Never Mind Marketing

We had to laugh. From BusinessIdeas.net:

Winding up before a judge in court is never a good sign for your business . . . unless you’re in the legal profession. It can happen to anyone: the underdog, the top cat, the genius, the idiot, the slimy or the squeaky clean. Sometimes you can get sued just for being successful. Here are 10 business ideas (along with real life examples) across the spectrum of possibilities that can pretty much guarantee to land your ass in court.

1. Copy someone else’s idea and name it after them.

This is quite possibly the biggest “duh” in the history of business, but even commercial giants fall prey to the trap. In an effort to capitalize on the success of Pixar, Disney thought it would be a novel idea to sell a lamp that looked just like the famous Luxo lamp that serves as the I in the Pixar logo. They copied the design of the Norwegian company’s lamp and even named it the Luxo, Jr.

2. Innovate

As several items in this list will show, some of the most successful business ideas and entrepreneurs become instant targets for frivolous lawsuits. One of the surest ways to get sued is to come up with an idea with broad appeal and wild success—there’s only so much money to be gained from suing poor people.

Facebook and Twitter have both been sued in separate cases by business claiming to hold patents over the technology and procedures that make the social networks successful. The suit against Facebook is far flimsier than the one against Twitter, but the problem plaguing both defendants is the same: the world of patents is so overwhelmingly flooded, it’s virtually impossible to know if your entrepreneurial genius overlaps with someone else’s half-baked plans.

The lesson: as long as you do your due diligence and don’t steal anyone else’s ideas, you’re probably safe.

3. Ride the coattails of someone else’s success.

When someone makes it colossally big, there are always thousands of underlings who bathe in the excess fame and fortune trickling down. So when J. K. Rowling began selling millions upon millions of books (and raking in millions more in film and merchandising deals) there was plenty of attention to share between fan sites like The Leaky Cauldron. But after the final showdown between Harry Potter and He-Who Must Not Be Named hit bookshelves, She Who Must Not Be Plagiarized filed an injunction to stop The Leaky Cauldron authors from publishing a printed version of their site.

Ms. Rowling had no qualms about the extra promotion and anticipation drummed up by Potter-obsessed sites, but the book that served essentially as a Who’s Who in the Potterverse put a hex on Rowling’s patience. Her counter jinx attempting to block publication of the book, which she viewed as a “regurgitation” of her own work, ultimately won out as RDR Books revised the content drastically under the title, The Lexicon.

Be careful when you ride Ms. Rowling’s coattails (or that of any creative mind). If you come too close to stealing the whole coat, you might get turned into a newt.

9. Change the World with Photoshop

One of the most indelible images of Obama’s ascent to the White House was, according to the Associated Press, a blatant example of copyright theft. The notorious lawsuits—the artist Shepard Fairey filed a preemptive suit of his own—raised an important legal issue in the age of Photoshop: what exactly constitutes fair use of an image?

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Mobilizy, the company from Salzburg, that brought us one of the world’s first Augmented Reality browsers, Wikitude, just released a major upgrade which crosses that significant line between technology and its effects in the ‘real’ world. Their idea was to build a virtual memorial in remembrance of the 9/11 attacks in the U.S. and the destruction of the World Trade Center in New York City. The result will be the ability to point their Android and iPhone application at the place where the World Trade Center once stood and witness a 3D rendering of the Twin Towers, once more.

From now on anyone in New York, using an AR enabled mobile phone, has the ability to see a virtual World Trade Center through the phone’s display. Wikitude demo shows how a “Memorial of light” at Ground Zero could be the next-generation of ‘virtual’ memorials. View a full video demonstration of this after the jump.

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Back in August, Mashable reported that reSTART, a rehab center for Internet Addiction Disorder (IAD), was the first facility of its kind to treat the controversial diagnosis in the US.

The disorder has yet to be officially recognized, but specific symptoms have been outlined, and it’s a subject matter that continues to undergo evaluation.

story highlights

• Study found boys were at a higher risk of Internet addiction than girls
• Doctor: Treatment for addiction cannot involve simply abstaining from the Internet
• Internet addiction may be not as widespread in the U.S. as in Asian countries
• It could become one of the most chronic childhood diseases in America, doctor says
  source: CNN

Now, new research from the Kaohslung Medical University Hospital in Taiwan shows a correlation in young teens between internet addiction and other psychological disorders. According to CNN and the research report, “ADHD and hostility were linked to Internet addiction in children,” while social phobia and depression were linked to internet addiction in girls.

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Say you’re the CEO of a business and your project manager comes to you with his proposal that will be going out to investors, business partners, and potential clients.  Then you find that your manager has used “4” instead of “four”, “r” instead of “are”, and abbreviations such as lol, atm, and idk.  How would you react?  I thought so.
While you’d probably cringe under your desk for a few days, the truth of the matter is that this type of language permeates conversations on the web.  This shorthand, sometimes called “AIM speak” as it first originated on instant messenger platforms such as AOL IM, indeed makes typing and texting a faster and easier affair, but it has muddled the lines of grammar.

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Thanks to all of you who have helped us beta test our new look!

As you may have noticed, we are shifting the look and content of Never Mind Marketing a bit. There is a lot of “noise” out there about “social media experts”, “consultants”, etc. Truthfully, based on my experience, there are a lot of people that use Facebook and have perhaps graciously bestowed the “expert” title upon themselves.

I have taken it upon myself to not use the term “expert” or “consultant”. I am an advisor. I am knowledgeable in the social media and online marketing industry and will happily share my knowledge with business owners who want to know more.

The blog will also take a more personal approach as I begin to ramp up admission into our Marketing Master’s program – where we tailer the barrage of social networking news, hype, myth, and scams (yes, there are scams) into a meaningful, palatable, presentation of information for our Marketing Master’s students.

Speaking of barrage, many have written in and asked about some of the tools I use to sift through all the information coming and going. Here is a 30,000 foot view:

• HootSuite – I monitor about 1,000 (it changes often) sources of information via Twitter and RSS feeds about the social media industry. I even follow scammers to stay informed about their tactics. You must keep your friends close and enemies closer in this industry.
• Google Alerts – Find a term you are interested in and monitor it
• Facebook – personal and for business. People are always talking, social networking is about listening
• Mainstream news sources – although, by the time the New York Times or most other publications get information, industry insiders have been discussing it for weeks (or months, sometimes), sometimes useful bits information makes its way into the articles.

What does this mean for you? It means you have an advocate sifting through a bunch of nonsense and passing along stuff that actually matters.

Beware of impostors and good luck out there!

Jeff Bezos shares his business tip ‘Short List’ … and it’s short. Great tips by Amazon.com founder, Jeff Bezos

Unfortunately, I see it too often; passionate business owners overwhelmed by the constant demands of owning or running a business. Running a business can actually get in the way of running a business!

I have put together some thoughts and key gems of information I have found useful over the years to help you run your business rather than the business run you.

KEEP THE PLAIN THINGS THE MAIN THINGS
Remember why you went into business? I’ll bet it wasn’t to have the most Facebook Fans, Twitter Followers, or hits to a website. I’ll bet you didn’t worry about quarterly taxes, phone book ads, networking groups, or product packaging. Rather, you had a passion for something you did well. From creating crafts to helping people have better skin, you got into business because of a passion.

Step back and write down WHY you went into business. Make this the element your business revolves around.

ESTABLISH CORE VALUES
What is important to you in business? What are values you want evident in your daily operations? Individuals or small companies often avoid core values because they are unnecessarily made too complex. In actuality, they are simple. Make a list of four or five characteristics or goals you have for your business. Core values can range from “Meet 2 new people a day”, “Give away one sample to a needy client”, “Leadership Development”, or “Work above reproach”.

When starting any new business venture, I identify the key values (it could be a word, a short sentence, or a paragraph), type them out, print on nice cardstock, and frame it. These values then sit on my desk or office wall as a constant reminder. When I was faced with difficult decisions, I refer to them for guidance.

For an entire year, the value guiding one of my companies was “Build Relationships”, (Warning: this is a VERY broad value) in everything we did, it was to build and grow employee, customer, vender, and community relationships.

NETWORK. YOUR WAY
Business networking has been bastardized. There is a very real, and a very unfortunate, reason that I refuse to attend or be a part of 99% of business networking groups. Networking, at its core, is about relationships. People don’t care what you know until they know that you care. Too many network-attendees have forgotten that sales do not come from forcing a product down the throat of others; sales come from building a reputable connection with others.

If traditional networking groups have left a bad taste in your mouth, don’t give up on it altogether. Instead, call up a business owner with similar clients, or something you have an interest in. Buy them coffee and get to know them. Ask about their business, how they got started, their perfect client, etc. In return, share a little about your business. Don’t sell them anything, just talk to them.

This relaxed atmosphere does not lend itself to “Buy My Stuff Now” marketing, but rather facilitates relational-networking. I guarantee that person will remember you for years after your meeting.

TO-DO, TO-DO, TO-DO
One of the best pieces of advice I have ever received tackles the “To-Do List”. The list that keeps us awake at night, never gets shorter, and – eventually – gets abandoned in the dark abyss of offices everywhere.

The advice I received was: keep 2 lists.

What? How does that help me!?

They explained, keep two lists. One for “Today (or “Current Project”) and one for “Long-Term Goals & Ideas”. Ah! It seemed so logical.

Think about how often you have gone to bed discouraged that you didn’t finish everything on your list. But how many of those tasks needed to be finished today? Maybe you did 5, 6, or 7 small things, but are dreading the big ones – break it up! Break up huge projects into smaller tasks.

I jot down ideas for businesses that may never come to fruition, those ideas and tasks used to take up room on my “To-Do” list, now I am okay knowing that they don’t need to get done today and don’t discourage me from attacking the “Today List”

YOU CAN’T DO EVERYTHING – AND THAT IS OK
I hate payroll. Hate it. I hate adding everything up, inputting data into QuickBooks, managing new tax tables, etc. I hated it so much I would avoid going into the office on Thursday before payday. It actually crippled my desire to do other work – the work I loved!

It took me awhile to realize that my effort to save money was actually costing me more. I didn’t hire a bookkeeper because of the added expense to my young company, but I didn’t factor the time I was spending 1) avoiding work, 2) managing payroll, and 3) staying educated on new rules, etc.

I worked out a deal with my bookkeeper to exchange services – they were ecstatic to get free and discounted samples and I was relieved to not have to touch QuickBooks again!

Who can you exchange services for to lighten your load?

BONUS: ASK FOR HELP
There are thousands of business owners out there, and most of them are willing to help others. If you are truly stumped, ask for help.

What tips would you suggest for those struggling with running their business?

Inside Indulge Cupcakes in Puyallup, you’ll find a variety of cupcake sayings, as well as a variety of cupcake flavors. Indulging here is simple.
The bakers at Indulge have the classics covered: vanilla with chocolate or vanilla buttercream, chocolate with vanilla or chocolate buttercream, and red velvet with vanilla buttercream.

Indulge also offers chocolate chip mint, lemon with lemon cream cheese frosting, cinnamon swirl, caramel macchiato, and orange dreamsicle. The lemon and orange dreamsicle cupcakes have freshly squeezed juice in their batters.

Read More at CakeSpy

Perhaps one of the most annoying tactics currently used on Twitter is the “Auto-Direct Message” feature of many third-party apps.

Huh?

Have you ever noticed the almost instant direct message from someone you just started following? They use a service that automatically follows you back and sends you a direct message. Often, they include a URL back to their website. Good marketing? Perhaps. Spammy? Yes.

These messages are so spammy and impersonal that I almost automatically unfollow them. Why? Because when I see that they are so quick to push their message, they are obviously not interested in me and what I have to say. Immediately pushing your service/website/product says, “I’m not interested in you or having a conversation with you. I’m only interested in you clicking my link.”

The bottom line: auto-direct messages with a link get blocked. That’s it.

The violators have already proven they are not interested in me, so why should I reward bad behavior?

What do you do when you are spammed via Direct Message?

I’m annoyed.

I am a Type “A” personality. I like simplicity and efficiency. I don’t see the point in having 8 steps between points “A” and “B”. If I could pay my bills from Facebook (one login), I would. I think I should be able to manage access to my health records within the privacy settings of my social network. One place, lots of resources.

Likewise, I don’t see the point in having to log into multiple social media sites to update my status or those of my business(es).

Ping.fm, PLEASE add delay/scheduled posts to your features. As it stands now, I have to log into HootSuite to schedule a post. From HootSuite it goes to Ping.fm, and finally distributed to an array of social and business networking sites. This is too many steps.

I want to log into ONE place to make it all work. Ping.fm, get your act together and set up scheduled posts. Your long-term success depends on it.