It’s a special TweetUp for Social Good.
100% of income from ticket sales will be donated to the Summer of Social Good charity fund, equally benefiting The Humane Society, LiveSTRONG, Oxfam America and WWF.
To register for Chicago Hyatt4Good
Do be nice.
–ME “Liz” Strauss
image: sxc.hu
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Flashback: We were sitting in a lovely Italian Trattoria. I was hot-shot Executive Editor in my thirties with my editor team having lunch with the President of the company. He asked us what we thought of a competitor’s product.
Replies came from around the table. All responses were negative observations.
He listened without remarking until every person had finished their critiques. Then he simply asked one question, “If their product has so many flaws, why do you suppose they sell 100,000 copies of each of the 104 little book in the series every season?”
One question pointed out that we didn’t know as much about our competitor as we thought.
After SOBCon and BlogHer and recent conversations with Becky McCray, Stephanie Smirnov, and Sheila Scarborough, that story has been coming back to me. We’ve been talking about how big brands have been going after bloggers with a clearer intent to capture our page view and sometimes even gather our ideas.
For some of us, it’s become a heady experience. For other’s it’s lead to some regrettable behavior — we all know the stories.
What stands out is that the focus seems to have shifted hugely in one direction. Sometimes it can appear as if new social media folks are only here to learn. We know the culture. They don’t.
Hmmm.
My curiosity leads me to my own questions …
If the big brands are so confused about serving customers, how did they get to be big brands?
If we only see what we’re good at fixing, we’re overlooking a huge opportunity for cooperative learning.
Flash Forward: Now I sit at a meeting table with a Branding agency, a PR agency, a traditional marketing firm, a direct mail expert, an email expert, a radio and TV person, and two other support team members. We’re writing the strategy and tactics for a huge product launch. Most of them don’t know much about social media beyond that it exists, but they know their own specialities deeply. But they build on what each other has planned and they learn from what each other has to say.
Presentation is a one-way communication. We talk and they listen. We broadcast and call them to action — in a mainstream advertisement or in a meeting, the goal is the same.
A conversation is a two-way communication. Both parties talk and listen. No one is in control.
Have we stopped listening to the big brands? Is it time to start listening again? Should the conversation with big brands be going both ways?
–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz on your business!!
Let me introduce the bloggers
who have earned this official badge of achievement,
I invite them to take a badge home to display on their blogs.
They take the conversation to their readers,
contribute great ideas, challenge us, make us better, and make our businesses stronger.
I thank all of our SOBs for thinking what we say is worth passing on.
Good conversation shared can only improve the blogging community.
Should anyone question this SOB button’s validity, send him or her to me. Thie award carries a “Liz said so” guarantee, is endorsed by Kings of the Hemispheres, Martin and Michael, and is backed by my brothers, Angelo and Pasquale.
If you’re an SO-Wanna-B, you can see the whole list of SOBs and learn how to be one by visiting the SOB Hall of Fame– A-Z Directory . Click the link or visit the What IS an SOB?! page in the sidebar.
–ME “Liz” Strauss
As you might recall, I’ve known Rajesh Setty followed his wisdom for many years. He started his writing as a child in India at the young age of 9 and published his first book by the time he was 13.
I interviewed Raj the first time when he released his book Beyond Code. You’ll find the five days of our conversation introduced here.
This year I had the honor and the pleasure of being part of launching his new book UpBeat Now! at our SOBCon09 conference in Chicago. I’m more than delighted to share it here with you now.
This is the second part of the conversation we had …
Hi Raj, Now that we’ve found “the trap” and unfinished projects that befall us. How might online entrepreneurs use “the discipline” to get on an upbeat path?
For me, the discipline required for online business is like the discipline you require in any other business – probably a bit more, actually.
If you think about it, even when you are NOT solving a real problem, you might get a lot of people interested in your online business. It does not mean that they are willing to transact with you.
Add to that – the threat of competition from new players and incumbents.
Add to that the fact that people really don’t want to change easily.
Add to that the fact that somebody will offer the same (or stripped down version)of your service for free.
Add to that customers and prospects requesting features day in and day out feeling entitled.
Add to that the fact that one small bug gets blown out of proportion via blogs and forums.
Without discipline, one can get carried away and focus on everything except making their customers WIN in a big way.
The way to stay UpBeat in an online business is simply to make rockstars out of your customers. If they win, they will make you win.
Which part of strategy do online business builders seem to miss most often?
Creating the right ecosystem for their business.
Online or offline, without a solid ecosystem, businesses cannot scale. It is easy to miss that as you may not notice the need for a solid ecosystem in the initial stages of the online business.
If you could suggest one action that would make a difference in most online businesses what would it be?
Listening without filters
Most often, we listen with our filters and think and assume what the customers “might” want. If you simply “listen without filters” you will notice that customers and prospects will share their trials and tribulations, what they like and dislike about the product, what problems do they want to solve with your product/service, their wishes and their wants.
if you relentlessly focus on your customers, you will win sooner than later – listening without filters is the first step to do just that.
Raj, what you said in just these five short questions today and Wednesday has been a primer on how to steer clear of some pretty serious business faux pas.
This only a taste of the insights and wisdom you’ve pulled together in your book!
I so recommend everyone should buy UpBeat Now!
Thanks Raj! Talking with you is always a pleasure!
–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz on your business!!
I’ve known Rajesh Setty for many years and I’ve followed his wisdom for just as long. He started writing as a child of 9 and published his first book at the young age of 13.
I interviewed Raj the first time when he released his book Beyond Code. You’ll find the five days of our conversation introduced here.
This year I had the honor and the pleasure of being part of launching his new book UpBeat Now! at our SOBCon09 conference in Chicago. I’m more than delighted to share it here with you now.
This is the first part of the conversation we had …
Hi Raj, I understand the story of the book is an upbeat story in itself, would you tell the tale now?
Thanks Liz for the opportunity to have this conversation.
I had an opportunity to build my first technology startup during the previous recession. It was not easy. The easiest way to define what was happening then was that “nobody was buying anything from anyone and everybody was trying selling something to everyone.” If we loved bad news, then we were in luck. There was bad news everyday – on the TV, in the newspapers, on the radio and there was generally some bad news shared during any interaction with anyone – online or offline.
We learned a lot during that period as the only way to have survived running a “bootstrapped” startup was to stay Upbeat. So I wrote most of it during that journey but by the time I completed the book, that recession was over. So I packed it up and and kept it aside. I didn’t have to wait for long as there was a another recession very soon. I unpacked the book, updated it and got it published.
What is “the trap” and how do you see it among the people who are trying to start a business online?
One of the traps in the context of being Upbeat is to be gripped by engaging in discussions about topics on which you have very little control on. Some of these may be important topics (such as social security, economy, foreign policy etc.) but endlessly talking about them when you have “unfinished” projects is a trap.
When it comes to online businesses, I see several traps.
1. Thinking if they can do it, we can do it.
People get excited when they see an online businesses and think that “technically” they can also do what has been done. However, when you look at an online business you only see the “tip of the iceberg.” There are so many things that are not easy to see when you see an online business. It will be a miracle if someone can copy an online business just by watching it from outside.
2. Thinking if you build it, they will come.
Yes that may happen for a VERY small percentage of the companies. In MOST cases, you not only have to build, you have to drag people who will reluctantly (kicking and screaming) come to check out your site.
3. Thinking if people talk about their online business, they will succeed.
Getting press alone may not take an online business far. Unless the customers love the business AND are willing to pay for it, nothing significant will happen.
4. Chasing exceptions as if they are rules
Often people keep quoting YouTube,Twitter, Flickr etc which are successes in their own way. While you may be able to replicate the technology piece with your skills, it is not easy to copy their successes.
5. Using the wrong metrics
Rather than using revenues and profits as metrics, it is easy to get carried away by eyeballs, pageviews, downloads etc. Ultimately without revenues and profits, you will need a miracle to succeed.
Raj had so much interesting information that we’ll be sharing the rest on Friday. Tune in then to hear about the disciplines that online businesses can use to get on an upbeat path to success!
–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz on your business!!
Here’s how it works.
It’s like any rambling conversation. Don’t try to read it all. Jump in whenever you get here. Just go to the end and start talking. EVERYONE is WELCOME.
The rules are simple — be nice.
There are always first timers and new things to talk about. It’s sort of half “Cheers” part “Friends” and part video game. You don’t know how much fun it is until you try it.
So you don’t have to be trashy to write a book called “The White Trash Mom,” but it helps if you know a little about how to get down. It also helps if you can find your way around social media if you want to get the book sold.
Michelle Lamar did both. We’ll be talking to her about just those things tonight.
And, we’ll talk about whatever else comes up, including THE EVER POPULAR, Basil the code-writing donkey . . . and flamenco dancing (because we always get off topic, anyway.)
–ME “Liz” Strauss
image: michelle lamar
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