I came across this awesome video the other day that I wanted to share. After watching it, think about how bad you want whatever it is you want and the write down what you need to do to get it and then go and execute what you wrote with complete focus. Enjoy!
Merriam Webster defines creative as having the ability to create rather than to imitate. Creativity is about originality, imagination and in this case, the production of some kind of idea. This process is not complex.
If creativity was complex, it would probably be easier. If it was broken down into a detailed formula or mathematical structure, creativity could be predictable and manageable. Creativity is not complex until it tries to be persuasive. The variables that come into play when trying to present a creative idea as a means of trying to get someone to do something becomes extremely complex and reliant on countless, unseen variables.
Being creative, however, is simple. Original ideas come down to a person's affinity for thinking differently and being aware of their idiosyncrasies. Everyone has a level of creativity, but the misnomer is that the most creative person can produce an original idea at will. While this is a fantastic skill to have, it is not really the most useful, especially because it is easy to believe you are creative when you're not. You can know when you are being creative by simply knowing where creativity comes from.
Creativity comes from objectivity. Without delving too much into philosophy, it is imperative to remember that originality is a product of being separated from bias and consistent thinking. This is why anyone can be creative. It is because anyone can and will be objective at some point in regards to the creation of some kind of idea or concept. In business, proposals and campaigns are pitched to management in an effort to accomplish objective approval. The managers have an incentive to be unbiased. For that reason, a good idea must be interpreted objectively first and foremost.
If I am creating an advertising campaign to generate sales for shoelaces, I will have a hard time if I create a concept built upon my own love of shoelaces. Creative ideas come from the practitioner who says, "What if I wore sandals everyday? What would get me to buy shoelaces? What is persuasive about shoelaces?"
The point is that the process of creativity can be achieved through more than just meditation or thinking really hard. It takes preparation and an awareness of your own ability to produce something original and genuine. If you find that you can't produce something that your boss doesn't like even though you apparently love it, it's probably because you aren't creating something. You are imitating your own wants and desires that, in this case, have no real effect on anyone else.
Jon Negroni is the Director of Public Relations, Promotion, and Marketing at Richter10.2 Media Group. For more information regarding Richter10.2, check out our introduction video here.
As a recap, Facebook is in the midst of a true sink or swim year as they are experiencing the climax of bad press that has been building up over the years surrounding privacy issues, viruses, and people getting tired of the service.
One important thing to note is that Facebook is a behemoth. They will hit 1 billion members absent deus ex machina. All I'm pointing out is that the service is poised for a fall now that it has hit a high peak. Could they overcome? Sure, but at this rate, it is more likely that Facebook has trying times ahead of them, and they should be prepared for the worst.
What would I do if I was their head of public relations? While I am no expert, I have observed that the most successful businesses that have achieved a high level of popularity always find unique and interesting ways to solve their problems.
Facebook has to seriously deal with their problem of their servers not being able to accommodate so many users, causing a lot of bugs and slowdowns to ensue. Expanding their servers is a legitimate problem for Facebook, but it must be done in order for the site to keep its users happy. They need to acknowledge the problem in the press and own up to it, showing everyone that they are making steps to improve the service.
When it comes to Facebook's privacy issues, it would be counterproductive for them to diminish the issue as they have been. They've taken great steps already to making their privacy settings easy for people to understand and apply to their profiles, but people still blame the site for not being transparent. Instead of ignoring these complaints or just addressing the issue through a press release, Facebook needs to find a way to turn this weakness into a strength.
The same goes with the site recently buying Instagram and offering its own Instagram clone. The problem is perception. People see Facebook trying to be "everything to everyone" through moves like this, and all it does is drive away users. It wasn't a bad move for Facebook to buy Instagram. Far from it. The real problem is that Facebook is allowing itself to be seen as a lackluster site that is buying up the competition. Both are essentially untrue, but that is what the conversation is becoming, and when enough people are saying something, enough people are believing it.
Facebook can't control the conversation, but they can guide it. Their current strategy has been to distract its users from its drawbacks by constantly delivering new content that matches their rivals. That isn't enough anymore. The site needs to win back its loyal users that people like me join Facebook to connect with. As soon as my friends aren't on Facebook, I won't be on Facebook, and that rings true for many other people.
Jon Negroni is the Director of Public Relations, Promotion, and Marketing at Richter10.2 Media Group. For more information regarding Richter10.2, check out our introduction video here.
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Let me start off by saying I am no knight for Facebook. The day Facebook and I break up, if it will ever happen, will be just another day. Still, I can't help but notice that more and more people are taking up arms against the service, almost like it's some kind of coup. Let me explain.
I spend hours every day studying trends and opinions that are spreading around the online universe. Doing this on a daily basis has helped me develop a knack for predicting trends and accurately understanding shifts in public opinion.
That's why the past few weeks have made me wary about Facebook's future. It's not just that the social media giant has been experiencing misfortune with it's recent shift into going public and tanking in the stock market. Stuff like that recovers and is not truly indicative of the company's future. The real trend that is scaring me is the overblown reaction to all of this bad press. It started with people deleting their Facebook accounts at a more rapid rate, seemingly doing so because they were fed up with privacy issues.
Yes, privacy. Facebook's biggest obstacle separating it from total domination, at least in my opinion. Facebook has dealt with some seriously bad PR over the years with privacy issues, turning extreme loyalists and users of the site into malevolent naysayers. The same goes with ongoing issues with viruses slipping into Facebook's scripts at an ever-increasing rate.
Now, however, we are seeing new trends of people outright getting rid of their accounts because they are just sick of it. Many people just don't see value in the social site for reasons that range from lack of good content to it taking up their lives for little-to-no reward. It's bad enough that Eric Jackson, a credible analyst, is announcing to the world that Facebook will be a memory by 2020. Bad press like this just seems to be a reason that the process of Facebook's end will be even sooner.
To me, it almost seems like a conspiracy against Facebook. It's most likely not and there's really no evidence for it, but what I see is a few extreme haters of Facebook repeatedly announcing to people online that the site is, for lack of a better word, boring. Old. Tired. Done. Enough people seem to be agreeing, even though the site really hasn't changed that much these past few weeks.
Am I a Facebook hater? By no means. I love the site and I check it regularly. Unfortunately, it is waning on me. I am one of those users that finds it more and more rare to read updates I actually care about. I would much rather check my Twitter feed which is always bursting with good content, and I have even begun to dust off my Google Plus account and have been finding it rewarding.
Time will only tell. Facebook needs to implement some kind of new PR plan in order to turn this negativity around before it becomes a problem big enough for people besides me to see. What would I do? Come back here tomorrow for the answer in pt. 2.
Jon Negroni is the Director of Public Relations, Promotion, and Marketing at Richter10.2 Media Group. For more information regarding Richter10.2, check out our introduction video here.
More and more reports are coming in that over 6 million LinkedIn passwords (which is roughly .05% of LinkedIn members) have been leaked by a Russian hacker site. While this is not 100% certain, internet watchdogs are encouraging everyone to change their passwords as soon as possible to prevent their online info from being stolen.
This is a great time to discuss tips you should take to make sure your online information is always safe and secure. While online security sites like LifeLock and Equifax can be great deterrents against online attackers, there are also free ways you can keep yourself safe and protected.
It really comes down to common sense when choosing your password. I know it's tempting to have the same password for every site with only a few variations, but this doesn't fly when technology is becoming more sophisticated everyday. Your best bet is to have a different password for each facet of your life.
Your bank account, first and foremost, must always be its own and should never be integrated into any of your other passwords. You'll probably get away with having similar passwords for your various social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter, but remember that these sites have access to a lot of your private information. Erring on the side of caution is highly recommended.
If your main worry is forgetting your password, you should also consider staying away from listing your passwords on a document saved to your personal computer. You are much better off writing them down and storing them in a safe place.
I love Google Chrome and how it saves all of my passwords for me so I don't have to log in to a site every time. Unfortunately, we are entering a new age of advanced technology where almost anything can be hacked and compromised. While I don't foresee Google Chrome going down this route anytime soon, it is just as well that I am constantly entering my passwords in manually if for no other reason than to memorize my passwords.
Finally, change your passwords often. At least twice a year is pretty reasonable, but the more you change them, the better off you ultimately are. Also, if you share a password with someone for any reason, it is smart to change it soon after, no matter how much you trust that person. One good reason to do this is because they may use your password on an insecure network.
When it comes down to it, common sense is the real deciding factor between whether or not your online life will remain safe and protected. Be sure to listen to that nagging voice in your head telling you to make your password something besides "1234."
Jon Negroni is the Director of Public Relations, Promotion, and Marketing at Richter10.2 Media Group. For more information regarding Richter10.2, check out our introduction video here.
That's a tricky question to answer because employees maintaining that same energy means that they are having to sustain high levels of production, which often results in stress. Unfortunately, employees don't want to wrap their heads around being their absolute best on a daily basis, even if they are more than capable of that.
Obviously, managers know that being your absolute best on a daily basis is essential to seeing production (and everyone's wages) grow. So, how do you go about energizing your staff without stressing them out?
It's all about wording. It's honestly that simple. If you want your team to stay upbeat and energetic, encourage them. Don't challenge them with daunting, morbid tasks about "how good" last week was. A good manager will motivate his employees to keep the energy up by setting the example and letting employees come to the conclusion that they need to stay productive themselves.
A great example of this is how the executives at my company, Richter10.2, keep the energy up. They measure our production on a weekly basis and provide solutions for us to solve any problems we come across with our workload. The result is a fully trained staff that knows exactly what they need to do watch their numbers grow, and our morale is always high as a result.
Give your employees goals and watch them meet them. If they don't meet them, train them. Constantly telling them to hold to an arbitrary energy level just creates stress, even though the intention is to motivate. There are tons of ways to incentivize your office to increasing their production without making them feel like their jobs are on the line.
Jon Negroni is the Director of Public Relations, Promotion, and Marketing at Richter10.2 Media Group. For more information regarding Richter10.2, check out our introduction video here.
For years, Salesforce has been on the front-lines of social media marketing by providing tools and resources for organizations to measure their social media influence.
As you may have read this morning, Salesforce has purchased Buddy Media, one of the top social media marketing companies, for $689 million. The real headline is that Salesforce now has control of the world's top social media marketing companies since it also acquired Radian6 just last year.
So, what does this mean for the Salesforce, one of the biggest cloud-based sales companies? Obviously, there is more to the story than their revenue increasing. While the company has been growing rapidly, especially with this latest acquisition, it has also been preparing a new service that has only been hinted at until now.
Michael Lazerow, CEO of Buddy Media, has commented, “The idea behind the deal is simple. By combining Buddy Media with the rest of salesforce.com’s products, including Salesforce Radian6, the leading social media listening platform, we will be able to deliver the first comprehensive Marketing Cloud that will allow customers to listen, engage, gain insight, publish, advertise and measure social marketing programs.”
This is great news for companies looking to get the most out of their social media platforms, especially during a time when social media branding is so critical to a company's success. With the implementation of this "Marketing Cloud" on the horizon, there really seems to be no limit to how sophisticated our cloud-based technology is going to become and how agencies will dramatically change how they research and measure online impressions.
All things considered, the real question is: who will really capitalize on this new technology and who will be left behind? Salesforce is a good example of a company who refuses to be the latter.
Jon Negroni is the Director of Public Relations, Promotion, and Marketing at Richter10.2 Media Group. For more information regarding Richter10.2, check out our introduction video here.
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As a recap, we looked at Facebook and Twitter in part 1, carefully looking at the advantages and disadvantages of using these mediums to establish relationships with potential clients and leads.
Next we'll go into some of the lesser known, but still large, social networks that offer something uniquely different for salespeople in particular.
3) Google
Yes, Google (especially Gmail) is a social network that is constantly growing. The merging of email and the Google search engine behemoth was definitely welcome among a huge segment of professionals with over 350 million active users at the beginning of 2012.
The extension of this growing network into Google Plus doesn't hurt their reach either. Like Facebook and Twitter, many people have Gmail accounts, and these are the people your sales team is looking to connect with. One of the huge advantages of this jack-of-all-trades social network is, in fact, it's ability to provide tools for almost any online experience.
Want to contact a potential client? Gmail. Want to follow up in a casual way? Google Plus. Want to share a document without cramping their inbox? Google Docs. Google is a safe haven for salespeople looking to reach their clients professionally and politely for almost any type of situation.
4) LinkedIn
Some people forget that LinkedIn has been around for quite a while, quietly building its network and reputation as the "professional" version of Facebook (even though it launched a year before) and has transitioned from being known as a job search engine to a full-fledged hub for professional networking.
The beauty of these online resumes is that salespeople are able to do ample research on their prospects before initiating contact. They can also pay to use InMail, which allows them to message their prospects not connected to them. In return, potential clients can look at your profile and make a more informed judgment call on whether or not they want to respond to you, giving you a better shot at starting the relationship.
Thanks to the groups function, sharing information with a huge number of people makes gathering new leads and reaches even easier. Posting articles and starting discussions on different LinkedIn groups has the potential to get your name out there among the targets you actually want to reach. In a way, LinkedIn is the ultimate cold-calling social network.
5) Skype
Last is Skype, the authority on video messaging. If your company isn't already using Skype to some degree, you are really missing out on one of the best ways to communicate internally and externally. Although Skype is not very effective when trying to find new prospects, it is very useful in communicating with a prospect with some clout. The instant messaging features on top of video messaging make it easy for you to close deals faster by communicating more directly without pestering the client.
In conclusion, all of these networks have their disadvantages for creating and sustaining relationships with your prospects. Careful use and practice, however, will help your sales team accurately utilize these networks to their full potential.
Jon Negroni is the Director of Public Relations, Promotion, and Marketing at Richter10.2 Media Group. For more information regarding Richter10.2, check out our introduction video here.
