That’s something Twitter users rarely get, if ever. Which is partly down to the transient nature of Tweets.

André  with Michael Bernstein and Kurt Luther, doctoral students at, respectively, MIT and Georgia Tech created the website"Who Gives a Tweet?" to collect reader evaluations of tweets.

From the evaluations that were done using the web site they drew up 9 lessons that could be learnt from using Twitter. And I suspect these lessons apply to other social media sites too.

The lessons (taken from Carnegie Mellon University website) were:

1. Old news is no news: Twitter emphasizes real-time information. Followers quickly get bored of even relatively fresh links seen multiple times.
2. Contribute to the story: Add an opinion, a pertinent fact or add to the conversation before hitting "send" on a link or a retweet.
3. Keep it short: Followers appreciate conciseness. Using as few characters as possible also leaves room for longer, more satisfying comments on retweets.
4. Limit Twitter-specific syntax: Overuse of #hashtags, @mentions and abbreviations makes tweets hard to read. But some syntax is helpful; if posing a question, adding a hashtag helps everyone follow along.
5. Keep it to yourself: The cliched "sandwich" tweets about pedestrian, personal details were largely disliked. Reviewers reserved a special hatred for Foursquare location check-ins.
6. Provide context: Tweets that are too short leave readers unable to understand their meaning. Simply linking to a blog or photo, without giving a reason to click on it, was "lame."
7. Don’t whine: Negative sentiments and complaints were disliked.
8. Be a tease: News or professional organizations that want readers to click on their links need to hook them, not give away all of the news in the tweet itself.
9. For public figures: People often follow you to read professional insights and can be put off by personal gossip or everyday details.

“And do you know what?” Steve said rhetorically, “I’ve had executive coaches before and nothing has changed”.

“why did you bring me in?”, I asked.

“We’ve realised that by keeping on doing what we’re doing we’re going to keep on getting the same results.”

And that’s perfect because every business reaches a plateau where they bump along at a certain level of business. Often they’re not aware of the ways that a business can go to the next level. Because you can drag a business kicking and screaming up to a million turnover. However, trying to get one from one to two million is much more difficult. And you can’t do it by brute force. The same applies for going from 2 to 5 million and then up to ten or twenty million.

A business can only move onward and upward when the people in the business realise that they need to do something different.

I said so to Steve and then suggested we get right into the 145 question business audit I use to understand the business and identify areas to concentrate on.

We sat down and started to go through each question and as we talked I realised that it wasn’t the sales people that were the most pressing issue for Steve and his business.

His most pressing issue was that he didn’t know what his business stood for, why his customers were buying, where the business was going or even, how to get there.

“Right Steve”, I said, “the first thing we need to do is to look at where you’re going strategically and then to decide which tactics will help you get there the fastest”.

“Who needs to be involved in this?” I asked, “because you want people who are going to have an impact within the business.”

Steve thought for a minute and said, “my other director should be in on this and probably our sales people too.”

He ordered some tea for us both and then started ringing his people to come into his office.

After a few minutes there was a knock on the door and Dave Smith walked in. Steve introduced us properly and Dave sat down. As Dave sat down the door opened and a tray of mugs of tea entered into the room followed by Sally, who’d shown me to Steve’s office.

Sally said, “will this take long as I need to get back to the accounts?”

Steve looked at me and said “Sally is my ops director”.

“Ok”, I said, “pleased to meet you. To do it properly it could take an hour or more, it depends on how it goes…”

Sally looked annoyed but sat down.

With that I moved to the flipchart that Steve had unearthed and started to draw some circles. Each circle representing a year starting with this year and then moving into the future.

“Let’s start with what you’d like your company to have achieved three years from now. Maybe starting with the turnover and profit“ and placed the pen on the outer ring of the flip chart.

Sally said, “ I’d like to see us making at least 5 million by then.”

“No, I’d like to think we could be making 7 million”, Steve interrupted excitedly.

I looked at Dave, he looked back with a slightly bored and contemptuous expression on his face.

“What do you think Dave?” I asked him.

“Nothing really”, he said, “we can only sell what we’ve got. And people have tried to tell us what to do for years and it hasn’t worked yet”.

Now, you can probably see why the company is foundering slightly. Because all 3 people have different views of what is achievable within the same company. You may think this only applies to companies with problems. Believe me it doesn’t. And when the better companies sort their strategy out it means they’re going to absolutely be in the best possible position to decimate their competition.

Once again, remember this is a fictional company with fictional people although each element has happened in at least one company I’ve dealt with.

“Hi there, I’ve come to see Steve”, I said brightly.

As a man they returned their gaze to their computer screens.

They all had the hunched and dejected look of a team that resides at the bottom of the bottom league who are beaten every week they play.

One of them got up, slowly, so slowly I wondered what he was doing at first.

“I’ll take you”, he said and proceeded to walk through a connecting door that led into a cold, musty corridor with a staircase squirreled away at the bottom.

I followed, introducing myself and getting the grunted reply, “Dave Smith, Sales".

Dave didn’t look like any sales person I’ve ever seen. He was wearing a rather dull grey tank top over a white shirt with sleeves rolled to the elbows. His ensemble was completed by a pair of badly creased blue chinos and scruffy brown shoes.

We got to the top of the steep flight of stairs and Dave took me into a cramped room dominated by the biggest desk I’d ever seen. The large, comfy looking leather chair contained a young woman who was completely surrounded by piles of paper and with a mobile ringing for her attention.

“Hold on”, she said and scrabbled through the papers before locating the errant phone.

“Sally will sort you out”, Dave said and wandered out of the room and back down the stairs.

Sally finished her conversation and switched her attention to me. “Sorry about that”, she said, “we’ve got the auditors coming next week and I’d forgotten you were coming”.

Which was strange as Sally had only arranged the meeting with me the previous week, less than 6 days ago.

I made a non-committal noise and said, “So where’s Steve?”

She got out of her chair and shook my hand, almost as an afterthought and then asked me to follow her.

We walked down the corridor and she stopped halfway down and looked over the frosting to see whether anyone was in. Then she opened the door and ushered me to Steve’s office.

Steve got up from his seat.

“Thanks for coming Jim we thought it would be useful to get an outside view of the company”, he said.

I looked round his office as I sat down and noticed the lovely picture of his family and also the dusty model of a sailing ship on a large bookcase containing just two books.

Sally closed the door for us and I could hear her shoes briskly tapping down the hall as she went back to her office.

Steve began to tell me everything that was wrong with the current economy and the reasons why they just weren’t getting sales. The reasons simply tripped from his tongue. He claimed that Dave had an impossible job to do because he knew the prospects too well! That meant he didn’t push them to  make any decision. And unfortunately as Dave was also a highly skilled programmer he tended to let himself get sucked into helping on client projects. Which meant the sales force was often down by one man.

In addition two years ago Steve had taken on a saleswoman called Jean who had been bubbling with ideas at her interview but since then had made one small sale.

Now what thing(s) had given me a clue regarding the state of the company? Oh, and don’t worry the people and this company is pure fiction, however every element has happened in at least one company I’ve coached!

That’s great, what they need to ask themselves is whether it’s realistic at the current stage of their business.

There’s nothing wrong with aspirations at all. However, using goals to try and achieve them in the short-term (by that I mean a year) can be counterproductive.

After all aspirations by their very nature tend to be out of our comfort zone and more difficult to achieve.

So in order to get around the problem of mixing aspirations with goals I like to use a 3 year target so that I can show my aspirations developing over three years.

Aspirational Target

For example maybe I want to have an office in Australia. However, there are a number of things I need to do before I can achieve that. So it makes sense to put the project "opening an Australian office" into year 2 of my target. Year 1 might contain things like increase profit by £250,000 to £750,000 and recruit a new sales person.

So in the target picture the numbers 80 to 60 would represent year 1 (this year), 50 to 40 year 2 (next year) and 30 to 10 year 3 (the following year).

Then on the target you’d write down your aspirations as a line leading from the centre. Then along that line you’d write what could be achieved in each of the 3 year rings.

The net result is that I can show my aspirations being achieved over three years. And obviously each year I create a new aspirational target.

The good thing about doing it this way is that it’s a visual prompt to your brain that reinforces your aspirations and what you want to achieve over the next three years.

Vital Few Goals

Now I have my aspirational target I can look at those I believe can be achieved, or part achieved, this year. Then I decide what are the 3 or 4 Vital Few Goals I need to meet to move forward on those aspirations

I list those down and then brainstorm projects that can help move me forward on one, or preferably more than one, of the vital few.

I assign project deadlines for each project and also a measurement of how I’ll know that I’ve succeeded.

Then I breakdown the projects into steps I need to take to achieve each one.

As I work on each of the projects I know I’m working towards completing them. In completing them I’m meeting the Vital Few Goals and in doing that moving forward with my aspirations.

Ultimately those aspirations are what makes a company grow and prosper.

And this approach is part of what is incorporated into my time management workshops.

Here are some ways that a meeting can go wrong:

a) attendees arriving late
b) People talking to their neighbour (off-topic) during the meeting
c) People wanting to only talk about their topic and hijacking the agenda
d) Weak chairmanship
e) No agenda, "because we know what we’re going to discuss"
f) No follow-up on action items from the previous week
g) Missing attendees who are needed and didn’t say they would be missing
h) Action minutes from previous meeting not available for the meeting
i) Having people attend for the whole meeting when they are only needed for one topic and could leave after it
j) Allowing one person to dominate the meeting and make their point, air their grievance, change the topic mid-stream or give their biased point of view
k) Allowing agenda items to go way over their allotted time (remember the time allocation is only a guide, but it’s a good guide)
l) Meeting length is dictated by the agenda
m) The agenda should not be so long that people lose the will to live part way through. Only you will know what is the right length. Saying it should be 10 minutes, 30 minutes or an hour is irrelevant if you don’t cover your agenda items.
n) The type of meeting makes a difference, for instance an IT project status meeting can be short, whereas a manufacturing plant meeting could be half a day. It all depends on what you need to do and by when
p) The worst thing to do is to come out of the meeting with no action notes and with people unclear as to what they should be doing. So always have a summary of actions at the meeting end.

q) Not sending out an agenda based on the required actions from the meeting and new issues since

r) Having regular meetings that are no longer productive or required

1. Pull it all together
2. Update the company brochure
3. Regularly update the company web site
4. Agree and release press releases and articles
5. Organise product, people and client photo shoots
6. Produce emails, letters, advertising

and other marketing stuff, not least of which was having the time to update any of the social media sites.

What’s more he hadn’t got the time to bring someone in occasionally and ask them to do some web site copy, or the brochure or emails or anything else.

He couldn’t afford someone full-time and yet he knew he needed to do the marketing. The problem being that if he brought someone in they were only used occasionally and never really got to know his business.

You could tell he was immensely frustrated.

The frustrations mounted, even while getting business

And as he said it wasn’t all about buying a web site, yes he might get some people buying through it.

It wasn’t about tweeting the latest offers, although he was sure he’d get some business.

What it was all about was being able to integrate the lot into a more powerful way of using all the bits and bobs he had.

That meant every piece of marketing supported every other piece of marketing.

Dealing with the right avenues of marketing at the right time was frustrating

It was so that rather than having to deal with all the different marketing related companies such as a PR company, an advertising agency, a marketing company, a printing company, a social media agency, a graphic design company and Uncle Tom Cobbley he could just tell someone his vision of where he wanted to be with marketing and leave it to that one person to pull it all together. They would deal with the PR company, advertising agency, and everyone else whilst maintaining his strategic view of the company direction and marketing thrust.

In a large company that would be the sales and marketing director, or other such person. In the smaller companies (his turnover is about £1 to £2 million) they don’t exist and they wouldn’t even be affordable.

Marketing headache relief

And the solution as he saw it was to employ someone on a part-time basis who’d had marketing experience from social media to marketing strategy and had the ability to manage outside agencies and the ability to write web copy as well as direct mail.

A tall order we both agreed. Until it slowly dawned on both of us that I was that person!

So the new marketing action man is your truly!

So what now?

Luckily I already know his business so I can be productive from day one. First task is to see about an ecommerce site, where I’ll also ensure that the marketing elements we need are included at the design stage rather than an add-on after the fact.

What next?

I thought it was such a good idea that I want to offer it to other businesses who don’t want to pay the significant sums such as person would want if working full-time.

So if you’re interested in having an ex-programme director/marketing strategist/direct mail and email copywriter/blog writer and WordPress blog builder coordinating and implementing the marketing you want email me on marketing at acornservice.com

It could be a lot of fun and very profitable for both of us!

Even the best run company faces the inevitable effect of a downward slide in the economy. 

And of course the thing is, if you don’t know the existence of a tool, technique or strategy to insulate yourself from the worst of a recession how would you ever find out?

That’s where an outsiders eye can really help you.

I’ve helped lots of businesses across the world. And during that time I’ve picked up tips and strategies that they use too. And then I’ve applied them in other businesses and other market sectors to the same success.

As an example, just one tip I gave to a business increased their bottom line by 25%. And I’ve worked on that tip further and believe that it’s even more effective now.

I don’t offer these free sessions very often anymore. However, I’ve been hearing a lot of pain from businesses I talk to recently. So I want to assist you in the best way I can.

I’m only going to be able to make 4×30 minute slots available to do this. So if you’re interested get your name down quickly. Simply send an email to Jim and I’ll send you back a short questionnaire which you need to get back to me quickly so I can assess whether I can help you. If I can I’ll email you some dates and times so we can organise a session that works for both of us. Plus if you want your team to be in on the call that’s fine too.

That said there’s no doubt that the print media dominance has been severely eroded.

I’ve talked before about how the number of readers of print media has been dropping for several years now.

Will print media actually die off though?

Personally I can’t believe it will.

I suspect that what may happen is that we will move to print on demand. Something that everyone was trumpeting as the way forward back in the 1970’s.

Although then I think people probably believed papers would be delivered as though from a fax machine.

And Yet the Kindle…

Apparently Kindle owners rave about their beloved reader. Maybe its technology is a really great replacement for the printed word.

And of course as developers continue to work on the foldable screen pretty soon we wont need to heft a book sized object around. Instead we’ll be able to carry round a folded up piece of paper that when spread out instantly show you what was there previously or allows you to download other stories or information.

Exciting times?

What About the IPad?

Of course the iPad is pretty to look and again all its users are full of praise for this laptop killer. And yet is the screen as good as that used for the printed word?

Maybe not yet, although with the convergence of technology the type of screen we get with the Kindle may find its way onto the iPad 3.

Obviously it begins to look as though it wont be the blogs, Twitter, Facebook and all the other lovely social media that kills off newsprint.

It’s going to be whether the technology can replace newsprint with something equally easy to read and as convenient.

Unfortunately from long and sometimes bitter experience I can attest to the fact that there are very few people who are great presenters from the day they start.

I’ve actually sat through presentations where the presenter simply read from their notes, without looking in their audiences direction. One presenter I saw even got so befuddled with their notes they had to stop and go off stage in a fluster. Others wind their way round to the point they’re making and take so long  that it feels like you’re sliding down an old-fashioned helter-skelter.

At other times I’ve witnessed presenters who obviously thought they were the cream of the presenting crop and yet lack of rehearsal meant they inflicted pain on their audience. That pain was from the obvious fact that they didn’t know which slide was coming up or whether the questions they were asked came up in a later section of the slides.

And of course we’ve all seen presentations where the presenter is so taken with their company that they waste a lot of air talking about their business, their history, their clients, their success and worst of all make their audience sit through the company video.

So if you’re looking to improve a little on your presentation skills learn from what others get wrong…

Presentation technology

It really doesn’t matter how you do the presentation: webinar, Powerpoint slides, flipchart, video or simply standing on a stage. Never blame the technology if you fail to deliver your objectives for your presentation.

The oft-quoted “Death by Powerpoint” is not Powerpoint’s fault. It’s the fault of the wielder of the technology. The types of issues you tend to get with people who use Powerpoint as a crutch are as follows:

1) They start off running without any introductory slide or estimate of how long they’ll take

2) They don’t investigate what their audience is interested in

3) They deliver the same canned content to different audiences (related to previous point)

4) They have slide after slide of text with no images to break it up

5) They have more than about 5 bullets per slide and/or they have long sentences on the slide

6) They read from the slide verbatim without adding any thoughts related to the slide content

7) They spend too much time on each slide, or one particular one they think is important and no one else does

They don’t look at their audience, rather looking at the screen or their notes

9) They have large amounts of data and/or text on a slide, which tends to mean an impossible to read font

The Presentation itself

When it comes to the presentation there are aspects which only the presenter can do. And if they fail to do them a dire result is inevitable.

The issues presenters have include:

1) Not rehearsing so they’re struggling for words or ways to phrase what they’re talking about

2) Going on about them, their company or their product. Instead of talking about the things the people they’re presenting to are interested in: themselves, their company, their issues

3) Not keeping the pace of the slides reasonably fast so that people read ahead and get bored

4) Not varying their tone, pitch and energy levels during the presentation

5) Not having appropriate images to illustrate most slides, even though they’ve heard more information is retained with image and text together than just text alone

6) Not rehearsing the whole thing OUT LOUD, that way they’ll see whether they trip on words they think they say well when they’re rehearsing internally

7) Not looking at their audience or engaging them in some way

Post Presentation thoughts

A bad presenter considers themselves to be an expert and if the feedback is that some of their content wasn’t clear, well it was the fault of the audience. Others might be complacent, because the audience really liked the content and yet they know they could do better. In reality they should go back to their presentation and polish it so that it is better. Particularly so if it’s being emailed out to one or more audience members.

They never sit back with a trusted friend and see what they could have done better.

Does any of that describe you? I must admit to one or two of them, but having learnt by trial and error I’m better now! The thing is you don’t need to learn by trial and error. Learn from this. And thanks to some of the people before I’ve trained them in Presentation mastery and in the horrible pitches I’ve sometimes had to sit through for giving me these ugly examples of presentation hell!

Over the years, I’ve realised that there are some people who just need some guidance, a bit of training and focussing to develop themselves and/or their business. And I can really help those people, if they’re the right ones.

So how do I make sure I’ve got the right people to coach?

Simply, when people are referred to me I have an in-depth chat with them, not as in-depth as the company audit I do, but close!

I want to find out if they are people who are …

1) Able to approach business with a sense of humour

2) Actually wanting to grow their business more (and yes I’ve met companies who don’t want to…)

3) Confident that they have a good business that can grow

4) Aware of some (no one is aware of all) of the shortcomings

5) Completely committed to meeting when we agree (either by phone or in person)

6) Understanding that coaching is an investment and NOT a cost

7) Willing to take action, because without action all we do is generate hot air! And I’ll fire you as a client if inaction continues

And I avoid people who are…

1) one man bands, I used to help them, but usually they can’t afford to pay anything, so I’ve written a book that gives them a hand instead

2) Companies that are quickly sliding downward, unless there is a new MD at the helm who is willing to work like a Trojan

3) not nice to know

Whenever I’ve gone against one, or more, of these golden rules I find that the assignment becomes more of a slog. We do achieve stuff but it’s much harder than it needs to be.

If you feel you meet these rules and you’d rather do it under your own steam that’s ok. I can guarantee it will be much slower than coaching, however I can still help you, just sign up to get my book: “How to leap ahead of your competitors.”

You can also connect with me through LinkedIn, just to make sure I connect with you add the fact you’ve come from here in the message.