Forget the PC … Everything I need is on my SmartPhone

Just when you accept its time to explore the Net etc on your PC – you don’t need to because everything you need and more is on your SmartPhone/iPhone.

While there are some incredible applications for all manner of purposes – business, leisure etc – available for iPhone many are also available for other new phones that are capable of accessing the Net.

There have been 1 billion applications downloaded for the iPhone! So when Apple says there is an app everything they mean it.

So now from my Phone I can manage my Facebook accounts and do everything I can on my desktop with ease on the Fly.

With Tweetdeck I can keep track of Twitter and monitor the brands I work with instantly wherever I am.

I can use Google maps to not only find an address and get detailed instructions on how to get there as you do with the GPS in your car … but I can also look at the image of the street and the building I am looking for using Street-view. Not sure why anyone buys a handheld GPS anymore your phone can do better!!

Also having Google at my fingertips means I can find almost anything I need to know at anytime … Great for Quiz Nights …. I guess. If thats not enough I can get more details using Wikipedia on my phone.

There is another application called Evernote that allows you to collect thoughts and ideas on the run and sync them to your Mac when you return to the office. This can include Voice, Image, Video and Voice notes all in one easy to access place.

With WordPress on my Phone I can write my blog anywhere anytime … as i have done sitting in bed, on a plane or train or relaxing in a coffee shop.

Stitcher allows me collect a personalised stream of information in audio from from talk radio, news and information sources such as CNN, AAP,  ESPN and TechCrunch. This can be personalised for me and/or for my clients and I can listen to it anywhere anytime.

And finally the must have killer app for the  iPhone is believe it or not called Bump.  It allows you to exchange contact info with other iPhone users by simply touching phones. For sometime I have been predicting the death of the business card … well this could be it!!

Of course there are many more, but these are the ones that are very useful to me in my business…. of course sending and receiving email on the run and accessing the net have been available for ages but now Phones are going to the next level and making access to this sort of thing much more usable.

Although you dont need an iPhone for much of this I do think that maybe it finally is time for this PC biggot to accept that I would be better of with an iPhone and a Mac…….or maybe just an iPhone.  There is even a small projector that clips on and would allow me to run PowerPoint presentations straight from the Phone!!!

And even with all this potential at their fingertips there are still the Grumpy Old Managers who yearn for a simple phone with big buttons to press…. because all they want a Mobile Phone for is to make and recieve calls!!!

Thats What l’m Talking About!

After reading about Kodak’s recent decision to drop its iconic Kodachrome range I decided to see what else they were doing.

Of interest to me was what they were doing to re-invent themselves and how, if at all, were they utilising Social Media Marketing.

And what I found was a story that summed up, in a practical manner, the message of the Grumpy Old Managers Guide.

Surely with the uptake of digital photography a company that was a world leader in providing film products to consumers was headed for the scrapheap. But in five years it has gone from being a consumer business to a B2B business. About 70% of their business is now direct to business not consumers so maybe they don’t need Social Media.

The most amazing statistic I found was that 60% of their currently most successful product lines did not exist two years ago. This is a company that is seriously re-inventing and rejuvenating itself.

So when I saw the headline “Micro-blog big for Kodak” in The Media section of The Australian above a story by Simon Canning I was eager to read all about it.

It seems Kodak’s Global Chief of Marketing, Jeffrey Hayzlett, is a classic example of what we are talking about … He started using Twitter to stay in touch with his kids and now has become one of the most followed business execs in the world on Twitter.

He has over 6,000 followers around the world, many of them are Kodak employees.

Hayzlett says he started using Twitter and Facebook as a way to link to his family, “Then I had this other family of Kodak customers and employees, then I started getting media and pundits, then everyone else started following after that.”

He says Twitter fits Kodak’s social media policy which he describes as the “Four Es”.

“We want to engage first of all, we we want to educate, then we want to excite and then we want to evangelise,” he says.

Social networks have now become so important to Kodak that they now have a full time “listener”.

So Social Media is playing a vital role for Kodak in listening and learning as they rebuild and refocus around market needs, demands and expectations.

He goes on to say Twitter etc is jut another form of communication that is very relevant right now…. as was the Fax once upon a time. “Maybe it will stand the test of time, but no one has stopped the most effective tool and that’s a sit down one-on-one,” he says.

So all in all Jeffrey Hayzlett sums up what we are talking about to anyone who will listen – start using the tools in a non business sense to work out how they work and then look at how they might apply. But at the end of the day they are just an addition to the tools that are already in use to communicate…. and right now they are very effective at that, as Kodak proves.

Web 2.0 – Its About Communications and Content

Whatever methods we decide to go with in getting our message to our prospects, direct mail, newspaper ads, website , viral video etc…The key issue is making sure the content is appropriate and useful to our target audience. A recent article by Gerry McGovern content management solutions on www.Ragan.com – I think sums up a lot of what we are talking about in identifying how we communicate effectively via the Web but also in the broader sense to a community with changing expectations…As he says we are now in the Informed Age.

While the article is about Web Communications I think it also sums up the changing nature of the broad community expectations in all areas of communications as a result of the emerging new methods.

The new Web communicator : The Web offers one of the most significant opportunities to communicators in modern history, but requires a total redefinition of what communications is.

Traditional communications is one-way, passive and past-tense. It is all about telling people what you have done, what you are doing, or what you are about to do. There is a core belief among certain traditional communicators that people need to be “educated”.

Traditional communications is not all that different from traditional journalism. There is a saying in traditional journalism: “The reader is not as stupid as you think they are. They’re more stupid.”

There might have been some truth in such a view forty years ago, but we are now in a different age. It is not the digital age. It is not the information age. It is the informed age. The very success of the Web is based on a questioning society. We are a society that searches because we want to find out.

The Web is where we go to know, to be informed. Those societies that want to control what people know, who fear independent thought and action, will always fear the Web. Those societies who think it is exclusively the job of the elite to inform the masses will always fear the Web.

But the people love the Web. They love the Web because they can find out for themselves, from people like them. They love the Web because the Web is many messages, and the Web gives people the chance to compare, rate, question, talk back, and-most importantly-act.

The essence of the Web is action. We go to the Web because we have a task; there is something we need to do; there is a problem we need to solve. What helps us do? What helps us act? Written words. The oxygen of the Web is written words. There is no life on the Web without written words.

Written words are the tools of the communicator. But these written words have a very different function on the Web. I analyze a lot of government websites. Unfortunately, too many overflow with vanity, pomposity and waffle. Some of them are little more than campaign websites full of puff pictures of preening peacock politicians.

Many web teams still struggle to convince their PR and communications colleagues that on the Web you communicate by doing. A friend of mine was worried about his wife, who had just given birth. She was not well and he believed that the doctor has misdiagnosed her.

He went to the Web, and on his journey to find out, ended up on some government Web sites, where he was faced with puff PR about how much the government was investing, and what the Minister for Health had for breakfast. He didn’t want to know how much was being invested. He wanted help; he wanted to read content that could help him find out what exactly was wrong with his wife.

He found answers, and he was right-she had been misdiagnosed. This is the power and potential of the Web, and this is the challenge and opportunity for the communicator. Show by doing. Inform with active verbs. Make your words work for your customers.

Gerry McGovern Content management solutions

Is your business like China or Iran?

If yours is one of many companies that bans the use of FaceBook, MySpace, Twitter etc then you have much in common with China and Iran!

Although in recent times Twitter has been used very successfully as the medium to transmit more info about the situation in Iran there than CNN or any of the mainstream media!

There are many things that amuse me about an office ban on Twitter etc as I have said before (Smoke or Surf) but none more than a company that proclaims they are very keen to hire more young people and/or a younger market.

Millennials and GenYs who see that their prospective employer has such a policy will almost certainly not be interested. So make sure you demonstrate the outlook and attitude younger people are looking for, if you want to acquire them.

Although it seems crazy in current times to focus heavily on young talent (and succession planning) to bypass the deep and wide pool of talented Gen Xers and Baby Boomers.

So there is one use for Social Media it seems – even non believers may seem some use for .. attracting young employees. And while they are to be found on social media sites so are people of all ges and demographic so why limit your prospecting because what you will find are people who will want to work for a company that demonstrates a commitment to fresh ideas and new ways of thinking. But also the same applies to consumers and potential clients not just to potential employees.

But why would you want o hire someone you found on social media site wen your company blocks use of such site. Well perhaps you should not! Instead you should have a social media strategy these days and it should e alignment with your mantra,values an vision. If you overstate your commitment to new technologies by banning he for example employees and consumer may will be very turned off.

But how will they know you ask! because social media is the ultimate watchdog. There are now sites springing up that list everything you may want to now about a company, especially as a prospective employee . Glassdoor is one such site, listing Reviews, Salaries by Job Class, Media stories, blog entries etc for 26,000 plus companies.

In summary the benefits of using social media to hire staff…

You will be better prepared after reading the applicants personal and professional bio and recommendations (eg on LinkedIn & FaceBook) watched their video/s on YouTube, read their blog and checked their tweets

They will be more prepared after looking at you website, reading your blog, connecting with some current emplyees on LinkedIn, looking for info on sites like Glassdoor.com and read comments on your Facebook fan page. They will certainly know more than they ever did from the mareketing speak on the standard brochure like website. They may indeed decide that you dont fit them!!

And now their is a new term in recruitment Onboarding. From day one they may recognise some of your people from their Twitter photos or LinkedIn profiles. They will probably already “know” a few people from meeting them on LinkedIn or Facebook. Life will be easier from Day One ….they wont be faced with asking random starners where to find the nearest toilet. They will feel at home and as such productive much sooner.

The times they are a changing… thank goodness!!

We all know that the pace of change is now faster than ever. But on a day when Kodak announced the death of Kodachrome which 74 years ago revolutionised colour film and went on tto be an iconic brand, I am still bemused by peoples reluctance to accept the benefits that Web 2.o etc can bring.

The fact that I am in bed writing this on my SmartPhone which is linked to the wireless network that drives several other devices in the house is further evidence of what is happening around us daily… yet many won’t embrace it.

The Media section of The Australian Newspaper which once only talked of Radio, TV and Print this week featured a major story on each if its six pages on Web 2.0 tools and technologies … Twitter, blogs, YouTube, MySpace all featured in big bold headlines along with articles on the the web helping newspapers survive and measuring website hits.

And now I read in Chris Brogan’s Blog of a new iPhone app to make it easier. Introducing Dunkin Run. The tool is just a simple ordering and setup tool that lets you email or text your friends, tell them when you’re leaving, and give them the option of ordering stuff from Dunkin’ Donuts. A great use of the available technology to make life easier for people to do business with you.

But there is some light appearing and a chance that the Grumpy Old Manager will embrace Social Media Marketing … especially when our Guide is released this week!!

The latest research by Pew Research shows that in the US adoption of Broadband in the home is growing rapidly at a time when people, due to economic circumstances, are cancelling or cutting back on cable TV (22%) and mobile phones (19%)

While the rate of broadband take up grew only 1% in 2008 it has grown by 6% to 63% up to April 2009.

In the past 12 months the 65 or older segment has gone from 19% to 30% and those 50 – 64 from 50% to 61%.

Interestingly the highest growth rates (34%) came from those in the lower income groups. While the well educated and well paid group remained stable at 85% adoption of broadband in the home.

So all people, especially older people, are increasingly using the Internet at home … as such it is a great place to reach key consumer groups more than ever.

Self Service Staffing at your fingerstips…

The Recruiting Office - 1941

Almost everyday in one of the LinkedIn groups of which I am a member there is a professional recruitment consultant telling me he is happy to be linked to me and/or anyone else who is interested. They are building their online contacts of executives who may match a role that comes up in future … anywhere in the world. This hammers home to me the fact that this industry is undergoing a massive change and that there are still many in the industry that don’t get it.

They need to re-engineer their businesses to leverage the benefits that Web 2.0 offers or go the way that many successful travel agents and other “middlemen” have gone recently.

If you are looking to recruit Millennials or Y geners the Net is the place to find them and, more so, impress them. But no matter who you want to recruit you will be able to engage large numbers of them very cost effectively using the Web 2.0 tools.

Recently I ran a little test to see how effectively Twitter could help me in my business. I sent one Tweet “Looking for a young Social Media Marketing evangelist in Adelaide to work in a small PR/Social Media agency.”

Within 2 hours I had contact with two people who were interested and with two agencies that wanted to link with us. Then in less than half an hour I was able to read their full profile on LinkedIn including recommendations from others they had worked with and for. So I had their resume and reference checks without even picking up the phone. Finally I Googled them to find other information and then checked them on Facebook and/or Myspace to get a view of what they were like as a person.

Of course while I was doing that they had done the same to us – checked website, read blogs, checked LinkedIn and Facebook etc and so knew pretty much who we were and what we did for whom.

So in a few hours I found exactly what I was looking for at no cost … and they determined that we were for them … without an interview!!

Sure I was looking for a person that would be across the methods I employed but it is a clear sign of the future of finding people and people finding you.

Almost everyday I read, online, for free the stories in the New York Times that are of interest to me. One such story was about Amanda Casgar, a young lady who said it was her mission to get a job with the Murphy-Goode winery in California. They were looking for a “social media whiz” for the role of “Lifestyle Correspondent” and paying $10,000 per month to promote their range of wines in blogs, Facebook and Twitter.

She had a background in magazine marketing, was an occasional user of Twitter and had a passion for wine. So she set out as applicant No. 505 to win the job as best she could. She began by posting regular tweets about wine. Then she set up a website “Good Times with Amanda Casgar” to report on her progress towards winning the job and then started a Facebook Fan Page for the winery. While half a dozen others also set up a Facebook page she went further and bought several 50 cent per click ads to generate traffic to her page.

Then she spent two days filming and editing her video resume in the form of a Sketch entitled “Random Acts of Wineness”.

This story highlights how popular the recently created role of Social Media Specialist has become and the new ways that candidates have at their disposal to impress prospective employers well before any shortlist or interview process.

The other thing the story highlighted to me was the mere fact that the company was looking for a person in this role attracted much interest. They demonstrated that they were with it … and the interest in them by the applicants show they were worth looking at even if you didn’t want to work for them.

There were over 600 applicants and over 50,000 people visited the company website as a result of the interest in the company that was built by the applicants in their quest to prove that they could do the job.

So perhaps they don’t need to hire anyone. Just running a job ad has done the job … maybe.

Unfortunately the winemaker (a Grumpy Old Manager) was telling people he was not on Twitter and that he was hiring someone to do this for him.

Not really a case of Say what you be .. and Be what you say.

Facing Up to Facebook

While I got into Facebook years ago it took me a long time to find the real business benefits of a presence there. Initially I joined a few interest groups, located some friends and generally explored a little and then got bored.

Gradually I had increasing numbers of people want to be my friend, invite me to their weird group or send my some present, ranking or other weird offering.  Soon it overtook me and I just accepted every invite to see where it all took me …. that was predictably nowhere.

I soon had heaps of unopened emails, was a member of all manner of potentially useful groups and linked to endless possible prospects/friends/colleagues etc.

So time to look a little deeper and work out what all the fuss is about. Firstly I rationalised its a bit like the Yellow Pages  and the White Pages combined everyone you need to know is there but they are hard to find and impossible to keep up to date with unless you know what you are looking for.

While many people think it is for kids the demographics tell a very different story.. there are in excess of 200 million active users….. over 50% are 35 plus….. The biggest group being between 35 and 44, while the fastest growing group is 55 plus. There are more than 250,000 people joining each day with 57% being women!!

So it gives you a great chance to reach over 200 million but also to slice and dice them by the demographics that you want to target as well, using its powerful demographic tools.

Generally its use has been on a personal level but on going changes in the past year or so have opened up opportunities for businesses to set up their sites within Facebook.  It is no longer all about communicating with friends and family.

Companies large and small are using it in a variety of creative ways to build their brand image, direct traffic to their website and/or blog, attrcat staff, announce new offerings and events, and generally make available key information about their business to their market. Put simply its where the people you want to talk with are and they are all willing to converse with you if you are of interets to them. Its all about building Word of Mouth Marketing.

So where else can you get a free to use tool that allows you to

Build Brand Awareness

Develop Online Reputations

Recruit Staff

Conduct Research on Competitors

Develop Leads for New Business

and access well over 200 million people…..   No wonder traditional advertising revenue models are being threatened with many free  options that are more effective.

While generally I am a non believer in using advertising to build a brand …. it is just wasting money on reaching out to lots of people who are probably not interested in how creative the ad agency can be or how annoying the cheap do it your self ad can be, and hence your product.

But given the ability to target very well and get the right info to the right people at the right time I would encourage some use of Facebook as an advertising medium. Interesting in addition to the overdone Google Adwords advertising there are a number of new products esp fro Social Networks coming onto the market(eg LocalAdLink) that we may well also recommend in future.

One of the most common perceptions we face  is that people in business are too busy and its not worth their time to find out what Facebook etc can do. When perhaps they should be looking at it as an opportunity to improve some efficiencies in the way they communicate with people they currently do business with or want to do business with, vendors, colleagues, business partners etc.

So check out Facebook as an adjunct to or in fact possibly a replacement for newsletters, direct mail and the other more traditional forms of communicatiing in future. This seems particularly pertinent at the moment with Neilsen reporting in March 2009 that 40% of compnaies are cutting direct mail budgets, 35% cutting newspaper ad spending and 28% cutting out magazine spending to focus on more interactive forms of media.

Companies that have embraced Facebook and the like find they are communicating more often with vendors, clients, prospects, clients, colleagues and people in general. This is helping them understand market needs, build trust and develop stronger business links.

Why not get started – Join up its Free.

Create your personal profile

Build your contact list

Post a message on your wall

Keep your status up to date

Join some relevant groups and participate in conversations

Build up your list of friends

Create your Business Fan Page

Checkout the Marketplace and list your products/services/features for free

Give it a go it may well be worth the effort.

Its My Business and Your Business

The ongoing demise of traditional media is having a major impact on a wide variety of industries not the least being in the traditional PR business.

So in putting together the Grumpy Old Mangers Guide to Social Networking we are highlighting the opportunities that this change opens for our business as well as many others aiming to attract consumer attention.

When I head renowned PR Industry Guru Brian Solis say “while some are already predicting the death of PR, I fundamentally believe it is the death of PR as we know it.” I sit up and take notice. But I am somewhat relieved when he he goes on to say “As long as communications professionals want to learn and improve their craft, then we are positioned for evolution.”

We began this evolution to PR2.0 using the tools e and tactics of Web 2.0 around 2 years ago so we are now we placed in the evolution of our busines.  Now we are turning our attention to helping our clients embrace the same thinking in marketing and growing their bsuiness.

While many industry expersts predict up to 70% of today;s PR firms not surving while the ramining 30% will have to re-invent themselves I would not be so bold as to make such predictions.

However very rcently we read a report in the business section of The Adelaide Advertiser about a major business taking a strategic change in direction and targetting a younger market we decided to look at how they were doing this.  We know they are represented by one of this city’s prominent PR firms so we thought we may have something to learn…..   and we did!!  That prominent firm may well be one of the 70%!

There was no evidence on their client’s site of Web 2.0 – No blog, no Twitter, no Facebook, no LinkedIn etc etc in other words no clear attempt at engaging the younger market in conversation with a view to conversion. No attempt to build word of mouth other than via the article in the traditional media from what we could see.

Further while the PR firm does have a Twitter Account, and  a Facebook page they don’t appear to have a Blog and their website is currently down being renovated …   Why do people do that?   It is so easy to keep the current site while the new one  is being developed….   so I dont get why you shut up shop effectively while you paint the walls (do it when you customers aren’t around surely!!)

So here’s the classic example a company knows what they want to do in terms of marketing they go to the expert but with the world of PR/Marketing/Media but they are still not getting the right advice in our opinion.

As such I have written more on this on our website and then when the Grumpy Old Man’s Guide is launched soon we will provide the why and how to be part of the evolution in the way companies will build brands, clients and business now and in future.

While Social Netwrks and Social Media are the new and to sume percieved as difficult to understand they are mewrely part of the ongoing evelopution in communicatiosn that is The Internet.

The whole concept of the Internet was very much based on a form of social networking from the start. It has a evolved from Bulletin Boards, Forums and Email back in the late 1970’s to Blogs, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn etc today. The major differnece being today’s tools are much more urseable and useful as we set out to prove in our e-Book.

People Like Me!!!

A blog that I read daily is The App Gap,which looks at the future of work and how new tools are addressing age-old challenges of organisation, collaboration, and creation, has provided some analysis of some recent Web 2.0 stats that I find interesting and supportive of my views.

The stats highlight the importance of trust in communications happening openly, transparently and responsively via a business’s website.

The conclusion that is drawn is simple and highly effective – if you are not encouraging trusted two way conversations on your site others (eg your competition) will be on theirs. Because people are hearing about products and services now from people like themselves there is a greater level of trust. This assumption is based on research by Edleman that resulted in a trust barometer which showed that 60% of people place the most trust in people like them whilst only 23% place their trust in the CEO of a company.

9.02 million Australians, which was 59% of the Aust. Internet population at the time of 15.3 million, visited Web 2.0 sites in 2008, according to Hitwise.

While recent worldwide Nielsen Research shows that Email is being replaced in terms of growth by Web 2.0 websites at a rate that is three times as fast as general online growth. The biggest users of Web 2.0 sites are in the 35 – 49 age group.

A recent Australian Govt Info Management Office survey confirmed the use and the manner in which Australians use Web 2.0 further strengthens the case for including Web 2.0 as the prime tool in the marketing armoury. 39% of Aussies are now getting some/all of their news via RSS News Feeds, while 29% are using an Instant Messaging system (MSN, Twitter , Yahoo etc.), 26% have presence in Social Networks (LinkedIn, Facebook, Flickr), and 22% have a Blog.

The two key points that The App Gap draws from this growth are people trust those they can identify as “like themselves” and that Google loves conversations and change when sorting out its rankings.

Hence the value of Web 2.0 in getting real results is driving this avalanche forward.

This also further supports the messages that we continually push:

Own, manage and control your Internet presence. Don’t just hand it over to an “expert”. People want to talk to the real you.

Don’t talk about your organisation – talk about the benefits you bring to people

Be what you say and say what you be at all times. Being genuine and authentic will drive business to you.

What will become of the man in the middle??

A friend of mine was a very successful travel agent some years ago. He refused to acknowledge what the Internet would do to the travel industry. As a result he is now walking away from his business because it is now worth virtually nothing. He had the industry knowledge but not the foresight to develop an online travel service like WebJet.com…but didn’t see the opportunity.

Now many other industries face the same situation because it is easy for suppliers/manufacturers/growers to speak directly with consumers via Web 2.0 tool.

There are obvious applications for recruitment of staff, the buying and selling of real estate and all manner of online direct sales. But there are many areas where compliance with legislation and/or complexity of the product/service appear to make the middleman’s ability to deal face to face a vital ingredient.

But when I read of services that now link consumers with farmers cutting out retailers and wholesalers and lending services that are linking lenders direct to borrowers it is obvious that where there is a will there is a way.

For quite some time the major retailers have been forcing many of their primary produce suppliers (eg Fruit and Veg) to enter into online auctions and bid direct rather than leaving it to a wholesalers or a co-op to find the market for them and take a cut off the top.

So the challenge is to find a way to take your product/service to a much larger and more widely spread market by mass producing and charging low fees. Is it possible for you to go from charging 400 people $1,000 for face to face service to 40,000 paying $10 for a fast efficient and relevant service?

If you can find that way you certainly have a future in a Web 2.0.

If the business can do it the tools are there to support this approach to mass customisation as has never been possible before.