Conversation Agent

The Alfred Hitchcock Guide to SxSW

2010-03-12T07:00:00-05:00

I remember the still summer evenings at the open cinema theater watching Hitchcock movies. What a treat!

It was intriguing to me that the off camera point of view, the observation through the lens, could be so powerful to drive the story.

I love good stories, don't you?

This weekend I'm immersing myself with the many others at SxSW to participate in stories. There are plenty of great survival tips cirulating -- complete social media and unofficial guides.

To stay in character with the connective narrative and conversational nature of this blog, I present you with:

The Alfred Hitchcock Guide to SxSW

A groundbreaking research into how the 11 recurrent themes in the director's portfolio will dominate the conference.

Hitchcock's movies create experiences through two key ingredients - fear and fantasy. These are often tempered with good doses of humor and realism. In fact, the more realistic and reasonable the beginning, the more compelling the twist.

The themes

(1.) Ordinary person. Placing an ordinary person, like you and me, in extraordinary circumstances, like hundreds of opportunities to connect and build bridges to potential business. People like you and me are telling stories we can all identify with. And this year everyone will be able to augment their SxSW reality with the first indoor AR app and more.

(2.) Wrong person. The case of mistaken identity leads to all sorts of twists in the plot. Imagine meeting someone who on the surface looks innocent enough, to later discover they are behind one of the most innovative technologies and projects out there. How embarrassing! Ever treated a known influencer at a level or two above what warranted, and totally overlooking someone who could really help you?

(3.) Likeable "villain". The villains in Hitchcock's movies appear refined and charming. On occasion, you might find yourself cornered in a conversation about a product you're not really interested in. While chit chat is nice, you'll need to learn to excuse yourself gracefully and exit left stage.

(4.) Stairways. These to me symbolize the unknown. Where do they lead? There is the allure of the catchy panel title, the courting through content, then, at some point, we'd like some learning and action. The stairway is where we decide whether to follow or take the fire escape route.

(5.) Mothers. Well, you know that inside every group in every conference there is a hierarchy in the influence-making chain. The magic here is to work with all people, not just the ones who seem to have explicit authority. The fastest way to kill your opportunity is to overlook someone who could be influential in your space, only because you may not know their role. Be gracious.

(6.) Distilled wine. Hitchcock included brandy, a form of distilled wine, in all his movies. We live in an age of snack culture, where people consume media in small bites. Yet people are willing to invest time and effort on things that are valuable to them, things they want. How can you distill the information to be the right one, at the right moment as you meet people? Yeah, I know what you were thinking on this one.

(7.) Sexuality. This is the want part of the conference. Need leads to commoditization, want leads to consideration. Think carefully about the events you want to attend, including the after event parties. This is achieved by choice. How can you design the conference experience you want to have? Also, how can you be more attractive to opportunity yourself?

(8.) Observer. The classic point of view most evident in Rear Window. There will always be people up front, participating actively in conversations, and people who are on the fence, watching what is going on and forming their opinions. Which one are you? Is it situational?

(9.) Breach of a rule. This is obviously the crime - normal and expected in a thriller. Breaking the rules works best when you've taken the time to know them. Learn about what's going on, research while you plan, and observe reactions and behaviors on the ground. Then figure out the opposite - zig instead of zagging - for example. Don't do it just to do it differently. Be smart about it. Know why.

(10.) Heroines. Don't forget that many decisions today are made by women. We think differently, so much so that in Kawasaki's book The Art of the Start, he advise start ups to consult with a woman to vet a business plan. Why? Women don't have the killer gene. They are thus much better judges of the viability of a business model.

(11.) Silent scenes. This is where you are shutting up and the other people in the scene are talking. It's the best moment, the one you have worked for all along. You can engage the art of conversation by listening and finding an opportunity to be helpful. Make it a working session, and you'll be memorable.

***

This is my guide to get your creative juices going. What's yours?

Make sure you say hi when we cross paths.

[image from a Vanity Fair remake of Hitchcock classics]

How to Make your Content Sticky

2010-03-11T07:00:00-05:00

Make it very useful, then make it portable and spreadable.

Package it in as many ways as you can think of, build it out, extend it with participation, give it away for free, give it away for leads, give it away to sell it.

These and many other ideas can help you raise your online profile and be tactical at the same time. A quick tactical list:

Twitter

Regardless of how much we'd like to think of this tool in the context of chats, it really isn't suited for that. However, chats are our way to establish a consistent, time-based (weekly seems to work well) stream of topical content that humanizes you.

Add to that useful links to content elsewhere, announcements, and offers sent when your monitoring uncovers opportunities to be helpful, and you have several ways of allowing people to spread your information.

Me.Anything

2010-03-10T07:00:00-05:00

Instead of having anything.me. I like me.anything better. Although it might not be as SEO-friendly, it reflects more what happens when we focus on understanding and appreciating who we are.

It's important because what we can do -- literally anything -- then follows. The Web doesn't love ambiguity, so doesn't business. Anything what, exactly?

As a business owner, you need to decide what that anything means because it creates an expectation of what you deliver.

And it works like a charm for that. Your customers come to you because you're the company or person who does xyz. In fact, you have better chances they will remember you the more narrowly you define that.

Two questions people ask me demonstrate the importance of thinking about how you define yourself. Oscar Wilde would call it the importance of being Earnest.

What do I do to establish my personal brand as separate from my company?
How do I go about rolling out my (personal) brand when I've decided to change it? What steps do I take?

The definition of who you are is intertwined with how you're perceived. This is especially important as we move away from how we used to define ourselves and be defined by the job title we held. Today you can lead from any chair, as Ben Zander says, so the important part is the leading/doing.

Perception and behavior change depending upon context. This is true of you, and it's valid of your customers. When you do sat surveys, for example, at what time and in what context are you catching them? Would the answers be different had the questions come at another time? What if it was two-way, a conversation?

Think about me.anything. What are you truly passionate about? Does your business exudes that passion? That's how you get your anything done. Anything is a decision. It's the opposite of everything. You need to stand for something, or you fall for everything.

We'll get to questions 1 and 2 above in other posts. They're important for the tactics you will use to achieve your "anything".

[get your Google business card template]

***

A couple of nights ago I spoke at the #140conf in Philadelphia (thanks Don Lafferty) and had the opportunity to connect with a great crowd. We connected because the setting was about me.anything. The question was: what has the real time Web meant for you? Each of us talked about the reason why we love it.

That is a story that resonates in a room filled with people just like you, only different in the way me.anything shows up.

What's your me.anything?

Executing a Content Strategy for Buyers Research/Evaluation Phase

2010-03-09T07:00:00-05:00

With digital media and search, you need to think about a whole new set of considerations when you write content if you want to appeal to buyers who are researching and evaluating products or services. It's not just thinking about the top keywords and inserting them in your copy.

As John Battelle writes in a post that revisits his own database of intentions, there are many more nuances to content and optimization today. Combining search with the social graph, status updates, and check-in or connection to real life is more complex and can be more rewarding.

Tools

This is another way of looking at how social media integrates with what we do and how we market and sell. His description (with some light editing):

1. The Query was was a declaration of a very particular intent: What I Want from the web. The goal was to find something you wanted. Hence the name search.
2. The Social Graph emerged as a signal that helped us declare not only Who We Are, we've also declared Who We Know. Both are powerful intent-driven declarations, and both have deep interplays with search. By manifesting who we are and who we know, we can find and be found by others.
3. The Status Update, which emerged almost at the same time as the social graph, is a personal declaration of what we deem important, noteworthy, shareable: What's on our minds, what's happening, what's worthy. A powerful search signal, in real time.
4. The Check-in indicates or Where I Am. This is a crowning declaration of intent, because it connects the physical to the virtual, securing the Database of Intentions to the terra firma of the Real World. As with the other three fields, the check-in - which I expect will soon become automatic via our mobile devices - is a vastly powerful signal of intent: "I am here. So what you got for me?"

Do you see how the evolution is playing off online to off line? This part is where your social media participation and activation can have the greatest impact.

Writing content for the researching eye

Which can be the roaming eye. Case studies, customer reviews, comments, share buttons, community features are all important for this phase. The more interaction you build into your content, the more your stimulate offline word of mouth. Decisions are made offline, often in consultation with a team.

Generally, the stumbling block for many businesses is obtaining recommendations straight on. Part of the issue is that many don't understand recommendations. Here's what you do instead, work on customer success stories, give your customers the tools to tell the world how great they are. You helped them get there.

Video and audio testimonials get you more attention than written case studies these days. Make it stupid easy for your customers to give you those stories. Get a Google Voice number for customers to call in their experiences of outstanding service and record them.

For video, engage with the customer about their experience, listen closely, then write up a series of simple questions that will allow you to elicit that story back when taping. Share those questions, let your customers write down the answers -- not to have a script, to become comfortable with what they will share (helps with approvals when needed, too). Customer interactions on video stand out and get seen.

Checklist for social:

make it "stupid easy" for your customers to tell their success stories
facilitate subscriptions and shares
curate the actual conversations
engage sneezers, the people who become influential to spreading your content

Research/evaluation deeper dive

In some B2B industries that have complex contracts and long sales cycles, you might also consider sponsoring some proprietary research that helps answer some of your customers key burning questions. Findings make very good content to ignite a conversation around the pain points and solutions.

And you'll have the ability to broaden your reach in communications crafted to appeal directly to your customers, which may gain good media and blogger coverage. Make those executive summaries available in many formats -- as visuals on SlideShare, charts with video commentary, etc.

What you learn through interactions in social media is also customer intelligence. How do you play that back? What processes have you put in place to capture that information and do something with it?

Tools that provide either price comparisons or the ROI calculations of using your service vs. doing it in house, for example, are another great attractor for customers who are in the evaluation stage for a service or product. The physical act of playing with variables is very powerful. Car companies, especially in the luxury segment, are not afraid to go there.

Although many companies shy away from direct computation, transparency can be an ally at a tactical level.

If you're a small business, or a consultant who wants to up the game, consider publishing your pricing structure. It's scary, I know, you may think you probably don't make enough. Compared to whom though? Do you work on set fees or do you have price points for different services?

In the last couple of weeks, two people I admire and learn from in my network did that. Mack Collier published a ballpark list of his fees for a social media strategy, and Chris Brogan unveiled his price points. Have you considered communicating your fee structure as part of your content strategy for this phase of the buyer's decision journey?

Checklist:

are you going to invest in proprietary research with companies such as Harris Interactive, IDG, etc.? Map how you're going to package and communicate research results across networks.
would it be more cost effective to you and still useful for your customers to learn what their peers are saying who belong to the same professional association? The MENG network has just published a survey about companies adoption of social media, for example.
do you have the ability to create a tool that will help customers with either comparisons or ROI calculations of using your service vs. doing things in house?
have you considered a pricing transparency policy as a tactic to gain more customers?

Graphs, maps and visuals that catalog the space are also good tactical tools to gain permission to engage in a deeper conversation around customers pain points and needs.

***

Business professionals often share their frustration with companies that view social media as just more channels for the same tactics. Help them expand their thinking with these ideas they can use to win by executing a content strategy that maps to the buyers research and evaluation phase.

What other sources of content work for you in this phase?

Make What you Offer Customers Stand out

2010-03-08T07:00:00-05:00

In their minds and get word of mouth for your business.

Trust is fragile. In a recent post about the intangible art of trust at American Express OPEN, Matthew May cited consumer behaviorist Ernest Dichter. In the 1950s, Dichter determined that most people perceive at least five dimensions of downside risk every time they engage in a purchase experience:

Economic -- will this waste my money?
Functional -- will this work reliably well?
Social -- will others think less of me?
Physical -- will this somehow be painful?
Mental -- will I think poorly of myself?

Most business owners wonder -- how can I make what I offer stand out to gain more customers? It starts with trust. Standing out doesn't need to be universal, the whole marketplace, the whole world. Address these risks for your customers, and you begin to stand out in their minds. That's where the opportunity is.

Answer those questions.

(1.) Will this waste my money?

While value is subjective, the quality of your product and service is something you can address. If you're building your reputation with a new service or product, consistency can shore up the lack of proof on quality. To me they go hand in hand.

In the absence of a relationship that can give us information about reliability and experience, your product or service will be compared to that of others. How do you stack up on price? Do you address the perceptual difference with other customers reviews and reputation?

(2.) Will this work reliably well?

Design an experience around your product and service. In both cases, functionality depends on what individuals choose to do with it. Do they use it often? Do they rely on your service for things that are critical to their success?

Integrating social media and networks with your marketing allows you to share recipes, stories, ways to use something, while building a user community. Appreciating the functionality of a product or service is easier where there are ways to do that over time.

(3.) Will others think less of me?

Social proofing is very important. This is another place where design of experience can help. On one side you have the aesthetics of the product itself -- while these are subjective, there are some universal principles that govern beauty. For example, we may not know we respond to it, an oval face is considered by and large more attractive.

We respond to it instinctively. The fashion industry is built upon our need to be accepted and liked. Many brands appeal to social conventions. You sense of self-identity is engaged here as well. Would you rather be seen driving a Ferrari or a Honda hybrid? Who are you trying to attract?

(4.) Will this somehow be painful?

Quality and consistency help us feel safe physically as well. We have a need to feel safe, it's the lower regions of the brain that dictate that. Painful is a difficult customer service transaction, for example. If you operate in an industry that has a very poor track record, standing out for superb customer service could be your branding differentiation.

Are you asking for customer collaboration for crowd-sourcing and making them jump through hoops?

(5.) Will I think poorly of myself?

The three main reasons why people buy are fear, love, and hope. We have internal barometers and follow our own instinct on each of these. When we buy out of fear, we tend to despise the brand a little, or treat it as commodity -- can we get that same thing at a cheaper price?

What can you do to be in the hope and love categories? Building relationships of trust is critical for fulfilling hope. Creating a smashing experience with a service or an irresistible product will help you with the love reason.

***

You know that in many cases, more than one of these questions surfaces in your customers' minds. Trust may be intangible, you can use many tangible ways to build it -- and stand out in your customers minds in the process.

Why is is so difficult to do? What do you find daunting?

[image credit http://www.flickr.com/photos/marcelgermain/ / CC BY-NC-ND 2.0]

The Private Nature of Public Relations

2010-03-07T07:00:00-05:00

To do public relations well you need to have a critical mind -- to develop compelling content. You need to be able to see fresh angles and points of view in a company, product, or service story so that benefits to the reader come across in all their glory, without writing a sell sheet in a press release.

Today, you need a whole set of new skills. With new media, you need to understand the digital space a lot better, how to integrate marketing communications, the value of search engine optimization (SEO), who is influential in the niche where your client is, how you set up listening posts, how to measure the results of your strategies, and be comfortable with new technologies.

You also need to learn how to manage your client's expectations and deliver the hard message of putting skin in the game -- directly, or through you -- with your results. You may be called upon to be more than an adviser when it comes to managing communities, and helping in case of a crisis.

To be good at all of this, you will become emotionally vested in the outcome. While new media work may take you to a whole new level, it presents some challenges:

you need to build your own brand to demonstrate expertise without creating friction at work
online you need to toe the company line, and disclose when you're doing that
you're called to draw from your personality, along with your experience
you're working at all hours and need to find ways to have a life
you're looking to create new trends and the industry is stuck in old ways

Is new media allowing companies to benefit from people taking on more roles and work without proper recalibrating and compensation?

Many organizations are struggling with the fact that someone who is really good in new media helps pull the brand or company they connect by virtue of their own name recognition.

On the other hand, companies tend to be suspicious of PR professionals and agencies that, in their eyes, spend time gaining publicity for themselves. They think it comes at a cost to clients -- they will not get better results for the brand than those who focus on it exclusively, at the expense of their own popularity.

We talk a lot about the public nature of public relations, yet we spend little time thinking about the profession's private nature.

These are some interesting trends I've observed and discussed with practitioners. Companies struggle with loss of control the most, are we in danger of seeing that control shift from the message to the people who carry it?

What do you think?

[image credit http://www.flickr.com/photos/atomicjeep/ / CC BY 2.0]

Be a Joiner

2010-03-05T07:00:00-05:00

I remember having this conversation frequently over the years.

People would come up to me and ask me what was my secret to knowing (seemingly) everyone. They noticed that every place I went -- networking event, seminar, even the central train station -- I'd be saying hi to someone I had met, and have a quick catch up conversation whenever possible.

The secret is quite simple, actually -- be a joiner.

Whenever I meet new people, I don't simply shake hands and nod politely while my gaze is roaming somewhere in the distance. People want to be heard, seen, noticed, they want to count, not just be counted.

I make it a point to follow up by checking out your online presence, or learning more about your favorite project and cause. I stay in touch over time -- sending a book, an article, a connection, a note, whenever I find something you'd find useful. One way to show I care.

And, when the opportunity arises, I join in -- a cause, project, learning experience, story that can make me smarter, and support you. That's why I joined Third Tribe Marketing (affiliate link).

With some people it happens instantly, in other cases, the perfect opportunity presented itself years later. Relationships to me are long term. I've joined many, many initiatives, causes, and people over the years. And continue to do so also with my online presence -- sharing links, ideas, making connections.

You leave a comment here, connect with me over a topic somewhere, and you can count on me remembering the exchange. Italians have a very long memory.

Events where I speak are no different. I join all those in attendance, in real time.

Talk about lifestream! I can update walls and streams later -- what's important are the people in front of me, in the room with me, right that second. Which is one of the reasons I tweet very little from conferences, and blog even less, live.

If we haven't met in real life, and you are going to be at one of these upcoming events, come up to me and introduce yourself, especially if you're a silent reader. I actually enjoy knowing what you think. Here's where I will be in the next couple of months

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

I'm a character most of the time. I'll be even more of one at the #140conf next week at the Manayunk Brewery, where I will share my personal life changing story on the Real-Time Internet and the effects on business.

I see from the notes on the meet up page that I'll be in the same room with some Third Tribe members. It's really good when networks converge and I look forward to shaking hands and being in the same space.

There's still a few spaces left, so make sure you grab one. Monday, March 8 @ 5-7PM. Be there.

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You know that I have something up my sleeve for SxSWi, so make sure you say hi when we cross paths at the many opportunities to learn, network, and connect next week in Austin.

I was honored to be invited to judge the Hive Awards recently to support the work of Alan Walk, and will be at the party.

The bloggers lounge will be one of the places where you'll find me there.

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Social media presents great opportunities and challenges to organizations of all sizes. Unfortunately most firms are ill-prepared to deal with the new realm created by Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Yammer and other web 2.0 technologies.

As a result, they may ignore the mediums, waste considerable time experimenting with vehicles that deliver little value, under or overspend on technology, and even fail to see legal potholes.

This panel set up as a town hall meeting is co-sponsored by IABC, PHRPS and RIMS. I'm honored to be a Board Member at Large of IABC Philadelphia, and have worked for many years in risk management consulting, even took the associate in risk management designation.

I was helpful the last two panels Rick Alcantara organized, so I got invited back. Wednesday, March 17 @ 8-9:30AM, The Hub Cira Center.

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We're going to talk about how to connect with customers through content -- my favorite -- at the J. Boye Conference.

There are three main things about connection:

1. it's on demand
2. it comes from engagement
3. it prompts us to action

Yet so many Web site owners don't think about online content and marketing as a system. Many companies struggle with how to integrate content in different media and technologies with the brand's need for consistency online (and off line). You want to sell -- your community wants to engage. These two distinct aims needn't be mutually exclusive. Our session will provide you with practical tips to strike this balance. In real time. Every time. My session will be May 6, 10:30-12PM.

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We'll learn why social media is important for brands and how to develop, implement, measure, and manage a program at the Social Media Plus summit executive track.

Social media has changed the way companies and brands are discussed and considered. This presents a challenge, but also opens a number of opportunities for companies ready to harness the power of human interaction. Human involvement is what gives brands the strongest competitive differentiation today.

Executives will learn about the advantages of integrating the social component in their business strategy. This session will cover how to develop, implement, measure, and manage a cross-functional program with goals and metrics that map to impact and track to ROI. Participants will get the inside scoop on finding and activating brand evangelists, gaining competitive intelligence, managing resources and time, while boosting conversions. May 25 @ 7:30AM-5PM at the Philadelphia Convention Center.

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And you can join the rest of the gang at the #kaizenblog Twitter chat every Friday @ 12Noon ET.

Do you want to be on the map? Put yourself there -- being a joiner is not a spectator sport.

Two New Surveys Validate Companies Adoption of Social Media

2010-03-04T07:00:00-05:00

Senior marketers are putting their money where our conversation has been -- on integrating social with their activities.

The Marketing Executives Networking Group (MENG) 3rd Annual Marketing Trends Study* and The CMO Survey undertaken by the Duke University Fuqua School of Business and the American Marketing Association results converged on the same trend: social media becoming a viable tool in a business marketing mix.

Both reports also highlight the increased importance of social media to B2B companies (see eMarketer study summary). Note the increase in spending for the B2B services category and projected allocation in the next 12 months from August 2009 to February 2010.

In B2B often your service is the equivalence of product in B2C -- the lifeblood of the business.

Top data points

While The CMO survey provides insights on the budget investment and market composition delta, the MENG Trend Study provides a couple of data points that confirm social media is built from the inside. Mack Collier covered the statistics for 2010 at The Viral Garden (my edits):

Companies more likely to maintain a blog than individual executives. Smaller companies excepted (fewer than 2,000 employees).

Most executives surveyed will implement internally (71%). Of the rest, interactive agencies lead the charge with 28%, 25% vote for social media consultants, 20% for PR agencies, and 16% would go to ad agencies.

Both large (46%) and small companies (41%) plan to hire social media consultants as their top choice if they outsource the creation of social media strategies. Next in line are interactive, PR and ad agencies.

Larger companies that outsource social media initiatives plan to turn to interactive agencies (33%), ad agencies (31%), PR agencies (26%) and social media consultants (24%)

These data points are consistent with what I hear from agencies. I firmly believe that social media is the new agency-client relationship builder.

I do wonder if PR agencies that are building digital practices will be gaining ground -- and budgets -- over their interactive competitors. To me, the biggest challenge PR agencies face is that of measurement. In looking at the MENG Study, you can see that marketing ROI is a top priority.

The other categories that are focusing top executives are consistent with a tight and highly competitive economic environment: customer retention, brand loyalty, positioning/differentiation, branding. In other words -- hold on to your base and stand out.

Research nirvana

How do the budgets stack up? The CMO Survey shows a nice upward trend in the next 12 months to 5 years.

Even though I haven't peeked behind the curtains of this survey, I'm thinking the 12-month increase is going towards better listening and reporting tools that integrate with existing marketing and sales automation tools.

Gathering intelligence on interactions, sentiment, and geolocation will augment traditional segmentation and market research, and marry with Web statistics, then, in the 5-year time frame, mobile data.

Many businesses use a mix of custom Google Analystics reports, Omniture, Google Insight report, Hitwise for clickstream data, Coremetrics for data on customer types, and a listening tool like BuzzLogic or Radian6 (more here).

Research makes sense for customer retention, customer loyalty, branding, brand advocacy and influencer outreach. If you're not careful though, you'll have more data than you actually need to make smart decisions about dollar investments.

The best way to make sense of what you collect is to document trends. For example: changes in repeat customers and number of transactions, number of customer referrals, observable lift in other channels.

Reality check

With implementations on the way in, buzzwords are on their way out.

If you're in a laggard industry, chances are you're still grappling with SEO, and Web 2.0 shiny word syndrome. The more digitally savvy companies have been able to get a jump on integrating social media without the headaches of wondering about how to measure their efforts -- and track their returns.

Alterian Inc. Annual Survey 2009 of 1,000 marketers found that 40% of respondents indicated they would move 20% or more of their budget from traditional direct marketing methods to digital marketing. Digital marketing expenditures will continue to climb in US marketing investments.

According to a new Forrester Research's U.S. Interactive Marketing Forecast 2009-2014, they will go from 13% in 2010, to 17% in 2012, to 21% in 2014. Who gets the largest slice in the mix? Search marketing still leads the pack, with email marketing, social media, and mobile marketing taking incremental gains.

What does this all mean to you?

On the company side, you're in good company -- look at the spike in the numbers. On the consultant side, you better have results under your belt -- MENG's Survey lists samples of previous work (94%), recommendations (91%), quality of response to RFP (82%), and cost (80%) as the top selection criteria.

Marketing in 2010 is very much about knowing your numbers and having the ability to deliver on the numbers.

[*MENG's "Top 20 Non-Member Bloggers" outreach]

Meet 5 Entrepreneurs Who Run Circles Around Social Media Gurus

2010-03-03T07:00:00-05:00

"If you don't understand business and the whole idea of economics and ecology, and sociology, you cannot be an entrepreneur." [quote adapted from Hartmut Esslinger interview about design]

You should pay attention to the backgrounds and stories of these 5 entrepreneurs. It's in the details that you learn the most -- and they give away quite a bit of detail, given how they make their income. The first thing you need to understand as you read these profiles is that although these entrepreneurs all built a platform with their blogs, your blog is not a business.

David Ridley says it better: blogs don't make money. Businesses do. [hat tip Larry Brooks]

I view these professionals as part of the same human team as you and I, each expressing what they bring to the table in unique ways, according to what they choose to do. They all have one thing in common: the commit to and plan their hard work and success, they live in the important vs. urgent quadrant.

The moment you blame, you lose: Jonathan Fields

The image I picked for him (hope you'll forgive me, Jonathan) is attached to an amazing post about accountability, working hard, and earning a seat at the attention table.

As I've been reading post after post about his plans for 2010, I notice the clear language, and the concrete resolve to align, build, collaborate, signal, impact, eliminate, give, and teach with the gratitude of someone who is mindful and in the present.

Lest you think this is a bit too touchy-feely for you, take a look at his background. He graduated on the top of his class and was a was a hedge-fund/securities lawyer, first for the S.E.C. and then for Manhattan mega-firm, Debevoise & Plimpton.

I'm loving his posts on business strategy, which he categorizes as entrepreneurship -- this is the stuff you learn from the most, looking at different models, what's under the hood, how they compare, how to think through questions to ask. This is a beautiful mind at work.

The little things matter. Do them: Chris Guillebeau

His mission is to help people live unconventional lives, make their own choices, and change the world. We talked about his philosophy and work here before.

The name of his site is the Art of Non Conformity, where he offers Unconventional Guides -- a series of high-value/low-priced eBooks and mixed-media courses that solve very specific problems.

The most notable aspect of his work to me has been his ability to attract a small army of remarkable people who are committed to his -- and by reflection their -- success.

I love his series on world domination. Any day you need a bit of an adjustment on life and thinking, check in with these posts.

[image credit]

To find signal in the real time noise, use the right filters: Louis Gray

He's a self-described massive consumer of technology, living and participating in the heart of Silicon Valley.

And now thanks in part of the platform he built with his blog since 2006, has become the Managing Director of New Media at Paladin Advisors Group, a new consultancy focused on Marketing, Public Relations, Sales Process, New Media and Advisory.

Are we transitioning from institutional thinking to networked thinking as Thomas Powers says here? Louis has been one to call it like he sees it in technology -- early stage, or adopted -- and online.

He worked on his own (stealth) start up for five to six months before launching into it full time. Just because he's so prolific in his writing about technology, and the company just sort of popped up, don't make the assumption that it wasn't and isn't hard work.

He's a master of tools. See his whole presentation on using the right filters to find signal in the real time noise.

Your business is worthless if it depends on you: John Jantsch

Think of John as the small business marketing coach who's been giving lots of practical advice and content away for free at Duct Tape Marketing. Those words I used in the intro were meant to make you reflect about creating a business as an asset.

John picked the best name for his site and blog and has very much a no nonsense approach. Many business owners don't have the shiny object syndrome about tools many marketers have, I find, and his direct style no doubt appeals to them.

Many small businesses are time strapped, and no doubt appreciate the resources John puts into each post -- I grab several ideas every time.

You can have both your soul and success for your business: Sonia Simone

She's my kind of marketer -- for people who hate marketing. In fact, she defines herself as a relationship counselor for businesses. If you want to test her remarkable communications methodology, sign up for free e-classes.

In addition to her business, Sonia is senior editor at Copyblogger, and one of the founders of the Third Tribe Marketing community, where I'm currently a member.

What I like most about Sonia is her clarity of purpose in everything she writes (and does) -- here are 50 things your customers wish you knew, for example -- and the fact that she had a previous life in corporate America.

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Their lessons are not lost on me. I've been learning a lot from each one in the last couple of years and changing the way I work and think about business problems.

The point is not to be perfect -- a guru. The point is to choose to be remarkable, and knowing that it comes at a price -- hard work. Every day, they win the battle of attitude and approach over the cards they're dealt.

Who are you learning from? What's most notable to you about them?