Dave Murray Gets Personal (And Hysterical)

Way back in March this year, I finally got to meet my friend Dave Murray in person, in Detroit. Dave and I had chatted several times online through various channels, but never had the chance to sit down and share some words in person.

Boy, I had no idea what I was in for.

The night before the Module Conference in Detroit, a pile of speakers and such went out for dinner at a fabulous Lebanese restaurant (whose name, of course, escapes me). The food was great. The conversation was hysterical.

I was lucky enough to sit next to Dave, who shared a completely and utterly hilarious story that involved a shoe and some Jagermeister. I won’t out Dave here with all the details of the story, but suffice it to say anyone who’s experienced a little nuttiness in college would relate. The best part was Dave’s storytelling. He has a knack for timing and facial expression, and a nearly-deadpan delivery laced with just enough self deprecation to be perfect. In short, he’s phenomenally funny.

The whole lot of us at the table just rolled with laughter, and since March, that story has come up more than once in conversation. And I’m grateful that Dave and his delightful wife Jenni have become good friends and people I’m just glad to know.

So late last week when I retrieved a box from my post office, I was curious to see Dave’s name on the return address. And I couldn’t imagine what was inside. It was an awfully big box for a holiday card.

The picture here is what was in the box. I’m told the other shoe made its way to another friend who shared in the joke. (And incidentally, Dave had to tell the post office he was mailing snow globes to get the booze in the mail. Awesome.) I absolutely and utterly laughed my face off. And Dave included a personal, heartfelt note that warmed me to my toes when I read it, in between the snorts of laughter.

The beauty in this is that, for the holidays, Dave could have sent a card or a box of chocolate or whatever. He could have sent a letter or a set of reindeer mugs. But Dave remembered how much we laughed and laughed over the story of the booze and the shoe. And he took the time to buy the stuff, package it up, and send it off so that we could laugh about it one more time. Now, I’ve got a crazy fun, visible reminder of that dinner and our friendship that has an esteemed place on my office shelf.

So thanks, Dave, for the awesome gift and the chance to laugh with you all over again. I hope that’s the first of many dinners and stories we’ll share together. Happy New Year.

When People and Business Collide

The perfect storm of social media success isn’t just being human or just having your business needs met. It’s the collision of the two.

We want our business deals and transactions to:

• Save us money
• Earn us money
• Solve a persistent problem for the long term
• Solve a singular problem immediately
• Give us knowledge or expertise we didn’t have, and can apply
• Provide us with personal or lifestyle enhancements

Or any combination of the above (and more, I’m sure).

When it comes to dealing with people, we usually want one or more of these at a basic level:

• helpfulness
• courtesy
• friendliness
• personal, individual attention

There are more layers of human interaction, but some of them go beyond the bounds of what makes sense for business.

The sweet spot for the evolution of business communication is at the intersection of these. It’s great for me to save money, it’s even better if the transaction feels personal. It’s great to have my problem solved, it’s even better if the person or business solving it is genuinely friendly and courteous. It’s great to learn something new, it’s better when it’s delivered with a helpful, individual touch.

Non-profits have excelled at this model for generations, actually, which is why they’re so perfectly suited to things like social media. When done well, they’ve focused on their mission first, the people around it and among it second, and then used both of those things to fuel the business model (the grants, donations, sponsorships, and endowments). They’ve always operated in the crossroads between people and money. (Just because they don’t earn a profit doesn’t mean that money isn’t an issue. Don’t let that fool you.)

For a long time, we’ve focused on the first set of characteristics alone, feeling that a deal or a solution was enough of a “differentiator” in itself. It’s how we’ve “delivered value”. But the social web brings a bit of the human touch back to the equation, and highlights how much those interactions are enhanced accordingly.

Now, the value equation includes a human factor, too. Even if it’s a little one, a positive human element can do nothing but enhance the overall result. Do you agree?

So, how are you looking at the crossroads of people and business for your company? Both the people inside it, and outside it? How are you making each business transaction a little more human slanted? And how are you working that into your business model?

image by BY-YOUR-?

Conviction Matters

When you’re about to build or launch a project, doing so with conviction matters an awful lot.

When you’re presenting your plan to your boss, or the team, or the class, own it. Do your homework, do the grunt work of putting it together, anticipate some questions and prepare answers. But then own it.

Speak clearly and slowly. Look them in the eye. Smile. Take it seriously, but not too seriously. Present yourself as though you know you’ve got the game well in hand, and that you’ve every confidence you’re on the right track (even if you have to fake it a bit).

If you get questions you don’t know the answers to, say “I hadn’t thought of that. But you know what, I’ll be back to you with an answer within 24 hours.” Say that with confidence. Then, go find the best answer you’ve got. And deliver it.

Sure, you may not nail it. You may have that guy in the room that’s determined to throw water on every fire you light.

But Jon Morrow reminded us that ideas – your ideas – are worth fighting for.

The ability to walk into a room, put your plan on the table, and let people throw rocks at it takes courage and some humility. Maybe you’ll even learn a thing or two. Quiet confidence and an articulate presentation are rare gems in a business world cluttered with CYA and mediocrity. That’s why they work so beautifully.

As you start this year delivering the plans you’ve worked so hard to build and shape in your head and on paper, practice. Own them. Believe. And give them the presentation they deserve.

Go to it.

image by www.tommasosanguigni.it

Are We Entitled to Free?

Free software. Open-source frameworks. PodCamps and BarCamps. Free distribution, networks, sharing, media, information, knowledge. The internet is full of information and stuff that’s all FREE.

But I don’t think free is an entitlement. And there is still a place, time, and important case to be made for paying for things.

A while back, Mitch Joel discussed why PodCamp shouldn’t be free. Chris Penn and the PodCamp Boston gang started charging a nominal fee for attendance. I’m in support of this, because ascribing a monetary value to attendance at an event – even a small one – suggests a commitment on the part of the attendee to actually show up and participate. After all, that’s the real value in these events isn’t it? The participation?

I’ve also been asked several times this year why events I’ve been speaking at aren’t livestreamed free on the web for those that can’t be there.

Events cost money to produce. There is value in the time and expertise of the people who are asked to present, and some of them actually earn all or part of their living by doing speaking engagements and consulting work based on that experience and expertise. Attendees have paid money to attend and in some cases to travel to events and experience the content and the interactions that take place there. The events themselves are a business.

I suppose the question here is: Are we entitled to have free access to the content of an event that we weren’t willing to invest time, money, or presence in to be part of in person?

(There’s a separate discussion to be had about creating events that truly have valuable, meaty, and practical content. For more on that, see the conversation that Olivier Blanchard started about social media conferences and see what you think.)

And the whole “social media is free” discussion around business? Please stop it. We’re hurting the legitimacy of these technologies by harping on how “free” they are, when they’re not (business people often equate free with inferior or unnecessary, just FYI). People and time cost money. For planning, for content creation, for manning these networks. Some solid, scalable technologies still cost money. We ought to be speaking about social for business in terms of real investments for a change.

But I digress a bit. My point is…

I’m Willing to Pay for Stuff.

There’s still plenty of stuff that I think has monetary value, and that I’m more than willing to pay for. For instance:

• Curated Content: In the case of events or even some paid content projects or sites, I’m paying someone else to find the best of the best and pull it all together for me so that I don’t have to do the digging and searching and sorting.
• Community Access: Sometimes, I’m willing to pay for a professional organization or network that ensures I’m gathering around other people with like interests, experience, or problems they’re trying to solve.  In some cases, that’s about gaining entry to a community I aspire to be part of (like investing $6K to go to the TED conference). Again, it’s about someone else applying filters for me.
• Expertise I Don’t Have: I could probably learn to do the coding on my blog myself, but I choose to spend my time otherwise so I pay people to do it for me. Likewise, many professionals have spent lots of years accruing the knowledge they have in their field. Some of it they’re happy to produce as free content to help others on the DIY path. But sometimes, professional input, time, and advice can and should come with a pricetag. I don’t expect my mechanic to fix my car for nothing just because I can get the manual free at the library.
• Technology: Rather self explanatory, but this is about making my life easier, giving me access to people and information, protecting and securing my information or assets, et cetera.

Those are just a few examples. I’d love to hear what you’re paying for.

But just because free is everywhere doesn’t mean that free is a given. Nor does it mean that free is always better. (Though I will say I’m all about Free Hugs.)

I’m all for investing money in some things, and I don’t think those that endeavor to make money through their content, expertise, or skills are evil. The market will tell them whether folks are willing to pay for what they have to offer, no?

So what say you? Have we gotten a little too comfortable with the notion of free? Share your experiences and perspective with me.

Addendum: Catching up in my reader after I wrote this, and Mitch Joel is on the same wavelength. He’s got some articulate points here, so go read his post on The Problem with Free.

image by r-z

Social Media For B2B

One of the repeating topics I hear come up at conferences and with businesses is whether or not social media and B2B can work together, and how they differ from B2C applications.

I happen to think that in many respects, B2B actually has an advantage with social media, because most of their business is centered around longer term relationships between suppliers and consultants and clients, and there are so many needs and touchpoints for information sharing that don’t exist as much in the B2C cycle.

Here’s a bit on what I mean.

Content

One distinct characteristic of B2B businesses is that their work centers around helping people do their jobs better somehow. It’s less about lifestyle and personal interests, and more about how the business ecosystem improves.

From a content marketing and sharing perspective, this is a huge arena for B2B companies. By creating useful, helpful and informational content, we can increase the knowledge and expertise of the people we’re hoping to do business with. It’s like demonstrating through specific, applied knowledge that we’re qualified to help you with the bigger picture. A content-driven resume for a business, perhaps.

The very nature of social technologies supports sharing, distributing, and creating content easier and faster than ever.

Networks

In the world of B2B, your professional network is everything. Because your business is about business, the potential of who you know and who they know is where powerful connections happen.

Before something like LinkedIn, the potential of our network was a bit invisible to us. In order to know who our contacts knew, we had to ask, and usually with a specific need in mind. Now, we can simply search. Investigate. Research.

With social technologies, the knowledge base of our professional network is exponentially multiplied, too. If  B2B endeavors overall are about helping me do my job better, having several layers of connections, the ability to filter and segment my lists by knowledge areas, and the powerful search to target both the people and information I need are all incredibly valuable to my work.

Impact Points

We all know that the Almighty Relationship dictates so much of B2B sales. The purchase cycle is longer, and often the pricetag is quite a bit higher. As a result, it’s even more important that we have a sense of established trust and reliability with those we do business with, and that we have a certain expectation for what we’ll get out of the relationship.

Interactions through social networks can provide the personal touch to business relationships that we’ve often found on the golf course, or over drinks or dinner. It’s business development, but rather than all touchpoints being live and in person, some of them are geographically independent, and happening online.

The content channels provide context as well, more from an information standpoint. It’s all the supporting stuff for the eventual transaction. The relevant knowledge base that’s sharable, searchable, and always growing..

These interactions, as they always have, bridge the gaps between purchases and continue contact around and between the sales. But now we’re not limited to just the phone or meetings, we have Twitter or Google Wave or blog comments. We aren’t limited to brochures and trade publication articles but we have blogs, YouTube, Flickr, forums, and all manner of social channels through which to tell our business story.

The Bottom Line

As simple as it sounds, all business transactions happen between human beings. We want to be equipped with the knowledge, context, information and framework of a relationship that makes use feel like that transaction is low risk, high reward, and rooted in a sound business framework. And we want to get to know and trust the people we’re buying from or selling to.

There’s nothing about social networks that can’t help all of those elements in some fashion. Step outside the tools for a moment and think about what they help you do rather than what they look like on the surface.

I’ve worked in B2B for a good chunk of my career, including now, and I’m finding the collaboration and connection possibilities growing every day.

What would you say about social media for B2B? Still unconvinced? Let’s talk in the comments.

Addendum 12/27: For more solid reasoning on why B2B feels different but is much the same, check out Jay Baer’s post on Crushing the Myth of B2B Social Media. I think he said it better than I did. Again.

image by frozenchipmunk