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Millions of people have heard of Twitter but not joined the conversation. Lots of them misunderstand that it is just another way of texting on smartphones. It is much more, and if you are in business, it can help you grow your business, increase brand awareness, and achieve other important goals. Here’s a very simple introduction to how to get started with the Twitter fun.
Go to Twitter.com and sign up for an account. Be careful to choose a name that makes sense – consider your own name or something easily remembered by others. Now you have an empty account, so you need to give it some life. Be sure to upload a photo for your Profile and give serious thought to your one-line bio. This will determine whether hundreds of people will find you interesting enough to follow or not. Once you’ve got all your Profile and Settings taken care of, it’s time to start posting – or as they’re often called, “tweets.”
Continue reading A Beginner’s Guide to Twitter
Marketing evolved mostly in the second half of the 20th Century as an outgrowth of the efforts of large corporations to increase their sales in an organized manner. Although the Internet has had a profound effect on the practice of marketing, it is still as much art as it is science in actual practice. There is no always reliable method for any given business or organization to increase sales, in part because there are so many variables in the dynamic marketplace that cannot be controlled, such as competition, the economy, mass media and other complex systems.
In recent years a new paradigm for understanding complex systems and their dynamics has emerged known as Complexity science, or just complexity for short. I created a simple introduction to “Complexity Made Simple” at http://www.lciweb.com/Complexity.
In this framework, an organization is a complex adaptive system (CAS) seeking to survive and thrive like a living organism in an ecosystem (marketplace). Its ability to survive and thrive depends largely on its abilities to adapt to the constantly changing environment. Thus the role of marketing is to enable the organization to monitor, understand and adapt to the changing environment most effectively. That rarely happens.
Continue reading Marketing In A Complex World – A 21st Century View
I have long been fascinated with the power of intention. It was made popular by “The Secret” a couple of years ago but I have also read Wayne Dwyer’s “The Power of Intention” and also the book called “The Intention Experiment.”
I was reminded of this today when I went to the grocery store for a quick pick-up in the pouring rain. As I pulled into the parking lot, I thought, “I really want a parking place next to the building.” I started to ask God to find me a parking place, then instantly thought that was inappropriate, so I asked the Universe instead. (That’s what a lot of people who practice Intention do.) And lo and behold, within seconds an SUV began backing out of a parking space right next to the building – the only thing closer was a handicapped space.
Continue reading The Power Of Intention – Does It Work?
Branding is the topic of a great column by Guy Kawasaki in the September issue of Entrepreneur magazine (pg. 40). Guy says that there are 8 rules to follow for effective branding:
- Seize the high ground - Base your brand on positive claims such as “making the world a better place” and not negative ones, certainly not in opposition to your competition.
- Create one message - You can’t have more than one brand message for your company, even it it’s a big one. Keep it short and simple. One message for all.
- Speak English - Avoid jargon. Use language that your grandmother can understand.
- Apply the “opposite test” – If your brand claim is something like, “Our software is scalable, fast and easy to use” then that’s the same thing a competitor could say. If there is no “opposite” claim, don’t bother with pablum.
- Cascade the message - Relay it up and down the organization so everyone knows it, believes it and repeats it.
- Focus on PR, not advertising - Advertising lacks the credibility of articles in the news media, plus it is very expensive. Use PR for maximum advantage (something we believe in and practice at Charlotte marketing firm Lawrimore Inc.) to build your brand with many audiences believably.
- Strive for humanness - Speak to your customers as individuals, not part of a market. Be personal and in time you may be rewarded with “my iPod” or “my Harley.”
- Flow with the go - Ultimately it’s your customers and their perceptions that determines what your brand really means in the marketplace. Don’t go against that flow – capitalize on it and strengthen your brand with the real-world perceptions of customers.
Read more Guy Kawasaki great ideas at his website, Alltop.com.
I have been working for years on the idea that we all have the choice of viewing reality at different levels, with different consequences. Years ago I heard a Nobel prize-winning biologist deliver a lecture in which he said, “The purpose of life is the procreation of the germ plasm.” The germ plasm is the living stuff that carries genes, and yes, this man was a geneticist. Since then I have noticed other people who describe the purpose or meaning of life in terms of what they do for a living.
In the past few years I have interacted with a wide range of consultants worldwide who specialize in the emerging field of Complexity science, or Complexity for short. Many of them view life or reality as complex systems, which are systems composed of other systems such as human organizations or ecosystems. I have been struck by how each person has clung to his own worldview and defended his beliefs or claims based on that worldview. No one has been willing to change his worldview based on anyone else’s claims or statements.
So that led me to a simplified precept, IADOYPOV. This stands for “It All Depends On Your Point Of View.” Each of us perceives reality from a particular point of view that we often hold to in order to avoid anxiety and simply deal with the challenges of life and being.
Continue reading Multiple Levels Of Reality
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