For all of their young lives, my children (now 22 and 18) have heard me tell them that “You are what you surround yourself with.” and “You are what you fill your head with.”

The thought is not entirely mine. I assumed it (read stole) from Paul Harvey. But the idea rings perfectly true. You are certainly judge to be like the friends you surround yourself with and the music and books and games you fill your head with.

While that sentiment holds true for young people, it’s also one of the many driving forces in our current economic uncertainty. Self fulfilling prophecy.

Bad News Media

Now, there is no doubt that the world economy is suffering some historically turbulent times. But the constant barriage of negative news is too often fueled by a media that is seemingly bent on discounting any good news and magnifying the bad.

I pick up the newspaper and read that housing prices are sinking yet again to all time lows. But when I get past the headline it begins, “In New York state…” No place in the story did it mention housing prices in Texas, much less in Dallas/Fort Worth. More fuel on the fire. Then days later, the same paper ran a story stating that DFW home prices will probably hold their value through this economic crisis. Finally got around to some local reporting, but why wasn’t this information presented at the same time as the bad information?

In recent weeks several major national retailers have announced fairly healthy increases in their quarterly sales and revenue and the month-to-month national retail sales figures actually jumped. Did the the local media cover that? Barely, and on page 25.

Some of the morning TV shows covered stories about retailers who sell halloween products having to double and triple their stock of products because of an unexpected run in sales. TV interviewed people who claim they are spending hundreds on halloween goodies this year and looking forward to a great time. That’s on TV.

But the front page stories in the newspaper remained centered on shrinking sales, gloomy forecasts and the looming threat of a recession (which they have been feeding us week after week for more than a year now).

In parts of this country the times are bad, really bad. There is no doubt that it’s tough for many. In other parts of the country it’s not so bad and still other areas are actually thriving. So why do we never read about anything other than the dark and the dismal? I’m not asking for fluff, but that little thing called “balanced reporting” I was taught in journalism school.

Maybe if we look for some good, we’ll find some. Then we can create some more. But if we focus only on the bad news then all appears hopeless, so why even try. Just slow everything down and wait out the storm.

Lack of Confidence

“I just don’t read papers anymore” one Dallas executive told me recently. “They’re depressing. And if I do read anything, it’s the Wall Street Journal or New York Times.” The media’s one-sided love of all bad news has been noticed and made the topic of discussion in the columns of the New York Times, on CNN’s CrossFire and is under constant attack by the Columbia Journalism Review and communications trade publications claiming that the media is “hurting the country.”

Maybe it’s a sign of the times, but more and more of the senior executives I work with have stopped reading local newspapers entirely and started getting their news online from the likes of CNN, NBC and a variety of blogs. Newspapers, especially local ones, have been ditched entirely except to read about local entertainment events or sports.

A Shift to Local News Blogs

This trend, comes at a critical time for the newspaper industry. Newspaper readership has declined sharply, with less than 25% of the U.S. adult population now reading a newspaper, down from more than 52% just 15 years ago. And the turbulent times will only accelerate that decline. The good news, however, is the increase in readership of online neighborhood based blogs and news sites. Evidence of the growing importance of these local blogs is their inclusion in NBC’s new Local Only city web sites.

So, if we are truly what we read then we must monitor carefully the sources of the information we trust. If your local newspaper presents fair and balanced news, then please, by all means, keep reading them. But if you see a clear lack of balance it’s time to move on, change your habits and find other news sources that are, perhaps, more interested in reporting facts than generating sensation.

I can’t say that if you abandon reading newspapers it will have an immediate impact and turn around their bad news ways. Decline in readership has been going on for more than two decades and many papers haven’t changed much during all that time. But by seeking additional sources for your news you will be supporting, possibly, new and different media that you can hold more accountable.

If nothing else, expect and demand to hear both sides of the story, the issue or the trend. Nothing else is good enough.

Cheers,
steve

Play like we’re competing in the long jump in the Olympics. You wouldn’t just stand flat-footed at the line and suddenly make your jump. No! You would get a running start and then jump.

Development of online systems has become something like that long jump. You don’t just make a quick leap, you have to prepare first, before you reach for the sky.

Day in and day out I find myself in conversations with clients, associates and others about social media and social networks. Their interest is huge at the start of the conversation, but wanes quickly when they begin to digest just how much effort social media requires to sustain.

Turns out what they were really looking for was a quick, low-cost jump start to re-energize their web presence.

Well, here it is…

To make your web presence sing and dance you need to get three things in order and do them consistently:

1) Get your web site right — complete, up-to-date, appealing and easy to use
2) Get your e-mail marketing program consistent and focused on customer needs, not yours, and
3) Use blogs and/or podcasts as communications tools, not just marketing and sales tools

Sorry if this sounds a bit boring, but if you don’t have the big #1 and #2 right, then anything you do in the social media/network way probably won’t be of as much benefit.

Fix Your site

When was the last time you looked at your web site? No, really looked at your site? And looked at it with the eyes of your customer or your prospect?

Maybe the better approach is to survey your customers/prospects and ask what they think of your site and what they want it to do. When we conduct those online polls they are often very revealing. Almost too revealing.

Bottomline, you need to treat your web site like it’s a major corporate asset, because it is. So both time and money should be budgeted each month to keep it up-to-date and as useful as possible. Don’t skrimp here, the site is the cornerstone of your web presence, available to literally millions day in and day out, and should always be your first concern.

Strengthen E-Mail Communications

All the research tells us that e-mail is #1 and the undisputed champion of consumer and business communications. E-mail communications company-to-customer is as viable and vibrant as ever, suffering through painful bouts of spam and phishing attacks and some technical complications and still coming out strong. All said, it’s the fastest, easiest and most cost effective way to communicate on a personal level.

If you have a clear and easy e-mail subscribe and unsubscribe system and send regular e-mail messages to your customers. I applaud you. If not, you need to get there quickly. I have no doubt that your customers want to hear from you about your products, services, changes, offers and ideas and suggestions.

Unfortunately, many companies view e-mail as a mass broadcasting tool and basically use it as a means to scatter more ads. They try to take their advertising understanding and apply it to e-mail marketing, and it just doesn’t work. Then they don’t understand when most of their subscribers drop out (or don’t subscribe to begin with) and loudly proclaim that e-mail marketing doesn’t work.

We’ve done the original research and asked customers and consumers what they want in their e-mails and the results are not earth-shaking. On one hand they want to hear about products, services, offers and deals, but that’s not all. They also want us to share our expertise, our experiences and our knowledge. They want more. They also want to hear our ideas, our suggestions and our solutions.

I don’t know about you, but as a communicator I’m delighted when my customers want to hear from me, and I don’t feel it’s a burden to offer them some of my knowledge along with my deals and spiels.

So, take a hard look aty your e-mail marketing program and make sure it’s centered around the customer, and not you.

Now Look Into Social Media

With your web site and e-mail systems in order, you’re ready look into social media and social networking activities and decide if they fit in your overall web strategy.

In a nutshell, ask yourself:

1) Is the audience right? Are your important targets using blogs, podcasts and online video now?

2) Is your organization right? Can you see your client or organization supporting social media, or will it be a constant and up-hill battle? Is legal on-board, is management supportive. If you see a battle, then lay the groundwork in your client or organization before embarking on a social media adventure all alone.

3) Does your product or service lend itself to on-going discussions? If you sell a simple widget, then it’s gonna be hard to write post after post on it’s use or uses, and more difficult to produce more than a single video. So think it through. Can you really sustain an on-going conversation with your customers about your products and services.

4) Have you opened your eyes to other, creative uses for social media? Employee communications, customer product training, HR benefits explanations, product/service introductions, group/team sharing and motivation, and many others uses. Blogs are not just for large groups, but highly effective as a tool for smaller, concise groups and teams.

The full social media discernment process deserves more time and space than we have here and now, so we’ll leave the full decision tree for another day. But leave it to say that more and more organizations are seeing ways to use online social media and social networking activities internally and externally.

Remember, no amount of creative application of social media blogs, podcasts, video or social networking will help if your basic web systems aren’t correct and up-to-date. Get the basics right first, then dive into the more complex media. In the end, it will pay dividends.

Cheers,
steve

At some point in my progressing life did someone, anyone, ask me if I cared to be accessible morning, noon and night?

If so, I missed it, cause I surely would have screamed “No” as I hastily bolted for the door.

Nonetheless, here I am with a small computer in the bag on my back and an even smaller one in my pocket. Both stay connected at all times to each other and to the world.

Component Cocoon

Like the inhabitants of the hot (read Texas) and cold (let’s say, Toronto) cities, most of the year we move from one climate controlled space to another. In a very similar way we have now created electronic component cocoons in our offices, cars and homes, and we move fluidly from one to another of these.

My office is a mass of computers, networks, TVs and phones.

My car recognizes me as i draw near, offers me entry without a key and immediately latches onto my bluetooth phone. I still say that truck is smarter than I am.

Home is no better. Another full functioning office — more computers, networks and TVs. Wired and wireless networks throughout, connecting computers and TVs and allowing me to order-up and listen to almost any music or view literally thousands of TV shows and movies in mere moments.

I have tech savvy children and have learned that texting is a new way of life. But I’ve taught them video iChat and Skype, so we can see and talk to each other all the time.

Am I Unique?

With all these toys and gadgets around me I’ve always assumed I was different, unique. After all, I’m the guy they called a techno wizard long ago and who has loved gadgets for these 30+ years.

But the more I talk to friends, associates and others the more I’m hearing of similar scenarios. So the intrusion of the Component Cocoon is wider spread than I imagined. Why? Well, simple. It’s convenient and easy.

Convenience

Face it. It’s great to be able to reach out and touch someone simply by pulling a device out of your pocket and tapping on it. It increases our feeling of connection to one another, especially family and friends, and it increases our feeling of overall security. Those are very good things.

Easy

(Ok, here comes the ad for the iPhone.) Apple didn’t do anything special with their iPhone. The first version didn’t really have any features that other phones didn’t already have — but the iPhone made everything work almost effortlessly. Other phone and computer makers have changed their ways to try to compete with the more “human-friendly” iPhone and Mac, and that has changed forever the way we compute and communicate.

Today’s component cocoon is cheaper to assemble, and doesn’t take a techie to pull together. ISPs show up, plug one device into the wall and [SHAZAAM!] you have a fully functional wireless network in your home or office. You don’t have to know anything about configuring it, that’s already handled. And when you buy a new phone, your carrier (if they are any good) will pull your contacts and other information from your old phone into the new one while giving you a quick demonstration of the advanced features of the new device. And your new phone is getting much, much easier to use.

On/Off

What all this means is that personal communications technology is easier to put at your fingertips, easier to use and getting easier to understand. You never have to be without phone, texting and the internet, if you don’t want to disconnect.

But for those of us old enough to remember the simple joy of sitting alone in the shade of a tree, looking over some soothing scene without the fear that this peaceful moment will be invaded by an obnoxious ringtone, there’s always one simple solution.

The “off” button.

Bye. lol

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