Think about it – “conform” is made up of the words “con” and “form”. To me, that says, “Form an orderly line so we can con you.”
Who wants to wait in a line just to be duped?
Toasted Bagels and the Art of Good Business
Every morning, I make the same breakfast. I’ll put the coffee on, then make myself an egg bagel. Pop the bagel in the toaster, fry up a couple of eggs, and good to go. Except it’s not.
Every morning, without fail, my smoke alarm goes off. “Adjust the toaster,” you might say. I did, and still the alarm goes off. “Cook the eggs on a lesser heat,” another good suggestion. Which I’ve tried. And still the damn alarm goes off.
Off course, it being a smoke alarm, I can’t adjust the sensitivity on it – too unsafe, right? Or is it? Couldn’t the manufacturers allow for sectioned adjustments, say one at a time until the problem is solved? There’s a big difference between cooker smoke and fire smoke, after all.
That got me to thinking how user-friendly we are to our customers.
Look at the iPod. Officially, you can’t replace the battery on it when it runs out, you need to have an authorized dealer do this. There are plenty of solutions online so you don’t need to go the official route, but why make it so much of a runaround in the first place?
The same goes for some laptops, other consumer electronics, customer queries and more. Basically, we’re not making things easy for the end user – instead, we’re pissing them off. Why?
To me that says, “We’re Company X and we think you’re too stupid to act for yourself. You will always need us around – get used to it.” How can that be good for business?
Look at the recent Zappos sale to Amazon. Zappos are known for having an amazing culture that makes everything easy, from employee satisfaction to customer sales and follow-up service. The result? A whopping $847 million purchase. Ease-of-use encourages success.
We’re smart people. We know when not to mess with things, but we also know what we’re capable of dealing with. If I can use a product, I should (mostly) be able to amend that product’s settings for my own personal use.
Otherwise, is there even any point to your product to start with?
From Twitter to Blog – #FollowFriday Vol. 6
Recently I wrote why I was moving my #followfriday recommendations from Twitter to this blog. So, without further ado, here are my recommendations for this week.
I hope you check them out ? they?re all worth getting to know.
1. 
Community. Kim Woodbridge (@kwbridge). I use WordPress for my blog as I love the whole WordPress community, and Kim Woodbridge sums up why perfectly. Always sharing great blogging tips through her wonderfully named (Anti) Social Development blog, Kim is wise, smart and uber-friendly.
2. 
Ladies of Twitter. Libby Unwin (@LibbyUnwin). Libby makes me laugh. She always has a witty quip ready for you, and she’s such a “girly girl” that it’s refreshing (and I mean that in the nicest way!). She clearly loves her family and anyone that hates bad grammar but can consistently forgive my typos is always alright by me!
3. 
Gentlemen of Twitter. Jon Aston (@JonAston). Jon could easily fall into the Marketing category, but he truly fits into the Gentleman one. He’s a continuous source of support, inspiration, knowledge, smarts and wit. He has time for everyone, and I mean everyone, and he’s probably the best mix of a post-hippy punk you could ever meet!
4. 
Non-Profits. Lotay Yang (@Lotay). Some people might say that Lotay already has more than 50,000 followers so why add more. It’s not about the numbers, though, it’s the person, and Lotay is one of the best. A businessman that created the Black Card Circle Foundation, encouraging affluent business people to combine for social change, Lotay is a true leader in the non-profit field and a constant inspiration.
5. 
Marketing. Anne Sorensen (@marketingisus). I love Australians. They’re some of the most laid-back and friendliest folk around, after Canadians, and Anne is no exception. Yet she’s also a great marketer that founded Marketing Is Us, and is one of the best examples of marketing and new media/technology coming together.
6. 
Public Relations. Narciso Tovar (@Narciso). What can I say about Narciso? Okay – he’s an outstanding PR pro. He uses amazing music analogies to tell the? stories on his blog. He writes in capital first letters on Twitter (love this trick!). He is a bundle of fun and energy. He’s friendly with a capital “F”. And much, much more… Go check him out already!
7. 
Social Media. Sarah Evans (@PRSarahEvans). Yes, Sarah could have sat nicely in the public relations category, but for the way she’s using social media to advance PR and more, she definitely falls within social media smarts. Just look at how she’s bringing journalists, bloggers, PR and others together with #journchat as an example. Or her use of social media to raise more than $100,000 for a local shelter? Awesome.
8. 
The “Everyone Should Know” Wildcard Entry. Lee Safar (@leesafar). Hey, another Australian – cool! Lee is a singer/songwriter that I only recently got to know via 12for12k. She has a great sense of humour, a really cool voice, a very cheeky attitude and is quite simply a blast. Just don’t mention webcams and dial-up technology to her…
Cheers, guys, for being who you are every day of the week.
Hyper-Connected or Disconnected?
Phone > Email > Text > SMS > Blogging > Facebook > Video > Twitter: that?s a quick & dirty look at the basic evolution of our communication channels over the past few years. We?ve grown faster, smarter, technologically savvy, and more efficient with the tools and services we use to communicate with one another in this digital era.
This sort of hyper-connectivity leaves seemingly little time-waste when it comes to responding to one our colleague?s tweets or a friend?s message (or numerous fan page requests) on Facebook. But as we continue to get deeper into the social media realm, I?ve heard just as much talk that our hyper-connected lives have actually made us become disconnected, with the real world.
I?ll be the first one to admit that I?m a technophile and practically sleep with my laptop and iPhone. People who know me online (and off) realize that I am constantly connected online, have a finger on the pulse of what?s happening in the social media space, and studying how companies are utilizing it successfully, or not. It?s who I am, it?s in my genes, and it?s what?s helped me get this far in my career, as I continue to try to make waves.
With that though beckons the questions of this lifestyle:
? Are we sometimes too hyper-connected?
? Do we pass up opportunities in real-life because we?re tending to online activities?
? Are we not spending enough time away from technology?
We?ve built respected communities online that we connect with on a daily basis, but that doesn?t necessarily mean they?re no more real than the people and activities we take part in outside of our home. Where should the line be drawn and a balance created with our online activity and ?outside-the-internet? lives? Or has that line evolved into a blur?
What I?ve come to realize is that this tech/social media world isn?t for everyone. It pushes people to different levels ? working on nights & weekends, creating proposals, continually writing fresh content (as I write this on a Sunday night), responding to tweets all times of the day ? the list goes on. Hyper-connectivity has become somewhat of a prerequisite in this industry and can be seen as unbalance or overwhelming to the outside eye.
But what?s your perspective ? how do you see your online activity? Are you bettering your experiences & skills and building trust within your circles through constant activity, or do you think those who question the technophile?s lifestyle are right? Do you feel that we should find a better balance between these respective worlds?
This is a guest post from Sonny Gill, a social media strategist and community guy whose passion for this space can be well documented through his career experience, as well as via his blog SonnyGill.com.?You can also find him as @sonnygill on Twitter, and writing for his second passion, basketball, at RockinTheRim.com.
Phone > Email > Text > SMS > Blogging > Facebook > Video > Twitter: that?s a quick and dirty look at the basic evolution of our communication channels over the past few years.
We?ve grown faster, smarter, technologically savvy, and more efficient with the tools and services we use to communicate with one another in this digital era.
This sort of hyper-connectivity leaves seemingly little time-waste when it comes to responding to one our colleague?s tweets or a friend?s message (or numerous fan page requests) on Facebook. But as we continue to get deeper into the social media realm, I?ve heard just as much talk that our hyper-connected lives have actually made us become disconnected, with the real world.
I?ll be the first one to admit that I?m a technophile and practically sleep with my laptop and iPhone. People who know me online (and off) realize that I am constantly connected online, have a finger on the pulse of what?s happening in the social media space, and studying how companies are utilizing it successfully, or not.
It?s who I am, it?s in my genes, and it?s what?s helped me get this far in my career, as I continue to try to make waves.?With that though beckons the questions of this lifestyle:
- Are we sometimes too hyper-connected?
- Do we pass up opportunities in real-life because we?re tending to online activities?
- Are we not spending enough time away from technology?
We?ve built respected communities online that we connect with on a daily basis, but that doesn?t necessarily mean they?re no more real than the people and activities we take part in outside of our home. Where should the line be drawn and a balance created with our online activity and ?outside-the-Internet? lives? Or has that line evolved into a blur?
What I?ve come to realize is that this tech/social media world isn?t for everyone. It pushes people to different levels ? working on nights and weekends, creating proposals, continually writing fresh content (as I write this on a Sunday night), responding to tweets all times of the day ? the list goes on.
Hyper-connectivity has become somewhat of a prerequisite in this industry and can be seen as unbalance or overwhelming to the outside eye.
But what?s your perspective ? how do you see your online activity?
Are you bettering your experiences & skills and building trust within your circles through constant activity, or do you think those who question the technophile?s lifestyle are right? Do you feel that we should find a better balance between these respective worlds?
What the Cool Kids Can Teach Us About Selling Out
My friend John Haydon shared a link with me to a video by Youtube user italktosnakes (Kristina Horner). It’s a video response to another Youtube user, nerimon (Alex Day).
In both the videos, each discuss the merits of being paid to advertise products on their Youtube channels. What’s interesting is their take on how companies are approaching this. Kristina praises Ford for its Fiesta initiative (which she’s part of) while Sanyo’s “insert here” example by Alex shows a company still getting to grips with the new tools.
Each video also acts as a nice rebuff to marketers and advertisers who say that Gen Y aren’t worth dealing with as they don’t have the influence or business savvy of older media users.
How about you? Would the approaches talked about in the videos work on you? How can businesses reach you?