Getting Real by 37 Signals is a simple read, which is the point, as the book’s subtitle is:  The smarter, faster, easier way to build a successful web application. While this book does all that, it does more too. The smarter, simple, faster, easier way they approach web work has many lessons that can be placed in to your world. It’s also such a quick read, I’ll probably read and reread this one a few times.

It’s funny how things are applicable at different times in your life. I typically don’t pick up web books, but this is one of Clay’s top reads, so I wanted to read his top read. He’s a super sharp dude, so why wouldn’t I want to know what he knows? More than that, though, the book was great for me to read because it helps us work smarter as a team, and, I know a lot more about where he is coming from when we approach a web project. Just this week, a client wanted to have a few websites for their business. This could have been a very OK thing for that company, however, my main point, of course from the thoughts of this book, were that making three sites only lead to additional sites to MANAGE. Most clients don’t want to add to their work load on purpose, nor leave open an opportunity to cause error by forgetting to change information in one place but not in the other two. It was timely, and spot on advice for this situation.

There are many other lessons I’m sure I’ll share in future situations, but for now, take my advice and read this book. It’s more than simple advice for web work. It’s great advice for business.

I hope you are ready for this pick up to begin and get better. I hope you’re ready to complete 2009 with a bang. I hope your 2010 planning is almost complete and you’re excited about what’s next. We are about half way through evaluating our marketing activities this past year and putting together our strategic plan for the next three years.

For our strategy, we really thought about a few key items and how they’ll look down the road:

• We did a little client profiling. We determined a new client criteria and ’scoring’ process for how we decide to work with future business leaders.
• We disucssed how we will continue to position ourselves as experts in marketing; what does this mean and what do we need to do to get results?
• We made very specific 2010 goals. Wow, they are amazing! We really knocked these out of the park.

Let us know if we can help you with your 2010 marketing plan. We are almost done with ours, so our ideas are flying!

Let start with the accounts that amuse me. The entertainment value of these accounts alone is enough of a reason for me to get on Twitter:

• @sween, @fireland, and @badbanana might be some of the funniest people I’ve never met.
• @TheOnion tweets out the headlines from the fictional news source of the same name.
• @lisa_annoyed documents the things that annoy Lisa.

You can tell a lot about a person by which celebrities they choose to follow on Twitter. Based on that, it seems I am a 12-year-old boy.

• @darthvader has altered the oatmeal. Pray he does not alter it further.
• @TomCrean in his role as head coach of the IU men’s basketball team shares serial tweets on leadership, motivation, and turning a wayward program around
• @kpereira and @oliviamunn host G4’s love letter to geeks, Attack of the Show
• @pennsays features the occasional ramblings of the more vocal half of comedy/magic duo Penn & Teller.

There are also people I’ve met around Indianapolis who I view as good resources. They seem to share links to great articles or offer insights that I value.

• @SilverSquare – even though Raquel and I sit a few feet from each other, Twitter is a great way for us to share good links back and forth.
• @jim_brown has shared some great links on Internet trends (and was the first person in my network to mention the recent tanker crash on the northeast side of Indy)
• @TravisBSmith is the most thoughtful, insightful person I know in the usability space.
• @getpatron champions removing the technical obstacles that prevent artists from having high-quality websites.
• @IBJNews is the filter I use for scanning headlines to see what’s happening in the Indianapolis business environment.

I also follow a few accounts that don’t seem to fall under any particular category. Here are my miscellaneous picks:

• @ChicagoBearscom – I’ve been a fan since the 80s.
• @warpwoof will expand your mind with deep thoughts about religion, economics, politics, and philosophy.
• @sproutbox is transforming Indiana, and specifically Bloomington, into a hot spot for new web-based businesses.
• @asksilversquare allows visitors to submit marketing questions and provides answers from professionals for free.

I hope it inspires you to take some action on your own social media learning curve. Get on, listen and interact. Relationship marketing is back.

Watch the video.

What went wrong? How could they have avoided it? That’s one of the examples Hannah Joseph will be discussing in her presentation: The Legal Dos and Don’ts of Social Media. I’ve personally seen this presentation, and it’s definitely worth your time. She covers some critical topics you need to understand to make sure you are protecting yourself as you deal with your organization’s online presence. As Marsh learned, even something as simple as a Facebook status update can have a huge ripple effect on your business.

Choosing not to have an online presence is simply not an option in today’s economy, so you need to know this stuff. The seminar is free, but seating is limited so register in advance.

I too had the pleasure of counting myself among these amazing online leaders and presented the Twitter Case for Business to a packed room. While Twitter’s growth has finally leveled off a bit, the desire to learn about it and from it continues to increase pace with curiosity. We handed out our Twitter Guide in our session and had a few people come up to me throughout the day asking for one.

Thanks to all of you who sent Tweets throughout the session – seems like the best sound bite came from Cassie Dull; her Tweet from my presentation:  People want to know you, the real story and the real results. Don’t be afraid to be personal on social media. @silversquare #mbo09. Thank you to MacksMind, AKA Mack Earnhart, for taking this photo below.

If you’re not already one of our monthly newsletter subscribers, please consider joining our list (check out a past issue here, 7 Ways to Use LinkedIn for Business). We have a 97% open rate, so you know we don’t spam and we give lots of value each month. It arrives the first Thursday of each month. November’s topic will either be a video on the Twitter Case for Business – my top 10 reasons to market with Twitter, or, a how-to article on building your social media marketing strategy. I haven’t decided which just yet. Join our list!

Raquel presenting the second version of her Twitter Case for Business at the 2009 Masters of Business Online. Photo by Mack Earnhart.

SS: What will online business look like in 5 years?
JP: Obviously, more and more businesses are moving online.  For the first time, what I am seeing is that the internet is getting really crowded.  In search engine rankings, for example, Google has started putting greater emphasis on company’s with large establish brands and websites that have a long online history.  Both of these elements reward businesses that started sooner.  I see this trend continuing over the next five years.  The internet will become increasingly crowded and busy.  It will be harder for businesses to gain attention and attract traffic.  Local-based websites and search will help, but within five years they will be just as crowded.  NOW is the time businesses need to get online (actually, it was yesterday, but better now than tomorrow).  I don’t believe any business can wait a single day to create a website and begin marketing online.

SS: Why do you think social media has become so popular?
JP: I think social media is simply an extension of what we do offline.  It simultaneously gives marketers more influence/power and removes some risks (while adding others).  However, I don’t believe social media is for every business.  I think it’s a tool that will be extremely effective for some businesses, but not others.

SS: What website do you spend the most time at?
JP: Definitely Google, and not just for the searching.  I spend a lot of time in Google Analytics.  I moved all my e-mail into one Gmail account and started using Google Calendar and Tasks.  I probably spend 40% of my online time on a Google-owned website.

SS: Who is doing things right online?
JP: My former employer, Affordable Style, is doing a great job marketing online.  They market in every area from PPC, SEO, email, social media and even a little offline.  Unlike most organizations, their focus is both wide and deep.  They understand that online marketing is measurable and therefore are not afraid to experiment with new tactics and campaigns.  Their ROI is relatively simple to calculate and if a new campaign isn’t work, they simply cancel it.

James Paden - Founder, Vibrant Solutions

Topic: Optimizing Your eCommerce Platform
read James’s MBO bio

Hungry for more? Register for MBO. Use the code silver109 to get a special discount.

First, some of my news sources are:

• @NPRnews because I listen to them in the car just about every day; this is a way to keep up another way
• @NYT and @NYTSmallBiz I like their column writers and topics they cover; some aren’t relative to me, but I still share for the future small biz owner
• @andrea_crawford at Inside Indiana Business for all the local stuff
• @NicoleWTHR for the weather
• @NYT_JenPreston because she passes around a different set of stuff I typically don’t read but have found interesting
• INManufacturing to get the latest Indiana Manufacturing news
• and there are some CNN reporters; I’m more of an NPR and NYT news junkie than CNN, but they are a close, close third

Some of my industry follows:

• @jakprints because they are one of our printers and sometimes release deals
• @marketingprofs because they are one of the best industry groups out there
• @mashable because they are a great filter for keeping up with social media in general
• @michaelgass because he’s an ad agency coach and passes around good insight
• @kyleplacy because he’s one of the first people I knew from Indy on Twitter, thanks to Angela for the intro
• @kevin_mcintosh becasue he’s a brilliant creative I met while working at Bates USA ages ago
• @michaelreynolds because he’s another guy in the industry I respect
• @claymabbitt because he’s funny, funny, funny and a great web guru

And finally there are just some random people because I either like them, like the brand, think they are funny or share good stuff:

• @chipmaxwell because he’s all of the above
• @60daystochange because it’s a book I’m part of creating and it’s amazing content everyone should know
• @greencandy because it’s full of interesting money stuff
• @petetheplanner because he is a brilliant money mind and funny too
• @flor because I’m waiting on a super fantastic offer – like FREE
• @starbucks because I like to watch a big guy do it
• @tushin because he’s a friend and funny
• @marketingveep because she must follow everyone in the universe because she always passes good stuff
• @jack because he founded Twitter but still waiting on something brilliant from him
• @powells because I WILL go to their store eventually. Pretty please. One of these days.

So that’s a very short list and I could add lots more, but these are the main ones that come to mind. Check them out and follow for a bit. You’re sure to expand your reach somewhere.

I had the pleasure of having lunch today with the executive director of the 4H Foundation (I forgot to tell her about my holly hobby easy bake oven explosion, that’s one good story) and I shared as much as one can in a lunch timeframe about the power of social media… for networking. By the end of lunch I think I had her convinced that one of her next steps is creating a ‘place’ for all of those long lost 4H friends to meet up and catch up… and thereby creating a pool of potential donors for her to reach out to.

Networking is a marketing function. It is! Don’t forget this in your marketing effort. As we teach in our twitter guide, social media puts networking on steroids. It’s a platform that allows you to leverage your time to connect with many, many people; moreso than you could face-to-face (especially on that geography factor!). That being said, it’s not enough to just talk, you must begin, join and share in conversations.  Go share!

Almost everyone gets this far. The idea that these printed items should all look like they came from the same company is a concept that most people are able to wrap their brains around.

Some people stop here, but many go on and create a website that carries through the same look and tone. So when someone sees your website address on your card and types it into their web browser, they are greeted with a home page that has the same design elements and feel that they saw on your card. Even this rudimentary online branding bears fruit. They had an expectation about what they were going to see on your home page, and that expectation was met. That’s a great impression to give visitors: you are going to meet their expectations.

Many people get this far.

But this is where the herd starts to thin out. Very few businesses have email templates or even email signatures that look like they belong to the brand. Twitter backgrounds and Facebook photos may or may not have any connection to the image the company intends to present. If a representative of the company leaves a comment on a blog, what avatar is showing up next to their comment? That’s not to say that every background and image needs to be the company logo (although that can be a successful approach.) But is it right for you to have images of your employees making wacky faces or should they be in business formal attire with calm, confident expressions? 

What’s true for print in this case is also true online. Branding needs to be pervasive and consistent.

I may not ever get a letter or business card from you. I may discover you on my computer monitor, and I’m going to have questions. Who are you? And how do I know unless you tell me?