by on June 3, 2010 5 Comments

No U in team – but is there a team in you?

Today I was hit by a tornado of inspiration so strong it took me off my feet and I landed on the Yellow Brick Road. Hopefully unlike the Red Shoe Blogger I’ll find here the Wizard, good fortune and a lion…

And it instantly instigated a fundamental change in the way I’m doing things from hereonin. The word du jour is team. It affects you. It will change you, in fact, as it has changed me, no matter how successful you are.

Here’s the backstory.

About six months ago someone passed me a copy of The E Myth by Michael Gerber. It was one of those ‘definitive business books’. It has a lot of words in it (and spawned many more, and revolutionised the world for entrepreneurs worldwide) but its basic premise is this:

Do not work in your business; work on your business. Ergo, levy the benefits of technician, entrepreneur and manager, but not in isolation – collectively, as the guy or gal who runs the show.

You need to have vision.

But as the owner of the dream, this theory made me feel rather alone. It put the solo into solopreneur. And I don’t fly solo.

At least, I thought I could, at the time, which is why the book resonated so strongly with me.

But not as strongly as the thunderbolt that struck my forehead today, leaving not a Harry Potter-like scar but instead instilling a fear of impending excitement (yes, this does occur, strangely) and an impetus to go out and do unimaginable things (unimaginable to me, being typically a passive-obsessive mixed-up kinda guy).

I now have before me this one, far from lonely, objective: To associate myself with an incredible community of fellow artisans to kick start a project so significant it should hopefully impact positively on your life, and that of your customers.

I can’t do it alone. I’m a team player, and prefer to leave the autonomous gig to writing this blog. For now.

Content, motivation, passion, communication, customers and community. That’s me. But that’s no business. That’s a cog in an incredible machine. Right now I’m sourcing the parts.

Until the next evidence of productivity from my good self, I want you to think what team means to you. And then I want you to think what you need to make you a team. Because isolation is for electricity, not people. We all need the network.

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by on May 6, 2010 2 Comments

Have you nailed the two Cs?

After attending yesterday’s Summit sessions (#SMSS10 if you’re so inclined in the Tweetsphere) I realised something that’s being bubbling under in my subconscious for such a long time.

It concerns you and how you can be bigger, better, smarter and more appealing to your customer.

It is actually two words. They both begin with C.

They are:

  • Customisation
  • Community

When you’re developing a product or service, you always think of what your target customer wants. In marketing parlance, that’s the persona – you might have four or five personas that you pitch your stuff to, and in some cases those personas are very detailed (right down to paper they read, colour of hair, etc). In some extreme – but innovative – cases these personas are founded in cardboard and adorn the company so anyone, anywhere, knows who their ideal customer is.

But why do you stop thinking about the customer’s individual needs once your product or service is out there?

No, no, no no no.

Wherever possible, you need to tailor everything you do to every different customer. And quite the opposite of being confusing and laborious, you can actual control customisation through well thought-out processes. Seriously: despite what you may think about the word ‘process’, it fits perfectly with the adage of creating many different types of experiences of interactions with a set of consistent instructions (individualising something might, to you, be addressing your client by name and giving them a different colour pamphlet to make them feel special. It doesn’t have to be etching their new MP3 player in gold leaf or making them a dog-shaped bun on the birthday – unless you’re so inclined).

Doing things different – exceptional, even – builds community. And once you have community – a bunch of individuals tantamount to your disciples/brand advocates – you have the chance to spread your message far and wide through the power of word and mouth.

Customisation and community. Too much to ask?

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by on March 12, 2010 Leave a Comment

Community service: it's the future

I’ve been harping on about how important it is to engender in your business a true, meaningful sense of community.

Why?

We all have crystal ball moments. You feel it in your water when your team is about to hit a winning streak; you know you’re going to win that hand; there’s something in the runes about that first date.

I’m not speaking hypothetically about this philosophy, though. Community is king. Community is turbocharged customer service. When you get a gaggle of customers together and they’re all singing your tune, it magnifies the potency of helping just one customer, numberless times.

So set up a community. Start talking to segments of your audience in ways they can only be inspired by. Look into the idea of engaging a specialist member of staff to moderate, administrate and invoke. The idea is beyond sound, it’s a reality that needs to be explored and investigated immediately.

There are so many ways to create a community in the name of your business. The virtual route – with software – or in the physical sense, hosting low-cost events that expose your inner workings to the masses.

Be cheerful, be productive, be embracing and… be transparent. Host, demonstrate, add value to, and be there. That’s what community is all about.

Now enter the new world of community service. If it’s good enough for Naomi Campbell…

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by on March 11, 2010 1 Comment

Ready for Business 2.0?

Something’s stirring, and for a change it is neither my porridge nor loins.

I’m sensing excitement in the business world. Suddenly people are switching on their reality goggles and realising that the world really has moved on since 1987 and hot pants (whichever was in fashion more recently).

Businesses are starting to amaze more regularly:

The good:

  • Gravity Forums for its astonishing dedication to customer service and listening to the folks who pay Carl’s wages.
  • My eBay goods, the mic and the USB audio interface, delivered overnight. Stupendous.

A polarised remarkability:

  • M-Audio not having produced a Windows 7 driver for its MobilePre USB. Beta is bullshit, guys – either release one that works, or just admit you don’t have a fucking clue.

Remarkable at either end of the satisfaction spectrum will get you press. Where Barnum talked about all being good publicity, I’m not so sure. But I’ll always cherish the moments of absolute frustration at the hands of this silver box’s non-compliance with the latest and greatest OS ever made, so the M-A school of sonic stupidity still gets recognition.

But we’re not yet at Business 2.0.

I’ll tell you why:

Until someone leads the pack and counsels subliminally all others that WordPress, CMS, community builders and Social CRM conjoin as a single, stellar future-focused strategy representing the only way to flow, we’ll still be stuck at just-past Iron Age in our evolution as champion entrepreneurs.

You have no idea – or maybe, just maybe, you have – how important a socially-extroverted philosophy is to any, all, enterprises. Now, and forever forth.

Forget the nonsense spouted about fiefdoms and lowest common denominators on the horizon as governmental non-believers in tech and the web catalyse a power struggle ending in the  meekest of digital offerings and a culmination of liberated speech.

We’re oblivious, in the main, to what is approximating in front of our very eyes. We’re wearing in metaphorical and existential contexts, across our entire peripheral vision, blinkers that stop horses fearing audience participation in their gallop. We want to do things by the book, as we have always done them.

Customers revolt. Customers talk. Customers do your business for you. Customers are in your business.

So why, oh why, have so few businesses seized the moment to galvanise community, CMS and CRM to stand so far ahead of their competition that they’ve already got the marathon medal before the race even began?

If you’re smart, you’ll lose the Six Sigma, Prince and all that nonsense, and stretch, flex and strengthen your understanding of what it takes to be a 21st century customer-focused corporation.

It takes participation; embracing customer want; delivering accurate, changing content via CMS that are in such an advanced state of development already that all you have to do is dance with Miss QWERTY. Drum up some server activity by installing open source SugarCRM locally, then deliver tailored social media messaging based on customer feedback, experience, and website analytics.

That’s it!

Rid the staff chaff, waste hanging around your business waist. Lose the factory approach (no wonder satisfactory is no longer enough) and deliver relevant, meaningful experiences.

Solve problems. Be the inspiration your customers want and need. Deliver extra value at every turn: insight, commentary, even speculation. Use any medium: face-to-face, virtual, podcast, vodcast, anything to be there when they want you. Be the real-life, real-time FAQ they desire and deserve.

We’re on the cusp of a tipping point where CMS admins with killer content coursing through their corpse, and community managers hugging the likes of BuddyPress and interweaving all corners of the business at a lodestar fulcrum, become your most valuable staff.

Make it work. Make it through the next year. Make yourself rich, successful and adored.

And be happy. You’ve just learned the most important lesson of the week.

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by on March 3, 2010 5 Comments

Why networking is your future – today…

I’m winded, genuinely stunned. I think I might have got it wrong about Facebook.

Originally I banished it out of hand to my bin of lost hopes. Consigned it to a place where people go, get lost, and never come back; or at least, not in the same form as they started. A bit like Hadfield, but without the humour.

I now muse on Facebook being a conduit for civilisation betterment. Not by virtue of itself, but as a catalyst for change, engendering a new viewpoint, a transcendent state of mind.

In football, lower league sides are often used as feeder clubs for the bigger boys with cash and talent. Elite youth academy players run out with the minions for some valuable first-team experience, before retracing their steps a couple of seasons on to play in front of a town-size crowd of fans.

To me, that’s a metaphor for Facebook and its role in developing the concept, and impelling the power, of networking.

A few years ago noone outside of the business world ‘networked’ in its truest sense. Networking was all about ill-fitting trousers, bad breath and BNI. Stuffy, stilted get-togethers. False promises of new business passed around with a card and a smarmy smile between the terminally dull and incompetent.

The rules have changed. Look at baby now! Blonde, blue-eyed and ballsy, networking is meaningful conversation and relationship-building for the masses. It’s cool to network. It’s effective, and genuinely develops new commercial opportunities for those so inclined.

There’s huge money and personal gain to be made, not on a Zuckerberg level but nonetheless it’s indirectly attributable to him and his Facebook phenomena.

Facebook has spawned some incredible progeny. Everywhere you look, incredible networks are springing up. Each filling a niche segment, bringing together people united by a common passion. And the community creator often reaps financial spoils from their hard work.

Here’s a trifecta of maybe-not-known-to-you individuals who have nailed it:

Podcast Answer Man. Started as a hobby, and now extended to 25 episodes a week the Generally Speaking Production Network is the work of Cliff Ravenscraft and his bird. It’s an awesome achievement – Cliff has notched about 353 members availing of a Pro membership. They pay $10 a month for added value content. Content, people – content!

Mitch Joel. He’s written books, created a blog loved by thinkers and creators worldwide, and his brand marketing insights challenge and change. He’s done what I perhaps will never achieve: get more than 5 comments on a blog post. Which makes him a hero in my eyes.

Christopher S Penn. Proof that you get what you wish for: he regularly pumped up email marketing titan Blue Sky Factory on his podcast with John Wall, and now look – he’s working there! Chris joins the dots – he interweaves technology with practical applications in a novel twist. Every idea he brings to the table is unique but so quintessentially Penn. And his legion of followers are testament to the fact he knows exactly what he’s doing, and how to make it pay. And when I say ‘pay’…

The world's most expensive Penn?

One pricey Penn. I thought Mont Blancs were expensive!

Three people, three amazing networks.

You’ll see a theme. They all podcast. Podcasting is a way of communicating with your posse on an emotional, informal level. There’s no quicker way to build relationships, to add value to your community. There’s no better way to reach out and build the tribe. Pack the podcast with value-ridden content and you, my friend, are unbeatable.

So you know your target customer, you’ve done the whole Facebook Page thing, got a presence on Twitter, sent a few videos to YouTube to explain what you do, how you do it.

How about taking it to the next level and actually building a castle for your community?

Well, it’s just got easier. A whole lot easier.

Enter BuddyPress a social networking layer sitting atop your WordPress site.

Previously it was difficult for a ‘tard like me to install BuddyPress. But the guys at BP just went into overdrive and unleashed a stupid-friendly update. Jeffro explains it far better than I ever could – but suffice to say, you can now host your own social network easily and with impact by integrating BuddyPress and its new template pack into your existing site.

Today, the opportunities for networking are infinitessimal. Take your niche to new levels and build a community around your passion. It’s the way to be a huge success, and to be empowered by attesting great achievement with others in pursuit of a common goal.

Do you power a network? Do you WANT to power a network? Do you belong to a successful network of tuned-in individuals? What does community mean to you?

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