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Tag Archive for: ideas
Your Favourite Show You’ve Never Seen // #SocialTV Season 2 eps 1
Welcome back to another exciting season of #SocialTV. With your hosts Greg Moore and Jeph Maystruck.
A couple years ago at Access Communications for channel 7, Greg and Jeph hosted a show together called “Social TV”, the show about local social media stories. We had a riot!! But our viewership never really took off much past my friend Garth. Garth PVR’d every episode. So between Greg’s family and my friend Garth we didn’t have a major following. That didn’t deter us!
Now our dearly beloved Social TV is now onto Season Two of social media madness on air. This time around we’ll be able to share the videos ONLINE, in a medium that doesn’t attempt to control the message. Funny how it took us this long to truly make social TV, well, social.
Greg has a brilliant mind on marketing(works at Look Agency) and he does a podcast on hockey too. He also sends me articles like this….will this be on the test? Read more
The Next Time Someone Doesn’t Like Your Original Idea Remember….
They just don’t get it yet.
John Cleese’s advice is so perfect for creatives, “if you do something a bit original nobody gets it at the start”. You can’t be discouraged when someone doesn’t like your new idea. They just don’t get it yet.
I used to have the wallpaper on my computer of a Seth Godin quote: “All the creativity books in the world aren’t going to help you if you’re unwilling to have lousy, lame and even dangerously bad ideas.”.
No one understands an original idea in it’s first form, that’s why you shouldn’t get discouraged when people don’t like your ideas. The trick is to keep coming up with ideas, that way, when someone doesn’t like one of your ideas that’s just fine, tomorrow you’ll come up with another and the day after that another. As long as you keep creating, keep trying, and keep pushing yourself to get to that “one” person to say, “I get it”, you’ll be just fine. It’s that endless pursuit that makes it fun isn’t it?
13 Grievances For The 2014 Social Media Season
1. Don’t ask me to like your page, Retweet you or buy something.
If it’s important I’ll find it on my own or a friend will tell me about it. I’ll buy it when I’m good and ready, stop asking me to do ‘something’ for you, and start doing things for others so that you may get something from them one day.
2. Your website sucks, so does mine.
I’m updating and improving my website today, what are you doing?
3. You can’t judge someone by their Twitter, Facebook or Instagram account.
You can only judge a person’s Twitter account, Facebook profile, Instagram account after meeting them in real life. Paradoxically you can lose all respect on social platforms by saying one thing wrong. And no, tweeting a couple things ‘right’ or automating your tweets gains you no respect whatsoever.
4. Giving people recommendations on LinkedIn for the sole purpose of increasing your own recommendation number is lazy and if you do that I hate you.
Just clicking a button to vote for a certain someone to be an “expert” in something is just lazy. Never talk about your recommendations on LinkedIn, it’s nothing to brag about. Now, instead why not write a couple of paragraphs about the person you work with that never gets credit but is one of the best coworkers you’ve ever had.
Bosses and manager, write nice thing about your people. If you can’t find nice things to say you’re not looking hard enough.
5. Nobody cares about the amount of Twitter followers you have or what your Klout score is. Stop bringing them up.
Didn’t think I had to mention this, but if you mention “Klout” or your “Klout Score” you are a huge nerd. Stop doing that.
6. It can be terrifying to face the metrics, but if Buckley’s taught us anything, things that are awful are good for us.
As Jim Collins says, you must face the brutal facts, what’s the most important thing to measure that determines success?! The ironic part of measurement is once you start measuring yoy really don’t need to do much further. Just the fact that you’re measuring results, humans tend to perform much much better when they can correlate what they’re doing with the results.
7. We get it, you have a Facebook page, now stop inviting us to your events.
Remember, there’s nothing easier than starting a Facebook page, creating an event, and inviting people to said event. If it’s “easy” EVERYONE IS GOING TO DO IT!!! Making your event no different than the other hundred events we get invited to on Facebook every day.
8. Nobody likes the “new” social network until everyone likes the “new” social network.
Be picky about where you spend your time but not too stubborn that you’ll end up still using a Blackberry in 2013.
9. Don’t ever use the phrase, “OH GOD YOU HAVE TO BE ON (insert any social platform)!”
To each their own. Stop thinking you’ll know exactly what someone else would prefer.
10. If you think being on Google plus is beneficial to your websites search engine optimization show me why, don’t just tell me to get on.
That goes for all social platforms by the way.
11. I get it, you like Vine.
But if you’re a person who’s in charge of your company do you think your best time is spent making and editing extremely short videos? (if you’re the exception to the rule please let me know in the comments below)
12. If you’re not on a social network or don’t know much about it don’t make fun of it or discount its legitimacy.
Few things make you look more unintelligent than poking fun at something you don’t understand.
13. If you still think Facebook and Twitter are good demand generation tools you’re way off your kilter.
They’re customer service and brand building tools. They are horrible at creating demand.
6 Ways To Make Your Website More Trustworthy
Have you ever heard about a company and look up their website to find what looks like a Chimpanzee’s art project in MS Paint? Five years ago you could get by without a website and still do business just fine. Today very few companies can get by without having something resembling their brand online.
Today just having a website doesn’t suffice. If Google can’t find your website you’re not going to acquire search traffic. If you’re not putting anything worth while on your website no one’s going to care (no your newsletter doesn’t count as something people care about).
People buy from people and companies they know, like and trust. Here are six things you can do to make your website stand out and be more trustworthy.
1. Have your contact info (e-mail and phone number) very easy to find on every page. Make it easy for people to ask a question. If it’s difficult to find your contact info it feels like you don’t want me to contact you. Unless of course you in fact don’t want people to contact you ignore this one and move on to two.
2. Give your “About Us” page some love. Of the websites analytics I’ve seen, the About Us
page is by far the most popular page other than the home page. Your potential customers want to see who you are before they do business with you. The more the can find out about you before you meet the better. Lots of pictures and video if at all possible.
3. Have blog posts that get comments, Retweets, Likes, Shares, etc. The more social shares and comments a website has, the more you know people actually give a damn about what they’re writing about.
4. Have links to your company/personal Twitter accounts, Facebook Pages, Google+ Pages, Pinterest Pinboards, LinkedIn Pages. But only on the very important caveat of “if thou shall keep a link to a social network on thy website, be certain to stay active on thy social network”.
5. Display badges of associations, affiliated websites, and awards you have won. If you’re a home builder a link to the Home Builder’s Association 
makes a lot of sense. Being on the AdAge Power 150 or completing a course in Google adds a lot of credibility to your company. As long as it doesn’t seem sleazy or to cheesy, include your Best Employer award, Your Customer Service Award, Your JD Power & Associates, heck if you win a Juno, put er up! If you’re winning awards you must be doing something right, right? If you’re associated with websites that add to your credibility ensure images and links to those sites are visible.
6. Include testimonials either on the home page or one click away. People often hide their testimonials or keep them on a page deep in their website. If you’re as good as you say you are, other people will say really nice things about you. Put what they say on your homepage. There’s no more powerful marketing than a recommendation from someone with authority.
How To Win Business and Influence People
1. Smile. Smile a lot. When walking into a boardroom. When meeting someone for the first time. When you’re unsure of yourself. When you need that extra boost of confidence. Just smile, it’s contagious. Don’t you love walking into a restaurant and the person at the front door is happier to see you than you are to see them? Happy people are the best to be around, always remember that.
2. Don’t hold grudges, ever. Under no circumstance hold a grudge because of what you think someone did or said. If they did something wrong confront them about it and tell them how you feel. Otherwise when you hold a grudge against someone you seem like you’re in high-school again and I don’t want to do business with high-school kids. Being upset with someone for a silly reason makes me think you’re not a very big thinker either. Forgiving someone is a very humbling thing to do. Try it.
3. Don’t offer your opinion of someones work unless they ask for it. No one likes getting impromptu feedback on something they probably could pick holes in them self. Wait till someone seeks your feedback out. Want more people to seek you out for feedback? Get smarter on your topic of interest. Stop watching (insert pop culture TV sensation of the week) and start reading more.
4. When you pick a fight with your competition don’t make it personal and try to be as professional about it as you can.
I openly will critique agency’s in Regina for their work. I try not to make it personal and I try to give research and the thought process behind my opinions. We’re competitors so it makes sense we will disagree on many things, however, I do very much respect the work they do. Phoenix Group is the agency that I’ve written about the most and they’re the biggest in Regina and do some really amazing work. I assume they can handle my critique because of their success (Yes, I do think David Bellerive is extremely talented).
5. Say ‘yes’ as much as you can. Like the movie Yes Man, always take advantage when an opportunity presents itself. You never know who you might meet. Lunches, dinners, nights out, weekend trips, if you have no other obligations and financially it works you must say yes. It’s kinda fun to try. Watch Yes Man if you haven’t yet.
6. Stop talking about yourself. Seriously. One of the biggest turnoffs in life and business is someone who talks about themselves too much. Like Dale Carnegie says, “become genuinely interested in other people”. Ask them questions and be curious about what they do. The more the other person talks about them self, the more you know about them to help them in the future.
An old piece of advice; “in a meeting, the person who talks the least, is usually the smartest person in the room.”
7. If you’re a leader, creative person or an artist, sometimes you’re going to half to ignore what others tell you. As Albert Einstein said “if at first the idea is not absurd, there is no hope for it.” Some of your ideas must be absurd.
As a leader you’re going to have moments where entire groups of people disagree with you. That’s ok “great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds” another great piece of advice from the smartest person ever lived.
Don’t worry what people say about you, if no one is disagreeing with you, you aren’t doing much with your life.
8. Be someone others look up to. The way you act, the way to dress, the way you sign your e-mails, your business cards, everything. People look up to others who are confident, well put together and articulate. I remember the first time I met Steve Klippenstein, the President of Captive Audience. He was smart, funny, and a leader, someone you really wanted to be around. I’ve always looked up to Steve because of that. His attitude is a reflection of how well Captive has done and will do in the future.
9. Don’t be cheap. I met with a lady once trying to start her own business and one of the first things she informed me of was that she didn’t have much money and was “cheap”. As a consultant that’s the last thing you want to hear. Not that I’m greedy at all, I believe as an entrepreneur you can’t be successful and “cheap”. No one wants to work with cheap, you don’t want to invest in cheap, it’s not an attractive quality in anyone. Frugal is fine but you must be smart frugal. Buy people coffees and lunch, take the bill, bring donuts to a meeting, offer to supply the coffees from Timmy’s, do something that screams “I’m not afraid to be generous!”. I don’t know about you but I LOVE generous people, I try to do as much as I can for them, the more you help others the more they want to help you. Don’t be cheap.