Reply to All

A year off every seven years?

Sounds like a good plan to me. 

Listen to what Stefan Sagmeister has to say about the power of time off and think about how you'd pull this off.  This is about taking a few less years of retirement and living a little more during your working years.

Thanks to the folks from the TED conference for sharing this and for Stefan for making us think about it.  This event is definitely on my list to work my way into at some point.

The 3 Most Important Trends Affecting Business, Technology, and Communications

I was recently asked about the three most important trends affecting business, technology, and communications.  Here is what I answered along with some additional thoughts on each:

1.  People are now able to rapidly connect based on shared needs, beliefs, or interests in ever smaller groups.

Connecting and sharing is now easier than ever with Facebook, Twitter, Ning, blogs, etc.  The list of ways to connect and share is very long but the important point here is that you don't need massive numbers to form an affinity group or micro-segment.

2.  Constant connectivity is blurring the line between personal and professional lives.

We all now come to work connected with our own mobile devices and computers as "work days" are evolving into a mix of personal pursuits and professional obligations that start way before 8am and end well after 5pm.  We all now have the ability to publish and build our individual brands so I am not just an employee of ABC company that does job X, I am a person with expertise who currently happens to work at ABC.  Read a few LinkedIn profiles and you'll see what I am talking about.

3.  Individuals are getting their news and information from places other than traditional media and are relying more on those with whom they are connected.

The turmoil traditional news sources, especially newspapers, are going through is widely known.  The cost structures of paper-based, advertising driven news does not translate to real-time news circulating on-line.  There are efforts underway to control access to news content and try to get to a workable new business model.  It is great to watch but I am darn glad I am not in that industry.  As "news" evolves and peer-based information sharing proliferates we will be informed by those we know or are connected to much more than by arm's length journalists. 

My answers are not the product of extensive research but rather how I see things coming together around me as I spend my days dealing with business, technology, and communications.  What do you think?

Social Overload

I am definitely beginning to suffer from this. 

I'm not talking about being social with people (old school social networking), I'm talking about all the ways I can "be social" while staring at my computer or my mobile device including all the activity streams coming from multiple sources across multiple accounts flowing in many directions.

I maintain accounts both personally and for work across a variety of networks including Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn and use a variety of tools to try to keep up (Tweetdeck, Google Reader, Echofon, Twitterberry, and a few others) with what is being said to me, about me, about my company, about competitors, and about interesting things related to the previous.  This doesn't even include the effort required to share relevant and valuable content back into this swarm of status updates, likes, and shares.  I currently have 343 feeds coming into Google Reader spanning various keyword and content alerts plus blogs that span messaging, collaboration, venture capital, start ups, marketing, capital markets, personal finance, and various towns and cities that I like to keep an eye on.  Oh, and don't forget about news outlets like The Wall Street Journal and CSPAN (yes, I really do follow CSPAN on Twitter).

And I won't even begin to bore you with the email volume in four different work and personal accounts.

The challenge is to actually listen to what is being said versus just talking and, more importantly, hear the important things and be conversational.

It may seem like a shameless pitch (I work there) to mention the value Gist currently delivers to me to make sense out of this massive flow of information.  It gives me the ability to get an update on people who are important to me, companies I am interested in, and all of the associated content, status updates, and related news. I don't even need to worry about not being hip to the latest trendy micro-messaging, sharing, friending thingy because if it is available as a public feed, Gist will find it and associate it with the right person. 

More great stuff is on the roadmap to address my social overload and it can't come too soon. 

Fifteen Great On-Demand Tools for Your Small Business

I am lifting this list from the Seattle Tech Startups discussion thread because this response from Ksenia Oustiougova is too good not to share broadly.  Ksenia runs a great company here in Seattle called lilipip! that does animated marketing videos.

Here is her list in response to the question of "what tools do you use to manage your personal workload."  Her answer is a great snapshot of the tools used to run a small business and an example of how any company can access a wide variety of really great products on-demand and at relatively low cost these days.

1. Project management - Basecamp
   
2. CRM - Batchbook
   
3. Documents (signing contracts) - EchoSign
   
4. Docs automatically stored if sent by fax via eFax
   
5. Invoicing - Freshbooks
   
6. Taxes - OutRight
   
7. Operations (manual, overseas VPA's, etc) - Google Docs
8. Scheduling - Google Calendar
9. Voice - Google Voice
10. Newsletter - MailChimp 
11. Birthday/Thank you cards - Plaxo
    
12. Conferencing - Skype
    
13. Video management/hosting/tracking - Wistia
    
14. Money transferring (anywhere in the world) - Xoom
    
15. Sending huge files - DropBox and YouSendIt

This is a great list.  I think I'd add a few like a blogging platform (Typepad or Wordpress), a wiki/collaboration space (like PBWorks), and various Twitter tools (like Tweetdeck & CoTweet) as well as the fact that you can address all your email needs with Google Apps.  Other adds would include marketing specific items like PRWeb for press releases, Jigsaw for lead generation/list building, and, of course, Gist for personal relationship management.

Blogging will change your life

Don't believe me?  Then listen to what Tom Peters and Seth Godin have to say about it.  Good friend Max Effgen at 12Sided posted this some time ago and I flagged it to share here.

It is short and captures the essence of why I started blogging and the fulfillment I get from doing it.  It forces you to more fully and thoroughly think through things, truly grasp why you believe the way you do, and structure those thoughts and beliefs for others to consume.  I write as much for myself as I do for others and am thankful to those of you who think my posts are worth reading and keep coming back for more.

Can you only handle 150 true social relationships?

In a day and age of "friending", "being a fan", and even the emergence of LinkedIn LIONS (super networkers or connection collectors - your call), the question of how many true and stable social relationships one can maintain definitely comes up....at least in what I do.

Enter Dunbar's Number and the commonly cited approximation of 150.  These are: 

...relationships in which an individual knows who each person is, and how each person relates to every other person...

I suppose this number varies depending on what you do and what priority you place on maintaining or developing relationships.  I have an open "friending" and connecting policy where I rarely reject a connection...but, again, this is what I do and is consistent with my blogging efforts to connect with as many people as I can even though it is more of a one to many relationship.

What do you think?  If you look through your contacts in MS Outlook, Gmail, or contact management system, your LinkedIn connections, your Facebook friends, or even Twitter followers/following, how many do you have?  How often do you truly connect vs. comment on a post, read a status, or send an email to check in?

It takes effort to build relationships and they are best built when you don't need something.  I always try to ask folks I meet with how I can help them vs. putting myself first. Give it a try.  I promise it will be much more rewarding and appreciated than always wanting something for yourself when you get together with someone. 

Maybe it is possible to have more than 150 true social relationships.  I know I am going to keep trying.

Heading to the 140 Twitter Conference in LA this week

If you are going to be there, drop me a note robertcpease at gmail dot com or find me on Twitter - @ReplytoAll. 

Should be an interesting gathering and look forward to sharing how we are using Twitter as part of our core customer/user outreach efforts and learning a few new things from some smart people.

Marketing Mayhem

Over the past year plus, I have been working with a whole new set of tools to understand and reach customers/prospects/users.  This includes Twitter, Linkedin, Facebook, blogs, blog comments and the associated technology to access and analyze what is being said and who is saying it.

Unlike mainstream marketing thinking, what I have been doing has cost very little money and utilizes new tools to reach people in the new places they are spending their time.  More importantly, the leverage in selling resides disproportionately with the buyer these days.  They have instant access to information about you, your competitors, and even the ability to connect with your current and former customers all without your help or involvement.  Understand this is reality and embrace it.

So, what should you do if you are trying to sell something, launch something new, or just expand market share within existing target market?  Set up and make use of a Listening & Engagement Framework.  Check out my previous posts on it to understand what the heck I am talking about.

I have been making extensive use of this type of framework at Gist and put together the presentation embedded here to highlight both what we have been doing as well as the thinking and assumptions behind it all.  Check it out and let me know thoughts and feedback.  One thing I have learned is that the rules are still being written and best practices emerge daily on the best way to use all this stuff as a business.

Marketing Mayhem - Can You Hear Me Now?

View more presentations from robertcpease.

Are corporate IT departments obstacles to innovation?

As I look back at the various start ups I have been a part of, none of them has had an easy time getting their first big enterprise customer.  The minefield of meetings, requirements, obstacles, outright "no" & "no way" responses is enough to kill the spirit of even the most optimistic and entrepreneurial among us.

Now on-demand software that can be accessed via a browser without consultation or authorization by corporate IT departments often meets a similar fate once unauthorized downloads are detected or the volume of data exchange with an unauthorized website appears on the radar screen.  This sometimes occurs regardless of the passion, need, or protest of the business end-user.

So, why is this?  Are corporate CIOs and their teams enemies of innovation?

Not at all.  They are, however, risk managers and anything new, untried, and early stage is met with suspicion and concern. 

If you are building something for the enterprise, you will at some point meet the risk mitigation wave...even if all the business folks are using what you sell and loving it dearly.  It must meet certain requirements related to management, oversight, audit, compliance, and governance.  You don't have to have it nailed out of the gate, but be aware that it will come...with your success.

So, companies like Gist that are innovating in areas like contact management, sales software, CRM software, etc. and experiencing success in the marketplace will soon come face to face with the risk mitigation wave.  We know this, are prepared for it, and can't wait to have that discussion.

Just remember, your IT department doesn't want to deprive you of the best tools and newest technologies.  They just want to make sure the shop runs smoothly and that those new tools, programs, and technologies don't compromise the network, raid the financial system, or otherwise wreak havoc on the company.

Friendships - old & new

The word "friend" has evolved significantly in our newly connected, social media-oriented world and I think its overuse may be diluting its real meaning.  It has now become a verb and by "friending" someone on Facebook (for example) and you are now BFFs.  Hardly...

I have been thinking about friendships off and on for a while and a couple things happened during our trip to Sun Valley that pushed my thinking further...and one did actually involve Facebook.

New Friend

Thank you Blake Slater.  Blake and his family stopped shortly after we discovered we had a flat tire as we headed out of Seattle on I-90.  Car packed tight, two kids, a dog, and enough gear to last us two months for our one week vacation and there we sat just outside Cle Elum, WA.  As I got my bearings and began to think through getting the tire changed, Blake stopped to help....he even had his own equipment and his wife was timing him.

As the story unfolded, we learned that they had had two flat tires a long time ago on their car at night and no one stopped to help them.  From that point on, they always stopped to help someone in need.

Blake didn't want anything other than to help and I have to admit that I was a bit in awe of his generosity and genuineness (although I think I may have ruined the record time attempt as I tried to get the spare out).  When we were done, he gave me his card which revealed that he is a Detective Sergeant with the Nampa, ID (just outside Boise) Police Department.  Thank you again Blake.  We can all learn from your example.

Old Friend

This is where Facebook comes into the story.  I have reconnected with many I had lost touch with through Facebook which includes lots of folks I went to high school with back in Georgia.  One such person was Todd.  He was a couple years younger but we played soccer together and managed to drag him with us on various adventures including a few concerts in Atlanta.  We found each other on Facebook and I found out that he is living just outside Boise, ID.  As we were planning a trip to Sun Valley, I pinged him to see if we might connect as we passed through.  Turned out that he was headed there as well with his family and on a beautiful sunny afternoon two people who hadn't seen in each other in 20 years reconnected in front of the ice cream stand across the street from Atkinsons' Market.

Friendships are about more than profile pictures and status updates.  These new technologies help us connect and reconnect in ways we never thought possible but be sure to find the time to connect in person and remind yourself to do selfless things every once in a while.