Social media, SEO, marketing and writing
Strategic partnerships can create unique branding opportunities for your company, which may help open up new market opportunities for your products and services.
To strategically position your “brand” to a higher level of market recognition, use this worksheet to identify related companies, products or services that you you may be able to partner with. These are your core strategic partner prospects.
Banish from your mind the idea that one must be a genius to write a bestseller. It just isn’t true. The following realities should encourage you. Get them clear in your mind:
Most major publishers are looking for the next mega book and they could care less if the author is experienced or not. The point is that some debut authors are making stunning entrances into the marketplace.
If you have an appealing, attention-holding story to tell, but you can’t write very well, editors will work with you. Publishing companies are geared to handle this and help an author within reason if they like the story enough. The classic example of this is Thomas Wolfe’s Look Homeward, Angel manuscript, which was over a thousand pages––a sea of words––when he brought it to legendary editor Max Perkins. It was painful for Wolfe to cut his manuscript, but that is exactly what he and Perkins did over a considerable period of time to get the novel published.
Bestseller Realities
A study of authors and novelists reveals that many, including the star names, have to do a lot of writing (usually) before they get that big book. A good example is Barbara Taylor Bradford. Over a six year period, she started four novels but discarded them all after a few hundred pages. She asked herself what she really wanted to write most and decided that it was a book about a girl in Yorkshire, England, who builds a huge business empire.
The result was A Woman of Substance, a very successful book. In Barbara’s view, “A story is only interesting if it’s about people, their tragedies, dramas, their joys.”
Once they have had their first novels published, numerous fiction authors reveal they wrote and experimented on one or more previous novels. Few are lucky enough to sell the first work they finish. A period of time seems to be generally required during which a new author learns the craft. Many publishing veterans refer to this as “paying your dues,” and for most authors who enter the publishing gates this is usually what happens.
In the words again of Barbara Taylor Bradford, “A novel is a monumental lie that has to have the absolute ring of truth if it is to succeed.” To achieve that vital ring of truth takes time. For most authors, it can’t be dashed off in a few months.
Look at it this way. You have the chance to produce a bestseller on your very first try, but it’s usually a slim chance. If you fall short of your goal, you may have at least a mini-bestseller. If not, then your first book, whatever it sells, can pave the way for a best—seller on your second or third effort. Many wise authors are content to simply do all in their power to write the best book they can and don’t even think about the bestseller lists.
Everything starts with an idea. Think about it. Paintings, cars, songs, airplane designs, companies, buildings—and even books.
Developing an idea is where work and time come into the picture. When you go with an idea, it may carry you to unknown areas, to the heights of satisfaction or to the depths of depression when you get bogged down with it.
In the superb novel, The Fountainhead, by Ann Rand, architect Howard Roark states that “the creative artist has a unique right to the original ideas he produces and develops. Others cannot make use of this creative work without agreement and compensation. What is reflected in The Fountainhead is the truth that “everything is built upon something else in creation.” Play with a single basic idea and what happens? More ideas present themselves to you.
The act of creating means to shift qualities or elements from one thing to another. Hollywood has been doing this for decades, lifting (some say stealing) a key element from an old classic film and building a new film from or around it.
The creative process takes varying amounts of time, depending upon the desired result. A book obviously takes much longer to create than an article, short story, or song. There are exceptions to this when you consider prolific authors like Barbara Cartland, Isaac Asimov and Ray Bradbury. They could turn out a new book in a week and often did so.
Creative ideas may evolve into creative problems, real puzzlers for their originators. They then require much more thought and effort to work your way through the sticky areas. Thomas Edison spent ten, twenty years, and longer on some of his creative inventions.
As writers, marketers and artists, it’s imperative that we use our creativity to link unrelated concepts in a way that allows for bold new solutions to spring up. One way to start is to look at the same thing as everyone else and then think of something different.
EXERCISE #1
Imagine that you’re a contractor for a major builder. You’ve been hired to convert a dilapidated warehouse into office space. However, there is one problem. The previous owner of the building left behind 5 million unused cotton balls.
Your assignment is to think of creative things to do with the cotton balls before the new office space is completed. List a few ideas.
EXERCISE #2
Suppose for a moment that you are a development executive at an interactive media publisher. One day, the head honcho ushers you into her office and proclaims that the company is dramatically shifting its development strategy. Due to a cash crunch, the firm will now develop innovative games based solely on properties in the public domain.
Your responsibility is to come up with some test concepts for a new title based on the nursery rhyme, Jack and Jill. Harking back to your childhood, you recount the story: Jack and Jill went up the hill to fetch a pail of water. Jack fell down and broke his crown and Jill came tumbling after. Jot down a few variations of the story.
EXERCISE #3
You’re a marketing assistant for a large manufacturer. You have been assigned a project that may help land you a promotion if completed to your employer’s satisfaction. Your mission is to come up with a list of unique names for the following new consumer products in development:
As you focus your creative energies on the various tasks outlined above, you may find one or more of the challenges difficult to complete. Don’t give up!
Remember to use your knowledge and experience to help stimulate extraordinary ideas. Use your wackiest thoughts and your strangest solutions to help break down the mental barriers that stand in your way. Go on. Have some fun.
So how did you do with the cotton balls in Exercise #1? What creative solutions did you come up with?
Here a few examples I thought of:
The cotton ball exercise demonstrates on interesting point. When cotton balls are taken out of their usual context, many more uses for the items become possible. I’m not predicting that carmel-covered cotton balls will become a candy craze anytime soon. However, when we place cotton balls in the food category, our minds can suddenly find all sorts of exotic new uses for cotton. Cotton candy anyone?
How did you do with the Jack and Jill exercise? As a development executive placed in an extraordinary situation, you have been pushed off your routine path and forced to “think of something different.” When approaching the story of Jack and Jill, one might first pose a series of questions to help formulate a new approach to a familiar set of circumstances.
Questions such as:
Or perhaps alternative situations such as:
By posing a few simple analytical questions and altering at least one key element familiar to our story, whole new creative ideas suddenly become possible. For example:
Jack and Jill climbed up a pyramid to fetch a golden amulet. Jill tripped Jack and he fell down. Jill snatched his crown, scooped up the amulet and was never seen in the city again.
With a little more tinkering, the concept could be expanded into a full-blown adventure game concept–– a Jack and Jill meets Torin’s Passage:
On a day that starts like any other, young Jack learns that the world he knows is about to change forever. A mysterious warlock, known only as Jillian, puts his parents under an evil spell and snatches his father’s magic crown, then vanishes into the vast labyrinth of the black pyramid. Knowing only the sound of the Jillian’s voice, Jack vows to find her, force her to relinquish his father’s crown, and release his parents from bondage. Thus begins an exciting adventure that will take Jack to the five inner worlds of the black pyramid––a world filled with danger and fantasy. Use your wits to help Jack solve many challenging riddles, as he discovers more about himself than he could ever have imagined.
How did you make out with exercise #3? Given the task of having to create unique names for new products in development, how did you fare? Write down your ideas next to the brilliant ideas I came up with:
A hair brush that doubles as portable telephone:
Auto body paint that changes color every few days:
An inflatable bicycle helmet:
Did you know that successful communication is consistently cited as a critical factor for affecting successful change? The right amount of timely, meaningful and consistent communication–targeted to key stakeholders–increases understanding, adoption and commitment from those who are involved. To reach that level of buy-in, it’s important for organizational leaders to have a solid understanding of stakeholder awareness, attitudes and beliefs, expectations, readiness and openness to change–followed by communication that resonates with their needs and concerns.
Most companies want change implemented with the least resistance and with the most buy-in as possible, so communication is critical. For this to occur, change must be applied using a planned approach that addresses all relevant constituents so that conversion from one type of behavior to another organization-wide will be as smooth as possible .
According to Kathy Stershic, president of Dialog Research & Communications, a San Francisco Bay Area change management communications firm, successful change management initiatives that her company has been involved with help to “bridge the gap between where companies are and where they need to be.”
A change management project on the right track can answer challenging questions such as:
Stershic says that to achieve the required outcomes, it’s important to take the time to assess a company’s business requirements, bring focus to key business questions relevant to the situation, gather intelligent information, cull out key issues and insights, and then assimilate the learnings into actionable plans that address the need – whether it’s to fix a problem or to exploit an opportunity.
Here are ten useful change management definitions:
Dialog Research & Communications helps business leaders communicate effectively through change—blending senior business expertise with Fortune 500-proven tools for objective Stakeholder Assessment, Communications Planning and Implementation, Workforce Readiness and Change Leader Assessment. Partial client list includes Adobe, Cisco, Oracle, PeopleSoft, Red Hat, Sun Microsystems, Ford Credit and Xerox.
Contact Information:
www.dialogrc.com
kathy@kstershic.com
Twitter is often described as a free micro-blogging and social networking service that you can use to send quick text messages or ‘tweets’ to friends and followers, no more than 140 characters long. While this may be a factually correct description, it only scratches the surface of how Twitter is being utilized as a revolutionary communications platform.
Since Twitter is hardware agnostic, you can access Twitter using hundreds of different devices. This flexibility is just one of the reasons the use of Twitter is spreading so fast. Anytime, anywhere accessibility means that users can tweet from anywhere–and they are! From the front lines of war zones, to sporting events, family vacations, the local conference event–anywhere you can see or do you can tweet about.
Recently a colleague of mine asked me about Twitter. He heard I was using it to conduct research, promote my blog, and provide assistance to others. “I don’t get it,” he said. “Why would anyone use Twitter? Especially a Fortune 100 company? I just don’t see how it’s useful or effective.”
I could relate to her. You see, I felt the same way only a month or so ago when I first joined Twitter. I posted a few comments, followed a few people, conducted a couple of advanced searches on topics of interest. Yawn. You mean to tell me people are tweeting about taking their children to soccer practice? Tweeting about what they are eating? Posting on topics such as gastronomical pains? Here are three sample tweets (actual Twitter posts):
Why on earth would I spend my valuable time sorting through thousands of comments like these concerning the mundane happenings of so many ordinary lives?
Then I started noticing other tweets like these:
Hmmm. Links to resources, collaborative research findings, online marketing case studies. I searched deeper and found tweets like these:
Wow! Official tweets from companies, celebrities, CEO’s and even politicians. Tweets on a wide range of topics such as crisis management, news & event coverage, product discounts, networking opportunities, and even proactive customer service! With my online marketing noggin now fully engaged, I started thinking about Twitter as a strategy for a businesses or individuals looking to build their brand, increase sales, and/or create awareness. The possibilities are endless (and exciting).
As an outreach strategy, I identified eight obvious areas of focus that any person or organization could capitalize on by using Twitter:
And how to utilize Twitter in each of the above eight areas? Here are four simple ways to engage with the Twitter.com site:
So what are you waiting for? The best way to see for yourself how Twitter can ‘benetweet’ your company, website, blog, product or service is to dive right in and start tweeting today.
It can be challenging for companies to increase sales, grow market share and innovate due to once simple fact: competitors may be playing by a different set of rules.
Innovative organizations have a different way of approaching business challenges that allow them to more quickly respond to change, churn out new creative concepts, or implement technologies in ways that others cannot. They tend to approach challenges as opportunities, rather than obstacles. They look at the world, not through rose colored glasses, but differently, as though viewing a kaleidoscope of possibilities for the first time.
Albert Einstein once said that ‘problems cannot be solved by thinking within the framework in which they were created.’ How true! Smart managers have extolled the virtues of ‘thinking outside the box’ for years now, but so few seem to be able to escape the creative rut they are in.
Do the following points ring try to you?
Let’s try a brief exercise to demonstrate my point. See if you can guess what type of vehicle each of these people drive.
Perhaps you ‘guessed’ the man drove a Lexus, the woman in the center a Prius hybrid and the asian woman a Mercedes?
The ‘right’ answer is inconsequential. What is important is how your mind came to its decision about which car belonged to which person. Logically, we know that people can choose any type of car they want—or they may own several vehicles. But our brains still look for clues, tips and direction based on our past experiences. Our best guesses are made automatically, influenced by patterns and memories in our brains. We leap to assumptions when there may be no proof to back up our first impressions.
Likewise in business, we often make decision based on assumptions on our products, competitors and consumer needs that are not based in fact. That’s why objective research is so important to a company’s long-term success. The same can be said for creative efforts to get our staffs to think differently. It’s one thing to request unique ideas in a staff meeting. But if your team is running on the same familiar corporate treadmill day after day, it’s doubtful that too many innovative concepts will sprout up and blossom from within.
If you agree your ideas are more incremental than revolutionary, then it’s time to figure out what to do about it. Ready to learn how to stimulate new thinking by utilizing some helpful tools, group exercises and creative best practices? Click on each of these previous articles for some free advice.
Alter Your Perspective to View the World in a New Light
It’s been said that preparation is perhaps the single most important part of successful negotiations. To that end, here are three PDF worksheets to help make your next negotiation your most successful yet:
Sequential structure is the basic building block of both interactive and linear media projects. User navigation follows a strictly defined procedural path— one node after another. A user cannot jump from node A to node C, for example, without having first traversed node B.
Although sequential structure is built into the design scheme of practically every new media application ever produced, it is often not talked about. That’s because, for most interactive projects, linear structure is not the primary design structure used in the application; it’s simply an underlying design system that keeps things moving along (see image).
In the early days of multimedia (late eighties to early nineties), sequential structure was used quite heavily in projects such as electronic books and multimedia novels. The Voyager Company published many of these self-label “expanded books,” titles such as Douglas Adams’s Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Herman Melville’s Moby Dick, and The Complete Annotated Alice based on the Lewis Carroll stories.
Electronic books (“e-books”) helped to redefine the boundaries of the printed word. Writers and publishers were able to create works of fiction or nonfiction that their predecessors only dreamed of. Electronic books enhanced the standard text by adding elements such as images, sound, and animation.
In 1991, the first stages of the 3-D graphic novel Sinkha were put into production by noted Italian science-fiction illustrator Marco Patrito and his production team, Virtual Views. Sinkha was a labor of love that was created over a five-year period on a shoestring budget. Upon its final release, the title won the 1996 New Media Invision award for Best Electronic Book and was hailed as an idyllic mesh of art and fiction.
Sinkha stood out from every other e-book on the market because it was neither book, feature film, nor game. It was truly something different—the first 3-D multimedia novel—as its press kit proudly proclaimed. Tens of thousands of hours went into creating the title and the result is a beautifully rendered graphical environment unlike anything you have ever seen. The artwork in Sinkha has been compared to the quality images found in mainstream games such as Myst and The Journeyman Project.
The central story of Sinkha concerns the character Hyleyn, who wishes to leave home in search of adventure. She hooks up with the Sinkha, a godlike race of creatures who seduce her into their magical, synthetic environments. Hyleyn’s enchanters soon become her captors and the race is on to see who will prevail the innocent girl torn away from her family or the dark forces of the Sinkha. To advance Sinkha’s story, the user is required to click an icon to turn each “page.” This limited user interaction triggers new pages of text, mood-altering music, and a poetic dance of photo-realistic 3-D images to appear onscreen. Since the images are basically static (no animation or QuickTime movies in this title), users are drawn into the images in a search for deeper meaning. The end result is a user experience more like browsing pictures
In their 1993 editorial essay “Where are the Theories for the New Organizational Forms?,” R.L. Daft and A.Y. Lewin forewarned us about technology’s impact on the corporation when they wrote “Computer-mediated communication technology is becoming the backbone of many organizations, supplanting the formal hierarchical structure to achieve coordination and manage relationships within and between organizations.”1 These writers were speaking to the impact technology has had on businesses prior to the pervasive adoption of the Internet. The Web further compounds the complexities of these new organizational dynamics.
Many businesses will face an uphill battle in their attempt to alter the status quo. That’s because existing organizations are stitched together like fine tapestries –– every piece of thread is unique, yet each holds its place in relation to the whole. If a thread were to come loose, there is a real threat that the fabric will unravel. That’s one of the reasons why executive management is so indecisive about the Web. They are not quite sure what to make it –– is it a thread, a tapestry, a sewing machine or textile factory? But businesses do know one thing: the Web will have an impact on their business and their organization which must be dealt with.
Businesses aspiring to “webify” their efforts will face tough decisions about how far they want to integrate the Web into their companies. Fundamentally there are five key components to webifying an organization:
1. Differentiate yourself from your competitors (if you can’t, you are only selling an alternative)
2. Create viable products or solutions (passion for a product or service is instantly recognizable and highly contagious)
3. Keep in touch with old friends and business colleagues (and never burn bridges)
4. Focus on target markets (niche markets are less saturated and are usually more open to new ideas)
5. Join a business organization and network (what better way to bond with someone new than to size them up and shake their hand?)
6. Give something back to your community (good deeds are rewarded eventually)
7. Fulfill your promises / follow up on what you say you’ll do (some day you will move on to ther things but your reputation will follow you wherever you go)
