Business in General Archives - Page 8 of 25 by Mark Murnahan

Anybody Will Sell You Stuff: Some Will Ask “What About You?”

Listening Builds Friendships ... and Companies! — Listening Builds Friendships
... and Companies!

Let’s consider a trait that we can each benefit from, and most of us should work harder to achieve. I will tell it in personal terms, and then explain how it applies to marketing a business.

I am sure you must know somebody who makes you feel comfortable to talk with about anything you want to talk about. When I find myself encountering this rare-as-a-unicorn person who just wants to know about me, and the things I want, it almost feels awkward at first, but in a uniquely good way.

I am talking about those people who listen attentively and do more than just nod their head and yawn as you ramble, while waiting to assert their agenda. I mean the kind who draw you in and make you feel totally comfortable to want what you want, think what you think, and be who you are. You tell them things, because they actually show their interest in you.

When you encounter this type of person, it is easy to feel that their story has got to be a great one. Their expressed interest in you has made them more interesting, and it makes you want to know them better, and to hear their side. Suddenly, there is a desire to switch things around and make the conversation more about them, what they want, what they think, and how you can be a better friend to them.

I hope that you have had the privilege to know somebody like I have described here. If so, you are probably nodding and smiling as you think of the way it makes you feel about them. It may even make you want to ring them on the phone to catch up on things since you last spoke.

Applying Listening to Marketing a Brand

Think about how you feel in a scenario where a person really cares what you have to say. I don’t mean the kind who fake it, but rather the kind where you can sense a sincere interest in you. Don’t you want to be more like them?

Have you ever encountered this feeling that you are talking too much and listening too little? All of the sudden you feel a little bit like a conversation hog, but it is so hard to change. When you want more business, you have to talk more, and it becomes hard to remember those listening skills.

This “listening person” we all enjoy is often there, in the back of our mind, but they are very hard to emulate. What I described is a common dynamic of any relationship, but the special ones we think so kindly about are simply better at it than we are.

In business, we each have our agenda, and our sets of rules for what we think is the best outcome for our own interests. We plan things in ways that we will get what we want out of the relationship, and deviating from that plan is a threat. It is simply against the rules.

In marketing, it is very popular to be the one doing all the talking, and nod and yawn while customers try to tell us what they want. I see extreme selfishness every day in marketing. I see it most profoundly online, because it is easy for companies to scream louder when they think that nobody is listening.

It is important to notice when our set of rules and a selfish mindset diminishes our potential. This is a common outcome when we forget to listen and be that person who becomes more interesting simply by being genuinely interested.

Consider for just a moment the instances when it may be best to approach business as a bit more of an interested introvert, and less of an interesting extrovert. It may create a chance to reset your objectives and become a better “friend” to your customers. The outcome will often be that you will become more interesting, and others will think kindly and smile when they think of your business. The good news is that this truly is scalable to any size of brand!

Are you taking enough time to ask people “What about you?” I guess we could call compassion and listening matters of “growing up” or “wisdom”, but I believe that we can each do more to cultivate our listening and caring skills.

How can you better address the importance of listening to what people want? Will you do the necessary research? Will you take that extra time to slow down and get to know what people want and expect of you?

What do you have to say about this? I welcome your comments, and I want to know “What about you?”

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Fisker Automotive’s “Fisker Karma” vs. “Social Media Karma”

Fisker Automotive is a startup automobile manufacturer based in Irvine, California that holds some pretty valuable cards in the future of “green” car technology. Like any startup, how they play those cards will close the gap on their potential to become a Ford or a Flop. First, I want to tell you how amazing the product is, and then I will share some reasons you may or may not see this 100 MPG powerhouse in a driveway near you. I will also offer some solutions. This should be a lesson to any company.

Fisker has developed an extended range electric hybrid car that I would describe as being so sexy it makes me want to take my shirt off and rub the Karma all over my body. I do not apologize if that gives you an awkward visual, because their Fisker Karma holds many of the same elements which car lovers, like myself, look for in a proper mate. It has amazing curves, it is strong at over 400 horsepower and astonishing torque, plus it looks fast standing still. I suspect that it even smells like a new car, and we all know how sexy that is, right?

Fisker Karma: The Car You Never Let Your Daughter Borrow

The Karma shares signature design elements with distant cousins Aston Martin DB9 and BMW Z8 Roadster; cars which were also designed by CEO, Henrik Fisker. Fisker may be an unfamiliar name to you, but he has a pedigree in automotive design, and has made some bold statements since his liberating personal venture into Fisker Coachbuild.

An added attraction which bolsters Fisker Karma’s market potential is that it treads lightly on our planet. In common short distance day-to-day use, the Karma is a plug-in electric car. Any true car-lover knows that electric cars have full-tilt torque-on-demand to plant you firmly into the seat in an instant. The torque, which is what makes car enthusiasts’ heart race, is mind-blowing. Don’t fret if the batteries fade, because it will automatically kick into gasoline-augmented “Sport” mode with enough power to whack your skull back into the headrest far better than your average hot rod. Bonus points come to play while the Fisker Karma can do this and still achieve 100 miles per gallon, and 300 miles between energy stops.

Fisker is Easy to Hate

The automotive industry is an easy target which many people love to hate. We love the freedom our cars give us, while we hate things like breakdowns, smog, and car makers who get bailed out while other economy-drivers eat beans and try to keep their companies afloat. Anybody who ever met a stereotypical car salesman has likely forged a few dire opinions about the automotive industry.

Karma: “the concept of “action” or “deed”, understood as that which causes the entire cycle of cause and effect”
Source: Wikipedia

Some companies are easier to beat up than others. It is often not because they are doing something wrong, but because they are not projecting enough that is right. With too little positive representation, a negative portrayal is much easier for critics to propagate. In the case of Fisker Karma, the automotive rumor shylocks have come to collect their pound of flesh.

Fisker Automotive has received a significant share of negative public attention for a company able to produce over $300 million in private capital followed by a U.S. Department of Energy loan for an additional $528.7 million (REF: US DOE Announcement).

Matters such as production delays, pricing increases, and gouges aimed at corporate officers are readily available, and even prevalent in their online media mix. I am not sure I would call it overly punishing just yet, but I consider it enough that people with the high stakes of founders Henrik Fisker and Bernhard Koehler, are wise to carefully monitor and attempt to adjust the brand image. I would also consider it punishing enough to speculate that large investors in founding partner Quantum Technologies (NASDAQ “QTWW”) have cause for any spoken and unspoken concerns.

It is not uncommon for a startup automobile manufacturer to have critics, but it is disappointing that the company does not appear as a significant participant in their publicity, positive or negative, thus far.

Thinking Points for Fisker Automotive Executives

I would like to offer a short list of solutions for the company. I also want to point out that these can be modified and applied to most other companies, as well.

Monitor: Monitor the Fisker Automotive brand. Act upon the horrid speculation and testimonies of others, using consumer-centric answers, instead of continued passive acceptance.
Qualify: Qualify benefits of issues such as price increases and production delays. There are clearly defined reasons, and they are not all embarrassing ones. The embarrassing reasons are the speculative excuses which people make up about Fisker.
Create: Create a respectable blog, for the sake of all things logical and measurable. Have a hub for the Fisker Automotive brand’s voice.
Strategize: Use Fisker’s massive technology, financial, and human assets to forge a strategy. “Sell more cars” or “Increase industry alliances abroad” are not strategies. Those are goals and tactics, but competing with Tesla’s Master Plan will require strategy.
Participate: Notice and participate in positive publicity. I have read a lot of good news about Fisker, too. In fact, I recently submitted a story to Digg.com about Fisker’s agreement with China Grand Automotive Group and watched over 40 Digg votes stack up within just a couple hours. In each of the news stories and online conversations I have read, I never witness any company participation to answer questions, but I have often seen the comments turn sour. In several cases, there is a correlation between that lack of participation and the souring of opinions.
Delegate: Be diligent in reviewing my qualifications and my drive to assist the company. My résumé is only a click away, and likely a great investment for Fisker Automotive.

I hope to see Fisker do well, and I am pulling for them. In fact, there is only a small list of companies flying this low on my RADAR for which I initiate prompts to review my résumé. Fisker Automotive is a company that I find a strong desire to work with, because I see their enormous potential, as well as their missing pieces.

The first step is to find out if Fisker is listening, and if so, whether they recognize a need to address their current and upcoming challenges of public opinions and brand marketing.

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Auto Racing Legend Says “Prove It!”

One of the greatest marketing one-liners in my recent recollection is “Prove it!”, and it came directly from a legend in the automotive racing industry. I think it can apply to nearly any company, in any industry. As a race enthusiast and driver, myself, I found a special attachment to this phrase. In racing, winning is not subjective, and you either “prove it”, or you lose the race. I will share the story with you, and hope to encourage you to do more than just make claims, but to actually prove it!

If you are an automotive enthusiast, you probably know the name, Brock Yates. Just in case you don’t have octane in your coffee and motor oil running through your veins, I will give you a quick background on this iconic man.

From Wikipedia:

“Brock Yates is an American journalist and author. He was longtime executive editor of Car and Driver, an American automotive magazine.”
… “currently serves as a commentator on racing and vintage cars for the Speed Channel”
… “wrote Smokey and the Bandit II (1980). Yates also wrote the screenplay for The Cannonball Run (1981) film”

Best of all, there are two Brocks! Brock Yates Jr. continued his father’s profound love of performance automobiles and racing, and became the next generation of legendary Yates gearheads. “Brockr”, as many know him, is the next generation of Yates to pour gasoline on the 27 year old tradition of “Cannonball Run”, now commonly referred to as “Cannonball One Lap of America“. Cannonball is no longer the cross-country race from coast-to-coast across America as it was portrayed (with relative accuracy) in the Cannonball Run movie. Cannonball Run is a fact of the rebellious auto racing past, but the event continues to thrive in its modern, and law-abiding, iteration of today. It is now a National Auto Sport Association (NASA) sanctioned event, with a strong following of sports car racing enthusiasts.

The Cannonball One Lap of America over the past couple decades is an annual event taking race teams from one race track to the next, crossing the United States to compete and prove their racing skill and endurance with sixteen events in just eight days. Short-named “One Lap” is where automotive manufacturers, and companies of all kinds, send their best amateur and professional racers from all around the world to compete and to “Prove it!”

When Brock Yates Said “Prove It!”

I called “Brockr” a few nights ago to see how the Performance Racing Industry (PRI) trade show in Orlando went, and to further strategize my efforts to move deeper into the automotive industry, myself. We never seem to spend less than a couple hours on the phone, and I am not sure which of us is to blame, but we have great conversations, and I am delighted to call Brock a good friend.

Before Brock finally had to run and put his daughter to bed, he said “Oh, Mark, I have just one more quick story to tell …” He told that while he was at PRI, he approached several performance tuning companies with cars on display. He walked up to each of them and asked, “Is it fast?” Of course they answered “Yes! Very fast!” He then asked, “Is it durable?” Many automotive performance tuners will lie about this one, so Brock’s very appropriate answer to each of them was “Prove it” … and bring it to One Lap of America.

It is a message that I have given to companies at least a squillion times. If you have something better than the rest, and something that people should consider spending their hard-earned money to buy, you should prove it!

“Prove It” at Brock Yates’ Cannonball One Lap of America

I don’t hand out a lot of free “plugs”, but I can qualify this one. I have competed in Brock Yates’ Cannonball One Lap of America twice, in 2007 and 2008. Those were some of the most challenging days of my life, but days that I hope to repeat over and over again in future years, including the coming 3500 mile 2011 event.

The event comes early each May, and it is an amazing opportunity to see what you are made of. It also provides many excellent marketing opportunities, with multiple sponsorship levels to choose from. The marketing potential is especially strong if you take the initiative to publicize your participation well, and broadcast the whole eight days live on the Internet the way I did in 2008. Just imagine how many people would talk about that across social media, and all the new incoming links your website could have. There are a lot of imitators, but this is an event which really shows what a car enthusiast is made of, and it combines two of my favorite things … racing and marketing.

Here is an entertaining video of Motor Trend’s coverage of the event in 2010. It tells a great story of just how hard some people will work to prove what they can do.

John Heinricy Makes an Ideal One Lap Co-Driver!

As a side note to the story, and with a wink and a nudge, I offer a “brilliant” idea. I think that the uber-automotive-icon, John Heinricy, could make a mighty loud statement for Torvec, Inc. or the Hennessey Venom GT by pairing with me for a well-publicized live webcast of the event. Even better, he and Torvec’s CEO, Richard Kaplan, could appoint me as Torvec’s Marketing Director and implement high-torque strategies to demonstrate Torvec’s great potential.

Now back to the original thought. When you consider your business, I think you should always address this one very important question: How will you “prove it”?

Photo Courtesy of Steve Rossini’s Highland Design Studio

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Social Media and the Underestimated Value of Being Liked

When you think about your social media marketing efforts, it may be easy to consume yourself with all of the facts, figures, demographics, psychographics, website visitors, and how getting it all just right will help your business to succeed. I have written what feels like a squillion words about reaching the right people, being useful, gathering data, dissecting the data to measure your marketing efforts, and other fine things.

Something that I find a lot of people underestimate is the value of being liked. I do not mean “liked” in the sense of somebody clicking “Like” on Facebook, either. I mean, actually being likable and not just because you are offering your awesome stuff at spectacular prices with free shipping. I mean giving people reasons to hold you, or your brand, in high regard.

Each and every one of us has a level of trust among our friends. Even the worst people you will ever meet have the benefits of clout. Even if it is only their mother, there is somebody who holds them in high regard and cares about their opinion. The most common reason is that they are liked.

It reminds me of something a good friend of mine says as he nervously awaits his results each election year. He says “As a politician, I can only count on two votes … mine, and my mother.” Fortunately for him, he is very well liked, and he was recently elected for his fifth term in the Kansas Legislature.

A truth that every successful politician knows very well is that even with the best political platform and massive visibility, it will all fail if they are not likable. This does not just mean being likable enough to get elected, but likable enough to create action in a desired direction. You can still polarize people and be liked and respected. In fact, polarizing an audience is a good way to know who really does like you.

With little exception, each one of us has a group of people who respect us, like us, listen to us, and follow our advice. Being likable is not always as easy to measure as we prefer, but if it was, we would probably all walk through our lives feeling really bold and confident about how we influence somebody … at least somebody.

In case you ever doubted it, this should come as great news for you. You have influence, but where did you get it? If you think about this, it often comes from being liked, more than from any other factor. You may doubt it, or have a bad day and overlook it sometimes, but being liked, or lack thereof, is a big factor in the success of almost anything you attempt.

Like and dislike are not the only two options. There is a wide chasm of indifference between the two. If you want to be liked, you must give people reasons. That is how you move them across the chasm.

Testing the Theory of Being Liked

As a test of the value of being liked, let’s picture two people. It does not really matter what they do for a living, but we will say they are “rocket surgeons”. They went to school for brain surgery and followed it up to become rocket scientists. Both are clearly smart and capable, but which one wins?

Rocket Surgeon Jim is a person you respect highly for his genius ideas and brilliant works in his field, but you do not consider him overly likable. He is polite, but he is just not the kind you gravitate to at a party. Something about Jim seems uncomfortable, and you sometimes wonder how sad and boring it must be to be Jim’s wife. Jim is not a bad person, but he seems a little bit “robotic” and not much of a people person.

Rocket Surgeon David is somebody who is perhaps a notch or two less genius than Jim, but you like David very much. He is quite competent, but his likability alone seems to open doors for him. Just the mention of David’s name brings about good thoughts, and he is the kind of person you like to be around … or maybe even the kind of person you want to be more like.

Which rocket surgeon do you think will find more success in their endeavors?

The value of being likable comes in widely varying degrees, but it always matters. In my estimation, you are probably not too excited to do business with “Rocket Surgeon Jim”, right? Further, you will probably not recommend him to others, like those people I mentioned, who are influenced by you.

Now, if you turn this around and think about how others will respond to you if they do not like you, it is easy to see how it can hurt a business. I mean any business, and even the most genius ones, doing the most brilliant work. Being liked does not just mean keeping people from disliking you, but also actually giving them reasons to like you.

I do not wish to imply that you must be a people-pleaser, but giving reasons to be liked and not just being “robotic” is worth the effort.

Likability Applied to Social Media

The power of being liked is especially evident when you apply it to the vast, and fast moving vehicle of influence, which is social media.

Being genuinely likable, whether as an individual, or as a brand, offers the best possibility to improve the chances of achieving your objectives. If you neglect the importance of being likable, and you just operate as a machine, you are missing the biggest of all assets. Even the least suspecting people you meet will influence somebody, and if they like you, something great could happen.

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Social Media Measurement Tools: What Do They Know About You?

Social Media Measurement is Big Business

How much do people know about you? This is an important question to a lot of people, and particularly businesses. Another perhaps even greater question is “how much do they know about you that gives false indications about you?”

Opinions are very important, and also very easy to forge in social media. At least the bad opinions are easy to create, and so it becomes important to address things which may give early impressions about you, or your company.

There are millions of companies hot on the trail to compiling data about you online. It is easy to imagine that all of the data is just aggregate data which applies to you and millions of others like you, but there is also a shocking amount of data about you, specifically. This is not always a huge security risk, such as people stalking your social media usage to know when you are home and away, or anything so threatening as that. However, a risk that it may impose is an early impression that people or companies may create about you, or insights to your weaknesses.

Whether you are in the business of social media, or using it to promote your business, there are a lot of ways for people to make early, and perhaps false judgments about you. This is not limited to subjective statements about you or your company, and it is often presented with objective data.

I will point out a handful of the social media ranking and measurement tools that people may use to gather an opinion of you. Some may appear as little more than tools to allow people to boast, and promote themselves as being greater than reality. Others may cause a greater impact, especially when used to form a composite view.

It should be noted that each of these services are subject to errors, and often have network limitations imposed by their sources. The data should never be presumed as completely accurate, but again, when a composite is created, it begins to paint a clearer picture.

Klout: “The Standard for Online and Internet Influence”

Klout has some pretty compelling data collection and measurement metrics (see Klout website). Klout measures influence of users across the top social networks, Twitter, Facebook, and soon to include LinkedIn. The service seems to be making a lot of progress with improvements such as daily score updates, which used to be limited to every six days.

On the surface, Klout may just appear to be great for producing bragging rights. However, the emphasis is for discovering others who are measurably influential within given industries or topics. This gives it huge potential for networking as people seek influencers. On the other side of the coin, it could also show competition where you are lacking.

I like Klout’s idea, and with a large group of developers working on their service, it seems they are putting significant effort into it. Since the release of a recent plugin, users are able to view Klout measurement in the popular desktop social media tool, Seesmic Desktop. This makes it clear that people are viewing this data, and most certainly forging opinions.

I believe that Klout has some real potential to add value and move their service forward. I must also say that, although they may be completely wrong about this, I am definitely flattered by their assessment of me as a “Celebrity”. Heck, roll out the red carpet … the Murnahan limo tweeted from 48th Street and is headed this way!

HubSpot Grader Tools

HubSpot has created a suite of individual tools for social media and website measurement, including a Facebook grader, Foursquare grader, Twitter grader, and more. I generally place much lower value on any singular social media signal when compared to aggregate data across multiple sources, but people are using them. The number of people using these tools to discover other influencers or forge opinions, as opposed to seeking bragging rights, is unclear.

In my experience, most ranking services which only grade based on individual services are extremely easy to “game”, and especially with Twitter. I have seen my name at the very top of each of them when I wanted it there, and it often only takes a very short time (hours, not days). Twitter is a pretty challenging place to numerically assign accurate and meaningful values to users, but services like HubSpot’s Twitter Grader, Twitalyzer, TweetLevel, and many others are trying very hard. I have previously pointed out that any algorithm to measure Twitter can be cheated, and often with ease. Here are some reference points for that statement:

PostRank Measurements are Useful, but Flawed

PostRank measures social media engagement of blogs. Yes, blogs are social media. If your company does not have a blog, please stand up and hold out your wrists for a good slapping. Didn’t you read “10 Really Good Reasons to Blog“? Your competition probably did.

PostRank pulls data from many sources, which makes it far less fallible than others which only measure single points of data. PostRank is still limited to restrictions of networks, and simply cannot aggregate all pertinent data. However, it is more compelling than many measurement tools because it aggregates and assigns measurements from an impressive collection of data points.

The image below shows an example of a PostRank score for a given article which shows what PostRank knows about it. Again, I must emphasize that PostRank data can still be flawed, due to network restrictions and the sheer volume of data which is to be reported.

Advertising Age’s “AdAge Power150” Accuracy Through Composite Data

Advertising Age gives a great example of increasing relevance and accuracy by producing a composite view across more data points. The “AdAge Power 150” shows that if you selectively merge some of the many social media measurement tools together, the outcome can become more accurate and compelling.

In the example of AdAge Power 150, they have implemented measures of Todd Points, PostRank, Yahoo InLinks, Alexa Points, and Collective Intellect. Their calculations are explained on the Advertising Age website, and I think it makes a useful example of how social media measurement can be used to form a composite view. To further the depth of the data, most of their sources pull from multiple other data sources.

Summary of Social Media Measurement

Social media influence and authority of a company or individual is not easy to measure, but many people are seeking this data to make estimated guesses about you. This is becoming more prevalent as measurement tools are integrated with other services. It is easy to let down your guard and assume that nobody actually uses this sort of information, but they are, and in huge numbers.

If your online representation is weak, competitors can key in on that weakness and use it against you. On the other hand, if your online branding stands tall and reflects industry authority, it can lead to furthering your network and growing your business opportunities.

One common fact about each of these measurement tools is that in order to be viewed as relevant, you must make consistent efforts.

P.S. One of those measures of PostRank is comments. Strangely, my blog scores sky high, even with a considerably small number of comments, but you can still do your part! Tell me what you think, and how you feel about all of this measuring? How might it affect your business? Do you have a favorite?

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