Successful Blog

Social Media Book List: Scrappy General Management and Implementing Word of Mouth Marketing

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A Weekly Series by Teresa Morrow

I’m Teresa Morrow, Founder of Key Business Partners, LLC and I work with authors by managing their book promotion and social media marketing. As part of my job I read a lot of books (I love to read anyway!).

This week I will be highlighting two books; one author I am currently working with ‘Scrappy General Management’ by Michael Horton and one book on the social media Amazon list ‘Word of Mouth Marketing’ by Idil M. Cakim.

The books I discuss in the Social Media Book List Series will cover a range of topics such as social media, marketing, blogging, business, organization, career building, finance, networking, writing, self development, and inspiration.

‘Scrappy General Management: Common Sense Practices to Avoid Calamities, Catastrophies, and Lackluster Results’

by Michael Horton

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I would first like to share with you an excerpt from the Author’s Note ( I believe it is very telling and reflects the point of the book).

So why this book? When I started in the GM role, I had little idea ofwhat a GM was meant to do. The title does give you a good hint as to what’s required; kind of like General Electric tells you the company has something to do with electricity. But one thing’s for sure, I couldn’t ask my boss, as I’d just spent a good deal of time convincing him that I knew what I was doing so that I could get the job.

While there is a plethora of literature on the different aspects of leadership, management, and marketing, it is rarely brought together in a useful form. A wise person once said, “There is no such thing as coincidence.” If something works once, and you understand the how’s and why’s, there’s a damn good chance you can get it to work again. And if the concept also happens by some stroke of luck to agree with some sort of academic theory, then by classic triangulation you have something that perhaps is worth documenting.

It doesn’t matter if you’re working in good times or bad, at the end of the day solid, common-sense management practice will serve you and your team well and allow you to achieve the results that you deserve. So enjoy the book, and I hope it helps you avoid calamities and produce results that are far from “lackluster.”

“Practical advice from a leader who has ‘been there!’ What is better than learning from experience? Learning from someone else’s experience—get Scrappy!”
–Marshall Goldsmith, Author of The New York Times bestsellers MOJO and What Got You Here Won’t Get You There

About the Book*:

Ok, you’re the boss now, not of a section, or the team of a particular function — but of the whole shooting match, end to end. You are the business’s general manager and the staff looks to you for their livelihoods (yes you). So you have to strategize, sell, supply and service, collect the cash, provision, train and motivate your people, delight your clients and at the end of the day, return a profit to the business owners. So where the hell do you start? How do you know that you’re not neglecting any aspect that will bite you on the bum later?

Don’t stress, it’s not all that hard and it can be an extremely enjoyable and rewarding process. This book will provide you with the 7 common sense and repeatable steps that will guide you through running a business that everyone will be proud to be associated with.

The intended reader is someone moving up from middle management — or running their own business. The book is aimed to provide an easy to follow road map that will give some comfort and order amid the chaos of information and expectations…Helping with the ‘what do I do next?’ question that no-one wants to ask for the fear of appearing that they’re not up to it.

About Michael*:

Michael Horton is Vice President for the Australian Chemical, Energy, and Natural Resources division of Computer Sciences Corporation (CSC), with responsibility for annual revenues of $360 million and a matrix responsibility for 2,000 people. Michael has 28 years experience in the Information Technology Industry, 21 years of that in a management capacity and has been employed at CSC since 1994. During his time at CSC, he has held senior management positions in Western Australia, Victoria and New South Wales, Australia. Since 2000 he has also completed challenging assignments based in Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Maidstone in the UK and San Diego, USA.

Michael holds an Associate Diploma in Applied Science from Edith Cowan University in Western Australia, a Master of IT Management from Charles Sturt University in New South Wales and is Project Management Institute (PMI) certified. He is married, with two teenage children and enjoys surfing, sailing and holidaying at every opportunity.

You can purchase a copy of ‘Scrappy about General Management: Common Sense Practices to Avoid Calamities, Catastrophes and Lackluster Results’ online on the publisher site, Happy About or on Amazon.*I did receive a copy of this book from the publisher to help in the promotion of the book

Next, I would like to introduce you to a book on the social media list on Amazon and on my reading list: ‘Word of Mouth Marketing’.

Implementing Word of Mouth Marketing: Online Strategies to Identify Influencers, Craft Stories, and Draw Customers

by Idil M. Cakim

“Cakim gets it—and always has! Great word of mouth starts with basics like product quality and customer service. Her book is a treasure trove of ‘get started now’ suggestions on how to better serve consumers, and their most genuine, authentic, and meaningful stories.”
—Pete Blackshaw, Executive Vice President, Digital Strategic Services, Nielsen Online

About the Book*

Learn to capitalize on online word of mouth, leverage its power, and measure results of your initiatives

Savvy, strategic, and right on time, Implementing Word of Mouth Marketing is the essential guide for any company or organization needing to understand the dynamics of online word of mouth. This powerful book will coach you to identify your own set of online influencers, craft the stories that will resonate with your consumers, and spread messages through cybercitizens who are social media experts.

* Guides you to identify and engage your online influencers to manage your reputation, promote your brands, and sell your products
* Reveals how word of mouth disperses online
* Explores strategies for your organization to engage its online advocates, tap into networks, and to mobilize the masses
* Explains how to design online word of mouth campaigns
* Includes measurement tools to gauge the impact word of mouth campaigns

Filled with case studies, research, and check lists, this invaluable guide will definitively show you how to leverage the power of online advocates to pass along stories, deliver recommendations, and draw people to purchasing points.

About Idil M. Cakim*:

Idil M. Cakim is Vice President of Inter-active Media at GolinHarris, a global public relations firm. She served on the board of the Word of Mouth Marketing Association, whose members include Dell, Microsoft, Hilton, Amway Global, and the AARP. She regularly publishes articles in business magazines and trade publications on social media and word- of-mouth strategies and has been quoted as an expert in online communications in the New York Times, the Financial Times, Harvard Business Review, CNet News, the Chicago Tribune, and other media.

*courtesy of book website and Amazon

You can purchase a copy of ‘Implementing Word of Mouth Marketing’ on Amazon.

I truly hope you will check out these books and please comment and let me know your thoughts on them.

Create a Powerful Core Community by Building a Brand Values Baseline – PART 1

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(Updated in 2020)

10-Point Plan: Build a Brand Values Baseline PART 1

A Decision Model for All

Any time we interact, we have a chance to build and strengthen relationships. When we strengthen relationships with the people who love what we do, we strengthen our business. When we know the values on which those relationships stand, we can identify, attract, and connect with more people like them.

That’s the thinking behind building a brand values baseline.

Whether you’re a corporation or a solopreneur, you can start a power core community by finding 6 to 10 people who support and love what you do and bring them into this exercise.

  • Choose a location that is good for thinking and honors the participants. Think of the place you might take your most valued client or customer group to talk strategy and future relationships.
  • Invite 2 – 8 heroes — people you’ve identified as social stars, training stars, influence stars — to a meeting. The wider diversity of their skills, levels and backgrounds, the richer the experience will be. Also invite a trusted non-participant to record notes.
  • Explain that the room is designated a free conversation zone — that you’ve asked them to join you in a conversation because of their leadership skills and the respect they show for the people who work for the business. Let them know you’re counting learning from them so that the company might grow.
  • Without much talk or fanfare, ask them to reflect on the highest reason they might believe in the work your business does. Allow them time — as long as 10 minutes — to gather their thoughts as individuals. Encourage them to write words and phrases, draw images, or make a mind map of what comes
  • Allow each individual to share his or her thoughts with the group. As they speak, write notes for reference and track words that express values on a flip chart.
  • When the entire group has spoken, review what you heard and confirm that you’ve heard correctly what was said. Add your own thoughts. List your own values words to the flip chart.

Review the list of words, noting the similarities between them and poses these questions.

  • How might we take this list back to entire company to distill it down to no more than five words — a values baseline — that describes the values that drive what we do?
  • Should we distill down now and get their approval?
  • What process might we use to include everyone in this quest?
  • Who does everyone include?
  • How long will that take? What should each of us bring back to this meeting, if reaching a true values baseline is our goal?

As your heroes and champions get more interested in the values that underpin your business, so will the people who look up to them. A single meeting with the heroes and champions who love what you do can bring out the best in your company in less time than a whole team from a huge consulting firm.

Live your values and you’ll attract the people to your brand who value what you do.

How will you / did you find your brand values baseline?

Related
To follow the entire series: Inside-Out Thinking to Building a Solid Business, see the Successful Series Page.

Be Irresistible.

–ME “Liz” Strauss

Are Blog Comments the new Mundane Commute?

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A Guest Post by Scott P. Dailey

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I’m concerned about the purity of the conversations undergone in blog comments. I’m concerned that many are not all that pure after all.

I’m finding that often blog commenting appears to be something akin to a bunch of people not-so gingerly exchanging business cards and PowerPoints and even worse, trite and banal ass-kissing.

Yawn.

What if hundreds of comments on a blog you love were actually nothing more than a mirage? The post was terrific, but the post’s comment mojo was less the result of the post’s quality and more the result of self-important opportunism and profiteering? What if the 100 comments can be reasonably likened to a pack of hyenas scrambling to snag a bite of the feast the author has laid out by virtue of her blog’s popularity? Popular blog, popular blogger, hmmm?

The New Commute

What if everyone put driving traffic via comments above any other engagement priority? What degree of coloring the commenting exercise with this agenda is too much degree? “It’s networking,” some of you may be saying to yourself. I get that. But what I asked was, what if everyone did this? That’s my concern. I mix for business purposes too. But what if we’re cheapening the commenting progression to such a degree that it’s becoming the new overcrowded commute we all try so hard each day to avoid? You know the one? We funnel like drones off the train and force ourselves through the turnstyles, up the stairs, out the doors, all to chase a little bit of money? What if blog comments were the new matrix, the new false reality devoid of any pure and true moments?

To some of you, perhaps I sound naive, or maybe even a bit of a whiner. I’m probably a little of both to tell the truth. Well look, I believe, pie in the sky or not, that the world is what we make it. And so it is with blog commenting.

A Challenge to Contributors

Draft a comment to a blog post you sincerely enjoyed reading. Launch your word processing software and dazzle us. Done? Super. Now do it again, this time imagining that you do not have an online identity. No Twitter, Facebook or YouTube accounts either. You have nothing you want to sell, teach or promote. You need nothing from me. Plain and simple: you enjoyed the post and wanted to add to the dialog. There is literally no gain for you outside that which is had by engaging others in a meaningful discussion.

Are the two drafts the same? Now that you’ve completed both versions, each with a different agenda motivating you, what observations can you make about your commenting habits?

What kind of observations have you made about the state of blog commenting in today’s blogosphere? I would love to hear your take.

—–

Scott P. Dailey is a Web designer, copywriter and network administrator. Recently Scott launched ( http://scottpdailey.com ), his social media blog that makes connections between social networking etiquette and the prevailing human social habits that drive on and offline business engagement patterns. You can connect with Scott via Twitter at @scottpdailey.

Creative Commons License photo credit: Maguis & David

Thanks, Scott!

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz on your business!!

Successful-Blog is a proud affiliate of

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How to Avoid Using PowerPoint in 5 Easy Steps

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A Guest Post by Scott P. Dailey

You’re losing business because your presentation sucks, not because your fee is too high or someone else is smarter, more creative or more accomplished. You’re going in scared that you won’t compete and that same fear drove your preparedness and your crappy presentation.

… I’ll explain in a minute, but for now, wanna see 200 photographs of my recent business trip to Indianapolis? It’s loaded with killer shots of the thoroughly unremarkable office building I worked from. No? OK. Well what about video of surgeons removing the deceased section of my sigmoid colon? No!? Man, you’re tough to please. Oh I got it! How about I talk to you for an hour about how awesome my six-year-old son is at soccer? …

Seriously. How many of you are remotely interested in any of these topics, let alone eager to view, watch or listen to me carry on about them for an hour?

Now to be fair, maybe if some of my readers work in Indianapolis, they may take an interest in my trip to their fine city. They may, for instance, want to know where I stayed, or if given the right time of year, had I taken the time to catch a Colts or Pacers game. Maybe some among you have also been diagnosed with chronic diverticulitis and like me, had to have abdominal surgery to remove a damaged part of your colon. I bet that segment would want to engage me, if only to relate their experiences to mine. Or possibly your child rocks on the soccer field too and you’re dying to ask what position my son plays, so that you can tell of your child scoring the winning goal as time expired.

So what I’m getting at is that if I’m not able to relate on a visceral level that reflects directly on what’s important to me personally, I’m not likely to care very much about what you want to share with me.

If we know this and somewhere deep down most of us do, why then would we care about your long-winded, one-way presentation? Or an over-detailed dominating PowerPoint presentation?

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These pitches, sadly often aren’t about the prospect at all. It’s about what you think of your ability to do a thing or even worse, all things. It is nothing more than what your prospect sees all the time from potential vendors: an overtly talkative brochure, peppered with gratuitous look-at-me platitudes. But what specifically is it doing apart from forcing people to pretend to be enthusiastic about you purely because they’re trapped in a room with you?

Reinvent the presentation experience

In which of your 100 slides do you get me emotional? I ask because that’s actually where I want your presentation to begin. Flip to that slide right now and please begin. I’m listening. Oh your presentation doesn’t have a slide that stirs me? Well in that case, here’s your hat, there’s the door and have a nice day.

Everyone has an unnecessarily verbose and egocentric PowerPoint. I know of no capabilities presentation that is ever justified in being as long as it is. The problem with most of them are that they’re authored by our fear of failure, not our ability to solve the audience’s problems. And so I challenge you to be the anti-presenter! Be the salesperson who goes in there and kills it because fear of:

* leaving something out
* not being good enough
* not getting money

did not color your pitch. If you’re not going to win the business, lose it because you suck, not because your awful presentation messed you up. Here’s five things I do on sales calls that have helped me not lose the business.

  1. Never bring a presentation to a sales pitch.

    I bring a business card and the team that will steer the project and that’s it. If I’m responding to an RFP, my response honors (to the letter) the RFP guidelines and requirements. Nothing unsolicited is ever included. I never voluntarily talk about business needs nor present business solutions that fall outside the prospect’s requirements or curiosities.

  2. Research your prospect.

    I focus on key players and read up (on and offline) on what is available on each stake holder. I research their successes and failures and because what I do is Web related, I look at the BBB information, along with sentiment surrounding the company’s social and emotional footprint.

    It’s important to memorize these fundamentals because the people you’re meeting with are sure to be emotionally invested in the outcome of the gig, as well as their business in general. Exhibiting a good degree of knowledge out the door will help them see you more as an ally, then a vendor.

  3. Shut up.

    This one’s tough, because I yap a lot. But yes, I do shut up. I close my mouth and listen to the prospect talk about themselves. This is always the best of all available opportunities to sell yourself too because this is precisely the stage in the sales process where the prospect shows you their cards. If they’re talking about their stuff, you can be assured that they’re going to get excited talking about it.

    This is where many perfectly qualified vendors lose the business and never understand why they did. As the prospect is talking about their stuff, the manner with which they exhibit enthusiasm may be foreign when compared to the way you get excited. Doesn’t mean they’re not pumped. So don’t just match their enthusiasm or overdo it. Rather, replicate it using the tone and mood they’re using to convey it. Again, guide them toward seeing you as an ally, not a money-grubbing vendor. Be similar to them, not dissimilar.

  4. Ask Questions.

    Ask them questions that force them to talk more about the stuff that gets them excited. Try, when possible, to limit your questions to only those that relate to the topics they are most passionate about. If you’ve been doing great listening, then you already know what turns them on. Taking this specific action has won me more business and gotten me more jobs than any other sales method I use. And for the love of all things holy, be patient. The longer you wait to add your own anecdotes, the more you’ve got them telling theirs. The more they’re busy telling theirs, the more they’ll want to hear yours when your chance comes. Prematurely grasping for the microphone, or worse, snagging it before it’s been handed to you will kill any momentum you’ve been building in the previous steps. simply put: if you see what got ’em hot and bothered, well hell, sex sells! Make ’em talk about it more. Well done. No go cash some checks.

  5. Relate to them.

    Suggestion #5 is last on purpose. Offering anecdotes and casual social banter in the earliest stages of a pitch is a stupid decision. Imagine we’re at a party and you and your friends are conversing about the NFL. You’re a club. A clan. All equally vetted by the other. Now imagine I walk up to your group, unknown to you all, and dive head-long into a rant about the NY Jets losing their season opener. What are the odds you’ll dig me?

    Relating to the client is really all you’ve been doing to this point, but you’ve been the guy or gal humbly listening, eventually asking questions as you and your friends talk about pro football. After I have demonstrated my interest in you and most importantly, on your terms, you may then be ready to hear my take on a Jets loss.

    The time to crack jokes and secure social common ground isn’t when you first sit down. I’ve seen this over and over. Sure you’re a cool dude or chick. Sure you can slay ’em, but earn your seat at that table. Earn the right to be casual.

How do you relate with your prospects? How do you sell customers? Do you use a presentation? Does it work? What separates you from the thousands that do use a capabilities presentation?

—–

Scott P. Dailey is a Web designer, copywriter and network administrator. Recently Scott launched ( http://scottpdailey.com ), his social media blog that makes connections between social networking etiquette and the prevailing human social habits that drive on and offline business engagement patterns. You can connect with Scott via Twitter at @scottpdailey.

Creative Commons License photo credit: Geetesh Bajaj

Thanks, Scott!

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz on your business!!

Successful-Blog is a proud affiliate of

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Social Media Book List: Community 101 and The Digital Handshake

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A Weekly Series by Teresa Morrow

I’m Teresa Morrow, Founder of Key Business Partners, LLC and I work with authors by managing their book promotion and publicity. As part of my job I read a lot of books (I love to read anyway!).

This week I will be highlighting two books; one author I am currently working with ‘Community 101′ by Robyn Tippins and Miranda Marquit and one book on the social media Amazon list ‘the Digital Handshake’ by Paul Chaney.

The books I discuss in the Social Media Book List Series will cover a range of topics such as social media, marketing, blogging, business, organization, career building, finance, networking, writing, self development, and inspiration.

‘Community 101’

by Robyn Tippins and Miranda Marquit

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“Finding and connecting with the right people is part of the social gluethat hold personal and professional relationships together on the Internet. Robyn and Miranda go through a detailed process of identifying, establishing and building an online presence by combining various strategies and tools to enhance your success.”
~Andrew Wee, Blogger and Business Consultant
WhoIsAndrewWee.com

“Robyn and Miranda have simplified online communities in a way that any business owner can understand. Community 101 is filled with gems to help your community thrive in the online space.”
~Tamar Weinberg, Techipedia.com

    Few great tips from this book about building an online community:

1. Use straight talk.
Tell it like it is.
Teresa Tidbit–>yes, authenticity is key with online communications.

2. Use your community members for positive change.
Invent ways for your community to be more involved and use their
information to improve your product and website.
Teresa Tidbit–>Get people involved in something bigger than themselves.

3. Visibility.
Get out there. Be seen.
Teresa Tidbit–>Again, no one knows you are online unless you are really involved.

4. Tweak.
Be willing to change things to better suit the needs of your community.
Teresa Tidbit–>Flexibility and compromise, the cornerstones to any relationship, even an online one.

5. Remember the Golden Rule.
Think about how you want to be treated—then treat your community members the same way.
Teresa Tidbit–>Think before you put something out there. Focus on resolutions, not the issue.

About the Book*:
Making an online community that grows and survives isn’t easy. It takes planning, vision and dedication. Most companies aren’t prepared to invest the time and manpower it takes to make it happen, and when their communities fail to prosper, they blame it on chance.

But chance doesn’t play a part in whether or not you respond to your community’s needs. Successful online communities don’t just happen, but with proper care and feeding your company can build a community that surpasses all of your expectations. If you are kind to the people who make up your community, you’ll gain a sold-out customer base and your business will be the beneficiary of increased sales, increased loyalty and increased customer satisfaction. This book isn’t intended to tell you what a community is, it will explain what a company can gain from a great online community and it will give you the education and tools you need to make it happen.

This book is for anyone who wants to build a fantastic online community. From Product Mangers to Executives, from Entrepreneurs to Evangelists, anyone can make their company’s community thrive. Community management isn’t about trickery or contests, but about treating your community’s members as if they matter to you. After reading this book, you have no excuse not to build your own thriving online community.

About Robyn Tippins*:
Robyn Tippins is a community advocate with over 10 years experience in the social media space. From her early days marketing her own small business using forums and email lists, to blogging, podcasting, vlogging and video game immersion, she’s often used social networking to engage and communicate. In her current role, Robyn oversees the community aspect of the external developers on the Yahoo! Developer Network.

Robyn has blogged for blog networks and corporations, podcasted for small and large businesses, worked closely with social networking sites, and advised Fortune 500 companies on social media and community. Her early podcasts featured some of the web’s most interesting and well-known Web 2.0 experts in fields such as VoIP, Technology, Open Source, Marketing, Social Networking, Video Games and Blogging.

About Miranda Marquit*
Miranda Marquit is a professional blogger and freelance writer working from home. She has five years experience in the blogging and social media space, mainly providing content and support for corporate blogs. Miranda understands the importance of blogging and social media in online marketing and community building, and enjoys interacting and networking via the Internet.

In addition to professional blogging, Miranda is a freelance writer with a Journalism degree. Her work has appeared in national magazines and on news Web sites. She is also a columnist for her local newspaper. Miranda enjoys reading, music, travel, and the outdoors. Her favorite activities involve using her hobbies as a way to spend time with her husband and their six-year-old son. Miranda lives with her family in Logan, Utah.

You can purchase a copy of ‘Community 101’ online at Amazon or on the publisher site, Happy About.
*courtesy of book website and Amazon

Next, I would like to introduce you to a book on the social media list on Amazon and on my reading list is ‘The Digital Handshake’.

The Digital Handshake: Seven Proven Strategies to Grown your Business using Social Media

by Paul Chaney

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    One Amazon reviewer

stated:
“I really enjoyed reading “The Digital Handshake” and learned quite a bit about how to use Social Media to grow my business. I’ve read other books about Social Media before but they were geared toward corporations and very large businesses. I found there to be much more information that was relevant to my small business. This book not only gave me specific ideas about how to use social media for marketing my small business, but also taught me more about the nuts and bolts of each medium so that I can better understand how to create content.”

About the Book*:

Practical applications for using social media to boost your business

Even today’s most successful businesses are seeing shrinking returns on their advertising and marketing dollars. The Digital Handshake explains why advertising and marketing are losing their effectiveness and how to solve the problem using social media to corral elusive consumers. It explains the best practical business applications in current use and how you can use them to ramp up your business.

Using case studies gleaned from real businesses, author Paul Chaney shows you how companies both large and small that can tap social media to mitigate market changes and reap valuable business benefit in the real world.

* Explains how you can use social media to grow your business and connect with consumers
* Author Paul Chaney is a leading authority on blogging and social media
* Covers practical, effective business applications for blogging, social networking, online video, microblogging and much more
* Shows how to design a comprehensive marketing strategy using traditional and new media platforms

Today’s technology can either undermine your marketing efforts or enhance them. The Digital Handshake helps you make sure the Internet grows your business for the long run.

About Paul Chaney*:

Paul Chaney is Internet marketing director for Bizzuka, a Web design, content management and Internet marketing company based in Lafayette, LA.

Prior to joining Bizzuka Paul was co-founder of Blogging Systems, a blog software company that significantly impacted the real estate industry by encouraging Realtors to adopt blogging as a marketing strategy. He is the co-author of Realty Blogging: Build your Brand and Outsmart Your Competition, which similarly impacted the industry and which was the first blogging book to target a specific industry vertical.

Paul serves as president of the International Blogging and New Media Association (IBNMA), an organization dedicated to advancing the growth of blogging, podcasting and social media as an industry. He sits on the board of advisors for the Women’s Wisdom Network, the Social Media Marketing Institute, and SmartBrief on Social Media.

He is a feature writer for Practical Ecommerce magazine on the use of social media for marketing purposes and blogs for MarketingProfs Daily Fix blog. Paul has led numerous blog and social media workshops and seminars, including the first ever such seminar to be held in Asia. He has also blogged professionally with Weblogs, Inc., as well as with Allbusiness.com.

Paul has served as Technical Editor on a number of For Dummies series books related to blogs and Internet marketing, and was contributing writer on Buzz Marketing with Blogs For Dummies, published by Wiley.

*courtesy of book website and Amazon

You can purchase a copy of ‘The Digital Handshake’ on Amazon.

I truly hope you will check out these books and please comment and let me know your thoughts on them.

What’s the Most Surprising #ROI on Anything You’ve Bought?

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This is a sponsored announcement, part of a paid promotion. It’s rare that I do those. But the question behind it is so worth pondering that I felt compelled to write about it. So it’s with pleasure I invite you to read along.

Win a Napa Retreat for 6 and a Tech Makeover!

Our desks and our offices are fitted and filled with tools and equipment that we’ve purchased to help us do business. Office supply stores, computer stores, furniture stores, and providers online and offline shower us with information about products and services that will make our lives easier, faster, and more productive. But how often do we stop to consider which of those we invest in have given us the highest return?

We know the ones we like and the ones we don’t. We know the ones we use every day and the ones we reach for in emergency. But if we lined them all up in a row, which would be the winner as the most surprising, great investment we’ve made so far? Was it …

  • that bus ticket that took you to the best project meeting of your career?
  • that pair of ice skates that inspired you when your feet almost froze?
  • that video camera that captured the first cut of your documentary?
  • that ticket to a conference where you sketched out the idea for your business launch?
  • that chicken that changed the world?

Think about it. Tell your story and you’ll learn something about yourself and how you work.

HP’s “Reboot With ROI” Retreat Giveaway

HP has posed the question and made it worth your while to answer. They’re giving away an amazing prize: a trip to Napa for six people on your team and a technology makeover for your team! To enter, all you have to do is share a story about surprising returns on something you bought.

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Here’s how it works:

Tell Your Story

The best user-submitted stories of surprising ROI will be featured on the site.

Complete prize details:

Grand Prize
A five-day trip for six to Northern California wine country, including:

* Round-trip coach class ticket to San Francisco International Airport
* Two full-size rental cars for the duration of the trip
* Five nights’ accommodation at Fairmont Mission Inn & Spa (double occupancy in a Luxury Suite with a fireplace)
* Daily breakfast
* Six-hour wine country limousine tour, with tours and tastings at three wineries
* Ride on the Napa Valley Wine Train, including gourmet lunch and wine-tasting seminar
* Hot air balloon ride over wine country with Up & Away, including brunch
* $550 gift certificate per person for winner’s choice of spa treatments
* A gift certificate for dinner for six at a fine-dining restaurant in Yountville

And, after your refreshing reboot in wine country, go back to work with new HP technology.

Grand prize:

* Four HP ProBook computers and 1 Palm smartphone
* Two HP Color Laserjet CM2320fxi printers
* One HP Color Laserjet CP2025dn printer

Silver Prize:

* HP ProBook 4520s computer with broadband included and free case
* HP Color LaserJet CP2025dn printer

Bronze Prize:

* HP Mini 5103 computer
* HP Color LaserJet CP2025n printer

The contest closes on October 31, 2010. ( http://bit.ly/95QWoo )

Read the detailsand find out how to get your story with those already on the HP ROI Giveaway site.

Now that you’ve thought about it. Do it!

Read some stories and realize how they connect us to the people who wrote them. Notice how each business became more interesting because of the story behind it.
Your story is part of what makes your brand and your business one of a kind.

The real prize here is what you’ll get by act of answering the question — share your story and you’ve already won a great brand insight.

Share it with HP and you might get another huge ROI story about your brand — the story of how writing about surprising ROI became a business retreat for six and a makeover for your business tech.

So you see now why I wanted to share this sponsored event. The insight gained from participation is in itself a prize.

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz on your business!!

I’m a proud affiliate of

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