Archive for year 2012
Coder Dojo Makes Coding Cool for Kids
Oct 18th
On my recent visit to Ireland I met one of the world’s greatest salespersons.
Bill Liao
A charming gent named Bill Liao attended a tweet-up in Dublin and implored me to spend part of my holiday visiting one of his charitable projects called Coder Dojo, a coding class for children being held at Trinity College on a Saturday morning.
“I’ve been working all week,” I said, “and promised my wife that I would do some touristy things with her on Saturday.”
“Oh yes,” he said. “I’ve already spoken to your wife and she’s enthusiastic about the visit.”
Clearly, this is a man who knows how the world works. If he can convince my wife to visit a coding class on a Saturday morning, this is a man who is going to change the world!
Coder Dojo Dublin
I did visit the class and am so glad I did. CoderDojo is a completely free movement that creates coding clubs and regular sessions for young people. Volunteers teach children as young as 7 to code, develop websites, apps, programs, and games.
Dojos also organize tours of technology companies and bring in guest speakers to talk about their careers in technology.
“We have just one rule,” Liao said. “Be cool. We know to be connected to these kids it has to be a fun, sociable, and kick ass experience.”
Liao’s vision is to have a Dojo in every major city in the world. In about a year, it’s already in more than 75 cities in 23 countries and the organization makes it straight forward to set one up.
The organization already has spawned a number of success stories. Liao told me about a pre-teen who attended a university lecture and raised his hand to correct a professor on the use of a computer program.
The professor was surprised. “Now young man … how would you know I’m mistaken?”
“Because I wrote the program, sir,” the polite young man replied.
To get a better sense of the energy behind the program, watch this short video with a volunteer instructor from a class in Dublin.
Click here if you cannot see this video from the Dublin Coder Dojo.
Top image courtesy Coder Dojo Cavan
A Multidisciplinary Approach to Breathtaking Content
Oct 17th
By Srinivas Rao, Contributing {grow} Columnist
Over the last two years I’ve read more books than I’ve read in my entire life. But there’s a slight problem with my reading. Every single book falls into one of these categories:
- Marketing/Business
- Self Help/Psychology
- Entrepreneurship/Careers
There has been no fiction, not a single memoir, or any book that falls outside of my field. I don’t think I’m alone considering most of these books are New York Times Bestsellers and they show up on the recommended reading list of every blogger. But there’s a problem with this. As Zig Ziglar once said “Your input determines your output. Your output determines your future.” If we’re not careful, it won’t be long before the entire blogosphere turns into a giant echo chamber.
In the last several weeks I’ve heard two best-selling authors emphasize the importance of reading books over blogs. One of the unfortunate byproducts of our ability to rapidly create content is an incredibly short attention span. Short form content is rapidly flooding the Internet. It’s easier to read 20 different blogs on a daily basis than it is to read an entire book which could take a week. But sit down and read a bestselling author’s book, even when it falls into the self-inflicted “genre bubble,” and you’ll notice numerous references to books from multiple disciplines.
A Multidisciplinary Approach to Creating Content
In his latest book, Mastery
How to Diversify
1. Read Fiction
One of the easiest ways to start diversifying your input is to start reading fiction. The beautiful thing about fiction is that it’s the byproduct of imagination. As a result it will get your imagination going and enable you to start creating things that don’t exist.
2. Read Children’s Books
This might seem a bit silly to some of you. But one place where children have most of us beat is in their creativity and imagination. Just talk to a 5-year-old and you’ll wonder if maybe he or she should be the next creative director at your organization. Another book that I discovered on Maria Popova‘s site that’s more like a creative workbook is Keri Smith’s How to Be an Explorer of the World
Our obsession with authority has too many people reading nothing but blogs about their industry. But by reading content that falls outside your field you can pull ideas and insights from other disciplines into your work. I recently was asked to write a guest post for a really popular blog on the subject of taking risks. So the other day I returned to my personal love for surfing and picked up a copy of Saltwater Buddha, which enabled me to use riding waves as a metaphor for taking risks.
Additional Sources of Inspiration
Written content is not the only place you’ll be able to find inspiration and break molds. In Tina Seelig’s book inGenius: A Crash Course on Creativity
4. Photos
In case you haven’t figured it out yet, a lot of people are starting to love Instagram. It’s amazing how much inspiration you can find for creating blog content within your Instagram feed. Spend a day documenting your life. Then write a blog post that tells a story based on the pictures.
5. Music
Another great source of inspiration for your content is music lyrics. Wake up in the morning, create a playlist on Spotify of your favorite songs and just listen to them for an hour. At first it might seem like you’re wasting time, but sit down with the intent of coming up with new ideas for content and you’ll be amazed what happens. Here’s an example of using music for inspiration.
6. Sleep
You may have heard before that many of Albert Einstein’s best ideas came to him in his sleep. Believe it or not the entire last section of this post came to me after falling asleep with some headphones on (a great way to use sleep and music at the same time).
Every day do something to step outside of your content bubble to find new sources of inspiration and you’ll start to ignite the voice inside you. Words will flow and you’ll escape the echo chamber and never return.
Would you please share your best sources of inspiration?
Srinivas Rao writes about the things you should have learned in school, but never did and his the host-co founder of BlogcastFM. You can follow him on twitter @skooloflife
Images courtesy Bigstock.com
Social Media Good Samaritan donates tweets to save businesses
Oct 16th
By {grow} Community Member Pavel Konoplenko
The story begins like any sweet story should — with delicious ice cream.
I first visited Ray’s Candy Store, an old-fashioned, hole-in-the-wall family business, when I was strolling around New York’s East Village. The walls of the store were covered with vintage photos of desserts — like Instagram except in real life! There were also articles and reviews covering the history of this beloved 40-year business.
One article in particular caught my eye. The headline read, “Social media saves beloved East Village candy store.” How could social media, this recent tool of our information age, possibly be used to save the decades-old candy shop? After reading the article on the wall and having a brief chat with the man working the counter, I discovered a wonderful story…. the story of Matt Rosen, the social media Good Samaritan who crafted a social media strategy just because he wanted to save this little store.
Ray Alvarez
The store’s owner 79-year-old Ray Alvarez, immigrated to America in 1964 and took odd jobs until he worked his way up to become the owner of the store. ”It’s my heaven,” Alvarez said in an interview in NYU’s Daily Student Newspaper. “I enjoy every minute of it. I came here from Turkey with no papers in 1964. I worked as a dishwasher, then waiter, then saved enough to buy the store.”
But after 36 years in the same location, increasing rent and taxes threatened to shut the little store down. Word began to spread that Ray was shuttering his business and loyal customers came out in full support of their beloved neighborhood store. Ray said, “They would buy anything and hand me a $20,” Ray said, “and then insist that I keep the change! They kept giving me money.”
But even this benevolence was not enough to keep Ray in business for long.
Matt Rosen
Matt Rosen, a long-time Ray’s customer and Internet-startup consultant, stepped in to help. It was clear that Ray needed something with massive reach at a low cost, and the social web seemed to be the perfect solution. So Matt volunteered to manage the pages on Facebook, Yelp, Twitter, and Foursquare that became the hub of an initiative to connect with the thousands of Ray’s customers throughout New York City and beyond.
Through PayPal donations, sales from Ray’s merchandise, and even a benefit concert, Ray was able to raise enough money to keep the store open. In fact, since his foray into social media, Ray has had his best year of business.
Matt was humble when describing his success. “It starts with the business,” he said, “and Ray himself. Without Ray, nothing we did on Facebook or Twitter would have mattered. The call-to-action was really doing something so we wouldn’t lose Ray.”
The goal of the social media effort, Matt said, wasn’t to get a million followers — that wouldn’t pay the bills. It was to keep Ray’s name out there on a regular basis and get somebody who buys one milkshake a month from Ray to buy two or three. Think of the impact on Ray’s bottom line if 200 customers do that.
“This is a simple, relatively painless way to keep Ray’s name out there.” Rosen said. “If my responding to a tweet or thanking someone who checked in on Foursquare brings them back in to the store, then that’s more business for Ray. We know this stuff is working. I can see the metrics.”
Speaking to a local newspaper, Mr. Rosen said he volunteers roughly 15 minutes a day to managing the assorted online accounts for two star clients. At the end of a typical day he searches for mentions on Twitter of Ray’s and responds to them.
In the first month of setting up Foursqure, 130 people had checked in to Ray’s Candy Store through Foursquare. “That’s tremendous,” said Mr. Rosen. “That’s two days-worth of revenue from Foursquare, and it took me just 15 minutes to set up.”
Social media buzz was a huge economic benefit for Ray, but it also brought his dilemma to the attention of a law student who helped him register his papers with Social Security and Medicare. Ray also recently got naturalized recently and is now an American citizen!
And what does Ray, who first saw his first computer a year ago, think about Matt’s efforts?
“Lots of young people are coming now with their iPhones,” he said. “They say, ‘If I do this, I get $1 off, right?’ I say, ‘OK.’” Ray continued, “[Matt] does advertising for me — it’s really high-tech. I still don’t have a television — I don’t know what Twitter is. This is a free country and you can do what you want,” Alvarez said. “How long am I going to keep working here? Until the end!”
Oh yes, follow Ray on Twitter won’t you?
Pavel Konoplenko, one of the most active commenters on {grow}, is passionate about social media and technology and their effect on today’s world. Connect with him on Twitter (https://twitter.com/pavelnovel)
Photo of Ray Alvarez Courtesy of The Villager
6 Factors that turn social media strategy into RESULTS
Oct 14th
After working as a marketing consultant for more than a decade, I know how exhilarating it is when a client really executes well on a strategy.
Unfortunately, I too often see deeply-embedded cultural baggage weighing down a company’s full potential to succeed. Here are the common elements that make the difference between a strategy document gathering dust on a shelf or becoming a dynamic business driver:
1) Active executive sponsorship
I was recently brought in to do a social media strategy workshop with a big health care company. The president of the company greeted me and said “I know we need to do this. We are counting on you to lead us in the right direction.” Not only did she verbally demonstrate support, she was actively engaged in the entire meeting and led the part of the program determining next steps. This active leadership is CRITICAL to organizational change.
There is no such thing as a grassroots cultural change. The person at the top must “get it” and make people accountable for the change. Measurable expectations for change must be driven into performance objectives. Here is the most important thing a leader can do to keep the change going week to week: Ask questions about it in staff meetings.
2) Immersive learning
“Can you just do this for us?”
When I hear that question, I know my client is not ready to commit to the organizational change needed to make a social media strategy work.
The big difference between a company “checking the box” and one that is really being transformed is that people are rolling up their sleeves and learning by doing. They’re not out-sourcing tweets and blog posts. They’re making “content” and customer engagement central to the company’s marketing mission and adjusting job requirements accordingly.
This is excruciatingly difficult. For 100 years, we have been conditioned to pay an advertising agency to handle our customer media and then sit back and wait for something to happen. Certainly advertising is still an important part of the marketing formula. But a content strategy must be organically linked to some extent between employees and customers for it to “take” in the company culture.
3) Patience + Resources
Starting a social media strategy from scratch is like putting a soccer team together while the game is underway — you still have a business to run. Certain players will rise or fall, certain strategies will work or be abandoned as we adjust to the competition and the reaction from the market.
To persevere in this rather chaotic transition, a team should be provided with the appropriate amount of resources and enough patience to allow them to gel and perform. The change is not sustainable if it is simply an “add on” to an already full plate. You wouldn’t take a cross-country trip in a broken-down car running out of gas. The first few miles might be fine, but for the long-term you need to have a vehicle and the fuel to help you get to your goal.
4) Focus
Chasing the shiny red ball is a strategy killer. If you have done the upfront research and planning, you should be confident in following a plan long enough to give it a chance to make an impact. Shifting priorities without following through on a plan will waste time and money faster than anything else.
5) Creative application
A few years ago, I might not have made this such a priority. Back then, it was probably novel enough just being on the social web! But today, everyone has a blog. Everyone has a Facebook page. Are you devoting creative resources to these efforts to really stand out and deliver the goods for your customers? That is becoming increasingly difficult isn’t it?
6) Measurement aligned with goals
Repeat after me. “I will measure my marketing efforts.” In today’s data-filled world, there is no reason NOT to measure. It’s just this simple: How do you know your strategy is working if you don’t measure? Don’t get caught up in the endless ROI debate. Pick meaningful KPI’s that are helping to move the needle for your business objectives.
Well that’s my take on what it takes to make a social media strategy work. What’s your view? Which one of these is the most important to you?
Business icons courtesy BigStock.com
Welcome to {grow}
You’re in marketing for one reason: Grow.
Grow your company, reputation, customers, impact, profits. Grow yourself. This is a community that will help. It will stretch your mind, connect you to fascinating people, and provide some fun along the way. I am so glad you’re here.
-Mark SchaeferFollow Mark
Groups We Believe In
