Shannon's thoughts on marketing, public relations, social technology, entrepreneurship and other things

"It" is due on Friday.
You say "it" will be done by Noon on Wednesday.
You turn "it" in on COB Tuesday.
You're a superstar!

Really?

One of the dilemmas with the "under promise and over deliver" concept is in the execution. If it becomes a regular way of doing business, then stakeholders will raise their expectations, as you have surpassed every milestone by leaps and bounds. Isn't that what you wanted to avoid in the first place?

Nugget of Knowledge: You want to manage expectations to your benefit, not your detriment.

It is a good idea to prepare realistic timelines and set achievable goals. Be sure to check your calendar, check your calendar and check your calendar before agreeing to any project timeline.

It is a good idea to give yourself a little cushion to complete the project. Adding a little extra time in your project workflow allows for the unexpected, especially if you are dependant on other people for their parts of the project.

It is a good idea to strategically to beat deadlines. Demonstrating your eagerness and diligence to a new client or customer can go a long way to securing future collaborations and partnerships.

It is the best idea to be forthright and on time, not too early and never ever late.

What do you think?
How do you manage expectations?

Microsoft’s BHAG: A computer on every desk and in every home.
Google’s BHAG: Organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.

What is your Big Hairy Audacious Goal? Do you want to…

• Be the keynote speaker at an international conference? 
• Have 40-50 employees and clients from the Atlantic to the Pacific? 
• Get your doctorate and be a tenured professor? 
• Start a non-profit, foundation or be a philanthropist? 
• Own a 120-unit apartment building? 
• Be an elected official? 

So often businesses expend a lot of resources to develop their "vision.” You hire consultants and coaches and you go on retreats and attend seminars, and usually the answer is right in front of you all along … you simply forgot it.

Think back to when you first had the idea for your business, before you launched, before you registered for your L.L.C., even before you secured the domain. Go all the way back, when you dared to share the idea with a girlfriend, sister, Mother or spouse. In the midst of the excitement about your new adventure, you had the arrogance, foresight and courage to utter your BHAG. Do you remember? Are you still on track to achieve it or has the day-to-day of doing business clouded the vision for your business?

Here are some simple steps to keep your BHAG alive:

1. Write it down – it does not exist if it it is not written down. 
2. Post it – put it somewhere you can see it everyday and multiple times a day. 
3. Speak it – repeat it to yourself out loud several times a day. 
4. Track progress – acknowledge the small steps to achieving to your BHAG. 
5. Move it, move it, move it – your BHAG won’t accomplish itself. 

From the proverbial horses mouth, Jim Collins, BHAG co-creator on How can you tell if you have a good BHAG? (video)

Necessity
Work?
I don't have to work.
I don't have to do nothing
but eat, drink, stay black, and die.
This little old furnished room's
so small I can't whip a cat
without getting fur in my mouth
and my landlady's so old
her features is all run together
and God knows she sure can overcharge-
Which is why I reckon I *does*
have to work after all.
--Langston Hughes
Montage of a Dream Deferred, 1951

As Langston wrote 60 years ago, there are very few "have to's" in life; however, in business there are a great number of "need to's."

You need to market your business.
You don't have to have a Facebook page (Gasp!).

You need to find your customers.
You don't have to have a Twitter account (Get out!).

You need to generate revenue.
You don't even have to have a website (Blasphemy!).

There are a number of "old school" marketing tactics you can employ for your business. None of them are better or worse than any other, all of them require different levels of commitment and resources and all have been successful in one form or another. It is a question of which one(s) will work for you, not which one(s) you have to do. 

Some "Old School" Marketing Tactics

• transportation advertising (signs on buses and at bus stops)
• posters, flyers and postcards
• radio, television and print advertising
• movie advertising
• newsletter and program advertising
• referral and word-of-mouth
• incentive programs
• sponsorships
• networking
• billboards
• promotional items
• tradeshow exhibitions

These are a few methods for getting your message out; however, the best marketing campaign is the one that works for you in meeting your business objective. Before you begin expending valuable marketing resources, consider the following:

What is the goal of my marketing campaign?
Do I want to generate revenue, increase brand awareness or intimidate my competitors?
What marketing tactics are my competitors using?
What are the direct (capital) and indirect (time) costs?
Who is going to manage the campaign?
How long will the campaign last or run?
How will I know if the campaign is working?
What do success and failure look like?
Is the campaign going to reach my target audience?

However you decide to market yourself, remember, the only silver bullets are time and consistency.

It's time for summer vacation:

• car ready: oil changed, gassed up and washed
• clothes packed: an outfit a day, plus a couple for dress up stuff, lingerie and sundries
• entertainment (car): bag-o-fun packed with electronics, DVDs, CDs, magazines, games and extra batteries
• mail forwarded and dog at the kennel
• picnic basket packed: snacks, water and treats
• stove off, iron unplugged and alarm set
• map in hand: route planned, rest stops and best exits for food noted
• hotel reservations: made last month and confirmed yesterday via email (copies on hand)
• entertainment: amusement park tickets reserved last month and confirmed via email (copies on hand)

You're all set to go!

Think for a second...if you put that much effort into planning a vacation, wouldn't you put in the same amount of effort to planning your organization's social technology? As in the example above, proper planning helps to ensure you'll have an enjoyable vacation, with solutions and contingencies at hand for the unexpected. You should do the same thing for your business, plan, with solutions and contingencies in mind for the unexpected.

Nugget of knowledge: successful marketing campaigns are thoughtfully planned out.

Consider these steps as you begin planning:

1. Do your homework: read blogs and white papers; attend webinars, meetups and tweetups; watch videos --> learn from other's missteps and get motivated by their accomplishments


2. Begin at the end: envision success, know what it looks like --> set your goals and objectives, make sure they are realistic and set a time to reach them


3. Control your brand: capture your name in the social media space --> get your username on as many sites as possible, you will not use them all, but no one else can be you in those spaces


4. Be self aware: know your organization's history and mission, know who your customers are and where they are --> go to where your customers are


5. Get your house in order: make sure your organization is on board with adopting social technology --> who is responsible, resources allocated, social media policies and integration plan into current marketing efforts


6. Check out your competition: do a CASE study


7. Evaluate your progress: make sure you're social media is taking you where you want to go --> set benchmarks as you would for a traditional marketing campaign


8. Go for it! You will make missteps, it is okay --> do, mess up, learn...it's the evolution of success

And yes, you are there now.

There are a plethora of books, articles or blog posts about the virtues of being productive versus being busy, as if you are or should be one or the other, which is a faulty premise. Why not be both?

Let's begin with definitions:

busy (adj): actively and attentively engaged in work or a pastime; not at leisure; otherwise engaged; full of or characterized by activity
produce (v)*: to bring into existence; give rise to; cause; to make or manufacture

Yes, do both...be busy producing, not busy for the sake of being busy.

Busy: sending emails and leaving voice mails for prospects and customers
Busily producing: engaging prospects and customers in revenue generating activities
If you can't reach them by phone or email, send them a text message or go to their office. Your success is dependent on what you can make happen.

Busy: attending meetings
Busily producing: declining some meeting requests to do work
You do not need to attend every single meeting. You can get the presentation and review it later or ask a colleague to go and take notes. There are only so many hours in a day, how many will you spend listening to presentations?

Busy: cleaning off the top of your desk
Busily producing: organizing the top your desk and the desk drawers to be more efficient
Shoving everything off of your desk into a drawer is as productive as shoving everything into a closet at home. It is a band-aid, not a solution. Take some time to organize your work space, you will be more efficient in the long term.

Busy: keeping a detailed task oriented To Do list
Busily producing: keeping a goal sheet and completing tasks towards your goals
Instead of listing things you have to do, list your goals and the steps to reach them, which even sounds more positive. As you complete each step, you can see yourself getting closer to reaching a goal.

Busy: saying yes to everything and finishing none of them
Busily producing: saying, "yes" to fewer things, completing them on time and under budget
It is absolutely okay and perfectly acceptable to say, "no." You can not do it all, you do not have to do it all and it is okay. Remember, all you can do is all you can do, and it is enough.

Do you see the difference between being busy and being busily productive?
Do you see how being busily productive moves you toward achieving goals?

Additional information:
Constructively Productive: 36 Secrets the Productivity Gurus Won't Tell You (But Our Heretics Will)
Fast Company: The Simple Key to Productivity

*Productive is a derivative of the word produce.

Every Sunday at 9:00 pm (ET), Mack Collier hosts #blogchat on Twitter, which utilizes the micro-blog's platform to harness the collective intelligence of the Twitterverse. This past week, Mack's guest was Chris Brogan, who shared learnings and best practices on the topic "How to Use Other Social Media Sites to Improve Your Blog."

In 60 minutes, Chris dropped several social media nuggets of knowledge (nok), some of them are below*. You can read the full transcript here.

#blogchat - one thing #NOT to do is use LinkedIn only for Business, FB only for fun, etc.
 
#blogchat Remember this: the goal of using networks to enhance your blog is to thread your ideas into other like-minded streams. (nok)

#blogchat The #1 social network you're neglecting: email marketing. 93% of people opt into a daily brand relationship via email.

#blogchat: @fianxu - interesting question. Blogs can be more freeform. Books should stick to one thesis. Blogs-to-magazines, more true.

#blogchat (@MackCollier) - outposts are off-main-site places, like Twitter, like FB, like LinkedIn, like forums.
#blogchat I recommend spending 50% of your social time on outposts, making relationships, prospecting, building connections. (nok)
#blogchat Then, because those places are the outpost and not the home base, put the occasional "conversion" fork in there, to invite them (nok)
#blogchat by "conversion fork," I mean a gentle invitation to your home base. Nothing too spammy. Certainly nothing overly repetitive.

#blogchat @CoachKarenG - no. Frequency certainly doesn't improve open rates. #RELEVANCE improves open rates. (nok)

#blogchat Promoting your own stuff over and over again is lame. Promote others 12x to ever[y] 1x of your own stuff.
#blogchat - @MackCollier - outposts is about meeting with people on neutral ground, where THEY are, vs always trying to make them come in. (nok)
#blogchat When I say promote others 12/1 over your own stuff, I mean on Twitter. Like, when @JasonFalls has a killer post, promote IT, not u
 
#blogchat If you're looking to build from outposts, do good things for others on those outposts. Write referrals in LinkedIn, ...
#blogchat Do good things elsewhere. Promote great causes on Facebook. Do TONS of not-promoting-you stuff with no hope or ask of reciprocity.
#blogchat Want more readers? Stop writing about yourself, except as a way to relate to others. Give THEM new tools to succeed. (nok)

#blogchat Ask yourself this: what's the GOAL of your blog. And don't lie. Sales? "Thought leadership?" A channel? Media property? (nok)

What nuggets of knowledge would you add?
Which nuggets are you interested in learning more about?

Additional information:
Mack Collier's blog
Chris Brogan's blog
Jason Falls' blog

*These tweets are taken out of context and reading the transcript is recommended to receive complete understanding of Chris Brogran's tweets and the full value of the #blogchat.