There is a song that has become absolutely iconic, even if you don’t know its name.
It’s the song that was used in Looney Tunes cartoons every time the characters were around an assembly line or factory. If you ever saw a Looney Tunes cartoon as a kid, it’s probably etched so well into your brain you can probably hum it right now.
The song is called Powerhouse and was composed by Raymond Scott in 1937. It’s still being used today as a kind of audio shorthand for automation and mechanical processes.
The last couple of weeks have been rough for the internet. Three very high profile events have brought the issues of privacy and security into sharp relief, and left a lot of people questioning the ability of the internet to protect their valuable data and information.
First, Apple users discovered that any device running iOS 4 had been logging their every movement, right down to the second, and taking a record of it. The big issue? Anyone could access that. Users were confused, spooked and distrustful of the data logging.
Then the Amazon cloud went down, taking hundreds of web services with it for an entire day – Hootsuite, Foursquare and Reddit being the most well known (and loudly complained about.) People were concerned about the ability of the internet to recover from interruptions.
The first rule of any technology used in a business is that automation applied to an efficient operation will magnify the efficiency. The second is that automation applied to an inefficient operation will magnify the inefficiency. - Bill Gates
Last week we had a quote that wasn’t actually Bill Gates fronting this blog, so this week we have the real deal. We here at CMAEON are big fans of Bill Gates. After all, he’s not just a tech visionary; he’s also become one of the most generous people in the world and has given away over $28 billion dollars of his own money. (So, if you’re going to listen to words of wisdom from anyone, we think Bill Gates is a pretty good place to start!)
This particular quote speaks deeply to the philosophy behind our flagship product, 1to1Real, and what we try to help entrepreneurs do with the Connected Market Coach program.
You’ve probably seen this already. A list of 11 life lessons that they don’t teach kids in school. Normally attributed to Bill Gates, sometimes from a speech he gave at MIT, sometimes to a small group of kids in a California high school. The list is a long standing favourite online and has been forwarded and passed around so many times, its origins have become apocryphal.
Turns out Bill Gates didn’t give this as a speech at a high school or MIT. In fact he never said any of these things. These 11 rules have never even been a speech!
After a little digging, I found out these rules are an excerpt from an op-ed piece by bestselling author Charles Sykes. Originally there were 14 rules, but the last three are usually omitted because rule 11 is particularly punchy. Since 2000, this particular bit of text has been attributed to everyone from Kurt Vonnegut to Atlanta state representative Brooks Coleman. Over the years references have been changed and the salary amounts have increased, but what hasn’t changed is the core of the message.
The way people use the internet is changing.
Most people don’t even make it all the way through a YouTube video before they lose interest and go onto the next thing. When you get a long email, do you read the whole thing or just skim the relative parts? Twitter is massively successful because the 140 character limit boils updates down to only the most essential details. Meanwhile, more and more websites are offering interactive chat as a customer service tool. Internet users today are more than willing to spend a few minutes chatting to a real person, but they’re not interested in trying to read a long FAQ…
Online behavior tells us internet users are rapidly becoming more impatient but conversely, they’re far more willing to interact and to get engaged on a one to one basis with companies online.
So clearly this means the website is dying.
Did I lose you? Let’s think about this for a second…
Posted by: cmaeon in myblog, business on
Nov 17, 2010
Full disclaimer: This blog post has been prepared in advance, as the CMAEON blog mistress is off this week to do a wacky internet charity fundraiser. Oh those crazy Gen Y kids.
Every internet expert will agree that blogging according to a set schedule is very important. But sometimes the idea well runs a little dry. Not that this is the case today. Oh no, not at all. (*ahem*) But this is an important topic! Lots of people write blogs, and that means they need a lot of blog post topics to keep them inspired and writing. So, to help you in this regard, we’ve done a round-up of our favorite suggestions for blog post topics.
- List 30 or more online resources for business people in your industry
- Make a list of the top 10 blogs in your niche
- Collect the best blog postings in your niche and compile a best of-list
- Link a topic from everyday life back to your business “10 Ways SEO is like Base-Jumping”
- Analyze the current climate in your industry and explain the ramifications
- Identify leaders in your area and ask them to guest post on your blog or write for their blog instead
- Compare the new vs the old ways of doing your business
- Write an allegory about your idol doing your business like “The Bruce Lee Method of Business Blogging”
- Use humor to lighten up a boring topic “I Can Haz Pay Per Cat? The Lolcats Way of PPC”
- Check in your stats which post is the most popular one and write a follow up
- Make a donation to a good cause and blog about it
- Check Reddit, StumbleUpon or Technorati to find out what’s most popular right now and find a new angle to it
- Ask questions of your readers or customers, then post the answers on your blog
- Highlight your office and employees to let others know what goes on in your business
- Try making a video blog post – upload a fun video of events/customers/the production process
- Type up a list of the the best tips & tricks for your product/industry
- Describe a common problem in your industry, and how your product can solve it
- Write up a short case study talking about a success story for someone who used your product/services
- Write a review of a book relevant to your industry
- Tell people about some life lessons you learned and how they relate to business
Posted by: cmaeon in technology, social media on
Nov 17, 2010
A lot of people say that social media is the future of marketing. Maybe, but that doesn’t change the fact that a lot of people who should be using it to market their businesses hate it.
Marketing and PR used to be about refining a specific message and pushing it out to people – the terms were through interviews, press releases and the information the company provided. Unless you wanted to do something very involved, the only spaces to talk about a company were spaces that company controlled.
Social media marketing is the exact opposite of that system. Today, anyone can talk about a company in a completely open forum, and people can even impersonate your company. Everyone remembers the hilarious and
fake BP Twitter account that popped up during the oil spill @BPGlobalPR, and tweeted gems like “Black sand beaches are very trendy in some places. We upgraded you, Gulf of Mexico.”
All laughing aside, if your business is on the negative end of social media, it can be bad news. Maybe this is why so many in the business world are still not quick to warm up to social media as a marketing platform. Even if your business can start a positive conversation, it’s still spreading by word of mouth and the message can be lost.
In a nutshell, it’s impossible to completely control what people are saying about your business over social media and that lack of control scares a lot of executives and business owners. Worse yet, social media marketing is spread all over the web. Customers who follow your business on twitter might not even know you have a Facebook page, read your blog or watch your YouTube videos, or even want to.
That’s why we created the
1to1Real™ social spaces tool. It lets a business put all of their social media feeds into a single hub. You can link to the social space from your website and automatically let your customers know where your Twitter, YouTube, Facebook, LinkedIn, Flickr (etc, etc) content is. They can visit your social hub to see your entire message at once, and get linked automatically to your accounts if they want to follow them or explore deeper.
Think about your family and your friends. Do you know people who fast forward through the commercials if they can? Do you know people who hang up on telemarketers? Do your friends use pop-up blockers and spam filters? Does everyone you know do these things? Do you?
Based on this evidence, it seems to be clear. People hate advertising. Look at how much we go through to avoid listening to sales pitches!
But it’s not so simple, is it? I don’t think people hate advertising like they say they do. For example, everyone loves Superbowl ads. The whole internet went crazy for the Old Spice viral marketing campaign during the summer. Starbucks has 1,119,261 followers on Twitter (at time of writing), and Coca Cola has over 16,629,200 people on facebook that Like them. These people aren’t following on twitter, interacting on Facebook and passing around links because they hate ads. These people are clearly getting something out of the advertising – be it entertainment, information, interaction with the brand or a chance to talk with like minded people.
“People Hate Ads” is probably the biggest marketing myth in the world. People don’t hate ads. They hate ads that are forced on them, ads that don’t respect their intelligence, ads that don’t give them anything back to the consumer for listening to the sales pitch. People hate CRAPPY, STUPID ads. Not all ads – just the bad ones.
What the Twitter and Facebook numbers tell us is that consumers will actually seek out ads – as long as they’re relevant to their interests. People actually want to see ads from Starbucks and Coca-Cola, otherwise they wouldn’t choose to include them in their social media circles. Therefore, if an ad has: relevant content, great writing, and meaning for the person watching it, it’s a good ad. Chances are consumers will find it informative, entertaining and enjoyable. Maybe even all of the above, as in the case of the Bud Light Real Men of Genius commercials. Seriously, listen to them, they’re great.
So – what can we learn from these examples of great advertising?
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- Advertising is important – every product needs advertising, even if it practically “sells itself” – for example, beer (as above) and iPods.
- Advertising isn’t just about one sale – it’s about building a relationship over time between the brand and the consumer.
- Consumers aren’t stupid. Far from it. Consumers are you and me. I’m not stupid, and you aren’t either. (You’re reading this blog post aren’t you?)
- Bad advertising is ignored or tuned out; good advertising gets the message through.
- Good advertising is something consumers choose to listen to. Good advertising is funny, relevant and useful.
- Consumers want to engage with brands, not just receive the message passively.
Therefore, in order to sell your product or any product the best advertising is
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- Relevant
- Targeted
- Intelligent
- Conversational
How can you create ads for your products and services that meet all 4 criteria?
First of all, tailor your message – what do your customers want to know? What are they interested in? Some of your customers might want to know about your sale items, others might want to know about corporate discounts – give them the information they actually need to capture their attention.
Secondly, get smart with your advertising. Be clever, be funny and be in character for your brand, or business.
And finally, don’t just shout your message at your customers, give them a chance to give feedback, seek their input, and engage them in the process. Aladdin Chocolates in Sweden did an incredible job of this. When advertising drives a conversation and gives people an ownership stake, they’re more engaged and the message takes.
So, hopefully this post helps you with your marketing ideas. If you’re in the market to market your product, we here at CMAEON makes 1to1Real™ - a tool that can help you make your ads more relevant, targeted, intelligent and conversational. Got feedback? We’d love to hear it.
Posted by: cmaeon in tim vasko, real estate, new york on
Nov 4, 2010
The NYC Real Estate Expo is back on Friday, November 5, and CMAEON’s CEO Tim Vasko will be there, showing realtors, investors and anyone involved in the real estate industry how to use real technology solutions for their real business problems. Hosted at the New York Marriott Marquis in Times Square, the expo is the premiere venue for real estate experts in New York. Over 160 vendors will be exhibiting and dozens of industry leaders will be giving talks and seminars.
Tim will be speaking on how emerging technologies are affecting the real estate industry in a talk titled: The Rest of your REAL Estate Career: How the REAL impacts of the economy, social networks and technology will affect you and real estate in the next 20 Years. Tim’s presentation begins at 2:00 pm in the Carnegie Room. Seating is limited, so be sure to come early.
"The NYC Real Estate Expo is a great opportunity to learn from the stories and tested methods of our hugely successful speakers as they cover the most relevant topics affecting the real estate market today," said Executive Director of the Expo, Anthony Kazazis. "Though many debate about the current state and future of our real estate market, one thing remains clear, it is imperative for industry professionals to keep abreast of the latest trends and changes, and stay on top of the best products and services that our area businesses have to offer."
Pre-registration for the event is only $30 online ($50 at the door.) For more information on registration, exhibiting or for our seminar schedule, please visit
www.nycrealestateexpo.com.
Posted by: cmaeon in reflection, CMAEON on
Nov 3, 2010
Most people probably think the dull, buttoned up business world shouldn’t make great movie fodder. The thing is, business is dramatic, exciting and influences our lives like nothing else. With Wall Street 2: Money Never Sleeps and the Social Network out this year, business movies are proving again that they can be just as exciting and engaging as movies centered around explosions and scantily clad women (ahem... Michael Bay... ahem).
Movies can teach every entrepreneur a lot of great lessons about how the world works as well. While most movies are just intended to be entertaining, there are some great ideas in them, and the espouse some of the most profound business truths out there. Doubtful? Here are CMAEON’s top five business lessons we learned from movies.
1. Office Space - Creativity and boredom are a terrifyingly powerful combination