Archive for January, 2007
Monday, January 29th, 2007
Seth Godin recently wrote a post reiterating points he made on bad powerpoint presentations, and how they can become great ones. He makes a lot of great points. I’ve enforced many of these in the past, and he makes some great points I haven’t heard before. One of the key things to remember about giving a presentation with powerpoint is that you are the one giving the presentation, not the powerpoint. It is merely there to support you, but you are the one ultimately selling. Seth’s point on using only up to 6 words per slide seems to work with that idea.
As I think back to all of the poor powerpoint presentations I had to sit through in meetings, it is nice to read this breath of fresh air. Take a moment of your time and read his post. You’ll come out a stronger powerpoint presenter if you take his words to heart.
[tags]presentation, powerpoint, speech, Seth Godin[/tags]
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Friday, January 26th, 2007
You’ve created your new marketing piece, but is it unique or does it? It can be seen everywhere, marketing and advertising ad nauseam. Every cliche you can think of being thrown into an ad. Bigger! Better! As seen on TV! Everyone using the same action words and phrases, designs, and claims as the next guy, becoming a forgettable, uninspired mess. It is one thing to use techniques you learned from marketing classes, but it is another to set yourself apart from the rest of the ones out there sing the same techniques.
What is one to do? Think outside of the box. It is okay to step out of the norm and experiment with different forms of advertising, advocating, or design. The easiest way to think of this is to not limit your self to your same tools. Think of anything and everything as a potential marketing tool. Rid yourself of standards for what a certain product has to look like, or be. Take for example, Seth Godin’s book, The Big Moo, which was done as a milk carton for promotion. Definitely not what one would expect to find a marketing book in, and it definitely got people talking. Advertising moments have been expanded in all kinds of interesting ways such as selling forehead ad space. This was definitely a unique idea that created an immense amount of buzz for him (and a nice profit).
Set yourself apart from the rest of the clutter by being original. The best place to start is by ridding yourself of what defines advertising. Tying yourself to too many boundaries can put you into a rut of average marketing. It’s time to be remarkable and choose marketing that creates a buzz heard all around.
[tags]marketing, buzz, innovation[/tags]
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Thursday, January 18th, 2007
I was reading through some Blogs yesterday and was trying to contact one fellow Blogger directly. There was one problem, though: No contact information was listed! I searched high and low, checking for what I thought were obvious locations for contact information. After searching for quite a while, I gave up. I didn’t contact them, and I left disappointed.
If you are trying to generate some buzz and make new contacts having your contact information is vital. The most obvious place to put it is on your About page or even your footer. If you have a profile listed on your sidebar then definitely take advantage of the space to give people a way to connect to you. The easier you make it for them, the more likely they are to say hi.
Just one simple sentence can make a difference from meeting an interesting person, to no one at all. Ron McDaniel told his story of how it worked for him with Buzzoodle. The question is, then, are you making it easy for your readers to reach out to you?
[tags]buzz, contact[/tags]
Posted in Blog Traffic, Buzz | No Comments »
Monday, January 15th, 2007
Do you work at a desk job? If you are like me and work behind a computer then you may have noticed your body crying out for some mobility.
If you work full time, this means at least 8 hours of your day is spent sitting down. Remaining inactive for so long can be a detriment to your health and productivity. It is important that we keep blood circulating throughout the body. This will not only work well for the body, it will also increase blood flow to the brain so you can keep on task.
How do you do it, then? Here are some simple things you can do while at work:
- Stand up and stretch! This is important to get things circulating. I stretch every morning. I do more than these, but they are still good to get you started.
- You can start simply by reaching down and touching your toes.
- For your arms, you can bring one arm up, and behind your head, like a chicken wing.
- For your back and arms, stand up and point both arms to the sky with your palms up. Push towards the ceiling and exhale. Stand straight during this and let the stretch elongate the spine.
- Go for a walk during lunch and breaks. This has been especially good for me after lunch, and provides me with a great second wind to tackle the second half of the work place.
- Rotate your shoulders and neck. This is a good one to relieve tension. It is also very simple and can be done at your desk.
- If your workplace has a gym, use it! Doing a few reps when you can really gives you a boost and some extra motivation to keep going.
It is very important to do something outside of work as well. It doesn’t have to be anything too demanding. You can start off with just a half hour of exercise a day and build from there as you feel comfortable. Jogging, bicycling, and walking are simple things to do. There are many groups that you can join as well. For example, twice a week I attend a martial arts class to learn more and practice each day.
Staying in shape is a commitment, and a rewarding one as well. Keeping in shape provides you with the motivation, energy, and spirit to keep going. From another prospective it also keeps your health care costs lower for you and your workplace. A client of ours, Dr. Tom Gilliam stresses the importance of a healthy work force with his book, Move it. Lose it. Live Healthy. He understands why it is important to stay in shape. Shouldn’t we all?
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Thursday, January 11th, 2007
Every now and then a product comes a long that gets me as excited as a nine year old boy with a new toy. For me, it’s the iPhone from Apple. Although Apple has talked about making something like this before, it wasn’t until recently that they hit us hard by unveiling the product.
They have a way with design that is at the top of its class, and the iPhone is no different. There is a lesson to be learned here: Having high technology is great, having great design can take you far as well (just look at the craze for the Nano over its superior original iPod), but having both implemented intuitively is the real deal. It comes with what I would expect as far as features, but its implementation and technology are leaps and bounds ahead of the competition. Multitouch screen technology combined with accelerometer and ambient light sensor allow for some slick things. Just check out the site to see for yourself.
Unfortunately, the only provider for this phone is Cingular, and the contract for that exclusivity lasts until 2009. Who knows if Apple will release something else for other providers before then? Either way, it will be interesting to see if Cingular service sales go up once the iPhone hits the market. Until then, I’ll just sit back and drool at it.
Posted in Tech | No Comments »
Wednesday, January 10th, 2007
It happens all too often in both social life and business: we take the harder, more complicated route to the finish line when the obvious, simpler solution was right in front of our faces.
We at Buzzoodle went through this a while back regarding one of our sites. Originally, we planned on this great site with lots of features. I began work on the page and we ran into snags here and there while spent a lot of time (and headache) working on it. It wasn’t until recently that the answer to our problems was simple: a Blog. It has all the functions we needed and was much faster and easier to integrate. The real kicker is that the level of quality is the same and may even generate even more traffic.
It is easy to get carried away and plan a big, complex project while envisioning some amazing product. Take a step back from a moment first and weigh your options. Is this really the way we should go? Can we do this simpler without any sacrifice to quality? Is is as, or possibly even more effective than our original plan?
Don’t let the hype of your own product/service ideas cloud your judgement and cause you to make hasty decisions. A better solution may be right under your nose.
Posted in Small Business | No Comments »
