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The long tale wins the race

I really liked reading Seth Godin’s post this morning and wanted to share it. In this age of hyper communication and competition, Seth reminds us that slow and steady wins the race. It’s the every day, regular touchpoints that truly matter, not just the big announcements. the long tale is the never-ending story you tell your prospects, your customers and your employees.

After working hard to get permission to connect and start telling your organization’s story, many forget to keep spinning the tale. Don’t get hung up on always garnering headlines or having the big “ta-dah!” Share special moments, examples of change, growth, what’s new that your audiences might find interesting (not necessarily what staff find interesting). While the world is changing, how is your organization? Are you responding to market forces? Share your tales here — and more importantly — with the people you and your organizations care about and who care about you!

In with open, Out with closed

I found Seth Godin’s post called the scientific method interesting because it encourages questions and openness - not defensivness and close-mindedness.

He correctly makes the point that in many interactions, people tend to take a defensive posture - to defend the brand, turf or our job. The problem with defense is that it’s static. The best way to get smarter, to embrace and to cause change and to triumph in times of market turmoil is to adopt what he calls “the scientific method.”

Instead of playing defense, play offense. Ask “what do I believe that’s wrong? How can I change the way I do things? What works? What doesn’t?”

I’d add to those questions “What’s wanted?” “What’s needed?” “How am I showing up?” When talking to people, let go of thinking that you have to know everything and instead, ask questions and be open to what you hear.

Seth makes a really good point that if you enter a conversation looking for something to test, measure and ultimately change, it’s likely you’ll find it. That change makes you more competitive, and you continue to cycle past your competitors. On the other hand, if you enter a conversation concerned about maintaining the status quo, there’s a good chance that’s exactly what you’re going to do.

Starting the day right

I haven’t fallen off the face of the earth… maybe just the face of the online earth for awhile. Yes, it has been too long since I’ve posted and I apologize. I have been challenged to live in the real world and the online world. But, I am back and committed to posting more often. To help me get re-started, I wanted to share a post from Chris Brogan about his 5 Tasks in the Morning. They may not all be for you, but they are some great - and easy - ways to stay connected online - daily.

Email – Answer as many as possible immediately
LinkedIn – Review connection requests and/or any other tasks
Google Reader – Get caught up on your news and share your favorites
Communities – Smaller Indiana, Facebook, wherever you participate - drop into 1 or 2; leave comments or post ideas to share information
Twitter – If you twitter, be sure to tweet and respond to any questions from overnight

Do you have your own 5 favorites in the morning? Share them here. I always make sure I have a diet Pepsi to start the day!

Cures for the common meeting-itis

Meetings seem to be a way of life. Whether in person or on the phone, are you sick of meetings? Do you find yourself wondering how much you actually get done? Are there lots of people discussing, but little decision-making or action-taking? This is a hot topic showing up in my personal conversations and in blogs from Seth Godin and Sasha Dichter recently. So, even though this is a little long, I thought it worthwhile to share some of their tips along with my own so that your meetings CAN be productive.

1. Understand that all problems are not the same. So why are your meetings? Does every issue deserve an hour?
2. Have an agenda and require preparation. Give people things to read or do before the meeting, and if they don’t, kick them out.
3. If in person, remove all the chairs from the conference room.
4. Stress punctuality. If someone is more than two minutes later than the last person to the meeting, they have to pay a $10 fine to the beverage fund.
5. Bring an egg timer to the meeting. When it goes off, you’re done. Not your fault, it’s the timer’s.
6. The organizer of the meeting is required to send a short email summary, with action items, to every attendee within 10 minutes of the end of the meeting.
7. Have a poster board or simple online page that allows attendees to rate meetings and their organizers on a scale of 1 to 5 in terms of usefulness. Just a simple box where everyone can write a number. Watch what happens.

One ring-y ding-y… two-ring-y ding-y…calling all conference callers
Conference calls can be entirely different beasts. Have you ever been on a conference call and suddenly everyone is silent? Do you know what to do? If you conduct much business by phone, here are your Magic 8 ideas to consider:

1. When silence starts to set in, start cold calling on people. This has two effects: making sure everyone gets a chance to speak; and creating an incentive for people to speak up – for fear of being called on.
2. If somone is dominating the conversation, the leader gets to step in and facilitate the meeting.
3. If you like to talk, take a breath and give someone else a chance every once in awhile.
4. Make it a regular practice that when an important question comes up, you go around the call and ask everyone to say something
5. Have someone who isn’t “in the room” lead the call. This keeps them engaged and validates that just because they’re on the phone doesn’t mean they are less important.
6. Never equate silence with agreement. It’s bad enough to do this in person; worse still on the phone.
7. Keep calls short. More than 30 minutes on the phone and you’ve probably lost the person dialing in.
8. Keep groups small. Less than 4 is ideal, but 6 or fewer seems to work.

It’s really, really tough for someone on the phone to stay engaged. And, if people on the phone aren’t engaged (if they are a listener) or not getting feedback (if they are a speaker), you’ve missed the entire point of a meeting - to inform people who are on the call and, often, to get their feedback or make a decision. Anyone want to meet?

Good marketing meets social media

I found Chris Bogan's post on marketing trigger points and how to marry online social media really timely. We’re all fighting through an overwhelming amount of messages in all different forms to try to get people’s attention. It’s enough to give a marketer a headache – newspapers and magazines to TV, radio and the Internet. Then there’s text messaging and twittering. Where to be? What to do? Chris breaks down the cultivation – act process into a nice continuum he calls “pirate moves”:

Awareness – people start to know who and what your business is
Attention – people start to give you a little bit more of their time and want something in return
Engagement – sustained interaction between you (or your product or brand or service) and your buyer
Execution – the action or activity you’ve been working toward – the sale, the information exchange, the donation, the big event is held
Extension – this is all about what happens next; keeping the person engaged and interested in your organization, products, brand etc. You don’t want to be “one and done.”

I call this darn good marketing (aarrgh, matey!). Check out Chris’ full post and let us know what you think.

How to get supporters, customers to listen

My good friend and talented leader, Martha, sent me these wonderful tips from Katya's Non-profit marketing blog.

They’re right on if you’re trying to raise money in this crazy economy, but I suggest they work for lots of scenarios – attracting new customers, building relationships, job and college interviews, life!

1. Listen. If you want someone to pay attention to you, pay attention to them. Ask a question and then shut up and LISTEN.

2. Connect to what you’ve heard. If you’ve listened, then you’ll know what to say. When I was doing some career networking, I changed things up. Instead of talking about what I wanted, I asked what the other person was up to, what was important to them. In their answer, I always found a meaningful way to connect. In business, when you understand your audience’s interests and passions, you can figure out how to tap into them in your marketing, communications and outreach efforts.

3. Show, don’t tell. Great stories get people’s attention. Connect through stories, not just words describing what you do and how you do it.

4. Change the messenger. This is a great one for people raising money. If you’re the fundraising professional, don’t be the only one asking for help. Provide great information and stories for others in or outside your organization to spread within their circles of influence. Authentic outside messengers can do wonders for your message.

Feed hungry kids; take the pledge today!

At any given time, one out of six children in America does not know when they will eat next, and wtih the economy, this terrible situation is only going to get worse.

However, in the next minute, with just a couple of clicks, you can feed 140 children. Working together, we can feed 420,000.

If you want to make a difference, it’s really easy to join the Pledge to End Hunger campaign. For every person who visits The Pledge to End Hunger campaign and signs the pledge, Tyson Foods will donate 35 lbs. of food (that’s 140 servings of healthy protein) to local food banks. In just its first day, 1,000 people signed The Pledge – enough to fill an entire semi-truck now destined for delivery to the Capital Area Food Bank of Texas in Austin.

Due to this amazing response, Tyson has agreed to donate two additional trucks – one to each of the two states with the most people who take the pledge. By simply adding your name, you can help feed children in need in your community. Indiana has a big lead right now, so you folks in other states might want to try to catch us!

Please take the pledge today and then SHARE this with your friends, family, anyone anywhere to help end child hunger.

Fear is not the answer

Fear or bravery?
Doomsday or opportunity?
Everywhere I seem to turn there’s bad news — layoffs, bankruptcys, financial disaster. And, when times get tough, organizations seem to cut and stop doing things important to their business or organizational success. Cut people, cut programs, cut budgets, cut services, cut communications and marketing. Been there. Done that. Doesn’t really see that it works so well. That’s why Seth Godin’s post Brave New World made me smile. Creativity has always made the world go ’round. Maybe NOW it’s more important than ever.

“Why can’t we be nice…”

Obama inauguration ceremony on C-Span

“Why can’t we be nice to each other like this all the time?”
After all the analysis and punditry around the inauguration of Barack Obama as our 44th president, this statement is one of the most enduring moments of my 4 days celebrating in Washington D.C. I’m not usually political in my posts, but I couldn’t let this occasion pass.

Nikita, a beautifully dressed African American woman from New York, had sat down at the Billy Goat bar with a group of us Hoosiers to find some warmth and watch the “We are One” inaugural concert and the NFL playoffs Sunday afternoon. After just 2 days it was abundantly clear that this was a celebration of historic proportions. Crowds every where you looked. Strangers striking up conversations everywhere. People were here from New York to California and everywhere in between. They were happy. And, yes, people were nice to each other. They were nice when we stood in line in the snow on Monday to pick up tickets to the swearing-in. They were even nice when we were in the chaos of trying to get onto the Mall on Tuesday. Old friends hugged and danced at balls. Strangers exchanged stories on crowded subways. OK – some people started getting a little cranky at an ill-prepared Dulles Airport when thousands of people showed up to fly home Wednesday morning.

Now that I’m back in my “real world,” I still find myself smiling and being thrilled at having been a part of the inaugural festivities. A lot has been made about the hope that our new president instills. I’d take it a step further and say he’s not only inspiring, but he’s intentional about providing leadership to help us solve our problems and make America a better place. So, maybe we can be nice to each other all the time.

2009 goal setting made simple!

Hi and Happy 2009!
I’m actually really excited for this year. I had not considered any “new year’s resolutions” until my daughter asked me if I had made any. Heck, I gave up on those a long time ago. Instead, I’ve replaced them with more of an ongoing “sanity check”. What am I up to? Is it in contribution? Am I making a difference? Sometimes I find myself off track more than on track, but I keep at it.

3 simple words
So, because my daughter asked, I decided to think about what I wanted to be up to this year. Then, I was catching up on my blog reading and came across Chris Brogan’s blog on goal setting. We were on the same wavelength - instead of big, hairy goals, keep it simple. Chris suggested coming up with 3 simple words that could serve as goals. I used this concept in a leadership program before and it makes a lot of sense. So, I’ll stick with 3 again and here are my words for ‘09:

Inspire — myself and others to make a difference, get involved, think and play big. We can all inspire and be inspirational. Inspiration isn’t limited to those with fancy titles, big jobs or lots of money
Trust — just do it
Fun — have and make lots of it!

What are your 3 words?
If you come up with 3 words for your new year, feel free to share them here. Let us know how we can inspire and support you in reaching your goals. Trust me. It’s going to be fun!