Sorry, But Nobody Cares

from Forbes magazine

You aced the SAT, ACT, and MCATS, graduated summa cum laude, carried a 4.o GPA for 18 years, had five incredible internships, lead every club you participated in, and worked two full-time job since you could walk?

Sorry, but nobody cares. Well, not yet they dont.

As you find yourself in a twilight zone of searching and applying, searching and applying, and then more searching and applying you might start feeling that way at least.

And why not? You’ve been encouraged and patted on the back for every minor success you’ve accomplished for nearly twenty years. You’ve been given trophies, ribbons, plaques and every other form of recognition.

But now you are realizing, so has everyone else. You are not the first summa cum laude with a 4.0. So what now? How do you get your resume from the big stack to the short stack? What will differentiate you from the rest of the ‘innovative, motivated, entrepreneurial problem solvers?’

No one else has your network. It’s like your social fingerprint. Once after submitting my resume, I gave my future employer two references. The employer didn’t call either of them and instead asked a mutual friend what they knew about me. The lesson: Have your network do your personal PR. If a friend knows the person who’s in charge of hiring you, ask him or her to reach out to the hiring manager and preemptively sing your praises.

And while I think that networking in a digital environment is a great place to start, there is no substitute for a smile and a handshake in person. Start attending mixers in your industry. Become the first name everyone remembers.

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The Difference Between ‘Ship’ and ‘Shit’

I had to share this article from Chris Brogan with you. I really appreciate how Chris gives it to you the way he sees it. He’s authentic. He’s honest. He’s to the point.

I believe we have all known when we’re pushing out shit versus shipping. Chris, I’m with you. Don’t just skim this one. Its worth the read.

Shipping, not pushing shit

My language isn’t safe for work on this post. Save criticism for another post. In this case, I need to use this word.

Seth Godin is right to tell you to ship. Get your stuff out. Make something. DO something. It’s important. And waiting until something is perfect isn’t an option.

Putting out crap isn’t all that useful, either. There’s a big difference between “ship” and “shit,” and in the latter case, I’d say the difference is one you already know about in your gut.

THE BALANCE

Let me be clear: it’s quite often okay to put out something that’s “good enough.” What isn’t okay is trying to get something out to your audience or community that just doesn’t get anything done. And by the way, the “it” in this case is whatever your “product” is. If it’s a blog post and you’ve just thrown it together, you know that. If it’s a speech, then writing it an hour before you give it is shit. If it’s a book and you’re just writing to fill pages, that’s shit.

You feeling this?

Restaurants make this mistake all the time. Servers do it all the time. People phone it in all the time. They have the chance to deliver something even vaguely good, and they push out what? You got it. Shit.

HOW DO YOU MANAGE IT?

Here’s the thing, and I’m sorry to keep repeating, but people don’t read any longer. They skim.

You know when you’re pushing out shit versus shipping. You’ve got pressure to ship. Great. Then make the time to make it worth it. Don’t hold things until they’re perfect. That’s constipation, and serves no one.

If it’s something you know will help others, put it out. If it’s not ready to help others, don’t. If you haven’t completed it, wait. Do the work. Finish it. If you haven’t given it a quick polish, wait. If you haven’t garnished the plate, so to speak, wait.

Then ship it.

Seth didn’t ask for your poop. We can all do better. I’m on this same watch. You with me?

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We all want to help one another

As we approach the anniversary of 9/11 I have had moments of serious introspection. I cannot believe it has been ten years. I remember that tragic morning as though it were yesterday.

I remember where I stood as I witnessed the callused calculated acts of hate and misunderstanding. I wept for those poor souls lost that morning. I wept for the brave men and women who stood up against an insurmountable foe and gave their lives that others might live.

It is that bit of humanity that unites us all and gives me hope. Hope that we might live our entire lives the way those few people lived theirs for a few moments. To think of others before ourselves.

“We all want to help one another. Human beings are like that. We want to live by each others happiness. Not each others misery…But we have lost our way.”

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Is Consumer Involvement Always Necessary?


You know when you drive by a terrible car accident and cant help but watch? That’s the way I felt when I saw this commercial for a Cluassen Pickles consumer involvement campaign. Needless to say the unsuspecting consumer wasn’t impressed and likely a bit annoyed.

While I think some of the consumer involvement campaigns made possible through social media and online video platforms have been highly successful. I think too many marketers, afraid of missing an opportunity, are dragging the consumer through ill designed marketing ploys that leave them disappointed.

The problem lies in ignoring some of the most basic marketing principles. The successful consumer involvement campaigns remember the value of…well, value. Consumers don’t want to jump through hoops, listen to contrived marketing messages, or be condescended to through “authentic” brand experiences.

So the question is the same as it ever has been. What can you do for me? Why should I listen or even worse spend my time with your brand?

How are you creating consumer involvement opportunities that are worth my time? What are you doing to create value?

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10 Golden Rules of Social Marketing

While Social Marketing is a relatively young platform for marketing it is quickly becoming the most adopted platform. From Global CEO to local small business owner, people are attempting to establish their own Social Networking presence. Unfortunately many of them don’t know why. Or for that matter, how to accomplish their goals. (Assuming they have set any.)

I dont think anyone can say they know enough. The moment you think so, you become irrelevant and disregarded. We face a time wherein there are new networks, analytics, and aggregators developed and offered daily. You cannot stop learning.

I recently discovered a helpful resource from the savvy folks over at Smedio, the new media and social web online magazine. They organized the 10 Golden Rules of Social Marketing.

The Rules

Rule #1 Know Your ‘Why?’

Rule #2 Identify Your Market

Rule #3 Know Your Audience

Rule #4 Engage Your Audience

Rule #5 Be The Expert

Rule #6 Always Be Branding

Rule #7 Never Sell At The Party

Rule #8 Remember To Ask For The Sale

Rule #9 Never End The Relationship After The Sale

Rule #10 Never. Ever. Ever. Stop Learning.

What do you think of these rules? Are they enough? What are your golden rules?

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You’re Doing It Wrong!

  • You follow too many people on Twitter.
  • You update people on what you’re eating. Everyday.
  • Your obsession with kitties is no longer ironic.
  • You don’t allow blog comments.
  • You add people to LinkedIn that you don’t know very well.
  • You have ads on your blog.
  • You use partial RSS feeds.
  • Your blog posts are too short (too long).
  • You shoot really long videos and don’t edit.
  • You edit your videos too much.
  • You don’t follow people back.
  • You swear.
  • You talk in LOLcat speak.
  • You aren’t using FriendFeed.
  • You are using FriendFeed.
  • You push the same updates to every platform.
  • You don’t use Creative Commons.

Guess what? We’re all doing it wrong. Because we’re all doing it our own way, and it’s not always going to match the way you think it works best. And just like pretty much all of life, we’ll get there someday somehow. via Chris Brogan.

What?

A Treasure Recovered

One of the greatest joys I know comes from finding something that was once lost. The greater the painstaking search the greater the satisfaction.

Let me explain. You know how most people can pinpoint an experience or job that is “where it all began?”

For me, that was when I worked for Lori Cogan of  The Tombras Group, a full service advertising agency based in Knoxville.

Lori is a rainmaker of the highest kind. She is my friend and a great mentor. Watching her work is where it all started for me.

While I worked for her I fastidiously took notes and built myself a library of tools and resources. Recently I thought I had lost that treasure trove of sources. Foolishly I had collected it on a stack old napkins, post-it notes, and index cards.

Today, I found it.

So I had to share a list with you of some of the highlights.

Marketing
Culture Buzz
Marketing Professor’s Daily Fix
Promo Magazine
Outspoken Media Blog
Screen Media Daily

Communication
Internal Communications Hub

The Best Bloggers
Brian Solis
Chris Brogan
The AdAge Power 150

PR
PR Daily
A Shel of My Former Self
Dave Fleet
PRNewser
PR-Squared 

Social News Aggregators
Techmeme
Ycombinator
Popurls
Alltop
Google News
Fark Geek
Yahoo TechNews
Megit
Slashdot
Digg
Addictomatic
Boardreader
Trednpedia
Blogpulse
Socialmention

Music
Pandora
Grooveshark
Elbo.ws
Fiddle Freak
Uncommon Music
Paste

Advertising
Adhack
AdAge
Ad Text Online
Adweek
Ads of The World
The Clio Awards

Social
Social Media Today
OneUp Web
TweetMeme
EduFire
Social Fresh
Ning
TEDTalks

Analytics
Swix
MRIPlus
Radian6
Quora
Klout
Blogpulse
Visible Measures
Social Mention
Alexa
Quantcast

Polls/Surveys
YouGov
Survey Monkey

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