Weekend Favs March Thirteen

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How to Boost Your Customer Referrals in 7 Simple Steps

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Is It Time To Practice a Little Selfish Networking

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How to Build Referrals and Become a Nationally Known Speaker

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6 Ways to be More Referable than Edward Scissorhands at a Lawn & Garden Convention

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Ring-Ring: This is WOM calling: Are You Listening?

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Make a Referral Week Giveaway

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Word of Mouth Versus Key Influencers

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Writing is one of those activities that only get better with practice. Maybe you are a fair enough writer for your online content or blog, but you can always improve. Writing about a variety of topics for others gets those creative muscles working again. Many writers have written on a number of topics and in a [...]

You have worked hard to build your blog audience. It may be an extension of your online business. The blog is where customers and other visitors can pick your brain and find out about products and so forth. Maybe it’s time to branch out and ask others to post to give your readers some variety. Variety [...]

The winner of the February Challenge is Jeric! Congratulations! Be sure to email me at vera @ smallbusinessbranding.com within 3 days. Now onto the March challenge…Similar Posts: Winner Announced: CorelDRAW Graphics Suite x4 SBB Small Spark Contest – Build Your Brand With Guest Blogging SBB Presents – Small Spark Contest 2010 SBB Small Spark Contest 2010: Building Relationships With [...]

As part of my interview series with “Thought Leaders,” consultant , speaker and author, Jaimy Weiler from “One Heart Waking – Business and Executive Consulting” shares her wisdom with us. Jaimy and her company “One Heart Waking” are truly unique in their delivery of effect and balanced work environments. Ed Roach: Considering the fact that a [...]

Networking Opportunities Made Possible by Guest Blogging Just like in the offline world, sometimes it is “who you know” that counts. In online business, there are many ways to network with other business owners. One way is through guest blogging. You are building your business and making your mark in cyberspace. As a complement to your business, [...]

There are people in the Internet business scene who are “big names.” When they are mentioned, others stand up and take notice (where is E. F. Hutton?). You can use their influence to gain a higher visibility in your business arena. All sorts of people visit blogs. They are not just people who see a catchy [...]

Blogging is such a big business these days. It is a great way to communicate with other business people as well as customers or even just friends. As an online business owner or professional blogger, writing for others can get you noticed and build your reputation. What is a brand? It is your unique stamp. With [...]

It can be a powerful weapon in any company's strategic planning arsenal. But it can also backfire. Steve McKee offers five essentials to consider

A new study finds the top-performing 1% of young companies account for roughly 40% of the new jobs created annually. Here are ideas for encouraging more

The proposed StartUp Visa Act would open the door to foreign entrepreneurs who create jobs

It's not the institutional environment, taxes, or ease of hiring. To explain the country's astronomical entrepreneurship rates, Scott Shane digs into the data

Unprecedented growth, good salaries, and the ability to make an impact faster make Asia the new promised land for B-school grads

Last March we profiled 26 ventures hatched by the newly unemployed. Amid signs of economic recovery, we check in with each of them

Interim executives fill managerial roles. To get the most out of them, companies must find the right match and acknowledge internal problems

One year after profiling new business ventures started by the recently unemployed, we check to see where they are now

Small business owners, who often borrow against homes and offices, are suffering from the vicious cycle that's keeping credit tight and pushing real estate down

Dismayed to find his company's cash flow looking like last year's, Gene Marks continues to delay hiring and is taking on jobs he wouldn't have considered before

Approach local bankers, informal investors, and peer-to-peer lenders, such as Prosper and Zopa, and talk up revenue history, accounts receivable, and inventory

As Congress continues to shape a jobs bill, data from payroll companies suggest that small businesses have started to hire

The U.S. Internal Revenue Service will extend a moratorium on penalties until June 1 for failing to report transactions considered tax shelters.

Taking your business from good to great to remarkable can seem a daunting task. But, it may be easier than you think. The bad news from a customer perspective is that companies aren’t doing the basics properly, let alone getting to remarkable. Customers hopes are high, but expectations low. This bad news is good news for [...] Related posts:

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Yesterday, I spent the morning reviewing submissions for the Incredibly Boring Web Content Challenge. The Boring Web Content Challenge, as I wrote about a few weeks ago, encouraged companies to submit their most lifeless, incomprehensible bit of web writing (a web page, or press release, or email, or whatever) to win a chance to have a [...] Related posts:

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The popularity of social media in marketing and PR continues to grow at a rapid pace, with more businesses taking this form of communication seriously every day. From restaurants to fashion, technology to travel, you can find information, special deals and customer care from your favorite brands online across Twitter, Facebook, Foursquare, Google and more. But [...] Related posts:

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My friend John Jantsch invited me (and a bunch of other people you probably know, including David Meerman Scott, Guy Kawasaki, Rohit Bhargava and Chris Brogan, Ivan Misner, Bob Burg, Ben McConnell, Dan Schawbel, Anita Campbell, Lisa Barone, Scott Allen, Scott Ginsberg, Janine Popick, and Pam Slim) to participate in his second annual Make a [...] Related posts:

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In recent days, I’ve been struck by how powerful the sense of “home” can be. Home is familiar, comfortable, irreplaceable. There’s an undeniable “belongingness” that can’t be replicated. Stepping off on a hike last fall in New Hampshire, I was overwhelmed by the sense that I was back home in New England. No matter that I’d [...] Related posts:

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We’ve known for some time that naturally occurring compounds called flavonols found in cocoa have potentially good health benefits. Ongoing scientific research suggests consumption of chocolate rich in flavonols may act as antioxidants to help defend the body from free radical damage. Researchers at Harvard and elsewhere have been studying the effects of cocoa flavonols on [...] Related posts:

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Or: “Social and CRM: How Companies Will Manage Their Customer Relationships.” Over the last six months, I’ve been working closely with Ray Wang who is well known as an expert in the Customer Relationship Management space. Coupled with my focus on social technologies, we did a deep dive on how our worlds are colliding into [...] Related posts:

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What are the first words that pop into your head when someone says Gen Y? Go-getter, enthusiastic, tech-oriented? Entitled was more than likely among the more colorful adjectives. Those ‘My Kid is an an Honor Roll Superstar’ bumper stickers really went to our heads. So, why should you want Gen Y on your marketing or public [...] Related posts:

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Remember the days when you purchased a product or service and the company actually stood behind its wares? Well, looks like those days are waning. Unless, of course, you buy their INSURANCE! Now, there's a great money-making rip-off. Related posts:

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I’ve always considered LinkedIn more of a place to prospect for a job than anything else. And since I haven’t been in the market for one in a while, I’ve paid it little mind. Plus, if I’m being honest: I’ve always thought LinkedIn was kind of … well, boring. If Facebook was a rave at a [...] Related posts:

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Too often, it seems, this attitude is missing from teams, organizations or the community.

It's missing because people are quick to opt out of the 'we' part. "What do you mean, we?" they ask. It's so easy to not be part of we, so easy to make it someone else's problem, so easy to not to take responsibility as a member of whatever tribe you're part of.

Sometimes it's missing because people disagree about what 'it' is. If you don't know what you're after, it's unlikely you're going to find it.

And it's missing because people confuse cynicism with realism, and are afraid to say "can". They'd rather say 'might' or even 'probably won't'.

Just about everything worth doing is worth doing because it's important and because the odds are against you. If they weren't, then anyone could do it, so don't bother.

Product launches, innovations and initiatives by any organization work better when the key people agree on the goal, believe that they can achieve it and that the plan will work.

Do we have a cynicism shortage? Unlikely.

Successful people rarely confuse a can-do attitude with a smart plan. But they realize that one without the other is unlikely to get you very far.

Count me in. Let's go.

Oleg points us to http://wordoid.com/

It's a conjugator, brainstorming and domain finder, all in one. Nicely done.

I've done a few posts on naming to help you get started. Here's an old one too.

And while I'm sharing links, here's a thoughtful post about money. Not about money, actually, but about the way people think about money.

I stumbled on a great typo last night. "Staff in the lobby were wondering around..."

Wandering around is an aimless waste of time.

Wondering around, though, that sounds useful.

Wondering why this product is the way it is, wondering how you can make the lobby more welcoming, wondering if your best customers are happily sharing your ideas with others... So many things worth wondering about, so few people actually taking the time to do it.

Wondering around is the act of inquiring with generous spirit.

Since Linchpin was published six weeks ago, I've gotten some terrific email. Most of it is about individuals who used the ideas in the book to instigate a process of self-reinvention or validation. Some of the best mail, though, has come from managers and leaders who are using the book to inspire others. One company bought 800 copies for its management, while another reader told me how two copies helped change the way her organization coped with change.

When I find a book that moves me, I spread it to everyone who's willing to listen. I hope you feel the same way.

It's ever more clear to me that an author has very little chance of writing a book that goes directly to a large number of new readers who become book buyers. There's not enough time or money or leverage to get in front of a stranger and say, "here, read this!"

On the other hand, that's exactly what someone like you can do. "Here, read this, and then let's discuss it..." In fact, I'd argue that just about every book that has made an impact has spread in exactly that way.

Given that truth, here are two ways I'd like to support you if you think the ideas in Linchpin are worth spreading:

Plan 1: FIVE PACK WITH A READER'S GUIDE

We're working with 800 CEO Read to offer the following: buy five copies of Linchpin and we'll send you a digital ten-page reader's guide. Packed with questions and ideas dreamed up by fellow readers that you can use to inspire or guide group conversations.

Buy five, give them away, have a conversation, make change. (PDF will be sent by email to arrive before your books do). I think you'll be delighted at the impact five books can have on the people you work with or teach.

Plan 2: LEADERSHIP TRAINING

I'm going to do a live session in New York on April 16, 2010. Instead of charging my usual fee for tickets, I'm offering seats only to people interested and able to train lots of others. If you're a manager, a coach, a teacher, the leader of an organization or someone who has the desire to teach a group about the ideas in Linchpin, I'd love to have you come.

The entire session will be focused on how to talk about and spread the ideas in the book. Because it's a small group, seats are limited and are reserved for people who can buy fifty or more copies of the book from the retailer of your choice. All the details are here. We'll accept applications until all the seats are allocated, so hurry.

Thanks to each of you who have read the book and hugs to those of you touched enough by it to want to share it with others. I appreciate it. Your support made it a NY Times bestseller, #1 in the Journal, etc., but I'm far more satisfied that it has helped people do something that they've always wanted to do. Thanks for making something happen.

...is not the same as obeying the list.

Do you make the list you check off, follow and work on every day? When does it get made? Who approves it? Do you identify tasks or perform them?

If you had a better list, would you do better work? If you made the list instead of just obeying it, would you be a more valuable member of the team?

Yes, asking questions is often more valued than answering them. (If they're the right questions.)

When the platform changes, the leaders change.

Wordperfect had a virtual monopoly on word processing in big firms that used DOS. Then Windows arrived and the folks at Wordperfect didn't feel the need to hurry in porting themselves to the new platform. They had achieved lock-in after all, and why support Microsoft?

In less than a year, they were toast.

When the game machine platform of choice switches from Sony to xBox to Nintendo, etc., the list of bestelling games change and new companies become dominant.

When the platform for music shifted from record stores to iTunes, the power shifted too, and many labels were crushed.

Again and again the same rules apply. In fact, they always do. When the platform changes, the deck gets shuffled.

Think this only applies to software?

The platform for healthcare changed from independent doctor's offices and small practices to hospitals and hmos.

The platform for TV changed from airwaves to wires (so HBO and ESPN win, NBC loses).

The platform for cars is changing from gas engines to alternatives.

And the platform for books is changing (fast!) to e-books and readers. Just published today: the Vook multimedia production of Unleashing the Ideavirus. The price will increase to $5 in two weeks, but right now it's 99 cents. It runs on the web and on your iphone [try this link too] (and the iPad on April 3rd.)

Here's the thing: Vook abridged it, built it, filmed it and distributed it in less than ninety days. They have a software application that they can use again and again for other titles. They've organized themselves to be profitable at a profit margin that few big book publishers can match.

Once again, the platform changes. Insiders become outsiders and new opportunities abound.

This is deceptive.

You don't rock all the time. No one does. No one is a rock star, superstar, world-changing artist all the time. In fact, it's a self-defeating goal. You can't do it.

No, but you might rock five minutes a day.

Five minutes to write a blog post that changes everything, or five minutes to deliver an act of generosity that changes someone. Five minutes to invent a great new feature, or five minutes to teach a groundbreaking skill in a way that no one ever thought of before. Five minutes to tell the truth (or hear the truth).

Five minutes a day you might do exceptional work, remarkable work, work that matters. Five minutes a day you might defeat the lizard brain long enough to stand up and make a difference.

And five minutes of rocking would be enough, because it would be five minutes more than just about anyone else.

Carnegie apparently said, "Take away my people, but leave my factories and soon grass will grow on the factory floors......Take away my factories, but leave my people and soon we will have a new and better factory."

Is there a typical large corporation working today that still believes this?

Most organizations now have it backwards. The factory, the infrastructure, the systems, the patents, the process, the manual... that's king. In fact, shareholders demand it.

It turns out that success is coming from the atypical organizations, the ones that can get back to embracing irreplaceable people, the linchpins, the ones that make a difference. Anything else can be replicated cheaper by someone else.

Readers have told me that they enjoy my off-the-wall book lists. Here's another. Science fiction, Tom Peters, Krista Tippett and even a book for touring musicians.

Enjoy them. And don't forget it's okay to share books. They don't wear out.

People are drawn to existing competitions like moths to a flame.

It's precisely the wrong way to succeed.

Lots of journalists take significant detours in their careers and their writing in order to win a Pulitzer. Maybe not to actually win one, but to be in that class, to have peers that have won one. Mystery novelists stick to the center of the road, because that's where the road is. Movies are written and released in order to win an Oscar. Once there's a category, a ranking, a place to battle for supremacy, we run for it. 

Do you go to trade shows or enter markets or submit RFPs or push for a GPA or even gross ratings points because there's a list of winners or because it's what you actually want to do? Most bestseller lists and prizes measure popularity, not effectiveness.

I wonder if real art comes when you build the thing that they don't have a prize for yet.

If I can sell you something without a sales call or expensive ad campaign, I can sell it cheaper.

If you want to buy a business development relationship but you're not willing to negotiate, do contracts and invest a lot of time, you're going to get a lesser deal.

It seems like a paradox, but it's not.

Firefox is free, largely because it doesn't cost anything for them to 'sell' it to you. If they had to meet with your IT guys and build case studies and fly people out to conferences and take you to fancy dinners, you'd pay a lot for that friction.

When the customer does a lot of work for the seller, the seller can afford to sell it cheaper. If you drive to the customs warehouse and pick up that rug that just arrived, you can bet it's a lot cheaper.

Amazon offers affiliates a fairly lousy deal. The reason is simple: it's easy. Easy to sign up, easy to get paid, no real hoops or hassles. The openness of doing the deal is a benefit of signing up with them, and so you get paid less in exchange.

If you answer a classified about making money from home stuffing envelopes, is it any wonder you're not going to get paid much? If it's really easy to get a job, the job probably isn't worth much.

In every market, there's an opportunity to create a more open sales channel and lower your price as a way of making sales.

And in many markets, there's an opportunity to offer people a cheap way to affiliate with you and keep a bigger piece of the pie in exchange.

The cost and method of selling (and buying) have a lot to do with the ultimate cost (and benefit).

The usual mantra is to 'try harder'. Trying harder is impossible when you're already trying as hard as you can.

But you can always try different.

Years ago, I was creating trivia questions for a product we built for Prodigy. We had a 99% accuracy rate in doing the questions. Which was great, except there were 1800 questions in a batch, which meant 18 wrong each time, which was totally and completely unacceptable. These were honest mistakes, made by smart people working as hard as they could.

No matter how hard we tried, we couldn't do better than 99%. So we switched our system completely and did it in a totally different way. Same number of people, same number of hours, 100% accuracy.

If it's not working, harder might not be the answer.

Think about that for a minute or two... Sort of turns the whole idea of 'cool' upside down. From an interview with David Horvath.

And my favorite new blog in ages (from an old friend and sage): Alan Webber.

This is an archaic Italian word for being able to do your craft without a lot of visible effort. It's a combination of elan and grace and class, sort of the opposite of loud grunts while you play tennis or a lot of whining and fuss when you help out a customer.

Many people are unable to put their finger on it, but this is a magnetic trait for many of us. We want our lawyer, dentist and waiter to demonstrate sprezzatura, but of course, not particularly try to. This is one of the secrets of Danny Meyer's top-rated restaurants in New York. It doesn't have to be flashy, it doesn't even have to be the very best there ever was, but sprezzatura is enough to get us to return. As long as this light-footedness is scarce, it will remain valuable.

What's it?

Why do you need to feel like something in order to do the work? They call it work because it's difficult, not because it's something you need to feel like.

Very few people wake up in the morning and feel like taking big risks or feel like digging deep for something that has eluded them. People don't usually feel like pushing themselves harder than they've pushed before or having conversations that might be uncomfortable.

Of course, your feelings are irrelevant to whether or not the market expects great work. Do the work. Ignore the feelings part and the work will follow.