So, Let's Talk strategy! (Part 1)

"Perception is strong and sight weak. In strategy it is important to see distant things as if they were close and to take a distanced view of close things." - Miyamoto Musashi (1584 - 1645), Japanese Swordsman

"The essence of strategy is choosing what not to do." - Michael Porter

NOTE: This is part one of this article, and parts 2 and 3 will eventually provide more detail.

Strategy Foundations
LJB and I had a super strategy session this morning...and I plan to share a specific info about it in the very near future...but first, I want to provide some foundational thoughts to strategy. At the end of the day, authors want to connect with people and share something of value with the them. In return, profit-oriented authors make money. So, how do we devise a strategy for your work to make money?

Betalkaboutable Strategy #1 - Know Your Freakin' Customer!
Aside from stealing or counterfeiting, the ONLY way to make money is to help people...and get paid for your product or service that helped them. So, you need to know how your work is helping your fellow human. If you've failed to figure this out, keep failing and don't stop...but make sure you learn from each failure! Know your customer better than they know themselves!



Betalkaboutable Strategy #2 - No Sucky Content!
There are a million things you can do to try and make money as "an author," but your content CANNOT SUCK! You have to have a great, talkaboutable product if you are an author (or an artist or musician for that matter). CC and Ann wrote contentrulesbook.com, and it covers a lot of this type of info about content. To disclose, CC is a friend, and he totally knows what he is talking about. Other than that book, I would study any other great authors and any good content out there on the internizzle...study it.



Now, I believe firmly in a concept (and am pretty sure I came up with the concept) called "Return on Content." This is based on the marketing operations measurement work I've done...for example, we invested in white papers at Siebel. Those papers took time/money to make...and some produced way more leads and business than others! The same rule applies to media companies who will shut off a TV show that doesn't have enough audience (as audience = ad dollars). Authors, marketers, media companies, and software companies create a TON of content...it's endless. Where do you focus? How do you maximize the return on the investment in content? Well, first...it really helps to think of your investment of time and/or money in content as something that needs to maximize a return. Then, you manufacture content, measure the return, and optimize it. So, that means you need to get a feedback loop in place ASAP...that way, you know when you are creating good content and you know what metrics you are moving the needle on. If you don't know where to start, you gotta start somewhere! Take a an educated risk.

betalkaboutable Strategy #3 - betalkaboutable!
This should be obvious, but if people don't want to talk about your content, it sucks. If people aren't talking about your content/media/work, refer to rule #1 and #2. In the world of social media, people are in a constant state of talking, liking, twitching, and talking about content as noted here. It's now part of human behavior...if you have great content, people will talk about it...and being talkaboutable leads to sales!

That's it for now! Feedback always appreciated!

Google Social Circle

This was announced last year, but I hadn't seen it in search results until today.

Google is clearly taking social very seriously...this is unreal.

Facebook versus Google - let's get ready to ruuuuuuuuummmmmmmmbbble!

Social Media, Design, and Gandhi

Media has always been social.

Since media was invented, it has been social. People spoke then passed stories down orally. Then people learned to read and write…both social excercises…including the sharing of news and other information. Then the gutenberg press, religious passages printed and shared, and war propaganda. Then we have the invention of radio, tv, the net. Each has a major component of sitting with others and talking about what is going on. Media has always been social…technology like the net just accelerates it.

Design applies to social.

Design comes in all forms. I’ve studied it for almost 20 years and have been fascinated with it. Design applies to products, but also processes, even business intelligence reports…it also applies to social experiences.

Ask a great sales person or bizdev-er, and they will tell you they design the sale cycle, each conversation, the partners involved…they actively think through all of this. Same with marketers, they design experiences…and call centers design great customer satisfaction into the way they do business.

Design also applies to social media. Any good sales and marketing person will design their information/media, people, process, and technology to get a great result…to make their customers happy. This has happened to all media particularly modern media. Certainly, with movies, music, art, and architecture are all design to please their customers…it’s no different than web design…or social media design.

You can design a social media experience…it’s probably most like designing a movie or probably more like the design of a retail experience…at least in my opinion.

The #1 design principle.

So, this sounds simple…but the #1 design principle for a product or service is to just figure out what design makes customers happy and want to talk about you…and then build to that spec. If you have an argument with this quote, I’d love to hear it: “A customer is the most important visitor on our premises, he is not dependent on us. We are dependent on him. He is not an interruption in our work. He is the purpose of it. He is not an outsider in our business. He is part of it. We are not doing him a favor by serving him. He is doing us a favor by giving us an opportunity to do so.” - Gandhi

Eric Schmidt on Social Media

Don’t listen to just anyone talk about social media…listen to Eric (starting around minute 12):

"...the information…that you get…

...is more likely to come from your peers…

...another permanent and important change in how our

society works…"

- Eric Schmidt, CEO Google

Women's Pro Soccer All-Star Game

The most "talkaboutable" thing that I experienced was when I "kinda met" Marta . While extremely brief, what I found is that she had an outstandingly strong sense of humility. Now, a brazilian dude taught me to surf...and I could immediately sense some of the same "cultural energy."

So, this made me stop and think on the drive home...a celebrity is company with a brand, the brand just happens to be them...their product or service is what they do as a public figure.

• Should a celebrity be completely humble in their public presense?
• When do you self-promote and how?
• What is the best use of time your time and money...for your fans and customers...for yourself?
• Are you better or worse off being talkaboutable like Dennis Rodman, Britney Spears, Tiger, Muhammad Ali...or do you just stay in the background (i.e. actions speak louder than words)?

In my opinion, if you are a pro athlete, actor/actress, musician, artist, etc...if your persona is part of building a fan base (and customer base), you have to treat yourself like a brand. You have to think in terms of "marketing return on investment" with yourself, your time, and your money. Even if you are not ego-centric or wealth-driven and want to help others with your celebrity, your brand is an asset...one that produces money...and one that is already talkaboutable.

This is a picture of Marta signing autographs after the game.

Social Software Apps

Great example of a social software application. This is a market disruption for Adobe and anyone else that sells picture editing software in the 8-21 year old space. Why would I buy software with this available? http://ping.fm/gFpTT

Grandpa, here is slideshow and link to pictures!

This should be easier to read. You have two choices:
1. Go here to this link at our Google Picasa site to see images full screen and also comment on them...I'd really love your comments!
2. Look below...you can control how fast it goes, but it's still small

My grandpa uses facebook!

mobile social changes how we all communicate...and drastically...I read this facemail and posted this image from my iPhone while in a car wash on west paces ferry.

appreciate the entreprenuerial spirit papa!!! luv ya!!!

Social is everywhere...look around

When a mall decides to set up banners pointing to their social networking sites, what does that mean?

Well 4654 people like their FB site and 483 twitchers saw some URL info, logged on, and liked or followed them. That means something.

Betalking or betalkaboutable?

there is "betalking" ...and...there is
"betalkaboutable" .
no matter what, you likely want the latter.