If you ever hire a PR firm (well, a good one), getting a story in the press feels a lot like an interrogation. Who should this story appeal to? Why should they care? Do you have evidence to back this up? It can feel a bit invasive if all you want to do is get a story out there. The best PR firms are going to interrogate you the hardest because they want to figure out how to pitch a story and to whom so as to maximize impact.

Often we focus on coming up with the best product or the most creative story. When it comes to the audience, the answer often becomes “as many people as possible”.

Let’s think of the logic of that. You are a person who obviously hears stories from time to time. How frequently do you hear a story that you like, your neighbor likes, your mom and dad like, and your kids like? How frequently do you watch conservative or liberal TV and go “Man, those people are crazy?” How frequently do you discover lame movies or music on iTunes or real life that someone else is totally gaga for?

People are much more different than businesses often consider. This is why the “as many as possible” campaign fails.

Theoretically, you should consider the end user from day one when you actually build a product. By the time you get to actually marketing it or getting PR, the “Who and Why” question becomes easy. Accept the constraints of having an audience to woo and you’ll find the numbers will soon follow.

I actually really miss selling. Sometimes marketing feels so distant from the actual product and customer itself. It shouldn’t, but it often does, particularly in larger organizations.

I have been blessed in career to have sold to some really great customers. I don’t look at sales as something “slimy”. There is nothing more gratifying than actually meeting a need that a customer has had for a long time.

In an ideal world, a great product sells itself. This mentality will hurt you though. Why? Because your competitor may have a product that isn’t good, but has an aggressive sales staff that closes every deal it gets its hands on. For those of you who would like to learn a process to compete against people like these, I’ve broken down my sales process for you:

1.) Break the ice first. I’ve found breaking the ice varies from region to region. Southern women tend to take the longest, while those in the Bay Area and Northeast want to get straight to the point. If you launch too quickly into your pitch, your intentions to sell are too obvious and you may be wasting everyone’s time anyway.

2.) Ask questions. This is the most underrated aspect of selling. Ask about problems and pain points that may pertain to your product. Ask budget and time frame. Ask if they are looking at competitors and why. The more information you get, the more specialized you can be when actually solving a problem (which theoretically your product should do).

3.) Create a solution. Depending on what you sell, this could or could not be complicated. A tip? When you get to this step, you should be able to say, “Because you said you wanted something that __________, I’m recommending ________.” Or you could use “Product X solves (insert customer problem here) by doing ____________. Show how your product solves problems versus merely pushing a solution on someone.

4.) Clarify that your solution actually does indeed solve a problem. Does your customer still have concerns at this point? Are they satisfied with your solution? If not, return to step #2.

5.) Ask for the business. Remember that time frame is key for this. If your customer told you they aren’t looking to buy for a few weeks, you can “always be closing” by asking for a follow up appointment instead of a sale.

I hope this helps. I get really bummed when I see great products floundering because “they aren’t ready yet” or because “they don’t have the time to sell”.

If you have any questions, just ask. I’m happy to help.

It’s nice to have a lot of contacts. I like the idea of knowing a go-to person for just about everything and that the fact that we know each other makes us more accountable to each other.

There is something you notice when you start meeting a lot of people indiscriminately though. You open yourself up to what I call “toxic networks”. These are people who always manage to ask you or your network for favors but offer none in return. Or my favorite technique–they’ll give you a favor even though you didn’t ask for one and then expect that they can ask you for whatever they want. It’s like they are some sort of New York City window washer at a street light.

I don’t think people intend to impose. They often do not see that when they ask you for something that is easy for you but hard for them, they could be one of 50 people doing just that at that very moment. It’s not cool that it pans out this way but that’s just life.

So how do you protect against this?

1.) Don’t “network” for volume–network for quality. Having one good designer in your network is worth more than eight mediocre ones.
2.) Slow and steady wins the race. Network through existing networks you trust. Good people tend to attract good people.
3.) “Big” doesn’t mean quality. Some successful people I know also seem to ask for the most and give the least. It’s irritating but the way of the world sometimes.
4.) Don’t be afraid to cut someone off. The time you spend with people who drag you down could be spent with people who are actually quality.
5.) Don’t think of what a person means to you. Think of what that person means to your network. If you are ashamed to introduce someone to others, they are not worth your time.
6.) If you initiate a favor with someone, don’t be that window washer expecting a favor in return. Help people because you want to support something good. Then it’s easy to feel positive about life.

Introducing two people into what is a mutually beneficial relationship is a very satisfying feat. Introducing a good person to what I would call a succubus is not. I’ve done a bit of both in my time. Keep good company, play smart instead of fast, and you won’t have anything to worry about.

I recently got a great deal on Toyota Prius from Motorphilia. I have never been so pleased purchasing a car. Not even when I bought a BMW 328 brand new.

Why do I love my car?
1.) I like the fact that my car contributes significantly less CO2 in the air than my other car did. Why? Because I as well as other people I like breathe air, and I’d just assume keep it clean.
2.) I am saddened by the political landscape in the Middle East and other regions dominated by oil. Oil is a capital-rich, labor poor industry, which often presents a ripe breeding ground for corruption. By driving a car that gets 45 miles to the gallon average, I am helping reduce the demand for oil. America should be free of this addiction once and for all.
3.) It’s very cheap to fill up. $20 can fill the tank.
4.) It drives well and has a very nice fit and finish.

Toyota puts a meter on the dash that shows how many miles you are getting per gallon. It feels like a video game when you try to reduce it, and I like the notion that they reward drivers for responsible behavior.

Joshua Baer claims he’ll never drive another gas powered vehicle again. I don’t blame him one bit. Once you realize how enjoyable it is to drive a battery powered car, you’ll wonder why more vehicles don’t use one.

Anyway, not trying to be a smug hippie here. I just really dig my new (to me) car.

I was a bit dismayed reading Clay Shirky’s A Rant About Women. It’s a long post, but in sum, he feels women do not advance because we aren’t willing to lie, cheat, and steal to get to the top. We don’t overinflate our abilities. And we need to because we have no role models to stick up for us.

Really? Should I want that? As a consumer, do you like dealing with people like that? Do you like bosses like that?

Would you rather this post be some self-fellating post about why I’m right and you are wrong, or would you rather just let my arguments speak for themselves?

I like that many women admit what they know and what they don’t know. I like that most whistle-blowers are women. My favorite co-workers tend to be women who can set aside ego for a mission. There are certainly men like this as well, and I dig them too. They get things done.

I’m not sure why you are going off on a rant about this. If you don’t think your male student deserves the glowing recommendation he has the gumption to ask of you, don’t give it to him. If you stop rewarding this behavior, your students stop behaving this way. It’s a pretty simple equation. By doing so, you will be protecting that student from going out in the real world and getting creamed by someone who will tear them to shreds for being all puff and no substance, or wreaking serious havoc on a company because of incompetence.

I don’t want to be a huge self-promoter. I want to impact positive change and find satisfaction in my work. I promote myself only in that it helps me achieve this. You can find my work here and here. It speaks for itself.

Maybe your rant should be about how people reward shameless self-promoters who tend to be men instead of people who would rather focus on doing a good job than lying, cheating and stealing our way to the top. It could be about how the promotion of self-promoters is dangerous and that we should stop it. You want a solution to your rant–do these solutions work well enough for you?

Love your work. Just trying to help.

Today I watched two hours of Haiti news coverage. It breaks my heart to see the devastation in the area. I’m also a bit concerned that government bureaucracy could slow down crucial relief efforts.

If you check whitehouse.gov, we can give money and pay attention to what’s happening. But what if I have a big company and I can actually implement solutions much faster than a government organization can? Should I want to passively observe the devastation?

What if Obama used his massive power with the media to crowd source relief? I would imagine the first line of order would be to get communication in the area and relief workers to give out food and water. One of the telcos could step forth and various water and food companies could come forward. UPS actually does logistical work and could help coordinate some of the shipping to a Haiti port.

Doctors and pharmaceutical companies could offer their services. Airlines could fly them there.

After this, there would need to be security to keep the peace as well as efforts to offer shelter. I’m not sure the military could get crowd sourced, but Architecture for Humanity allows architects to contribute ideas for sustainable housing in developing nations. Obama could use the winning designs and then the fledgling building supply companies could offer up housing.

Why would these companies offer these services for nothing or next to nothing? The same reason why developers contribute to open source: for fulfillment and credibility.
1.) If Obama comes out and says, “We could count on American Airlines to deliver our thought leadership teams to Haiti on time,” it’s worth more than any add they could put on TV. If he says “Southwestern Bell really dropped the ball with our communication strategy”, the opposite rules apply. Obama and his staff can hold parts of the puzzle accountable, which keeps them honest regardless of payment.
2.) One backlink/dedicated page from the biggest crowdsourced project to date (Haiti relief from whitehouse.gov) is worth more than just about any backlink an SEO expert could buy you. You’d also want to consider all of the residual backlinks you’d get from people discussing specific parts of the project.
3.) It’s the right thing to do and giving product away is often cheaper than advertising.

This would obviously require “architects” familiar with this type of work to coordinate. But given how long government contracts can take to get through and the bureaucracy and expense involved, isn’t it the right thing to do? Shouldn’t that be what “Yes We Can” means?

I get bummed out when I find interesting people who simply don’t get Twitter. They sign up, follow a bunch of people, and then say, “It was just a bunch of people saying they like ice cream or going to work that day.”

Remember: social media tools like Twitter are like cell phones. You don’t get a cell phone and say, “Let me find numbers to plug into my phone to justify the use of this object”. You think of WHOM you would actually want to call and THEN you plug their number in. It’s the conversations that make the medium interesting.

Do you like certain blogs? Find out if the blog and the actually bloggers are on Twitter simply by Googling their name and “Twitter”. You can do the same for potential business partners, employees, celebrities, and anyone else. If they are boring, unfollow them or filter them out with tools like Seesmic or Tweetdeck. Putting the people ahead of the medium ensures you are actually making the most of a very useful communication tool.

Hugh MacLeod’s delivery is a little more um, to the point than mine would be. Some people need the message spelled out in black and white.

When a company first starts using social media, it’s like watching someone’s dad play with his first video camera. They seem to share everything in an attempt to “engage” just to show some results. That’s not a judgment, mind you. Everyone has to start somewhere and it’s just counterproductive to be mean about it.

The most powerful thing you can use social media for is listening. “Engaging” your audience without fully understanding who they are and how they relate to you is not engaging at all–it is as irritating as the ad that won’t stop blinking on the blog you are reading.

It is easier than you think to make people to want and need your product. Use tools like Tweetdeck, Google Alerts, RSS, Radian6, Community Insights or ScoutLabs and listen. Track terms in your industry, follow the players who are thought leaders in your space. Understand the current issues occurring in your industry. Create a product that goes above and beyond to solve these issues while not creating lots of other issues. Then show people your product. You can use an ad, a social media guru, whatever. The medium isn’t nearly as important as the message, which is “We are solving these issues you have.”

Listening and then acting upon what people need is far more powerful than any “engaging” you can do. I predict the companies that do it best will win out in 2010.

Being around so many talented professionals in the online space allows me to see what’s coming down the pike sooner than the average bear. I’ve been exposed to some projects that can only leave me optimistic for what the future has in store since working for Rackspace Hosting.

2009 was the year Iranians stood up to Ahmadinejad for all the world to see on YouTube and Twitter. 2009 also featured the first president to communicate via email lists and YouTube. We saw Sarah Palin leading the charge against him via Facebook. News like the Fort Hood shootings is regularly broken on Twitter far before it hits CNN.

Anyone who thinks social media will ever “slow down” or “go out of fashion” is simply ignoring empirical evidence to the contrary.

I often don’t talk about the technical side of this phenomenon. Since I don’t see many who do, I figured I would this time. Here are some trends that will fuel social media adoption and groundswell. If you think of others or have any additions/corrections to these, please comment.

1.) Dynamic frameworks like Tornado or Hadoop. Social networks are actually pretty hard to build. Why? If they get adopted, there is a lot of simultaneous traffic going on at once. Friendfeed decided to create a web application framework called Tornado to handle their traffic. They then were bought by Facebook, who decided to open source it for others to use on their social networking projects.

2.) Non-relational databases like Cassandra. A traditional database language like MySQL has a hard time handling all the calls back and forth from a web application. Remember the Fail Whale? That’s because when Twitter took off, there really wasn’t a lot of technology accessible to the average startup that could handle all the data going to and from their servers. As non-relational databases mature, it will be easier for social networks to handle heavier loads of data transfer at the same time.

3.) Cloud computing, cloud computing, cloud computing. If you build a solid application with a solid database, but your web hosting can’t handle the traffic, your site goes down. There is no such thing as unlimited hosting for a finite dollar amount. Cloud computing allows you to handle the spikes associated with the real time web without downtime or having to overbuy. If your site is pummeled by Twitter traffic, it will now be able to handle it.

4.) The software community builder that is the API. 2009 saw LinkedIn open its API. Facebook developers also gained ground into the walled garden that is Facebook and Twitter saw an explosion of applications utilizing their API. The easier we make it to digest social networks and use them the way we want (mobile or otherwise), the more they get used.

5.) Silos like Gnip. There is a lot of data going in and out of a social network. A single API can’t handle it, so applications can use silos to better handle all the people wanting access to data. For example, if you want to build a social network that pulls tweets about only certain topics, you would pull the data from Gnip who is pulling it from Twitter. This fuels niche social networks only looking for data about certain things.

Marketing is like a chess game. You need to set things up first before you can get your big wins.

That’s why I genuinely don’t focus on numbers until numbers are needed. I focus on what the late and great Elvis would say, “Taking Care of Business.”

The question we as marketers should not always be “What can I do to get more customers or traffic?” This is an instant gratification response. It feels great to log into Analytics and see that spike, but it isn’t necessarily going to last. The question should be “What messaging should we put across to make our company more sustainable and therefore profitable in the future?”

Think about it: if I put out one message that gets me 500 customers, great. That’s 500 customers I didn’t have before. BUT, if I put out a message that gets me the passionate lead architect or designer I needed to make my product great, that person has the potential of getting me thousands if not millions of customers with a fraction of the work. My message in a small, obscure community could get me one big investor who helps save my company. Who cares if only five people saw one particular message?

Each marketing message shouldn’t be about bringing in masses. It can be used to bring in employees, investors, partners, company cheerleaders who essentially do the selling for you, or press fanboys. You’re just communicating. As in chess, a big bold move too soon can make you vulnerable to attack from your enemy. Setting up the pieces first means you are in a better position to let numbers drive themselves.