This press release also introduces the “Super Bowl Commercial Rating Party” which will be offered via Twitter and Facebook during the big game. FYI, we’re still looking for peeps with TV industry creds and experience. If you’re interested in being part of our Twitter list of luminaries, please give me a virtual “shout out.” Here’s today’s show. All feedback and suggestions are welcome. Thanks!
I think Jon knows better than anyone how to help businesses use the Internet as a powerful marketing tool. Wherever you are in the process of developing your Internet presence, Jon can tell you exactly what you should do next. He will enable you to take advantage of the latest (sometimes bewildering) array of tools, from blogs to Twitter, from Facebook and LinkedIn to YouTube videos. From my experience, Jon is the guy to call if you want to market your business more effectively; and, as a bonus, because of his openness, you will learn from a real visionary every step of the way.
What stopped me in my tracks about this statement was the “Jon knows better than anyone.” It’s a strong statement, and when it came on the heels of another flattering statement by another client, Rick Weinstein of Life Insurance Services for Charitable Giving, I had to self-reflect further:
The go-to point player for the Cleveland Cavs is LeBron James. Simply stated, Jon Leland is the go-to player if you are a profit-seeking entrepreneur who wants to leverage the power of e-commerce. Better yet, Jon is a people’s person. He’s no nonsense and a master communicator. I view Jon as a life-long partner, not a vendor; and I am pleased to wholeheartedly recommend him.
LeBron James! Yikes. I was humbled and inspired at the same time. And, I’m not just tooting my own horn because together these quotes added up to a personal wake up call. Thanks to my willingness to listen to my clients, I realized that I have not been positioning myself well given the levels of my expertise and experience.
I honestly know that I am able to be that “go-to guy.” I am so much more than just a website designer/developer. I am someone who can tell virtually any client of any size company what they should be doing next with regard to their web presence and their internet marketing. But, unfortunately, up to now (at least recently), that is not how I’ve been telling my story. Hello? Mr. Leland calling Mr. Leland. Wake up!
So, yes, we do websites, but I also want you to know that these days we’ve evolved ourselves into WordPress experts. As a result, we offer a carefully evolved approach to using WordPress as a CMS (content management system). We’re calling this custom “cocktail” of plug-ins and configurations, “We Do WordPress Right!” But most people, even some of our clients, don’t know that yet.
Furthermore, we have initiated a brand new set of internet marketing packages which include support for blogging and social media marketing. (Please contact us to receive a confidential copy of these offerings and get the “go-to guy” on your virtual team. )
I’m done with just being a website designer who also does internet marketing. It’s time for me to re-own my expertise as someone who has honestly been on the cutting edge of new media all the way back to the early ’70’s—before the term “new media” was invented—when founding a narrowcast radio network was “new media.” (Read more about the other new media/new marketing innovations I’ve been involved with for literally decades in my online bio.)
I hope my “self-awakening” is inspiring to you as well. Have you been under-selling yourself? What story should you be telling about yourself that you have not been telling?
And, of course, if I can be your “go-to guy” that helps you build a truly successful web presence, I’d be delighted.
My apologies for the shameless self-promotion, but I needed to say this “out loud.” Thanks for listening.
I am very pleased to announce that I have joined the team at TheTVNews.tv as their New Media/New Marketing expert. The guest appearance in the show embedded below was handled via Skype, but I’ll be recording my weekly reports, starting Tuesday 1/26, with my new camera. These new media/new marketing reports will appear each and every Tuesday. And, because they will be stand-alone segments (not like this one), I’ll be able to post them directly to this blog.
The lead-in to my segment in this show begins at 3:19 with statistics on the explosive growth of online video consumption via a report by Nielsen Online. My segment proper begins at 4:00.
The full Nielsen report PDF, “The Shifting Media Landscape: Integrated Measurement in a Multi-Screen World” that I mentioned is available FREE via the link above or at the bottom of their page which discusses “Integrated Measurement and the Pathway to Internet Profitability.” While this page and the excellent report, in my humble opinion, is talking to Internet companies about a TV strategy, I found it equally relevant to use it as a strategic recommendation to TV industry players who want to leverage their media assets with an effective multi-screen strategy.
Of course, all of this is easier to say than to do and requires a significant long-term, risk-taking strategy to be truly effective. Just the same, I hope that my rec0nnection with the TV industry via this video show will yield some opportunities to use my expertise as well as my broadcast and cable industry experience to make a valuable contribution to the internet marketing and online media development efforts of some select TV industry clients.
If you are interested, please don’t hesitate to contact me. And, if you want to be updated whenever I post to this blog, including the upcoming New Media/New Marketing TheTVNews.tv segments, please use the “Subscribe via Email/RSS” links at the top of this post. Thanks!
Tis the season of lists. Too many lists? Maybe or maybe not, depending on whether or not you are looking for some perspective, or maybe some bottom line insights about trends and/or tips on how you or your organization’s tech, social media or just plain ole marketing priorities should be focused for the coming year.
My high hopes are that the following list of lists (and grand perspectives) will help you make 2010 the best yet:
5. Super Geek David Pogue’s Pogie Awards
My favorite NYTimes tech writer’s picks for gadgets, apps & such include the killer Firefox extension READABILITY and a very funny (to me) iPhone app that let’s you safely text while walking, by using the iPhone’s built-in camera.
4. Google’s 2009: A Glimpse of the Web’s Next Decade At least at the moment, as Google goes, so goes the Web. And, if you haven’t noticed, Google is hardly standing still. In fact, they have been innovating their butts off. So, if you’re not tuned in, you should be; and this post by Mashable is packed with eye-candy charts that help make staying up to date more fun.
3. YouTube Is the Top Social Media Innovation of the Decade Also, via Mashable, and also not technically a Top Whatever list, I’m including this post because I think the importance of YouTube is about as important as it gets. For one thing, YouTube is frequently omitted from lists of social networking sites. Come on! This thoughtful article explains why I’m going to be posting a whole lot more video in 2010 and why I think you should too.
2. 8 Things Every Geek Needs to Do Before 2010 This post is beyond practical, it could literally save your life (technologically speaking). No kidding. Have you backed up lately? Have you edited your privacy settings and pruned your feeds? This is important stuff (via leading tech blog ReadWriteWeb) that can help make your whole year better.
1. 2000s Decade Recap – Business and Technology (video below) Originally called to my attention by the TechCrunch post Video: A Decade Of Tech Highs And Business Lows, the 3:22 video below puts the past unprecedented decade in perspective, and given the magnitude of the changes, from the dot-bomb implosion through ground-breaking iPhone innovations and social media explosions, I think it’s worth taking at least 3 minutes or so to reflect. Don’t you?
As the Grateful Dead sang, “What a long strange trip it’s been.”
May the Tech Highs continue, and the Business Lows not so much.
I had started gearing up to do a new series of on-camera videos before I read what I now consider to be a Silicon Valley classic business book, Randy Komisar’s The Monk and the Riddle: The Art of Creating a Life While Making a Living. I’ll review this book in more detail later, but the bottom line is that personal risks are far more important than financial risks. Randy illustrates through his own considerable life and business experiences that the real failures in business and in life result from doing things for the wrong reasons and not following your heart and your true passions.
Well, how perfect is the timing then that I’ve chosen this moment to finally express my passion for connecting and communicating with you all through video? As they say on TV, there’s much more to come; but for now, please let me use video to say Happy Holidays to you all… (available in HD).
I’m looking forward to your feedback and any comments you may have, either here or on YouTube (where your ratings are also very welcome):
I like clear and simple. I heard Steve Jobs quoted today as saying that simplicity is “the ultimate elegance.” I especially like simplicity when it’s used to describe complex new technologies, and so much the better if that simplicity is being offered on YouTube, via video clips that are less than two minutes in length.
Thus, the two-clip salute below to Google and two major new (complex) technologies that are designed to make our lives simpler.
The first is real time search. A hot new trend that’s featured in the #1 spot on the American Express OPEN Forum post, “5 Trends That Will Shape Small Business in 2010.” Don’t look now, but the web has taken on a whole new dimension:
The second video demonstrates something even more powerful, Google Goggles, which searches by objects using your cell phone’s camera rather than text or voice to initiate the search. I like the tweet description that I just read by @faris: “Seriously – no messin’ – Google Goggles is an entirely new paradigm of human computer interaction – ‘hey Internet – what’s that?’ ”
Let’s let Google explain it visually in two minutes:
Yes, I hear that Google Goggles WILL be coming out for the iPhone.
And, come to think of it, Google always did get simple. Just think of their home page.
What do you think? Are these exciting new technologies? Are these videos any good? I’d love to hear your opinion, view and/or feedback.
I’m one of those people who has far more going on in his head than I’m able to share. I plan to post videos. I’m formulating “New Marketing University.” And so much more. The name I’ve made up for my productivity efforts to move all of these ideas into online action is “From my head to the Web.”
The most effective tool that I’ve found so far that successfully facilitates this process is the mind-mapping web-based, Web 2.0 oriented, application MindMeister. I’ve started sketching out a variety of information flows from the new service level agreements for ComBridges to the ingredients and intended results for the New Marketing University enterprise to ideas and types of future blog posts.
A simple example is below. When I think about what I call The Grand Canyon Gap between people and technology, it’s clear to me that there are a variety of people at various stages of “crossing” the Gap as well as a variety of approaches to creating communication “bridges” across. Here is the current state of my thoughts on this as captured in MindMeister:
Of course, this is a simple example. There are many more complex examples, many enabled by MindMeister’s Web 2.0 style sharing functionalities, including valuable resources like MindMeister maps that attempt to provide a comprehensive view of the best online collaboration tools of all types and recent attendees of the TEDxAmsterdam conference used MindMeister to mind map the thought-leaders presenters.
I hope this is useful to you. Do you use MindMeister or another mind-mapping tool? What helps you get your ideas from your head to the web?
I’m sure you all have had the experience where someone speaking publicly seems to be speaking directly to you, right? Well, it just happened to me with a YouTube video by the widely-respected Darren Rowse, better known as ProBlogger because of his widely read blog, ProBlogger.net
I guess the video below is pretty self-explanatory; but just to be clear, I feel busted because what he says applies directly to me… in spades. Fundamentally, I feel challenged to get all of the high-quality information that I want to share out of my head and to make the time to put it on the web. I’ve even named this challenge getting info “from my head to the web.” I sincerely feel that I have a lot to offer you, dear readers. Having said that, based on Darren’s video advice, I’m completely guilty “as charged” for getting distracted, losing focus, doing more research, browsing more websites and so forth, rather than posting to my blogs.
So, call it an early New Year’s resolution if you like, but whatever you call it, I am hearby declaring my heartfelt intention, starting with this post inspired by the video below, to start posting at least twice a week starting this week, and starting early next year, I’m planning to post a new video clip once a week. Your support and encouragement in any form will be appreciated; and meanwhile, check out Darren’s coaching in the video below. You too might be guilty of one or more of the “Blogging Vices” mentioned in this “Public Service Announcement for Bloggers.” Like they used to say on Hill Street Blues, “Be careful out there!”
Ignore this code: M2ZB87UPVQTX it’s just something Technorati asked me to do as part of their verification process.
In my keynotes and workshops on internet marketing (which I am hereby referring to as “new marketing”), one of my key concepts is “leading with value.” For me, a key part of business in general is creating (and maintaining) relationships. Of course, business is about much more than just making money. But, in this culture, that’s easy to forget. My real bottom line is the fact that the quality of the relationships that I have created via my business are perhaps the greatest source of satisfaction that I have in my work (right up there with the creative satisfaction and opportunity to make a difference).
For this reason, I am particularly enthusiastic about the authentic aspects of social media that literally depend upon “leading with value.” Social media is about networking, which to me means “virtually meeting” new, interesting people and learning new things from them. And, likewise, being able to easily share what I consider to be valuable information with as many people as possible. I love that. I enjoy it so much that sometimes I even think, “I was born for social media” …and I’m not even a social media “big shot.”
So along these lines, I simply want to start my Monday morning by sharing a couple of insightful blog posts that to me do a great job of underscoring some important aspects of our new media world. Hopefully, they will provide sparks for you as they have for me, so we can all go out and (like the Beatles said) “make it better”:
Focusing on Value: How I’m Changing How I Use Twitter
This is one of the most substantive blog posts I’ve read in some time, and I especially like it because it addresses, in a very real and pragmatic way, how best to deal with Twitter users who spam. Bottom line, don’t auto-follow everyone back; and most importantly, un-follow all those affiliate marketers who are only trying to “capture” your dollars.
The Five Essential Pillars of a Social Media Campaign
This list of values provide a foundation for social media relationship building that are, as the author says, “essential.” They include “generosity” which is very close to my “Leading with Value” concept.
ABC-TV News on “Marketing with Meaning”
Yes, marketing executives are actually writing books on how marketing campaigns are more effective when they have MEANING. What a concept! Nice to see it being covered in the so-called mainstream media.
I love this. I’ve been playing around with iPhone photo editing apps for a month or two, but I just discovered Chase Jarvis’ TheBestCamera.com (as in “the best camera is the one that’s with you”) and now I’m more excited about iPhone photography than ever before.
This integrated offering has me really impressed. Not only is it probably the best iPhone photo editing app that I’ve seen; but, it’s got integrated photo sharing to Twitter and Facebook built in, plus instant uploading to a true iPhone photo community site. Get the picture? (yes, pun intended) In fact, they’ve got the Big Picture. They’ve thought this through and put together what is essentially a mobile photography platform that’s sophisticated, feature rich, supported by great user interface (online and on iPhone). Very well done.
This iPhone app has already made it onto my first page of iPhone apps… a first! In fact, I’m using it to replace Apple’s iPhone Camera app.
As far as I can tell both TheBestCamera website and Mr. Jarvis himself have really “got it going on.” I’ll let him introduce himself via the video below. The app and the site are very much worth checking out, in my humble opinion…
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Tis the season of lists. Too many lists? Maybe or maybe not, depending on whether or not you are looking for some perspective, or maybe some bottom line insights about trends and/or tips on how you or your organization’s tech, social media or just plain ole marketing priorities should be focused for the coming year.
. I’ll review this book in more detail later, but the bottom line is that personal risks are far more important than financial risks. Randy illustrates through his own considerable life and business experiences that the real failures in business and in life result from doing things for the wrong reasons and not following your heart and your true passions.
In my 
