Business owners around the globe are asking themselves whether or not they need a social media manager. However, more and more of them are noticing the popularity of social media, but don’t know how, where, when, or why they should jump on the bandwagon themselves. They notice their colleagues, peers, friends, children & family have jumped on board, on a more personal level. But, what so many of them fail to see, is that their present and future customers have jumped on for a ride too!
Right now, as you read this, your customers are flying down the road going mach 5 with no end in sight. They’re enjoying themselves too while reading/writing reviews, articles, comments & opinions on your business. They’re chatting amongst themselves (and to the rest of the internet world) about their latest visit, what their experience was, and even how it bugs them that Sally the cashier always seems “nice”, but never says thank you when they are leaving.
Wouldn’t you love the opportunity to be in that cart flying down the road too? Do you want to know what your customers are saying about you? Do you want to be able to effectively converse back with them? Wouldn’t you love to hear, first hand, about their experiences? Wouldn’t it be great to know how they felt about Sally so you could enforce stronger cashier policies?
Go to the source if you’d like to get the 5 reasons: socialmediatoday.com. h/t @tommytrc.
Here at Gist, we have embraced the phrase “connected people change history” as core to our mission and vision. We believe that technologies are more accessible than ever to the individual and that the more connected we become, the more we are able to do amazing things. Over the past couple years, we have talked to many smart people, learned a great deal from user feedback, examined how we work as a team, and looked forward to where we believe things are headed in the future leading us to the notion of the “new workstyle.”
So, what is the “New Workstyle?”
The New Workstyle blends the latest technologies and tools with our daily activities allowing us to accomplish more in both personal and professional endeavors, accelerate ideas of our own, and lead more productive lives.
Unlike workflow which is defined by scripted and static process for everyone to follow, workstyle is unique to the individual who calls upon information, technology, and connections as needed.
This definition along with our understanding of it will evolve as the pace of innovation accelerates and individual “style” is applied to work. Jason Fried’s great presentation at a TEDx event about “why work doesn’t happen at work” is an exclamation point on our concept.
Go to the source to read the article: blog.gist.com. Oh, and btw, thanks for NOT using Gist — it gives me a competitive advantage over you and your firm! :-D
To me, the absolute most powerful marketing strategy is to run a really great business that your customers love and tell all of their friends and family about. All the ads and social media effort in the world cannot overcome poor quality or lackluster customer service. That is why for the past 17 years my career has focused exclusively on studying the fundamental elements of business success.
Traveling worldwide at upwards of 200 days a year, I have worked shoulder to shoulder with some of the best (and worst) business leaders of our generation. I’ve also maintained a strict regimen of reading a minimum of 100 business books a year since 1989. In preparation for writing my book Awesomely Simple, I compiled all of my research and reading down to a single page that I called my “Strategy Map.” This single piece of paper represented more than 175,000 pages of reading on business excellence and an additional 5,000 pages of interview notes and survey results from my work as a consultant and trainer. I then took all of that information and tried to uncover the pattern… the formula for business success. Well, here is what I came up with:
(T+C+ECF) x DE = Business Success
Let me take you step-by-step through the elements of this equation.
I discovered John Spence and ‘Awesomely Simple‘ thanks to John Jantsch at DuctTapeMarketing. I suggest you add both to your list of thought leaders to follow in 2011…
If it’s true that the first hour is the ‘rudder of the day’ than the next few weeks are the ‘rudder of the year’. If you lead an organization like I do, here are 4.5 books that will give you all the insight you need to chart a course for the year…
Getting Things Done. Another book that has become so popular that people have forgotten why.
Awesomely Simple. This one is new, but powerful enough to be a ‘must read’ recommendation for me. John Spence defines what a ‘book’ should be in the new millennium by hosting a website with bonus materials for readers. He’s also active in social media and eagerly engages readers…
Now for the how. Yes, I’m even going to tell you how to read them. Read them via Kindle. “What”, you say? “I’m not going to buy a Kindle just to read these books!” “Well”, I say, “you don’t have to”. Kindle software runs on Windows, Mac, iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch, Android, Windows Phone 7, BlackBerry and via web browser. It synchronizes wirelessly between devices creating a virtual library of all the books you download allowing you to access them anywhere at any time. So, if I’m reading a book on my Sprint Evo and highlight a section that I want to go back to later, when I get to my computer and synchronize my books, the same selection will be highlighted, along with any notes I’ve made, on my PC. Did I mention that most Kindle books are around $10 as well? The total in the title is the sum of all the Kindle books I recommended and you can click on any title in the slider to order it immediately…
This video will help you get the picture…
Now as much as I love all things Google, Kindle content is cheaper than the new Google Books by about 50% in my informal testing and although the Android reader for Google Books is more full featured, imho, Kindle software is a more compelling offering at the moment. btw, if you’d prefer to listen, there’s always Audible — another service from Amazon.com! Again, no special device is required because there’s Audible software available for Windows, Mac, iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch, Android, Windows Phone 7, BlackBerry and web browser. Instead of listening to talk radio, now you can get smart while you’re driving around!
According to Einstein, doing the same things and expecting different results is the very definition of insanity. These books, combined with new ways of consuming their wisdom, will help you get from where you’re at to where you want to be as a business leader in 2011. Really!
December 30, 2010 – “Google Buzz – despite the initial privacy brouhaha, Google Buzz is the best Google service released in 2010. Even if it’s less than one year old, Buzz already has an impressive set of features, a powerful API, it’s integrated with many services and has a cool factor that’s missing from other Google social products.”
December 30, 2010 – Quote: “Three-and-a-half years after the original phone launched, the iOS user interface is pretty much the same. The UI feels stale, uninviting and too PC-like. I love the hardware, but no longer pine for the software.”
Follow the ‘via’ link if you’d like to read all 10, but in the meantime if you’d like to write off a Google Apps for Business install, a new website, social media integration, or personal digital coaching, I’ll be happy to take your money before the end of the year. Comment, call or use the contact form to contact me and discuss how this applies to your business…
More than a third of all tweets are sent by people visiting Twitter’s default Web client. Which is too bad, because Twitter, as a website, is by far the least effective way to use Twitter as a network.
But even though just about any third-party client will provide you with a better way to use Twitter, picking the client that’s right for you can be daunting. Should you install a client or use one that runs in your browser? Which features are really necessary? Should you pay for any of these services?
I typically prefer browser-based clients because I think its easier to move between browser windows than separate programs, but I wouldn’t turn my nose up at an installed client with a really great feature set just for that. The best client for you is the one that fits your workflow — if you really need to be able to schedule tweets to be effective and a client doesn’t give you that option, then it’s the wrong service for you, even if everyone else loves it.
Agreed — browser based is the way to go. Platform independent and always available. Me? I’m a HootSuite guy — I love everything they do from the web to their Android app. How about you? btw, you can follow the ‘via’ link if you’d like to go to the source…
Show me a modern political candidate who doesn’t understand television, and I’ll show you a loser.When TV became the dominant medium for Americans to consume news and entertainment, political candidates could no longer be successful without looking polished in televised debates, appearing on talk shows and spending big on commercials.Like the television boom of the 1960s, we are standing on the precipice of a big shift in how public figures are perceived and how campaigns are conducted. Our frontier is social media, and its impact on mainstream political culture is coming on fast.While my colleagues have been making their predictions about what’s on the tech and social media horizon in 2011, there will be no major U.S. elections next year. Here, we’ll be postulating about social media’s impact on the more long-term future of American civics.
Corporate athletes have recently (in the last decade) been schooled in the concept of working on strengths and exploiting them to gain leverage in their careers (via such books as Now Discover Your Strengths). In our early careers, we were likely (at least I was) told to work on our weaknesses. It was a challenge to always be focusing on the negative, to say the least. Thusly, a strengths-based approach made sense.We know that top athletes have almost always worked on their strengths to the level of exploiting them for extraordinary gains. To be fair, they also work on their weaknesses, but when you look at sports like cycling you see climbers become better climbers, sprinters getting faster and more explosive, time trialists becoming increasing dominant in their discipline and so on. I think that you get the point. More specifically, great athletes focus on winning at one thing first, and work on weaknesses and secondary strengths after they’ve honed their strength.
When Dana VanDen Heuvel talks, I take notes. You can follow the ‘via’ link above to go to the source and read the rest of the article if you’re interested in learning more…
Bright, shiny objects! 
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