Early in 1975, Gary Dahl a California advertising executive came up with the idea of the “Pet Rock” which quickly became a pop culture phenomenon and made him a millionaire. By Christmas of that year, the fad was over and the cute little rocks from a Baja beach went back to just being nuisances at the ocean’s edge. I think that Twitter may be destined for a similar fate.
I must confess that as a small business owner, salesman and marketer, I haven’t yet found a use in my business for Twitter and I’ve treated every encouragement to use it like a jury duty summons. Because my business resources are limited by dollars and staff size, the first question I ask about any new whiz bang idea is “how does it help me get the attention of people who are in a position to buy what I’m selling?” In my case those products are, TV and radio program sponsorship plus seeking partners for our non-profit, the Making It Institute. If I can’t connect those marketing and sales dots with Twitter, I’d prefer to just read about it rather than invest precious hours in attempting to make it work for my business.
Here are some interesting numbers on Twitter from RJ Metrics that would interest marketers. The number of monthly new users dropped from 7.8 million to 6.2 million in mid 2009. That report also says that just 17% of Twitter users updated their accounts last December, an all time low. The Nielsen Company says that 60% of Twitter users don’t return from one month to the next. While I’m not predicting the total demise of this branch of the social media tree, the digital world is littered with formerly hot ideas. You remember Friendster and Second Life don’t you?
The words Tweet and Twitter imply something small. At a certain level, I think that Twitter is made for small businesses since we are always yearning for economical ways to put our messages in front of prospective customers. Because small business owners can say and do things that buttoned up corporate marketing types would have to get lots of signed approvals for, there are some success stories. I read a story that Someecards has about 1.7 million followers while the giant and legendary Hallmark Cards has around 2000. One of those companies has 14,000 employees and the other just 5 full timers. Part of the Someecards winning strategy is not being afraid to post some downright crass statements in their tweets.
How are the big marketers handling Twitter? Dell Computer seems to be riding a wave of success because they use the service to tell customers about bargains in their outlet store. In American culture having someone lead us to a good deal is very high on the “I love it” scale right behind our affection for the flag and long buffet tables! One of our sponsor clients, Verizon shelled out a billion in advertising dollars in 2009 but they only have about 5000 followers in their tweet parade. In other words you’ve got to have an offer that has some special appeal to your followers and consumers.
Even politicians (or their assistants) are thumbing their way through this fairly new form of outreach. This week the Los Angeles Times featured an article titled “Congress Keeps it Short and Tweet” about the legislators who are using Twitter. Just the idea of those folks on social media sites reminds me of the historic phrase, “Nero fiddled while Rome burned.” I’m under the impression that the 140 character limit that Twitter enforces might not be compatible with the natural verbosity of politicians who are usually looking for a more spacious platform. Elected officials are probably the polar opposite of an ideal profile for effective Twitter marketing.
Here is my bottom line. The flood of messages showing up in my in-box these days has me dreaming of an electronic shovel to get rid of 100 or more messages per day. Add social media messages to that, and the whole thing is making me antisocial! If your life is being bombarded in a similar way, you too may be growing suspicious of all electronic message advertising. For any of the social media tools to really work for you, it had best be by spreading useful, compelling and beneficial information to prospects and customers. Just as before Twitter, there must be a strategy and good idea in your marketing messages. Sometimes you’ll have to be snarky and irreverent to break through the clutter of clogged in-boxes, but small business owners can get away with that much better than large corporations. Despite some marketing success stories, something inside continues to tell me that Twitter is really the territory of those people named Hilton or Kardashian or Kutcher. I must confess that I often feel that everybody’s talking but very little of immediate use or lasting value is being said.
Tuesday, April 13, 2010
Can We Handle the Truth?
In the hit film “A Few Good Men” starring Jack Nicholson and Tom Cruise, Nicholson’s character screams out the memorable phrase while being questioned in court, “You can’t handle the truth.” The ongoing health insurance squabble, alarm bells surrounding public sector budgets and the constant political food fight brought those words to mind for me this week. The only way to find out if we can really handle the truth is for us to consistently hear the truth from business leaders and political types and I don’t think the truth-meter needle is moving often enough right now.
I want to say two things here to clarify my blog writings. My passionate interest is in small to mid-sized businesses and how entrepreneurial thinking can help all of us. I really do believe that our lives will be better if we run them on sound business principles. Political rhetoric is of no real interest to me and I don’t write with a political party preference. Both major parties have done some good things over the last 60 years for the long term health of our country as well as making some pathetically boneheaded and harmful moves. My questions regarding political moves are just about the same as I’d ask of any business owner. They are: What is the goal? Are your strategies grounded in logic? How do the finances work out?
For example, the overly discussed, dissected and vilified health insurance reform legislation means one primary thing to me; politicians are demonstrating either a lack of knowledge or contempt for basic economic realities. We now have another underfunded entitlement program joining others that have the words social or medi as part of their names. The truth is that the money will run out and that will mean; cutting entitlements, asking for more money or printing a lot more money. As the British are fond of saying, it will end in tears.
There is a passage in the bible that says “Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free." I often supplement that wisdom in my speeches by telling the audience that before showing you that freedom; the truth will first kick your butt!
Here is a lesson in painful truth from newly elected New Jersey governor Chris Christie. His state like California and New York is facing fiscal disaster. Unlike the governors of those other states he seems to be pouring some painful truth into the discussion. He told the legislature that he was impounding $2 billion of the state budget, and cutting spending in 375 state programs to eliminate their $2 billion budget gap. Of course there were howls of unfair and all the comments you’d expect from a choir of vested interests. However he did not take money from public education and didn’t ask for more taxes on property owners which strike me as common sense thinking.
The hardest truth for politicians to speak about is that pensions and benefits are the biggest driver of spiraling spending at all levels of government, which was also a key factor in the death of General Motors and Chrysler. Sound business principles dictated that those companies go through the fire of bankruptcy to be able to shake off some of that smothering burden before being reborn in a slimmed down form. With no disrespect to the many able public servants and government workers, let’s look at some numbers. A New Jersey state employee who retired at age 49 has paid a total of $124,000 toward his pension and health benefits. If he lives to the expected age, he’ll receive a total of $3.8 million in pension and health benefits! Who really wants to pay for this? The naked truth is that this story is repeated hundreds of thousands of times across the country and even the slow learners understand that this model can’t be sustained. I did say that truth will kick your butt before any feeling of freedom flows in.
As a small business owner, I get the good and bad news weekly if not daily. In my world, truth can’t be obscured for very long. Even in what used to be America’s largest corporation, General Motors, suspended truth eventually won the battle and imposed it’s will on the fate of that iconic company. Some years ago, a tough old real estate developer said to me “you have to lay a solid foundation under whatever you do because gravity always wins and brings you back down to earth.”
Is this a doom and gloom prediction? I don’t think so. Sound business principles can be applied at any time as long as we are willing to accept truth and work through the resulting pain. Anyone who has kicked an addiction can attest to that. I believe that the human spirit is indomitable and that the true American foundation in capitalism is solid. We just have to be true to it.
Since my business is built around media, I often muse on what role all media plays in diverting American’s from dealing with the truth. Another motion picture, “Network” written by the legendary Paddy Chayefsky was prophetic on the subject in 1976. The lead character is fictional network anchorman Howard Beal. He has some choice words regarding truth. “Listen to me. Television is not the truth. Television is a God*****d amusement park! Television is a circus, a carnival, a traveling troupe of acrobats, story-tellers, dancers, singers, jugglers, side-show freaks, lion tamers and football players. We're in the boredom killing business! So, if you want truth go to God. Go to your gurus. Go to yourselves because that's the only place you're ever going to find any real truth. But, man, you're never gonna get any truth from us. We'll tell you anything you want to hear.”
Whether we can handle it or not, it is time for a major dose of truth.
I want to say two things here to clarify my blog writings. My passionate interest is in small to mid-sized businesses and how entrepreneurial thinking can help all of us. I really do believe that our lives will be better if we run them on sound business principles. Political rhetoric is of no real interest to me and I don’t write with a political party preference. Both major parties have done some good things over the last 60 years for the long term health of our country as well as making some pathetically boneheaded and harmful moves. My questions regarding political moves are just about the same as I’d ask of any business owner. They are: What is the goal? Are your strategies grounded in logic? How do the finances work out?
For example, the overly discussed, dissected and vilified health insurance reform legislation means one primary thing to me; politicians are demonstrating either a lack of knowledge or contempt for basic economic realities. We now have another underfunded entitlement program joining others that have the words social or medi as part of their names. The truth is that the money will run out and that will mean; cutting entitlements, asking for more money or printing a lot more money. As the British are fond of saying, it will end in tears.
There is a passage in the bible that says “Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free." I often supplement that wisdom in my speeches by telling the audience that before showing you that freedom; the truth will first kick your butt!
Here is a lesson in painful truth from newly elected New Jersey governor Chris Christie. His state like California and New York is facing fiscal disaster. Unlike the governors of those other states he seems to be pouring some painful truth into the discussion. He told the legislature that he was impounding $2 billion of the state budget, and cutting spending in 375 state programs to eliminate their $2 billion budget gap. Of course there were howls of unfair and all the comments you’d expect from a choir of vested interests. However he did not take money from public education and didn’t ask for more taxes on property owners which strike me as common sense thinking.
The hardest truth for politicians to speak about is that pensions and benefits are the biggest driver of spiraling spending at all levels of government, which was also a key factor in the death of General Motors and Chrysler. Sound business principles dictated that those companies go through the fire of bankruptcy to be able to shake off some of that smothering burden before being reborn in a slimmed down form. With no disrespect to the many able public servants and government workers, let’s look at some numbers. A New Jersey state employee who retired at age 49 has paid a total of $124,000 toward his pension and health benefits. If he lives to the expected age, he’ll receive a total of $3.8 million in pension and health benefits! Who really wants to pay for this? The naked truth is that this story is repeated hundreds of thousands of times across the country and even the slow learners understand that this model can’t be sustained. I did say that truth will kick your butt before any feeling of freedom flows in.
As a small business owner, I get the good and bad news weekly if not daily. In my world, truth can’t be obscured for very long. Even in what used to be America’s largest corporation, General Motors, suspended truth eventually won the battle and imposed it’s will on the fate of that iconic company. Some years ago, a tough old real estate developer said to me “you have to lay a solid foundation under whatever you do because gravity always wins and brings you back down to earth.”
Is this a doom and gloom prediction? I don’t think so. Sound business principles can be applied at any time as long as we are willing to accept truth and work through the resulting pain. Anyone who has kicked an addiction can attest to that. I believe that the human spirit is indomitable and that the true American foundation in capitalism is solid. We just have to be true to it.
Since my business is built around media, I often muse on what role all media plays in diverting American’s from dealing with the truth. Another motion picture, “Network” written by the legendary Paddy Chayefsky was prophetic on the subject in 1976. The lead character is fictional network anchorman Howard Beal. He has some choice words regarding truth. “Listen to me. Television is not the truth. Television is a God*****d amusement park! Television is a circus, a carnival, a traveling troupe of acrobats, story-tellers, dancers, singers, jugglers, side-show freaks, lion tamers and football players. We're in the boredom killing business! So, if you want truth go to God. Go to your gurus. Go to yourselves because that's the only place you're ever going to find any real truth. But, man, you're never gonna get any truth from us. We'll tell you anything you want to hear.”
Whether we can handle it or not, it is time for a major dose of truth.
Tuesday, March 9, 2010
Kentucky Fried Wisdom
Some years ago I met and spent some time with a legendary business owner who personified a particular branch of entrepreneurship, that being those people who start a business later in life. Meeting a man with one of the best known faces in America was memorable and thinking of him today still makes me smile. That man was Harland David Sanders, better known as Colonel Sanders, founder of Kentucky Fried Chicken. Because his face was plastered on signs all over the U.S. and Canada at the time, walking down a public street with him was like being in the company of a megastar. People constantly waved, smiled and asked for his autograph.
Well, Mr. Sanders wasn’t really a military Colonel, but was given the honorary title by the governor of Kentucky. But he was a real businessman who started the KFC franchise operation out of desperation when he was 65 years of age. His startup capital was money from his first Social Security check that he used to go on the road and call on prospective franchisees! At the time I was in my twenties and was simply amazed that he started when most people are retiring to their hobbies and focused on spoiling the grandchildren.
Today in our country, more than 5 million people age 55 or older are self employed or operate their own business according to the Small Business Administration. This is the fastest growing group of entrepreneurs across the land right now. The number of self employed people ages 55 to 64 has grown 52% between 2000 and 2007! Jerri Sedlar the author of “Don’t Retire, Rewire,” said two types of people start businesses: those who always planned to and those who cannot find a job.
I think that some of those people are gleefully getting a belated start on their lifelong dream and others are being forced to take the entrepreneurial plunge out of necessity. When you feel that your job might disappear like coastal mist in the noonday sun, you are living with a lot of stress. If you are going to toss and turn at 4am over business, it might as well be about your own enterprise. This current economic crisis should be teaching us that like it or not, everybody has to develop some level of entrepreneurial consciousness.
Buyout packages and golden parachutes often supply the necessary capital and finally scratching the itch to be one’s own boss is a pretty strong motivator to take the risk. My experience producing a Making It! a small business TV show has brought me into contact with hundreds of business owners across the age spectrum. I can tell you that starting a business while your gray hair is beginning to dominate won’t be as easy as you think nor as hard as you might fear. By your fifth decade, you probably know more than you are aware of and have a support network that is broader and deeper than you realize.
I started Nelson Davis Television Productions because of the realization that my bosses who were presented to me as geniuses really weren’t. By that time going to another job interview had about the same appeal as wrestling alligators with a python holding up my shorts. You have to take a great leap of faith and think only of what you want to have happen while obliterating all thoughts of any less successful outcome.
Starting your business is one of those rare categories where the government can actually be helpful. The SBA web site can direct you to some advice and expertise tailored for people 50 and older. Universities and community colleges all over the country have night classes and extension courses that offer just about everything you need to know to take this important leap. Of course you have to supply the self confidence and drive. You have to be the president of sales and marketing. My philosophy is that nothing gets made until something gets sold. Whether you make one dollar or a million, the feeling of self development and realization is worth the effort to be your own boss.
Another reason that thinking of Colonel Sanders brings me a smile is that at age 80 he was still having a lot of fun. He had sold KFC for $2million (about $14M in today’s dollars) to a group of businessmen when he was 74 years old. Like most ex business owners, he wasn’t happy with how they ran the operation when he was gone. I remember him telling me in his heavy Kentucky accent how awful they were. The way it came out of his mouth sounded like “Dem Bastids.” One of the smartest and most successful business owners I know right now is 74 vigorous and healthy years old. His friends often ask when he plans to retire, and his response is “retire to what?” These older business owners are proving that age and accomplishment does have its privileges, challenges and rewards!
Well, Mr. Sanders wasn’t really a military Colonel, but was given the honorary title by the governor of Kentucky. But he was a real businessman who started the KFC franchise operation out of desperation when he was 65 years of age. His startup capital was money from his first Social Security check that he used to go on the road and call on prospective franchisees! At the time I was in my twenties and was simply amazed that he started when most people are retiring to their hobbies and focused on spoiling the grandchildren.
Today in our country, more than 5 million people age 55 or older are self employed or operate their own business according to the Small Business Administration. This is the fastest growing group of entrepreneurs across the land right now. The number of self employed people ages 55 to 64 has grown 52% between 2000 and 2007! Jerri Sedlar the author of “Don’t Retire, Rewire,” said two types of people start businesses: those who always planned to and those who cannot find a job.
I think that some of those people are gleefully getting a belated start on their lifelong dream and others are being forced to take the entrepreneurial plunge out of necessity. When you feel that your job might disappear like coastal mist in the noonday sun, you are living with a lot of stress. If you are going to toss and turn at 4am over business, it might as well be about your own enterprise. This current economic crisis should be teaching us that like it or not, everybody has to develop some level of entrepreneurial consciousness.
Buyout packages and golden parachutes often supply the necessary capital and finally scratching the itch to be one’s own boss is a pretty strong motivator to take the risk. My experience producing a Making It! a small business TV show has brought me into contact with hundreds of business owners across the age spectrum. I can tell you that starting a business while your gray hair is beginning to dominate won’t be as easy as you think nor as hard as you might fear. By your fifth decade, you probably know more than you are aware of and have a support network that is broader and deeper than you realize.
I started Nelson Davis Television Productions because of the realization that my bosses who were presented to me as geniuses really weren’t. By that time going to another job interview had about the same appeal as wrestling alligators with a python holding up my shorts. You have to take a great leap of faith and think only of what you want to have happen while obliterating all thoughts of any less successful outcome.
Starting your business is one of those rare categories where the government can actually be helpful. The SBA web site can direct you to some advice and expertise tailored for people 50 and older. Universities and community colleges all over the country have night classes and extension courses that offer just about everything you need to know to take this important leap. Of course you have to supply the self confidence and drive. You have to be the president of sales and marketing. My philosophy is that nothing gets made until something gets sold. Whether you make one dollar or a million, the feeling of self development and realization is worth the effort to be your own boss.
Another reason that thinking of Colonel Sanders brings me a smile is that at age 80 he was still having a lot of fun. He had sold KFC for $2million (about $14M in today’s dollars) to a group of businessmen when he was 74 years old. Like most ex business owners, he wasn’t happy with how they ran the operation when he was gone. I remember him telling me in his heavy Kentucky accent how awful they were. The way it came out of his mouth sounded like “Dem Bastids.” One of the smartest and most successful business owners I know right now is 74 vigorous and healthy years old. His friends often ask when he plans to retire, and his response is “retire to what?” These older business owners are proving that age and accomplishment does have its privileges, challenges and rewards!
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