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Dana VanDen Heuvel says…

Back in 2000, I picked up a book at Barnes & Noble in Long Beach, CA.  The Cluetrain Manifesto (affiliate link) was on the end cap display and having been involved in “Internet stuff” for a while for a few years, I was keen to explore what the book had to offer.  Little did I know (same for most of us I’d imagine) that Cluetrain would be even more relevant over a decade later than when it was first written.  Frankly, I can’t think of too many business books that can make that claim, so that in and of itself is really something. Over the past several years I’ve read and re-read Cluetrain a few times and have kept the 95 theses document close at hand. As we all look forward to what 2011 brings, it seems an appropriate time to get reacquainted with the full Cluetrain set of 95 theses albeit with a bit more depth. (one liners such as “markets are conversations” don’t have the same immediate resonance with everyone and thusly some explanation may be required.). So, in in the spirit of getting fully engaged in the Cluetrain mindset that I’m embarking on the project of bringing all 95 of these to life over the next 95 work days.

Dana VanDen Heuvel of MarketingSavant Group is engaged in a rather ambitious project over at his blog, but as I have said so many times before — when Dana talks, I take notes. Follow the ‘via’ link over to his site and track his ’95 days of Cluetrain’ — I know I will…

Darren Rowse - Photography Blogger Extrodinaire
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Whenever I present on the topic of ‘practical, tactical social media’ organizational leaders usually like what they hear about social media and how to implement it to build their brands online until they hear that in order to achieve maximum results, they’ll have to post a thought every day for at least three months. The response is usually IMNOTAWRITER. If you’re one of those people, read on…

“Have you ever accidentally slammed your hand in a car door? OUCH!

I think that very unpleasant feeling can be compared to how some small business owners feel about blogging. Until very recently, I would never have published anything on the Internet because I have never considered myself a writer.

Well, that all changed when I purchased my small business and suddenly I was forced to start producing content so that I could try to rank in Google, educate customers, and develop my backstory.

However, even though I started producing content, I still suffered from the inferiority complex that can only be associated with IMNOTAWRITER syndrome.

This syndrome, I’ve found, can be deadly to your small business blogging and it can cause countless hours of wasted time and frustration.

Plus, telling yourself, IMNOTAWRITER, is a very easy and convenient excuse not to blog, isn’t it?” Source: How to Blog When You’re Not a Writer

You can go to the source if you want to read more, but what amazes me is the number of organization leaders that have time to write the same emails over and over, but don’t understand how much more efficient they could be and how many more people they could attract by posting the same email content on a blog and then sending the link to the post to their correspondents! Not only would it save them time, but also drive traffic to their sites. Fine, they say, but they don’t want to learn new technology to update their sites. For those people in particular, I allow all the sites I create to be updated via email — a skill which even the most technophobic organizational leader has mastered at this point. Now what’s your excuse? Please comment!

Salesforce.com Enticement Program: Migrate with Ease

Another sign of growing customer dissatisfaction with Salesforce.com…

“Salesboom.com™ leading vendor of Software-as-a-Service CRM Software Solutions today announced the implementation of their Salesforce.com Enticement Program which is designed for displeased Salesforce.com customers who are looking to migrate to another CRM provider. Businesses who migrate to Salesboom.com On-Demand CRM Solutions receive a $5,000 check and a guaranteed lower annual rate than that of Salesforce.com, some restrictions apply…

An increasing number of businesses driven by frustration with poor customer service and high license and integration costs are leaving Salesforce.com for Salesboom.com. As described by Rami Hamodah, the President and Co-Founder of Salesboom.com, “The relationship between Salesboom.com and Salesforce.com is a one way street. Salesforce.com customers embark on their journey along this one way street and find themselves at our door. This one way street analogy sums up our relationship with Salesforce.com, we should be thankful to them, after all they are our largest source of new clients!”

Myself, I was a huge fan of Salesforce.com for many years but have moved on to the community version of SugarCRM which has much of the functionality of Salesforce.com but is free and just fine for a smaller sales team. Salesforce.com is doing a lot of stupid things lately from their lame channel program to their ever escalating prices. Think twice before getting invoved with Salesforce.com…

Update 11/21/09: Since writing this post, have also become a huge fan of Zoho CRM!

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