Insights

Journeys Into Greatness

: Image by M.Omair (Closing, Recovery / Bad Debts, Year End) via Flickr

There’s always an air of expectancy whenever a year end hovers into view. Mistakes that were made in the year just gone can be learned from and improved upon; things that haven’t been done that you wanted to do can be reworked for the year ahead; and new opportunities await in the months to come.

Yet 2009 promises to be a year that could stand apart from many others, both personally and for the world at large.

After the economic despondency of the last few months of 2008 and the numerous misguided decisions that saw the people of our planet grow further apart over the last eight years, next year offers a landmark opportunity for change.

The United States (and, by that token, the rest of the world) sees a new dawn in history and the potential for inspiration when the new President steps into power in January. No matter which political affinity you might have, I think it’s fair to say that Barack Obama has the opportunity to make right all the wrongs the current administration got so very wrong during their tenure. Let’s hope and pray he can and does.

2009 also offers the chance for common sense and redemption for all that’s wrong with corporate greed and mismanagement. The fall of large financial institutions and the need for restructuring in the auto-industry that was the business story of 2008 shouldn’t be ignored. If ever there was a time for CEO’s to take stock and re-evaluate how they do business and treat their employees and shareholders, next year is their chance.

Yet perhaps more than anything, 2009 offers a chance to change the world around us personally. Wherever we are, whatever we’re doing, if there’s something that can be done to improve both our own fortunes and those around us, we should grab it. There’s a groundswell of personal belief that I see all around me.

Social media continues to open up new areas and teaches us that greatness and bettering ourselves and our fellow man is infinitely preferable to selfish needs.

On a personal level, I aim to take these teachings and make lives better if I can. As you might be aware, one way I’m doing this is with the 12for12k Challenge and already I’m touched by the outpouring of well-wishes and support for the project. It’s still early days but I have high hopes for making a difference over the next 12 months.

The title of this post is actually derived from a statement Chris Brogan made on Twitter late last night. In it, he mentioned that he was thinking hard about what his three words would be for next year. Picking just three words that would be the guiding principles that shape his decisions and actions in 2009. So the title of this post is my response (although my original one was slightly different).

Every day next year can be a journey into greatness, for everyone. I’d love to meet you along the way.

How to Sell Twitter to a Client (Or Even Your Own Boss)

: Image via Wikipedia

It’s one of the current axioms doing the rounds online – “I love Twitter but how do I sell it to my client or boss?”.

You can see the benefits because you use it every day, but just how do you transfer that message to those who wonder where the benefit of 140-character conversations are found?

Perhaps that’s not the question to ask – instead, how about asking why you even have to justify it at all.

Think about it for just a moment – your client or your boss’s success has probably had a lot to do with business relationships built up over the years.

Additionally, being aware of the business market around their industry will also have played a large part in their success. And you can be pretty sure that both these reasons are continuously worked on and monitored to sustain that success.

Now think of why Twitter is so beneficial to you.

Are you building relationships with great contacts? Are you keeping abreast of the latest news in the industry because people are talking about it in their Twitter stream? Are you finding content and advice that helps you grow both personally and professionally because of the information you’re a part of through your Twitter contacts and the information from their contacts?

I’d hazard a guess that the answer to all of these questions is a fairly comprehensive “Yes.” So why should it be any different for your client, boss or anyone else you’re trying to extol the virtues of Twitter to?

The next time you want to get your client involved in Twitter, or your boss dismisses it as nothing more than a fad for people having banal conversations, ask them a couple of simple questions:

How do the majority of your customers find you?
How do they then communicate with you?

You’ll probably find that the majority of the answers to the first question are “Via Google” and the majority of the answers to the second question will be, “They’ll call us or email us an inquiry.”

In short, they’re looking for specific goods or services and want to open up a dialogue with the hope of fulfilling that need.

The next step is usually a customer service representative calling back, or perhaps even a member of the sales team calling to discuss the (potential) client’s needs. Then, with a bit of luck (and sometimes depending on the skills and motivation of the person calling them back), that potential client may turn into a physical one.

But that’s the NORMAL practice.

What if it wasn’t down to luck? What if it was down to the interaction and genuine interest you showed in conversing with that client? Instead of just seeing them as another dollar bill through the business doors, they actually felt important to your business? That’s what Twitter offers.

Finding a company on Google (or any other search engine) is no different from finding that same company using the search feature on Twitter. And the inward communication regarding their needs? Imagine if the (potential) client could open up a two-way dialogue that was instantaneous and could cover everything in one conversation?

Instead of the customer service representative putting the caller on hold to ask sales a question, or check marketing’s latest offer, that department could be instantly engaged in the conversation with a Twitter “@ message”. And with the functionality of Twitter, even getting hold of someone out of the office is easy enough with Twitter alerts by cellphone.

Of course, there might be an argument that this is too simple a suggestion – there would still be the problem of the caller in question not being on Twitter. If so, put yourself in their shoes for a moment.

If you were a potential customer of a company and you were faced with a customer service line that may be engaged or a Twitter stream that costs nothing and is always open, which would you prefer? I know which I’d go for.

Of course, this is for the future – the immediate need is to convince your client or boss of Twitter’s value. So just ask them what offers more value than knowing what your customer base is thinking. What offers more value than answering concerns or questions that their customer base may have?

And perhaps most importantly of all, what offers more value than being able to answer these questions before your competitors answer for you?

The answer(s) should be simple.

Paid Blogging and the Art of Transparency

kosmic blogging in samsara (redux) — Image by ~C4Chaos via Flickr

I couldn’t help but notice that there’s a little bit of a discussion going on at Twitter at the moment with regards paid blogging.

As with any discussion, there are two sides that are equally as vociferous when it comes to their views on the topic.

The reason a lot of the discussion started was due to leading social media blogger Chris Brogan writing a sponsored post for K-Mart.

The gist of the argument on Twitter is whether Chris has lost any “value” because he wrote a review that was paid for. K-Mart gave Chris a $500 gift voucher and asked him to figure out what was cool to buy with it at their store, and then write about it. Seems straightforward enough, particularly when Chris himself even mentioned on the blog itself that it was a sponsored post, although all the views were his own.

As I said, where it gets interesting on Twitter is that there have been a few people that feel let down by Chris, and have either stopped following him or made their feelings clear that they’re disappointed. So it got me thinking about paid blogging, and if it does actually lose the reviewer any authority or credence because they’re being paid for what they’re writing.

Honestly, I don’t see what the problem is.

I’m a blogger myself, and I write pretty regularly. But I don’t do it for the money (if I did I’d be bankrupt!) – I do it because I enjoy the conversations that can then take place afterward. I love to write and when someone joins in and adds to the conversation via the comments after each post, then that’s one of the most satisfying parts of blogging. After all, I’m just the conduit – many of the comments are even more interesting than the post itself. It’d be nice to get paid, but that’s not why I’m here.

So I can see why paid blogging could be so attractive. After all, you’re still doing the same thing you’re always doing – writing – with the only real difference being that you’re actually receiving some financial outlay for it. And with the economy like it is, isn’t the ability to make some more money for your family – or, in Chris’s case, buy some Christmas gifts – worth it?

As long as the blogger is upfront and transparent about the post being sponsored, then I don’t have an issue with paid blogging. The bloggers I read, I’ve read for a while – you get to know their writing style and I’d soon spot if Chris (or anyone else) was writing BS. And if I thought that was the case, I’d be the first to call him on it.

But the fact that it was called as sponsored and there was no heavy sales pitch in the post itself? If people can make money on their blogs by writing sponsored posts yet still keep it honest, more power to them.

And for anyone that feels let down by sponsored blogging? I liken it to the indie band syndrome – the band’s great while they’re your secret, but the moment success and money becomes involved, you don’t want to know. Which begs the question – were you really a fan in the first place?

Thank You’s and Apologies

: Image by J. Star via Flickr

THANK YOU.

Over the last few days, my time has been taken up by trying to get the 12for12K Challenge out of the starting blocks. When I first came up with the idea, I knew it was ambitious but I guess I didn’t realize how ambitious until getting down to the nitty gritty of pushing it. But it needs to be ambitious or what’s the point, right?

You’re always worried when you take on something like this that it will fall flat on its face – but that’s the risks you take when you want to effect change. But thanks to you, 12for12K is becoming less a dream and more a reality every day. The Facebook group is growing; the website is taking shape; and there are some fantastic people offering their services to help – and I truly want to thank you all for becoming involved so soon.

It’s just under three weeks to the main launch and the charities that will benefit are starting to take shape. This is just the beginning – I’m glad you’re here with me.

APOLOGIES.

Which kind of leads me on to my next point. Because I’m looking at various angles to make 12for12K as successful as possible, I’m probably ignoring people I shouldn’t be. It’s not that I mean to, believe me – and if it feels that way, I’m sorry, truly. Obviously the charity is taking up a lot of my time, but that doesn’t mean I don’t want to spend some with you either. You’re the people that inspired it and are making it happen, after all.

So all I ask is please be patient. I respect and cherish all the connections I’ve made over the last few months, and I look forward to making many more. I guess it’s like the old saying, “Normal service will be resumed shortly.”

In the meantime, keep sharing all that you do – it’s what keeps me going. Thanks, guys.

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Human Rights, Business and the List No-One Should Be On

: Image by art makes me smile via Flickr

This post originally appeared on my PR agency blog and is reprinted here as celebration of the 60th Anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Human rights and businesses may seem like odd bed-fellows. Yet there are many companies (large and small) who, while they may not appear to be breaching human rights themselves, actively support countries whose human rights records are less than admirable.

You would have thought that in this day and age, to still be speaking about human rights – and the violation of them – would have been a thing of the past.

Indeed, with both the Universal Declaration on Human Rights in 1948 and the 1993 Vienna World Conference both reiterating the rights of human beings in all countries, surely we shouldn?t still be discussing this 60 years later? Yet, again, sadly we are. This is where businesses can make a difference.

One of the grey areas for years has been how businesses have circumnavigated the contentious matter of human rights – whether it?s actually in the workplace, or by supporting other businesses or Governments that have a poor track record in human rights.

We may feel all smug in the West, pronouncing that we look after our citizens and offer human rights to all, but this is a blatantly false belief. We only need to look at Guantanamo Bay for an example of how great our human rights are on a personal level, and the likes of Nike and similar for their (alleged) sweatshop practices.

Or how about Wal-Mart?s employee ?pay structure? (and I use that term loosely) – after all, this is a company whose own Annual Report in 2006 stated that it had received 57 wage and hour lawsuits, and was also successfully sued for $172 million in damages for failing to provide meal breaks for almost 116,000 workers in December 2005.

The Olympics in Beijing resulted in extra scrutiny on businesses and human rights transgressions, when China came under attack for its ongoing poor record in human rights over the years.

These include the persecution of anyone that dares to oppose the Chinese government, the continuing crackdown in Tibet, the violations against media freedom and much, much more. You would have thought that with all this controversy going on, businesses would have wanted to stay well away, right? You would have thought so.

Instead of using the Beijing Olympics to make a stand and show they actually care about people as opposed to just money, there were still many businesses happy to sponsor the Olympics. According to The Olympic Partner Programme (TOP), created and managed by the International Olympic Committee, the 12 TOP sponsors of this year?s Olympics were:

1. Coca-Cola

2. Atos Origin

3. GE

4. Johnson-Johnson

5. Kodak

6. Lenovo

7. Manulife

8. McDonald?s

9. Omega

10. Panasonic

11. Samsung

12. VISA

Looking at some of the names on that list, you might be surprised they were happy to be associated with a Government that ignores so many forms of human rights.

After all, Johnson-Johnson prides itself on being ?your family company?. And GE?s own Human Rights policy states that ?GE seeks to advance human rights by leading by example – through our interactions with customers and suppliers, the products we offer and our relationships with communities and governments.? Perhaps they only mean that if there are big tainted bucks involved.

Although many of the world?s most influential leaders made their feelings clear on China and her human rights record leading up to the games, these companies in the TOP 12 list stayed silent. Their excuse? They didn?t want to become involved in politics. Right?

Therefore, it stood to reason that by paying millions in sponsorship money they were letting their greed do the talking instead – and that allowed people to answer back with their views.

I wonder how much longer these companies would stay silent if people spoke with their wallets, and stopped buying their goods or services? Or let their voices be heard in other ways, such as the outcry and furore that followed the Olympic flame everywhere it went prior to its arrival in China.

Would these companies be shamed into withdrawing their support that is so out of tune with reality? Possibly, possibly not. However, one thing is certain – this isn?t something that?s going to go away.

Today there are thousands of bloggers publicizing the Universal Declaration of Human Rights by blogging about its 60th anniversary and continued abuses worldwide. The Human Rights Watch also has a Take Action campaign that offers advice on how you can try and effect change in the minds of businesses everywhere.

If you?re a business owner yourself, take a look at who you deal with and whether this needs to change. We might not make a difference overnight, but we can make a difference, and that?s the most important thing of all.

“All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights.? Universal Declaration of Human Rights.”

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