Danny Brown

podcaster - author - creator

Insights

Influence That!

There’s a lot of negativity around online influence tools at the minute. Things like Twitter Grader, Klout and similar are coming under fire, with common complaints being how is influence decided, what metrics are used, and does it even matter anyway.

Allyson Kapin came up with a great statement, about measuring impact as opposed to influence – show us real metrics of success from your actions as opposed to success with your interactions (big difference).

There’s no doubt influence can be beneficial – think of Ashton Kutcher getting his Twitter followers to buy a bunch of mosquito nets to fight malaria, for example.

Yet, as the second image from the left below (taken from the Klout homepage) shows, there’s still a ways to go on defining influence, and sums up perfectly why influence measurement tools are coming under fire.

Unless there’s a big market for vaginal influencers…

Does Klout influence matter

This Isn’t Rocket Science

If I want pizza, I call up and?order a pizza. If I want to book a flight, I go online and book my flight. If I want to watch a movie, I?ll download from Netflix and watch it. Easy, huh?

So why is it so difficult to do the same when I have a problem and need customer service?

If I call my cable service provider, or bank, or insurance company, I don?t want to be sat there pressing buttons until my fingertips bleed, just to get to the right department. I don?t want to hear hold music for 15 minutes, only to then be told I need to go back to the department I just came from. I don?t want to be told my call is important to you when it feels anything but.

Businesses spend so much time getting their brand right; their marketing; their PR; their sales; their online strategy. But you know what?

None of this means a thing without customers. And customers do?not want to feel second-rate. Strange but true ? satisfy your customers and you?ll satisfy your shareholders and accountants.

How?s?your satisfaction level holding up?

A Special Interactive Book Review with David Siteman Garland

Faster Smarter Cheaper book

This coming Wednesday, December 8, at 12.00 noon eastern / 11.00am Central / 9.00am Pacific / 5.00pm GMT, there’s going to be a (hopefully) cool and special interactive experiment here on the blog.

Using the interactive features of the Livefyre comment system that’s used here, my special guest will be David Siteman Garland, who’s probably better known as the Rise to the Top guy.

David is one of the leading voices on building and promoting a business, and has a book out called Smarter, Faster, Cheaper. Instead of me writing “just another book review”, David has agreed to be a “live guest” on this blog on Wednesday.

So how’s it going to work?

David will be recording a video, which will be his own take on the book – what it offers, who it’s for, how to use it, etc. I’ll embed it in my post, and then at noon, David will be here to answer your questions about the book, starting a business, promoting it and more.

The difference is, this will all happen in the comments section.

Because Livefyre offers real-time live updates, it’s more like a chat system than your normal blog commenting system. The cool thing is, when a new comment has been posted and you’re on the page, a little alert box pops up to say there’s a new comment (or several, if more than one new comment has been posted as you read).

You can then click on each alert, and it takes you directly to the new comment, so you can see what questions and views are being shared as soon as they’re posted.

So all you need to do is ask your question for David via the comments, and he’ll be spinning his fingers all over the place to respond. You can then reply to David, or anyone else’s comments, and really make it an interactive book review and discussion like no other.

Not only that, but David also has some special giveaways for everyone taking part in the experiment on Wednesday.

To take part, all you need to do is the following:

  • Choose your profile. Because Livefyre is a profile comment system, you need to either have a Livefyre account (which you can create here by using the Join option), or sign in to comment using your Twitter or Facebook profile. You’ll see these options under the Comment As option to the right of the comment box.
  • Set yourself a reminder (I’ll be tweeting and using Facebook to send out occasional reminders) to be here between 5-10 minutes before noon on Wednesday December 8 to watch David’s video review of his new book.
  • Get your questions ready, and fire away from noon onwards.

Like any experiment, there could be some technical gremlins, but hopefully not. The Livefyre guys are working behind the scenes to try and make it as smooth an experience for you as possible. And David has his gremlin-slapping gloves ready, just in case.

Hopefully you’ll join us on Wednesday and have a bunch of great questions for David. I think this could be a lot of fun, and something to show how blog comments can really come alive.

Look forward to seeing you here – cheers!

A Christmas Video from Bonsai Interactive

As December begins and the Christmas season arrives in earnest, we wanted to share our Christmas message and say thanks to everyone that has helped make Bonsai Interactive Marketing such a pleasant success since launching six months ago.

Launching a business is never easy, but if we’re fortunate enough to continue to make the friends we have; work with the clients we have as well as new; and (hopefully) continue to do right by our families, then we can’t wait for the next six months and beyond.

Here’s to a wonderful end of the year for all, and we look forward to continuing to get to know you all in 2011!



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The Power of Ideas

I’ve written before why I’m passionate about creativity being allowed to shine.

Without it, we’d be left in a boring world where only the few would have a say in what we watch, say or do. Companies would be filled with drones, businesses would be drab affairs, and artists would be virtually non-existent.

We wouldn’t have videos like the one below, either, and that would be a shame.

Taking a fantastical look at the cityscape of Toronto, the video shows the immense scope a person has when their creativity is let loose.

Sexy might not always sell when it comes to business – but that doesn’t mean we can’t mix it up once in a while. Agree?

(For a cool interactive experience, check out the Batelco Infinity Facebook Page. And hat-tip to Randy Matheson for making me aware of the video.)

This post contains a video. If you can’t see it properly in your feed, you can watch it directly here.