Textbooks

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Not including a two-year stint in preschool, I have attended school for 20 years -- kindergarten through graduate school. In that time, the content and tempo of the majority of my classes had been driven by big, expensive, boring textbooks. I really noticed this when I was in graduate school and paying for the classes and books myself. What value was the professor adding I thought? Why couldn't I just buy a bunch of business textbooks, force myself to complete the problems, save myself $80,000 and call myself an M.B.A.? For this reason, I was thrilled to read an energetic rant by Seth Godin yesterday on why he believes assigning a textbook to a college class is the equivalent of academic malpractice.

I agree.

Let's consider the value that the institution is adding to a student's education when a class is dictated by a textbook.

  1. A schedule (usually the chapters in the textbook are spread out over the course of the semester and matched to individual weeks in some logical order; occasionally this order isn't the same as the order of the chapters, so there's some thinking going on there...)
  2. Motivation (in a classroom environment a student might be reluctant to disappoint his or her classmates/professor)
  3. Classroom discussion (debate, real world examples, etc.)

Am I missing anything?

The schedule is worthless and the classroom discussion can be replaced for free by discussion forums on thousands of different blogs. So all the institution is really providing is an environment where a student feels some pressure to keep up.

Not much different than kindergarten.

Note: What I've described here represents a majority of the classes I took in college and graduate school. There were several classes where the professor ditched the textbook and brought remarkable value to the class through a combination of his or her own published work, passion, real world experience and highly engaging discussion. I hope Seth's post inspires more educators to do the same.

542542...

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542 ...is a service that you can send a text message to that will answer any question you want for $0.99.

I saw the commercial earlier and I had to try it.

I texted, "Who played third base for the Detroit Tigers in 1984?"

They responded with, "Howard Johnson", the right answer, in under a minute.

Then I asked them, "Why doesn't private unemployment insurance exist?"

They responded in 41 minutes with, "Overall there is no private market due to the state benefit. It was set up as a social net for people out of work."

Not the insight I was looking for. But a pretty cool service nonetheless.

Private Unemployment Insurance

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Combining the rampant fear of losing one's job with the limits on state-funded unemployment insurance, you'd think there would be a big market here.

The primary effect that this would have would be to reduce the general fear we have with losing our jobs. I suppose this a good and bad thing.

It would allow people to take more risks at work which has its benefits and dangers.

I'm curious why this product doesn't exist already.

Overpaid or Underpaid

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Something to think about... Are you overpaid or underpaid for the work that you do?

If you're overpaid, be careful. It's likely a matter of time before your employer and/or clients make an adjustment. How can you prevent this from happening?

If you're underpaid, how are you going to get more for the work that you do?

If you think your pay is just right, think again. And see above.

Upselling

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I've spent a lot of time over the last couple of years trying to find ways to generate more revenue from existing clients; mostly by building and marketing new products that leverage our base product to solve top-of-mind client problems. This is a smart way to grow your business because you're marketing to an audience that already knows, trusts and likes you, your product and your company. In most cases, this puts you at a huge advantage over competition that doesn't have an existing relationship.

I've learned a few valuable lessons during this time about getting more from your current customers.

  1. Clients have a strong perception of who you are and what your capabilities are. They actually pre-judge you more than they do a new provider. It can be really hard to get out of this box. The best ways that I've found to deal with this are:
    • Be super honest and upfront about what your limitations are with respect to added offerings. If you talk too big you'll lose trust.
    • Your clients know that you can do something well; if they didn't, they wouldn't be working with you. Clearly identify that thing and find a way to make this capability a part of what you're upselling. But make the story simple and make it make sense to the group that you're working with; i.e. a lab supply company can sell its logistics expertise to help clients manage lab inventory but it shouldn't start selling office supplies to the office manager.
  2. Don't be afraid to test your pitch with some smaller clients; your first several passes will always be off the mark. But balance this with not taking the feedback from a couple of clients too seriously. If you think you're solving a real problem then stay on course for a while.
  3. You have to be ultra sensitive of not appearing to "salesy." You've got a certain level of trust and a willingness to listen built up among existing clients. Don't damage that, it'll be hard to get back and it's not worth losing.
  4. Because most deals can get done with a statement of work or an amendment to an existing contract, the sales cycles are much shorter than those with new clients. Leverage this to keep deals really simple and moving fast. In some cases you can simply invoice the added product or service without a signature which can avoid the involvement of busy lawyers and senior managers.

Fake Followers

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I read the other day that some 'Tweeters' are buying followers (e.g. $100 for 5,000 followers.) Some are even creating phony Twitter accounts to fraudulently increase the number of followers they have.

While this may sound kind of silly, if you're trying to spread something, it makes a lot of sense as it will likely have the result of increasing your number of real followers; as we know, people like to follow people that other people are following, just because they're being followed.

I'm watching Twitter's progress pretty closely these days because I think it's so fascinating to watch this little startup evolve into what could be the most powerful communication tool ever conceived.

You Can't "Do" Viral Marketing

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Viral A friend of mine told me the other day that he was working on a viral marketing project at work.  He was trying to spread the word about a site he just released.

Curious, I asked him what activities he considered viral marketing activities.  He listed building a Facebook page, postings in web forums and "Twittering."

To me, this isn't viral marketing.  It's simply old fashioned advertising through new channels.

Viral marketing, on the other hand, is when a customer tells a friend who tells two friends who each tell four friends who each tell eight friends.

It's a passive activity for the marketer; the marketer isn't "doing" viral marketing, he's simply watching it happen.

But I do believe you can enable it in two ways:

  1. By creating a product or service that is so cool that people are inclined to spread the word.
  2. By making it REALLY easy for your customers to spread the word.

Beyond that, viral marketing is mostly luck.

My BlackBerry - Part 2

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Blackberry-logoBack in January I wrote about post about all of the things I use my BlackBerry for and how I believe that handhelds are coming closer and closer to eliminating the need for personal computer use.  It's interesting to watch how this list increases over time.  Here's an updated list.

  • Phone (home and cell)
  • Texting
  • Email (work and personal)
  • Blogging (because the keyboard is so easy to use, I rarely feel the need to write on my laptop anymore)
  • News. I've setup the WSJ.com Reader on the device so I get real time news feeds from all of my favorite news outlets and blogs. I get more news through my BlackBerry than other format.
  • Personal calendar, address book, tasks and notes
  • Alarm clock
  • General web surfing
  • Facebook (I have the application though I rarely use it)
  • Camera
  • Watching video
  • Online radio (through Pandora)
  • Sports Radio (through Flycast)
  • Navigation (Google Maps is a great application when it works)
  • Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2009

Organic Traffic

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A really useful metric for internet marketers to watch is "organic traffic %." 

Most web traffic comes from:

  • Service Emails
  • Marketing Emails
  • Search
  • Other Advertising (banners, TV, radio, print, etc.)
  • RSS Feeds
  • Organic (people that come without being prompted; a proactive visit, directly to your site)

The breakdown of these sources varies by industry of course, but it's useful to watch how the percentage of traffic that comes organically changes over time.  An increase in organic traffic over time is a good way to measure the increased value and quality of your product.