Featured post by Jay Deragon from LinkToYourWorld.com

Based on the ebb and flow of the social web in 2007 this new year promises to bring more disruption facilitated by the cascading conversations of individuals, one to one to millions. We are likely to experience significant adoption of the social web by businesses representing every market segment and industry.

The force that fuels significant growth will be the “noise” created by cascading conversations at velocities never imagined or experienced. Conversations are markets and unless businesses learn to engage they will loose their market positions, some slowly and some overnight.

A cascading conversation is a consecutive series of organic conversations which often proceed via social networks, one to one to millions. It allows the conversational synthesis of topics from a single user’s creation to spread at the click of a mouse and with no geographical boundaries or other limitations as to who chooses to engage in the conversation or who is touched or influenced by the cascading affect.

The cascading conversation contains many functional streams that take part in the conversation’s transformation one at the time. Often another cascading conversation is generated from a previous conversation. The social web accelerates cascading reactions from conversations due to the dynamics of one to one to millions conversing about anything and everything, including businesses.

Cascading conversations carry an idea forward in ever-broadening circles. The very nature of cascading conversation implies, “the conversation creates the results.” The social web creates the medium to engage thousands…then millions…of people. These people create conversations centric to topics of interest and issues of affinity with others who have migrated to groups–commonly known as swarms.

The Social Web: A Conversation-driven Process

The social web created a two way conversation between people. At first its appeal attracted the younger generation looking to be heard and wanting to converse. Now more and more adults are finding satisfaction from the conversational web. Whether engaging for personal or professional reasons, adults are finding the creativity of the social web and the dynamics of virtual relationship appealing. The subsequent cascading conversations have fueled global conversations about business, politics, causes, opportunities, knowledge and any other thing which one would classify as adult conversational topics. People are connecting in the virtual world and finding ways to help one another, including finding jobs, finding friends or finding stimulating conversations.

What is the effect of these conversations on businesses?

The essence of any business is primarily about conversations. Business leaders spend most of their time engaged in communication. Whether face-to-face with their teams and customers or alone in their offices dealing with memos and e-mails, these are all conversations about the business—its brands, strategies and effectiveness. At its simplest, the role of leaders is to have the right conversations with the right people in the most effective and efficient manner.

However, experience has shown that conversations can also be the cause of many organizational ills. Individual conversations may poorly engage the work-force; fail to reflect reality; fail to focus and align people; and stifle individual and business transformation. A common failure of business conversations is they can be one sided and lacking a learning exchange. Business success is simple: increasing or accelerating the organization’s effectiveness requires changing the organizational conversation. Cascading conversations can accelerate business transformation whether planned or not.

Cascading Conversations Can Transform Markets

Markets have historically relied on traditional media to carry their messages to the masses. Using multiple forms of media, businesses have tried to reach consumers with advertising messages aimed at getting consumer attention through product or service appealing images. Consumers have been surrounded by messages appealing to the human senses, needs and desires.

Slick advertising campaigns, sponsorships and a host of other media techniques have been used to create affinity and attract consumers. These methods have been used for years and advances in technology and media have simply increased the creativity of the messages and the means. Conversations between people have become the media and the cascading effect is gaining power and momentum. Businesses are just now beginning to pay attention.

Some businesses are following the social web because that is where the people are migrating. IBM has developed social networks for businesses. The likes of Wells Fargo, American Express, Bank of America and Nationwide Insurance to name a few have recently engaged in using the tools of social media to reach their customers. Many businesses either do not know what the social web is or they have underestimated it and discounted it as a fad. However the wave of cascading conversations will grow at exponential rates throughout 2008 and the collective voices of the people will only get louder. Businesses will follow the noise even if business leaders do not understand how to engage in conversations.

The new business leaders of tomorrow will understand the value of conversations and subsequently we will then begin to see the evolution of a new dynamic called social commerce. Today these are just ripples in the ocean of the social web. Tomorrow these ripples could create a wave of change again at velocities never before imagined or experienced.

Substantial issues regarding the effect of cascading conversations need to be considered going forward.

Are your people having the right conversations? Are business leaders focused on the impact of cascading conversations? Could business be more effective at conducting or leveraging cascading conversations? Are business leaders listening? Will business be transformed or will it lead the transformation?

What say you?

Jay Deragon

www.relationship-economy.com

Featured post by Jay Deragon from LinkToYourWorld.com

There is an old saying, “if you stay in this world you will never learn another one.”Learning the dynamics, the art and the science of the new world created by the social web is one of the foremost challenges for businesses.

Current business theories are correct in their own world, but the problem is that the theory may not make contact with the new world.

For businesses to succeed in the new world a transformation in leadership thinking will be required.

Back to the Future

Imagine if business leaders were able to go forward in time and see what needs to change today in order to create a better future. Most business leaders would jump at the opportunity to be able to see the future in order to better manage today’s decisions. Well here are 10 Points of Business Transformation required to survive and thrive in a new world:

1. Management practices of the past have smothered the individual and tried to contain and manage individual expression. The social web brings back the individual and enables individual freedom of expression.
2. The social web is not a thing, rather it is a movement accelerated by the art of self expression, the reach of relationships and fueled by the science of advanced technology. This combination of art and science has created a new world with new markets fueled by conversations, one to one to millions individually.
3. Economic activity takes place within social relations. People create economic gains by what they buy and recommend and how many others with whom they share their preferences. For businesses to reach buyers they need to reach people.
4. If you destroy the people of a company, you do not have much left for the future. People drive all business processes, products and services. People influence customer and supplier relations. If your cultural robs expression what are you customers and suppliers hearing and feeling about your business
5. Fear and lack of trust can make economic growth impossible. Don’t fear the social web, embrace it. Distrust destroys relationships
6. The social web gives businesses reach and richness in finding innovative answers to perplexing business problems.
7. Businesses are social networks. If you didn’t know this you are in denial about the power of people conversing with other people.
8. Human Resource Management is no longer a rules game. People don’t resist change–they resist being changed. The traditional approach to human resource practices needs to be transformed to practices that empower people.
9. People have conversations with people, not things. Customers will connect with customers and employees will connect with employees. What are these conversations producing? What can a business learn from these conversations?
10. Remove the barriers to relationships. Lead the transformation or be transformed by it.

Much of our day to day life, personal and professional, is interaction with other people and the patterns of interaction influence so much of the events around us and before us. The social web is creating new patterns of interaction which in turn is creating a new world of social exchanges about everything, anything and between everyone everywhere.

For businesses to survive and thrive in this new world they will need to go back to the future and adopt the 10 Points for Business Transformation required to thrive in the new world. We will cover each point in greater detail in the future.

What say you?

Featured post by Jay Deragon from LinkToYourWorld.com

Social Tools are changing the way business gets done.IBM, Toyota, even Wells-Fargo Bank, have invested serious money in Second Life and are using blogs to engage customers, people; many corporations are building their own social networks to serve employees and to create commerce amongst customers; major law firms encourage their employees to blog; wikis are often far more powerful and useful than standard resources and have replaced intranets in many instances as invaluable sources of information and communication throughout the enterprise. RSS Feeds, Instant Messaging, Video - all can deliver greater involvement and transparency.

Originators become real, human and influential, and for the new generation of techno-savvy professionals, the opportunities and applications are unbounded.

One of the key challenges for businesses is how they integrate these new technologies within the enterprise and figure out which best suit their needs and the needs of their customers. Another challenge is how to facilitate ecommerce into these social exchanges thus enabling participates to exchange products and services for economic gains.

Economic activity takes place within social relations. For businesses to reach buyers they need to reach people. More importantly businesses need to understand “how” to reach people.

The Dividing Factors between People and Businesses

Today people use the social web for a variety of reasons but the primary aim is relational. Relational in the sense that people connect to people to find affinities, to learn, to share and with the freedom of expression. All the activity that drives the social web today is not represented by a collective strategy of the people rather the activities are a process of discovery fueled by the intrigue of finding, knowing and conversing with people you’ve never met physically. The discovery process for people follows a common framework which includes:

1. What does one person have in common with another
2. What does one person know that another may want to know
3. Who does one person know that another may want to know
4. Where, in life, in location, in stature is one person compared to another
5. What possible opportunities could develop out of a relationship between one person and another

All five of these discoveries are facilitated through the information people present about themselves in profiles, in their past communications with others and in the subsequent conversational threads exchanged one to one to millions. From these “virtual conversations” people create an emotional and intellectual profile of others and it is from these profiles that people begin to form active relationship and engaging conversations between themselves and others of like profiles. These relationships are driven by emotional and intellectual profiles formed by virtual conversations. It is the emotional and intellectual profiles which create individual gauges of trust within the virtual world.

Business leaders are just now beginning to engage in the social web however much of what we see today demonstrates a disconnect in purpose and methodology. Businesses approach the social web with a common objective of gaining relationships and converting those relationships into economic gains. The strategic approach to the social web by business follows a common framework including:

1. How can we market ourselves effectively within the social web
2. What positioning can we gain from use of the social web
3. What products and services can we sell through the social web
4. What gains would we get from setting up our own social network
5. What is our competition doing and what do we need to do better

A business is driven by the need to produce revenue and subsequent profits for its stakeholders. Progress in management practices and technological advances have shaped the mindset of business leaders to focus on productivity, profitability. market share and capital; results. In one hand this progress has delivered the results and on the other hand it has deteriorated relationships with employees, customers and suppliers. The trust factors between people and corporations continue to decline. Corporate actions of the recent past have only reinforced the distrust factor.

As many business leaders rush into the social web intrigued by a new fertile ground for business opportunity the fundamental factors of success will be learning how to go back and connect with people.

Which comes first, the business or the people? What drives business success, the people or management methods? Just look at the differences in framework between why and how people approach the social web and why and how businesses approach the social web. Do you see the differences?

What say you?

Okay, after a lot of kicking and screaming today I got my website back up. I lost my entire database in my blog section and the last backup I had was a couple of months ago. This is a good reminder that you should backup your database regularly. I’m going to start doing it on weekly!

Dang, I’m still upset, but there’s nothing I can do about it now except move on. Please, make sure you backup your database so you don’t have to go through the same thing I did today!

I remember the days when I was on the road for 3 weeks out of the month. It seemed like a non-stop working vacation. I was able to enjoy the festivities of each of the cities I was in and conducted business as usual.

One of the biggest challenges I faced was getting back to people in a timely manner. Since I never knew where I was going to be the next week, and my days were filled with meetings, I missed a lot of opportunities because potential clients couldn’t reach me.

Even though I’m home for most of the time now, I found a answering service solution that I think would have been very beneficial to me in my road warrior days and it is something you should check out if you’re on the road a lot.

So, instead of missing out on those opportunities, get yourself telephone answering service that you can check every night and get back to the people you need to so you can close more sales and make more money.

Featured post by Terry Kaufman from Your English Solutions

Speaking appropriately and clearly - at a speed that is suitable for the non-native English speaker - is the key to comprehensible expression.

1. Move your mouth and avoid eating your words. Remember those old Kung-Fu movies on American TV? Move your mouth as the people in them did. It is important to breathe and relax your facial muscles and chest. Preferably, in private, I like to pinch my cheeks with my fingers and move them in, out, and around. This exercise creates an “elastic” effect. In fact, it relaxes your facial muscles!

2. Do not say “Tuh” instead of “To” in between words. For example, I need “tuh” talk “tuh” the manager.

3. Do not run your words together. “Whadyado?”, “Gonna”, “Gimme”, “Lemme”, and “Wanna” are words that are run together. Visualize your words as a punching ball. Imagine each individual word passing in your mind’s eye as they do in subtitles in a movie. Articulate each word and “punch” it. You punch, recover, and punch again.

4. Avoid using contractions or short forms. Use long forms. “Can’t” is one word you must use the long form with. It is difficult for a non-native speaker to understand the difference between “can” and “can’t” in a sentence. For example, “I can’t take you on Friday” and “I can take you on Friday”. Use the long form, “cannot”. “I cannot take you on Friday”.

5. Decrease the use of words that fill your sentences. The idea is to remove the “noise” from your speech. Imagine trying to listen to the radio with two young children in the same room. They are playing and screaming. What is the result? “Family of…car…on vacation…in Arizona.” If your oral communication is filled with “um”, “like”, “you know”, or other fillers, comprehension is more difficult. “Right” is a word that commonly fills conversations. I prefer to use “Yes, that is correct”. A non-native speaker may not understand “right” and confuse it with its opposite, “left”.

6. Be explicit: Say “Yes” or “No”. Do not say: “Uh-huh” or “Uh-uh”. Those words are not in grammar books! 7. Be patient and smile. The more relaxed you are, the more you are in control of your communication. Do not give a busy lifestyle or a meeting agenda permission to control your speech. Think as you speak and do not speak as you think.

“Good communication is as stimulating as black coffee, and just as hard too sleep after.” –Anne Morrow Lindbergh

Featured post by Brock Henderson, Marketing Consultant

I want to sincerely thank Damon Clifford for inviting me to be a part of CEO Consultant as a Marketing Guru.

This initial post is to introduce myself so you can get a sense of my background and writing style. I tend to write in the same fashion as I consult … as if I am talking with a friend and explaining something to them.

Some people have criticised me for this, and have indicated I should be more dictitorial in my consulting style and more obtuse in my writing.

(This was by a book publisher who thought my writing style was too direct, informal, casual . . . and apparently informative. Seems I got to the point to quick.)

Well, I can’t be something I’m not and most people seem to like my more informal and informative style — so until someone can convince me it isn’t effective I’ll stay the way I am.

With over 25 years of marketing experience I am a frequent writer on marketing and business topics for ISP Planet as well as others. In addition I give seminars on a variety of business and marketing topics, such as “Guerilla Marketing”, “Selling for the Non-Salesperson”, and “5 Marketing Techniques that Work and One that Doesn’t”.

Just recently, (like 2 days ago), I was asked to serve as the Director of Marketing for www.aaserviceproviders.org, a trade organization for the Internet Service Provider (ISP) industry.

For the past several years most of my consulting has been for technology firms and ISPs. Additionally, I have taught a variety of business and marketing courses at a local University.

This blog is here to help you, and so I want to invite you to tell me what marketing (and/or business) subjects you would like me to write about.

I’m looking forward to assisting you here in any way I can.

- Brock

Relationship Economics

Featured post by Jay Deragon from LinkToYourWorld.com

Ever wonder where all this “networking activity is going?” For months I have been formulating my own predictive models and attributes using numerous sources of information. At the risk of sounding  a little “futuristic” allow me to provide a picture of what I consider to be a realistic model which will emerge in the not to distant future. First I will categorize my findings into what I call “Relationship Economics” and provide appropriate definitions.

First the word “Relationship” being defined as connection or association; the condition of being related. Second is “Economics” being defined as the study of resource allocation, distribution and consumption; of capital and investment; and of management of the factors of production. So I will define the collective meaning of Relationship Economics as: The people and things we are connected with or have an association to which distribute or consume our “capital” which influences our individual production outputs. We will use the term “capital” meaning that which we give or take that creates numerous forms of value.

Practical Relationship Economics Examples: We have relations with people and things. Both either take or give to our “capital“. People and things take or give us time (capital). People give or take information and knowledge (capital). We work with people to make money (capital). We strive in business to create or loose money (capital). We use machines and technology that either give or take value (capital). We interact with “things” that either give or take value (capital). We participate in institutions that both give and take value (capital). Our governments provide the means to gain or loose our freedoms (capital). In essence we have relationships with people and things that give, take or both in terms of our individual abilities to be “productive with our capital”. Collectively “Relationship Economics” is about people and things we give or take which influences numerous forms of value, our “capital“.

When you think about the primary means of most interactions we have with people and things it is technologically based. Whether your working, playing or relaxing you ultimately interact with some form of technology, everywhere and in everything. For the most part technology increases the value of our interactions with people and things. It is hidden and assumed.  Initially any new technology takes your time (capital) to learn how to optimize it. However, once proficient you begin to appreciate the value but expect more from it.

When we engage in human relations it takes time to learn whether the interaction creates value and whether the values are in common. When relationships become “disconnected” the primary basis is usually differences in value given or taken and differences in “values”. The primary difference between our interactions with people and things is one of values vs. value. Technology produces value while people dictate the “values” that technology enables for either the building or tearing down of relationships and the related capital.

Relationship Economics is just beginning to take shape and its future has significant rewards. The future,not to distant, will naturally emerge into a convergence of collective technologies which connect us to everything, everywhere. Imagine the following scenarios:

We will have our own network “ Link to Our World” in which we define what is interfaced into our world. Our mobile phone, PDA, Automobile, Television (s), landline telephones and any device in which we receive or transmit communications will be integrated and connected to our Link to The World. Our World portal will have a set of “button” interfaces with people and things categorized by a matrix of relations. Said buttons will appear on our desktop, our mobile phones, our PDA, Televisions, our car screen and any other communication device we use. Some of our devices will contain voice recognition software so we’re able to multi-task safely, i.e in our automobiles, boats or planes. I think you get the picture, everything and everywhere we are able to connect to people and things.

So How Do We give and receive value?

Many of us currently sell products and services in exchange for economic value. The future of Relationship Economics will be based on “value taken vs. value given“. The oldest exchange of value is that known as tithing and it is largely tied to religious organizations. Another exchange of value is that of “tipping for services rendered“. Another old paradigm which the masses have adopted as socially acceptable and expected. Fast forward.

In a world connected to everything everywhere we as individuals are enabled to profile and exchange our value and our values. Already, in today’s market, we’re seeing an exchange of value in terms of relationship introductions and the process of using the means for job recruitment. Job recruiters make money off of placement, an old model of exchange for value which HR departments have adopted as a better method to internal staffing and screening. Now combine the old models of value exchange with a new model. A model in which in the “networked world” we buy tokens of economic value globally. When some one provides us value it is assumed and expected, but not written in contract form, that we would be rewarded according to the perceptions of value by the receiver. The receiver would simply credit our token account with a value they deem appropriate for the benefit gained. In turn we would do the same for those that deliver us value.

Since the technology of the “networked world” provides us with the luxury of efficiency and effectiveness we are able to produce value to whatever degree we choose. The choice is individual. Some will work overtime because others will compensate them for their ability to produce. Others will receive and not compensate, they will be quickly identified as takers, not givers and the entire network will know the difference. The Global exchange of value ignites competitive propositions but the rewards provided are an individual choice, not unlike today’s market of products and services. Deliver value and you gain customers, Deliver defects and you loose them, period.

Relationship Economics will create new mediums, new measures and accelerated exchanges that will displace traditional mediums and totally disrupt and displace existing paradigms. A new world order driven by value exchanges and relationships will emerge and mankind will learn to adapt or lose. Those that don’t adapt and create value will be quickly identified and set apart from the larger network. Value migration will build momentum and create significance, individually and collectively.

More details on this prediction and the related models later. For now: Far fetched or realistic?

Q: I’ve just been promoted to a project manager within my company and I want to make a strong first impression. What do I have to do to ensure that my project gets completed on time and under budget?

Steve, CA

A: You will first want to make sure your systems are set up so everyone involved in the project will know what roles and tasks they are responsible for in the group. This can be done by having a collaboration software program that you administer. You can delegate tasks and make sure everyone is completing their tasks on time through group scheduling. Your collaboration software will improve workflow and enhance communication between everyone involved.

When doing some research on effective marketing techniques, I ran across a website called Vontoo voice messaging that sends out voice messages to people who have opt-in to hear these sorts of marketing messages.

The opt-in feature is one of the biggest benefits because the people who have sign up have said “Yes, I want to hear what you’re telling me!” As you tailor your marketing message, it’s always easier to deliver it to people who are willing to listen. The more that you can reduce the costs on delivering messages to people who don’t care to hear them, the better your bottom line will be. For the most part, these people who have opt-in are probably current clients of yours who have told you that they will accept your mail pieces, newsletters, and other marketing material.

This seems unique in the fact that your marketing message is being delivered in the same format as text message marketing, yet it’s told by voice.

We know that only so much can be communicated in a text message and much of the meaning can be lost because there’s little personality or tone. Voice messaging makes up for it by allowing personality and non verbal communication within the message.

Vontoo’s website has a section called “Success Stories”. The one that I found most interesting, and I think you will too, is from a guy named Jerry who owned his own company. He recorded his message that he wanted to send out to his current clients letting them know that they had store credit and if they wanted to use their credits they need to come in and buy. Out of 90 people he contacted through voice message marketing, a dozen clients came in to purchase a total of $2000 through $3000 of supplies. It cost him $9 to set up his marketing message and he made thousands of dollars!

That’s a great return on your investment.

I will continue to follow this trend and write about the results that I discover.