It’s A Headline World!

With EIGHT MILLION people . . . 

     . . . now reported to be using Twitter, and millions more engaged in the explosive use of other social media tools as well, we are seeing businesses (especially entrepreneurs of course) rush to the ballgame with their gloves, bats and cleats barely broken in… and scoring runs! 

     Rumors abound that social media is racing past emails as the accepted new communications avenue. This means it’s time to reassess whatever you’ve been using as a marketing plan, and to start looking BOTH ways when you cross a one-way street! 

     At what has now become a maniacal rate of propulsion, blogs have been moving up on the outside rail and coming into full stride as legitimate business marketing vehicles.

     And fueled by the burdens of economic woes that now threaten to (literally) fold every major newspaper, blogs, and electronic books, and social media are re-inventing the long-stagnating worlds of publishing and print media, as ipods have muscled in on CDs and music radio. 

     Business marketers stand on the threshhold of communication revolution once again. And each new thrust now occurs in shorter time periods, each marketing message in shorter numbers of words. We are living in a headline world.

     From TXT MSGS to 140 allowed character spaces per Twitter “Tweet” (or update message), we are communicating quicker, more concisely, with more convoluted, contrived, abbreviated, and acronymed versions of words, and more instantly universal than even one year ago! 

     If you are serious about marketing, you need to re-examine where you and your business marketing interests are headed. As print advertising fades and TV continues to tangle itself up in cables of every description, as billboards dissolve off into the distance of green horizons, and direct mail bumbles it’s way through the vast post office sea of incompetency, we may be left with new options.

     Radio (especially talk) will survive, podcasts, videocasts, blogs, teleseminars, electronic books (which will surely include advertising, ala VCR tape and DVD rentals, as the $400 pricetags fall to $79 and less over the next couple of years) and webcam communications will lead the way. Oh, and yes, island-stranded Wilson soccer ball fans, there will always be a place for overnight deliveries. As this communications metamorphosis occurs, social media will be the blanket beneath and behind it all.

     It’s here. It’s not going away any time soon. Until computerized communication chips are embedded in everyones’ skulls, and one need only to think of a person or place or piece of art or writing or music or news item to bring it instantaneously to the brain’s front burner, we will be firmly entrenched in social media that we will be challenged to use effectively to sell tomorrow’s products and services. Oh, and the new theme song? “It’s a blog world afterall…”     halalpiar 

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RIP Paul Harvey,

1918-2009

The greatest radio commentator

in American history

You touched our hearts!

Thank you and bless your soul for your “Good Morning’s” and “Page 2’s” and “The rest of the story.”

And thank you especially for all the professionalism, daily inspiration and good humor that you brought to so many for so very many years.

You were truly a man among men, and will stand for all time as one of the world’s greatest salesmen. Your mastery of both news reporting and voice delivery will never be matched.

You have set the example and held it aloft for all public figures everywhere to follow, the torch of trust that is most dearly needed in today’s world.

With God’s blessings, may we all learn from the light you have cast, and pass it along to brighten the darkness of others. We will miss you, Paul 

 . . . Paul Harvey . . .

. . . Good Day!

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  Hal@Businessworks.US   302.933.0116

  Open Minds Open Doors 

 Thanks for your visit and God Bless You.

  Make today a GREAT day for someone! 

Dwelling on the past

…is emotionally unhealthy, but a short visit there

can help your future planning and present focus!

     Let’s go back to this past Friday for a minute.  [See Friday, 2/13/09 blog post below for details]. 

     A number of you have asked whether my Twitter-contact talk-radio host Dan Gaffney in his Friday morning broadcast of my situation (with a children’s book manuscript I edited and my lost contact information for the author) actually produced anything. 

     Well, as most everyone who knows me knows, I am not often in praise of the media (though it’s mostly  “mainstream” media I’m critical of for taking advantage of human frailties and emotions simply to stir up sales by using disparaging and exaggerated reports that are totally subjective, often completely false and –more frequently than not– highly manipulative).  There.  Had to say that.  I feel better now. 

     Now on to “The Good Media.”  Most local media (though it certainly is not beyond also being misguided) at least tends to feature on-air and technical professionals who –to me– always seem to be warm, endearing, concerned, community-minded, straightforward and engaging local personalities. 

     And whenever they do have political axes to grind, they at least approach the task with a sense of care, compassion, and craftsmanship that we would never see from major media moguls.

     Anyway, Dan Gaffney is one of those good media guys.  And his loyal listener base, I have discovered is as responsive as it is huge.

     After my not being able to locate my promising, estranged, young author since Thanksgiving, Dan Gaffney produced the “lost” author’s business name and cell phone number, and put it into an email for me within an hour after he finished his show. 

     I called the number.  The author and I had a joyful telephone reunion (I got his home number too this time) and we’ve scheduled a meeting Wednesday evening.  Thank you all for the nice and encouraging comments and inquiries.  And thanks again, Dan for the assist. 

Why can’t network TV and big-time newspaper people have some of these fine qualities?  It’s called being authentic.      halalpiar      

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What’s going on, America?

Got economic guilties?

Who’s confiding in whom?

“Trust me…!”   “To tell you the truth…!”   “Let me tell you like it is…!”   “Okay now, this is no B.S….!”   “To be honest with you…!” (or even worse): “To be perfectly honest with you…!”   “To be totally honest with you…!”   “To be 100% honest with you…!”   Whew!  Wait right here.  Let me run and get my hip boots and shovel!

I have heard every one of these statements in the past couple of weeks.  They have come from a wide range of product and service salespeople . . . including senior salespeople who should know better! 

I have noticed some variation of these little “aside” comments in two different TV commercials, three radio commercials and four different print ads.  I saw the same or comparable wording on two websites and in three blogs.  It was even in a news release!

What’s happening here? 

The mainstream media is driving us all into the ground with relentless reports of the glass being half empty!  This bombardment of negativity is creating a tsunami of low trust in business.  And that is prompting piles of desperate businesspeople engaged in marketing into thinking the only way to keep their jobs is to reverse the trend to low public trust by proclaiming that they are telling the truth. 

Only trouble is by doing that, they are simply causing the public to doubt them and wonder what the hell they’ve been saying right along (maybe for years in some cases) that NOW, all of a sudden, the truth is coming out!  Like the proverbial lady who “doth protest too much,” every statement of the type noted above is a step in the direction of casting even greater doubt and DIStrust!  A vicious circle.

And doesn’t it all remind you of the classic sales character who looks right and left over his shoulder while twisting the ends of his moustache and whispering, “Tell ya what I’m gonna do for you…”?

Do NOT tell people to trust you, or believe you, or that now –at long last– you’re going to be honest.  This junk makes you look bad.  Period.  When these expressions pop up (even in unconscious references) as part of your spiel, or your advertising, or on your website or in a news release, they will collapse any consumer confidence you may have already succeeded at building up.  You are killing your self!

Just TELL the truth.  Don’t tell people THAT you’re telling the truth!  EARN customer confidence and trust.  Don’t talk about it!  People buy from businesses whose marketing walks the walk!  halalpiar  

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HOW  THEY DO IT . . .

“Necessity is

the mother of invention.” 

—PLATO (Between 427BC and 347BC)

This quote drives every entrepreneur, scientific explorer and creative mind on Earth.  It of course holds true as well for military and quasi-military operations, cornered criminals and animals, and most homeless and foodless victims in society.

TODAY, the notion of necessity prompting inventiveness has great significance as a universal entrepreneurial hedge against economic downturn.  Businesses that will survive the existing economic traumas are those that can throw off the cloak of dismay and depression, shake themselves off, and charge forward with positive attitudes that are hell-bent on making the most of every opportunity.

WORKING TOGETHER with other businesses is a major step in that direction.  Networking with others to Barter goods and services should be a first and foremost thought for guiding daily travels. 

SHARING REFERRALS, common space, facilities, equipment, vehicles, furnishings, personnel, training, purchases and purchase discounts, databases, charity leadership roles, advertising, promotion, news release and blog site development and writing, website and online network development and content, are just some of the areas to consider negotiating.

LOOK TO BUSINESSES that are compatible and supportive to yours, or that your business serves.  Check out possible cooperative arrangements with businesses on the same floor, or in the same building, ir same cluster of buildings, or same neighborhood or town, or in the same industry, or that share some common characteristics (online retail as one example, or professional services as another).

TAKE ADVANTAGE of the opportunities to make and save money by working together.  Even competitive businesses can sometimes do this more effectively than standing defiantly alone.  Consider geographical clusterings of antique stores, for instance. 

CONSIDER New York City’s diamond and fashion districts!  Their competition alone in shared physical space/areas serves to boost business for all by bringing customers to centralized, more convenient and more price and quality sensitive shopping areas. 

CAN YOU EXCHANGE SALES LEADS?  Have you considered combining insurance coverage and benefit plans with another business?  Can the neighboring business receptionist do phone or clerical work for you during slow periods (instead of reading paperbacks?)?  Can you combine advertising time and space purchases to qualify for bigger discounts?  Maintenance services?  Supplies?  Conference rooms?

THE SHARED RESOURCES popularized by the old new business “Incubator” and “Conglomerate” concepts still work.  The only problem in realizing true economies of scale and values of barter may be YOU.  If you start with the attitude that it won’t work, it won’t. 

IF YOU START out discounting the ideas, they’ll never be more than ideas.  If you initiate discussions with others, you might surprise yourself with new-found sales and savings that could help you rise above the economic rubble. 

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Open  Minds  Open  Doors

Many thanks for your visit and God Bless You.

Make today a GREAT day for someone!

“Let’s see, why don’t we sell

our cars by showing guys

crash their motorcycles?” 

Let’s show the guy that makes a wisecrack in a business meeting get thrown from the high rise office building meeting site.  Let’s show a man getting a bowling ball dropped on his head.  Let’s show people shooting at each other.  Let’s show blood spattering. 

Oh, and, by the way, let’s not worry about the whole violence deal; we’ll just smoke-and-mirrors it all so nobody cares, and it all serves to mask the negativity . . . like the guy who’s blasted through the conference room window out of the meeting will have his fall broken by landing in gently forgiving shrubs, and then he’ll get up a little stunned and tell the camera he was just kidding about his meeting comment.  No body will notice the violent edge because they’ll be so busy laughing. 

ARE YOU KIDDING US,

PEOPLE?

     I’m no peacenik or tree hugger or love-is-the-answer nutcase.  I’m even a “24” fan.  But I am a human being, like most human beings, who respects human life and doesn’t see anything funny or entertaining about violent representations used in TV commercials to sell products and services in primetime hours when children are watching!

     I find this particularly distressing and tasteless when program scheduling is aimed at a viewing audience that targets children . . . in the media and professional sports’ feeble attempts to build fan base, they have crossed the line. 

     This Superbowl run of commercials, with a very small handful of tasteful exceptions (and you know which companies these were) was hands down the absolute WORST collection of moronic TV advertising spots ever shown in sponsorship of one single event in the history of the world! 

     What on Earth makes the primadonna creative directors at America’s top advertising agencies think for ONE SECOND that the idiotic commercial storyline he or she was sold by some space cadet art director and dope-smoking writer could possibly be appropriate or salesworthy to push down the clients’ collective throats and written off as being in good judgement?

     [In case you’re wondering about the strength of my convictions, incidentally, I spent a dozen years working at three of the world’s most famous ad agencies, and won a national award at it.  I know whereof I speak!]

     How could ANY one think that the crap presented to Superbowl audiences (especially children) had the remotest chance of reflecting positively on the clients’ businesses?  Tell me.  I really want to hear this answer.  I want to know how dumb you can get?  It’s unbelieveable is what it is. 

     It is pitiful that any company in its right mind (whatever that might be) could even imagine that the impressions made on the viewing public would possibly translate to increased sustained sales.  Positively won’t happen.  But then hey, how hard do you sell your braindead ideas to clients when they’re putting up $3,000,000 for a 30-second commercial and your company is earning roughly half a million dollars for that one 30-second commercial?  Huh?

     Madison Avenue disgraced itself for stooping so low as to buy into the pretend violent mindset of low-life TV wrestling, and pawn it off as a client’s humorous attempt at reaching out to the tough-guy football fan crowd. 

     Got some news for you marketing research and focus group geeks: the football fan crowd you think you scored big with is not a collection of stereotype tough guys.  And I hope you sleazy characters who sold these commercials from the media to the agencies to the clients are all out of work soon! 

     That whole crowd of know-nothing advertising executives who haven’t a clue about what really sells, and don’t care anyway is almost as bad as those behind the warped decision to allow has-been Springsteen on the halftime stage.  They probably thought he was great while the rest of us all ran to throw up when he couldn’t sing on key or even hold his breath long enough to carry the notes he once made famous. 

     There was a reason of course that “The Boss” only performed old biggies that everybody knew . . . a great cover for fading skills!  He had no right to be there.  I feel sorry for his fans that he made such a fool of himself. 

     But I guess it’s all about money, right?  Right.  But that doesn’t mean it doesn’t suck!    halalpiar

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Shop ‘n drive in peace ‘n quiet!

     What a wonderful thing, the Superbowl, for those who don’t care about it.  You can commandeer the extra TV, take it to the attic or basement and watch anything your little heart desires without interruption.  It’s a great day to go shopping or take a drive because everyone else is not doing either.

     You can go to the ocean and walk on the beach or boardwalk and know that every person you see there thinks the same way you do about this brainless, gorilla sport that attracts more heavy drinkers than athletes, and that can’t hold a candle to baseball or tennis or volleyball for genuine athleticism and mental challenge. 

     No, I’m not calling all football players wimps, or all football fans drunkards.  I’m just saying that football is not a sport that’s notorious for producing literary, scientific and artistic genius’s (geni?), and that –to me– it’s more amazing to watch what companies will spend more than  T H R E E   M I L L I O N   D O L L A R S  on (for less than 60 seconds of sponsorship), than to see the event itself. 

     The commercials are, admittedly, always super themselves.  But that makes me think we should just have a Super Commercial Bowl and skip the football stuff all together. 

     We could root for one beer or car company over the other, buy all their promotional gear, put giant promotional junk in our yards, hold tailgate picnics outside of neighborhood bars and car showrooms, make cute little cookies and cupcakes in the shape of the manufacturer we’re rooting for, and call central phone numbers at a $1.99 a pop to vote on our favorite commercial. 

     The winning company would have TV crews in their locker room after the contest and spray champagne on each other.  Kids could go to school the next day and dis the losers. 

     We could all txt msg our teenagerswith something more substantial to discuss for a change (besides, “Hey, how’s it goin’?” and “Fine” or “Whadya do at school today?” and “Nuttin” or “Where are you going?” and “Out.”). 

     Tomorrow, we could gather round America’s watercoolers and coffee shops and talk about which parts of which commercials we liked best and thought were stupidest . . . Whooooooh!  Wait just a cotton-pickin’ minute!  I forgot.  We already do most of that already anyway, right? 

     So what do we need football for? 

     P.S. Just heard the news that the most “chicken wings” consumed in the history of the world are consumed on Superbowl Sunday!!! That makes for an awful lot of chickens out walking the streets . . . so be careful!

     I must be missing something.  [;<} But then, what do I know?

I’m just a baseball fan (as if you hadn’t guessed).

Oh well, have a GREAT SUPERBOWL SUNDAY FAMILY DAY!

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“You see things; and you say

 ‘Why?’  But I dream things that

never were; and I say ‘Why not?’

— GEORGE BERNARD SHAW

     Sounds great, doesn’t it?  Inspirational as can be, right? Terrific motivational stuff, yes?  Easy thinking for any entrepreneur to buy into, isn’t it? 

     Therein lies the problem. 

     From the foundations of innovation springs disaster masquerading as the allures of conquest. 

     Unless you, Mr. and Ms. Entrepreneur, are engaged in the birth of a business, or a new way to do something more effectively and more efficiently, your innovative spirit may be courting notions of self-destruct.  In other words, if you are trying to build a better looking mousetrap when you’ve already got one that works, you may be taking your business enterprise over the falls without a lifejacket or even a barrel. 

     There’s nothing wrong with promulgating the policy of “if it ain’t broke, fit it anyway!”  BUT there’s a lot wrong with innovating just for the sake of innovating.  And knowing how and when and where to draw that thin line is a talent best left to those with genuine frontline experience and a sense of fiscal balance . . . those who understand the difference between self-centered “low trust” and consumer-driven “high trust” performances.  

     Perhaps you don’t agree, but manufacturer presentations by Samsung and Panasonic at this past week’s Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas took on the role of “profitability unconsciousness” one-upmanship in their relentless (and brainless) pursuit of thinner and thinnest TV screens (now measured at cardboard thickness of 6.5 millimeters!). 

     “YYSSW” as many of our kids might text message in response (“Yeah, yeah, sure, sure, whatever”).

     I call this misguided, unrealistic, over-the-top entrepreneurial ambition run amuck.  How can big successful companies possibly think that inspiring and nurturing the kinds of entrepreneurial brainstorms that produce the world’s thinnest TV screens has any relevance in an economy-squeezed marketplace that really doesn’t give a damn?

     It’s hard to call successful businesses like these mismanaged, but the truth is they are fostering fantasy at a point in history where only realism and “high trust” corporate developments count for anything. 

     Oh, I’m wrong?  You can’t wait to run out and buy the latest thin screen TV?  And then there’s the new top of the line Apple laptop for $2,800.  Give me a break, people!  Are you planning to fall in behind the automakers in search of government bailouts for 2009?

     You, dear electronics industry executives, may think that because the general public has now come to view your products more as necessities than luxuries, that it’s okay to commit consumer rape and armed robbery.  If you’re not working on your resumes right now, you’re dumber than any of us non-techies ever imagined. 

     The public is not stupid.  And when you ignite entrepreneurial explosives with the goal of taking advantage of the public, that’s when entrepreneurial spirit kills, and that’s when you’d better doubletime it out of town!  halalpiar   

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What better way to boost your

business than to learn how to

write killer copy and content?

     Okay, a slight departure tonight to fit in a couple of news items . . .

     The Delaware Technical & Community College Spring “Business & Professional Development” promotional booklet and the College’s “Personal Development” promotional booklet both arrived today, announcing upcoming course offerings, including two I’m scheduled to teach that a number of you have asked about.  Here are the two course offering descriptions:

     Business & Professional Development

1)  BETTER BUSINESS WORDS WORK!  Learn how to boost your business and professional practice revenues with better writing!  Focus will be on writing business plan narratives, strategic marketing plans, business correspondence, reports, creative marketing and advertising for all traditional and non-traditional media applications (Website, email, print ads, news releases, broadcast commercials, brochures, billboards, direct mail, “elevator speeches”).  For owners, managers, entrepreneurs (15 hours, 1.5 CEUs); 2/4-3/11; Wednesdays; 5:30-8pm; 6 sessions. Georgetown, Delaware Campus.  $195 EYC212 231-2  Registration Info: 302.854.6966  www.dtcc.edu/owens/ccp

     Personal Development

2)  IMAGERY WITH WORDS.  Explore ways to paint fiction and nonfiction pictures with words.  Proven methods for strengthening your creative writing skills will be shared.  Sessions include stress and time management how-to’s for writers.  Tap your inner resources and sharpen your writing wits.  All levels of writing skills are welcome.  Participants will present one-minute weekly reports and bring a work-in-progress for personalized coaching  (10 hours); Wednesdays; 5:30-8pm; 4 sessions. Creative Writing Center of Delaware in Lewes, Delaware.  $119. ENO 289 271-2  Registration Info: 302.854.6966  www.dtcc.edu/owens/ccp

     Please share this information with anyone you think might be interested who lives in Delaware or the Eastern Shore of Maryland, or (especially in the case of the IMAGERY WITH WORDS sessions, anyone who lives in the Cape May, NJ area who might commute via the Cape May-Lewes Ferry.  Thank you for your ongoing support.  Tomorrow night is back to business as usual.  Have a GREAT Tuesday!  halalpiar 

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Yes, you’ll live. Take two aspirin,

and call me in the morning!

     I read a study that said something like 94% of all doctor and hospital visits, even to emergency rooms, are for (drumroll): reassurance! 

     The extent to which we all need to have our backs, shoulders and tops of our hands and heads patted while being told that we will live after all, and that everything will be okay, seems highly improbable in the face of what the exaggerated tv news coverage and drama series portrayals would have us believe.

     I mean who among us hasn’t cringed at the thought of being thumped onto stainless steel and wheeled like so much beef through the butcher’s back door, into the chaos and hysteria of ER, or Grey’s Anatomy, or House, or Chicago Hope (reruns), or General Hospital, thinking we’re at death’s door but still not be a priority case because others (jumpers, stab and gunshot wounds, drug overdose and heart attacks) are dying quicker? Aaargh!

     Anyway, these thoughts surfaced today in a “BURRIS UNIVERSITY” customer service training session I ran for 25 management team members of BURRIS LOGISTICS http://BurrisLogistics.com on the Delaware Technical & Community College www.dtcc.edu campus in Georgetown, DE. 

     Participants who volunteered feedback comments in the training room, and many who approached me during and after were particularly vocal about the reassurance values of the material and methodologies covered (including stress management, behavioral focus and choices, written communications and listening skills, and the pursuit of increased self-awareness as keys to dealing better with others). 

     Based on this writer’s firsthand experience facilitating over 500 management training programs, the participation and energy levels of this particular cross-section-of-management group from 15 different Connecticut-to-Florida BURRIS locations, was exceptional.

     And it was a genuine pleasure to be the designated deliveryman of reassurance. 

     Reassurance increases self-confidence. Increased self-confidence boosts feelings of self-esteem. The combination serves to eliminate or minimize feelings of self-doubt, inadequacy and skepticism that hold us back from making progress . . . even hard-charging entrepreneurs need reassurance. Reassurance triggers sales and builds customer loyalty.

     Don’t you as a parent evoke the same confident behaviors and obvious feelings of self-worth from a small child when you pat him or her on the head for “a job well done”? Doesn’t this patting business work wonders on the family dog? Don’t you like it when a spouse or partner or boss or customer pats YOU on the back, even if it’s just a verbal pat? And don’t you perform better?

     Reassurance works wonders. Try some today. See how many backpats you can give out in one week! A dozen? More? I’m sure you’ve got what it takes to be that generous with your (deserving of course) compliments!    halalpiar  

Special thanks for inspiring tonight’s post to Kirk Hoover, Atlanta, GA, Vice President of Business Development, and Wendy Singer-Lowry, Philadelphia, PA, Director of Purchasing for BURRIS LOGISTICS

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