Year: 2006

I almost didn’t link to this article, just because there is not a whole lot of news in it. But I think it is good to see the Google vs. vertical media/search discussion continuing. The small snippets in this piece make me think that these guys are smart about the situation and smart about talking about it frankly.

“A panel of b-to-b media executives Monday countered the conventional wisdom that Google and similar search engines are “a mile wide and an inch deep” and pose little or no threat to content-rich b-to-b media companies.”

Read more: Vertical search hotly debated on first day of media dealmakers summit

Here is a fascinating article (and I forgot who linked to it, so my apologies to whoever it was) that takes the book On Killing and applies it to salesmanship. I found it interesting how realistic, repetitive training has lifted the response and effectiveness of a soldier or squad.

When I was in basic training, being able to quickly don a gas mask was a skill we repeatedly were tested on. On our final combat training march, one of the drill sergeants rolled a tear-gas canister right at my feet. I stood there, just a few seconds later, literally amazed at the fact that I had my gas mask on.

On Killing…Similarities of Soldiering and Selling:

“Clearly, if only 15% of the assets you have expensively brought to face an enemy are performing, your army has a major problem. The US Army raised this traditional firing rate from 15% up to 50% between W.W.II and the Korean conflict and again to better than 95% in Vietnam and Desert Storm. …

‘Numerous studies have concluded that men in combat are usually motivated to fight not by ideology or hate or fear, but by group pressures and processes involving (1) regard for their comrades, (2) respect for their leaders, (3) concern for their own reputation with both, and (4) an urge to contribute to the success of the group.’

Many sales organizations, by contrast, pit salespeople against each other and minimize the role of sales managers. It is a world of lone wolves, though teamwork and leadership are demonstrated multipliers of effectiveness.”

I kind of figured it was possible but never tried until today. You can simply drag iCal files to the “Calenders” folder on your iPod. (Mac users can use iSync to do this automatically.)

We are using iCal exported calendars from Goldmine as I’ve talked about before. In an effort to be a GTD person, I’ve been hemming and hawing about going with an electronic personal calendar, but now I think I will (using Sunbird to create ical files). Dragging-and-dropping is a step I’d rather avoid, but since my iPod goes everywhere I go, it should be my tool of choice.

Got a favicon for your website? Everyone should! In the past I’ve pointed to software to do this, but it wasn’t the easiest–this is: The Favicon Generator. (Found via the Generator Blog, which is fun to track.) It converts an image file on your computer to a favicon.

“What is a Favicon? A favicon (short for ‘favorites icon’ and also known as a page icon), is an icon associated with a particular website or webpage that is displayed in the browser address bar next to a site’s URL.”

You’ve heard me say it a bunch of times. Usually with concrete examples of what can go wrong that will ‘kill ya’.

Here is how Seth tells it in his post A million little cuts: “you avoid a slow death by getting every little thing right.”

That’s why we are guardians! (See that post for a gem from another guru, BPG, who says “Empires crumble at the fringes”.)

As a jack-of-all marketing guy, I often find myself having to work with photos. Website, flyers, emails to reps, and more. Some are professionally taken, others are quick snapshots with a digital camera. I still need to re-adjust size and formats, and other minor formating. Just today I was trying to adjust the coloring of two pictures that I want to use together, but one is blueish and one is redish. It ain’t easy!

Here is a great article reviewing the picture process, from shoot to file-prep. If you don’t like her DIY light-box, you can find some decent ones on eBay.

Check it out: Taking Professional-looking Photos Without a Professional

BTW: Here’s my image-handling toolbox:

• Older camera similar to Canon A610 with a pivoting screen. The pivot feature is essential if you are taking pictures of larger equipment, so you can go low or high.
• Irfanview basic image handling program. Great for quickly viewing images, cropping & reducing file sizes, plus basic color adjustment. Its free, everyone should have it!
• Photoshop LE version that came with the camera. I use it for working with TIF files I get from the pros. Its not the easiest to use, but has the best functions for managing outlines and colors.
• Fireworks for creating composite layouts and adding text. It’s preview mode for export to jpg makes it essential.

Here is the email I received from the SAE show which we are attending (formating modified for compactness):

SAE International Corporate Communications
invites you to participate in a
SAE 2006 WORLD CONGRESS PR TELECONFERENCE

Monday, Jan. 30, 2006, 2:30-3:30 p.m. EST
or
Tuesday, Jan. 31, 2006, 9:30-10:30 a.m. EST
* You only have to be on one or the other! *

To participate in this session, call … and dial pass code …#
You help us so much – we want to help you!

Okay, the chances of me joining a PR teleconference are almost nill to start with, but this email does nothing to get me there. Here are some snowballs at the writer of this one:

• Why the cutsy GIF image with the cutsy saying? How about an SAE logo instead?
• Why say “you only have to be on one or the other” when there are better ways to communicate that there are two different sessions?
• And why, why, why, invite folks to such a teleconference without telling them what its about??? “We want to help you!”–how???

Aren’t PR professionals supposed to be experts in communication? In creating buzz and interest in what they are doing? Look out snowmen, looks like you’ll be the only ones at this call!

I’ve been reading the Slow Leadership blog, which I’ve found to be helpful to keep thinking about how to do my job better…and sanely. The blogger, Carmine Coyote, has been running a survey about readers’ needs for slow leadership. I dutifully filled it out.

I was not prepared for the type of responses he got. Here’s one sample:

“Problems are delegated, not tasks. There is a culture that says ‘If you can’t meet the deadline it must be because you’re not trying hard enough’, rather than ‘You’re not meeting the deadline. Is there a problem? Can we help?'”

He finishes the post of comments from the survey with this thought: “Eventually, the pressures reach those who can delegate no further.” Is that any way to run a business or be a leader? That’s insane!

Read more: Slow Leadership: First feedback from our survey

I never really revealed my new year’s resolution this year. That’s because I haven’t followed Larry’s steps to make it SMART yet. What I want to to is become a GTD person. A ‘Getting Things Done’ organized person.

In The GTD book, David Allen says that we need a trusted tool to record our Next Actions so that our brain can relax. I’ve wanted a web-tool to do this, but everything I’ve found was set to just run on my PC or a thumb-drive. I want to easily access my GTD tool from home or work. Today at LifeHack there was a link to a new GTD tool running on PHP.

I downloaded it and started looking at installation. All the instructions are based on installing an SQL server on your own Mac. Ack! I’m no PHP/SQL geek, but how card could it be? Here’s what I had to do to install it on my website.

1. Created database on the server using tools from my host’s DirectAdmin program. Made sure to note username and password (note username and database name format is like this: b2blog_gtd).
2. Edited the config.sample.php file per the instructions, but also modified the database name, then saved as config.php.
3. Uploaded all the files to a directory on the server (you can probably guess the name of the directory).
4. Tested the index.php page and remembered I also have to create tables in the database.
5. Used web host’s tool myphpadmin and clicked to load an external SQL script. This script is part of the files that come with GTD_PHP.
6. After getting error messages, I edited the sql script to correct two things: 1. corrected database name (shows up only twice, I think); 2. corrected one line in the script that wasn’t compatible with my version of SQL.
7. Re-ran the script until it worked.
8. Used my host’s tool to password protect the directory. If I wasn’t writing this post, I probably wouldn’t have done this.

My version of SQL is older (4.0.16) and what I had to do is change the last line of each table-creation step to read like this:

It took me a while to figure this out, so I hope I can help someone else whose host isn’t running the latest and greatest.

Now, if I can finish the book and do the SMART steps, I can start getting things done…online!

Its B2B spam written with the skill of a 419 (Nigerian) scam…

“Hello Sales,
We saw a placement of advert of your products so we decided to contact you for the product and we want you to know they will be shipped to our company for the New Year Sales and new products to be market for our customers. We make the payment for all Items we bought with our Company Account Credit card informations so we will like to konw if you ship to London,Uk i mean in SHOREDITCH, LONDON where our company is location.We want you to give us the goahead to pick the Items we need if you accept our proposal. “

Bizarre!