Harlan Tytus Beverly on Sales and Marketing for Logical Thinkers

How to reach bloggers. Just ask!

2011-12-20T17:27:00.001-06:00

Recently, a representative from jooble-us.com (a job site aggregation, which helps people find jobs), contacted me and asked to post about it on my Blog. (Done).

What was really interesting was the method of the message.... I actually think this might be a robot! (filling in my most recent 2 posts, the url of my blog, and my Zodiac Sign automatically!)!

So, if a freaking ROBOT can get me to post about their site on my blog... you can easily do it too... just ask! (this probably goes for anyones blog by the way).

Here, learn how a robot does it... full email from jooble-us.com below:

Hello!

I just want to thank you for your wonderful blog tytusblog.blogspot.com.

I read the post "A Marketing Basic: Speak & Write Plainly!" and then I spent another hour on your blog by reading your posts with pleasure :)Every article is interesting and easy to read. I really like the "Research Brief: how to write "engaging" Social Posts on Facebook and Twitter".

I work for Jooble company, we aggregate job adverts around the world.

My job is to persuade bloggers to link to our site.

I really love my job! We have a friendly team and good management, but unfortunately I have no idea how to convince a blogger to link to us, I'm afraid I might lose my job because of it :(

And that is why, instead of sending letters to thousands of different blogs, I am reading yours.

Honestly, I am not really sure if the link to our website in United States - jooble-us.com, will be appropriate for your blog, but if you believe it will and you can add it, I would be really grateful to you! Our site is really cool, it can greatly help hundreds of people to find jobs.

I wish you to have a good day and excellent mood! Thanks again for your nice blog. Write more! Thanks!

P.S. I am a Aries by zodiac sign too :)

A Marketing Basic: Speak & Write Plainly!

2011-12-02T14:23:00.001-06:00

Speak Plainly. Seems obvious, but us marketers often get into the habit of "word-smithing" till the text on the page is unrecognizable by normal humans (and worse, by our target customers). Writing regular Facebook or Twitter updates for your company SHOULD be part of a solid Marketing campaign (try our own tool to help: http://postontime.com... but keep the writing simple. Here are a few examples to avoid, and better alternatives.

Don't say user: "Users can now log in via our web interface"

Say instead: customer or you. "You can now log in via our web interface"

Don't say best, most, or other false-ly colorful exaggerations: "This is the Best interface ever."

Say instead: we think you will like. "We think you will like our interface upgrades."

Don't use acronyms: "Anyone who wants higher marketing ROI should click here"

Instead, use simple terms: "Anyone who wants to get higher profits for their investments in marketing should click here."

Remember, short is sweet, but complex, obtuse, or marketing-speak is sour.

Research Brief: how to write "engaging" Social Posts on Facebook and Twitter

2011-11-08T10:29:00.000-06:00

According to eMarketer.com's recent study, having a picture and a clear call to action (e.g. request for likes or comments) leads to the most engaging social posts: http://www.emarketer.com/Article.aspx?R=1008677. My own research by running social campaigns for 6 Fanpages simultaneously has led me to agree with this, except for 1 additional comment: Keep it short!

Keeping your posts short, and varying the time of their postings (possibly using my companies own tool: postontime.com) is the way to go! Shorter posts are more likely to get read, and short posts with calls to action ("Like this if...").

For more tips on making your social campaigns work, check out my white paper here.

Harlan

Top Tips for Social Network Marketing!

2011-11-02T10:58:00.000-05:00

My top tips for Social Network Marketing are very simple: * full details and white-paper here

Acquire lots of fans. (try a Karmaback Sweepstakes to help!)
Engage fans with REGULAR and ENGAGING posts.
Convert fans into customers by making them unique/special offers (only for fans).

It is nice when the marketing industry in general agrees with you! Check out "Involver's" top tips as well (note: matches mine very closely):
http://blog.involver.com/2011/10/07/social-media-marketing-tips-to-i

Post Regularly
Time your Posts.

So, how can you do 1 and 2 VERY easily?
For Facebook and Twitter try my new tool: http://postontime.com

Marketers want to better measure Social

2011-10-28T10:00:00.000-05:00

Ever wanted to know exactly what Social Network Marketing is doing for you? You are not alone.
According to eMarketer.com measuring social effectiveness is of paramount concern.

My question is what do you want to measure?

Respond to me here or by email to harlan@karmaback.com

Karmaback builds tools to improve Social Marketing effectivness... tell me what you want us to measure, and if we're not doing it already, we will be!

PostOnTime lets you post to Facebook and Twitter while you are away.

2011-10-27T09:23:00.001-05:00

If you are "into" social network marketing like I am, then you already know that posting to your Facebook and Twitter page on a consistent (and constant) basis is vital to keeping your Fans and Followers active and growing. A daily or twice daily post is not at all too much. However, knowing and doing are 2 different things. My company, Karmaback, has just launched PostOnTime to make the doing part of posting to Facebook and Twitter on a regular basis MUCH easier. You can now schedule posts for any time of the day, even when you are away from your computer. You can even post on weekends, evenings, and when you are travelling or on vacation! It is free for 30-days, and as low as $4.99/mo after that, so give it a try! It's awesome!

http://karmaback.com/tw_postontime/

90% of Sweepstakes entrants are interested in buying the product.

2011-10-04T10:15:00.004-05:00

According to http://www.sweepstakestoday.com, 90% of Sweepstakes entrants are interested in buying the product.
Source: http://www.prweb.com/releases/2011/9/prweb8786147.htm

That means that if you get 1000 entries to your sweepstakes, 900 of them are actually considering BUYING your product.

Those numbers are hard to deny... why aren't you running branded sweepstakes on your Facebook, Twitter, and Web pages?

Karmaback makes it extremely easy to setup a branded and fully hosted sweepstakes AND we now guarantee it: http://karmaback.com/platform/signup_success_guarantee/

Engineers should NOT start a business.

2011-09-28T09:24:00.002-05:00

I'll say it again, Engineers should NOT start a business... unless they are prepared to run a business. So many people I meet are hungry to "have no boss" and "work on what they want", that they forget that to start a business is to run a business. If you are not willing to "work on stuff that needs doing", then starting a business is probably a very bad idea.

Consider the ideal case. You are an engineer. You love doing engineering. You start a business that is just consulting your engineering skills.

Do you think you will always be able to pick and choose your contracts? -Wrong. You work on what the client wants... and if jobs are scare, you take work where you can get it.
Do you really think you have no boss? -Wrong. The client is the boss.
No accounting? -Wrong. You now track hours, expenses, invoices, etc.
No sales? -Wrong. You have to sell yourself for every bid.
No marketing? -Wrong. Every client is a Word-of-mouth marketer for you.

So... by "starting even the simplest business", you've just made a bunch of work that you probably don't like doing. You've just created a bunch of bosses where you used to have only 1. And now you are working harder than ever. So why do it?

1 word: Profit.

The reason you work harder, you do the extra yicky work, etc. is because you can charge WAY MORE than you were before. As a variable resource, people will pay more for your services. You just have to keep the pipeline of work filled and you will rake in the extra 25-50% due a contractor/consultant.

If you are starting a business for more "freedom", you might get some... but Profit is a far better reason.

Referral Marketing and League of Legends

2011-09-26T16:26:00.005-05:00

First, if you love PC games... or even just like them... you HAVE to try this Free downloadable game: League of Legends. It is really an amazing game, and it's free. How easy is that. Best of all, if you use MY track-able link: http://signup.leagueoflegends.com/?ref=4e80eb3ecc45f219796048 then, I get bonuses for you joining and could even earn the right to "design my own character"!

What was that? A perfect example of referral marketing in action. In truth, I do love the free game league of legends, and I do want you to try the game! Here is that link again in case you missed it: http://signup.leagueoflegends.com/?ref=4e80eb3ecc45f219796048 . Why do I care? Because IF people use my referral link (which is easily track-able and associated with my account), THEN I get stuff. Some of it REALLY cool!

Referral Marketing works. It worked "before" Facebook. It works "after" Facebook.

Before Facebook: People got paid to get their friends to buy stuff (Tupperware Party), and they could get a discount if they brought a friend, and they could get real hard cash if they referred somebody to somebody else...

During Facebook: Everybody got crazy about this "Free" system that seemed to do referrals for free... but there was a cost: it was called SPAM. And Facebook couldn't afford to pay that cost any more.

Now After Facebook (because they virtually removed the SPAM capabilities of viral apps): Referral systems STILL work.

If you are NOT giving rewards for referrals for your business... I ask, why not? Isn't that cheaper than advertising?

Karmaback has actually built a FULLY track-able Online Referral system.... but we shut down the project once our Sweepstakes began to take off in popularity.

Any interest in us restarting the referral SaaS tool?

Marketing is WAY harder than Engineering

2011-09-21T08:57:00.001-05:00

I've written on this topic before, but I just thought it would be worth a mention again. I do think Marketing is harder/more challenging than Engineering, and I'm starting to think I understand why...

Marketers have to figure out "what" to build... Engineers figure out how to build it.
Marketers have to choose what to say, and when to say it... Engineers get to stay quiet in public.
Marketers have to figure out why something isn't selling well... Engineers get to work on the next thing.
Marketers stress over business success and deadlines... Engineers fret over deadlines (sometimes).
Marketers micro-optimize the un-measurable... Engineers optimize the measurable.
Marketers have to deal with shifts in culture, business, and fashion... Engineers work with laws of physics.

Having been (and loved being) an Engineer, I can also make 1 more statement that I think perhaps most interesting of all....

Engineers get to see, daily, their progress and fruits of labor... they are appreciated for it.

Marketers often can't see the effects of their work at all... and many question a Marketers value.

So, pat a Marketing guy on the back next time you see one... believe me, they are likely stressing more than you are!

ALWAYS provide an "Easy Button" for your customers.

2011-09-14T11:16:00.000-05:00

It doesn't matter what you sell, who you sell to, or how much you are charging. There should always be an "easy" button for your customers. In fact, the most basic, core functionality of your product should be so easy, it barely even needs a button. How do you do that, you ask? Well, simple. First, find the core functionality of your product. Knowing that can be a huge help! Second, make sure that the user can see (and use) the core functionality of your product in 1-click (or less). If you don't have a software product, let them see/use your product with no clicks... right out of the box... no assembly required.

At Karmaback, we recently improved our entire setup flow to require just 2 clicks. Yah it's not 1 yet.. (we're working on it!)... but its a huge improvement. Companies can now setup a fully functional, completely operational, fully hosted Sweepstakes for Facebook or Twitter or Web or all three, in 2 clicks. Nice.

How did we do it? Easy Default Settings. Simplified setup process... and most of all, the "Save" button. (see screenshot below)

Setting up a Viral and Social Sweepsakes to run in your Facebook Fanpage or Twitter Feed couldn't be more easier that it is now! Well maybe a tiny bit easier... we want to get it down to 1 Click... we're working on that. Maybe we'll call the 1 button "Easy".

Video Games need more "bosses".

2011-09-13T08:50:00.002-05:00

Do you remember the old Nintendo Days. Finally fighting Ganon in Zelda? All the "mini-bosses" in Metroid? Or the countless other timeless boss encounters? Or on PC, the "Doom" Demon Bosses? Probably you remember the feeling of excitement, accomplishment, dread, and relief that was part of the encounter. Where have all the boss encounters gone? Recently I have enjoyed playing Mass Effect 2 a ton... mostly because it has some decent Boss encounters here and there... but not as many as the old days! To me a Boss encounter means that the Boss is actually bigger and more powerful than you could EVER be... and to kill him, you must learn his trick/secret/weakness. And that makes for some serious fun gaming!

What does this have to do with Marketing you ask? Well, there are two lessons here:

Marketing isn't just promotion (how many times a day do I say that...). The most important service Marketing can do is to give product guidance. In this case, there is a target market that craves Boss encounters because the feeling of excitement, accomplishment, etc.
Your target market might be hungry for Nostalgia! If you can feed them something they used to love... you could make serious cash!

Why do Social Marketing?

2011-09-09T10:58:00.000-05:00

Social Marketing is more than just a buzzword. If you are not doing "basic" Social Marketing, you are missing out in a revolution of internet marketing; and failing to market where your customers live.

This video explains (statistically) why the hype about Social Marketing is important... I'll summarize it: BECAUSE ALMOST EVERYONE IS THERE! e.g. almost your entire market is spending more and more of their time on social networks!!!

Got it? Here are 3 levels of Social Marketing you should be considering:

Just be there! Make a Facebook Fanpage and a Twitter account. Link Facebook to Twitter, so when you post to Facebook, it posts to Twitter automatically. And write 1 post per week about something new at your company.
Grow your page by getting more fans, likes, and followers. Simply run some sweepstakes (using Karmaback of course), or ads, to encourage your fans/followers to join!
Reward your Fans/Followers for following you.. and encourage them to talk to you on Social networks. You can reward them by doing give-aways (using Karmaback of course), and by offering them special discounts/offers.

Now stop procrastinating and make a Facebook Fanpage or Twitter Account. It's super easy!

Bigfoot Networks Acquisition

2011-09-05T12:33:00.000-05:00

I am super delighted to announce that a company I founded based on my own original idea (to build products that Fight Lag in Online Games) has been acquired by Qualcomm! Congratulation to the whole team, and THANK YOU to all my friends and family who helped Bigfoot Networks get here.

http://www.anandtech.com/show/4726/qualcomm-atheros-acquires-bigfoot-networking

It is a great ending to an amazing story of adventure, passion, and persistence.

Founded in 2005, Bigfoot Networks grew out of my own idea, and 18 of my own patents. The idea was simple: develop networking products that reduce online lag in video games. I had expertise in networking technology due to my 5 years working at Intel in their Platform Networking Group. At Intel, we focused almost exclusively on "throughput", often to the detriment of "latency". Being an avid gamer, I realized that if we simply made a few different decisions about "latency" that we could reduce Lag in online games by 10% or more. This led to the development of Bigfoot Networks first product, "The Killer NIC", which was released in 2006 to much pessimism and doubt. It took much less than the $4MM we raised from our investor Venio/Raven Capital Partners.

Persistence and willingness to put our technology to the ringer led to our first big customer, Dell/Alienware. At Alienware, where gamers were buying new PCs just for gaming, we had some amazingly good success (20-40% attach rates, as has been previously published).

From there, additional research into Lag and Latency led to many more patents and several new products, including "LLR SDK" a network SDK for online game developers to optimize the server side of latency.

With multiple products under our belt, we were invested in by North Bridge Venture Partners and Palomar Ventures to the tune of an additional $8MM. The new capital was put to use bringing several new products to market, and hiring a California executive team. Shortly after that I moved on to found a new company (Karmaback, Inc.), but stayed involved in Bigfoot and remained on the Board of Directors.

Now almost 2 years (and quite a bit more money invested) sinceI left Bigfoot Networks, the company that I started with my 2 U.T. MBA friends Bob Grim and Michael Cubbage, finally got acquired!

What a long and awesome road.

I do have several regrets from the adventure:
1. I wish I had gotten an EVEN BIGGER return for my investors (especially friends and family).
2. I wish I could have slowed down the company a little earlier... we were growing so fast and furious that we should have stopped and noticed the big wave that was coming: Cloud Computing.... our technology could have really made a big impact in Cloud should we have gone that direction.
3. I wish I could have finished my ultimate vision for 100% lag-free gaming (for which the Patents were filed)... because even today, I still suffer from too much Lag while playing from my remote ranch in East-Central Texas!

Best wishes to my friends and colleagues in their new career at Qualcomm.

NOW, I get to take all my learning and skills building Bigfoot Networks from nothing, and make Karmaback, Inc. into the next big thing!

2011-07-20T13:38:00.004-05:00

Karmaback has been upgrading its servers in advance of the roll-out of our new upgraded Social Sweepstakes systems from companies. Watch the video to learn just how many TPS (transactions per second) we can handle! *hint=it's a lot!*

Special thanks to the Disqus team for showing us the way to MASSIVE scale!

Also, check out the video to get a sneak preview of the many new customizations you can do with our sweepstakes system.

Google+ Will Fail and Why.

2011-07-14T23:17:00.004-05:00

Many of you know I'm in the business of Marketing; specifically social marketing. I've been playing with Google+ lately and have come to several opinions about the service that I thought I'd share. In general, I think the service will die, and die quickly. Here are the 5 observations why I think this is so:

Google+ has no cachet... it's not really that cool to be on Google+... there is no reason to right now (as opposed to just being on Facebook). Google tried to make some buzz with the "fake" limits on user growth, but those in the know, know that was contrived.
Google + doesn't help companies (yet). I expect Google will get around to it, and when that happens, companies will rush to setup their pages... but soon they will realize: it's EXPENSIVE to maintain Google+, Facebook, and Twitter: then they'll say, gee, we've invested in Facebook; we're staying.
Games will kill it. Games on Google+ are coming, and when they do, let the spam wars begin. Google has a TON of work, trial, and error to do, to keep up with Facebook on this delicate balance of fun and non-annoyance.
Google+ doesn't "give me more" of anything over Facebook. It's just not superior in any way; so what's the point?
Google Adwords is too expensive; and Google+ may "dilute" prices over time for adwords (which Google WILL NOT LIKE). Hence, the quick, fast, and early demise of Google+.

Google. Stick to search! It's making you rich!

Video: Engineers Make Better Business People, because they MEASURE!

2011-07-06T16:40:00.000-05:00

I have a strong core belief that (if they wanted to) Engineers (and other mathematically trained professionals) would make better business people than "business graduates" or MBAs. An Engineer-MBA is the best combination, because they learn the MBA lingo, but not the bad habits.

Watch the video to see WHY I think Engineers make better business people, and what you can do about it.

Video Blog: How to Advertise on Facebook and Google (CPC/SEM)

2011-07-01T13:47:00.000-05:00

Tytus explains how to run a CPC Marketing (Promotional Advertising) campaign on Facebook and Google... and also the difference between CPC and SEM.

Tytusblog 6/28/11: Marketing is MORE than just Advertisements (4 Ps of Marketing)

2011-06-28T16:20:00.001-05:00

Tytus explains the 4Ps of Marketing (Product, Place, Price, and Promotion)... and how Marketing is NOT JUST promotion (advertising)... and in fact, PRODUCT has the biggest impact on marketing & sales success.

Summary from my Entrepreneurship Speech at The University of Texas: Austin Technology Incubator

2011-06-25T18:34:00.000-05:00

Sometimes I wish I had a little camera the followed me around taping some of my ranting/speeches. Would certainly save time having to type anything up! Usually I speak about either Marketing or Entrepreneurship; so when I was asked to speak on "What it's like to be an Entrepreneur" at The University of Texas: Austin Technology Incubator I thought I knew just what to say.... but after some thought I realized, the usual crap people say about Entrepreneurship is just flat wrong. Hard work WILL NOT win the day. An awesome idea is NOT the way to success. What is needed is 1 skill: Sales.

I began this speech saying that I wasn't going to say the usual stuff about Entrepreneurship. Yes, you'll be poor for a bit, and yes, you'll work hard, etc. But in truth to be a successful entrepreneur all of that barely matters; what matters is:

Sales (your ability to sell product/service/and STOCK).
Presentation/Showmanship (your ability to present ideas and put the best foot forward; even when sometimes "THERE IS NO FOOT".
Persistence (your ability to NOT QUIT, even when everyone around you [especially potential investors] make it seem hopeless.

Theses skills can all be learned and practiced, and here are a few "Sales books" that I think are really, really good:

Sales Dogs: A great intro to sales and YOUR personality for sales.

http://www.amazon.com/Sales-Dogs-Attack-Successful-Advisors/dp/0446678333

Sales Bible: Amazingly good book filled with tactics and skills you NEED to learn to be good at sales:

http://www.amazon.com/Sales-Bible-Ultimate-Resource-Revised/dp/0471456292/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1309044636&sr=1-1

I also went into great detail about the organization of VC funds (their management structure and decision making process), and also some small bit about my Laser-beam-Shotgun approach to fundraising!

Tytusblog 6/22/11: Give a Sh*t Already! (How to be Indispensable)

2011-06-22T10:32:00.001-05:00

Tytus explains how to become a "Linchpin" like Seth Godin's awesome book.
A.K.A. How to "Give a Sh*t"!

Video Blog 6/14/11: Magic Marketing Formula for Engineers

2011-06-15T11:18:00.000-05:00

Discover the "magic" of Marketing in an Engineering Formula. The Dominant Coeffecient might surprise you... it's what makes a product/service SUCCESSFUL vs. UNSUCCESSFUL.

In case you missed it, the Formula is:
SALES = REVIEW_SCORE * (SUM_OF_OTHER_MARKETING_STUFF_YOU_DO)

This is a true statement for at least the Killer NIC and various iPhone games I've worked on.

Is it true for you?

Video Blog: Engineers Hate Fashion

2011-06-13T11:44:00.001-05:00

What is Fashion? Why do Engineers not get it/hate it? Why do Marketers Love it?

Fashion, Function, and their interplay in Marketing

First Video Blog: Be Different! Create a "polarizing" product.

2011-06-11T10:46:00.000-05:00

Welcome to my first video blog entry. This quick video is a brief introduction to me, and goes into something that is super important to me: Seth Godin's principle of creating "unique" products... I call them polarizing products. Watch on! It's short. Feedback welcome... I'm new to video blogging.

Where has Harlan Been? Where is Karmaback Going?

2011-06-03T08:22:00.000-05:00

I've been away from my Blog lately, and recently realized that not only do I miss it; some of my faithful readers miss it. What can I say, I've been busy working! Read on to see exactly on what...

So where have I been?
First, I've started living what I preach: I've taken on some major contracting/consulting work in Marketing. I am leading the Marketing strategy and teams at 2 different companies, and advising on marketing at several more. Why? Well, I needed some steady income as Karmaback is on hold [more on that later]. Second, I really wanted to put into practice all I've been saying here on this Blog into the real world. The great thing is, that because I'm working with several companies, I can leverage what I learn one place at another, and vice versa. I can also take what I learn and post it here, for you!

What companies are you working with?
I think it may be interesting for you to follow some of what I'm doing, so here's a quick rundown of companies I'm helping with Marketing. First, an iPhone Game/App company called ingZ, Inc. This is my primary contract and I'm basically full-time here running all of Marketing and Sales. Second, a Facebook Game company called Night Owl Games. This one is part-time contract only, but I'm fully in charge of all Marketing and Sales efforts. (cool side-note, my Marketing assistant starts today!) Third, I'm helping several young startups with their Marketing direction and also general strategy. I can't list those all here, but one of my favorites that I'm helping is CuttingEdgeGamer who "leases" high end graphics cards, WITH infinite upgrades! Why all the gaming companies? Well, mostly because I'm a gamer and love it. But also because it's been "my industry" now for almost 10 years... so my industry expertise and contacts help me to land gigs like these. You'll be hearing more about all these companies and all my goings on right here in the future!

So what's up with Karmaback?
Very short answer is that it is "on hold" from a growth standpoint until our new server work is completed. We actually grew too fast (really!)! We outpaced our server infrastructure and had to move to a multi-server, cluster approach that is taking time to get just right. When we're done, we'll be able to sustain a MEGA twitter blast from the likes of Kim Kardashian or Terrel Owens twitter feed: up to 10,000 hits per second shouldn't be a problem! We'll be able to take on bigger customers and help smaller customers get BIG bang for their marketing dollar. In addition we'll be rolling out new products and new features at a very nice pace: and generally speaking, Karmaback will be back in business. We're hoping to get it all ready by the end of the summer.

So, what about the blog?
Here is the good news, I've been reading Meatball Sundae by Seth Godin (for the third time) and realized I not only am passionate about Marketing, I am passionate about talking about Marketing: SO... This blog is going to grow. I'm going to start doing regular video blogging, and also starting a Facebook Fanpage, just for blog readers. Stay tuned: MUCH is coming very very soon!

Awesome Article about Call to Action Buttons

2011-04-27T16:05:00.002-05:00

If you like design, or are building websites or ads, this is a very good overview with examples of what makes a good Call to Action Button:
http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2009/10/13/call-to-action-buttons-examples-and-best-practices/

WordPress For the Win.

2011-04-27T15:27:00.000-05:00

I know countless other people have said that WordPress is amazing.. that it's powerful, complex, rich, and easy to use.. that it is the only thing people should be building websites on today! Let me add my thoughts on WordPress: THEY ARE RIGHT! I've been using it for about 6 months now on a number of marketing projects, and every time I use it to: create a quick web-page, post a blog, add a side-bar widget, add a social plug-in, or build a site in a week or two... I get goosebumps.

If you are building a new website, and you are not using WordPress (and running a Blog too), I wonder at your sanity!

Working in Spurts improves Productivity

2011-04-13T22:20:00.000-05:00

A Spurt, a Wave, a Session... whatever you call it: working in spurts can be more productive than trying to work a full day non-stop. This is especially true when you can design your spurt session for a specific objective/milestone. Not a "full project" but one piece that you are going to get done in this spurt. The amazing feeling of accomplishment you get when you complete your "SpurtSprint" motivate you to take a short break, and then execute on another SpurtSprint.

So, don't "grind away your day", barely working.

Work in "SpurtSprints" and take 10-15min breaks in between.

Not only will you feel better (from the breaks and the sense of accomplishment), but you will almost CERTAINLY be getting more done than facebooking.

Marketing Innovation now moves FASTER than Technology Innovation

2011-03-24T22:48:00.000-05:00

Technology is now moving slower than marketing. Think about it: WordPress and Web 2.0 are 1999 technologies still used everywhere. Web 3.0 is just Web 2.0 but easier, and more broadly used, not really "new technology". Today, what distinguishes a great blog, website, or online application is how it is marketed. And the marketing of websites, blogs, online applications and the like is evolving faster than we can even imagine; much faster than the technologies they run on.

At Karmaback, we help companies experiment with new forms of online marketing: Sweepstakes on Facebook, Twitter, and Foursquare, Viral Coupons, Groupon-like Online Coupons, Referral Contests, Rewards Program, Loyalty Programs, and much, much more. Most importantly, we have technologies and reporting tools that let marketers determine IF what they are doing is effective.

Karmaback now has almost 2 years of experimentation, best practices, and data in all things Marketing in this new era of marketing dominating technology. We can tell you what works, what doesn't, and a little bit of why.

Check out what we do at Karmaback with our Social Sweepstakes, Social Coupons and Social Feedback System. Find out how to keep pace with "The New Marketing"!

Never be out of work. DO!

2011-03-21T21:31:00.000-05:00

Never be out of work. It just looks bad. "I'm looking for a job" has never been a bigger turn-off to employers. Who wants to hire someone who doesn't at least have "something" they are working on. At least run a blog and offer some consulting services. Lean forward. Do! Don't just "be out of work"... or "look for work"... make something. It's never been easier to start a small business and offer some consulting services or build a simple app or make a craft or something...

Turning "Visitors" into "Loyal Evangelists" is Impossible.

2011-03-03T11:28:00.000-06:00

The verb turning implies that you actually turn something. I believe it is impossible to "turn" a visitor of your website/store/product/service into a "Loyal" evangelist. It is hubris to believe that we caused a "turning" to happen on a person. So, instead, we must console ourselves by giving our visitors/customers every possible reason to decide to turn themselves! Here is a short-list of things I've tried to "turn" visitors into evangelists.... and the success thereof.

Make the website/app look good. Result: fail. Opinion: good looks are not enough... they are expected.
Make the website/app easy to use. Result: helps. Opinion: combined with good looks... it is definately a "reason" someone might turn themselves into an evangelist.
Cheap Rewards. result: fail. Opinion: cheap rewards (such as useless points, etc.) are not effective.
Expensive Rewards. result: so-so. Opinion: if combined with other "reasons" it can push some % of visitors/customers over the edge. *See loyalty cards.
Charity involvement: result: fail. Opinion: Charity connections really don't motivate like they used to.
Delight the customer... underpromise, overdeliver. result: WIN. Opinion.. if there is ever any reason that a person might have to "turn" themselves into a loyal evangelist... this is the one.

An anecdote: I am a fanatic about Audible.com. I use it for 2 hours every day (on my drive to/from work, I listen to books). It's super easy to use website is reasonably attractive, and never fails me. I always find new books I want to read, and the simplicity of sending them to my iPhone is delightful. I am a delighted Audible fan, and for that reason (and maybe a few others), I am a loyal evangelist for audible.

The question: how can a Marketing Company (like Karmaback) help other companies DELIGHT their customers? (and how can we measure it)?

Getting more Twitter Followers does NOT magically lead to sales

2011-02-04T16:23:00.001-06:00

So, you have a lot of new Twitter Followers eh? You may have gotten them by running a Karmaback Social Sweepstakes, or maybe you just been collecting them a while? Well, here's a news-flash, just having twitter followers is NOT enough to get you sales. You have to do something else, 2 things actually, and one of them has to be "extraordinary".

First, and foremost, you have to offer a product or service that is TRULY valuable to the target market. It won't have value for everyone.. but to those that it was built for, it has to be THE most valuable solution they can think of. Your product/service has to be "extraordinary" to the target market.

Example: You make Caramel Ice Cream, with Caramel Swirls, and Caramel Candy inside, with Caramel topping. You make the "Quadruple Caramel Ice-cream". *** THIS is PERFECT for me (Harlan) the target customer and people who: 1.) wants ice-cream, 2.) loves caramel, and 3.) can order the ice-cream (either lives nearby or can get it delivered).

Example 2: You fix Small Business Tax Problems, by training small business owners the "simple steps to managing your books and filing taxes" and provide backup tax help hourly at just $40 per hour. *** THIS is the PERFECT solution for me, and People who: 1.) have a small business, 2.) have tax headaches and fears, 3.) want to do as much as we can ourselves to save money, but 4.) need to have backup ready instantly, and 5.) can order/use the service (either via Web or in the same city).

NOTICE: These examples are VERY specific products, and NOT built for everyone in the whole world. (some fools actually don't like Caramel!)

Now, you've got an EXCEPTIONAL PRODUCT... you've got to make an EXCEPTIONAL DEAL to the PEOPLE THAT NEED IT, and then, and only then, will you get sales from Twitter.

EXAMPLE; @QuadrupleCaramelIceCream live in Austin? Try a Quad Caramel Ice-cream from #QCIC for just $2 with this code: bit.ly/34f6

or

EXAMPLE: @SMBTaxHelp get a $250+ training and tax consultation for just $40 with this code: bit.ly/554d

....

Are you getting it?
To me, (who wants/needs both of those things already)... I'm DEFINITELY going to get the icecream.. and I am GOING to check out SMBTaxHelp and see if it really is $250+ in value.

...
Engineering Formula:
(ExceptionalTargetedProduct + SpecialOffer) * TwitterFollowersThatNeedYourStuff = Win Sales with Twitter

Let Karmaback help you win: http://karmaback.com/platform

*photo from: http://slurplog.blogspot.com/2005/10/food-fanny-ice-cream-vietnam-hcmc.html

Networking 101: winning a crowd is easy!

2011-01-26T14:43:00.000-06:00

It's easy to win over a crowd. The crowd is fickle, simple, and easy to manipulate. Social science and thousands of years of conditioning have trained us humans to be "social" and move like a herd. Here's a few tips to try out at your next Networking event... they all work (for me):

Be the one who asks the most questions! (people like people that ask about them & listen).
Be the one that "merges" groups of people/makes introductions (even to people you just met).
Wear something flamboyant (a piece of flair)... it breaks the ice, and makes you memorable.
Above all else, smile, have fun, and keep it light: nobody likes the serious one...

Tell a VERY SHORT story or two.
Ask lots of questions.
Listen to peoples responses, and use what they say to make connections for them (ideally AT the event).

PASS OUT and COLLECT business cards with anyone and everyone you find even remotely interesting or interested. Why not! It's the point of networking right?

Enjoy!

Go, Network.

It's easy.

Why Selling Products is EASIER than Selling Services.

2011-01-18T10:26:00.001-06:00

I've sold both products and services. I've sold them together, and separately. Without a doubt, no question about it, selling a product is far easier than selling services. Here are some examples of stuff I've sold, and why products were easier than services:

At the age of 10, I was the youngest kid in Lima, Ohio (where i grew up) to ever have their own paper route. My job was to deliver papers (the easy part, and fun on my bike), and to "collect" payment... People see newspaper as a service... and collecting that $5 per month was the bane of my existence. People just didn't want to pay me. "The kid is knocking again" would be their complaint... when I came knocking, door-to-door to collect the monthly fee for the Lima Newspaper. The problem: they weren't "getting a product" at that moment. Those same houses would gladly fork over $1 for a candy-bar sale, or $5 for a dinner plate...but newspaper service... "ah, come back tomorrow when I've got some cash".

At 16, I went door-to-door selling "Ariel Photography"... it was much easier than selling newspaper service! I could show them a picture of their home... in full color and a huge picture. "Yours right now for $100", I'd start out. Surprisingly many would say yes! (even though I'd go as low as $25 for the sale). Why? It was a product.. it was done.. it was right there... and I would "fake-walk-away" to close the sale all too often. Don't get me wrong... walking door-to-door is always hard... but selling a Product was far easier than selling the service. Imagine: "Hi, I've got a plane, and would like to fly over your home and take a photo for just $100, can you please pay me now, and then I'll send you your picture?" ---> yah, that wouldn't work at all!

Selling Killer NICs from my startup Bigfoot Networks was easy too: list the product at the store... tell people it's there... get some press... watch sales happen.

Same for selling Psyko 5.1 Surround Sound headphones: get listed, get decent reviews, market a little... watch money come in.

Now try selling "social marketing".. such as I do with Karmaback. Selling it as a product: "click here to setup your sweepstakes now for $49" vs. a service "call us or email us for a free quote in 24 hours"... which do you think is "easier to sell"? The product is easier to sell (as long as it satisfies the needs of the customer)... unfortunately a Sweepstakes alone often doesn't satisfy... customers often want more... (how to turn it into sales, how to customize how it looks, strategy, iphone apps, coupons, etc. etc.)... these additional needs DO mean additional revenue opportunities. But selling them is harder: figure out needs, work up a proposal, develop a relationship, build a plan, get consensus, get internal acceptance/approval, etc.

So, if you can possibly "productize" your "service offering".. go for it! Karmaback is sure trying to do just that: stay tuned!

p.s. buy the t-shirt here:

http://www.zazzle.com/lima_ohio_tshirt-235147393084423299

The iPad and Kindle are the top prizes of 2010

2011-01-10T10:53:00.000-06:00

Karmaback runs sweepstakes and contests for companies that want more fans and followers on Twitter and Facebook. We've run hundreds of contests in 2010, and to our shock and awe the top prizes by a landslide were the iPad and the Kindle. These $150-$500 prizes were about 150% more effective at "earning" fans and followers than prizes less than $150. In fact, the iPad and Kindle, specifically, were 120% better at earning fans and followers than prizes above $500 (even prizes such as Football Tickets and $2,500 vacation packages). If you are considering running a Sweepstakes or Contest, there are a few key things to consider when choosing a prize:

Ideally pick a prize that is relevant to your business or customer. Picking a relevant prize is the MAIN way you will attract the "right" new fans and followers.
Choose a prize between $150-$500 in value.
Consider an iPad or Kindle (perhaps preloaded with your marketing material or application)...

So, why were the iPad and Kindle so successful? I believe the reason is that people: 1.) don't already have one. 2.) do want one. and 3.) aren't yet ready to "actually" buy one.

Now, go, Get Some!

Karmaback

http://karmaback.com

Confusing Marketing doesn't Work.

2011-01-04T12:58:00.000-06:00

Have you ever seen a TV commercial that made you go... huh, what was that about? Did you ever wonder who the heck that ad was targeting? GoDaddy is a good example... their early TV commercials made no sense... many people still don't know they are a registrar and web hosting company. I recently watched a Chevy commercial with 3 guys in a car, they turn on the CD player, and it's kids music thumping... I didn't get it. Am I supposed to want this embarrassment for myself? Confusing marketing doesn't work. If your target audience doesn't know who you are AND why you exist, you may as well have not bothered to tell them who you are.

Some companies websites are the worst (examples: http://www.rootlearning.com/ , http://www.motive.com/ , many, many more). That clever Flash animation you have: I didn't watch it. That annoying "auto-play" audio you launch when I hit your site: made me close your site in 1 second. The funky, indirect, "marketing-speak" on your home-page: might be good for SEO, but please, just TELL ME WHAT YOU DO! Directness is valued by customers who are shopping for your goods. Leave the indirect stuff for latter pages.. and always open and close with directness... it works.

Sales is about People, not Presentations

2010-12-21T10:15:00.000-06:00

Your slide deck may be the best in the world. Your pitch smooth as butter. Your suit as fine as none other. Yet, you continue to lose the sale to Alex, who uses no slides at all. You better wise up and realize that sales is about people, not presentations.

Alex understands what sales is... and here is what he knows.

If you can't engage with the prospect, and get them talking, they will never remember a thing you say.
If you don't understand the needs of the prospect, both functionally in the business and personally, you will never be able to "show him the solution".
No matter how much you love your solution and think its the best, there are always alternatives and selling is showing that your option is the one that best solves the prospect's need.

Where are your slides Alex? I have some, but I'd rather send them to you after our meeting.

Why is that, that is odd? Yes, I hear that, but I would rather spend the time learning about your problems than looking at my pictures... if there is a fit, we'll find it together and I'll give you materials you need to sell internally.

Sales is about people. Them not you. Please, please, sales-people, stop with the slides already.

The Holidays Unmotivates Us

2010-12-20T09:54:00.000-06:00

The holidays are a time for family, fun, rest, relaxation, party, presents, remembrance, and faith. What the holidays are not are a time of work. We feel deserving of a break. Even if we have to be "on the clock" we don't give much effort, and certainly can barely focus. Why then do we force ourselves and our employees to punch in during these two weeks? They aren't going to do their best work, and probably don't even want to be there. My advice? Go home. Be with your family. Come back in January recharged for success.

If only I could listen to myself...

Social Brand Evangelism

2010-12-15T17:23:00.000-06:00

In Social Networks like Facebook and Twitter, there are a subset of people that are extremely vocal in their support of a brand, product, or company. For some reason, this group of people (call them Social Brand Evangelists), find some pleasure in touting their love of a product (iPhones, iPads, graphics cards, TVs, XBOX, t-shirts, or whatever). Here is the dirty secret... I think most of these Social Brand Evangelists are "on the payroll" or "in it for something else". The loudest proponents and evangelists are employees and especially marketing employees... they constantly blab about themselves, share links about their companies, and the like. The second set are doing it for 1 reason: to try to win something... a contest or a sweepstakes system (such as Karmaback's own system) prompted them to share to enter to win (this is not a bad thing).

But magic hour happens, in my mind, in the truly informal. The Social Brand Evangelist who does NOT squawk off constantly about a brand, but who makes a subtle recommendation to a friend JUST at the right time!

How can you make your customers so delighted, that when no-one is looking (not contest, no sweepstakes, no employees)... they make the recommendation to a friend because they think it's the right recommendation?

If you can do that... you've won.

Measuring is different than Succeeding

2010-12-10T13:03:00.001-06:00

Many marketing executives believe in measuring effectiveness. From Google Analytics to Conversion Tracking to "Share of Voice", the importance of measurements is growing rapidly. In order to succeed though, we marketers have to actually do something with the data. Make more rational decisions. Invest more deeply in the things that work. Why would any rational person want to invest in something they know doesn't work? And without measurement, why would any rational person invest in something they don't know if it works or not?

Why Social Marketing Works, and Sometimes Doesn't...

2010-12-06T12:29:00.000-06:00

Did you ever wonder how Papa Johns Pizza got to 1.5MM Fans on Facebook? Do you wonder if they make money on Facebook? Why does Ford run TV commercials pushing people to their Fanpage? Are companies making money with Twitter? The short answer is: Social Marketing pays... usually.

Papa Johns:
They are incredibly consistent on their Facebook and Twitter Pages. 1 Contest or Sweepstakes a week. At least 1 coupon per week... and all involving their fans. As a consumer, it PAYS to follow Papa Johns (discounts/contests/more). This eMarketer.com study shows that 65% of daily followers want Deals and Sales! Papa Johns is capitalizing with REGULAR deals and sales... and it is working.

Ford:
Are 440,000 people following Ford on Facebook to get a deal? Probably not, a cursory glance shows that most engagements on Ford's Facebook page are questions or comments for Ford. Would Ford's fans enter a contest to win a Car... probably yes. But Ford doesn't run such contests very often. If they did, they'd have a lot more fans.... but would they sell more cars? Maybe. But the direct line of sales success from couponing is not there for Ford like it is for Papa Johns. So, is Ford making money on social? Nobody knows... probably not even Ford!

I think companies need to wise up and realize that a small consumer purchase on Facebook (like Pizza) works only because it is measurable by coupons. Cars, B2B, and other big purchases need to figure out a way to see if Social is worthwhile very fast!

The "Tree of Business"

2010-11-11T17:29:00.000-06:00

To so many people, business is confusing. It's hard to understand, and we fear the unknown. To the most "daring" among us, we embark on starting and running our own companies (I'm on Startup #2). When people begin to think about starting this insane ride that is "self-employed"... it may be helpful to think of business as a tree.

First, the most important question:
What kind of business do you want to build?
1. A Tree that grows large and bears regular fruit. (a for-profit business, but limited in size)
2. A Tree that stays small, and has just enough fruit to feed yourself & family. (a for-profit business, often called a lifestyle business).
3. A Tree that sprouts many other trees and grows into an orchard or a forest (a huge corporation that someday may IPO - Initial Public Offering).
4. A Tree that gives any excess fruit away to charity (a non-profit)
5. A Tree that you plan to grow quickly, by feeding the tree its own fruit, and then someday sell the tree to someone that is building and orchard or wants to keep the fruit for themself. (a for-profit business, designed for acquisition).

Knowing what you want out of your business can be extremely helpful in deciding A.) What to do. and B.) When to feel successful. and C.) How to get your starting soil (investment).

Enjoy your fruit!

Decision Making Angst: Why being "undecided" is painful and what to do about it.

2010-11-04T13:20:00.001-05:00

"So, clearly Karmaback has speed, responsiveness, and price going for them," Carol says, "but Wildfire looks to have more clients." "So, Adam, which Sweepstakes company are we going to go with? Karmaback or Wildfire?". Carol looked on, red eyes staring, heart pounding faster than it should, and clearly stressed.

Adam looked back wide-eyed and confused. "Carol, we've just started looking at options, we have weeks yet before we need to decide." Adam is confused because he asked Carol to find a good Sweepstakes company only yesterday. Where is all this angst coming from? What is the rush? The deadline is months away.

A few days later, Adam has learned more about Wildfireapp and Karmaback and now his eyes are red, palms too sweaty. "They both have positive aspects," he says, "lets just pick one and be done with it.".

WAIT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This is classic cognitive dissonance causing an irrational behavior. Is "just pick one" really a good way to make an important business decision? After you've picked one, the next thing is rationalization and confirmation bias and a whole bunch of other "post-decision" justifications. Why? The angst is over, now you have to justify that you are a rational person... even though you just weren't.

When faced with tough decisions social experts believe that cognitive dissonance causes humans that hold different conflicting possibilities in their heads get added stress and discomfort while the two are debated. This leads to a "rush" to find an answer in order to "reduce dissonance" and the discomfort of indecision.

There is only one way I know of to confront and defeat the cognitive dissonance of decisions... creating decision criteria. No, the cognitive dissonance is not "gone", we humans still feel it... it still presses on us. However, as business people, we have to at least TRY to make rational decisions. It's why we are leaders, managers, and in the game in the first place.

So, to defeat the angst of decision making, you can only make as rational a decision as possible with criteria that make sense.

Here are the steps that work for me:
1.) ignore all data collected so far. Just forget it. save it for later in the process.
2.) imagine you have no data, and create a "table" or list of information you would LIKE to have about all the choices prior to making a decision.
3.) select which data are "go/no-go"/ must-have items. and circle them.
4.) collect data, get samples, find as many options as you can... and fill out the table.
5.) eliminate all choices that are "no-go".
6.) evaluate the remaining choices FAVORING the ones that you have more data for.... (better to know than to guess). *THIS STEP IS CRUCIAL. If you are having trouble collecting data for an option, in my experience, its not a very good option.
7.) pick the best choice based on the data you collected and the criteria... in the event of a tie, pick the one that contacted you/you got data for first. (Speed matters).

Enjoy.

Decision made.

Dissonance over.

And you made a rational decision in the face of stress.

Nice job Adam and Carol, you rock.

You must have picked Karmaback :)

Custom made chairs, feel better on your bum.

2010-10-25T12:46:00.000-05:00

Ever bought something "custom made"? Measurements, colors, shapes, style, fit, finish, and polish... all to your bum's liking? If you had to wait 3-months for that chair, dang... you may never try it. Imagine if you could get custom-made stuff in about the same time as a normal chair... a few days or minutes... at the same price. WHO WOULD BUY A NORMAL CHAIR? (especially if the price were the same?)?

No, I don't sell chairs (Sorry). Karmaback, though, is now offering custom made "Social Applications" with the speed of a custom chair (days not months).... at the same price as others charge for "normal white label apps" (e.g. non-custom). Want us to build YOUR custom Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare, Web, iPhone, or iPad app (or any combination there-of)? Shoot us an email: support@karmaback.com and we'll reply with a Bid and an ETA within 24-hours. (or call us for an instant bid: 1 (888) 406-5033 )

There are 2 key elements here that make this offer special (and so far REALLY successful):
1.) Time. We make bids in 24-hours or less. We build almost anything in just a few days (add a few more days for iPhone/iPad :) ).
2.) Price. We do this at prices other folks charge for their standard cookie-cutter solutions.

So, if you have a business, and want to figure out how to increase sales: consider:
Try CUSTOM. It works if you can deliver in SPEEDY times and at FAIR prices.

Who wouldn't want a comfortable butt?

Karmaback goes Free to Try!

2010-10-19T15:26:00.000-05:00

Karmaback has now gone "Free to Try" for all of our powerful tools and services.

Why? Because we listen. Our customers have told us that they LOVE using Karmaback for Sweepstakes, Coupons, or Feedback Applications, but would LIKE to try before they buy. It's a simple request. We know you'll like the results that Karmaback delivers so much, you'll come back again and use us at our very affordable pricing.

So, don't delay, try Karmaback Free today!
http://karmaback.com/platform/pricing/

Your idea sucks... analytically speaking.

2010-10-13T17:04:00.000-05:00

Does your idea suck or rock? If you want to try something more than "my friends like my idea", "my teacher likes my idea", or "I know I would buy it"... consider an analytical approach to opportunity analysis. Why not say, this idea is a 25. Then you can compare that to what you are doing now (probably a 12). Or compare it to another idea (wow, a 38!)... If you ever wanted to know if your idea is good, from an analytical perspective... read on.

There are 2 Acronyms that Harvard MBAs (and UT MBAs) learn: POCD and SWAT. They both boil down to "Pro and Con" type thinking... but they both also add something useful.

POCD = People, Opportunity, Context, and Deal.

P - Are the people likely to be able to succeed (the right people)

O - Is the opportunity big... (how big is it)... (how much money might be made?)

C - What is happening in context of the world at large that is or MIGHT effect this opportunity?

D - How much money will it take to get to success, and what are the terms and risks?

I often use POCD to look at 2 different opportunities, I use a 1-10 scale to compare them... here is an example:

Karmaback

P - 9 (my team rocks)

O - 7 (its tough to make money in social right now)

C - 10 (Social is heating up and people are looking for our solution: how to make money with Social Marketing)

D - 8 (not a lot of funds needed)

SCORE: 34

--- vs. ---

Making my own social game (something I'd like to do someday)

P - 5 (I have no artistic talents)

O - 4 (hard to make money with just 1 game)

C - 7 (social games are hot)

D - 7 (not a lot of money needed to make a social game)

SCORE: 23 (better than I thought it would be)

SWOT is very similar, and does add a valuable concept (that POCD doesn't directly address)

SWOT = Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats

I don't directly use SWOT, but I do like the thought of "threats" as part of the "Context" in the POCD framework.

So, the next time you are asked, is this a good idea?

Give them a POCD score. It's fun.

Painful/Scratchy Toilet Paper, Reduces Consumption.

2010-10-11T11:00:00.000-05:00

I'm not trying to be vulgar, but consider: would you use MORE or LESS Toilet paper when it is painful/scratchy cheap kind vs. the nice soft good stuff? Business owners, consider this a lesson: don't make it painful/scratchy/awkward! If your sales-people/staff are not friendly, then its painful (less consumption). If your product is ugly, unwieldy, or difficult, then it is painful (less consumption). If your food makes people sick, or your bathrooms are not clean: painful, less consumption. And for goodness sakes, buy the soft TP!

The Socratic Method in the Modern Age

2010-10-05T22:59:00.000-05:00

What has changed since Socrates first developed the method of debate known as "The Socratic Method"? Are we more or less patient as a society? Are we more or less narcissistic? Do we even talk face to face with each other at length? Are people more or less willing to engage in debate? Much has changed in 2,400 years, but the Socratic Method can still be an incredibly useful tool in business and in life.

Benjamin Franklin (my hero) first turned me on to the Socratic Method of debate, finding great joy in frustrating his friends with continually asking questions to almost any debate posed. However, even in Ben Franklin's times, I believe people were more patient, less narcissistic, and engaged in Face-to-face debate far more often.

Here is Harlan's revised Socratic Method for 2010, based on real world examples:

Find something worth debating. - This can be the hardest step. Time is so precious in our narcissistic fast-paced society, and not everything should be debated.
Find someone worth debating - If the participant is not willing to explore the topic in an open debate forum, and relegate the results to logics fine conclusion, then you are wasting your time. NOTE: They do not have to be willing to engage in Socratic Method. Only that they are open to debate and change.
Set aside a preset time period (at least 30-minutes). - Unlike the days of Socrates, we cannot simply cavort on one topic for an entire day. Our MTV minds are simply not accustomed to such concentration. A preset time period is not so that you can stop when the time is up... it is a minimum for how long you should explore. The temptation is to concede the point after the first hole in logic. This would be a gross error on both parties, regardless of which side you are arguing.
Begin with a statement - just like normal Socratic method, we must choose sides... pick a side and explore with questions... its that easy!
Ask any question but "Why" - Why questions are an example of opinion questions. In the Socratic method we must explore facts, logic, and assumptions (and foundations of all these in society, prejudice, culture, etc.). Avoid Why type questions whenever possible. It is OKAY if you are the only one asking questions. If you are the only one asking questions, you must ask on behalf of BOTH SIDES of the debate.
End with 2 statements - no-one likes to feel as though time was wasted. When the time is up (or when you both agree to stop), both parties should make a summary statement to capture how far (or how close) both parties have come along the path to enlightenment and truth.

Here are some real-world examples I've recently engaged in:

Sales Call. I often have sales calls and sales meetings.. and based on one of my favorite sales books, I try hard to use questions to help sell. The hardest part was "opening with a statement", and then being willing to be "moved from my own position". Here is what worked:

Statement: "You need Karmaback to help your company grow."
Sample Questions: "Does your company want to grow?", "Do you know what Karmaback is?" "Do you believe Karmaback can do what it says?", etc.
Closing Statements: "COMPANYX needs to grow, and Karmaback can help." vs. "COMPANYX needs to grow, and has bigger problems than what Karmaback can solve"
My openness... In order for this debate to work, I (as the salesman) had to be open to change... I had to be open to the fact that maybe MY STATEMENT was false.

Family Dispute. My kids are great test subjects. They are active, willing, and can easily handle 30-minutes.... not. (10-minutes was the best I could do. More would have been better)

Statement: "You need to learn to throw the football like a pro."
Sample Questions: "Do you like football?" "Do you know what football is?" "Do you know what a pro is?" "Can one learn to throw a football?" "Can one learn to throw like a pro?" "Which pro?" "What is a need?"
Closing Statements: "I want you to learn to throw a football so I can play with you and get some exercise." vs. "Papa wants me to learn to throw a football"
Kids: Sometimes, it's good enough to get to the "intention" of the idea...

In almost every case I've used the Socratic method, it has been helpful.. it usually changes "me" more than "them". And this is not a bad thing!

The other magical thing. Asking, and being open to being wrong, often wins business!

Why companies MUST dedicate themselves to design... or die.

2010-09-28T15:14:00.000-05:00

We live today in a renaissance of design. There is no Scarcity of information. There is no Scarcity of bandwidth. There is no Scarcity of choices. The most Scarce resource for the modern company is design. Design requires 2 very disparate groups to be completely aligned: engineers and creatives. Products, Services, Brands, and Everything in between now compete using the last scarce resource: design. Here are some examples:

Would you buy an "ugly looking" candy bar?
Would you shop at a grocery store with an "ugly" sign?
Are you going to spend money at a website that is "hard to use"?
Do you enjoy "waiting in line"?
Does processing power matter more or less than operating system?
Are you likely to "keep using" a complex application when a simpler one exists for the same price?

My story of how I became "an Apple guy":

I used to be a MAC hater. I loved my PC because it could play games (and I love games). I hated MAC because it was popular, it couldn't play the "best" games, and because I had to "pay" for all of my software. iPhone changed all of that! First, it has games (so I had to get one). Second, the games are cheap (Free - $0.99)... and they are good. But what really "got me" with iPhone was its incredible user interface design. I "FINALLY GET" why people love their Apple Computers (Mac, iPhone, Powerbook, or what have you). It is exactly because Apple does not rely on "the mouse and keyboard" for its UI, that it's UI works.

I recently bough my first Macbook Pro. ... and I'm starting to "get it". Apple has infused in its UI guidelines and very strict application approval process, the notion that "design matters". In many cases design matters most. Interestingly, some of the elements of Apple design should be considered for ANY platform:
1.) Clutter: There shouldn't be any.
2.) Organization: There should be good.
3.) Automatic Mode: Should always be on.
4.) Configuration Options: Should usually be hidden.
5.) Function: Should be intuitive and should have as few as possible.

Companies will soon realize that if they don't compete on design, they will consistently lose.

Giving back. Karma->back: Karmaback now turns points into charity donations!

2010-09-21T09:25:00.000-05:00

In Eastern Philosophy, Karma is that earned thing which leads to something you deserve (good or bad). Karma comes full circle when it is shared... it gets amplified back upon itself. It is this "circle of Karma" which my company Karmaback, Inc. now offers to both businesses and end users. We have just announced our "Donate points to charity" program. This program allows users to donate their points to charity, which Karmaback turns into cash donations to that charity. The circle starts with businesses who use Karmaback services. Users interact with those companies, and EARN points (Karma). Then those points can be spent on "stuff", including Charity, completing a circle of Karma!

To learn more about Karmaback Points for Charity and how to turn your online activity into cash donations or to become a participating charity, please visit karmaback.com/charity.

Non-profits participating in the Karmaback Points for Charity program include:

The Bob Woodruff Foundation: The vision of the Bob Woodruff Foundation is to provide resources and support to injured service members, veterans and their families -- building a movement to empower communities nationwide to take action to successfully reintegrate our nation's injured heroes-especially those who have sustained the Hidden Injuries of War-back into their communities so they may thrive physically, psychologically, socially and economically.
Learn To Be Foundation: Learn To Be was organized on the principle of using the World Wide Web as a medium for people of all ages to grasp their educational potential. The Foundation fosters free online tutoring services that are driven by a community of users dedicated to teaching and mentoring those in need.
Bluebonnet Equine Humane Society: The mission of the Bluebonnet Equine Humane Society is to improve the lives of equines by educating and helping owners, assisting law enforcement agencies, rehabilitating abused and neglected equines, and placing them into safe, permanent homes.

Got a business? Check out our Social Platform to learn how you can get MORE FANS/FOLLOWERS, MORE VIRAL SHARING, and MORE SALES for your business... by giving Karmaback points, running Karmaback Sweepstakes, and Karmaback Coupons and Feedback.

Research: Fans are worth over $130.00 EACH.. and they want to BUY your stuff!

2010-09-15T20:45:00.002-05:00

We've dug up some research on how much having a Facebook Fan/Twitter Follower is worth: it is well over $3.60/yr, more like $130.00! In addition, what do fans want? The #1 thing is "Receive discounts and promotions"! Now, what better argument to use Karmaback "Social Sweepstakes" to get fans, and then give them special offers with Karmaback "Social Coupons"? It works folks!

According to Mediapost.com:

Brand Discounts Win Facebook Fans

"A new study by ExactTarget and CoTweet finds that ... the number one driver for consumers to "like" a brand on Facebook... [are it's] discounts and promotions. [40%+]"
"In addition, getting free samples or coupons, and updates on upcoming sales, tie into the discount/promotion motivation. "

Motivation to "Like" Company or Brand on Facebook
Facebook Motivations	% of Respondents
Receive discounts and promotions	40%
Show support for the company	37
Get a "freebie"	36
Stay informed about company	34
Get updates about products	33
Get updates on upcoming sales	30
Fun and entertainment	29
Access to exclusive content	25
Recommended	22
Learn about company	21
Source: ExactTarget, August 2010

"Additionally, ... the average value a Facebook fan provides a brand is $136.38, but it can swing to $270.77 in the best case."

Thanks to Precision Marketect (Barry) for sharing the research!

Karmaback Pricing... and new services!

2010-09-13T16:35:00.000-05:00

A lot of our customers really liked the fact that Karmaback was "Unique" in that we only charge when we successfully grow new Fans or Followers for our partner companies' Facebook and Twitter pages. Well, great news! We have brought back the "purely variable" pricing again, and now have a "Cap" on fees so you know your maximum possible fee up front! Just $0.25/New Fan we bring you with a max fee of $99/month. Check it out: http://karmaback.com/platform/pricing/

While you are there, check out our new "Customization" and "Software Engineering Services" offerings... we'd love to build customized Website/Social Applications for you!

Extroverts, plan your Introvert time. Introverts, plan your Extrovert time.

2010-09-02T10:19:00.000-05:00

Seth Godin (and many other business authors) agree, growth comes from "stretching" your discomfort. DO the uncomfortable and you will grow. Don't want to grow? Stop reading blogs for goodness sakes! Want to grow, here are some tips for HOW to Stretch and Exercise your "discomfort zone". (Extroverts and Introverts both)

Extroverts (like myself) prefer to think "outside their head". We like to draw on white-boards, engage in debate, and generally "talk & interact" with people. The problem is this: if all you do is extroversion, you miss out on deep thinking, attention to detail, and most of all quiet focus. For an extrovert, it is "uncomfortable" to have quiet, work alone, or focus on details.

Planning your introversion and "forcing yourself" to spend time alone, focusing on details, is the best way to stretch that uncomfortable muscle. It will grow from there (or at least you will minimize the effects of lacking introversion).

Each day, plan out 2 x 1-hour blocks where you will DO something introverted.
(fix bugs, add comments to code, handle accounting, submit expense reports, research competition, develop formalized strategy/documentation)...
most important do it ALONE, and make sure you force yourself to do it for the whole 1-hour block.
Because you set an "end-time" for the discomfort to end, you will find it less dis-comfortable to do it (just for 1 hour).
I find the best time for me to do it is 1st thing in the morning, and then again right before I leave work.

Introverts (like my wife) prefer to think "inside their head". They prefer to work alone, to think deeply on problems, and to focus on details. In many cases, they fear (and are VERY uncomfortable) engaging "with people".

Planning your extroversion is even more important! Unlike extroverts, you have to make plans that involve other people. Here are the tips:

Each day, plan out 2 x 1-hour blocks where you will DO something extroverted (WITH others).
(brainstorming session, lunch hour, happy hour, coffee, phone call)...
most important do it WITH someone.. preferably NOT someone you know really well.
Because you set an "end-time" for the discomfort to end, you will find it less dis-comfortable to do it (just for 1 hour).
Lunch hour and happy hour are the best times.
THE ADAGE: NEVER EAT LUNCH ALONE comes to mind... that can be one of your hours!

just invite people you are connected with on LinkedIn or Facebook to lunch... be sure to say "dutch, just to catch up".

GO to those events you hate (the happy hours, etc.)... but just spend 1-hour there... for the whole hour set yourself a goal:

talk to x people
pass out x business cards
whatever

Then.... next time, try to improve on the target #!

You may find it turns into quite a "game".. or you may continue to hate it... but at least...

You are out there!

Don't take pictures without people in them.

2010-08-31T09:22:00.001-05:00

Ever been on a trip with someone camera happy? Snap. Snap. Snap. What are they taking pictures of? That hill, that mountain, that building, that car, that whatever? Why? Will they ever look at those again? Will you? Now, contrast that with anytime a friend showed you a picture of ... you. Heck, even a picture of them. Were you interested? If it was you, I can almost guarantee you wanted to see it, and maybe even wanted a copy. So, that leads to the following axiom: People prefer photographs (pictures) with people they know in them. What can this mean for business?

In business, if you include the customer in the picture, they are about 5x more likely to want to see it.

The picture might be "the sales pitch".

The picture might be "the social network".

The picture might just be "a game".

But whatever it is, be sure to include the people in it.

My friend David Walker says this a different way... he says wait and be patient for the "experiential quality" to reach its peak. I'd add that that peak, usually comes with other people involved.

At Karmaback, we are working on more and more ways to include the people "in it"... and to make sure people are rewarded for staying around! The experiential quality should be high.. and there should be "people in it".

Learn when to call...

2010-08-30T14:08:00.000-05:00

If you are like me, you hate sales calls: doing them, almost as much as getting them. If you have a small business, you probably get them and do them a lot. The trick to making (and receiving) sales calls, is doing them when they will be best received... here is a few tips.

Never call after 4pm, or before 8:30am... period.

(know the time-zone of the person you are calling.. its very easy to do on the internet)

Try calling no more than 2x per day.
Call first in the morning, leave a message saying when you'll call back later that day, and do it.

(10am and then later at 2pm are good times).

After 2 or 3 days of call attempts, email to ask to set up an appointment. (email the admin if you can), then switch to once per week.
Figure out their "slow day"... here is a hint, its probably NOT Monday.

Often it is Friday at 10am or 2pm.

Don't call on the weekend, or at lunch.

Karmaback, my Seth Godin inspired company.

2010-08-17T10:19:00.000-05:00

Sometimes, we forget where inspiration comes from. I am a Seth Godin fan. If you don't believe me, read my blog... check out the movie I made... or consider my company: Karmaback. Yes, almost everything about Karmaback is inspired by Seth Godin's principles. Permission Marketing is really the core of Karmaback. We're trying to match up companies that care about their customers with customers who appreciate permission marketing. We want to leverage peoples social networks, WITH their permission, and help companies create great end user stories. And the really exciting part: Karmaback is working GREAT for a bunch of really happy companies.

Here are a few "Seth" principles we live by:
Permission Marketing? (Very much so... we give points for permission!)
Purple Cow? (We think so, although our colors are green, we are unique in several key ways)
Linchpin Commitment to Service? (our customers think so, and I work dang hard to keep it).
Meatball Sundae? (We're different and we're getting our word out "the right way".)
Giving? (Yes, we frequently go above and beyond for our customers. Plus, we have some amazing free programs, and frequently give our services to others at little to no cost).

Also, At last night's Austin Seth Godin Linchpin meetup, I met Pace from FreakRevolution.com. Pace is building a company to try to "change the world". She's got a Linchpin factory that turns people with world-changing ideas into world-chagers. It was speaking with Pace that got me re-jazzed about permission marketing.

Stay tuned for some "little tweaks" to Karmaback to get us back in line with Seth Godin's principles. We want to be the BEST place for Permission based Marketing on the Planet.

Austin is a Linchpin City

2010-08-10T09:20:00.002-05:00

Announcing the introduction of a new short-film called: Austin is a Linchpin City. A small group of very loyal and passionate Seth Godin Blog readers started a Meetup.com group back in June 2010. We shared a vision. We wanted to "ship" something valuable and interesting for our city. We all believed in the tenants shared in Seth Godin's book Linchpin: Are you Indispensable. From that we wanted to do something cool and fun to tell the world, YES, we are, and so is our great city, Austin, Texas. So here it is, just 2 months later: http://vimeo.com/13843742.

Special thanks to Ryan Jeanes of http://www.theriverislife.com/ and David Crews of www.CrewsCreative.com. These guys are both Linchpins and were essential in the creation of this film.

Also special thanks to the entire Linchpin Group, Mark Katz of Katz Deli, Roppolo's Austin, and all the others who made this film possible.

So, what makes Austin a Linchpin city? Without a doubt, it's the people who live here.

If you live in Austin, and want to check out our Linchpin Group, join us! We meet monthly, and help each other "SHIP STUFF": http://austinlinchpins.com

Getting Stuff. Loot.

2010-08-06T15:54:00.001-05:00

Loot is the stuff you get for doing the stuff you like. In video games, it's usually a "just slightly better" piece of armor, or "a little bit of coin". Hundreds of Millions (if not Billions) of people aged 4-40 (and above) play games with loot. My company, Karmaback, has loot too... and a new kind of game altogether. Marketing to a new generation of thinkers. People who "get it". Gamers.

Karmaback is a game in one sense only: you can EARN loot. That's me sporting some of the REAL WORLD loot you can get.. yah, it's just a t-shirt... but it's more than that. Its a symbol of TRUTH, that you can "do stuff on karmaback" and get "real loot".

So, learn about Karmaback, how we reward END USERS with points... points they can turn in for real loot. And learn how Karmaback's loot can help YOUR BUSINESS grow!

http://karmaback.com

Awesome.

A Focus on Small Business

2010-08-03T11:51:00.000-05:00

Small Businesses, whether they be a burgeoning startup or a solid "mom & pop" or something else entirely, have needs. They need sales. They need cost efficient Marketing techniques. They need to reach "the right people" at "the right time". They need passionate fans to help evangelize their greatness. We at Karmaback have interviewed dozens of small business owners around the country. Now, we are proud to announce, Karmaback is dedicated to helping companies (of all sizes, especially small) to address these needs directly... with results.

Sales: The Goal. This is the ultimate need of any company, and for small businesses, it is usually the #1 topic on their mind. How am I going to make rent, lease, payroll... How can I keep my dream alive?

Karmaback's answer: We believe you should be delighting the people who love you. Give them special deals and special offers. Let us help you make those offers viral, so friends of your fans can see the generosity and the love. Karmaback Social Coupons are live now, and they are going to get even better soon: http://karmaback.com/sweepstakes/social_coupons/

Efficient Marketing: This means reaching "the right people" at "the right time", with the "right message".

We can't help you with your message, but we are dedicated to helping small businesses reach the right people at the right time. Social Coupons do this... Social Sweepstakes do it better. http://karmaback.com/sweepstakes

Passionate Fans!

We can help almost any company find them, reward them, motivate them, and leverage them.

This is what we do!

Let us help you!

We'll only charge you if we are successful... and it will be 100% more efficient than any other advertising or marketing method you've used before.

If you are a big company, we'll help you too... especially if you treat your customers with respect, love, and almost act as though you are a small company, even though you are big.

Innovation at the Speed of Customers vs. Technical Debt.

2010-07-30T08:10:00.000-05:00

Last night, a Karmaback customer asked for the impossible. Around 6pm EST, I got a message asking how our new Social Coupons can support % rather than just $ discounts... he wanted it right then. He said simply "how do I do this?". Well, one answer would be "you can't". Karmaback's answer, though was, "hold on a second... let me build it." That's speed of customer. Less than 15 minutes later, you could.

How did we do it? Do we have an army of programmers? Is it such a trivial thing? No, and No. We do it because we have almost zero "Technical Debt." So adding a feature, by just 1 programmer, can take 15 minutes. Even when that feature touches 7 different files, including templates and web-pages.

Consider, every time you "don't comment" or you "hack it together", you incur Technical Debt, or stuff you will have to do later... cleanup. We all know cleanup almost never gets done, so the debt piles up. Some companies have literally man-years worth of technical debt. Their entire software has been "kludged" together.

Now consider when you do it right. You take the time to "architect, plan, comment, code, test". You have no technical debt, and you can Innovate at the Speed of Customers!

Why Karmaback was founded.

2010-07-28T09:56:00.001-05:00

"What? You mean we're spending HOW MUCH on advertising?" I asked, dumbfounded at the amount of money we were spending related to the number of units we were selling. I had just built a new metric for my startup, Bigfoot Networks, called "Marketing Spend/Unit"... or what I thought of as 'customer acquisition cost'.

This scene, and more like it, serve to why Karmaback was founded... where we came from and our main goal. But first, welcome to the Official Karmaback Blog! This Blog is an extension to my Blog on Business and is "feedburned" into Karmaback just for you. Now, on with the story.

"So, we spend $x with Google to get a site visitor, then y% just leave or BOUNCE on the first visit... and so on and so on till we get to what, a conversion?" I asked dumbfounded. This was my first stint as CEO. Prior to this I had been in Engineering, Architecture, or Sales... and now Marketing was my #1 expense!

"Okay, so how do we measure when this 1 special Google ads site visitor actually buys one of our products?" I asked, hoping for the best. I got the worst.

"So, we don't have any way to know if that customer who we say 'converted' because he clicked on a reseller link, actually bought or not... so, we have NO idea to know if all these Dollars we're spending is worth a dime, right?"

This frustration led me on a 3 year chase at Bigfoot Networks to shore up this hole. I wanted Marketing to justify itself. I wanted to be able to say $X in marketing spend will yield $Y in sales. What I wanted, was unheard of.

Years later, I had an idea. I thought it likely that thousands of companies have this similar problem. I thought it possible to solve with technology, and so Karmaback was founded.

Our main goal, if you didn't know by now, was to create a system... a fun system... to somehow connect "interest" to "the sale"... in short, to Justify the existence of Marketing. After looking at the landscape, and building our first product (the like-it-flow), we discovered that MANY companies do have this problem... especially with Social Network Marketing.

Now, 1 year after Karmaback's founding, we are on the threshold of Success. Using Karmaback a company can:

Grow fans and followers at a low variable cost of $0.25/new relevant fan.
Measure those fans and followers interactions as they "evangelize" and "follow" the company.
Convert those fans and followers into REAL and Measurable sales.

All without the constraints of Time, Space, or Real-estate.

With Karmaback, a company really can justify Marketing.

Call us to find out how.

(888)-406-5033

Karmaback converts FANS into DOLLARS at $0.10 per "social coupon"

2010-07-27T11:02:00.000-05:00

Karmaback launches Social Coupons aimed at helping companies convert & reward real sales from Social Networks like Facebook and Twitter. http://www.sunherald.com/2010/07/27/2359874/karmaback-inc-launches-social.html

This builds on our previous product, Social Sweepstakes, which brings companies tons of fans and followers.

Now, companies can BRING fans and followers and then leverage that attention into REAL sales.

Choosing to make a difference with charity over profit.

2010-07-22T15:57:00.000-05:00

If you know you could make a difference, would you? I mean really? My company, Karmaback, has a chance to leverage some of our profits to help a ton of very worthy charities... all we have to do is... well, do it. Yes, it will cost us some profits. The profits we lose are probably 10x in value because of leveraging effects. So, I ask, if you could make a difference, one where it has a "multiply" effect, would you take it at the expense of some profits? I would. Here's why you should, and how you can!

You should take it, because you are doing MORE than just "linear" help. You are doing non-linear, multiplicative help when a business gets involved supporting a charity. Your employees participate, your partners participate, and your customers participate too. For Karmaback, all 3 will be true when we launch our upcoming new program! (more details to come in the future). So, just find a charity or 2 that you believe in, and do it. The KARMA you get back will nonlinear as well.

And how can you do this? How can you participate in charity in a "non-linear" fashion? Simple, get your business involved. Don't have a business, easy, get your community involved. Don't have a community? No problem, get your family involved. Don't have a family, for goodness sakes, join a community! After all, we humans need each other!

When plans go awry.

2010-07-15T11:42:00.000-05:00

In the startup world, plans often go awry. A well-thought out plan can almost never foresee all contingencies. Interestingly, many entrepreneurs are so overconfident that they even forgot the obvious contingencies. Nevertheless, when something doesn't go as planned, a decision usually has to be made. The decision is sometimes as simple as "fight or flight", and sometimes as complex as "steal or die". From my life, a real-world example is what to do when you build it, they come, but they don't buy?

My startup Karmaback has had some HUGE success. We've launched amazing innovative products, collected thousands of fans and followers, and are actually pretty good at bringing qualified customers (companies) to our website. The problem? How to get those qualified customers to pull the trigger and start running Karmaback Social Sweepstakes or Social Coupons for their fans and followers.

Classic marketing theory would say, lower the barriers to participation. For example, we don't offer a "Free Trial". The problem with this is it goes against my principles. I don't believe that it is fair for a company to reap the benefits of our thousands of fans AND our viral features AND our platform AND our legal, etc. without paying. Fairness is a core value, a principle, of mine. So, what do I do?

Well, when plans go awry, here is what I suggest you always do: stick to your principles. I believe in fairness, and free is definitely not fair. But "pure variable" micro-transactions are fair.

So, for now, we're going to begin to offer "pure variable" priced products & services, beginning with Social Sweepstakes and Social Coupons. Pay only for success. That's fair, and that's a decision.

Meanwhile, I am looking to bring more "free" stuff to Karmaback for companies. Stay tuned for parts of THIS blog to show up on Karmaback and for white papers, tutorials, and more to be offered for free. Why? Because knowledge should be free... or so say my principles.

Giving with No Expectation of Return.

2010-07-14T08:44:00.001-05:00

How many books have you read that describe "tit for tat"? Classic and neo- negotiation tactics books all describe tit-for-tat as a way to give and expect something back. According to Seth Godin in Linchpin, this time-honored tradition is simple barter, not gift giving. Giving a gift has an entirely different meaning according to Seth, and I find myself really enjoying its simple charm and Karma.

For Seth and I, a gift can be anything... not just something that cost you money, not just something that is physical, and you can even charge money for it. How? A Gift is anything whose value far surpasses its price. People who put their soul, their art, their passion, into their product or service, and for no expectation of "extra/tip/reward" are giving a gift.

In my own life this has lead to 2 things I realized recently: 1.) I should not feel bad about going above and beyond for my customers... it's okay... it's a gift, and I give it freely because I love what I do and I take pride in hard work and others success. 2.) I find myself "leaning forward" into the concept of charity a bit more. Charity under my own terms, with my own gifts, of course. Helping others start and manage their business. Helping grow my beloved town of Austin. and more... (stay tuned Karmaback fans!).

So, consider... is there something "more" you can "lean forward" into at your own work? MORE you can do in your own job or art or life that is NOT REQUIRED, but that will likely delight? Try it. Give it. Lean forward. You'll soon find that you are a Linchpin.

Entrepreneurship: Does early revenue matter?

2010-07-13T09:14:00.000-05:00

I define early revenue is the money your business makes before or shortly after a first serious investment. In the old days, many companies started up and raised money with no plans for early revenue. These were R&D type business where the R or the D was going to take several years AFTER the investment. In the information age, and post-bubble(s), I sense something has changed. Investors seem less likely to invest in businesses without Early Revenue. Do you agree?

"Leaning Forward": An attitude of Emotional Energy in the workplace.

2010-07-08T15:24:00.000-05:00

Seth Godin is inspiring. His latest book: "Linchpin" is not only a best-seller, but also an amazingly motivating and rewarding read. It should be read in conjunction with Timothy Ferriss' "4-hour Work Week". The book Linchpin is the "how" and 4-hour Work Week is the "why".. together they can reshape America. One of the smaller chapters in Linchpins is sticking with me. It's the idea of "posture". People who "Lean Forward" as opposed to "stand by". Are you spending enough Emotional Energy on the job? Read on.

People who "stand by" are ready to help, but not offering.

People who "stand by" may be skilled and talented, but do only what is needed.

People who "stand by" spend as little effort as is needed to do the job.

People who "stand by" aren't willing to spend Emotional Energy without getting paid for it.

In contrast:

People who "Lean Forward" are looking actively for how to help.

People who "Lean Forward" want to take ownership.

People who "Lean Forward" spend extra effort to make sure its done right.

People who "Lean Forward" spend Emotional Energy, and put more into their job, usually for no "visible" reward.

The question is this: can America afford to "stand by"? Or should we be "leaning forward"? Realize this, you can outsource a job... but you can't outsource a person. People who lean forward can never be replaced. They are a linchpin.

Karmaback Social Sweepstakes' new Pricing & new Look.

2010-06-25T15:17:00.000-05:00

Whenever a new service or product is launched, getting the word out is job #1. Job #2 is converting that buzz into real sales! If done right, you can use Google Analytics to measure how people are flowing through your site. You can even set up conversion events and tracking to see how people are converting and where they are coming from. Here is the thing: the data doesn't lie! Fix whats broken! 2 things were a bit broken according to Google for our website sales funnel... first, people were confused about the pricing. second, people were bouncing on the sweepstakes page.

So without further gilding the lily, and no further ado, I present to you the new look of Karmaback.com and Karmaback.com/sweepstakes. (Check them out, leave feedback, let me know how else I can improve!).

And what's better? Simpler pricing: $0.25c per relevant fan or follower we bring you... and a cap of $299.99 no matter how many we bring you. (You can set a lower cap if you want). That's it. Brain-dead simple.

Want 1,200+ new fans & followers for your Facebook or Twitter pages? You got it!

Enjoy

Maximum-ally Buyable Product (what is next)

2010-06-21T16:52:00.000-05:00

Onstartups has a great article and a very excellent read about what to do next AFTER your MVP (Minimum Viable Product) succeeds. I think it should be opened up to a debate: Should you BUILD IT BETTER (MBP) or should you BUILD ANOTHER MVP?

My argument for building another MVP is: why ruin a good working product? By definition success means its working. STOP. Let it work. Build something else!

My other argument for building another MVP is: your current MVP is probably not working. DO NOT Go from MVP that fails to Maximally Viable Product.

Finally the ideas that make an MBP good from the article, probably should be PART of your MVP!

1. Easy To Understand

2. Easy To Try

3. Easy To Buy

4. Easy To Stay

5. Easy To Leave

Finding your Focus.

2010-06-21T09:33:00.000-05:00

Some people have a big vision. It is complex. It is beautiful. It is impossible. These kinds of people (myself included) need to find a focus for their energy, a single "part" of the vision that we can execute to. Here are 3 steps to finding a single focus.

1.) Consider a formal marketing plan. A formal marketing plan (such as I have described how to develop in detail), can help to focus your thoughts... specifically the sentence: "we are a x, that does x, for x, and unlike other x, we x". Very effective (thanks Barry Raskin for teaching me!)

2.) Minimize your MVP. I've spoken about MVP in the past, but this time, consider, is your MVP truly minimum? Sometimes to find your focus, you have to build an MVP & discover if it really is V (Viable).

3.) Revise. Inevitably you will fail. Recognizing the failure and buliding a NEW MVP (in line with the original vision) is a must... in short: revise.

Now, get out there and build something!

My new startup, Karmaback, nominated for COOLEST NEW COMPANY from Austin Business Journal (ABJ).

2010-06-18T10:19:00.000-05:00

We're very pleased to have been nominated for "Coolest New Company" by the Austin Business Journal.

Please take a moment to vote for us! (takes just 5 seconds)
http://abjentrepreneur.com/contest_nomination.html

And if you don't know what Karmaback is... shame on you! Check us out here: http://karmaback.com

Vote for us... its good Karma!
You could Get Some Karma Back!

Obvious and True: Fans and Followers are a Very Targeted Audience.

2010-06-10T10:10:00.000-05:00

One of my favorite blogs (The Marketingsherpa Blog) recently posted the result of a study that showed "like search traffic, social media traffic tends to be very qualified” This stunning statement came from Maura Ginty, Senior Manager, Search and Social, Autodesk. Is it any big surprise?

Let me think, people who like you, follow you, fan you, or are searching for you on social networks are a targeted audience. While this does seem obvious at first glance, what is interesting about what Autodesk has done is that they actually developed a keen way to measure it. Unfortunately, their measurement stops at "sentiment". Karmaback would like to take that measurement all the way through the sale.

According to Adam Sutton (Marketingsherpa), "the [Autodesk] team can calculate the velocity of a marketing message — the number of people a message reaches in a certain amount of time in social media — and combine it with a sentiment analysis". And while this is nice... speed of message, sentiment of message, I find it lacking in 1 key area: the Sales! Why is it people assume that sentiment leads to sales?

Remember, for a sale to happen, you need to have 3 key elements: demand (sure, we can call that sentiment), price (there needs to be a match between price and demand! Economics 101), and place (a place to buy, to shop, to complete the purchase, that is convenient & fast).

Here's a Social Marketing Tip. Ask for the sale! Heck, even play with the price (promotions). While you are at it, why not let them go ahead and buy, directly inside Facebook? (place).

Months and Months of work PAY OFF. Karmaback Social Sweepstakes+ is live.

2010-06-05T20:20:00.001-05:00

After months and months of hard work, Karmaback's Social Sweepstakes+ is finally live!

My new startup, Karmaback, is finally finished with our private Betas, our testings, our public Betas, and our trials. We have the case studies, we have the FULLY AUTOMATED setup process, and we've hooked in to Paypal for payment. Karmaback is now officially live.

In case you wonder what Karmaback Social Sweepstakes is, and why we created it... here's the skinny:

Karmaback is a Social Network Marketing company that helps companies grow fans and followers on Facebook and Twitter and uniquely rewards users for engagement and sharing with Karmaback Points.

The Benefits:

Gain Fans & Followers
Build Loyalty & Evangelists
Get Sales & Justify Marketing

How do we do that? Simple.

Set up a Social Network Sweepstakes with Karmaback (a Social Sweepstakes+)
Let us manage the sweepstakes & provide "viral growth" features, like social sharing & more.
Use Karmaback's other tools for "after-sweepstakes" follow-up, including Social Discounts & Karmaback rewards for purchase!

Yep. Our vision is here. We really can help companies get real measurable increases in Fans and Followers, and help turn that attention into "Rewarded" engagement & "real" revenue.

Enjoy folks,

And do provide feedback to help us make this service even better!

What New Facebook & Twitter Rules mean to Business.

2010-05-26T10:37:00.000-05:00

"There is no spoon" - The Matrix

Recently, several enforced rules by Facebook and new rules from Twitter are causing Heart-ache and pain for Social Network Marketing companies and customers alike. Facebook recently banned a company from "paying" people to refer fans & customers to companies using Facebook. Twitter announced new rules to prohibit "paid" advertising in peoples twitter feeds. What does this mean to marketing companies and service providers like Karmaback and Tweetup? What does this mean to the millions of companies, just trying to get their word out? My answers below:

Companies that "use" Twitter and Facebook:

For companies that use Twitter and Facebook, this should be a wake-up call. You have to stop thinking of Twitter and Facebook as "advertising", and start thinking it as a "company public forum". This means making a place on Facebook and Twitter that is rewarding and engaging for users.
Here are 5 ways to make Facebook & Twitter more rewarding & engaging:

Consider a sweepstakes/giveaway! http://karmaback.com/sweepstakes - This reward people for following you and is fun as well!
Provide content that creates discussion between members. - Posts that ask questions, invite discussion, and generally are not 'just advertisements'.
Use the feedback you get, and let people know you used it.
Share relevant stuff in your industry that people might not know about (and how it will effect them).
Reward positive comments and feedback with Karma points! http://karmaback.com/sweepstakes

Something else to consider:

Twitter and Facebook want to MAKE MONEY off of you. Period. They also don't want OTHER companies to make any money off of you (if it is something they could get from you instead). So, remember this when thinking about the rules & regulations of Twitter & Facebook.

Marketing Service Providers:

First, remember that Twitter & Facebook DO NOT want you to compete with them. If you do (such as providing advertising services/etc.), then you are likely to get into trouble.

Second, do stuff that Facebook & Twitter don't do.. to ENHANCE the experience (not copy it).

Finally, be transparent. Karmaback is crystal clear (or we try to be)... we provide Sweepstakes services (something Facebook doesn't do)... and a simple Karma points reward system (again something that Facebook doesn't do). Stay transparent, and stay competitive.

Seth Godin's Austin Linchpin meetup.

2010-05-24T08:35:00.000-05:00

Are you a Linchpin? A linchpin is someone who makes a difference... who starts a trend... who gets it.

My favorite Blogger Seth Godin is arranging a worldwide Linchpin meetup on Flag day June 14, 2010

Austin's meetup is being organized here:
http://www.meetup.com/Linchpins-are-everywhere-raise-the-flag/762/

Come, join us at 6:30-8:00pm at 360 Primo Cafe in the Arboretum!

9828 Great Hills Trl
Austin, TX 78759
Neighborhood: Great Hills

(512) 795-9292

www.360primo.net

And check out Seth's Blog.... if nothing else, it will give you courage to change. And being willing to change makes you a POTENTIAL Linchpin. Now do it!

Why Small Business is Turning to Social Network Marketing

2010-05-20T10:42:00.000-05:00

This recent article from emarketer.com http://www.emarketer.com/Article.aspx?R=1007706 got me to wondering why would small business be turning to social network marketing? The answer is obvious if you stop to think about it: its the only kind of marketing that has ever "really" worked for small business, since the invention of "barter" some 15,000+ years ago. After all, if your neighbors know that you're the guy who makes the best chairs, they'll barter with you when they need one.

Consider: what is social network marketing supposed to do?

Build a community of folks who like you. (Fan you, follow you, or whatever).
Develop a place where people who like you, can engage with you. (a virtual storefront, that is interactive with the store owners).
Attract and inform new people that you make the best X. (x=chairs, or whatever). Encourage your community to say you make the best X.

So, is this any different than what small business do in a community?

A small business historically belonged to its community by physical location.
Small business have almost always been more interactive... usually you get to speak with the owner directly.
Real life communities have always been social networks... spreading the news and letting people know that you make the best X, and especially letting OTHER people say you make the best X has always been the best form of marketing: Word of Mouth.

In this kind of climate, Small business has an opportunity to WIN BIG.

They do have to make the best X though! (or at least convince some folks you do)

Arrogance of Mankind

2010-05-16T13:18:00.002-05:00

First, we think we can own each other. Then, we think we own the planet. Next, we think we know how the universe was created. And finally, the coup-de-grace, we think we know how mankind was created. Seriously, are we that arrogant? Ironically, Conservatives & Bible altruists are often the worst kind of arrogant. They think they know what God means! (seriously?) Yep.

The most liberal magazine I read is Scientific American. WOW, do they hate creationism. They also believe very strongly in global warming, anti-gun law, and science in general. That's all fine and good, but what frustrates me is their arrogance. They deny the possibility that they don't know the answer. They treat hypothesis and thesis as fact. They present data as though it proves any point. This magazine is the perfect example of "scientific arrogance"... prove what you can prove, not what you believe.

Worse than the liberals are the conservatives. It stupefies me that conservatives actually think they know what God means when he says 7 days. They discount certain scientific facts for "their interpretation" of what they've read in the Bible. The idea that God could wield his power in such a way as to make a day 1Trillion years is somehow incomprehensible? That God's creation of mankind might have been done "through" animals (which also came from dust) unfounded? Even if you take every word of the Bible as fact, there is so much left UNSAID BY GOD and so much BEYOND OUR UNDERSTANDING that there is PLENTY of room for science.

So, what does this have to do with business? Nothing and Everything.

When thinking about "context" of the world in which we live, we have to realize that people are "POLARIZED". Most people flock to Creationism or un-yield in their belief of Evolution-ism. It is rare for the person to accept both into their belief system.

In business, make products that "Polarize"... and don't be afraid of it. Realize that you can't please everybody (most people aren't wired that way!).

You'll have a "hit" when you please one group, and make the other group hate you.

The Abundance Principle

2010-05-13T09:06:00.000-05:00

Abundance is the principle that there is enough of everything for everyone. Some people have this principle, most do not. It is rare to find people who hold this principle dear, but when you do, hold on to them. My friend Chris recently reminded me of this principle when he said: "hey I just want you guys to be successful". What an inspirational sentence. He's not overblown by his own success. He's not grasping at a "piece" of a pie. He wants the pie to grow. He wants to share the pie... He believes there is plenty of pie for everyone.

My idol, Benjamin Franklin said: "HUMILITY. Imitate Jesus and Socrates." What is more Jesus-like than sharing 2 fish and 5 loaves? You can't do that without belief. Believing there is enough for everyone. That's principle my friends... and I'd do just about anything for my friend Chris as a result.

Here's a quiz to see how much belief in abundance you have... it does take humility, and we are sorely lacking it in this generation of cynicism and narcissism.

If you have unexpected visitors to your home, would you feed them anything you have in your cupboard? +1
If you have a bag of apples and you see a beggar on the street, will you try give him one? (side-note, they probably won't accept it) +1
If you have a tasty treat (your favorite), do you always offer to share it? +1
At work, do you share credit for everything good that happens (even when you did most of the work)? +2
At work, do you think of competition as "the enemy"? -2
At work, are you happy when the competition comes out with a "hit"? +2
At work, do you feel good when your peers get promoted or rewarded? +2
Do you believe there is NOT enough food in the world to feed everyone? -5

Think about it... if you scored less than 7, you may need to get over yourself.

Enjoy Apple's rise to power.

Enjoy the dominance of Mac.

Radiate in the success of others.

There IS enough food for the world... if only we'd get over ourselves and stop hoarding.

Finding motivation when things go wrong.

2010-05-04T14:02:00.000-05:00

Sometimes things go wrong. It is inevitable. Sales tank, launch fails, something breaks, something does not happen that you hoped it would... The problems REALLY compound when we let it "de-motivate" us and send us into a tailspin. How then do you keep your head up when the chips are down? I have an answer, and it may surprise you: Give up.

Or rather, consider giving up.

This idea is based on Principle AND Logic, here is how it works:

Construct a NET PRESENT VALUE of the current opportunity. (NPV = the time weighted value of future cash flows... in essence, how good is the opportunity from today->on)?
Imagine giving up on the current opportunity, and what you COULD be doing instead.... then calculate the NPV of that.
Be sure to weight NPV according to risk.
Compare the NPV of Giving up, with the NPV of Continuing.
Which is higher?
Now, Give up, or don't.... if you decide NOT to give up, you'll have a good reason why!

Is this harsh? Maybe, but did you notice something? We DID NOT COUNT THE PAST! Past investment, past success, past failures, and past pain/time/etc... all IRRELEVANT. That recent screw-up/failure should have NOTHING to do with the NPV of the future. Seperate it. Evaluate. Take action.

Sometimes, Giving up is harder to do than continuing. Sometimes, it is entirely the RIGHT thing to do.

Remember, the World Needs you, so spend your time on that which can generate the most Value... as you see value... according to your principles.

Principles of Business: How Temperance helps build companies.

2010-04-29T14:25:00.002-05:00

Following my Benjamin Franklin post a while ago, I set out to try to practice the Principle of Temperance. What I discovered is that this important value can also help guide a business on the path to "mutual success".

TEMPERANCE. Eat not to dullness; drink not to elevation

For me as an individual, I've always had a problem with "eating to dullness"... funny way that Benjamin put it... because if you do overeat, you do feel dull, slow, and lethargic. My new years resolution was to "eat no seconds", but my firsts are too big to begin with. While I did better this week, I did not do great. I'll need to keep working on this.

For a company though, Temperance has a different meaning.. I'd call it this:

TEMPERANCE. Exploit not your customers; Starve not your suppliers

This week, following this guideline for business, I had some GREAT successes...

I struck upon a brilliant way to charge "fairly" for Karmaback... why not charge per fan/follower we bring?! (Thanks Suzanne, UT MBA 04 for the inspiration)
I decided that "Karmaback users" are the "suppliers" for our business.. and we MUST not starve them.
In my consulting business, I decided to continue offering my "start-up/small business" discounted rates.

All in all, a good week for business Temperance... now I just need work on that other kind of Temperance (food & drink, begone)!

Why founders make better CEOs.

2010-04-28T20:43:00.000-05:00

My own opinion is sort-of irrelevant.

The numbers speak for themselves:

"First, the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business just published an analysis of recent exits for high technology companies such as BlackBoard, BladeLogic, Concur, Danger, Liveperson, LogMeIn, and Netsuite. Looking across these nearly 50 companies, the study finds that founding CEOs consistently beat the professional CEOs on a broad range of metrics ranging from capital efficiency (amount of funding raised), time to exit, exit valuations, and return on investment.

Second, for folks keeping score at home, this phenomenon appears to extend beyond high-technology companies. Felix Salmon, for instance, points out that Fortune’s editorial staff considered twelve other candidates including Warren Buffett, Carlos Slim, and Martha Stewart before naming Steve Jobs the best CEO of the decade in November 2009. Salmon points out that “not a single one of the 12 [candidates] is a CEO who was hired to run a company by its board of directors.”

There are certainly exceptions to this rule, most notably Google and Cisco (I will address both exceptions later in this post), but the evidence is one-sided and overwhelming."

READ ON!

http://bhorowitz.com/2010/04/28/why-we-prefer-founding-ceos/

How to Build a Marketing Plan

2010-04-20T21:32:00.000-05:00

I've scoured the internet for a nice, simple, method for how to build a Marketing Plan, and all I find is very short, confusing, unorganized stuff (and very little of that). So, without further ado, my 10 steps for building an "AWARD WINNING" Marketing Plan.

Learn what the heck Marketing is in the first place. (See my blog on my topic here.... my 5 year old son could figure it out... so can you).
Research your 5-Cs. Customer, Company, Competition, Collaboration, Context

This can be done fairly easily with some Google searching or industry related press reading.
I find doing it in order is the best..
Just jot down as many notes as you can for each section.
Below is the goal you are trying to reach for each C

Customer - Write down WHO is your ZEBRA (Ideal) customer.. then expand that view just enough to encompass a market that is of a "small, but big enough" size. The goal here is to choose a FOCUSED group of people who you can clearly identify... NOT make it the biggest set of people possible (that's for Business Plans, not Marketing Plans).
Company - Write down what are your companies strengths, weaknesses, vision, and values. (This will help in the rest of the plan).
Competition - Write down a list of competitors and note their "pricing" and their "differentiation" claims. SPEND LOTS OF TIME HERE. It's worth it later.
Context - Write down trends in society, business, culture, and geography that MAY (or may not) cause you PROBLEMS or create OPPORTUNITIES.
Now, write down your 4 Ps - Product, Place, Price, Promotion. First up: Product.

To get Product right (for Marketing purposes), it must fit in the following Sentences:
ACME (YOUR COMPANY/PRODUCT/BRAND) is a _______ that does ____________ for ________.
UNLIKE OTHER _______ we do _________________________.
Now list 3 Benefits. ( NO MORE )
Now list 3 Features. ( NO MORE )
If you can get this focused with your product, you're ready for the next step.
NOTE: If you have engineers/tech people, don't invite them to help with this section... do it yourself (or have someone do it for you)... then correct as needed.

Place - Where do you plan to sell? What is your selling motion?
Price - How much will you charge? What is the upsell path (or options)? What is the average lifetime value of a customer? How does all this compare to the competition?
Promotion - NOTICE, I am last here... many people think a "Marketing Plan" is just this section... (the Advertising, PR, etc.)... but it is not. This is important, but not the MOST important. To me, the first C is most important (Customer) Followed by the first P (Product). Anyways, here's promotion:

How much can you spend to acquire a customer? (see average lifetime value for hints)
How many customers do you want to acquire in a period? (therefor, that is your budget)
What "Free-ish" marketing can you do? (PR, Social Media, SEO, other)? How can you measure its effectiveness?
What "Cheap-ish" marketing can you do? (SEM, Google Adwords, Google Adsense, CMP, CPC, CPA)? How can you measure its effectiveness?
What "Expensive, but hopefully measurable" marketing can you do? (Partner/Reseller Marketing, Paid Banners, Trade Shows, Events, etc.)? How can you measure its effectiveness?
What "Brand building" MUST you do? (non-measurable stuff like TV, Print, Billboards, etc.).?
Now, allocate budget from 2-6... where you don't spend 1c on the next item, till you've spent all you can (reasonably & scalable) spend on the prior number. MOST COMPANIES SHOULD NEVER GET PAST 4. (at least not in the early days).

Hope this was helpful!

Comments and Arguments and Links are always MORE than welcome.

Benjamin Franklin & Finding "Character" in modern society.

2010-04-19T12:12:00.000-05:00

Character & values (principles) are old fashioned. Even modern day self help books (some that I love, including The 7 Habits of highly effective people) barely touch on the subject. They say it is lacking, but cannot name the principles & values and what they are... let alone how to improve them. What is equally missing is any true role models of values who not only live by their values and do business by them, but also who have been successful beyond measure. One such character in history has done so, and his great example is more than inspiring: Benjamin Franklin, whose amazing autobiography lays out not only a definition of the values and character that are essential to success, but how to improve them and succeed at business along the way!

Here are his 13 values (from his Autobiography)

1. TEMPERANCE. Eat not to dullness; drink not to elevation.
2. SILENCE. Speak not but what may benefit others or yourself; avoid trifling conversation.
3. ORDER. Let all your things have their places; let each part of your business have its time.
4. RESOLUTION. Resolve to perform what you ought; perform without fail what you resolve.
5. FRUGALITY. Make no expense but to do good to others or yourself; i.e., waste nothing.
6. INDUSTRY. Lose no time; be always employ'd in something useful; cut off all unnecessary actions.
7. SINCERITY. Use no hurtful deceit; think innocently and justly, and, if you speak, speak accordingly.
8. JUSTICE. Wrong none by doing injuries, or omitting the benefits that are your duty.
9. MODERATION. Avoid extreams; forbear resenting injuries so much as you think they deserve.
10. CLEANLINESS. Tolerate no uncleanliness in body, cloaths, or habitation.
11.TRANQUILLITY. Be not disturbed at trifles, or at accidents common or unavoidable.
12. CHASTITY. Rarely use venery but for health or offspring, never to dulness, weakness, or the injury of your own or another's peace or reputation.
13. HUMILITY. Imitate Jesus and Socrates.

In my opinion all 13 are of high value, but in business, Frugality, Industry, Resolution, Order, and Sincerity are of the highest Importance. It's not enough to agree. You have to practice every day.

#13 (Humility) is one of the hardest to follow in our society today.... I'll save it for last.

In the mean-time, I'll track my weekly progress, successes and failures, as I focus on practicing 1 of the above values, in turn, just as Benjamin Franklin did over 200 years ago.

Measuring Success... of Social Network Marketing.

2010-04-08T10:00:00.001-05:00

It is a slippery slope to define success in relation to others. The problem there is, there are always 'others' more successful. The better way is to measure ones success vs. ones STATED goals. This is true in business as in life.

Companies struggle to measure "Social Marketing" success, because they have no clear goal. Most Marketers are happy to just get increased web traffic. This stems from the assumption that revenue can't be tied to social marketing. My new company, Karmaback, can definitely fill the gap in measurement AND deliver revenue directly tied to social marketing. This feature, however, is irrelevant... because marketers don't have this as a goal (yet).

Instead, we at Karmaback have decided to focus (for now) on the goals that marketers do set: more fan growth (Facebook & Twitter), and more site traffic. We'll keep preaching that revenue should be the goal, but until our customers realize it is possible, we'll deliver results they "think" they want.

The excitement of the close.

2010-04-05T16:26:00.001-05:00

"So, is everything in order," you ask, heart pounding in your chest? "Yep, we are good to go," you hear like musical echos in your ears. "Okay, just shoot us the PO and we'll be rocking and rolling," you reply almost out of breath. "On its way," you hear.

The PO is on it's way. Music to the sales-man ears. So, how did you get here? What did it take to 'slay' this close? Why all the excitement? The reason is simple: it is hard to sell somebody something. It takes time, patience, confidence, and most importantly persistence. In many cases, the transaction is directly tied to your compensation. I argue, its not the paycheck that has your heart-rate up... it's the possibility of failure and the relief of success.

Here are some tips from my recent professional career (VP Sales & Business Development for a very cool Headphone Company):
1. Don't push, make sure everything is in order instead.
2. Be sure everyone involved is "sold" on the need for your product/service... Hint: it should start with: You need us because we are X which is different than Y, and we both agreed will help you to do Z.
3. Begin with understanding. Start by learning your customers needs, wants, and desires... if this is a reseller, put yourself in the resellers shoes... they want to look good right? help them.
4. Don't compromise for the sale. Even if you have carte-blanch to do what is best... set some parameters for what is fair and stick to it!
5. Be open about the margins. Anyone can figure out how much it costs to make something... be open about the margins you need and the margins you are willing to share/extend... a little research helps a lot here.
6. During the close.. remember to breathe!
7. Don't announce the close till you get the PO! (SOOOOO tempting)
8. Your fear of failure is real. Acknowledge it and focus on the consequences of a lost account today... it's probably NOT the end of the world like your heart is telling you.

Now, go out there and close!
Make no compromise.
Get it done!

Why use Facebook?

2010-03-30T08:41:00.000-05:00

Many of you know I have a new business called Karmaback. We build tools and technology to make Facebook and Twitter more engaging. The question is, why use Facebook at all? What does it do for your business?

The answer is nothing. It does nothing for your business.

You CAN however, USE Facebook to help your business.

Here are a few tips:
1.) Post at least 2-3 times per week, but not more than 1/day.
2.) Make your posts informative about Your products or Your industry.
3.) Encourage your Fans to discuss the topic.
4.) Encourage your Fans to "spread" the topic when it is relevant.
5.) Reward your Fans for following you.

3-5 are what Karmaback can do for you.

1-2, you have to do for yourself.

The search for the perfect solution.

2010-03-28T10:09:00.000-05:00

Got a problem? Got something you really want? Have you ever gone on a hunt for the "perfect" solution to your problem? Why can't you find it? Why can't anyone just make the PERFECT solution?

The reason it is hard to find perfection is that companies are working with 2 conflicting variables... supply and demand. Usually, there is limited supply of something (for example, it costs money to get a supply of Titanium to make Titanium watches)... versus demand... (for example, the price of the Titanium watch HAS to be higher because of the cost of the supply of Titanium). So, the never-ending challenge: Price vs. Features ensues, and most companies FLOCK to the place where the MOST people are willing to pay the given price.

FEW companies have the guts to make a product at either extreme: price so low, everyone could afford it... but who would want it... it's just crap? Price so high, no-one can afford it, but WOW it has all the features and is darn near perfect.

The perfect solution is very rare. Price low enough that there is high demand AND features high enough that it solves the problem nearly perfectly.

Software can change that. It is possible to have the perfect software solution.

This company: Line2, is VERY VERY Close:
http://finance.yahoo.com/family-home/article/109173/iphone-app-to-sidestep-att
http://www.line2.com/

Live extreme. Search for perfection.

How to Manage Outside Offsite Contractors

2010-03-25T15:59:00.000-05:00

The contractors have finally dialed in, 15-minutes late, for the status meeting. They act as if nothing is wrong, "Hello everyone, how is it going?" Your team looks frustrated, back in college they only waited 10-min for full PhD's! "Fine, fine," you say calmly, "how are things there?" "Fine, going good," they reply. "Uhh, can you be more specific, this is the update meeting after all...". Twenty minutes later they hang up, and you have NO IDEA the status, quality, or needs of the contractor. What went wrong? This is not going well!

As CEO, I spend a lot of my energy making sure that my management team is WELL ARMED to manage effectively. By manage, I mean: ensure that tasks and objectives are met on schedule and that all tools and materials are available when needed.

The problem is, when a contractor is NOT in the same office, you rarely know when they are lacking tools or needed materials. It is equally difficult to get exposure to the progress vs. schedule, and damn near impossible to make sure the objectives are met. MANY MANAGERS struggle with this with employees, let alone offiste contractors.

Here are some of the tips I train my managers (and employees who often do manager jobs) in dealing with contractors:
1. MOST IMPORTANTLY: don't pay hourly.
* Hourly is the wrong incentive for your contractors! Pay based on objectives and milestones.
* If you must pay hourly, be sure to specify how many hours per week/etc. that the contractor may work on the project.
* If you must pay hourly, be sure to get an estimate first.. and provide a penalty if they go over the estimate (makes it almost not hourly).

2. Have a GOOD CONTRACT that includes both a carrot and a stick.
* Include in the contract a "Bonus" for early delivery, but also include a "Penalty" if quality problems exist post-delivery.
* My penalty is usually they have to fix the problem in 2 days or we will deduct 5% from the total.
* A good bonus would be 10%. (contractors aren't use to this, so it can be quite motivating!)

3. Whenever possible only contract out something that is a "complete job".
* The Job MUST have a finite end-point and delivery metric.
* It must be FULLY specified IN THE CONTRACT.
* It cannot rely on multiple inputs or outside team members.

4. Build in "DELIVERED" milestones to the Contract.
* At least 1 per month or so... a nice stopping point with delivery of the 'unfinished' product. (ideally in a testable state).
* Along the way, you will see progress when a delivered milestone is given to you.

5. Make certain all tools and needed materials are given at the start.

6. DON'T MAKE CHANGES!
* If there is a change you HAVE to make... don't. Just let the contractor finish, then do a change as a separate contract.

If you can follow the above, you don't need the weekly meeting, just a quick call or email if they miss a milestone!
Best of all, they are MOTIVATED to do it on-time and high quality.
AND you can track their progress via the milestones.

Delegate or become your company's bottleneck.

2010-03-22T10:51:00.002-05:00

"Okay everyone", he says in that snide nasal tone you know SO well. "just a reminder, your revised proposals are due by Monday morning." You look on bemused that you have to do this. You're not nervous, just annoyed. You would have been done by now if you didn't have to make a proposal first. "James, your idea needs some refinement, you need to include more widgets and less dongles like this," the nasal tone interrupts your reverie. Its a good thing you didn't start yet, your idea just got mangled beyond recognition... its now 100% more safe, and 1000% less interesting.

We've all known the manager that refuses to delegate. They want to be involved in EVERY decision. They want to be "presented to" and (if your lucky) given a recommendation. It's usually either a VERY capable person (who is super-duper smart and works super hard), or a VERY nervous/worried person who is constantly thinking about CYA (Cover Your Ass). In the first case, they are doing it because they probably DO have great ideas and maybe could do it better/make it better. In the latter, they are doing it because they are worried that if it gets screwed up, they will lose their job. In either case, they are doing it wrong. Refusal to delegate means you ARE the bottleneck in your system.

There are two principles that are being ignored here. First, the principle of trust. In both cases, they are not trusting their co-workers (or subordinates) to do the work right (well). The second is efficiency. In both cases, the manager has sacrificed "efficiency" by putting themselves in the work-flow.

I can't change your manager over night...but here is how you can change him (and/or yourself)!

1. introduce the concept of "guidelines".. pre-approved guides within which one can operate without approval. Budgets, schedules, milestones, and boundaries. (e.g. $500 per month spending maximum for needed stuff)

2. introduce the concept of "good enough".. a standard that is admittedly below your BEST's best, but that is good enough to get the job done without taking your Best's time away. (note: works well when the BEST is the manager in question, or he thinks he is). [not that I know from personal experience] :)

3. introduce the concept of "front man".. a front man not only has ownership of the project, but gets exposure as the leader to higher-ups. This concept is a win-win-win... the CYA guys, get to CYA. The subordinates get higher-up exposure, and the higher-ups, get to see new faces!

Now, start delegating, and work on the stuff that really matters.

Formalizing an online persona.

2010-03-19T21:05:00.001-05:00

If you are an entrepreneur or a high-tech professional, and you do not have a Blog, I ask you, why?

If you don't have a Linked-In persona, I ask you, why?

If you don't know your place in this online world, I ask you, why?

If the answer is you don't believe in it, I can't help you.

If the answer is, not enough time, I can't help you.

If the answer is, why...I have this to say.

No matter who you are or what you are trying to do, people are going to Google you. When they do, they will either find what YOU have written about you, what someone else wrote, or worse, nothing.

I'd never to hire a VP or Director who has "nothing" about them online. Linkedin is a must. References on Linkedin a big plus. And a Blog even better (as long as its related to what you do).

So, that's my advice. Do it. Update it. Participate, don't just watch.

My blog title and name was updated just today after hearing from colleagues it was a bit out of date.

Yep, they Googled me!

At least they didn't find... nothing.

An engineer's take on the Business of Sex.

2010-03-10T09:14:00.000-06:00

Got your attention didn't I? Why? Because sex sells. Pornography once pushed the envelopes of internet technology, leading to the creation of streaming video, live streaming video, CDN, and other internet technologies. Pornography once dominated the bandwidth of the internet. Here is your wake-up call... TIMES HAVE CHANGED! The internet is now dominated by "user generated content". Facebook, myspace, and the like now dominates web traffic. What does this mean for the business of sex? It has peaked (no pun intended).

Photo courtesy of this interesting study that Online Sex makes you depressed. I would argue this is especially true if your business depends on this declining trend.

How to recognize a BAD/Small Business Idea & MVP

2010-03-08T13:50:00.000-06:00

Knowing a bad idea is sometimes easy... check out this hellarious site: stupidbusinessideas.com. What do these have in common? Simple: it is obvious that people are not willing to pay for it (or the market is VERY small). But how can an engineer-type thinker discover if his idea (which isn't so obvious) is a Bad (small) business idea?

I will outline 2 methods, which would ideally both be used.

The First Method P.O.D.C.
PODC is a qualitative tool that helps a person analyze if the 4 key components of a Business Idea make sense
P = People
O = Opportunity
D = Deal
C = Context
If you see green lights all down the PODC list, you are good to go to the next method (or take your chances if you wish). Here is what Green Lights should look like.
P. The people running the business and inventing the product(s) are experts in the relevant fields and have experience having done it before.
O. The opportunity (the problem you are solving/need you are satisfying) is large enough that a small market share is all that is needed for a viable business. E.g. a 1% market penetration would lead to a $5MM+ business.
D. The deal proposed is not too small or too big and has milestones and success markers along the way before further investment is needed. E.G> a small amount of $ investment $ is all that is needed to get to the first milestone.
C. The context (the world view) is fresh and new, not old and boring.. and the business does NOT rely on some obscure law or quick trend. Competition may or may not be there, but this solution seems unique and could be a long-lasting business.

Did your PODC come out green? Now the real test: will people pay?
To test this, Engineer-thinkers need to deploy a Minimum Viable Product (MVP). This is VERY hard for Engineer-type thinkers, who want to solve the whole thing & get it working first. WRONG. You need to TEST to see if people will pay first.
Some guidance may be found here: http://venturehacks.com/articles/minimum-viable-product and http://venturehacks.com/articles/minimum-viable-product-examples and of course http://www.startuplessonslearned.com/

Here is my quick instruction manual to make an MVP.
1.) Find someone creative who will build you a 3-page website for cheap. ($1000)
2.) Build page 1 that gives the pitch for the new product/service. 1-button: Order Now.
3.) Build page 2 that shows the price & looks like a shopping cart. 1-button: Proceed with Order
4.) One page 3, say: "Sorry, we are currently back-ordered. You will be emailed when new inventory is available. Thanks for your business."
5.) Build some ads for your business idea on Google Adwords: http://adwords.google.com/
6.) MEASURE how much it costs to bring ppl to your site... how many are interested in Order Now... and how many "Proceed with Order" after seeing the price.
7.) Adjust parts 3-6... and see if you can make MONEY with the business.

If you can sell for more than 4x the cost (where cost is product cost + shipping + marketing cost) you are in good shape.

If not, start over with PODC and see what was wrong.

Best of luck!

Now, get some good ideas!

How to know you have a BIG IDEA!

2010-03-05T09:31:00.000-06:00

Many of my engineering friends have ideas... most are small... some CAN be big.... How do you know when an idea could be BIG? Having judged Moot Corp 3 years in a row, won it 5 years ago, and after reading hundreds of business plans, I believe I have a formula that can help any engineer-type thinker answer that question:

1.) Is there a burning need? (e.g. are people hungry to solve the problem, or spending a lot of money trying to solve it or avoid it)????
2.) Is there a big Market? (e.g. are there a lot of people who WOULD be hungry if hey knew they could eat (buy) something to solve it?)
3.) Are people WILLING to pay to solve it? (this one requires a test... see MVP)

If your idea is big, I encourage you to go for it... nothing is worth losing than opportunity!

A balance of "reward" and "honesty"

2010-03-03T10:44:00.000-06:00

Please reply and help me find the balance points...

If someone gets paid to say good things (spokesman), do you question their honesty?

If they ask you to become a fan, and you realize they got entered into a contest as a result, does it lessen them?

If someone shares something with you in their feed, and they got entered into a contest as a result, does it lessen them?

Think about Facebook games:
When people share "achievements" and get "silver" for it, do you care?

When people write a review for a product, that was given to them, is it less of a review?

When people write a review for a product, and they get a free t-shirt, do you trust the review less?

If someone shares a link on Facebook with a comment, and they get a free hat for doing it, do you care?

THERE IS a line somewhere... where is it?

Crowdstorming: The Karmaback Value Proposition

2010-02-22T11:09:00.000-06:00

Okay engineer-type thinkers, it is time for a pop quiz. We are crowdstorming today... that is as a crowd, brainstorming. So, what is the value proposition of a tool like Karmaback, and how much should we charge? Post your replies here. Below are the "features" of Karmaback and the "benefits" as I see them... now the question is, what is the concise value proposition, and what is it worth?

Karmaback for Members (people who sign up and participate... e.g. everybody and anybody)
Features:
* Get to earn points for liking & sharing cool products & stuff.
* Get to spend points on prizes, discounts, and specials.
Benefits:
* Prizes, discounts, and specials, and stuff.
* Get to share feedback with Partner companies about products & stuff.
* Get to be 'heard' and their opinion counts and matters.

Karmaback for Partners (companies who choose to work with Karmaback)
Features:
* Get to put the like-it-flow on their websites.
* Get Karmaback members to post to their Facebook pages from the like-it-flow.
* Get to run Sweepstakes, Discounts, and Specials via Karmaback.com
* Get to post Sweepstakes/etc. in Facebook & Twitter.
* Can make Viral posts on Facebook & Twitter (that reward Members for "re-sharing" the posts).
Benefits:
* Get the word out about the products people like.
* Get feedback from users.
* Convert "visitors" into "fans"
* Convert "fans" into "evangelists"
* Convert "members" into "buyers"

Where games meet reality.

2010-02-16T16:03:00.000-06:00

Anyone who knows me, knows I love games. I'm a gamer. I like games on PC, XBOX, PS3, Wii, iPhone, Facebook, and life. Life games are the most fun, of course... if you have the right attitude. Why not lie down in a crowded place? Why not buck social norms and convention? Why not try every possible adventure sport known to man (I'll be snow-boarding next week). In fact, intersecting games with life is just about my favorite thing to do.

Karmaback walks this intersection of games and reality with aplomb and head on. Who said we can't reward people for clicking on links? Why can't we give people prizes for saying they like something? And coming soon: why not collect points, earn ranks, get levels and achievements... all in the game of life, the game of marketing, and for products and stuff you love?

The 4-hour work week...

2010-02-11T10:38:00.001-06:00

Imagine a world where you work 1 hour per day, but still make $10,000 per month+. Now consider what would you do with the time? Me? I'd write, hike, teach, and spend more time with the family. So, how can we do this? Sounds nice right?

The answer may be found in this book: th 4 hour work week. I've just finished reading this book, and am prepping to be a judge at Moot Corp 2010, and I find myself thinking: will any
students have a business plan like this? Why not? Less work, solid income, the new rich... Reason: they would lose the business plan competition, even as they win at life. With no hockeystick and no pot of gold at the end: living this way would seem blasphemous to the entreprenurial community... At moot Corp, you would be squished for your lack of scalability, lack of investor attractiveness, and lack of vision.

I for one want to try it. Lifes too short to live in retirement. Live now, work less, and make a business plan investors scoff at, but could deliver a new rich lifestyle.

Here we go!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Measuring Marketing: An Engineering Challenge.

2010-02-03T08:46:00.000-06:00

Engagement is quite the word. It means getting in touch, getting together, and the promise of a union. To Marketers, this means getting attention. In 2010, Marketers find Engagement to be their #1 priority. But what will they do with this engagement? How can we measure its effect. Show me the money!

Engineers and Scientists have striven for hundreds of years to go about measuring things. Measurement and observation are the keys to enlightenment. Modeling comes next, followed by theory, and then sometimes law. So why then do Marketers have so many theories, and so few models? Where are the measurements? The answer is troubling and disheartening. Marketing, alas, is no science, yet science shall be its salvation.

My journey into Marketing through my new company Karmaback and beyond, is leading to answers we engineer-type business folks have sought for decades. The struggle between marketing science and art WILL come to a head in our lifetimes, and maybe Karmaback will bring it there.

The $600 Billion question: does engagement lead to marriage?
E.g. can marketing lead to sales?

Karmback Evolves: Facebook Fan-share-tool

2010-01-25T08:23:00.003-06:00

Karmaback has evolved. The company is growing and finding more and more opportunities to deliver huge value to our partners while keeping it 'real' and fun for our members. The latest tool in our arsenal is called the Fan-share-tool (currently supporting Facebook and soon Twitter). This tool allows our partners to post interesting stories, images, videos and more to their fan-page, while enabling several unique features on the post: a "Reshare, Get Rewards" button which gives their readers Karmaback points for resharing the post with their friends, and complete analytics on every level of share from top to bottom... letting us measure the Viral Coefficient (how many levels of sharing) occurs for any given post.

So, why the new feature? What happened to our Minimum Viable Product (MVP)?

Actually, our MVP was a huge success. We learned most importantly, that people were not willing to pay a lot for "just feedback" on their website. We learned that our customers were really interested in getting beyond their fans to new customers. So, we defined a new MVP, and set about building that. Meanwhile, we've opened up our "feedback" tool for anyone to put on their website, completely 'free'. Check it out here: http://karmaback.com/partner-sign-up/

A Minimum Viable Product (MVP) is one which is the smallest thing you can build that someone would be willing to pay (or show willingness to pay). I've blogged about this before, but I've been following this practice now for almost a year, and find the term to be useful in so many situations. What is surprising to me was how important the feedback we have gotten back was! The real question is though, what do you do when the feedback says... people aren't willing to pay for your MVP? Answer, construct a new MVP, build that (and only the minimum of that) and sell it! The whole point is getting feedback from real customers ASAP.

To that light, we've built out our new tool and are announcing its general availability today. The message:

Get beyond your fans to your fans friends and beyond. The Fan-share-tool from Karmaback rewards sharing of your fan posts. Say something cool AND reward people for sharing it, and see how far your viral coefficient can extend!

For details contact me at:

harlan@karmaback.com

Brand Loyalty doesn't cross product genres.

2010-01-21T19:11:00.002-06:00

Imagine a Kleenex brand PC. Imagine a Toshiba bed. Imagine an Apple iCar. Does your loyalty inspire you to 'try' these unusual combinations? Are you more apt to love that new PC from Kleenex, because you like their tissues? This one is simple, and engineer-types like simple: Brand Loyalty doesn't cross product genres... Apple would have to spend a ton of money, time, and tests to get anyone to buy their new car.

The better question is, does Brand Loyalty matter at all? Is it the brand or is it the product experience that keeps you coming back for more? And if a user has a bad experience with a new product from a brand they trusted... what happens? They disdain that product... but not necessarily the one(s) the knew and loved.

Put it this way.... would an Apple iCar failure hurt iPhone sales? Would a Kleenex PC that frustrates and annoys cause a drop in Kleenex sales?

I don't think so.