1. What is company culture?
2. Why is company culture important?
3. How to create a company culture?

All I care about are dollars and cents

Every year Forbes magazines releases a list of the best companies to work for and in large part the companies on the list have established a culture that both their customers and employees are a part of.

Companies have figured out that eventually someone else will replicate any good idea, usually at a fraction of the price. The one thing that copycats can’t replicate is a culture. A business’s culture does not happen overnight but is a core philosophy of the company. I recently read Delivering Happiness by Tony Hsieh the CEO of Zappos.com. The book is a must for any business looking to create something other than a product or service.

Although Delivering Happiness is one book about one company, the idea of creating a culture is expanding quickly as other brands attempt to create something in addition to what is for sale. The secret is knowing that people are emotionally attached to their purchases. People are buying much more based on information that they have read online or heard directly from their friends/family. Creating a way for people to become more emotionally attached to your brand is a WIN-WIN for you and your customers.

If aunt Tambi has a wonderful experience with the customer service rep at an online retailer and shares her experience with you, in the future when you need something similar, you’ll remember. The same goes for having a bad experience with a company. The difference being with bad experiences people are much more likely to share their discontent via social media.

Culture Smolture

Illegal counterfeiting is a $600 Billion a year business. Imagine how much money is spent making similar products legally… The secret ingredient for profit is to create a product that can’t be so easily replicated. For the same reason Gold is so valuable, your company can become the Gold of your niche.

How many times have you heard of a brand new gadget like the iPhone 4 being released to have replicas shown on CNN hours later from a store in China somewhere? For the same reason the fashion industry and car industry change all the time, businesses are constantly forced to stay “one step ahead” of the competition. Really companies are trying to remain profitable as long as they can until the masses catch up.

Culture allows companies to take boring or beat industries and transform them back into profitable niches because something other than the product is being provided. That something is the secret sauce to the financial equation that allows companies to charge much more for the same product as their competition while gaining market share.

People are craving connections to brands and cultures that have been ignored for way to long.

Wake up and smell the culture

In order to establish a culture, your company needs to allow a certain level of freedom for your employees to help. A CEO can’t dictate a culture of the company and expect the employees to follow along. All the employees have to be involved on a personal level for any type of culture to succeed.

Many companies are creating a set of CORE VALUES that they can hang their hat on to determine if something is inside or outside of their culture. Then they allow their employees to create fun, unique, interesting ways to bond as a group and to welcome “outsiders” (customers) into that group. When a company mixes a product/service with a thick culture, they now have created a product that others can’t easily replicate. The company culture marketing strategy is one that will pay dividends over the long haul.

First of all, you are allowing your employees to be fun and creative, boosting morale and overall happiness Second, you are creating something unique and desirable by others. Last, culture allows businesses to rebuild lost profit margins by creating a new product for people to consume.

Start now, be unique, have fun and spread the love. Ultimately your company will be rewarded at every level.

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Kingsford is a brand of charcoal used for grilling, along with related products. The brand is owned by The Clorox Company.

The Kingsford Company was formed by Henry Ford and E.G. Kingsford during the early 1920s. Charcoal was developed from Ford Motor Company’s factory wastes (wood scraps). The Kingsford Company was formed when E.G. Kingsford, a relative of Ford’s, brokered the site selection for Ford’s new charcoal manufacturing plant. The company, originally called Ford Charcoal, was renamed in E.G.’s honor.

Today The Kingsford Products Company remains the leading manufacturer of charcoal in the U.S., enjoying 80 percent market share. More than 1 million tons of wood scraps are converted into charcoal briquets every year, making Kingsford the pacesetter in the charcoal industry.

Pretty cool to be able to take your scrap wood and turn that into a $350 million a year business! Who knew there was so much money in making, selling and marketing charcoal?

When looking for your next great marketing idea take a look around your trash bin at the office and see what it is your are scrapping that could be re-proceeded and turned into money. Talk about being “green” – more like making green from your trash heap.

Of course this doesn’t stop with physical objects, how could you transform your extra processing power or rack space into a product people need or want. It doesn’t cost you much to convert the things you already have into additional revenue generating sources.

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In fact, the title of this post will likely be the title of my book.

We now live in a digital age that translates into a society where everyone is linked by 1-degree of separation. I’d like to find out if in fact our online friends would translate into the kind of friends you’d invite to your wedding or funeral.

For the next 6 months I am going to try and befriend as many people as possible, then cultivate those relationships into genuine friendships. At the end of that time I will go and visit my new friends for a couple of days each.

I assembled a list of things that friends do for each other and will try to accomplish as many of those as possible with my new friends. All the while I will share my experiences and determine what type of friend each person is and whether or not I would classify them as a “real” friend. Such as:

• borrow car, house, boat or plane
• drive/travel great distances for the sake of it
• argue and make up
• go to weddings/funerals
• talk about anything including uncomfortable subjects
• drive to or from hospitals, jails or anything in between

So where do I start this project?

Facebook sounds like the most logical place to me being it revolves around friends and friendship. So I created a Facebook fan page for Will you be my friend? If you think we’d possibly be good friends, let’s start by becoming Facebook friends. From there we can continue the conversation via my Twitter page, this blog, over email or the phone.

At the end of 6 months I will coordinate visiting the top 20-25 friends wherever they may live. If you know a sponsor, I’m accepting

I am not sure what to expect or exactly how this entire project is going to go, but I am sure interested in this new phenomenon and whether or not great, lasting friendships can be built online just as well as offline. I have sure met some really cool people via the Internet and when I met them in person there was a stronger connection than “just” the first time meeting someone.

What do you think about online friendship? Have you meet some online friends that turned out to be just as normal as your high school/college friend? Do you think the Internet makes friendship easier? Do you feel Internet friends lack things compared to your other friendships? Will you be my friend?

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Eat Fresh

Subway’s slogan is perfect. How much more simple could they make their slogan to imply so much? Does any other national food chain come close to competing? You can see your food being made with tons of leafy greens piled high right before your eyes.

lesson: simple, powerful, implicate message

$5 Footlong

A Subway franchise owner by the name of Frankel started something huge. He was looking for a way to increase slumping weekend sales at his restaurant, and that triggered the idea of selling Footlong subs for just $5.

“There are only a few times when a chain has been able to scramble up the whole industry, and this is one of them,” says Jeffrey T. Davis, the president of restaurant consultancy Sandelman & Associates. “It’s huge.” Just take a look at what the competition has done since the $5 Footlong introduction. In fact, the $3.8 billion in sales generated nationwide by the $5 footlong alone placed it among the top 10 fast-food brands in the U.S. for the year ending in August, according to NPD Group.

lesson: pricing and branding rolled into one

Same but different

One of the biggest reasons I personally love going to Subway is for the food and how it is the same sandwich yet it is just a little bit different every time. I can order the same Roasted Chicken Breast sandwich from 5 different Subway Restaurants and they will be just a little bit different each time. Not to mention a few extra or fewer veggies or sauces adds an element of satisfaction you are looking for at that moment. Having the ability to add or take away as you see fit is a nice and welcomed change from the other fast food joints.

lesson: meeting people’s immediate needs

Carved out niche

The health industry is a multi-billion dollar annual business. Subway has carved out their niche in the fast food industry in a healthy way. They have become the default for a healthy and fast meal, two huge points.

Biggest Loser – By sponsoring a run-a-way success tv show focused on raising awareness of obesity and healthy living, Subway has cemented themselves in the health niche and is expanding quickly.

Marketing/Advertising – Eat Fresh and Fast but not Fast Food. These mantras are simple yet imply so much.

Don’t forget Jared – Subway placed a lot of faith in their spokesperson Jared. Imagine if Jared packed on the pounds again or died of a heart attack. Ouch. A very big and bold move that sets themselves apart from so many of their competitors.

Picking a fight

Subway uses its own products against the competition in their quest to elevate themselves. Subway says look at how bad McDonald’s or Burger King is for you and look how great our food is for you. The names, products and health information of different brands are listed right on Subway’s packaging and marketing material.

All food, all hours

Most fast food restaurants have to switch systems over in order to make breakfast items vs regular menu items. Subway doesn’t have this problem because they are only adding egg as an additional element. No matter what type of person you are, you’re able to enjoy breakfast for dinner and visa-versa.

Conclusion:

Use these same elements for your own business. Find new ways to challenge the status quo, pick a fight with your competitors, carve out your niche and provide a predicable yet unique experience every time.

Resources:

http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/Investing/Extra/a-five-dollar-footlong-success-story.aspx

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Pitch is a book designed to explain just how you can succeed on your next idea. You can visit his site ypitch.com to learn more about the book and Oren Klaff.

Everyone has heard of the elevator pitch and how important your pitch is, but nobody has been able to equip you with the techniques needed to effectively deliver a good pitch time and time again. No more guesswork. Pitch is about proven techniques.

Oren has successfully pitched and raised $400 million for investment and venture capital groups. He spent 10,000 hours of his time figuring how to deliver amazing pitches over and over again and is going to share this with you in his new book.

We now live in a world where just about everyone is reachable, but just because you can contact anyone doesn’t mean you’ll be any better sharing your ideas with them.

When it comes to getting an idea across, we are notoriously bad at doing so. The right pitch to the right group of people can change the outcome of your life. Higher pay, more clients, more publicity and just about anything you can imagine.

Use the form below to receive the first chapter of his book set to come out on October 15th. I along with the rest of the Echelon Media crew will be promoting the book and will notify you to receive an advanced copy of his book.

If you are interested in learning much more about Pitch or Oren visit intersectioncapital.com. If you have any questions for Oren please email josh@joshwhitford.com. Visit the post here to get your free copy of Pitch.

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Knowing that marketing isn’t just one aspect handled by one small group within a company makes you examine how you can get greater returns on your marketing efforts. If you hire the best coder in the world yet the design and troubleshooting are highly lacking, how does that reflect on the company?

What about the HR person who is told to hire someone for the lowest cost? Someone can be excellent on paper, yet move the company in the wrong direction with her marketing. It’s no fault of the HR person if he was told to find the best person for the lowest cost.

If you have a customer support person who hammers out calls but lacks in personality or compassion, how does that make the customer feel? Look at zappos.com. They built an entire company around talking with people on a personal level.

When you want to focus your efforts on marketing, don’t forget to look at the other people in the company doing the marketing. Cheers.

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Not long ago my compadre in arms talked about how Walmart’s Official Blog is completely failing at the moment. If Walmart has the horsepower to do just about anything it pleases how can it be that its blog is failing? It isn’t for lack of resources but lack of firing on all cylinders.

I am a fan of using a system called the Trade Ring for boosting sales and referrals from other similar (not same) businesses. You promote them and they in turn promote you helping all ships to rise together. Create a trade ring for your online contact points.

Everyone uses the Internet differently. I like to focus on blogs and Twitter as my main methods for connecting with others (slowly growing Facebook and LinkedIn). I am sure some people love to spend most of their time navigating Facebook for online news and interaction. The combinations are endless in the different ways you can mix and match online outlets.

Here are some ideas for different things you can do to bring these all together.

Website

Typically an online business will have a website. Most offline business do too. You don’t want to have a plain Jane website that is more like an online brochure than an information and connection portal. Instead, really step back and look for the different ways branching out online can help your business grow more profitable, connect you to your clients or connect clients closer to each other.

Consider adding a blog for starters and then start engaging in other ways to connect with your clients. Take a couple minutes to ask 10 of your clients if they read blogs, use Facebook or Twitter and so on. It should only take a minute to figure out where you could focus your attention for the quickest return on time and investment.

Blog

Starting a business blog is a great way to enable people talking about your brand, product or similar to be social on your site. A blog is a perfect way to build a brand online that doesn’t involve building a brand on someone else’s site or service. Social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter are great but it’s a great idea to make your homebase somewhere you can call the shots. Blogs are excellent for this.

The idea around blogging is to create content by sharing ideas, thoughts or just about anything. A terrible idea for a blog is to use it as a permanent archive for all of your press releases. No one cares about press releases. If fact, I delete every press release that hits my inbox unsolicited or that is not over the top personalized. Use your blog as a tool to engage with others and help people when they have concerns.

Just maybe you’ll hear how someone did something totally different with your product that actually works. Now you can use that idea to help market that product to a completely different market. Who knew pantyhose could be used to buff your shoes.

Don’t forget to add your social media links to your blog/website with plugins like Sociable. Feed the circle from every angle.

Newsletter

Newsletters are becoming quite the norm now with just about every business. One of the largest problems with running a newsletter is not allowing people to take part in the conversation or to take action. If you are blasting out a newsletter with a weekly special you are running but don’t invite people to give current or past feedback about the product you are missing a great opportunity for them to interact with you. Don’t forget to include links to those lovely online profiles (Facebook/Twitter) or your blog. Make is a useful and desirable resource for your subscribers and they will continue to purchase and share with others.

Twitter

Not everyone gets Twitter and how it can help their business. There are a couple different ways Twitter can really assist in your online ventures. The first way anybody or business can use Twitter is to determine new trends or information in your industry or to find current consumers and interact. I said interact not shout at them. Shouting is the opposite of interaction and doesn’t encourage a response. Try to encourage a response.

Sites like search.twitter.com will let you search all day everyday tweets that people are sharing that revolve around your niche. Jump in there and see what’s going on. Take a long hard look at what people are saying about a niche and think of ways you can improve it. If you are an established brand, look at brand perception and see how you can start engaging the talkers to increase positive interactions.

This leads into helping those who use services like Twitter find and follow you. I typically start by interacting with someone a number of times and then follow/friend. Report is established and more than likely they will reciprocate. Sites like Tweepsearch.com help you find others who are in the same niche or you can use search.twitter.com to see who actually mentions your niche, then engage. One downside with search.twitter.com is only the ability to see current tweets and discussions not bios or past discussions.

Facebook

Due to the closer knit community that people of Facebook have, ideas and brands that one person likes might often be liked by others. So if someone follows your new startup brewery in Fargo and you become a fan, that will be seen by your friends. Chances are that your close friends would also think the idea of a new brewery in Fargo is intriguing, leading to more and more people becoming a fan. Because of this things can spread really quick over Facebook. The downside is, if you’re boring or shouting few will listen or interact.

The key to Facebook for a business is to get people to interact. The more who interact, the more times you’ll be seen by their friends and the more likely you’ll gain even more friends. See how this works? Pretty simple, eh?

Overnight you can have a brand’s fanpage explode from a couple hundred followers to thousands. But all of the friends/followers in the world won’t continue to participate or care about your brand if you don’t give them reason to get involved. Provide feedback loops for ideas and concerns. Allow the negative feedback to come and address it head-on and in front of everybody. Your fans will love you for the transparency you offer. They will feel/grow more connected and want to share their positive experiences with everyone.

But remember to bring those discussions and ideas back to your own turf. You never know what the gods of the social media industry will one day deem something as inappropriate for their community or best interest and shut it off.

Look for the right social media numbers or metrics, not just more followers or fans.

LinkedIn

Not quite as fancy or flashy as the other kinds of social media sites, LinkedIn definitely has its place. If you are looking for a group of people that could help move and shake things for you, look no further. You can make a connection with hundreds of the top people in just about any industry overnight. LinkedIn networking might have a little different purpose than shooting a few tweets back and forth with someone, but where else can you find this level of talent so easily?

Taking the time to build and nurture a relationship over LinkedIn is a constant work in progress but in the end can drastically change your strategic partnerships and connections helping to boost awareness for your brand. Think about the ways you can use powerful business connections to your advantage and how you can in turn help others. There is a huge opportunity to establish long lasting partnerships. I would compare this to those awesome roommates you had in college, you know, the ones that attended your wedding and your 50th birthday.

Conclusion

Find the ways to find and interaction on a high level with your customers. Meet them where they hang out and bring the focus on them. They will in turn find ways to give back in many different forms, whether it’s promotion, ideas, thoughts or sales. How have you used these sites to connect yourself with your clients?

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This project has been in the works for some number of months now, and I have to admit it is coming together quite nicely. I have teamed up with three other amazingly smart and talented people to bring the best possible service and information for those looking to gain a footing in Internet marketing and social media.

Who are these people?

Allyn Hane – Master of his own domain located at www.bloggerillustrated.net
Steve Sherron – Media Entrepreneur www.bloggerlens.com
Brian Matson – Mr Fargo/Moorhead when it comes to social media www.fargomoorhead.org
Josh Whitford – Myself, with an emphasis on marketing techniques and startegies www.joshwhitford.com

What is our goal?

We want to bring the world of social media and Internet marketing to real people running real businesses. How can a mom and pop flower shop use and gain a return on investment from communities like Facebook, Twitter or local sites. This would include using all kinds of different methods for promoting that include a little bit of everything, SEO, community websites, video and cross platform marketing and advertising techniques.

Who are we trying to serve?

The team we have assembled is very good at many different marketing techniques and we want to bring that knowledge and experience together to better serve more people. We are here to serve businesses of all size and have quite a foothold is some prominent industries already. We will also be creating products and services that everyday people can use to better utilize and leverage these social and marketing techniques to their advantage. This isn’t going to be another fly by the night membership site or service or just an excuse to be invited to conferences to speak. No, we are trying to further other people and businesses to the next level in the ever-changing landscape of Internet marketing and social media.

Where can you find info on the other guys?

Our Blogs

http://bloggerlens.com/ (Steve)
http://bloggerillustrated.net/ (Allyn)
http://www.joshwhitford.com/ (Josh)
http://www.fargomoorhead.org/fmnews/ (Brian)

Facebook

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Monroe-Scoop/142453226861?ref=nf (Steve)
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Blogger-Illustrated/127955991346?ref=ts (Allyn)
http://www.facebook.com/therealjosh (Josh)
http://www.facebook.com/FargoMoorhead?ref=nf (Brian)

Twitter

http://twitter.com/hyperlocalblog (Steve)
http://twitter.com/AllynPaul (Allyn)
http://twitter.com/therealjosh (Josh)
http://twitter.com/fargomoorhead (Brian)

Echelon Media Links

http://www.echelonmedia.com/
http://twitter.com/echelonmedia
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Echelon-Media/372799737541?ref=ts

What do you think?

We’d love to hear your feedback and ideas. What do you think of the site? What topics would you like us to cover?

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This isn’t a usual type of post for me, but I see a growing need to refresh people’s memories about being safe online from either a personal or professional standpoint.

The advent of social media and social networks and the explosion of personal information online is almost exponential. With this growth comes many advantages and disadvantages. Most of what is listed below was spurred out of random conversations with friends and after being asked to address the issue for a local family magazine. First I’d like to list out the pros of social media and social networking (now called the Internet).

Pros to Social Media:

Social media has tons of benefits that people are fully taking advantage of. Below is a list of some perks to being a world fully connected.

The Gatekeepers are Gone

Never before in history has it been this easy to find and get a hold of someone famous, influential, rich, poor, smart, dumb, fake, real, live or dead (you think I’m kidding). Simply look for whoever you’d like on any of the social networks and begin to follow them. That easy. Of course there are ways to contact notables in a tactful way if you actually want to get a response. If you pose no risk and they can quickly and easily engage with you, the chances are high they will.

The World is Your Marketing Place

Your ability to reach anybody in any country has never been easier. You can find any type of group under any kind of criteria you choose and will be able to find at least one other person. Your product or message can transcend countries’ boundaries quicker than ever. Finding your market is the easy part. The hard part is developing extraordinary products for that market to consume. If you do, they will.

Live and Work from Anywhere

I have worked for people all across the country and have befriended people from all over the world. I have a designer in the East Coast making websites for clients on the West Coast while I manage it all from the Upper Midwest all the while never meeting any of them in person. What a crazy world we live in. This boundless society we live in makes it very easy to live and work from anywhere in the world. You might have to be open to working in an industry that doesn’t tie you to one location, but the opportunity to do so has never been greater.

Spread Ideas or Causes

I can now post any amount of information on any medium and within seconds it can be relayed around the world. If the news or event is notable enough it can make the 5 o’clock news in every time zone. Remember the plane on the Hudson? How is that for the spread of information?

More Clients, Fans, Followers, Sales

Along all of these lines you see the lack of boundaries separating people from a market or product. I can now go straight to every consumer I target and build a relationship with them individually without the need of third parties. I don’t need TV, magazines, billboards, sponsoring events or anything of the sort to reach my demographic. I can go to the top blogger in the niche and advertise directly to where those markets consume information or engage in community activities. Better yet, I can create a place for my audience to come and engage with me on my own territory. Now you wonder why these old mediums of information exchange are dying by the dozens. I don’t need them and neither do 90% of the companies out there. Old advertising platforms like newspapers are unnecessary for engaging consumers and will disappear unless they can target a demographic I can’t.

Find or Help Anyone

It would be extremely hard to disappear in the world we live in. Wired did a case study of someone attempting just that. The advent of technology enables information and communication to flow quicker than ever. With the ability to send anything anywhere in the world in a matter of minutes, the ability to outrun that is next to impossible. Not that this is a bad thing unless you are a wanted criminal. Have a long lost relative or friend? A few mins on Facebook will probably result in you having the ability to find and make contact with those you have lost contact with over the years. This also allows for the whole world to reach out and help those in need anywhere on the planet. Never before have I helped small business entrepreneurs like I have with the advent of websites like Kiva.org.

Cons of Social Media:

Now onto the ugly side of social media that many people forget about.

Everything Can and Will be Public

Everyone knows the saying “what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas.” Well the complete opposite of it true for the Internet. What happens on the Internet is on the Internet forever and will more than likely become public at anytime. Even sites like Facebook make you agree to their terms which include the ownership of any/all information you post on their site. Ever been tagged in a party pic on Facebook? Guess what, that is now attached to you permanently. Even if you untag yourself from the picture, it doesn’t pop up on your profile but because it was tagged, it was already recorded and can be found.

Every word you type or every time you check into a business with FourSquare it is logged. It is only a matter of time before some industrious person develops a program/software that will have the ability to pull and compile everything you have ever done on the Internet. Anytime you tweet and your location is attached, guess what, somebody is watching. The horror stories of employees getting busted in lies are just beginning and will only get worse as people slowly lose reservation.

If you don’t want people to know about or see something you want to keep private, never post it online, period. No information is safe online EVER!

Open to Becoming a Target

With social networks like Twitter and Facebook exploding in popularity and the development of smart phones, it won’t be long before you can track someone from the time they wake until they return to bed. Sites like FourSquare encourage users to check into a location when they visit as a way of helping spread awareness about a location or business. Often people can receive a free drink or prize for doing so. I can set up a Google Alert with your name or alias and watch everything you do online. I can create a dummy Twitter or Facebook account, become your friend and do anything with your information I choose. Not all of that is legal but that doesn’t matter to a person who means to do someone else harm. A person can buy your name as a url and rank for your name with anything they want posted on the site. It is much easier to do damage to someone online than it is to fix it. Meanwhile, everything done online is recorded somewhere.

Loss of Job

I was recently asked if it was right or not for a company to search the Internet and Social sites for a potential employee’s information. I responded with: absolutely! Living and participating in an open and free society like the Internet means that if you want to be known as a good person you have to be a good person. There is no faking a persona online. Eventually a faker won’t be able to keep up the facade and will get found out. If not by your own doing, perhaps by the doing of someone a little more mischievous. If you are applying for a job and have a ton of obscene pictures or comments on the Internet, expect for those to get found.

I feel this will be a much harder lesson for younger people to learn. I remember when Facebook and Twitter didn’t exist. People that grow up with these types of tools won’t have the same level of caution that I have. What is published online can be found at archive.org even after the site is no longer live. Imagine doing something profoundly stupid when you are 15 in 2008, posting that online and then getting rejected from a job when your 25 in 2018 because someone found that information out about you. That could be devastating to you, your reputation, ability to find/keep a job or anything else. After 10 years the chances of you being the same person is very remote, but whatever you did will forever be held over your head.

Parents should work with their kids to establish proper ways to use the Internet and Social sites. Educate them about the potential dangers of the Internet along with all of the blessing and amazing opportunities. It is very important to be involved with the same sites your kids use in order to know the possible dangers.

Passed Over

Piggybacking off of the last section, you can easily lose your job by lying and posting something to the contrary online. The same goes for posting a little too much info about yourself online. We all know that person that posts every party photo on their Facebook profile. I have to wonder if they were to interview for a high profile/paying job if the recruiter would pass them by without a second thought due to a conflict of interest. It is easy to fool an interviewer into thinking you are the most qualified but if your presence online tells a completely different story, kiss your chances goodbye.

The Internet doesn’t tell a lie. If you do you lie, it can be found out quicker than you can drive across your town.

Robbed, Tracked

The down side to all of this Social Media is the ability to do anything with your information. As this information becomes more and more real-time in nature, it won’t be long before would-be criminals use it to their advantage. Anyone can now know when you are away from home and rob you blind knowing full well they have 45 minutes to cherry pick anything in your house while you are at the restaurant across town. Due to this kind of security risk, sites like Please Rob Me have popped up to draw attention to the possible danger of social media related crimes.

I have never personally had a stalker nor to I want one, but there is a very real possibility that someone can use the Internet and all of its glorious tools to track and follow someones every waking moment. The only way to protect yourself is to be conscious of the fact that anything you post online can be used to someone else’s advantage.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=-1ntsSdtiPg

Loss of Competitive Edge

The more you know about someone else, the more you have to work with as a bargaining tool. If I know more about your business or situation than you know of mine and we go head to head in a negotiation, I can/will take you to the cleaners. The old saying “knowledge is power” is very true in any situation. The more I know and the less you know, the more the balance of power is tilted in my favor. If any business is thinking about acquiring another, determining whether or not to add a new client, or feels the other party has a motive, it is best to do some digging. What you might find can save you a lot of trouble or heartache in a business deal.

If you are in a desperate situation as a person or business and trying to make moves to improve, it would be in your best interest to not post anything that can jeopardize that online. If you are a savvy investor or looking to expand your brand, it would be worth a considerable amount of time and energy to do research on those sitting across the table from you. What kind of people are they? What do they like and dislike? What is their favorite color or pastry? Knowledge is power and you can use it however you like.

If the people you are interacting with have online profiles you now have a goldmine of free information. Just remember it goes both ways.

Conclusion

I know this type of topic carries with it a wide variety of opinions. I’d love to hear yours below.

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