Category: Everything Else

Why I love Facebook (still)

Last week I shared an article about deleting the Facebook application from my beloved iPhone 7. I definitely experienced some withdrawal symptoms ranging from FOMO (fear of missing out) to a big empty void of free time. The latter was a boon after the FOMO wore off (took only a few days). Suddenly I felt human again – asking people in person about how their day was, what they did in school… making eye contact with people… Okay, I jest a little, but there’s a lot of reality grounded in that statement. Being on Facebook, as I’ve stated before can be very filtered from reality.

So why am I keeping my account and why am I not part of the #DeleteFacebook movement?

It’s simple.

Facebook is here to stay. It has become a part of our lives. Be it through photo sharing with distant friends and relatives, celebrating achievements like births and new jobs, or sharing in grief when hard times hit. We need Facebook because it has become a part of our vernacular and routine. Maybe it won’t be “Facebook” in the future, but rather, a different service… as Facebook displaced MySpace who displaced Friendster and so on. But we have a need for Facebook-like service in our lives. My overture to deleting the app is a personal one about slowing down and focusing on what I feel is important. I do feel there is value in Facebook; in connecting the world and creating communities, movements and facilitating free speech.

And on a side note, I really do love Facebook. After all, much of my career is based upon helping brands evangelize their value and connect with consumers. I do this really well because I have a great tool in helping these brands, Facebook.

So, you won’t find me deleting my Facebook account any time soon.
Revisiting the frog (and other productivity hacks)

A while back (or むかしむかし for those of you following along in Japan), I wrote about one of my all-time favorite quotes and how I believe it applies to productivity in the office:

“If it’s your job to eat a frog, it’s best to do it first thing in the morning. And If it’s your job to eat two frogs, it’s best to eat the biggest one first.” – Mark Twain

And at the time of my original article, I wrote: “From a business perspective, this great quote really hits home. Look at your to-do list and find the item you’ve been dreading most. Perhaps it’s difficult, confusing, or you have just been avoiding it. That’s your frog. Do it. Get that task done (or if it’s a huge project, get it started). Once you eat that frog, the rest of your day will be looking good. You’ll feel great too; relieved that you finally got around to that task that’s been a chip on your shoulder.”

Dodgeball

To this day, I continue to practice the frog-elimination* strategy, and I continue to experience the sense of relief after completing dreaded tasks. However, I started to experience what I’ve coined as to-do list dodge ball. This is the act of adding lots of stuff to your to-do list, doing a lot of stuff, and repeating this over and over again – without ever tackling the frogs. The frogs sit around and carry over from one list to the next.

If this happens, I first need to evaluate whether I really need to do the task. Sometimes, something grows old and the ROI I once thought it brought to the workplace diminishes. Other times I really do need to complete the task.

Schedules

I came across a recent article that discussed scheduling time your Outlook/calendar for work on these types of projects. You essentially force your self to work on the frogs. And, to better enhance your chance of completion, you make it into a meeting with yourself. You silence the phone, put the office line on DND, close email, and dig in.

It’s been about a week since I’ve been doing this in my work and home life and I can tell you that the frogs are disappearing quickly and life is feeling pretty good.

*No actual frogs are harmed as part of my work routine.
50 shades of “it doesn’t really matter”

I just read a brief post by author and marketer, Seth Godin that reminded me of a decision I made in the office last week. He references multiple choice tests… and while my job is very far from multiple choice tests, sometimes I find myself belaboring over diminishing returns, the lesser of two evils, or multiple positive outcome-related multi-variate decisions. For example, we’re running a program whereby we are sending new students a logo polo shirt. This is a really cool item and this program is not run by most other schools. I won’t go into the why or how of the program, but I will say I was asked to choose between a few different grey colors as the option for the shirt (and an even more heinous light blue one). After looking at them all, and disliking them all, I realized it didn’t matter so much as to what shade of grey, but rather, that we were sending a decent shirt out at all. I wouldn’t have enough data in the test set to determine if one shade would be better than another if I wanted to further segment the testing.

I just needed to pick one and move on to more important decisions.

You have to remind yourself, and your staff, that some decisions should not require too much time. Focus on what matters. The 50 shades of your decisions probably won’t matter most of the time.
10 things that impede your success in the workplace
Do you want to get ahead at work? You probably think there’s a formula for being noticed and getting ahead. Well, you are correct. One important aspect of the advancement equation is eliminating habits that are holding you back. These are the same habits that are holding everyone back and hurting the collective productivity of your office.
1. Arriving late. Even if your office has flexible time, those around you notice if you are the last one to arrive each day. That looks like laziness. Whether or not it is does not really matter if your co-workers are thinking that it is.
2. Allowing your meeting to run late. If you are the meeting organizer, it is your obligation to ensure it starts and ends on time. This shows respect for your co-workers’ schedules.
3. Joining a meeting late. If you are invited to a meeting that begins at 10:00 a.m., then you should be ready to start at 10:00 a.m. Do not plan on leaving your desk and walking up three flights of stairs to arrive at 10:04 a.m. That shows disrespect to the organizer.
4. Not replying to a meeting request. If you are invited to a meeting, you should indicate your status by accepting or declining. If you are not certain you will be able to attend, reply as tentative and explain. It’s okay to say “no”. Your schedule is sacred. But so are the schedules of your co-workers.
5. Not providing an agenda for a meeting. If you are the meeting organizer it is your responsibility to send an agenda that explains the purpose of and goals for the meeting. After the meeting you should provide notes summarizing the action items, outcomes or other important business accomplished during the meeting and provide that in a timely manner.
6. Scheduling a meeting during the lunch hour, or at the very end of the day. These are bad habits and demonstrate a disregard for the schedules of others — unless of course, you are providing lunch or ensuring that (for end of the day meetings) it will end on time to allow the attendees to get back to their respective offices to finish up whatever it is that they need to finish or close down.
7. Not acknowledging correspondence in a timely manner. Blowing off emails from co-workers is disrespectful. If you do not have an answer, take 20 seconds and reply that you need more time to provide one. If you know you are going to be unavailable for a set period of time, consider putting up an auto response.
8. Being loud. In an open workplace, this is one of the fastest and surest ways to become known as “the obnoxious one”. Loud, disruptive co-workers develop reputations for being lazy and unproductive because people only remember the disruption they cause.
9. Stinky food. Okay, you can have your tuna fish and broccoli sandwich that you just heated in the microwave. But consider that you may be now associated as the one with the stinky food.
10. Printing personal documents. When you send personal documents to the public printer, other people are likely to see them if you are not able to retrieve them immediately. Invariably, you will get distracted at some point after printing such an email and your mortgage statement or tax return will be sitting out far longer than you would like.
Chances are, you’ve done a few of these on the list — we all have. But, being respectful of your co-workers and their schedules will take you very far in your organization. The fact is, your co-workers see everything and talk about everything they see. So remember this the next time you show up late to a meeting that you had not rsvp’d to with a tuna fish sandwich in hand.
Handle negative buzz like the pros
I’m excited to share (and self-promote) that I will be participating in the ClickZ Live annual marketing conference in New York City.

From ClickZ:

Creating the Ultimate Customer Experience

April 11-13, 2016

Attracting 1,000+ marketers and business leaders, our 17th annual event in New York will equip you with cutting edge strategies to inspire, acquire, convert and retain your customers.

Here’s information on my session:

Engage & Convert

Handle Negative Buzz Like the Pros

Trolls are not just pink fuzzy haired dolls; they are lurking in the corners of the ‘net waiting to tear your business apart. But it’s hard to know how to respond or if you should respond. In this session, Dan will take you through several real-world case studies of various strategies for handling negative buzz, working in your organization, and injecting a little levity to keep things calm. You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, but most importantly you’ll learn how to use best practices for review engagement to make your brand stand out in new digital era to create real street cred.

Attend this session and:
- Review real case studies across a number of scenarios
- Learn when you should and should not reply
- Discover techniques for replying and converting negative moments to positive wins
- Unlock the “L.E.A.D.E.R.” acronym and achieve success fast
Essentially, I will spend the session walking participants through the LEADER methodology that I have developed over the past decade with regards to handling negative comments that pop up online.
When an employee is miserable… then what?

One of my roles as head of marketing at a large employer is dealing with the ramifications of unhappy employees that insist on staying in their jobs and complaining instead of quitting or resigning. It happens at all companies, no matter the size. It’s the job of management to make sure employees don’t hit this stage of the workplace happiness cycle. There are always ups and downs; highs and lows. That’s the natural ebb and flow of our lives, the nature of work many of us perform, and it can take a toll on those ill-equipped to handle these emotions. Employees who are underperforming or have the wrong attitudes should be counseled and remediated; and if improvement doesn’t occur, the company should separate (fire the employees). Or, the employee should just simply quit. You should not be a in prolonged state of misery because this means that most likely the employee is not positively contributing ROI to the business, not optimally serving the customers or stakeholders, and is unproductive. What a huge liability. Yet, in large workplaces, this seems to persist… and time and time again I find my self dealing with negative employee reviews on Glassdoor.com. The common thread is that these employees are junior and they compare themselves to others. They also lack maturity and experience… but management let’s them coast right along.

Here’s my advice if you are unhappy at work:

Don’t measure yourself through the eyes of others around you. Measure yourself by looking in the mirror and saying, “I can do better, I can achieve more, I can be great.” Then, stop gazing and go out and do it.

In other words. Quit your job now. Otherwise, shut up and work to better yourself, what you do and your contributions. You can control your destiny if you work hard.

Steve Jobs said, “Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle. As with all matters of the heart, you’ll know when you find it.”

By many reports, Steve wasn’t necessarily beloved by his employees… but Steve loved his job. And many people around them did so too… which is why Apple has achieved so much.
Should I purchase domain names proactively?
This past week, The Donald made headlines when it was uncovered that his company owned thousands of domain names that are simply being parked in what it deems as a defensive move.

Says Trump’s son, Eric, “For a company like ours, it’s incredibly important to protect ourselves, and it’s incredibly important to own our intellectual property.”

Here’s why this doesn’t make financial sense, and why it also a futile effort:

Yahoo lists some of the domains owned:
- DonaldTrumpSucks.com
- TrumpCorporationSucks.com
- TrumpOrganizationSucks.com
It typically costs anywhere from a few dollars to about $15 to keep each domain per year. Let’s say it’s $10. And let’s say they have 50,000 domains. That means they are paying $500,000 a year to park these domains. Chump change for a billion-dollar corporation, right? Well, after 20 years, that’s $10 million. Not to mention the lost return on capital the $500,000 would generate on a annualized basis.

The Trump organization is probably also (over)paying an agency to manage these domains on their behalf… perhaps another $50,000 – $100,000 per year.

When asked, I have never recommended purchasing domain names to thwart potential slander. And I’m asked this same question at each company I work. The reason is pretty simple, you just cannot purchase all the combinations of potentially scandalous domain names. In fact, there are 36 to 245th power which is basically a 2 with 381 zeroes following it. That’s a lot more than a google, and a lot of $10 bills each year. For example, here are five domain names I could purchase that they haven’t yet:
- DonaldTrumpSucks1.com
- DonaldTrumpSucks123.com
- DonaldTrumpSucksABC.com
- DonaldTrumpSucksNYC2016HellYeahEveryone.com
- DonaldTrumpSucks3000.info
See my point?

Not only is this a waste of money, it’s a waste of time.

Proponents of this futile activity will claim “it’s worth it if we even thwart one attack!” But you won’t. If you know search engine optimization, you don’t even need Trump in the name of your website to talk about the organization. I’m talking about them now, and if I had good content and SEO, then I won’t need a Trump-specific domain name to spread my word.

And, let’s say you are slandered, if another person is using your trademark and/or slandering you, there’s a really good chance you can shut them down through the legal system – and it’s typically not a big company fighting you, but an individual that lacks sufficient legal resources to counter attack.

So save some time and a lot of money and stop buying domains you don’t need.
Social Media in Sweden

I’m excited to announce I have been added to the speakers list at Bring Dialogue’s annual conference taking place in Strömstad, Sweden August 23-26. I will be hosting a workshop on my trademark L.E.A.D.E.R. strategy for social media engagement to 500+ attendees from across the European Union in this large marketing conference that focuses on branding, CRM, social media and other emerging trends in the world of marketing.

Here’s the link to the conference web site (sorry, some of it is in Swedish): http://www.dialogkonferansen.com/2015/.

I’ll provide more links and info as they are made available.
Back on Tour in 2015
As many of you know, I took a new full-time position with Ultimate Medical Academy earlier this year. On top of the new job (which required relocating my tribe from the DC Metro to Tampa, FL), being a dad for a toddler required a brief hiatus from the speakers circuit. I’m pleased to announce that I’m back on tour in 2015 with the first two stops announced:
- Social Media Summit 2015 – Las Vegas – “Reputation Management: How to Listen & Engage Your Customers while Maximizing Success and Minimizing Risk”
- Social Media Summit 2015 – Chicago – “Branding & Social Media”
In Las Vegas, I’ll be hosting a two-hour workshop on engagement and listening strategies. I will also be discussing my “trademark” approach to social media – LAETER”. Here are the details:

Your customers are talking about you on the internet whether or not you’re listening. A few negative comments can cause your reputation and sales to plummet; while a happy customer can evangelize time and time again. This hands-on session will provide attendees with social listening strategies that can keep their team and their C-level executives on the forefront of what’s being said about their brand (and competitors) – and how to plan a proactive rather than reactive approach.

Takeaways include:
- Tips and tools for listening (and what to listen for)
- Using the “LAETER” approach (listen, acknowledge, empathize, triage, escalate and resolve)
- When not to respond and how to address trolls
- Adding value to your business
- Educating employees on the importance of corporate reputation on social media
For Chicago, I’ll be giving a 45-minute presentation on branding via social media:

Should you argue with your customers on Facebook? How do you draw the line between defending your business and antagonizing a troll? Your customers are talking about you on the internet whether or not you’re listening. A few negative comments can cause your reputation and sales to plummet; while a happy customer can evangelize time and time again. But not all negative comments can spell trouble. Learn how to engage unhappy customers and turn them into brand evangelists. It works and we’ll show you how. We’ll also help you spot potential land mines so that you don’t make things worse. It’s an art as much as it is a science.

Takeaways include:
- Using the “LAETER” approach (listen, acknowledge, empathize, triage, escalate and resolve)
- When not to respond and how to address trolls
- How to fight back and when to throw in the towel
Why public utility companies need to have media relations staff
It doesn’t matter if you are a public company, private company, non-profit or somewhere in-between; one thing is for certain – your customers are everything to your business. Now, one could say in the case of a public utility, since they have a monopoly, they don’t really need to care about their customers. And you might be right, which is why most public utility companies are still in business despite generally having satisfaction ratings that mirror the airlines and wireless companies.

Yet, what if I told you there was a benefit to having good customer service?

If your customers loved you… because…
- You answered the phone quickly, and at all hours…
- You replied to email in less than 24 hours…
- You offered live chat…
- You were empathetic, caring and good listeners when it comes to your customer’s lives and challenges
- You participated in the community…
  - through events…
  - charities…
  - public education…
- You cut people a break once in a while
So, if you did all this, wouldn’t your customers love you? Wouldn’t your image be sublime? When a public utility staff member says where they work, they’d be greeted with a smile rather than vitriol?

Still think it won’t get you anywhere?

What if I told you that having a strong brand as a public utility would probably go pretty far?
- Enable you to sell/justify rate hikes (wouldn’t we all pay 1c more per gallon of water if service was superb when we needed it?
- Enable your locality to pass better legislation because people respect you…
- Get reelected?
- Raise taxes?
Now, thanks to the goofs that run Pasco County Florida’s water utility, we’ve learned a good lesson here. Recently a customer of their’s contacted them when they received a bill for more than $3,000 (600,000 gallons of water), despite normally having a water bill of around $100. It seemed odd, so they did what anyone would do – they called the utility company to see what the issue was. But Pasco said the bill was correct and the customer would have to pay it. Pasco suggested to the customer to check their plumbing for leaks. So, the residents paid the county $190 to check the meter and the county declared the meter was fine. The county said they could follow a payment plan.

Gee thanks. Pay $3,000 and by the way, you’ll probably owe us twice that next month, because that was just a partial bill for 19 days.

So the residents contacted Tampa News Channel 8 (a local NBC affiliate). I would have contacted an attorney myself, but hey, that’s me. The good people at News Channel 8 hired a plumber for an independent test. He determined that it was physically impossible for that much water to even pass through the pipes in that amount of time. And if by chance he was wrong, where the hell did all the water go? It surely would have flooded the house or the street and be noticed.

So the news channel contacted the utility and the utility would not comment. They contacted the county, and a county spokesperson, without really know what the hell he was talking about said if a faucet was left on, it’s possible 23 gallons of water an hour could have come out. But the bill shows 1,000+ gallons per hour over certain periods. He later called back and said he meant 23 gallons a minute. Here’s the real rub, the couple wasn’t occupying the property, and the water usage is now back to normal. Here’s were customer service and media relations come into play. A better response would have been,

“We agree that the bill is unusually high. There are a number of things that could result in a bill like this, so we are working with the customer to investigate whether it was an error in our billing system, our meters, or if in fact, the homeowner has a plumbing issue that needs remediation. We hope that together, we’ll be able to get to the bottom of this as soon as possible.”

How hard would that have been? How hard would it be to help this customer? Would a little empathy and assistance gone a long way? Yes. Now, many of the 4 million plus residents of the Tampa Bay region think negatively of Pasco County and it’s public utilities commission. That could have been avoided very easily.

Some times people are just jackasses. I’m not why people think its better to be a jackass than helpful and compassionate. One might say it’s easier to be a jackass, but I don’t buy that argument.

Oh, and by the way, all of Tampa Bay’s utility companies are this incompetent. This is not new. Maybe I’ll write about how Tampa Electric cut my power because I hadn’t paid a $700 deposit, even though I provided physical evidence I had.

Sometimes I feel like Rick Moranis in Space Balls… I’m surround by assholes. At least now I know why people want to privatize utilities.

UPDATE 10-1-2014: I just learned that Pasco County’s inspector general is now investigating the matter further… because of numerous complaints received across the county. Sounds like this is just the beginning of a big PR mess.

Category: Everything Else

Dodgeball

Schedules

Creating the Ultimate Customer Experience

Handle Negative Buzz Like the Pros