So Here’s Your Challenge

Have you ever heard the expression “you’re only as strong as your friends”? Nowhere is this more true than with digital marketing.
 

When you are faced with an unexpected delay or a long line-up, how do you deal with it?

Are you involved in your professional association? Or do you run one — either as a director, staff, or volunteer?
If so, you’re probably concerned with one aspect of today’s digital world, and particularly social media: How do you compete with free? 

One of the more popular thought leadership “strategies” is to create relevant, provoking, leading-edge content. Not only does this provide evidence of the thought leader’s special knowledge, but it also helps attract new followers, through sharing (social and real-world), and through discovery (Google, conference speeches, and publicity.)
So far so good, but who has the time to do all of this work?  

While corporations are trying to figure out how to use the Social Media carrot to entice their customers to buy, their customers are using a powerful Social Media stick when it comes to expressing their disappointment and dissatisfaction.
In the olden days, corporate policy may have been the customer is always right. Today it is a bit different.

When was the last time you considered your craziest, wildest dreams of professional success? For many people, it was probably a very long time ago. Others do so more often, but consider these dreams ridiculous, unattainable, and beyond their station in life. In both cases, the end result is the same: no action, and no movement to achieving their ambitions.
 

Many people are interested in writing a blog or starting a podcast, particularly if they have special expertise. Yet, the specific topic area usually eludes them. Choose the wrong topic area, and you’re stuck with it, and because of Google, it sticks to you… forever.
 

In 1903, Elias St. Elmo Lewis coined one of the most important marketing frameworks: AIDA. It has stood the test of time, and has helped many marketers more strategically plan their campaigns. AIDA is an acronym for Attention, Interest, Desire, and Action. But is AIDA intrinsically flawed, or at least no longer relevant for today’s more complex marketplace?
 

Are your networking activities strategic? .... or is "learn a networking strategy" one of your new goals...? 
The common theme with networks is that one must “exist” before you can use it — and therefore without one, you are at a distinct disadvantage. This woe-is-me attitude rests upon the assumption that a network is a “thing” that you have, as opposed to a process that you engage in.
The purpose of networking is to meet new people, and deepen the relationships with those that you already know. Networking is the journey, not the destination.‌In this week's podcast, I take the extreme example of someone with no network, and share a strategy for how to build a robust one.

Is your perspective the best perspective? How adept are you at shifting your position to improve your problem solving... and your writing?
One way to do so is to use a zoom lens. Zooming out gives you a top-down view; max zooming in gives you a bottom-up view of the problem.
Of course, with a maximum zoom, you lose the overview, but this isn’t the only problem. No matter how much (or how little) you zoom, your perspective is always the same. Looking at a problem from someone else’s perspective is the only way to see the situation… from their perspective. (Truly great problem solving requires both zooming and shifting.)
In this week's podcast, I apply the zoom lens metaphor to communication. Listen closely… (or zoom out…?)