We Have Only Scratched The Surface

In two weeks, this blog is moving to a new home, with a new brand, a new focus, and a new perspective on customer focus, marketing, sales, and community in 2013.

 I think back to when I attended one of the first Word of Mouth Marketing Association's boot camp conferences in 2006. Facebook was an infant. Twitter was just born. YouTube was still owned by Chad Hurley and friends. HTML5 was a pipe dream and AJAX was just about to become standardized by W3C. The infrastructure was barely in place to create rich, beautiful, useful applications that built communities, delivered value to customers, got them excited enough to tell others. It was only seven years ago!

 The timing was fortuitous. If the global slowdown in 2008 happened prior to the adoption and standardization of customer-focused social applications, we would have likely been in more dire straits. Here's the best part, in it's italicized, one line glory.

We have only scratched the surface.

A mobile/desktop web presence plus SEO plus a community of users is all now standard, both for commercial and nonprofits. Don't have any of these? Call me. 2013 is the year of "big data" in marketing. How you use that data is the difference between a sustainable competitive advantage or running with the herd. Oh, and I forgot one other extremely important trend when thinking back to 2006:

Welcome To The World of Tiny Asymmetrical Information

End Piracy, Not Liberty

Imagine a world without free knowledge.

Sign the Petition here

Practical Tip #1: You Cannot Do What I Have Failed To Do Here

Do you see that gap?

Check the date from the last post to now. Yep, 8 months. Embarrassing!
Sometimes an honest conversation isn't pretty, but it has to be said.

So I'm making the commitment to posting daily with fresh, timely, practical, and honest conversations.

When you engage with customers and the world, you have to say something every day. After 12 years of marketing online, content is still king. It had better be timely and relevant, too.

Did you make a customer so happy that they told someone else about what happened? Did you start the conversation about making your product or service better? Did the conversation somehow improve the process of interacting with customers quicker, faster, better, more fun, or exciting?

That's the genesis of great content. They are the fundamentals of what you're trying to accomplish in your organization. In a networked, online world, producing that content is the new road to a business competitive advantage, or a transformation of someone's life.

What Google’s New Algorithm Means for SEO | Elance

What Google’s New Algorithm Means for SEO | Elance

Required reading. Google isn't going to have another Vitaly Borker ruin their product, brand, and equity. And that's a good thing.

The Remote Hire Relationship

Talentzoo.com had an excellent article outlining Simple Strategies for Managing the Remote Hire Relationship. I was all ready to write a blog post about how we do this here at Honest Conversation.com. But I don't need to tell (and you don't have to listen) something akin to the Boy Scout Oath about doing this for you. You know what I mean... "On my honor, I will do my best, etc." Scouting is great (I once won a Pinewood Derby), but there's a better way to hire people - permanent or temporary.

Meghan Paul Molino used the following points to Managing the Remote Hire.
1. Decide Who You Need.
2. Be Strategic Where You Look.
3. Get to Know Your Prospective Hires.
4. Set Up Expectations In Advance.
5. Communicate Regularly.
6. Let the Relationship Evolve.

Read the article for her tactics - they are excellent.

I would add the following to her thoughts.

1. I keep one Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube account for both work and home. Yes, if you don't mind the occasional post about the Philadelphia Phillies or tremendous love of pizza or cheesesteaks, then I'm all the more willing to work with you in the long term.

2. Skype is awesome. I can screen share, capture, converse in real time. It's a remote hire's best friend.

3. Like Meghan mentioned, Coroflop and Krop are great for graphic design. I love Elance and ODesk for web design, social media, and technical writing. They're nice because the provider has to be proven and somewhat serious in applying for jobs. If the hire wants a W9, US only, and a full portfolio of work, I better have it and I better not cheat. These tools manage expectations and can set up work in milestone-based objectives.

I expect clients to not only consider my bids, but to check my work, Google me, and get to know me as a person.

Finally, as a remote hire, I don't go for the "big kill" anymore. Things change and life moves faster than ever. You never really know what the client will need tomorrow or three months from now. Many thanks to Meghan (I have no idea who she is...) for writing a comprehensive article.

We are now on Elance

Today, HonestConversation.com joined Elance. We did this to provide a safe, trusted venue to provide our services to the world. If you'd like to visit our Elance page, click on the box to the left under Facebook.

If you are a company or entrepreneur looking to jump start a project, broaden your reach or just simply get things done, you will find that Elance offers a ready, willing and qualified workforce of over 316,000 professionals. You name it and Elancers will take it to the finish line—from writing code, crafting a marketing plan, designing your website, managing your day-to-day schedule and a thousand other projects. Elancers deliver quality results, on-time and often with a flourish. Get started here.

Eight Things to Look For When Hiring for the Web

John McWade was the first desktop publisher in the world. He beta tested Aldus Pagemaker in 1985, and the rest is history. He recently had an excellent post on his blog called "Hiring A Designer? Eight Things To Look For." The same criterion fit for hiring anyone to improve your organization's web presence.

They are:

1. Passion, vision, and self-motivation.
2. An Understandable Vocabulary.
3. Inquisitive intelligence.
4. Good conceptual skills
5. A portfolio.
6. Total Projects - Websites, Social Media, Design, Print.
7. Real-world experience.
8. Production skills.

Visit the article for a deeper discussion about each one. It's time for an honest conversation. We don't take work that does not fit the first criteria. We must also share your passion and vision, first and foremost. If we do, I truly believe we can help any small to medium sized organization with #2 to #7 on this list.