Showing posts with label Twitter. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Twitter. Show all posts
Thursday, July 16, 2009

The One Question You Must Answer

10:57 AM | Posted by Wes Stalcup | | Edit Post
All Results Drivers (customer, constituents, followers, employees, members) want the answer to one question.

Do you know that question? It's only 2 words.

Ask yourself the question about everything you do on the internet and your results will improve. No doubt. Guaranteed.

A quick intro to help get to the question, so you can begin to make sure you answer it. I recently took a class where a gentleman named Jim Kukral was one of the instructors. Jim's a big personality with a lot of great insights. He always has a look on his face that makes you think he is going to bust out laughing. A smile not quite contained. You should add Jim to your list of people to get good stuff from.

Jim likes to say there are only 2 reasons people use the internet. 1) to be entertained or 2) to solve or get an answer to a problem.

Think about it for a minute & I bet you'll agree.

For this discussion, I might suggest that can even be distilled further. People use the internet to have needs met. (I can't help them with some of those needs, to be sure. :-) )

People - your Results Drivers - judge whether what you are offering satisfies their needs and wants by asking this question about everything you do.

The question? "So What?"

Ask yourself that simple question until you get to the fundamental final answer. The answer which, for your business or activity, is the last answer you can give. That answer will be the benefit your Results Drivers get from that offering.

Really simple example: You say, "We're offering new software"

So what?

"Um.. It's faster."

So what?

"Well... you get your results in less time..." (getting closer)

So what?

"Faster results mean more time for you to do other things"

Ah... So your software means the user will have more free time. That might actually meet a need or want.

Now that you have that answer, you can frame it back into your relationship with the user - in the spirit of Billy Mays - as a question to find out if it really matters. [An aside...speaking of Billy Mays, if you didn't watch the first season of Pitchmen, do catch the reruns - it's quite educational AND note that Discovery Channel has renewed the show for another season. YEA!]

"Are you tired of wasting time waiting on your old software?"

It's sound rudimentary and terribly obvious for that example. Who wouldn't do that for a software product? But, how often do we forget it or think we can ignore the concept in another context.

Do all the elements of your Growth Engine (sign up for Grow! - the eCourse for definition) answer "So What?" for the Results Drivers you engage there?

Does your blog entertain or offer usable bits of advice? Your website? Your Twitter stream? Your Facebook page? Your storefront or shop? Your YouTube channel?

Go back & double check.

Then... Let's Grow! Wes
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Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Twitter - Is It For Your Business?

4:46 PM | Posted by Wes Stalcup | | Edit Post
Everyone says you’ve got to be on Twitter. Although many aren’t sure why. Nor is it clear what Twitter will be when it grows up.

Here’s the scoop and what it means to you.

Twitter still doesn’t have a business model, which is ultimately necessary to ensure longevity. It’s likely to be acquired by a larger company and/or morph into something different from what it is now. If it doesn’t, it may not be around for long. Perhaps this creates implied risk in the minds of users.

Why might that be the case? Research now shows the retention rate of users, which is the percentage of last months users that return this month, is lower than other social networking sites and suggests people just aren’t sure what to do with it or aren’t finding value in it. It’s sort of a wild west really. There are side shows, snake oil salesmen (& women), neighborly discussions, con artists, people of

Clark Stanley's :en:Snake Oil :en:Liniment. Be...Image via Wikipedia

ill repute, legitimate businesses selling or doing customer support, and so on - all tweeting away like mad. It’s pretty noisy all the time. There are dozens of tools and 3rd party support sites that have sprung up around Twitter because the Twitter programmers made access easy and open. Some of these 3rd parties do have business models. Most, if not all, have a free element which, as you’ll see, is to our - the users - benefit.

Given the lack of clarity though, what’s all the fuss about? Simply, a place that millions of people visit everyday and where many engage in actual discussion, sharing information, etc has something very compelling about it. I’ve spent a lot of hours trying to get my hands around Twitter and some of it’s surrounding 3rd party tool sites. In the process I discovered some of the best and worst of it all.

The question is, does Twitter hold any value for your organization? The answer is: yes it can, if used correctly. Remember the goal is to help you build relationships with your Results Drivers.

This post is adapted from and concludes in Grow! - The eCourse, Chapter 5.

So, if you are on the fence check about Twitter out the chapter 5 & the rest of the course for FREE by signing up over on the left column <<<<<

Make your days great - by choice!

Wes
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Thursday, May 14, 2009

Grow Profits by Growing Relationships

11:20 AM | Posted by Wes Stalcup | | Edit Post

Cost-Volume-Profit diagram, showing Break-Even...Image via Wikipedia

A friend asked me the other day how the notion of Grow! by building relationships with people - whom we call Results Drivers - actually helped a business needing to grow it's profits in this economy.

It's a reasonable question.

If I am talking about using technology tools such as blogs, Linkedin, YouTube or Twitter to connect with people the word "profit" doesn't necessarily get mentioned in every discussion. Point taken. Profit is at least one step removed, but far from forgotten.

In the early portions of Grow! - The eCourse, our discussion is about Results Drivers, some of whom are customers. I cite the proven idea that getting more sales from an existing customer is easier and cheaper than getting a new customer. So, closer connections with existing customers equals sales achieved at lower cost which equals higher profits. That's assuming you make a profit on sales to begin with.

If you are not making a profit on each sale to begin with there can only be two reasons: 1) your product or service with overhead costs are more than you are selling for - which is a totally different topic and one for which selling more doesn't help. You can't really make "it" up (a loss) on volume. or 2) your volume of sales (revenue) has not yet surpassed your total expense. That is: you aren't breaking even yet as shown above in the diagram. That is the case where increasing sales to existing customers and getting new customers will grow the business AND lead you to profitability. It can often do it very quickly.

The idea of Grow! is to put tools into place which can improve all kinds of key business or orgaizational metrics by a keen focus in one area: The people - Results Drivers - who have to biggest impact on your results.

Let's Grow!
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