designing Web Usability (Jakob Nielsen):  This was probably the very first book on web usability.  While I’m not in total agreement with all his points, I agree completely with the concept of purpose-built, user-focused design.  Most of the fundamentals in this book are timeless.

The Tipping Point (Malcom Gladwell):  The theory of critical mass, and why it happens.  You can’t go wrong reading anything from him.

The Wealthy Barber (David Chilton): This was one of the first “fable” books.  It’s all about lessons in financial planning taught through a story of conversations with the local barber, who shares matter-of-fact common sense.   There is an up-to-date, 30-years-later book  (“The Wealthy Barber Returns”) also now available.

The Goal (Eliyahu Goldrat): Continuous improvement told in a story format, as he repairs both a factory… and his personal life.  This book gives you a behind-the-scenes look into manufacturing operations  – something most people don’t ever experience first hand.

The Code Book (Simon Singh): A talented science writer, Singh talks about codes and ciphers throughout the ages and the sophistication of societies uses of these codes.  Starting back in Roman times, he brings us through WWII, to the present, and beyond.  Fascinating.

The Five Dysfunctions of a Team (Patrick Lencioni): Business fable where a high school principal is asked to ‘fix’ a Silicon Valley team – the reader goes along for the ride.  The book is quite entertaining, until you realize the dysfunctional characters are just describing  your own behaviors.

Marketing Services: Competing Through Quality (Leonard Berry & A. Parasuraman): These academics are the “creators” of so much in the area of measuring service quality: the “gap framework”, the five determinants of service quality, and more.  This book is a must-read for anyone involved in the service world.  Hint:  Responsiveness and Reliability are key.  And great service quality is when there is no gap between expected and actual service delivery.

Online PR and Social Media series and Social Media for Business: 101 Ways to Grow Your Business Without Wasting Your Time: Of course, I couldn’t NOT put my own books in the list.  Instead of a thick reference manual covering everything, these books focus on models that you can use to implement social media strategies, reduce risk, monitor/measure ROI, etc.

This week’s action plan:  With more – and different – input, you will get more – and more creative – output. This week, choose one of these books, read it, then pass it on to a friend or colleague who you think might also appreciate it.  Not only will you both be stretched, but you’ll have one more thing in common.   (Want a few more choices?  Here’s my earlier post of ten other mind-stretching books.)

Note: The Make It Happen Tipsheet is also available by email. Go to www.RandallCraig.com to register.

Randall Craig
www.RandallCraig.com
www.ptadvisors.com

How long ago did you (or your organization) start your Social Media “work”? 

Likely, a few years ago.  First came LinkedIn: you filled out your profile, asked for (and responded to) connection requests.  Then you asked for (and responded to) recommendation requests, asked (and responded to) questions, and joined a number of groups.  Then you added more onto your profile, including reading lists, blogs, Slideshare files, and all manner of other functionality.  You breathed a sigh of relief, until the next day, when you had to check what your connections were doing (and respond), check out group conversations (and respond), then check out who viewed your profile (and check out theirs).

You then repeated a similar process with  Facebook, Google+, Twitter, and other Social Networks.  It seems that each year (month?) we layer on more and more Social Media activity, all for a dubious return on investment.

Some people  – and organizations – are fighting back by exempting themselves completely from this race.  They lock up Social Media access during the working hours, have a “no Social Media” blanket policy, and pretend that the 750M Facebook users and 100M LinkedIn users (amongst others) don’t include prospective clients, job candidates, and other interested parties.  Silly.

Other people – and organizations – buy into Social Media so strongly that the Social Media tail begins wagging the corporate strategy dog.  Dangerous.

This Week’s Action Plan:  A more effective approach is to cut one Social Media activity whenever a new one is added.  This forces an evaluation of all of your activities to determine which ones are no longer pulling their weight.  At the end of the day you may decide not to cut anything, but at least you’re asking the question.  This week, identify the Social Media activity that is no longer yielding you a return.  Even if it is your favorite activity, you know what to do.  (Or rather, stop doing.)

Note: The Make It Happen Tipsheet is also available by email. Go to www.RandallCraig.com to register.

Randall Craig
www.RandallCraig.com
www.ptadvisors.com

If you read the business or technology press, you’ve probably heard about “the cloud”.  And if you believe the ad copy, just about any problem can be solved merely by “putting it on the cloud”.  Can this really be true?  Is the hype even close to reality?  And what is this cloud, really?

The cloud is actually quite simple: it is variously the on-demand storage, and on-demand processing power of applications that “live” on the internet, instead of in corporate server rooms.  

Why all of the sudden interest?  Consider the benefits:

• The infrastructure is “rented”, so no capital expenditures or maintenance costs for running corporate server rooms.
• Storage space and processing capacity can easily scale, so both peaks and organic growth can be accommodated.
• Third parties have developed many cloud-based apps, which means that organizations don’t need to build functionality themselves.  
• The cloud is accessible from any device: computer, smartphone, tablet, and devices not yet invented.  In most cases, without special software (or ongoing maintenance).
• Many cloud apps have “social” features built in, improving collaboration amongst users.  This can easily be done with internet technology, but is just about impossible on legacy corporate server-based software.  As an aside, the fast pace of innovation in Social Media is possible because most are cloud-based.

Cloud computing isn’t just for large enterprises.  Google Apps for Business provides incredible functionality for pennies per day per user.  Ringcentral moves an entire phone system online.  Salesforce.com and Infusionsoft provide complete turnkey CRM (Customer Relationship Management) systems.  And if you want to write custom applications yourself, Amazon AWS will provide on-demand storage space and processing power.

Despite the great promise of the cloud, much of the advertising about the cloud is ridiculous, and should be a red flag for anyone considering a new technology or business initiative. Before moving anything to the cloud, here are some important questions that should be addressed:

• What is the “problem” that needs to be solved?  In the olden days, the decision was usually buy vs build.  Today, it’s buy vs build vs rent – and the analysis to determine which route to go is still just as important as it used to be.
• Will a move to the cloud give a competitive advantage to the organization?  One one hand, it might provide better functionality faster; on the other, if your infrastructure is identical to everyone else’s, how can technology give you a competitive advantage?
• How is security being addressed… in detail?  There isn’t a week that goes by without a report on security and privacy breaches.  What would happen if your systems were breached?
• What changes might be necessary to staffing? Where are the cost savings?
• What process changes can (or should  or must) be made to accommodate the new system?
• What is the exit plan if you wish to move from one cloud provider to another.  Or from the cloud, back in-house?   
• What is the financial stability of the cloud provider?  If you are outsourcing key business systems to them, you don’t want to wake up to find them  – and your business systems – no longer around.

Will the cloud solve the world’s problems?  Of course not – but the cloud is an important new tool that is changing the landscape of the web.  Becoming aware of the opportunity it represents, and how it might be used is prudent.  Mindlessly jumping on the bandwagon is not.

Note: The Make It Happen Tipsheet is also available by email. Go to www.RandallCraig.com to register.

Randall Craig
www.RandallCraig.com
www.ptadvisors.com

[Special Announcement:  Since 2009, I have hosted a webTV show where I interviewed the nation's thought-leaders each week.  I am inviting you to a special "sneak peak" at the show's new beta website.  We're still filling in the gaps, but with over 115 episodes, guest blogs, and other features, there is quite a bit there.  We will be launching it formally in September, but thought that you'd appreciate seeing it early:  www.ProfessionallySpeakingTV.com.]

What do Google, Apple, HP, Facebook, and General Motors have in common?  Those with a financial background might suggest that each of these companies has a market capitalization in the billions.  The patriotic would suggest that each is an example of American ingenuity – and that each represented the best in their day.  But on a recent trip through Silicon Valley in California, I noticed something else:  each has made a substantial investment in the area:  yes, and that includes General Motors.  The question, is why.

What each of these high tech companies know is that magical things happen when there is critical mass.  Many educational institutions graduate highly skilled staff.  A strong venture capital community provides financing.  Many companies provide employment opportunities, attracting more skilled workers, financial resources, and entrepreneurial high-tech energy.  GM doesn’t have a factory in Silicon Valley making cars, it has a brain trust working on GM’s most advanced automotive software.  GM is there so it can take advantage of this critical mass, and achieve a competitive advantage through innovation.  And it realizes that recruiting the best software engineers means recruiting in Silicon Valley.  (It also means recognizing that a silicon valley is far more appealing than… Detroit.)

While Critical Mass as a concept is important on an industry or geographical level, it is also useful at the corporate level, albeit with a different name: Focus.  The more focused an organization is, the greater the “internal” critical mass:  people work towards tighter common goals, less effort is spent on extraneous activities, and external branding becomes tighter.

This week’s Action Plan: The concepts of Focus and Critical Mass work at the personal level as well.  Think about it: do all of your activities mesh together into a critical mass?  Or are they so disjointed and unrelated  that developing a synergy benefit from your efforts is just about impossible?

Social Media Perspective: Critical Mass is a Social Media key success factor too.  If you are doing so little that nobody notices, then your efforts are pretty much wasted.  (Of course, if you do so much that it overwhelms, your audience will become disengaged, also an unproductive outcome.)  Developing Social Media Critical Mass isn’t merely a focus on quantity, but a focus on the quality of your efforts: carve out a niche that helps define who you are, aimed at a defined target market.  Then execute the plan across the Social Media venues that this target market frequents.

Note: The Make It Happen Tipsheet is also available by email. Go to www.RandallCraig.com to register.

Randall Craig
www.RandallCraig.com
www.ptadvisors.com

Should social media be regulated and controlled? Should hardware and network providers be forced to open a one-way window for authorities to monitor the flow of conversation? These questions are once again being asked, as supposedly “civilized” societies erupt into violence, riots, vandalism, and hooliganism. (Vancouver Canada and London England both come come to mind.)

In these cases, rioters changed the marketing concept of a flash-mob – a seemingly spontaneous song and dance event – into a crash mob – something more sinister.  Social media was used by the rioters to pinpoint where and when a new area was to be targeted – and sadly, people responded.

Beyond the argument for public order, proponents of regulation point out that governments already scan all phone and email conversations for issues of public safety and security. And in the private sector, emails are routinely scanned as well. Scanning encrypted messages sent from a  Blackberry is merely putting this platform at parity with the others.

Notwithstanding these points, there are a number of arguments that suggest regulation and control are inappropriate, and ultimately unnecessary:

1. Social Media for the good argument:  The Arab Spring took root through social media, and was so effective at organizing the grassroots that the despotic governments shut it down. Providing a back door that governments can monitor, takes away a primary way for ordinary citizens to assert their right to free speech.  Social media empowers for good as well as for bad, but it doesn’t do anything unless a person actually uses it. Sadly, the gun lobby’s argument rings true here as well: guns don’t kill people, people kill people. It’s how a tool is used that determines if it is good or bad.
2. Essential freedoms argument: Most jurisdictions recognize people’s rights of free speech and privacy. By regulating this one channel of communication, we begin a slippery slope to a society that doesn’t value – or protect – any freedoms.
3. Accountability argument: People should be held accountable for their specific actions using evidence that is lawfully obtained, without trampling the rights of the majority. In London there are 1000′s of video cameras that can be used to identify suspects. By questioning the suspects and examining their smart phones, police can work backwards to identify the organizers.
4. Crowd-sourced justice argument:  At the same time that the bad guys were using their BlackBerry’s to organize, many bystanders were using their Smartphones to post pictures and videos online.  In the UK, the London police force have set up a web site of pictures and videos (www.met.police.uk/disordersuspects), asking the public for help. And on Facebook, Vancouver citizens “outed” rioters as well (www.Facebook.com/vancouverriot2011photos). More than anything else, these countervailing activities will reduce – or eliminate – the effectiveness of using social media for bad.  No longer is it possible to hide when Google, Facebook, Flickr, and YouTube see all.  (As an aside, the issue of trial-by-crowd vs trial-by-court is a big one: what happens if the wrong person is “identified” as a perpetrator from a grainy Facebook photo?  The traditional justice system may catch this, but trial-by-crowd can forever destroy a reputation.)

I am not advocating the use of Social Media for unlawful activity, and believe fundamentally that anyone who breaks the law should be prosecuted to the full extent of that law.  And those who use questionable business practices should be exposed and suffer commercial loss.  But restricting  – and losing – freedom of expression  exclusively in one communication channel is inappropriate, and because of crowd-sourced justice, unnecessary.

Note: The Make It Happen Tipsheet is also available by email. Go to www.RandallCraig.com to register.

Randall Craig
www.RandallCraig.com
www.ptadvisors.com

It’s not celebrated widely, but in August 2011 (August 6th actually) the world wide web turned twenty. From humble beginnings, this “child” has revolutionized the world in no less a transformational way than the industrial revolution a century earlier.

Think about what didn’t exist in 1991:

eCommerce, eBay, ezines, online newspapers, Wikipedia, iphones, ipads, itunes, Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn, web banking, Instant Messenger, Hotmail and Monster.com.  Hard as it it is to believe, Google also didn’t exist back then…even as an idea.

And during this same time, think of what has fundamentally changed or disappeared:

Telex, fax machines, catalogs, newspapers, record stores, paper encyclopedias, long distance phone rates, record players, want ads and phone books.

This week’s action plan: It’s impossible to know what the next disruptive force in the market will be, but it is highly likely we won’t have to wait a century to see it. The most important skills in our fast-paced world? Intellectual flexibility, coupled with curiosity and a willingness to embrace change – not merely accept it. This week, let go of the old, and leave space for the new.

Note: The Make It Happen Tipsheet is also available by email. Go to www.RandallCraig.com to register.

Randall Craig
www.RandallCraig.com
www.ptadvisors.com

There is no shortage of  “experts” living in the dank underworld of the business called “SEO”, or Search Engine Optimization.  This is the black art of finding ways to make your web site, Social Media profile, blog, and other web properties appear at the top of the Google organic search results.

While there may be many who are ethical, and many others who believe that they are providing an important service to their (ignorant and stupid) clients, SEO is something that should be built-in and happen naturally.  With just a very few basics, it is amazingly easy to make a difference to your search engine ranking.  Here are five tips:

1) Keywords:  Make sure that you know what keywords your target audience will use when searching for you.  This is available through Google Analytics (if installed in your site), by using traditional market research… or by guessing.  Ensure that these keywords are embedded throughout the regular text of your site or profile – but don’t overdo it: stuffing keywords will only penalize you.  Here’s a simple rule of thumb:  write for people, not for search engines, otherwise Google will penalize you – and you will alienate anyone who eventually gets to your site.

2) Graphics:  Name each graphic (or video) a relevant name, and use ALT tags to provide additional data for Google to index.

3) Page Title: Instead of an identical page title on every page, name each page uniquely, based on its content.  This can be automated in your blog and web site, but is usually pre-programmed within Social Media sites.

4) Meta tags:  These are invisible tags within the web page that gives the search engine additional clues to the page’s relevance.  The most common tags are Keywords and Description; both can be filled out within most blog software and web sites.

5) Relevant inbound links:  The more inbound links from credible sites, the more likely Google will see your site as being… credible.

This week’s action plan:  Surprisingly, these tips are equally important when it comes to being relevant to people in the real world.   Whenever you are writing, presenting, or just talking to your colleagues, use relevant-to-them keywords and graphics that are well-labelled.  Organize your thinking – and label it – using chapter names/titles/subtitles.  Summarize it (meta data), and make sure that it is referenced by other important sources.  It is surprisingly easy to be smarter than Google in the real-world, using the same common sense that Google uses online.

Note: The Make It Happen Tipsheet is also available by email. Go to www.RandallCraig.com to register.

Randall Craig
www.RandallCraig.com
www.ptadvisors.com

There is no question that people think differently from each other.  Proof points abound:  people wear different clothes, choose different hairstyles, hold different jobs, and prefer different foods.  Yet, whenever we write a report, make a presentation, or write a blog post, we often feel challenged by people who voice different opinions.  Some companies are so concerned about this, that they turn off the ability for others to post comments, “vote” on the post quality, or interact in any way.

Typically, this (relatively cowardly) attitude is a result of past momentum, where a command-and-control authority would proclaim, and all others would scurry to comply.  Or it is a result of stiff corporate communication policies that seek to foster “group think” under the guise of standard corporate messaging.  Allowing different thinking opens the possibility for respectful, constructive, and open debate.  And this results in a more refined – and creative – end result.  More importantly, it results in engagement.

This week’s action plan:  Choose an engagement that is most important to you:  employee engagement, customer engagement, volunteer engagement, or donor engagement.  Then find a way to open up the debate on something that matters to them.  Not only will you learn something through the exchange, but you’ll eventually prove that engagement delivers results.

Post Script:  While Social Media is an obvious candidate as a venue for exploration and debate, opportunities to engage are often most effective in the real world:  team meetings, one-on-ones, lunch-and-learns, etc. 

Note: The Make It Happen Tipsheet is also available by email. Go to www.RandallCraig.com to register.

Randall Craig
www.RandallCraig.com
www.ptadvisors.com

If you’re like most people, you get three types of email: the kind you want, the kind you don’t want (spam), and invitations to “connect” on the latest social media website. It’s this third category that poses  a problem: responding yes is time consuming (and sometimes inappropriate), but responding no might be taken as insulting. And the incessant nagging from these sites to respond means that a decision to ignore means you’re playing a losing game of whack-a-mole.

What is one to do? Here are two ideas that might help;

• Set a strategy for how social media fits into your overall marketing, HR, and stakeholder engagement plans. Each of your social media initiatives should have a goal, monitoring, and (hopefully) some real-world integration. If a new site doesn’t fit into your plan, then ignore it until the next planning cycle.
• Set a policy for responding to requests from each of the key social media sites that you are interested in. For example, for LinkedIn you may choose to only connect with those where you have a real-world relationship. Other sites, such as Facebook, may have a completely different policy, such as “yes” to everyone.

This week’s action plan: The number of social media oriented e-mails that clog your inbox can be overwhelming. This week, reduce your social media fatigue by logging into each social media site and changing your email notification settings so that fewer get sent.  In Social Media, often less is more.

Note: The Make It Happen Tipsheet is also available by email. Go to www.RandallCraig.com to register.

Randall Craig
www.RandallCraig.com
www.ptadvisors.com

Chances are that you know how to drive, but cannot fix the engine. Eighty-five years ago, however, the answer would have been different.

Motoring enthusiasts back in the 1930′s and 1940′s had to know the basics of automotive repair and troubleshooting, as the “newfangled” cars often broke down, needed constant tune-ups, and were not quite as reliable as cars today. At a certain point, however, cars became more reliable; they became more technically sophisticated, and car repair became more specialized knowledge.  You were either a Driver, or an Auto Mechanic.

Today, social media has reached a similar tipping point. The knowledge of how Social Media is wired behind the scenes, how to integrate them, and how they should be properly bound to a corporate strategy is fast becoming specialist knowledge.  Yet, at the same time, there is also an expectation of a minimal communal literacy:  “people” know how to drive the car, use the phone… and use YouTube, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter. 

Despite the incredible number of users, it is dangerous to assume they are comfortable with these new tools, let alone engaged with them.  Communal literacy assumes everyone – and every group – is at the same level.  The reality is that different groups may have vastly different levels of understanding:  older users might not have knowledge of LinkedIn; newcomers may be familiar with sites more prevalent back home; smaller communities might use the same tools but in different ways.  To “Drive” your message home – and engage your audience – requires an approach that recognizes that communal literacy doesn’t mean complete literacy.  Every group – and every individual – is different.

This week’s action plan:

You probably have an area of specialty that has taken a career to learn.  The next time you present  your ideas to a group, consider whether the audience needs to be auto mechanics, or merely drivers to understand what you say.  In other words, what is the communal literacy of the group?  You’ll generate buy-in when you’re neither patronizing nor overly complex.

Note: The Make It Happen Tipsheet is also available by email. Go to www.RandallCraig.com to register.

Randall Craig
www.RandallCraig.com
www.ptadvisors.com

Van Gogh self-portrait

Have you ever spent time looking at the European Masters – Rembrandt, Van Gogh, and the many others?  During their era, there were no newspapers, telephones, let alone an internet.  When a subject sat down to be painted, it was often for hours, not minutes.  And the resulting painting was designed to last well into the future, if not forever.

Today, we go to the world’s museums and galleries to admire the Masters.  We see how each brush stroke creates the picture, but often so much more: a window into the emotions of the painter.   And we marvel how indeed, their work has stood the test of time.

Unfortunately, we are not so careful with what we write today.  In our day of information overload and focus on the quick, our writing often misses nuance, is easily misinterpreted, and is not expected to stand the test of time.  What will people think about us when they read what we have written, several hundred years into the future?

Rembrandt self portrait

This week’s action plan: Before you hit “send”, before you post that blog, or send that tweet.  Before you write that memo, make that presentation, or speak to your colleagues, first make sure that what you write or say has some staying power.  If it isn’t important, then don’t say it.  But if it is, write like a Master paints.

Postscript: Spending the day at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, this is what I was thinking when I saw the paintings on display there.  I found the contrast between the Van Gogh and Rembrandt self-portraits particularly striking.

Note: The Make It Happen Tipsheet is also available by email. Go to www.RandallCraig.com to register.

Randall Craig
www.RandallCraig.com
www.ptadvisors.com

How would you describe a typical New Yorker?  More likely than not, you wouldn’t use the same words to describe someone from Los Angeles, or from a small mid-western town.

People are a product of their environment, and often will take on the mindset, attitudes, and perspectives of where they are from.  (They also take on attributes based on their culture, upbringing, and many other factors.)

There are two ways we can use this information:

1) When we write or present a topic, we can focus our content and style for the specific audience, tying into their collective experience. A reference to the Yankees means something very different to New Yorkers than Parisians.

2) If we don’t know who our audience is precisely, we can pretend that we do:  How would someone from New York react?  Someone from San Francisco?  Or from Geneva, Switzerland?  Predicting their reactions helps us finesse our communications – and possibly avoid embarrassment.

One caveat: every reader (or audience member)  is an individual; be careful not to stereotype, or you’ll lose all of the credibility you hoped to build.

This week’s action plan: When you need to create the new (or solve the old), select several cities – or cultures – and consider the challenge from their perspective.  Having a New York state of mind is a powerful way to improve your creative output.

Note: The Make It Happen Tipsheet is also available by email. Go to www.RandallCraig.com to register.

Randall Craig
www.RandallCraig.com
www.ptadvisors.com

How often do you crack open the instruction manual for the new TV, car, or piece of software? If you’re like most, the answer is never. Reading through an endless list of functions is both irrelevant, and incredibly dull. In other words, a colossal waste of time.

Why then, when it comes to social media “strategic plans”, the focus is too often on what each social media venue offers, instead of how social media fits into the processes and plans that currently exist?  In too many cases, social media is a solution in search of a problem.

Instead, a social media strategy should flip this equation around and think “backwards”: social media needs to make real world processes more efficient, more engaging, and less costly.  How can social media help the recruiting process? How can it be used for better lead generation and prospecting? How can it be used for more focused (and faster) product development? And so on.

This Week’s Action Plan: Consider the processes that you participate in. Instead of first thinking of the social media venue, can you use “backwards thinking” to improve the process itself using social media concepts?  When we take the emphasis off the tool, and emphasize the business, Backwards Thinking is really Fast Forward.

Note: The Make It Happen Tipsheet is also available by email. Go to www.RandallCraig.com to register.

Randall Craig
www.RandallCraig.com
www.ptadvisors.com

There is nothing as humorous – or sad – as outdated laws. Every jurisdiction has them:

• No cow or sheep grazing in public gardens
• All businesses must provide rails to tie up horses
• No walking backward while eating chestnuts

Unfortunately, many organizations face a similar problem: rules and regulations that have far outlived their useful lives. Innovation requires flexibility – yet rules and regulations breed inflexibility.

Inflexibility causes a permanent competitive disadvantage, as other more agile organizations jump into the fray, “disrupting” the market with their new thinking. Of course, they aren’t disrupting the market – they are disrupting their competitors, using the tools of innovation to connect more directly to their stakeholders.

In fact, under cover of terms like security, privacy, technology architecture, and “policy”, many organizations are stifling not just innovation, but also customer service, employee motivation, and ultimately profitability.

These rules and regulations are felt no more keenly than in the areas of social media, marketing, and technology. While the preventers of innovation are doing their jobs, the smart and the quick organizations are reaping the benefits of social CRM, cloud computing/Software as a Service, community building, and collaboration. They are embracing the Facebook Generation, and the Facebook generation is embracing them.

This week’s action plan: Is the inertia of the past stifling innovation in your organization? Look carefully, and identify the rules and regulations that directly impact your goals – and then advocate for openness, innovation, and connection.

Security Addendum: We aren’t advocating a disregard for security, privacy, and similar policies, but rather a recognition that in most organizations these concerns should be addressed in a way that encourages – not prevents – innovation.

Note: The Make It Happen Tipsheet is also available by email. Go to www.RandallCraig.com to register.

Randall Craig
www.RandallCraig.com
www.ptadvisors.com

Malcolm Gladwell asserts that one cannot be an expert without first earning 10,000 hours of experience.

So how do you become recognized for your expertise if you don’t have enough experience to be recognized…?  This isn’t a problem just for those entering the workforce (or for entrepreneurs), but also for those considering a career change, and those newly promoted into a different role.

Here are a  few ideas:

1. Borrow the experience: Add people to your team to complement the skills you lack – then learn from them.
2. Purchase the experience: Hire a coach or management consultant to quickly get you up to speed. Of course, make sure that their 10,000 hours are real and directly relevant to your requirements.
3. Change your focus: Sometimes a slight shift in your priorities will allow more of your past experience to become relevant.
4. Assume the risk: Yes, you might not have those 10,000 hours, but the cost of failure may not be so high. Nevertheless, reduce this risk by reading, attending presentations, and networking to learn as much as possible.

This week’s action plan: What kind of hours are you collecting? This week, add up the hours that you have “earned” throughout your career across various competencies. Are you earning hours in the areas that are important to you?

A bonus idea: Many people like the idea of writing a blog, but are unsure what the best topic should be. Here’s a clue: blog on either the topic you have the most hours in, or blog on the topic you are hoping to build.

Note: The Make It Happen Tipsheet is also available by email. Go to www.RandallCraig.com to register.

Randall Craig
www.RandallCraig.com
www.ptadvisors.com