Bestselling Author Alan Weiss

Alan Weiss has written over 45 books. Absorb that for a minute. That is a heck of alot of books.

His latest is Million Dollar Referrals (McGraw- Hill). A timely title about one of the most unique marketing art forms, referrals. Why timely? With constant changes in media and the rise of new channels such as social media, referrals can make or break many kinds of businesses. It is certainly an under-managed areas of marketing strategy in most organizations that has potential to improve business results. Like most marketing it requires your value proposition to be crystal clear as you are asking someone else to explain it to someone else. I can say from experience that many people skip this step.

Million Dollar Referrals is a clearly written, thought provoking read. The kind folks at McGraw-Hill were kind enough to set up an interview with Alan Weiss, the conversation is below….

The opening chapter discusses “Business Relationships are a Process, Not an Event”. You could replace the word relationships with many other concepts. Making that switch requires changing personal habits and or corporate culture. What is the best way to create this behavior change?

Alan Weiss: It merely requires educating your buyer and client. Culture change is a rubric, signifying less than nothing these days. Demonstrate to the client the nature of the relationship and partnership in terms of ongoing interaction and support.

What are the typical issues that can lead to a consulting provider being replaced? Can referrals be used effectively to ignite that need for a change in provider?

Alan Weiss: Trust that is violated. It’s very difficult to replace a highly respected consultant in a client. You can use referrals to become an additional resource as opposed to a replacement.

If you were starting a new consulting company from scratch today what areas would you take extra care to distinguish unique value in today’s highly competitive and global landscape?

Alan Weiss: Responsiveness; intellectual property; testimonials; global applicability; thought leadership; contrarianism.

You discuss that for referrals to be successful, clear communication of both targets and mutual benefit need to be present. What is the hardest part about consistently achieving this?

Alan Weiss: Being afraid to ask, failing to follow up, taking “no” too readily, not adequately demonstrating the win/win/win nature.

The are many new areas of strategic consulting involving technology convergence, search marketing, mobile, etc. What is the best way to convey certain value for new services where the price is not well established?

Alan Weiss: Price has nothing to do with it. The key is to show the value in terms of the buyer personal needs as well as the organizational need. Every client knows what he wants; few know what the need. Consultants should identify the needs.

Is there any way to create referrals when you are working with a client under a non-disclosure agreement?

Alan Weiss: Sure. You can be referred outside the industry, or without regard to the nature of the work, and without revealing that the source was a client.

Is there any major issues you think people over look with referrals?

Alan Weiss: They don’t prepare their clients or the environment, and fail to consistently ask because they are embarrassed.

I understand you occasionally put on some unique seminars? Is anything upcoming?

Alan Weiss: Just finished Thought Leadership at The Breakers in Palm Beach. Million Collar Consulting® College next week. Australia speaking tour after that. The Art of the Referral Workshop in Newport on Nov. 30. http://www.summitconsulting.com/

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The relationship probably works so well because it is really simple and low maintenance, I need to take the coupon to my local Einstein Bros Bagels location prior to 11AM each Friday to experience a freshly made bagel.  But rather than a one time only usage, the coupon remains with me after experiencing the bagel. It sits on my counter. Quietly. Yet I see it several times a week. And I admit to thinking about it more often than that.

So why do I like this reusuable coupon so passionately?

• It Allows Me To Experience The Actual Current Attributes of The Brand – This is critical! It’s a unique piece of marketing in that regard alone as experiencing the attributes of the brand is what it’s all about!
• It Brings Unique Warmth That Builds A Relationship – The reusable coupon’s giving nature allows one to fell warm and fuzzy about the experience.
• It Gives Me Something To Look Forward To Each Week – This is pretty obvious. Heck this blog post is being written on a Tuesday!
• It Is Habit Forming – Getting in the habit of going to Einstein Bros Bagels each Friday would be unimagiable in any other way.
• It Encourages Risk Taking / Trying New Things – I likely would not have tried the Honey Whole Wheat Bagel had I not be incentives for a free trial of it’s attributes.
• It Serves as a Model to Mobile Marketing Pioneers – Image time windows where merchants provide deals everywhere and scan your phone in some way to create mesaurability of Word of Mouth and other types of unique marketing offers. The possibilities and combinations are endless. Get beyond the DNA of purely outbound marketing and into inbound and word of mouth possibilities.

All of the above are positive attributes that I am quite fond of and appreciate greatly in engaging marketing that builds affinity for experiencing a brand’s attributes. I love this kind of marketing!

So the coupon expires on 11/27, will my love affair with the coupon will certainly come to an end, but will I keep it a drawer like an aging love letter? Don’t know yet. What I do know is we should reward innovative and effective marketing of this nature as it’s a great pleasure to interact with when compared to non-relevant outbound marketing messages that are still too often the norm.

It would be interesting to see the vibe of this coupon applied to their website design, as according to Compete.com the top 5 search entry terms to the site are currently branded search terms and account for ~60% of the site traffic currently and the word Bagel is not in the title tag of the homepage.  Hopefully the online experience will one day rival the vibe that was created by the reusable coupon that sparked my secret love affair…

Companies should have that goal to create a passionate love affair with their customers. Applications for love affairs with me are currently being accepted…

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Seemingly almost out of nowhere, after several years of being virtually invisible to the public, click fraud appeared on the pages of the New York Times and Microsoft took on the role of being the white hat with the filing of a unique lawsuit.

Whether the timing shortly after the launch of Bing is on purpose or not, this is a highly important event.  Time may one day look back at this first of it’s kind event as the most single important action Microsoft has ever taken in the battle with other search engines.

Tim Cranton, Microsoft’s Associate General Counsel, wrote a post about the lawsuit on the Microsoft on the Issues blog, entitled Using Enforcement to Crack Down on ‘Click Fraud’, Cranton stated:

Once we became aware of the click fraud attacks we quickly took action to address any impact on advertisers and to enhance safeguards to further protect our network.  Today’s suit seeks an injunction to help stop this activity and to recover damages.

As I’ve stated on this blog before, the Internet is all about trust. If Microsoft can build trust by taking these actions, that is outstanding. Over time, the question is this, “Will Microsoft will be able to take trust away from other search engines regarding this issue?”

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Speakers:
Ed Kim, Chief Executive Officer, Red Bricks Media
Greg Jarboe, President & Co-founder, SEO-PR
Steve Espinosa, Director of Product Development & Management, eLocal Listing, LLC
Gregory Markel, Founder/President, Infuse Creative, LLC
Barbara C. Coll, CEO, WebMama.com Inc.

I didn’t get to attend this session due to other conference activities.

However, I did learn that Greg Jarboe is working on a book about Youtube (I’d love to contribute or read an early version if you are reading this btw).  I look forward to seeing it.

I’d encourage people to check out my highly ranked post “How to do Youtube Video View (Search) Optimization” in addition to other posts about this session.

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Matt Wilburn, Senior Director, CPG, Matt WIlburn and Beth Uyenco went over example of how CPG companies are starting to use search. I missed Eli’s position of the session and Brian Lipman discussed the Hunt’s response to the tomato scare earilier this year and talked about the importance of cycle time. Randy Peterson’s talk was very similar to the 2007 Consumer Package Goods session.

Matt Wilburn, Yahoo!

Search Marketing for CPG Brands – Search provides scale and relevance for CPG brands percomScore study.

Is there brand equity in search results? Yes! Brand awareness rises 160% for items in search results

2009 need – greater accountability! 98% said a lack of standardization in reporting of internet statistics

Metrics that Matter – If you can’t tie odd knots, tie a lot of them…

Accountability will drive adoption of search…digital shows better ROI than broadcast

Beth Uyenco, Microsoft:

How search fits into the digital lifestyle of CPG’s primary shoppers

Moms are experienced and tenacious “Searchers”

86% feel that search engines are the best way to find information – compare prices, find retail locations, gather production information, product reviews, find sales, coupons and incentives

Women prowl for ‘good deals’ – how can we get them smart before the cart?

While the Internet has changed the shopping game, but its just trickling down to CPG…

Price leveler, ratings/reviews, trusted sources

Toilet paper surprisingly is researched at a high level

Randy Peterson, P & G

Presented 10 myths

70% of CPG searchers believe you are not a leading brand if you are not on page one of the search engine results page for the product type

Position matters and evidence is increasing that this increases brand recall

Reduce prices through improved quality scores.

Competitor isn’t there, why do I need to be?

Lipman
Rapid Response SEM Process: Identify the issue, Understand the issue, Respond

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IFBYPHONE SECURES $4.6 MILLION IN NEW ROUND OF FUNDING
Infusion of Venture Capital Insures Continued Expansion Despite Economic Downturn

CHICAGO–Nov. 18, 2008—In the middle of an economic slowdown and a drought in venture capital funding, Ifbyphone said today it has secured $4.6 million in a second round of institutional funding from five venture capital firms.
Ifbyphone is a hosted telephone application platform company that provides small and medium-sized businesses with telephony features that enable them to create phone solutions that enhance customer conversations, increase sales and lower costs.
The funding round was jointly led by Apex Venture Partners and Origin Ventures, who also invested in Ifbyphone’s first round of institutional funding. They were joined by Spring Mill Venture Partners, i2A and Blue Crest Capital Finance, L.P.
“We view this new round of funding as a strong endorsement of our growth and expansion strategy,” said Ifbyphone founder and CEO Irv Shapiro. “It positions us extremely well to continue our expansion during these complex economic times.”

“We are very excited to be a part of the Ifbyphone investor group,” said Ken Green, co-founder and managing partner at Spring Mill Venture Partners. “We believe that Ifbyphone represents the next great wave of Internet-enabled business services, allowing small and medium-sized businesses access to capabilities previously only available to their larger competitors. This kind of service offers an opportunity to level the competitive playing field.”

To learn more about Ifbyphone’s affordable suite of online telephony applications, such as voice broadcasting, Smart Toll Free Numbers, Google Analytics Call Integration and interactive voice response (IVR), visit  http://www.ifbyphone.com.

# # #
About Ifbyphone
Ifbyphone is a hosted telephone application platform company that provides small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) with tools to enhance customer conversations, drive sales, and lower costs. Leveraging Ifbyphone’s extreme usability, developers and marketers can quickly create solutions ranging from simple click-to-call links to sophisticated call-routing and interactive-marketing systems. Ifbyphone’s solutions are available directly to SMBs and through a network of resellers. For more information, click to speak to a sales professional or visit the Ifbyphone Web site.

About Origin Ventures
Origin Ventures is a venture capital firm investing in early-stage companies. The firm invests capital and leverages its entrepreneurial, marketing and management expertise to help facilitate the growth of early-stage companies. The principals of Origin Ventures have been involved in successful entrepreneurial activities since the mid 1980s.

About Apex Venture Partners
Apex Venture Partners is a national venture capital firm based in Chicago. With more than 20 years’ experience financing early stage IT businesses, Apex has invested in more than 140 companies since inception. The partners at Apex look for companies that have unique products or services that address large potential markets in which customer needs are not being addressed.

About Spring Mill Venture Partners
Spring Mill Venture Partners is an early stage venture capital firm focused on investing in strong management teams in high-growth information technology and life sciences companies located in the Midwest region. We take an active role by providing the strategic and tactical assistance that early stage companies need to grow and prosper. More information is available at www.springmillvp.com.

About i2A
The Illinois Innovation Accelerator Fund (i²A) is an innovative $10 million early-stage investment fund which invests in companies primarily in technology-enabled products and services, new media and education products and services, and consumer and retail products.  The fund’s goal is to provide the first external professional capital raised by companies and nurture them through their early stages of growth. Visit www.i2afund.com for more information.

About BlueCrest Capital Finance, L.P.
BlueCrest Capital Finance, L.P., a U.S.-based commercial finance company, provides debt-financing solutions to development-stage companies in a broad range of industry sectors including IT, Communications, Hardware, Software, Semi-Conductor, Electronics, Energy, Medical Device and Life Science. The team, which has been together continuously since 1998, pursues debt transactions in the $1 million-$25 million range and has consummated approximately 900 transactions with total commitments in excess of $1.9 billion.

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The University of Chicago Booth School of business, formerly Chicago GSB

The University of Chicago Booth School of Business, formerly The University of Chicago Graduate School of Business sent this note earlier this month.

I am very pleased to announce a remarkable gift of $300 million to the University of Chicago for the benefit of the Graduate School of Business by University Trustee and alumnus David G. Booth, MBA ’71, his wife Suzanne Booth, and their children, Erin and Chandler Booth. This is the largest donation in the University’s history and the largest gift ever in support of any business school. In recognition of the Booth family’s extraordinary generosity, the Board of Trustees has voted unanimously to name the school the University of Chicago Booth School of Business.

I don’t have any comment on this at this time other than Ted Snyder would be wise to take action on the issues in this blog post about business school rankings in determining how to use these funds and needs a multi-million dollar communication plan for the world’s experienced recruiting community so that this brand does not cause alumni great harm.

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It’s a kinda different show this year in both the crowd and some of the content type.

Already have had great meeting with Jim Hedger, Bryan Eisenberg and many others. Bryan has a new book, Always Be Testing, which just came out. I can’t wait to read it!

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My follow up question to Kevin is how can the SES community be best utilized to be an activist catalyst for this?

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This issue of the meaning of “is” seems to be a recurring problem in our society. You might recall this statement by former President Clinton:

“It depends on what the meaning of the words ‘is’ is.” –Bill Clinton, during his 1998 grand jury testimony on the Monica Lewinsky affair 

Dictionary.com says it’s this:
–verb 1. 3rd pers. sing. pres. indic. of be. 
—Idiom2. as is. as1 (def. 25). 

[Origin: bef. 900; ME, OE; c. D is, ON es, er, G, Goth ist, L est, Gk estí, OCS jestĭ, Skt asti]
Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1)
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2006.

Why is the meaning of “is” such a frequent area of discussion?

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Thank you for your time and help in making my feed reading a positive experience.

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I’ve got a better and far more important question, why the major inconsistency in what the Blogger team takes down?

On May 11, I wrote a post about a large splog hosted on the Blogger platform. Why hasn’t the Blogger team removed this splog yet? Why aren’t they being proactive when my Feedburner panel clearly shows this as an uncommon use? Why is Blogger apparently only responding to the requests of companies with significant legal teams? When will Blogger protect the interests of all blog content equally?

UPDATE: For another point of view, please visit my recent interview with Barry Schwartz regarding splogs.

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If you gave me a card today please resend your contact information.

If you know of anyone that found a bunch of business cards in this location, please have them contact me. (I’m happy to make the new networking contact).

david_dalka4gsb at yahoo com     tag:ctiawireless2007

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Here are the details:

Chicago Internet Leaders to Meet at LOLA

New Networking Event Brings Together

150 Chicago Powerhouse Execs
When:            February 22nd, 2007 (6-8 PM)
Who:              Land of Link’in Association (LOLA) will be attended by 150 of Chicago’s high-level professionals (Directors or above) in the interactive community.  Attendees will represent dot-coms, investors, Chicago-based Brick & Mortars with a large internet presence, as well as thought leaders and service providers (i.e. web development companies, interactive agencies, etc.).
What:             LOLA will hold its inaugural meeting to assemble the movers and shakers in Chicago’s interactive community.  LOLA is the brainchild of Jon Morris of Internet Marketing Initiative (IMI), whose goal is to create a meaningful interactive focused networking event that brings together people from different sectors, all related to the interactive industry.
LOLA will meet on the last Thursday of every month between 6 & 8 PM.  Guests will be treated to free drinks and appetizers.  .
Where:          Fulton’s on the River

315 N. LaSalle

Chicago, IL

(312) 822-0100 for directions
For more information regarding LOLA, please visit lolareturns.org (2009 dead domain)

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————————————————-

Today Dr. Mark Goulston shares with us his new article “10 Habits of Happy Couples.”

Happy Valentine’s Day!

Keith Ferrazzi

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10 Habits of Happy Couples
by Dr. Mark Goulston
—————————-

Happy couples know that the real relationship begins when the honeymoon is over. Unless you maintain a garden of love, it will grow weeds and its beauty will wither and die. So let’s explore 10 habits of highly happy couples:

1. Go to bed at the same time. Remember the beginning of your relationship, when you couldn’t wait to go to bed with each other to make love? Happy couples resist the temptation to go to bed at different times. They go to bed at the same time, even if one partner wakes up later to do things while their partner sleeps.

2. Cultivate common interests. After the passion settles down, it’s common to realize that you have few interests in common. But don’t minimize the importance of activities you can do together that you both enjoy. If common interests are not present, happy couples develop them. At the same time, be sure to cultivate interests of your own; this will make you more interesting to your mate and prevent you from appearing too dependent.

3. Walk hand in hand or side by side. Rather than one partner lagging or dragging behind the other, happy couples walk comfortably hand in hand or side by side. They know it’s more important to be with their partner than to see the sights along the way.

4. Make trust and forgiveness your default mode. If and when they have a disagreement or argument, and if they can’t resolve it, happy couples default to trusting and forgiving rather than distrusting and begrudging.

5. Focus more on what your partner does right than what he or she does wrong. If you look for things your partner does wrong, you can always find something. If you look for what he or she does right, you can always find something, too. It all depends on what you want to look for. Happy couples accentuate the positive.

6. Hug each other as soon as you see each other after work. Our skin has a memory of “good touch” (loved), “bad touch” (abused), and “no touch” (neglected). Couples who say hello with a hug keep their skin bathed in the “good touch,” which can inoculate your spirit against anonymity in the world.

7. Say “I love you” and “Have a good day” every morning. This is a great way to buy some patience and tolerance as each partner sets out each day to battle traffic jams, long lines and other annoyances.

8. Say “Good night” every night, regardless of how you feel. This tells your partner that, regardless of how upset you are with him or her, you still want to be in the relationship. It says that what you and your partner have is bigger than any single upsetting incident.

9. Do a “weather” check during the day. Call your partner at home or at work to see how his or her day is going. This is a great way to adjust expectations so that you’re more in sync when you connect after work. For instance, if your partner is having an awful day, it might be unreasonable to expect him or her to be enthusiastic about something good that happened to you.

10. Be proud to be seen with your partner. Happy couples are pleased to be seen together and are often in some kind of affectionate contact — hand on hand or hand on shoulder or knee or back of neck. They are not showing off but rather just saying that they belong with each other.

Even if these actions don’t come naturally, happy couples stick with them until they do become a part of their relationship. They know that it takes 30 days for a change in behavior to become a habit, and a minimum of six months for a habit to become a way of life and love.
Subscribe to Dr. Mark Goulston’s Usable Insights at
markgoulston.com/list
Subscribe to Keith Ferrazzi’s Tip of the Week at
keithferrazzi.com/subscribe

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How nasty can an ice storm be? Just look at these power towers that collapsed under the weight of the ice in Quebec in 1998! Power was not restored fully for months.

You rarely see a more frightening weather forecast than this one from the NWS Dallas/Fort Worth (I truly hope that it’s wrong):

Today: Periods of freezing rain. Some thunder is also possible. High near 31. North northwest wind between 10 and 15 mph, with gusts as high as 20 mph. Chance of precipitation is 100%. Total daytime ice accumulation of 0.2 to 0.4 of an inch possible.

Tonight: Periods of freezing rain, mainly after midnight. Some thunder is also possible. Low around 31. North northeast wind around 10 mph. Chance of precipitation is 100%. New ice accumulation of 0.5 to 0.7 of an inch possible.

Sunday: Periods of freezing rain. Some thunder is also possible. High near 31. North northeast wind between 10 and 15 mph. Chance of precipitation is 100%. New ice accumulation of 0.5 to 0.7 of an inch possible.

Sunday Night: Freezing rain and sleet likely. Cloudy, with a low around 24. North northwest wind between 15 and 20 mph, with gusts as high as 30 mph. Chance of precipitation is 60%.

Preepare for the worst, hope for the best.

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Like Steve Rubel, I’m Superman (apparently)! Yet, I’m more Green Lantern than either Michael Arrington or Jason Calacanis. Do those that know me find this accurate? I’m curious.
Your results:
You are Superman

Click here to take the Superhero Personality Test

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I’ll add one of my own: Give the gift of your personal time to offer to help someone achieve their goals – that gift is priceless!

Networking tip regarding the Cardscan gift idea: When designing a new business card always check to see that it would work well in a card scanning device before printing them. Seems obvious, but you’d be amazed how many people do not consider this!

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He also launched a new blog this week, “Networking Insight” this week which I encourage you to check out. He did a good job of thinking about the blog before launching it – I’m sure he’d love to get your thoughts, encouragement and ideas.

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Video excerpt on businesspov.com

Audio on dailysearchcast.com

Many other people covered or commented on the event, so I’ll let you read them:

Website Magazine

WebMetrics Guru

Duncan Riley

A VC

Techeffect

Search Engine Land

SEO Black Hat

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Jon Glick, Become.com

What is duplicate content a problem?

Google, Yahoo, Open Directory Project…

Confusing the Bot: Dynamic URLs

Confusing the Bot: 2 URLs

Don’t confuse the spider – chose one canonical domain and link all internal pages

301 redirects, your hero…

Yahoo! has transparency on whether your site is banned, check it out.
Shari Thurow, Grandtastic Designs

What is duplicate content?

The definition is unclear.

Search Engines do not want duplicate or near-duplicate content in their indices.

Duplicate content filters:
- content properties
- linkage properties
- content evolution
- host name resolution
- shingle comparison

siteexplorer.yahoo.com

example: 3 web pages, 3 unique URLs – robots.txt excludes the duplicate content or meta tag can do the same thing

Duplicate content is often copyright infringement.
copyscape.com

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Says “Thank You!” to existing customers

Thanks people who have been early adopters

Web Publishers – everyone is a publisher in some way, even if they don’t think they are.

Consumer Context – Keep it in perspective

The Four Questions:
- How do I reach my desired audience?
- How can I effectively engage them?
- What mix of tactics should I use?
- How do I know its working?

Today’s offer model is a linear model, moves to multiple ad targets & calls to actions

Tip: Always get your keywords in your titles and descriptions.

Build calls to action: It’s a framework to continue

New Tools:
- Dynamic Account Structure
- Ad Testing
- Fast Ad Activation – building more automation and integrity checks into the process.
- Enhanced Geo-targeting
- Alerts – proactive keyword alerts to start shortly
- Share of Clicks and Forecasting
- Quality Index

Rank is determined by its bid and expected performance. Relevance is critical to preventing “ad blindness”

Five Reasons Marketers Should Be Exited:
- Improved user experience: intuitive, speed
- Faster impact and rewards for advertisers that optimize
- Focus efforts on what matters most to the marketer’s business
- Gives marketers the power create, test, and analyze campaigns like never before
- Leverage creative (missed the rest of the slide)

John stressed that one needs to be cognizant of thinking in new ways to get full advantage of the features of the new system.

Graham Harris…gives demonstration. Shows the automated keyword generator. This shows a huge change in magnitude that allows effective campaigns to be created by almost anyone.
Patrizio Spagnoletto speaks…

Upgrading Approach and Schedule:
- U.S. advertiser upgrades have begun
- Advertisers may chooser to upgrade post holidays
- Invitations will continue in stages to U.S. advertisers over the next several months

What to Expect
- Frequent Update
- Cheat sheet

Please look at the tutorials, customer solutions 1-866-YAHOO-98
It’s important to Yahoo! to make this house your home. We are successful when you are successful.

Question/Answer: Minimum bid for the US market is still $.10.

Question/Answer: Bulk submit is available.

International markets will occur sometime in 2007. John Slade said customer feedback was being sought on the best way to roll out.

How do you calculate relevance in a new ad? Dozens of factors drive us to a relevance to an ad, many of these come from Yahoo! search technologists. As data is available, this is factored in as well.

All in all, Yahoo! is demonstrating some positive attributes during this large conversion of platforms. These include a customer focus and taking the time to make a professional and transparent system migration that I believe will serve as a model in how to make a professional and non-disruptive migration. Stock analysts should look at the long term of what is occurring here.

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1. NASCAR is intensely focused on relationships and partnerships.

2. NASCAR has always been focused on customers.

It’s no wonder that they are so successful!

The thirty-one degree banking at Daytona built with customer experience in mind – being able to see the whole track at once! I never thought about it before, maybe the best customer experience involves things you don’t even notice. 

NASCAR is now the #2 sport on TV only behind only the NFL, 75 million viewers

Mr. Helton  believes that access to the drivers is critical piece of the success.

Recently opened a new LA office, NYC office, creating opportunities of NASCAR drivers to be in everyday life and making appearances in show business.

All of the sponsors work closely with licensing and headquarters. Sponsors are critical not only to underwriting the costs, but to other aspects of the sport as well.

NASCAR has always taken advantage of technology. (what a great mantra and it’s true)

NASCAR has racetracks, car owners and drivers who are independent – Mr. Helton expressed amazement that it all works sometimes. 

All in all, when I saw Mr. Helton on the agenda, I truly had no idea what to expect, I saw a new side of NASCAR, one that made me appreciate the other side of NASCAR.

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- Visit education center

- On demand presentations

- Click on attend now on my speech after scrolling down

Please enter my blogging contest.

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Billy was working as a headhunter on the search at the time. MTV couldn’t decide which candidate to select and met with Billy to discuss the issue. After the meeting, MTV HR called Billy and said they changed their mind, they wanted to hire Billy instead! He thought they were joking, but they weren’t. They asked him to make his offer for them. In his words, he went “real ghetto with it”. They accepted his initial proposal untouched and h felt like he should have asked for more! I’m not doing the story justice with this blog entry, you should hear him tell it one day!

One of his networking tips that is distinct is that Billy says, “people need to feel comfortable with you.” It’s an interesting concept, one that Billy himself is a bit challenged to explain more deeply, though he claims not to be a natural.

Here are some of Billy’s tips for success:

- Develop a script to engage people and your “30 second commercial”

- Attend an opportunity event frequently

- Develop both up and down mentoring

- Study, refine and prioritize your personal and professional networking contacts

- Put your execution plan on paper by date and context

- Find ways to make connections with others

- Constantly monitor you results celebrate your accomplishments and adjust your plan, if required   

As I stated, Billy Dexter is both interesting and enganging, I look forward to building a relationship with him over time.

If you ever need someting to start a conversation about with Billy – try golf, he is an avid golfer!

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What I’m not certain about:

- Mr. Amato states, ”Most employers don’t post ALL of their openings on traditional job sites because it would be cost prohibitive, but they do post them to their own corporate career center, which costs nothing, we help jobseekers find these hidden jobs.” This is not 100% true – for some reason many employers do not post all open jobs, choosing to keep senior jobs private and undisclosed. This is most unfortunate as many qualified and passionate seekers are not enabled to be looked at and more employers need to look at becoming fully transparent.

- How does one know that these companies actually utilize posted resumes and not primarily from recruiters?

- Mr. Fulton then states, “This allows jobseekers to read the entire job description and apply for the job using the companies preferred application method. It is believed that resumes passed directly through a company career site are more visible than those transmitted through a third-party site.” Based on what?

- Not having a searchable resume database is interesting, but it’s very time consuming to fill out things with an uncertain outcome.

Overall, I appreciate Bob Etheridge for calling me and informing me about the service, with a few tweaks, I could see it becoming a strong player in the marketplace.

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Scheduled marketing keynote speaker at eComXpo October 24th-26th, please register for free…

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Argh, I’m so behind on indexing my business cards!!! It’s terrible and I must catch up. I also have tons of correspondance and phone messages to reply to. I need help! At the moment I can’t offer you cash, only still hypothetical options of some soon to launch companies and the ability to interact with some amazing people. You must enjoy and thrive on meeting the most interesting and creative people in the world. In fact you should aspire to be on of them that is my only requirement.

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Talks about history, blogs are best way to get stuff indexed in Google.

There is an informal conversation network. Tells the story about how a few people he told that he was leaving Microsoft. How that spread and then a largely unread blog was the one that first posted it is why you need to pay attention to *ALL* bloggers, not just him.

Talking to bloggers is more important than covering Walt Mossberg.

People who read blogs are far more likely to click and take action.

The auto blog reader is more likely to click through to other auto sites.

Most people understand search engines. Talks about google.com and how people search “Yahoo” and vice versa. It demonstrates that it’s a Google world.

If you pipes are leaking, you need a plumber. So you type in “Chicago plumber leak” and you need to be on the top of the organic search results. Links are important and so are other things. Changing the content every day helps the algorithms. Blogs, due to the frequency of content update are excellent tools to do this.

He talks about the plumber blog that gets link due to the knowledge. Also talks about how he got a ripped off once with a carpet and is blog entry ranked higher than the company.

A dirty secret about Google is that the ad click through rate is lower there du to the higher educational level of a typical Google user.

People will link to audio and video more than they will text. Suggested video press releases. Be different. Hugh’s cartoon’s are different. Video and Flickr and other sites can create buzz.

Talked about the “Dell Hell” issue. (strangely few in the room had heard of it – shows how far we have to go) Tells the well known Jeff Jarvis story.

Talks about how to listen. (I would say this is Robert’s biggest gift)

Then gave examples of how he linked to complaints directly when he joined Microsoft, fascinating!

Currently, HP story is a great example. They have not listened to the blogosphere. It is making the ethics crisis there worse.

Every project should have a story behind it. Talked about channel 9 naming story and how Microsoft built transparency. The PR folks didn’t pay attention to our blogs and Channel 9 until we were in the New York Times. It’s so funny how that works. Tells more about telling good stories and how important that it. It’s all about story telling process.

If you post something it shows up in my RSS aggregator. Using RSS is far more productive!

How do I get my content viewed in new places…talked about second life.

Valleywag recently wrote about a bad pitch. Democracy Now, Z Fank, Ipod can aggregate. Steve Jobs used Rocketboom to do the recent Apple launch.    

Again, HP – where is the engagement in the ethical issues?

Ragan PR conferece 2006

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This particular analysis is way too simplistic and there is significant other information to consider:

1. Unless you work at Google in sales or finance (maybe PR like David Krane), you don’t have any idea how this has affected Google this quarter.

2. That Ford ad on Yahoo’s front page is a *branding* ad, a picture of an actual vehicle! Any SEM worth anything will tell you that getting people to see a text ad as good spend for branding is a hard sell.

3. The Auto industry adopted online advertising early in the game. Perhaps they are reaching a penetration point where further accelerated growth is not possible at the same level? To confirm this thought further, a senior Google person I know (who actually returns her phone calls – props to her!) that I met at ad:tech in July recently moved from, guess what the Auto sector to Consumer Package Goods shortly before I met her (her card still said Autos). Maybe Google analyzed these same facts and decided to redeploy a valuable asset, in this case a person, to a place where it woudl get higher ROI. Good for them.

4. I also know that Ford recently hired a SEO firm to do alot of work on alot of sites. Maybe it’s because they realize that SEO and not text ads frequently have a superior return? Hmmm.  

5. If text ads were the be all end all, why is Google launching radio and video ads?

6. UPDATE: Regarding financial services, this is all about the housing bust and no more “Own a $1.6 million dollar home for $99/month the first 4 years” text ads. I think this will affect everyone equally  in terms of earnings and hoepfully some of those types of ads will never return. 

So Robert which is it? Video and/or pictures or text?

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So, I recently emailed someone I know that travels…a ton…Danny Sullivan and asked him what his current setup was. Based on his blog post, it appears he wasn’t totally set in his ways and did some experimenting himself. Good reading, especially if you travel alot or have never gotten an RSS reader. Thanks, Danny.

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Notice all the blog posts out there, the conversation is only starting to link, bond and discuss (use “Macy’s boycott” and “Marshall Field’s” in your posts/tags): Dauber’s Chicago Blog, The Budget Fashionista,  baka_duo_neka, ikam, Temporary Trouble Spots, All-American Girl’s Road Trip, etc…

The Chicagoist.org also recently reported Macy’s doesn’t even know what street it’s located on!!!

Stay tuned to fieldsfanschicago.org and the blogosphere for more info. Rumor has it Macy’s is seeking a variation to put up a large neon sign and that there is a zoning committee meeting on September 15, 2006 at Chicago City Hall regarding this eyesore. Contact your Alderman and ask that this be stopped!

Macy’s is not what the lady (customer) wants, she wants Marshall Field’s (other flickr photos):

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It’s great to see a company that stand behind their product and are customer focused like this, it’s all to rare.  So please join me in showing Tumi some love as an example of a company that sets the bar in how to treat customers.

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During this Costco visit, they had recently redesigned the store layout, so much so that I simply gave up on a few of the items I was trying to find. As I waited in the checkout line I wondered if my actions were signing the death warrant for these items I skipped because all the buyers for Costco never look at these issues when they make their decisions. It’s clear that the company is moving away from its’ roots, providing excellent value. Every time I turn around something is being replaced with a “superior image product” that costs significantly more. The membership isn’t as valuable to me as it once was due to this continuous series of actions. The constant brand swapping can drive any serious food lover to near insanity when they find a brand they really like and then it’s replaced by an inferior brand by Costco’s buyers. 

Two examples: 1. Earlier this year the Costco Lincoln Park Chicago location had these awesome Palmiers (somewhat like these) for several months, they moved them around the store no less than four times and they are no longer stocked – I firmly believe this was due to the movement factor affecting sales.

2. For what seems like forever, Costco carried New York Style Texas Garlic Toast in large economy sized boxes. Then a few months ago it stopped and replaced with a package of garlic bread in loaf form, not useful for sandwiches that was a fraction of the size and cost more! OK, one this one it’s clear the buyers have no clue how and why they choose certain products.

On my way out the door, I stopped and talked with the store manager, Brian. We talked about how the Customer’s viewpoint is never taken into account by the buyers. In fact, I showed him sympathy because he isn’t empowered to fix these issues or even experiment with such things as express checkout.

Costco is an example of an organization that would benefit greatly from blogging, but blogs should be the last and not the first step I now believe. The first step is to change the organizational focus so that customer’s voices are heard as loud if not louder than Wall Street’s voices.  Without this dramatic top-down culture change of action, not words in regards to customer focus, then they would be a great blogging candidate to put the effort on steroids. I pitched to Brian the idea of having the buyers come into his store on a Saturday to actually listen to customers for a full day preceded by a 4-week period of pre-announcement – I told him that the store would likely have its’ busiest day ever and that this would be a very eye opening event for the buyers. I asked him to escalate my request for such an event internally so that this could occur and offered to e-mail him my blog post to save him time in explaining and communicating the idea during our brainstorming discussion. Maybe one day Costco might even create the role of Chief Customer Officer, I would love that!

Good Luck on creating that buyer visiting day, Brian. The blogosphere and customer champions everywhere will be routing for you.

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Strategic Public Relations Conference – September 20-22 – Chicago  
Be sure to attend the pre and post conference sessions! See Robert Scoble, eremiah Owyang and other top marketing speakers. Check out the PR Rehab wiki.  

Ecomxpo – October 24-26 – The world’s best virtual trade show!

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Based on the figure provided of 9305 years, each person on earth has watched 44 seconds of video:

Years                           9,305
* Days                             365
Total Days               3,396,325
* Hours                              24
* Minutes                            60
* Seconds                      60
Seconds of Video 293,442,480,000
Earth’s Population   6,644,395,948
Seconds of Youtube  
per everyone on earth      44 seconds
percent estimated US            0.70 
US Population             299,605,719 
Seconds of Youbtube per 
US Population   686 seconds or 11:26

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Thomas talks to Guy about “Art of the Start”:
- evangelist – used more than ever in job sites
- Xerox Parc and mouse and graphical user interface
- the mass of inertia that is against you when you starting a company
- talk about being pissed offness
- if a product or service isn’t good enough that is a good reason to start a company
- just starting a company because you hate them is not good
- what do you look for as a venture capitalist?
- young people who are not proven and a business model that is not proven
- the “Market doesn’t need it” argument is stupid
- dislike of mission statements, prefers a mantra 3 to 4 words long
- to avoid failure you’d have to try nothing – there are many cases of people
who have failed and have come back to win. I burned through $50 million!
- it starts with the universities, the engineering – if I had a choice between $100 million
in venture capital or a great university engaged with what is around it I’ll take the later
- Guy says his speech will be more about what not to do than what to do (this is great!)
- current state of Apple Computer is also discussed

Interesting to hear Guy interviewed outside the valley the vibe and questions are different. Enjoy!

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The rumors that he is leaving to build the world’s largest design firm of flash web sites are unfounded!

Please do a blogroll lesson here and update your blogrolls to daggle.com, many people change primary blogs and the blogrollers don’t follow. For example Robert Scoble’s old blog still ranks above his new blog in Google…

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How true…

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Dell has the data to inform the customers themselves directly. Instead they are sending people to a lame web site asking customers to do their work for them. If you are Dell you have service codes, you have email addresses in other words you have all the data necessary to contact these people…yourself. You didn’t need to spread panic in this manner. You could have issued a statement saying “We contacted all the parties with the batteries under recall and will immediately be shipping them the new batteries after we have verified their current address.”

Dell, you can and should do better here. I want you to tell me whether I’m affected. Even if I’m not, my laptop still runs hot, why is that?   

Speaking of Dell, the Dell blog has still never acknowledged my post about USB shortcomings in my new Dell desktop. Will they ever innovate from customers?

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“Cambrian House’s mission is to discover and commercialize
software ideas through the wisdom and participation of crowds.
Contributors earn royalties, sharing in the success of the products.”

I could have oh so used this concept for my music business plan from 2003 that went unexecuted! I see great world changing value in the new things that are being created out there that are removing friction from the start up process!

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CUSTOMER EVANGELIST

POSITION
As Customer Evangelist, you will contribute to lowering customer acquisition costs and increasing the frequency of acquisition, remove objections to usage and adoption, drive continuous innovation from customer and partner listening and increase usage frequency. Customers whose lives you touch will be transformed into passionate spokespeople to create positive word of mouth and make YOUR COMPANY the most adored brand in the world leading to high user adoption rates of your product and feature introductions.

This individual is a leader and rainmaker capable of seeing the big picture as well as the finer details. This is a roll up your sleeves, dig in and get it done role. The CEO strives to create a participative and progressive culture and is committed to executive sponsorship of the customer evangelist’s transformational activities to meet priority goals through resource allocation as necessary.

RESPONSIBILITIES

• Role will likely be about 50% (depending on the organization) mix of traditional brand shaping, partnering creation, sales, marketing, viral marketing, data metric and reporting invention, business development and you are always seeking ways to do things differently and better using new technologies and/or techniques like search engine optimization. Create viral acquisition. 
• Travels to networking events and conferences targeting early adopters, influencers and generation to listen to customers, potential strategic partners and expand brand awareness. Strive to develop speaking engagements and evangelize YOUR COMPANY’S BRAND AND PRODUCTS as the preferred product distribution channel and consumer’s destination of choice for local purchases.
• Identifies new partnership and distribution opportunities as they arise in networking and communicate them to other team members for analysis of brand implications and then participate in execution.
• Be a critical voice of YOUR COMPANY’s new customer experience blog. This blog profiles unique product usage by customers as well as blogging about conferences attended by Customer Evangelist where you build strong networking relationships. This blog also creates transparency and trust by listening to blogosphere feedback to prioritize feedback for introducing new features and initiatives.
• Participates in blogosphere brand monitoring, conversation and shaping as well as competitive landscape with YOUR COMPANY’s team to build the world’s most responsive and adored brand.
• Places periodic feedback phone calls to existing partners leaders to ask “How are we doing?” and “What can we do better together?”
• Monitors new disruptive technologies (like mobile and location based services), through networking events and other research, in order that they can be embraced. In some countries, PC ownership is low and mobile devices rule, we need an individual to be open to that changing in North America and making our platform flexible and relevant in eventual foreign markets.
• Coordinate with other “voices of the customer” touch points throughout the company to integrate the feedback into the continuous innovation research and scope expansion.

 QUALIFICATIONS

• An understanding that flexibility in what your role may periodically require from you, especially in terms of extensive travel, is critical.
• A clear passion for satisfying and listening to customers, disruptive technology, simplifying processes and relationship building through both traditional and new age communications tools. It is required to do the customer profiles that you have had experience bringing out why people do what they do.
• Communicates well with both C-level executives and other groups within and outside the organization. Understands that different types of communication are necessary. Respects the importance of each individual in driving both change and customer satisfaction.
• Previous experience in a hyper growth company which utilized technology to transform customer experiences in a learning, innovation and highly collaborative, rapidly changing culture.
• Possess a clear passion for networking, search, process simplification, online marketing and customer relationship management.
• Superior command of data models and appreciates the importance of tying together disparate data sources to create value for both customers and the organization while appreciating personal privacy. Previous experience working with Phd’s or heavy engineering types is welcomed and is a definite plus.
• Candidate will have an existing blog with a growing readership of A-list readers.
• B.S., Top 10 MBA strongly desired.

Again, this is a draft document that is a foundation of postition customization (if you are a small startup this would be appropriate to do!) My ability to network and use event attendance in a unique way is one of my emerging and potentially most valuable assets when mixed with my strong strategy and data abilities.

Please read my bio further if this is your first time here.

Thanks!

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Anand is extremely interesting to talk to and I appreciate his views on a wide variety of issues. I look forward to learning more about him and hearing his ideas for the future.

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1) They truly seem to customize their solutions for each client and situation.

2) During this session, they gave vivid examples of how they gave pushback to clients when they suggest “me too” and group think ideas. This is taking the hard road in the best interest of the clients. This is a good thing.  

3) Avenue A | Razorfish’s team appears to be focusing on cutting edge tools that can create value.

4) Instead of presenting a long series of slides during this ad:tech presentation they took questions the entire time. This shows command of subject, a lack of fear of the unknown and a desire to both focus on potential customer’s needs and learn about what people are currently thinking about out there.

There were 4 Avenue A | Razorfish people on this panel the above mentioned Michael Miller, Bruce Woolsey (Seattle), Marc Stephens (whom I seem to see almost everwhere) and Dave Friedman. Props to them for leading this type of interesting discussion. I look forward to my next interaction with them.

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Crazy Egg allows you to “Visualize Your Visitors” and gives you a clear picture of where your visitors are clicking and allows you to enhance your site’s results. By inserting a simple few lines of code, Crazy Egg allows you to see where people are clicking on your site and generate reports via overlay, list and heatmaps. The product has already been used on sites at leading ecommerce retailers who have given it a big thumbs up. For my blog, Crazy Egg during helped me learn to rearrange and eliminate non-performing categories for a cleaner and more useful look, thanks Crazy Egg!

To see an example of the types of reports available – they have a demo that nicely cross promotes Pronet Advertising.

Crazy Egg will also likely one day make a great Harvard Business Case study on how to launch a web property for the following 7 reasons:

1) They have always been transparent since day 1, public and open about their idea and primary vision – no NDA talk EVER! (I hope everyone learns from this?)

2) They used case studies that focused on client’s needs of early adoptors in the blogosphere to tout the products benefits. This made the value proposition more clear to people.

3) The above two items enabled viral marketing to occur organically. I can’t say enough about the importance of this.

4) They sought out critical influencers to try the product and then asked for feedback.

5) Crazy Egg actively used this feedback in a timely manner to innovate and improve the product in numerous ways. This laser sharp focus on customer listening was critical.

6) The product is amazingly simple to install and activate and this reduces the barriers to adoption and usage. Many web products skip this important step.

7) Upon launch, a refined, non-beta product was delievered giving an optimal customer experience. Interesting and all too rare a concept these days.

Congrats to Hiten Shah, Neil Patel and the rest of the Crazy Egg team, they’ve worked tremendously hard to make this product a success and I’m certain this hard work will pay off.

Start improving your web site now!

Digg this post.

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This is a great session that reminds me of how much search is like financial services, where there are a number of vendors that provide mission critical API’s – the fact that API’s are just starting to become transparent to the masses is a sign of how early in all of this we truly are.

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But first Eric stopped in the restroom and shook my hand shortly thereafter without washing his hands per reports of an SES attendee (it’s weird learning things like that 2 days later).

Learnings from this experience: Bring your business card, ask a specific and short question or risk having the tough parts missed.

The most surprising thing to me is that he only really holds press conferences about once a quarter. Think about that one of the busiest, hectic and arguably most controversial companies of our time that generates more news in a week than many companies used to generate in a year only has a press conference once a quarter. I wonder what Don Tapscott would think? Hmm, I just checked and actually Eric was quoted on the sleeve of Don’s 2003 book, the Naked Corporation! Think of how much the world has changed in those three years. Wow!

Below is my summary of the finer points of this rapid fire interaction (wish I could type faster) – minus the one area where he retracted a statement after continued pushback. It was very odd because in one way I felt sorry for him for being pounded on in a harsh way and in another way I felt he wasn’t being fully forthright and maybe even somewhat evil… I guess I’m trying to get across that the scene was very tense, terse and emotional.

Reporter: Can you say more on partnerships, Google as the affiliated partner, etc.

Eric: Dmarc is going to go well. Viacom/MTV suggested that taking content and putting video advertising at the beginning. Finding a way to monetize them is the hard part. We are doing well in search and content. Radio is coming out soon. The other two are starting now.

Reporter: Can you discuss the economics…

Eric: The forward commitments are much, much larger.

Reporter: Regarding the Kinderstart lawsuit.

Eric: It’s probably is best that I not comment on that.

Reporter: The AOL thing, how can it be impossible to happen at Google?

Eric: We have very specific plans about it. I’d rather not divulge them.  (awkward silence in the room)

Reporter: Many people, do not know the difference between paid and natural search. Could you do more?

Eric: Yes certainly we could although I think most people know. (I’d like to hear more elaboration on this issue as would the reporter that asked it) 

Reporter: Can you update us on Adsense policy?

Eric: Sites sometimes don’t follow the guidelines due to third parties. We have been tightening our guidelines.

Reporter: Update on Microsoft…

Eric: General Counsel made some claims. We’ll see where it happens. Google is more efficient, more scientific, etc. We will get more – $12 Billion of a $500 Million industry.

Reporter: Can you discuss video pricing model and cultural trends.

Eric: We will use an Adwords model. Development of social networks as lifetime models eventually. Myspace, it’s of the scale of instant messaging.

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Who needs a VP Search?
- Anyone with offline media budgets
- If you separate Sales and Marketing – you need a VP Search

How big should a company be that deserves a VP?
How big is the SEM budget?
Are you prepared to go after 70-80% of search traffic.

What does the VP do?
Progress on a daily basis: Constant Execution.
Harmony with web-technical teams.
Independent growth stats?

The argument for in-house SEM/SEO & Vendor Outsourcing.
Greater control

Marshall Simmonds, Chief Search Strategist, The New York Times
CEO – Define Search Strategies

If you are not integrating – you are left behind.

Selling Search to NYT
- “Pope Dies” not people converge on Vatican
- Communication

Optimize articles, not front page

Develop metrics – important to quantifying success later

Got rid of registration wall. (it was a big deal)

Sean Smith – Citibank

We are marketing in a more targeted way. Internet acquisition has passed mail.

90% of my job is communicating why I’m here. You are educating and driving strategy.

Search is not a volume driver for us. It’s about getting the right users to obtain cards and get them.

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Danny: AOL controversy, privacy, etc?

It’s obviously a terrible thing. Speaking for Google, the trust of our end users. It’s funny that we talk about the company being more transparent. We had a case where the government gave use an overbroad subpoena. A judge ruled for us.

Danny: Google saves the data. Should you destroy the data?

We are reasonably satisfied, it’s not and accidental error. We’ve dbated what you suggest.

Danny: Does a search engine need to filter more of this data?

In California, information on DMV was public. It would be nice if there was a systemic way to list it. It is illegal to

Danny: Should you take a site like that down.

We’ve discussed it.

Danny: The debate about click fraud?

The advertisers show a click fraud rate now. Why are trying to give advertisers information about how it’s working.

Danny: How much money is going into search?

We have chosen not to release the underlying economics… We are working to give people the ability to target where their ads go.

Danny: Google ads are now on radio, image, etc…

Much of the world’s video will be repurposed to the web. Using video ads can enable that.

Danny: Whatever you do, it’s going to be measurable…

Measurable ads start now. You hear ads that ae a waste of your time today. You should end up with fewer ads with more purpose. That is going to benefit everyone.

Danny: Standards – why is this happening now?

Click fraud, link fraud, standardized formats. Tim Armstrong is working with the IAB on this for us.

Danny: Adsense is a power for good. Should the problem areas be clamped on?

Overall, it’s a great outcome. We have people that abuse it. We are getting better at detecting the areas of attack.

Danny: Boring, search can boring, search is still working on a box.

Many people are happy with this one box. But, we are starting igoogle, a series of gadgets.  

Danny: Links…

We want to provide the best technical result. How do we use information that is very proprietary. Even I don’t know the algorithm.

Danny: Book search…

Google has to be careful, we want to avoid issues. There is a fair use issue. The law is not that clear.

Danny: Google we are everywhere you want to be…I surrender. Give me the implant.

Would you like to be a test case? (laughs) Primary goal is to make their lives better. We’ve talked about the limits of our growth. People are one click

Danny: How often do you search?

50-100 times a day…A politician, came in and knew there was more outhouses than Tivo? A year later is wasn’t true. Google is not a perfect truth filter.

Danny: When was the last time you clicked on an ad?

All the time, I search, Google search cause I do a lot of online shopping and I want to know how things work.

Audience: Transparency, do you see plans – momentarily will I be able to monentize my search.

I hadn’t thought of that fully, that is clever. There are elements right now. 

Audience: Ebay question…

We want to integrate Paypal so that people have choice.

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