Imagine my surprise. A couple of weeks ago I am at home alone, sitting in a living-room chair and I see something scoot out from under the couch. Startled, I get up out of the chair to see this…weasel (it’s a stoat actually, I had no idea what it was at the time - this is a picture taken in our yard) checking me out.
Then the realization…there is a weasel in my house! (Fortunately my wife was not home at the time…she would have freaked!) How on earth did that get in my house? I spent the next 40 minutes coaxing this creature from room to room until I had him confined to one room with an outside door. I then waited patiently for him to make his way back to the great outdoors. To this day, I have no idea how he got in. He must have sneaked in through the front door when one of us was coming in or out of the house that morning.
In your organization…has something unwanted, unexpected, or disruptive sneaked in when you were not looking? How is the morale among your employees? How is the culture in your organization? Have you veered off course from your original set of goals, mission, or purpose? Usually things like this happen and we have no idea how they got in there. Check your organizational house. Make sure that there is nothing unnatural going on and that there are no unwanted or unexpected surprises. It would be worse to let them go on without being dealt with than to take the time now getting things cleared up immediately. Get the weasel out of your house!
I have attended a couple of conferences in the past few months where I have been networking with new contacts - meeting people for the first time. When we are in that setting, what do we do? We ask people and they ask us…”what do you do”? Or some variation thereof.
Do you have a concise sales pitch for what you do? Can you explain clearly the essence of who you are, what you do, why you do it, and what your value is in such a way that people want to hear more?
No matter what role you play in the organization you represent, you have a very short period of time to introduce yourself and make an engaging and captivating pitch. It often is less than 30 seconds…maybe as little as 15. Can you brand yourself to someone new in 15 seconds? I would encourage you to to take some time to think this through, craft the wording by writing it down, and practice it untill you have it down pat. The more engaging you make this pitch, the stronger impression you make, the better chance you have of building an ongoing connection.
Here is a resource I have just discovered called 15SecondPitch.com that can help you write it down and hone the details. Let me know if you have yours perfected, and feel free to share your 15 second pitch here…we can all learn from sharing our personal brand creation with others.
I just spent the last two days attending the Atlantic Internet Marketing Conference which was held this year in Moncton, New Brunswick. While much of it is still fresh in my mind, I thought I would share with you the most relevant themes from the sessions I attended.
A common thread related to content. Whatever your content is online, it has to be as different and as unique as possible. There are so many web sites and social media applications available today (and this will only continue to grow). In order to stand out online, your message has to be clear, relevant, and unique. You cannot be everything to everyone, so find your niche and do everything you can to claim that niche. We all have a specialty skill set and we should maximize our value online by honing our skills to the zenith of their possibilities.
On the homepage of your web site, emphasize the the three most important things you are trying to communicate and be sure to clearly communicate your value. Strong visuals are important in this pursuit, but do not put key content that can be useful for search engines to find you into the graphics. Use flash visuals sparingly and only to draw attention to a key item and provide some life to your site. Remember that visitor’s eyes naturally start at the top left of your site so put your most important content there. Use your web site to sell the experience you are trying to deliver. Be clear about what your organization does and to build credibility incorporate endorsements and testimonials. To give a realness to your organization develop personal profile pages that give your customers a glimpse into the real people behind the services. These personal pages are more important in many ways than their portfolio.
One of the most important things you can do is be authentic. Present your organization visually for who you really are and when using blogs, write for yourself and your interests first and that will automatically translate into unique content that your followers will gravitate to. If you are writing genuinely and with passion, you most likely will naturally optimize your site with search engine friendly “key terms”. Again, find and define your niche and try to do something that no one else is doing. From this will develop human-level conversations through your blog comments and that ultimately is what social media is all about…building the human need for community and connectedness.
Mi-Picks from the AIM Conference:
Best Session: Marketing Yourself as a Free-agent on the Internet (Harold Jarche)
I began reading some marketing and technology blogs consistently in fall ‘07. There are currently 44 blogs that I am trying to gain industry knowledge from each week. I am constantly amazed at the information I learn daily from these blogs. I (like many others) have found a tool that helps me save a ton of time and collects all the recent posts from these blogs in one place. This tool is called Google Reader.
Google Reader is an RSS reader. RSS is an electronic coding system that is like e-mail but it gathers the information and stores it in the RSS reader. There are many readers, I just happen to like Google Reader as I am a general fan of Google.
Interesting side note, I was at the Atlantic Internet Marketing Conference today and learned that 77% of all searches done on search engines in Canada are done using Google!
Google Reader is a free online tool that takes only seconds to sign up for and then you can easily subscribe to all your favorite blogs and keep them organized in one place. I have been using this reader for 6 months now and it has become an essential tool and time-saver because I no longer have to go to each separate blog to see if there are any new posts. I do still go to the original blog post if I want to contribute a comment. I would encourage you to try Google Reader and I would like to hear about your experience with RSS readers, please comment with your thoughts.
For those of you who do not understand RSS and how these readers work, here is a short 3 1/2 minute video tutorial that will provide you with a simple overview…
In a woman’s college baseball game last weekend between Western Oregon and Central Washington, Sara Tucholsky hit the first home-run of her college career. Unfortunately, in her excitement rounding first base she missed touching the bag. As she turned to retrace her steps, her right knee buckled and she fell to the ground in pain, unable to get up. Two opposition teamates consulted with the umpires and offered to carry her around the bases so she could complete her home run celebration. How excellent is that?
So often in life and in business we are too self-centred. How many of us would have even considered such a gesture? Of course, we would love to think we might do the same, but the reality is that few of us would have. That’s why this made the news…it is unusual. Those two opposition teammates…they are real leaders! Those two women Mallory Holtman and Liz Wallace, made a split second decision that defines their character and their leadership. They sought justice and wasted no time to see it enacted. Interestingly, they lost the game because of it, but that outcome never entered their mind in the moment. The simply did the right thing.
I hope we can all learn from this moment in sports history and apply this leadership and character principle to our lives and into our organizations. It’s not all about me. Let’s celebrate the accomplishments of others and reach out to those in need. Let’s play fair, seeking justice, and fairness. When a split-second decision needs to be made, may we be strong leaders and make the right choice.
Share your thoughts with me on this application to leadership and you can read the complete New York Times article here.
Update May 7th: Here is a video clip of the 3 women on Ellen:
Imagine my surprise. A couple of weeks ago I am at home alone, sitting in a living-room chair and I see something scoot out from under the couch. Startled, I get up out of the chair to see this…weasel (it’s a stoat actually, I had no idea what it was at the time - this is a picture taken in our yard) checking me out. 
Now here is something you don’t see every day.
