Showing posts with label marketing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label marketing. Show all posts
I just watched the American Music Awards the other night. Everyone in the show was really at the top of their game from the performers to the dancers and the band members. It was really quite a show. It really called for effort, talent and enthusiasm to pull off a show like that.
Which got me thinking about YOU! Are you the very best at your game? Are you worthy of an award above and beyond all of your peers? Do you put out the extra effort; have the talent and enthusiasm to excel at your game?
From doing the secret shopping we do for builders around the nation I see that most Agents are not at the top of their game. Probably 90% of Agents are still not using any sales skills needed to sell in this tough market. Most are still acting and selling like they were five or six years ago.
You can read a lot of great articles on how to create urgency in your clients but how about creating some urgency in YOU? That's where it should start. It's so vital in this market and let me tell you why. Because every body walking through that door is like gold! Your Builder spent a lot of time, money and effort to walk that body through the door just for YOU! Just so you could use your sales skills and sell them the home of their dreams. As a fellow salesperson, it's just so hard to get a prospect to walk in the door; I would love it if someone would send them to me for FREE.
Create urgency in yourself, realize your gold and cherish it. Do everything you can to improve yourself and your skills so that you are optimizing that prospect for a sale. Here are ten things you can start with.
1. Never let a prospect walk in the door without a great welcome greeting and taking the time to talk with them and get to know what they are looking for and what their lifestyle is like
2. Never let a prospect walk the models alone. Use the time to get to know them and their needs.
3. Never let a prospect feel unimportant to you, stop everything you are doing and give them 100% of your attention.
4. Never let a prospect leave your office without a reason for follow up.
5. Never let a prospect leave your office without getting a card so you can follow up.
6. Always write down all of the things you remember about that prospect immediately after they leave so you can follow up smart.
7. Always do small trial closes along the way so you know if your selling is on target or off.
8. Always ask for the sale and a referral if they are not interested in your homes.
9. Always follow up with a, “thanks for visiting” note within a few days of the prospect being there.
10. Always follow up with a call and a flyer of your referral program.
From now until the New Year we are going to be focusing on Creating Urgency in YOU. It's been a rough market this year and I know most of you are feeling a little beat up. But the quickest way to change how you feel is to change your attitude and your habits. I will help you along the way!
Soon you will be hearing, "And the award goes to!"
Shirleen Von Hoffmann
President, Sales Coach, Trainer, Broker, Author and Keynote Speaker at Creating VIP's & Homebuilder's Advantedge
http://www.thequeenofsales.com/
[edit30] Public relations professionals and corporate executives who are savvy about working with the media well understand the time-honored adage that one should “never get in a fight with a guy who buys printers ink by the barrel.”
“Printers ink,” of course, is extended in today’s environment to include airtime and pixels. In any case, the message is the same: Understand and respect the power of the media because they always will have the last word, leave the last impression, and have more staying power that you will.
Then, there’s the corollary adage that guides publicists for companies that thrive on public awareness and that one goes, “Publicity, even bad publicity, is better than no publicity at all.”
Learn more about bare-knuckle public fights with the media, here
“Printers ink,” of course, is extended in today’s environment to include airtime and pixels. In any case, the message is the same: Understand and respect the power of the media because they always will have the last word, leave the last impression, and have more staying power that you will.
Then, there’s the corollary adage that guides publicists for companies that thrive on public awareness and that one goes, “Publicity, even bad publicity, is better than no publicity at all.”
Learn more about bare-knuckle public fights with the media, here
Why is early communications important?
Attempting to education interested parties in a legislative environment will yield a myriad of results and costs.
Our results, based on a early start of proprietary solutions are predictable and sustainable over the duration of the project, based on demographic and psychographic data, acknowledgment of the variances, unique identities and random occurrences while respecting all stakeholders, activist, organizers, opinion leaders and community members ideas, perspectives, values and cultural traditions.
Of course, there is another option to starting a early communication program.
Attempting to education interested parties in a legislative environment will yield a myriad of results and costs.
Our results, based on a early start of proprietary solutions are predictable and sustainable over the duration of the project, based on demographic and psychographic data, acknowledgment of the variances, unique identities and random occurrences while respecting all stakeholders, activist, organizers, opinion leaders and community members ideas, perspectives, values and cultural traditions.
Of course, there is another option to starting a early communication program.
State halts tax-credit program...
California is cutting off applications for a tax credit that was designed to promote sales of new homes.The Franchise Tax Board said it would stop taking applications for the tax credits at midnight Thursday.The program offered $100 million in credits to about 10,000 consumers who buy homes that have never been occupied. The credit is equal to 5% of the purchase price or $10,000, whichever is less.
Buyers must occupy the homes for at least two years immediately after the purchase.The tax board expects to have received 12,000 applications.
But help is on the way …
AB 765 (Caballero) Income tax credit: purchase: principal residence.
Analysis
The Personal Income Tax Law authorizes a credit against the taxes imposed by that law in an amount equal to the lesser of 5% of the purchase price or $10,000 in the case of the purchase of a qualified principal residence on and after March 1, 2009, and before March 1, 2010, but not to exceed an aggregate limitation of $100,000,000 for all credits allowable.
Existing law requires a certification that the residence has never been occupied be provided to the Franchise Tax Board within one week of the sale of the qualified principal residence. This bill would allow a taxpayer to reserve a credit with the Franchise Tax Board and would require that the certification be provided to the Franchise Tax Board within one week of the close of escrow of the qualified principal residence. This bill contains other related provisions.
California is cutting off applications for a tax credit that was designed to promote sales of new homes.The Franchise Tax Board said it would stop taking applications for the tax credits at midnight Thursday.The program offered $100 million in credits to about 10,000 consumers who buy homes that have never been occupied. The credit is equal to 5% of the purchase price or $10,000, whichever is less.
Buyers must occupy the homes for at least two years immediately after the purchase.The tax board expects to have received 12,000 applications.
But help is on the way …
AB 765 (Caballero) Income tax credit: purchase: principal residence.
Analysis
The Personal Income Tax Law authorizes a credit against the taxes imposed by that law in an amount equal to the lesser of 5% of the purchase price or $10,000 in the case of the purchase of a qualified principal residence on and after March 1, 2009, and before March 1, 2010, but not to exceed an aggregate limitation of $100,000,000 for all credits allowable.
Existing law requires a certification that the residence has never been occupied be provided to the Franchise Tax Board within one week of the sale of the qualified principal residence. This bill would allow a taxpayer to reserve a credit with the Franchise Tax Board and would require that the certification be provided to the Franchise Tax Board within one week of the close of escrow of the qualified principal residence. This bill contains other related provisions.
Leadership: Inventing the Future Now
In this unprecedented downturn, many leaders are focused only on survival, but rebounds belong to the ready ... essential paradox of leadership is the ability to do and dream at the same time.In normal times, the central challenge of leadership is balancing your organization's short- and long-term needs.
Everyone knows that.
You manage people, sales, and costs to hit immediate financial commitments, and you simultaneously invest in future projects to capture market trends and ensure a going concern.
As we've characterized it before, this essential paradox of leadership is the ability to do and dream at the same time.
Today, however, most managers are only doing.
They're fixated on the short term. We understand; they have tobe, for sheer survival. They're reducing staff, slashing costs, and squeezing productivity. They're sweating the details like never before and pushing people to find the innovative killer app that could save the organization.
Leaders need to exude positive energy. Define vision. Build great teams. Care. Reward. Teach. Decide. Innovate. Execute.
Inventing the future is one crucial definition of leadership ... more
Ten Things You MUST Measure on Your Website
Investing more in your website without measuring how well it's working is simply gambling. You may as well be flipping a coin. How should you measure online success? Here are the ten things you must measure in order to validate your investment.
1. How Fast Is It?
2. How Often Does It Spit Up or Fall Over?
3. How Many People Show Up?
4. Which Are the Most Popular Pages?
5. Which Way Did They Go?
6. What Are They Looking For?
7. How Did They Get Here?
8. Did We Achieve Our Goals?
9. Are They Happy About Their Visit?
10. Are We Using Our Own Metrics?
Set goals. Make changes. Track results, Repeat. Those are the instructions for a bigger, better, faster, stronger website. Full Article
In the News
NAR Foresees Increase in Home, Condo Sales by Summer as a Result of Very Favorable Buying Conditions; Inventory is Almost Back to Normal
Washington, D.C.--Existing-home sales declined in January with some buyers waiting to see how details of the economic stimulus package would affect them, according to the National Association of Realtors. At the same time, inventories fell to a two-year low.
NLIHC Study Highlights Plight of Renters in Market Going Through High Number of Foreclosures
Washington, D.C.--While there has been ample coverage on foreclosures and how they are affecting buyers, the impact of foreclosed homes on renters is often ignored.
What's in the Stimulus for You?
Companies, industries, and individuals in the U.S. are wondering how the stimulus package will affect their bottom line, market, and wallet.
HUD Allocates More Than $10 Billion of Recovery Act Funding One Week After Bill Signing
1. How Fast Is It?
2. How Often Does It Spit Up or Fall Over?
3. How Many People Show Up?
4. Which Are the Most Popular Pages?
5. Which Way Did They Go?
6. What Are They Looking For?
7. How Did They Get Here?
8. Did We Achieve Our Goals?
9. Are They Happy About Their Visit?
10. Are We Using Our Own Metrics?
Set goals. Make changes. Track results, Repeat. Those are the instructions for a bigger, better, faster, stronger website. Full Article
In the News
NAR Foresees Increase in Home, Condo Sales by Summer as a Result of Very Favorable Buying Conditions; Inventory is Almost Back to Normal
Washington, D.C.--Existing-home sales declined in January with some buyers waiting to see how details of the economic stimulus package would affect them, according to the National Association of Realtors. At the same time, inventories fell to a two-year low.
NLIHC Study Highlights Plight of Renters in Market Going Through High Number of Foreclosures
Washington, D.C.--While there has been ample coverage on foreclosures and how they are affecting buyers, the impact of foreclosed homes on renters is often ignored.
What's in the Stimulus for You?
Companies, industries, and individuals in the U.S. are wondering how the stimulus package will affect their bottom line, market, and wallet.
HUD Allocates More Than $10 Billion of Recovery Act Funding One Week After Bill Signing
Marketing Moves to the Blogosphere
Business Model Shifts to Engage Customers Online
By Sarah Halzack
Washington Post Staff Writer
Jason Calacanis, who got into blogging early and big, has quit.
He co-founded a network of blogs called Weblogs in 2003, before the medium cracked the mainstream, and then sold it to AOL in 2005, working there until 2007. Today he is chief executive of Mahalo, a search engine guided by editors rather than algorithms.
After five years of writing on tech industry topics as well as personal ones and building an audience of 10,000 to 20,000 daily visitors, Calacanis said he got tired of all the nasty commenters and opportunistic "link-baiters," people who post just to promote their own blogs.
So he signed off, leaving the blogosphere to others. One group that has been firing up its keyboards is corporate types. Of the approximately 112.5 million blogs on the Web, almost 5,000 are corporate, according to blog indexer Technorati. Calacanis blogged to start conversations and be a part of a virtual community, but corporate bloggers are in it for other reasons: talking directly to customers or giving a personal touch to a big business.
"It's a phenomenal promotion vehicle for a company, or a great crisis tool or a great customer service tool," said Geoff Livingston, a public relations strategist and social media expert.
Bethesda's Honest Tea launched its blog in late 2005 as a way to get close to customers. With a name like Honest Tea, chief executive Seth Goldman said, "we're trying to be as open and disclose as much information as we can." When the company announced that Coca-Cola would acquire a 40 percent interest in the brand, many of Honest Tea's customers who opposed the agreement took their complaints to the blog.
"We gave a very loud voice to the people who said they weren't happy about this decision," Goldman said.
Goldman then took one of the most thoughtful, detailed customer criticisms and responded to each point. Even if readers still didn't agree, "The blog at least helps people see how we think about it," Goldman said.
Kathleen Matthews, who heads global communications at Marriott International, came up with the idea for chief executive Bill Marriott's blog. He saw it as a good way to communicate.
"That's the importance of public relations, of advertising, of everything we do," Marriott said.
"And this is just another channel." Marriott also likes how the blog shows that he's "a human just like everybody else." He sometimes breaks from writing about corporate issues to post about the movies he sees on Saturdays with his wife.
Marriott has thousands of employees around the world, who make up about one-fifth of the blog's readership and comment frequently. "It is the virtual substitute for Bill Marriott visiting every hotel," Matthews said.
He's not your typical blogger -- he doesn't use computers. Instead, he dictates entries into a recorder and a staff member transcribes and posts them. The audio is also on the site, which averages about 6,000 visitors per week and has had more than 600,000 total visitors since its inception in January 2007.
Marriott has made more than $5 million in bookings from people who clicked through to the reservation page from Marriott's blog.
Viget Labs, a Falls Church Web consulting firm, began a blog in 2006. In his field, it's practically obligatory, chief executive Brian Wynne Williams said. "If we didn't blog," he said, "people would start to wonder about us."
The one blog has since expanded to five, each focused on a division of the company.
Wynne Williams said Viget's blogs, which target industry peers, have had a "huge impact on recruiting."
"Anybody that we've hired in the past couple of years, I think any of them would tell you that they read the blog heavily to get a sense of our people," he said.
Designer Samantha Warren said her decision to take a job with Viget was sealed by the blog. "The design was fantastic. It just made me feel like, 'I want to be part of something this good,' " she said.
Smaller businesses are experimenting, too, since a blog can be an economical way of getting attention.
"It's a small business, so we don't have a marketing budget," said Robb Duncan, who began a blog for his Georgetown gelato shop, Dolcezza, about two years ago. "We've never done any ads or promoting because we can't afford it. So I guess it's kind of guerrilla marketing, and it's free."
When his second store opened in Bethesda in July, Duncan used his blog to advertise an opening night ice cream giveaway. He ended up serving over 300 gallons of ice cream to more than 1,000 customers that night.
Though blogs may not always yield immediate results, they can be part of a "halo effect" that ultimately gives a business a bigger online presence, says Debbie Weil, a corporate blogging consultant and author of "The Corporate Blogging Book." "I think that the really important thing about using a blog as a business strategy is that usually you cannot connect the dots directly from blogs to revenue," Weil said.
The strategy part is important because a blog may not work for every business. Before starting one, companies have to "make sure that the blog fits in with the existing culture of the company," said Walter J. Carl, a professor of communications at Northeastern University who has studied corporate blogging. He says a blog is a "really bad idea" for companies that are secretive or tend toward non-disclosure.
As Weil said, "Some brands are just not hip, informal, conversational."
For well-read blogs with active reader feedback boards, there are tough decisions about how to deal with comments that are off-topic, negative or downright offensive. Marriott's comment section is moderated, which means no comments go up until someone approves them.
Matthews says they do not remove a comment simply because it's negative, but they do cut those not germane to Marriott's original post.
Wynne Williams, on the other hand, does not moderate comments on Viget's site, because he said it "stifles the discussion." In fact, Viget's blog for its Web strategy division has a post titled
"You're Moderating Your Site to Death."
Calacanis now focuses on a personal e-mail list, not directly affiliated with Mahalo, with about 4,000 subscribers. With the list, he said, "I have a much tighter relationship with people." He said it's more intimate and generates more substantive feedback than his blog did.
"It's basically become a mudpit and it's very loud," he said of the blogosphere. In his final post, he wrote, "Today the blogosphere is so charged, so polarized, and so filled with haters hating that it's simply not worth it.
But "the limitation of the medium is the strength of the medium," he said. "It's open to everybody."
By Sarah Halzack
Washington Post Staff Writer
Jason Calacanis, who got into blogging early and big, has quit.
He co-founded a network of blogs called Weblogs in 2003, before the medium cracked the mainstream, and then sold it to AOL in 2005, working there until 2007. Today he is chief executive of Mahalo, a search engine guided by editors rather than algorithms.
After five years of writing on tech industry topics as well as personal ones and building an audience of 10,000 to 20,000 daily visitors, Calacanis said he got tired of all the nasty commenters and opportunistic "link-baiters," people who post just to promote their own blogs.
So he signed off, leaving the blogosphere to others. One group that has been firing up its keyboards is corporate types. Of the approximately 112.5 million blogs on the Web, almost 5,000 are corporate, according to blog indexer Technorati. Calacanis blogged to start conversations and be a part of a virtual community, but corporate bloggers are in it for other reasons: talking directly to customers or giving a personal touch to a big business.
"It's a phenomenal promotion vehicle for a company, or a great crisis tool or a great customer service tool," said Geoff Livingston, a public relations strategist and social media expert.
Bethesda's Honest Tea launched its blog in late 2005 as a way to get close to customers. With a name like Honest Tea, chief executive Seth Goldman said, "we're trying to be as open and disclose as much information as we can." When the company announced that Coca-Cola would acquire a 40 percent interest in the brand, many of Honest Tea's customers who opposed the agreement took their complaints to the blog.
"We gave a very loud voice to the people who said they weren't happy about this decision," Goldman said.
Goldman then took one of the most thoughtful, detailed customer criticisms and responded to each point. Even if readers still didn't agree, "The blog at least helps people see how we think about it," Goldman said.
Kathleen Matthews, who heads global communications at Marriott International, came up with the idea for chief executive Bill Marriott's blog. He saw it as a good way to communicate.
"That's the importance of public relations, of advertising, of everything we do," Marriott said.
"And this is just another channel." Marriott also likes how the blog shows that he's "a human just like everybody else." He sometimes breaks from writing about corporate issues to post about the movies he sees on Saturdays with his wife.
Marriott has thousands of employees around the world, who make up about one-fifth of the blog's readership and comment frequently. "It is the virtual substitute for Bill Marriott visiting every hotel," Matthews said.
He's not your typical blogger -- he doesn't use computers. Instead, he dictates entries into a recorder and a staff member transcribes and posts them. The audio is also on the site, which averages about 6,000 visitors per week and has had more than 600,000 total visitors since its inception in January 2007.
Marriott has made more than $5 million in bookings from people who clicked through to the reservation page from Marriott's blog.
Viget Labs, a Falls Church Web consulting firm, began a blog in 2006. In his field, it's practically obligatory, chief executive Brian Wynne Williams said. "If we didn't blog," he said, "people would start to wonder about us."
The one blog has since expanded to five, each focused on a division of the company.
Wynne Williams said Viget's blogs, which target industry peers, have had a "huge impact on recruiting."
"Anybody that we've hired in the past couple of years, I think any of them would tell you that they read the blog heavily to get a sense of our people," he said.
Designer Samantha Warren said her decision to take a job with Viget was sealed by the blog. "The design was fantastic. It just made me feel like, 'I want to be part of something this good,' " she said.
Smaller businesses are experimenting, too, since a blog can be an economical way of getting attention.
"It's a small business, so we don't have a marketing budget," said Robb Duncan, who began a blog for his Georgetown gelato shop, Dolcezza, about two years ago. "We've never done any ads or promoting because we can't afford it. So I guess it's kind of guerrilla marketing, and it's free."
When his second store opened in Bethesda in July, Duncan used his blog to advertise an opening night ice cream giveaway. He ended up serving over 300 gallons of ice cream to more than 1,000 customers that night.
Though blogs may not always yield immediate results, they can be part of a "halo effect" that ultimately gives a business a bigger online presence, says Debbie Weil, a corporate blogging consultant and author of "The Corporate Blogging Book." "I think that the really important thing about using a blog as a business strategy is that usually you cannot connect the dots directly from blogs to revenue," Weil said.
The strategy part is important because a blog may not work for every business. Before starting one, companies have to "make sure that the blog fits in with the existing culture of the company," said Walter J. Carl, a professor of communications at Northeastern University who has studied corporate blogging. He says a blog is a "really bad idea" for companies that are secretive or tend toward non-disclosure.
As Weil said, "Some brands are just not hip, informal, conversational."
For well-read blogs with active reader feedback boards, there are tough decisions about how to deal with comments that are off-topic, negative or downright offensive. Marriott's comment section is moderated, which means no comments go up until someone approves them.
Matthews says they do not remove a comment simply because it's negative, but they do cut those not germane to Marriott's original post.
Wynne Williams, on the other hand, does not moderate comments on Viget's site, because he said it "stifles the discussion." In fact, Viget's blog for its Web strategy division has a post titled
"You're Moderating Your Site to Death."
Calacanis now focuses on a personal e-mail list, not directly affiliated with Mahalo, with about 4,000 subscribers. With the list, he said, "I have a much tighter relationship with people." He said it's more intimate and generates more substantive feedback than his blog did.
"It's basically become a mudpit and it's very loud," he said of the blogosphere. In his final post, he wrote, "Today the blogosphere is so charged, so polarized, and so filled with haters hating that it's simply not worth it.
But "the limitation of the medium is the strength of the medium," he said. "It's open to everybody."
What the heck is a white paper?
(Dead Tree or Detailed Treatise: What is a white paper?) By Michael Stelzner
In May 2001, in his paper The Art of the White Paper, Gordon Graham recorded that a Google search on the phrase “white papers” resulted in 1.4 million responses. However, by January of 2006, that number skyrocketed to 272 million!
Graham describes white papers as persuasive essays and observes that their style rests “somewhere between a lively magazine article and a dry-as-dust academic paper.” He adds that white papers are fact-driven and contain useful information, expert opinions and iron-clad logic.
According to Jonathan Kantor, founder of The Appum Group, white papers reveal the features of products or services and translate them into business advantages. Kantor suggests that a white paper should logically present information, beginning with challenges and ending with a strategy to resolve issues.
[More]
Why Your Company Needs To Be on Facebook
By Charlene Li
As an analyst, I’m often asked by people why they should bother with services like LinkedIn, Facebook, and MySpace, both from a personal as well as corporate perspective.
Let’s start with a fundamental premise – that all business is social and personal. Business involves people and communications and we all prize “networking” skills and opportunities. Businesses don’t strike deals with each other – people do. And we build bonds by talking about everything from sports teams and the weather to our families and hobbies.
So we as business people already engage in social networking every day, primarily through phone calls, emails, meetings, and events. The same activities take place on social networking sites – people share the tidbits and moments that build relationships.
Yet, many people when they first go and experiment with a site like Facebook, don’t find it relevant to their professional lives. There are two reasons for this: 1) Your professional colleagues are likely not actively using Facebook; and 2) Most of the applications today aren’t designed for a business context.
Let’s take the first problem – you may not have many friends in these social networks. This was my problem – it was only this past spring that people I actually know started using Facebook. My friends are posting links, book reviews, the events they were going to, and suddenly, I now find myself at a near addiction with Facebook. I went to an event because five friends said they would be there. And when I saw them at the event, I congratulated them on closing a round of financing and asked about their recent vacation – all of which had been shared on Facebook. What’s the business value of staying on top of your network? As we know from experience, priceless.
Now for the second problem. Business applications on services like Facebook have yet to take off, which is why people like Tom Davenport have a hard time seeing the business value of social networking sites. I don’t blame him – after all, the most popular applications on Facebook today include such frivolous things like playing Scrabble and Vampires (where you “bite” your friends – don’t ask). That’s because these applications are being designed by 20-something developers for their 20-something friends.
But remember: The notion of creating social applications is only 6 months old – we are in the early days here. Business-oriented developers are just now waking up to the possibilities, and the audience that would use these tools are just discovering social networking. It’s going to take some time for these two sides to find each other and develop an ecosystem for business applications.
Here’s an example – LinkedIn described to me a new social application that would show events in your industry that are coming up – and who in your network is going to them. It will also show you people in that city that you could connect with. So if you know that colleagues, suppliers, partners, funders, customers, etc. are going to be gathering, you’re going to want to be there too.
There’s one final business value that companies are already seeing – and that’s reaching the people who are using social networking sites. Advertising on social networking sites won’t work well – but communicating with people, talking with the “fans” of your products on Facebook makes a lot of sense. Victoria’s Secret has badges that its enthusiasts can download on MySpace on put on their profiles for their friends to see. Ernst & Young (yes, an accounting firm!) answers questions from college students on Facebook – people they are trying hard to recruit.
So don’t write off social networking sites as merely social playgrounds for the young. Your customers, prospects, and employees are exploring and extending their relationships there. Some of you will be bolder in creating business value in these networks while others will wait for the pioneers to carve out the paths. But ignore these new communities only if you believe your customers are not there – and there are few instances where this will be the case.
Does your business embrace social networks? Or is it taking a hands-off approach?
As an analyst, I’m often asked by people why they should bother with services like LinkedIn, Facebook, and MySpace, both from a personal as well as corporate perspective.
Let’s start with a fundamental premise – that all business is social and personal. Business involves people and communications and we all prize “networking” skills and opportunities. Businesses don’t strike deals with each other – people do. And we build bonds by talking about everything from sports teams and the weather to our families and hobbies.
So we as business people already engage in social networking every day, primarily through phone calls, emails, meetings, and events. The same activities take place on social networking sites – people share the tidbits and moments that build relationships.
Yet, many people when they first go and experiment with a site like Facebook, don’t find it relevant to their professional lives. There are two reasons for this: 1) Your professional colleagues are likely not actively using Facebook; and 2) Most of the applications today aren’t designed for a business context.
Let’s take the first problem – you may not have many friends in these social networks. This was my problem – it was only this past spring that people I actually know started using Facebook. My friends are posting links, book reviews, the events they were going to, and suddenly, I now find myself at a near addiction with Facebook. I went to an event because five friends said they would be there. And when I saw them at the event, I congratulated them on closing a round of financing and asked about their recent vacation – all of which had been shared on Facebook. What’s the business value of staying on top of your network? As we know from experience, priceless.
Now for the second problem. Business applications on services like Facebook have yet to take off, which is why people like Tom Davenport have a hard time seeing the business value of social networking sites. I don’t blame him – after all, the most popular applications on Facebook today include such frivolous things like playing Scrabble and Vampires (where you “bite” your friends – don’t ask). That’s because these applications are being designed by 20-something developers for their 20-something friends.
But remember: The notion of creating social applications is only 6 months old – we are in the early days here. Business-oriented developers are just now waking up to the possibilities, and the audience that would use these tools are just discovering social networking. It’s going to take some time for these two sides to find each other and develop an ecosystem for business applications.
Here’s an example – LinkedIn described to me a new social application that would show events in your industry that are coming up – and who in your network is going to them. It will also show you people in that city that you could connect with. So if you know that colleagues, suppliers, partners, funders, customers, etc. are going to be gathering, you’re going to want to be there too.
There’s one final business value that companies are already seeing – and that’s reaching the people who are using social networking sites. Advertising on social networking sites won’t work well – but communicating with people, talking with the “fans” of your products on Facebook makes a lot of sense. Victoria’s Secret has badges that its enthusiasts can download on MySpace on put on their profiles for their friends to see. Ernst & Young (yes, an accounting firm!) answers questions from college students on Facebook – people they are trying hard to recruit.
So don’t write off social networking sites as merely social playgrounds for the young. Your customers, prospects, and employees are exploring and extending their relationships there. Some of you will be bolder in creating business value in these networks while others will wait for the pioneers to carve out the paths. But ignore these new communities only if you believe your customers are not there – and there are few instances where this will be the case.
Does your business embrace social networks? Or is it taking a hands-off approach?
Why Facebook and MySpace Won't Change the Workplace
By Tom Davenport
In early November, I spoke at a conference sponsored by Forbes on “America the Innovator.” It addressed a variety of ways in which American firms are innovating, including disruptive innovations in industries (in the person of Clay Christensen), analytics (my contribution), and social networks (a panel of Web 2.0 and new media experts). Rich Karlgaard, the publisher of Forbes (and the editor of the late, lamented Forbes ASAP) said, as he introduced the social networks panel, that he thought they were going to have deep and pervasive impacts on how organizations managed themselves.
In a conversation after the panel, he told me that he thought they had the potential to greatly diminish hierarchy, credentialism, and other means by which companies have traditionally been controlled -- in short, the established social order within the business world.
Now I generally think Rich is a pretty smart fellow, as is the other partisan of Enterprise 2.0, Andy McAfee, as I've noted previously in this space. So once again I thought it would be worth thinking and writing about whether Internet-based social technologies (blogs, wikis, tagging, prediction markets, etc.) will overturn the established corporate social order. Let me say first that I am no great fan of how companies are managed today; I think they concentrate power too much, confuse innovative capability with position in the hierarchy, and ignore the potential for great ideas from many employees.
Let me say second that I agree that these technologies are revolutionizing information-based industries. There is a good reason why News Corp. bought MySpace and Microsoft overinvested in a piece of Facebook and why TV networks are freaking out over YouTube. Power has definitely moved toward the consumer in media and other industries.
Why is the consumer gaining power? Consumers pay companies for goods, and have many choices. Some have argued that consumers were already gaining power well before Web 2.0 came along. As Jack Leslie, a panelist at the conference and the Chairman of PR agency Weber Shandwick pointed out, consumers no longer believe that the government, the media, or big companies are the most trusted sources of information; instead, they think that other consumers have the best answers. Since consumers control the content in Web 2.0, their power has naturally increased.
But are there analogous trends within companies? I don’t see them. Since employers pay employees, that gives them a certain power to start with. And while employees may trust other employees more than their senior management bosses, they are usually reluctant to say so publicly. Employees don’t even fully control the content in their own emails (with widespread email surveillance and those embarrassing brand signatures many employees are forced to use), much less the overall messages that their companies send out into the world. In general, I wouldn’t say the power held by employees has increased much in recent times, and with the decline of unions, the rise of the imperial CEO, etc., it would be easier to argue the opposite position.
In short, I’m still pulling for social networks to revolutionize companies, but I still don’t think that they will.
The transformation of enterprises by Enterprise 2.0 is a romantic notion, but not a very likely one.
For a contrasting viewpoint, read "Why Your Company Should be on Facebook"
In early November, I spoke at a conference sponsored by Forbes on “America the Innovator.” It addressed a variety of ways in which American firms are innovating, including disruptive innovations in industries (in the person of Clay Christensen), analytics (my contribution), and social networks (a panel of Web 2.0 and new media experts). Rich Karlgaard, the publisher of Forbes (and the editor of the late, lamented Forbes ASAP) said, as he introduced the social networks panel, that he thought they were going to have deep and pervasive impacts on how organizations managed themselves.
In a conversation after the panel, he told me that he thought they had the potential to greatly diminish hierarchy, credentialism, and other means by which companies have traditionally been controlled -- in short, the established social order within the business world.
Now I generally think Rich is a pretty smart fellow, as is the other partisan of Enterprise 2.0, Andy McAfee, as I've noted previously in this space. So once again I thought it would be worth thinking and writing about whether Internet-based social technologies (blogs, wikis, tagging, prediction markets, etc.) will overturn the established corporate social order. Let me say first that I am no great fan of how companies are managed today; I think they concentrate power too much, confuse innovative capability with position in the hierarchy, and ignore the potential for great ideas from many employees.
Let me say second that I agree that these technologies are revolutionizing information-based industries. There is a good reason why News Corp. bought MySpace and Microsoft overinvested in a piece of Facebook and why TV networks are freaking out over YouTube. Power has definitely moved toward the consumer in media and other industries.
Why is the consumer gaining power? Consumers pay companies for goods, and have many choices. Some have argued that consumers were already gaining power well before Web 2.0 came along. As Jack Leslie, a panelist at the conference and the Chairman of PR agency Weber Shandwick pointed out, consumers no longer believe that the government, the media, or big companies are the most trusted sources of information; instead, they think that other consumers have the best answers. Since consumers control the content in Web 2.0, their power has naturally increased.
But are there analogous trends within companies? I don’t see them. Since employers pay employees, that gives them a certain power to start with. And while employees may trust other employees more than their senior management bosses, they are usually reluctant to say so publicly. Employees don’t even fully control the content in their own emails (with widespread email surveillance and those embarrassing brand signatures many employees are forced to use), much less the overall messages that their companies send out into the world. In general, I wouldn’t say the power held by employees has increased much in recent times, and with the decline of unions, the rise of the imperial CEO, etc., it would be easier to argue the opposite position.
In short, I’m still pulling for social networks to revolutionize companies, but I still don’t think that they will.
The transformation of enterprises by Enterprise 2.0 is a romantic notion, but not a very likely one.
For a contrasting viewpoint, read "Why Your Company Should be on Facebook"
VizzVox provides tools that can turn homes for sale into movie stars
By Carol Lloyd, Special to SF Gate
The music rises, the picture fades in and the story begins ... Once upon a time there was a house on a tree-lined street ... sunlight flickered off the windows, and inside the people lived a life we all dream of living: of blooming gardens, pristine kitchens, tranquil living rooms filled with antiques ...
Of all our modern industries, none has been so persistently fraught with fairy tale figments as real estate. But let's face it, that real estate postcard dropped through your mail slot can do only so much to ignite the imagination. Likewise with the Sunday open house: While other buyers trample through rooms commenting on the water damage and agents troll for possible clients, it's hard to fall deeply into an unadulterated dream of the perfect home.
But VizzVox, a new online tool for creating commercials and short movies, has built the ideal stage for real estate fantasies. Although the Web-based technology can be used for anything from a multimedia love letter to a corporate commercial, real estate agents have been among the first to jump on the new tool and make it their own.
The technology allows agents to create narrated slideshows or movies complete with musical scores in less than an hour. The effect is simple but deft. A voiceover narration accompanies the home tour, allowing the agent to add a flourish about the neighborhood, a detail about the handcrafted woodwork.
The result puts the seduction back in real estate, big time. One tour of architect Andrew Knoll's 1922 Italianate estate in Los Altos positively oozes luxury. Accompanied by soft classical music and birdsong, the British tour guide luxuriates in the Moroccan-tiled fountains, the Asian tea house, the spa-like master bathroom, sounding like a man who has fallen in love for the first time. During the tour of a Marin waterfront home, we're exhorted to "indulge in the magic of sea breezes, soaking up spectacular views which can be seen from almost every room!"
At $150 per per spot, or Vizzie, this seductive marketing tool is also relatively affordable. Some agents invest in professionally produced videos of their listings. But, at $6,000 to $15,000 for a three-minute spot, such videos are only cost-effective for the most expensive homes. VizzVox launched in June, and its first Vizzies were personal stories about vacations or momentous events. Software engineer Steve Harshbarger came up with the idea after spending an arduous weekend creating a short DVD for friends about a recent family trip to New Zealand.
Harshbarger decided to automate the process, and partnered with Robert Beth, a business consultant and entrepreneur, to launch VizzVox. Since then, the technology has been used to create commercials for small businesses and eBay products, as well as real estate.
Katharine Holland, a San Francisco agent with Coldwell Banker, has created Vizzies for 10 of her listings. "I was the first agent in the U.S. to use this technology," she told me. "My only regret is that I did not do it sooner."
Holland says that in addition to helping her sell homes, VizzVox has already helped her obtain two more listings. "When the clients saw my Vizzies for other listings," she explained, "they both said, 'We want you.'"
In a moment when low sales volumes are forcing many real estate agents to consider other lines of work, Holland sees her adaptation of VizzVox as giving her an edge on the competition. "As the number of listings increase, it is one way to break through the noise." she says. Another useful aspect of the Vizzie is its power to track where viewers are coming from. "I have reached Seoul, New Zealand ... On one property, I have more hits on the VizzVox than I do on the multiple listing service."
Chief executive Robert Beth says that creating a Vizzie is extremely simple — a process that even non-techies can easily master. "It's designed to mimic the process of a person sitting on a couch, showing you some photos of their recent trip," he said. "I've heard about people creating their Vizzies in 15 minutes."
Instead of beginning with a complete script and editing visuals to fit it, as a professional videographer might, VizzVox allows users to choose photographs or video clips, drop them into an order that tells a story and then add bite-sized voiceovers to accompany each image or clip.
The user then gets to choose from a library of soundtracks or add their own, and the software stitches the pieces together. The result often looks seamless even when it's simply a collection of snippets smoothed together with a musical score. For those agents who cringe at the sound of their own voice, VizzVox offers voiceover professionals for $50 per Vizzie and scriptwriting for $70 per Vizzie.
At this point, the technology has only begun to reach the real estate industry. But it has attracted a fair number of Bay Area agents, a smattering from elsewhere in North America, as well as one corporate booster. Alain Pinel, the seventh largest real estate company in the country in terms of overall sales, is actively encouraging its agents to use VizzVox.
But if agents appreciate VizzVox for its marketing potential, real estate connoisseurs may enjoy it most for its sheer entertainment value. In one tour of an 8,000 square-foot home in Mendocino, we hear about the nearby lighthouse built on a "spectacular headland thrusting out (emphasis not mine) into the Pacific Ocean." In a tour of a Pebble Beach townhome, along with licks of sultry jazz, we hear that the "sinuous staircase leads to the upstairs master."
With home tours like this, who needs cheesy television?
The music rises, the picture fades in and the story begins ... Once upon a time there was a house on a tree-lined street ... sunlight flickered off the windows, and inside the people lived a life we all dream of living: of blooming gardens, pristine kitchens, tranquil living rooms filled with antiques ...
Of all our modern industries, none has been so persistently fraught with fairy tale figments as real estate. But let's face it, that real estate postcard dropped through your mail slot can do only so much to ignite the imagination. Likewise with the Sunday open house: While other buyers trample through rooms commenting on the water damage and agents troll for possible clients, it's hard to fall deeply into an unadulterated dream of the perfect home.
But VizzVox, a new online tool for creating commercials and short movies, has built the ideal stage for real estate fantasies. Although the Web-based technology can be used for anything from a multimedia love letter to a corporate commercial, real estate agents have been among the first to jump on the new tool and make it their own.
The technology allows agents to create narrated slideshows or movies complete with musical scores in less than an hour. The effect is simple but deft. A voiceover narration accompanies the home tour, allowing the agent to add a flourish about the neighborhood, a detail about the handcrafted woodwork.
The result puts the seduction back in real estate, big time. One tour of architect Andrew Knoll's 1922 Italianate estate in Los Altos positively oozes luxury. Accompanied by soft classical music and birdsong, the British tour guide luxuriates in the Moroccan-tiled fountains, the Asian tea house, the spa-like master bathroom, sounding like a man who has fallen in love for the first time. During the tour of a Marin waterfront home, we're exhorted to "indulge in the magic of sea breezes, soaking up spectacular views which can be seen from almost every room!"
At $150 per per spot, or Vizzie, this seductive marketing tool is also relatively affordable. Some agents invest in professionally produced videos of their listings. But, at $6,000 to $15,000 for a three-minute spot, such videos are only cost-effective for the most expensive homes. VizzVox launched in June, and its first Vizzies were personal stories about vacations or momentous events. Software engineer Steve Harshbarger came up with the idea after spending an arduous weekend creating a short DVD for friends about a recent family trip to New Zealand.
Harshbarger decided to automate the process, and partnered with Robert Beth, a business consultant and entrepreneur, to launch VizzVox. Since then, the technology has been used to create commercials for small businesses and eBay products, as well as real estate.
Katharine Holland, a San Francisco agent with Coldwell Banker, has created Vizzies for 10 of her listings. "I was the first agent in the U.S. to use this technology," she told me. "My only regret is that I did not do it sooner."
Holland says that in addition to helping her sell homes, VizzVox has already helped her obtain two more listings. "When the clients saw my Vizzies for other listings," she explained, "they both said, 'We want you.'"
In a moment when low sales volumes are forcing many real estate agents to consider other lines of work, Holland sees her adaptation of VizzVox as giving her an edge on the competition. "As the number of listings increase, it is one way to break through the noise." she says. Another useful aspect of the Vizzie is its power to track where viewers are coming from. "I have reached Seoul, New Zealand ... On one property, I have more hits on the VizzVox than I do on the multiple listing service."
Chief executive Robert Beth says that creating a Vizzie is extremely simple — a process that even non-techies can easily master. "It's designed to mimic the process of a person sitting on a couch, showing you some photos of their recent trip," he said. "I've heard about people creating their Vizzies in 15 minutes."
Instead of beginning with a complete script and editing visuals to fit it, as a professional videographer might, VizzVox allows users to choose photographs or video clips, drop them into an order that tells a story and then add bite-sized voiceovers to accompany each image or clip.
The user then gets to choose from a library of soundtracks or add their own, and the software stitches the pieces together. The result often looks seamless even when it's simply a collection of snippets smoothed together with a musical score. For those agents who cringe at the sound of their own voice, VizzVox offers voiceover professionals for $50 per Vizzie and scriptwriting for $70 per Vizzie.
At this point, the technology has only begun to reach the real estate industry. But it has attracted a fair number of Bay Area agents, a smattering from elsewhere in North America, as well as one corporate booster. Alain Pinel, the seventh largest real estate company in the country in terms of overall sales, is actively encouraging its agents to use VizzVox.
But if agents appreciate VizzVox for its marketing potential, real estate connoisseurs may enjoy it most for its sheer entertainment value. In one tour of an 8,000 square-foot home in Mendocino, we hear about the nearby lighthouse built on a "spectacular headland thrusting out (emphasis not mine) into the Pacific Ocean." In a tour of a Pebble Beach townhome, along with licks of sultry jazz, we hear that the "sinuous staircase leads to the upstairs master."
With home tours like this, who needs cheesy television?
Scooter steers buyer to condo
Developers dream up creative pitches to catch attention in the tough times
Marni Leff Kottle
Sunday, November 18, 2007
It was the promise of a motor scooter - probably candy apple red - that helped seal the deal for Jeanne George and her husband, who closed last week on a $1 million condo in San Francisco.
George, a 61-year-old retiree who lives most of the year in Lake Tahoe, said that she saw an ad promising a Vespa with the purchase of the condo at 733 Front St. in the newspaper and was drawn in.
"The last time I was in the city I had a brand new SUV and I swore I would never drive in the city again," George said. A scooter is "the perfect thing for me to zip over to the Ferry Building from Front Street and zip back again."
-more-
Marni Leff Kottle
Sunday, November 18, 2007
It was the promise of a motor scooter - probably candy apple red - that helped seal the deal for Jeanne George and her husband, who closed last week on a $1 million condo in San Francisco.
George, a 61-year-old retiree who lives most of the year in Lake Tahoe, said that she saw an ad promising a Vespa with the purchase of the condo at 733 Front St. in the newspaper and was drawn in.
"The last time I was in the city I had a brand new SUV and I swore I would never drive in the city again," George said. A scooter is "the perfect thing for me to zip over to the Ferry Building from Front Street and zip back again."
-more-
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