The Karate Discipline
March 19, 2010
I’m sure we all remember the movie The Karate Kid, an all-time classic. I watched a rerun a few months ago, and realised that each wisdom from Mr Miyagi is worth exploring – in a blog post or video. Karate means “empty hand” – and is a defense strategy. I did a bit of karate at school (many moons ago), and I got to yellow belt. Karate and martial arts teach us discipline. In business we also require discipline, and I think that as entrepreneurs we can learn a lot from these art forms.
Mr Miyagi says in the movie: “First learn stand, then learn fly. Nature rule, Daniel-san, not mine.” This is very important. In business (and in life, even) we sometimes put the horse before the cart. We don’t adhere to due process principles. We’re too impatient. Mr Miyagi’s anecdote is similar to Covey’s “Law of the harvest.” You reap what you sow.
Chet Holmes has worked with over 60 of the Fortune 500 companies as America’s top marketing executive, trainer, strategic consultant and motivation expert. He’s done work for Charlie Munger (one of Warren Buffet’s partners), and has recently also started to do projects with Anthony Robbins. He has also studied and taught karate for 23 years.
Chet says:
The lessons we’ve learned about consistency have taught us that it is the only way to really improve anything. The secret to great accomplishment in karate is not in learning 4, 000 different moves. There’s aren’t 4, 000 different moves in karate. There are 12 moves. Becoming a master is not about doing 4, 000 different moves; it’s about doing 12 moves, 4, 000 times each. The same is true for all areas of accomplishment. Golf, tennis, sales, customer services, ALL areas of competency require repetition of fundamentals.
We need to apply this discipline to our businesses when it comes to Social Media. There are just too many tools and applications out there. And we cannot use all of them. Everyday we see people on Facebook and Twitter saying “try this new tool, this that new tool” – and for the average entrepreneur this is just as a liability on time. For most businesses, Social Media is a tool, it’s not their business. Social Media is our business – and more than just a tool – but I’m talking about those outside of this industry.
One Social Media tool is not enough though. Facebook alone is not enough. Twitter alone is not enough. LinkedIn alone is not enough. There must be a decent mix of online tools – a mix that’s right for your business. Not every business is the same. Once you’re identified the mix that suits your business, you have to be consistent in using those tools. Using a tool once every two weeks won’t result in any true value. Once per week is also too minimal. A few times per week is required, and with tools like Twitter, daily activity is required. This all might sound very time consuming, but it does not have to be. There are tools that can help you manage your online activity.
For example, here is how I use TweetDeck and HootSuite.
TweedDeck is essentially a Twitter tool, but I use it for more than that. I use it…
- To track the people I’m following on Twitter and respond to them
- To conduct multiple concurrent Twitter searches (for research and tracking purposes)
- To track and respond to Facebook status updates
- To track and respond to LinkedIn status updates
HootSuite can be used for a number of purposes, but I simply use it to schedule updates. I can spend around 10 minutes and schedule updates that will be broadcasted over one or two days. This is quite fun because even if I’m sleeping or in a meeting, my messages are going out to the world.
So I don’t even need to be on the actual websites of Facebook and Twitter, and I can still be managing my activity there.
It’s not about working hard so much. Sure we have to work hard, but we can be smart as well. And all of this can be fun, while still getting to business results that we want. But we have to remain disciplined.
Photo credit: andrew_mc_d
Mediocrity is for losers
March 17, 2010
At the start of all my seminars I play one of the Shift Happens videos. The people I talk to are usually the Eternal September crowd, so it’s important that I first illustrate the importance of having the correct mindset, a mindset which accepts change and progress. Only thereafter can I gradually ease them into the world of Social Media.
The mind has incredible power. As Ralph Waldo Emerson said, “To different minds, the same world is a hell, and a heaven.” If we take just a little effort to change how we think about things, new dimensions open up for us.
The Internet is huge, would you agree with me? I think you would. I was at the Coral International Hotel a few days ago (my second visit, and I highly recommend it) and I picked up a copy of an international newspaper there. An article by Arno Maierbrugger mentioned that, “By the end of last year, a total of 192 million domain names had been registered by internet users throughout the world, according to data by internet infrastructure provider VeriSign.”
I’d say the number is much higher than that though. Many websites use sub-domains – like photos.jayz.co.za, which do not need to be registered. Also, WordPress.com and other companies provide countless millions of sub-domains to their members.
So how do you stand out in such a mass of content. The key is to be different. The key is to be unique. And the funny thing is that we are all already unique. But due to society, peer pressure, and what is known as “group think” – many of us try to conform to be like everybody else. We discard our individuality for acceptance. And in doing so, we lose our unique essence.
I try my best to be myself all the time. I’m a teacher, so I try to teach. Many Social Media blogs rush to get out the latest Social Media news of the day. I don’t do that. For all the best news, go to Mashable.com – Pete Cashmore has done a fantastic job growing that website into the best online resource in this space. My blog is about ideas. Insights. And it’s specifically geared at the lay person. This is not a blog for geeks, although many may label me as a geek. It was refreshing to get a message on Twitter recently from Jo Duxbury who said to me, “It was so refreshing to see blog posts that are intelligent and original.” I don’t mention that to impress you, but I want to impress upon you the importance of being yourself.
Will Smith, in this video, says, “Being realistic is the most commonly travelled road to mediocrity.” Once we set ordinary goals, we just become ordinary. Why not set huge and unrealistic goals? I saw something interesting on Twitter today, which said: “Don’t tell me that the sky is the limit when there are footprints on the moon.” I like that sort of thinking.
Seth Godin is, in my opinion (and the opinion of some millions), a marketing genius. I have (only) 3 of his books, and I highly recommend getting any of them. At the last talk I did, I told the audience that if they go to a book store and see any book by Seth Godin, they should grab it and buy it – without hesitation. Yes, he’s that good. Seth is Seth. He speaks his mind, and he is very intuitive. I like that.
I found this interesting video of him, it’s titled “The Mindset of a Winner” – and I think it’s valuable that’s why I’m sharing it with you. I’m sure that after watching this video you will sit back – at least for a minute – and think about what you’re doing in your business. Please share your thoughts in the comments below. Thanks.
Photo credit: thost
DIY in Social Media will lead to RIP
March 16, 2010
As more people try to DIY with Social Media, they’re going to realise that they need to “call in the experts” as it were. Today, Khalil Aleker posted this question to me on Facebook:
The main challenge for many Facebook users who want to create “fan” or business pages is that you have to have a personal profile in order to start a fan page, and the two are linked. As a result, business owners regularly receive “friend” requests from people who actually intended to become a “fan” of their business page. Any advice?
Yes, you do need a personal Facebook profile to create a Fan page, but thereafter the Fan page is independent. Furthermore, you can assign other people as Admins to the Fan Page. Members of the Fan page never need to know who manages the page – and several people can manage at once. This is sometimes essential, especially in a growing organisation.
So if you want to grow your Fan page, you simply market and promote it, and not your personal profile. A few months ago Facebook launched vanity URLs (they were first only allowed on Fan pages, but now they’re allowed on personal profiles as well), so place that vanity URL wherever you can – posters, email signatures, etc. Ours is facebook.com/jayzcoza – pretty neat and simple to remember.
With a Fan page also comes the skill of motivating interaction and participation, monitoring Facebook Insights, etc. To me, a Fan page is a company’s mini website within Facebook. And you have to take full advantage of that. Also, it’s not a personal profile, so personal family photos, etc are a big no-no!
It’s possible to create an event within your personal profile. But if it’s a company event and you have a Fan page, then you should create the event within the Fan page. It’s easy to miss this nuance. This way, the event will stay within the Fan page, even after the event date. It’s an automated archive of all your company events – and that is valuable for your reputation history.
My point of this post is to show that DIY does not work with Social Media. People like myself who are specialists in this area know that it takes a daily effort of analysis and research to get it right in Social Media. And things are ever-changing in the online world, so for the lay person to keep up is difficult, and sometimes even impossible.
Khalil, I hope this answers your question.
The City of Los Angeles uses Google Apps
March 15, 2010
I mentioned LA’s move to Google Apps briefly in yesterday’s post, but I think I need to share some more detail. If a small business or even a large business moves to Cloud Computing it’s a big thing – but when an entire City does, then I think we should take note.
In October 2009 the City of Los Angeles moved it’s 34, 000 employees to Google Apps, replacing its Novell GroupWise system. The move has costed around $7.25 million, but Los Angeles officials believe that it will save millions of dollars in software licensing, maintenance, and storage costs while improving security.
Patrick Thibodeau reported in a Computerworld article:
Los Angeles spent months negotiating a contract with Google that includes a provision providing the city with unlimited damages if its nondisclosure agreement (NDA) is breached by Google, said Kevin Crawford, the assistant general manager of IT for Los Angeles and the person who is managing the transition…Los Angeles data will be administered from inside LA’s firewall by city staffers through an administrative console built by Google, said Crawford. “We have control of our portion of the data….”We’re going to have a more secure system then we have today,” said Crawford, noting that Google personnel does more work on security “than we could ever afford to do.”
The same article reveals an interesting decision about Microsoft Office:
Los Angeles isn’t forcing employees to abandon Microsoft Office, since it already owns licenses for it. But the city won’t be buying new Office licenses for the next 12 months, and then will assess with various departments about whether they still need it, said Crawford. “Our best guess is that for somewhere between 60% and 80% of the staff, Google apps will meet all of their office productivity needs,” he said.
Los Angeles is the second largest city in the US, but not the first to adopt Google Apps. It has been preceded by Washington DC and Orlando, FL.
Randi Levin, Chief Technology Officer, City of Los Angeles:
Google Apps will also help conserve resources in the city’s Information & Technology Agency (ITA), which is responsible for researching, testing & implementing new technologies in ways that make Los Angeles a better place to live, work and play. Because the email and other applications are hosted and maintained by Google, ITA employees who previously were responsible for maintaining our email system can be freed up to work on projects that are central to making the city run.
That’s the beauty of Google Apps. It means all your staff do not need to worry about email and related applications. That’s Google’s problem now. What about the savings…
By ITA estimates, Google Apps will save the city of Los Angeles millions of dollars by allowing us to shift resources currently dedicated to email to other purposes. For example, moving to Google will free up nearly 100 servers that were used for our existing email system, which will lower our electricity bills by almost $750,000 over five years. In short, this decision helps us to get the most out of the city’s IT budget.
This is phenomenal! Many companies don’t realise that Google Apps brings savings on items like servers (and remember these have huge maintenance costs too), as well as electricity.
This installation, across 34 city departments, was scheduled over a few months. Now keep in mind that the installation does not consist of any physical hardware. This is Cloud Computing. What takes time is adding users, creating groups, providing training, transferring data, and that sort of thing. A change to a City cannot happen in one day, even if the new infrastructure resides totally on the Internet.
Kevin Crawford, Assistant General Manager, Information Technology Agency, City of Los Angeles:
Google Apps is going to provide us capabilities mostly in the collaboration, disaster recovery, and archiving that we don’t currently have today…The product is going to make it easier for people to work together….Somebody’s on vacation, somebody’s on a business trip somewhere, they can sign into their Google system just as they can from their desk in their office.
The important points of collaboration and mobility are pointed out here. Google Apps makes this all so easy.
What does Randi say about email?
Email is vital to the inner workings of the city. There was a general dissatisfaction with our current email system. It can’t work on certain devices, people’s frustrations with the size of the mailboxes have really reached a peak. I didn’t want something that was going to require hours and hours of training. I wanted something that was going to be easy for them to use, intuitive, and something they can have when they’re at their desk, and when they’re out in their car, or when they’re out in the field.
And the big ROI question? And productivity?
Our ROI could be upwards to about $20 million, which includes increased productivity… With the Google solution, because of the way the whole system is architected, the availability of the system is increased. We’ll have more security, our data’s going to be much safer with the new system… For example they could do video chat and do their meetings that way as opposed to people driving into City Hall every day for a meeting… We’re going to see huge productivity savings, particularly when we train the organisation on how to use shared documents.
What makes things even more interesting, is that just last week Google launched the Google Apps Marketplace. I blogged about it here.
Does Google Apps implementation have to cost $7.25 million? Of course not. LA has 34, 000 employees. It’s likely your company is not that big.
Do you want to simply your communication, documentation, and collaboration processes? Do you want to eliminate server hardware and application software costs? Do you want to eliminate in-house and contracted IT support costs? Then Google Apps is for you. If you’re interested, contact us, we’ll get your hooked up.
For now, why don’t you watch this video of the City of Los Angeles’ move to Google Apps…
Do less, outsource everything else
March 14, 2010
Ownership is so last century. It’s time to liberate ourselves and enjoy what technology affords us. In my opinion, we have two advantages which we should really be making use of.
Firstly, we have the opportunity to be specialists. The time is over for generalists. We no longer want to deal with one company that does everything – because we know that each avenue of expertise is so deep and advanced, that a generalist company can only scratch the surface of each of these avenues. Specialists can go to the depths. We want people who eat, sleep, and talk their expertise. Industries and businesses are evolving at such a rapid rate, that a generalist is no longer a valuable asset. And being specialists, we should be doing less. Being an effective specialist means doing less. It means being focused. It means choosing when and how we want to work. It means choosing the type of clients we want to work for. It means redefining success.
Seth Godin says in Small is the new big that, “Maybe you need to be a lot pickier about what you do and for whom you do it.” He continues by sharing the following…
Dan, a real-estate developer I met recently, told me that he does one new investment a year. It’s not unusual for his competition to do ten or a hundred deals in the same period of time. What Dan told me, though, really resonated: “In any given year, we look at a thousand deals. One hundred of them are pretty good. One is great.” By only doing the great deals, Dan is able to make far more money than he would if he did them all. He can cherry-pick because his goal isn’t volume.
Secondly, we should outsource everything that is not core to our business. It is common place today for companies to have employees stationed around the globe, working remotely. It’s even more common place to use individuals and companies to do secondary tasks. Once we set ourselves free and relinquish control, we have the opportunity to engross ourselves in what our mission is. Tim Ferris is a master at this. You should pick up his book The 4-Hour Work Week wherein he expounds on ideas to liberate ourselves from limited and ancient thinking patterns.
Even the City of Los Angeles, California has outsourced it’s email and communication infrastructure to Google. In October 2009, the city replaced its Novell GroupWise system with Google Apps. The city estimated the move at around $7.25 million, but Los Angeles officials believe the move will save millions in software licensing, maintenance, and storage costs while improving security. Email (as well as other communication items) are now outsourced to Google. This is phenomenal.
Randi Levin, Chief Technology Officer, City of Los Angeles:
City employees fulfill a range of important functions – from policing our streets to supplying water and power to city residents and businesses, and from operating our libraries to designing and building wastewater treatment plants and other public facilities. We want to provide all these employees with modern tools that help them do their jobs.
Outsourcing is something that we as entrepreneurs really need to get our heads around. And quickly. Inside of our businesses, we also need to learn to delegate more. Outsourcing is a type of delegation, but it technically refers to delegating to external resources. Warren Buffet: “We delegate almost to the point of abdication.”
Tim Ferris goes a step further though. He says, “Eliminate before you delegate.”
He explains…
Never automate something that can be eliminated, and never delegate something that can be automated or streamlined. Otherwise, you waste someone else’s time instead of your own, which now wastes your hard-earned cash.
This is a subject that I’m passionate about, so I plan to write much more on it over the coming weeks…
Photo credit: cliche
The Amazing Race, Facebook, and Twitter
March 12, 2010
I’m a student of the world. Everywhere I go, I try to learn, and I try to think about what is really happening. Psychology is a subject that fascinates me, and I’m very fortunate that many of the successes and principles behind Web 2.0 and Social Media are grounded upon human behaviour patterns.
I’ve watched The Amazing Race a few times, and one of the reasons I like that show is because it exposes you to cities across the world. I think this is what is referred to as armchair traveling. As you know, the teams always comprise of varied relationships – best friends, married couples, engaged couples, parent and sibling, siblings, and so on. I think this is a smart move by the producers because it brings an interesting dynamic. The last show I watched (which was a few months ago, and I’ve had this post lurking in my brain since then) made me aware of something. I thought about the fact that certain teams, especially when they were behind in the race or in difficult circumstances, started to argue and be really nasty. They had a camera right in front of them, would that not deter them from showing their “true colours” and behaving just slightly more civil? Surely they knew that this was going to be aired to millions of viewers, including their own close friends and family.
I watched this and pondered about it. The camera didn’t matter. The millions of viewers didn’t matter. They wanted to win the million dollar prize – that is all that mattered.
I’ve been researching and monitoring behaviour patterns and trends on Facebook and Twitter for a very long time now. In fact, I capture most of these conversations using a neat application called Evernote. [You'd do yourself a huge favour by checking it out.] I have a few thousand clippings, and I intend to use them in 2 eBooks I’m planning to write. What is very clear to me is that when people are tested, and go through a bad time, they tend to say all sorts of things. They don’t seem to care who is watching or listening. I’m not talking about the moaners (I wrote about them here) – those who complain all the time – that’s a different group of people. I’m talking about people who are seemingly moderate and polite, but change when faced with even the slightest challenge or discomfort.
Stephen Covey refers to these behaviour changes as the Personality Ethic and the Character Ethic. You Personality Ethic is what the world sees at first glance. The Character Ethic is who you really are, but not all people see this – sometimes it’s hidden, but in tough circumstances hiding it becomes close to impossible.
He says:
In most one-shot or short-lived human interactions, you can use the Personality Ethic to get by and to make favorable impressions through charm and skill and pretending to be interested in other people’s hobbies. You can pick up quick, easy techniques that may work in short-term situations. But secondary traits alone have no permanent worth in long-term relationships. Eventually, if there isn’t deep integrity and fundamental character strength, the challenges of life will cause true motives to surface and human relationship failure will replace short-term success.
Furthermore…
Many people with secondary greatness – that is, social recognition for their talents – lack primary greatness or goodness in their character. Sooner or later, you’ll see this is every long term relationship they have, whether it is with a business associate, a spouse, a friend, or a teenage child going through an identity crisis. It is character that communicates most eloquently. As Emerson once put it, “What you are shouts so loudly in my ears I cannot hear what you say.”
Of course, if we’re people with true integrity, our Character Ethic will show that in tough circumstances, and this will validate our Personality Ethic. This is why customers now have a choice of who to work with. Customers can now monitor the ethics of an individual or company and then choose whether or not to enter into a business relationship. The same is true for personal relationships. The Internet has exposed us, so to speak.
I think it’s time we need to work on our Character Ethic.
Photo credit: place_light
Press the flesh
March 11, 2010
The answer is “yes” to all of these questions. I believe that moderation is crucial in all aspects of life. Yes, Web 2.0 and Social Media have changed industries and many business and communication fundamentals, but we need not – and should not – discard everything that worked well before.
Press the flesh is a term I picked up in a book called The Rules of Entrepreneurship by Rob Yeung. [I incorrectly referred to it as "Touch the flesh" in a recent seminar - apologies.] It refers to meeting people and shaking their hands. I believe this is vital. I try to have a few meetings every week. One per day would be great, but currently that’s just not possible with all the desk work I have to do. Meetings are great, they reveal a lot about the people that we’re doing business with (partners, associates, clients) – but even more importantly, they help build the relationship like no online activity can. It’s all about relationships, isn’t it? It’s all about people, isn’t it? I also have a policy to not have my MacBook out at a first meeting. I am surprise how rushed people are to get out their laptops and do some screen-dazzling. Nope. I want to get to know the person first. Let’s talk.
A few months ago someone who does similar work to what I do posted something on Facebook. He said that we should do away with all boardrooms and meeting rooms, and all meetings should take place online. I think that’s absurd. I’ll even go as far as to say it’ll never happen.
Throwing the baby out with the bath water is almost never a good idea. Adapt, yes. Change, yes. Grow, yes. Innovate, yes. Have blinkers on, no!
I still use business cards, even though I know that if you Google my name you will find so much information about me. Business cards still help when meeting people, and they also help in giving contact information to people who are not online all day like we are (yes, there still are many of those types of people). Meetings are irreplaceable. However, I must say this. I meet when I feel it’s a good thing to meet. I’m fully aware that many people and organisations are stuck in having-meetings-about-other-meetings syndrome, and they waste hours each month in unproductive activity. This is not a good thing. I have many online meetings (using tools such a Skype and Dimdim), and I even do coaching and seminars online – but I balance those with personal meetings and events. Boardrooms? Like books, I think they’re going to be around for a VERY long time. There’s too much value in these things for them to be replaced overnight. Maybe in 50 years things will be different, I don’t know. But we’re talking about our current situation, and perhaps the near future.
Rob Yeung says:
“Touch trumps tech every time…A single meeting a day may win you more business than hours of phone calls, letter writing, and emails combined…Secure that contact and press the flesh.”
It all about balance, I guess.
Apponomics
March 11, 2010
Yesterday I tweeted the news of the newly opened Google Apps Marketplace, but I feel that I need to blog about this. This, I feel, is important for us all to understand, because the future of business and technology is being defined – and redefined – in and by online advancements.
One of the many things I love about the Web 2.0 world is it’s direct and natural resemblance to the real world. Web 2.0 – like the real world is all about sharing, honesty, transparency, and all those feel-good things. In the real world, no man can live alone. No man is an island, as they say. We need to connect, collaborate, and help each other to build a society. Everyone is important. The famous NASA story comes to mind. One of the cleaning ladies at NASA was asked what she does, she said: “I send people to space.” Now that is a profound understanding of common purpose and vision.
In the Web 2.0 world collaboration is fundamental. There is no surviving without it. If you want to “go it alone” in this space, you’re going to go nowhere slowly. Successful online companies (like Google, Facebook, and Twitter) have realised this. They’ve realised that they have to allow collaboration into and of their products, in order to provide more value to end users. This is not an easy thing to do – it is to some level a relinquishing of control.
If you’ve ever been on Facebook (who hasn’t!), you’ve at one time or another used an Application, an App as it is commonly known. There are Apps for everything, obviously the gaming Apps – like Farmville (reporting 83, 755, 953 monthly active users) – are very famous. There are Apps in all sorts of categories – Business, Education, Entertainment, etc. You can find a full directory of Facebooks Apps here.
Facebook wouldn’t be Facebook without the Apps. So picture Facebook as a big company in a big building. The company is theirs. The building is theirs. But they’ve opened up little side doors all around the building, to allow other companies (the App developers) to have access to their users. It’s a Win-Win-Win situation. Facebook wins because their users have a more enriched experience. The App developers win because they have access to millions of people. And the end user wins because we have a better experience on Facebook.
These little side doors are called APIs. An API is an Application Programming Inteface.
Apple has done the same with the iPhone. Apps really make the iPhone. And there’s an App for virtually anything. See the official Apple directory here. Some Apps are free, and some carry a price tag. Prices are very affordable though. Ranging from $0.99 to just a few dollars. App developers have already made a fortune selling millions of Apps in the Apple App Store. The Apple iPad is going to be released in a few months, and already there are Apps being created for it.
There are so many Twitter Apps available. TweetDeck, Tweetie, and Twhirl allow you to monitor and send tweets. Apps like Twitpic allow you to send photos on Twitter. It’s very interesting that the Twitpic founder was interview by Andrew Warner on Mixergy.com recently, and he said that last year he was offered over $10 million for his company. He didn’t sell, of course. What’s more interesting is that Twitpic doesn’t have offices. The founder works from home, and his parents also work for him – from their home, and he has also employed another developer – which he hasn’t even met yet, and who also works remotely. Yep, that’s how drastically the business world is changing.
If you look at the homepage of this website, you’ll see our Flickr photos displayed. This is an example of WordPress using the Flickr API.
The examples of API usage are endless, and it’s going to grow. To understand this dynamic of mass collaboration, I really recommend the book Wikinomics by Don Tapscott and Anthony D Williams.
It says:
Even ardent competitors are collaborating on path-breaking scientific initiatives that accelerate discovery in their industries
and…
McEwen saw things differently. He realized the uniquely qualified minds to make new discoveries were probably outside the boundaries of his organization, and by sharing some intellectual property he could harness the power of collective genius and capability. In doing so he stumbled successfully into the future of innovation, business, and how wealth and just about everything else with be created.
I suggest you buy this book. It’s well worth the read if this sort of thing is of interest to you.
The latest spark in the App world is the opening of the Google Apps Marketplace.
Google says:
More than 2 million businesses have adopted Google Apps over the last three years, eliminating the hassles associated with purchasing, installing and maintaining hardware and software themselves.
We’ve found that when businesses begin to experience the benefits of cloud computing, they want more. We’re often asked when we’ll offer a wider variety of business applications — from accounting and project management to travel planning and human resources management. But we certainly can’t and won’t do it all, and there are hundreds of business applications for which we have no particular expertise.
In recent years, many talented software providers have embraced the cloud and delivered a diverse set of features capable of powering almost any business. But too often, customers who adopt applications from multiple vendors end up with a fractured experience, where each particular application exists in its own silo. Users are often forced to create and remember multiple passwords, cut and paste data between applications, and jump between multiple interfaces just to complete a simple task.
Today, we’re making it easier for these users and software providers to do business in the cloud with a new online store for integrated business applications. The Google Apps Marketplace allows Google Apps customers to easily discover, deploy and manage cloud applications that integrate with Google Apps. More than 50 companies are now selling applications across a range of businesses…
Watch this interesting video to see how easy it is to use the Google Apps Marketplace:
Photo credit: cambodia4kidsorg
P/PC Balance in Social Media
March 11, 2010
It’s impossible to be on Twitter or Facebook for 5 minutes without learning something new. People across the world are talking about all sorts of things, and providing useful links to pretty fantastic websites. This is occurring literally all day and all night, without exception. It’s quite fascinating actually.
General browsing will bring “random value” – value on all sorts of subjects. You can also be specific and dig into topic areas and really get exactly the information you want. Tools like TweetDeck work like a dream when trying to do this. It’s no wonder that Sky News rolled it out to its staff recently.
Executive producer of Sky News Online, Julian March, said this about the TweetDeck rollout:
“The big change for us in 2010 is evolving how social media plays a role in our journalism. We no longer ghettoise it to one person, but are in the process of embedding throughout the whole team.”
With all of this information, it’s extremely easy to get sucked in. It’s easy to spend all day reading, collecting information, bookmarking, and filing. But doing only this will get one nowhere. There has to be a balance between collection data, and using data.
Stephen Covey explains this principle very accurately in The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. He calls it the P/PC Balance. P is Production, and PC is Production Capability.
You have to keep Production (using data to produce workshops, products, etc) and Production Capability (research, crafting your skills, etc) in balance – otherwise you won’t be effective.
His words:
Effectiveness lies in the balance. Excessive focus on P results in ruined health, worn-out machines, depleted bank accounts, and broken relationships. Too much focus on PC is like a person who runs three or four hours a day, bragging about the extra ten years of life it creates, unaware he’s spending them running. Or a person endlessly going to school, never producing, living on other people’s golden eggs – the eternal student syndrome.
In the Social Media space, it’s very easy to be a victim of the eternal student syndrome. Our industry literally changes daily. New developments at Google, Facebook, Twitter, etc shift the way we do things every so often. Company buy-outs and mergers are pretty common and no longer surprising. It’s easy for us to consume all of this information disproportionally to our actual use of the information.
I have learnt, from Covey’s teachings, to adapt this principle to every area of life. And I would recommend that you consider the same.
Covey:
The P/PC Balance is the very essence of effectiveness. It’s validated in every arena of life. We can work with it, or against it, but it’s there. It’s a lighthouse.
Social Media is very powerful. But a low-information diet will help us keep the P and PC balanced.
Photo credit: johnjoh
Get your head out of the clouds – no, don’t!
March 10, 2010
“Get your head out of the clouds” is a famous saying that I’m sure we all know all too we ll. Having your head in the clouds was seen as a bad thing, when someone was daydreaming, etc. But, it’s 2010. And I say: don’t only get your head right up there in the clouds, but get your entire business up there too!
The 2 terms used to describe what I’m referring to are: “Cloud Computing” and “The Web as a platform.”
Let’s look at the evolution of computing (in a very over-simplified manner). First there were none. Then there were very big computers, mainframes, which were in the hands of a select few. Then the desktop computer was born. Then networks were born – a bunch of computers connected to each other. First you could only connect to the network’s server by physically being in the building. Then you could connect from any location by dialing in. Then national and global networks emerged. Then the Internet was born.
The Internet is, metaphorically, the cloud. More and more, all our information resides online. Less and less are we dependent on servers, desktop computers, or laptops. We are dependent – more and more – on the Internet though. But that’s okay, because access to the Internet is becoming more easy, and less costly.
If you’re a Facebook user (and I’ll bet you are), you’d have experienced the power of the cloud. Logging into your Facebook account from any computer or mobile phone provides all your Facebook information – contacts, messages, news feed, etc. The same with Twitter.
I think Internet banking was the first significant cloud service. Firstly, being able to bank online revolutionised business, in my opinion. Being able to access your bank account, and make payments, without going into a bank – changed the game forever. And if you had a bad experience as I did of having being arm robbed after leaving a bank, it tends to be one of your least favourite places to visit. Secondly, you could bank from absolutely anywhere – as long as you had an Internet connection. Phenomenal!
Today there are so many cloud services which make our lives much more productive, much more fun, and much easier. Google Apps (used by 2 million businesses worldwide, including ours) is a communication suite from Google – providing email, online documents, calendar, and more. Freshbooks is an online invoicing system – also providing time tracking, expense tracking, and quotations. Evernote, Basecamp, and many other online applications now make us more mobile. We are no longer dependent on computers or locations, we’re only dependent on the Internet – and that’s not too hard to come by these days.
It’s not easy to give up control of your data, and move it to online locations – but it’s a move we must make. And once we’ve made that move, we never want to go back!
Photo credit: kables
