NeuroPunch

There Is No App For Happiness: Max Strom at TEDxKC

Fri, 19 Oct 2012 20:46:33 -0500

There Is No App For Happiness: Max Strom at TEDxKC

Like-A-Hug Vest Inflates When You Get a Facebook...

Sun, 07 Oct 2012 11:10:48 -0500

Like-A-Hug Vest Inflates When You Get a Facebook Like

“Scientists at MIT have created a vest that inflates when your Facebook friends “Like” your posts, mimicking the sensation of a hug.”

Martin Lindstrom: Sleeping with the Customer “When you...

Tue, 11 Sep 2012 00:00:49 -0500

Martin Lindstrom: Sleeping with the Customer

“When you develop brands, it’s the little insight that creates the huge difference.”

Shawn Achor: The happy secret to better work | Tedx Creating...

Sun, 09 Sep 2012 01:40:00 -0500

Shawn Achor: The happy secret to better work | Tedx

Creating lasting positive change:

3 gratitudes
Journaling
Exercise
Meditation
Random acts of kindness

The Moral of the Story: ‘The Storytelling Animal,’ by Jonathan Gottschall

Thu, 16 Aug 2012 23:50:05 -0500

The Moral of the Story: ‘The Storytelling Animal,’ by Jonathan Gottschall:

“Narrative is stitched intrinsically into the fabric of human psychology.”

“There are several surprises about stories. The first is that we spend a great deal of time in fictional worlds, whether in daydreams, novels, confabulations or life narratives.”

“A second surprise: The dominant themes of story aren’t what we might assume them to be…They bubble with conflict and struggle…Trouble, Gottschall argues, is the universal grammar of stories.”

“When researchers pick apart the hours of dream content, it turns out dreamland is all about fight or flight.”

“Neuroscience has long recognized that emulation of the future is one of the main businesses intelligent brains invest in. By learning the rules of the world and simulating outcomes in the service of decision making, brains can play out events without the risk and expense of attempting them physically.”

“Changing the brain requires the correct neurotransmitters, and those are especially in attendance when a person is curious, is predicting what will happen next and is emotionally engaged.”

“If the narrative doesn’t contain the suitable kind of virtue, brains don’t absorb it…This leads to the suggestion that story’s role is ‘intensely moralistic.’”

“Stories serve the biological function of encouraging pro-social behavior.”

“‘If the research is correct, fiction is one of the primary sculpting forces of individuals and societies.’”

“The medium of story is changing, in other words, but not its essence. Our inborn thirst for narrative means that story — its power, purpose and relevance — will endure as long as the human animal does.” — David Eagleman, NYTimes.com

Theory of Mind and the Psychology of ‘Being Social’

Thu, 16 Aug 2012 17:58:06 -0500

Theory of Mind and the Psychology of ‘Being Social’:

“Theory of mind is the cognitive skill of understanding another person’s state of mind. It’s an ability to intuitively comprehend that other people have mental states (beliefs, intentions, desires, knowledge etc) that may differ from your own and an understanding of others’ emotions and behaviours. Closely related to empathy, theory of mind is an innate ability that everyone possesses, but that some have developed to a greater degree than others. Scientists have now proven that the size of a person’s social network is directly related to the size of part of the brain called the orbital prefrontal cortex, but that this is only true when brain size is combined with the psychological skills associated with a developed theory of mind.” — Paul Sutton, FutureComms

Double Check Your Life Priorities

Wed, 18 Jul 2012 00:45:00 -0500

Image: Pete Boyd on Flickr

I saw a friend post this today:

“Suppose you graduate from college at 22 and work until age 70…you would’ve spent: 16 years working, 15 years sleeping, 5-7 years watching TV, 3 years eating, 2-3 years commuting, and 2-4 years on recreation.”

I haven’t had a chance to double check his numbers, but I think the message is clear.

What are your priorities today? Don’t end up 70 years old with these five most common regrets.

Top 5 Most Common Regrets of the Dying and How to Avoid Them

Sat, 07 Jul 2012 02:00:00 -0500

Image: 85mm.ch on Flickr

How many people have ever lived on Earth? Whether you believe it’s 107,602,707,791 or not, I think we can all agree that the answer is a lot.

That means we should have tons of insight into what people regret the most when they are dying so we don’t make the same mistakes over and over and over again for thousands of years, right?

After reading countless articles on this topic, here’s what I learned…

In 2005, Scientific American and WebMD claimed, ”New research traces regret to the brain’s medial orbitofrontal cortex.” As recent as a couple months ago, ScienceMag.org published a study (reported on NYTimes.com) saying, “…brain activity in a region called the ventral striatum, which is associated with feelings of regret.”

Top 5 Most Common Regrets of the Dying (by Bronnie Ware, author of the full-length memoir, The Top Five Regrets of the Dying - A Life Transformed by the Dearly Departing, released worldwide):

I wish I’d had the courage to live a life true to myself, not the life others expected of me.
I wish I didn’t work so hard.
I wish I’d had the courage to express my feelings.
I wish I had stayed in touch with my friends.
I wish that I had let myself be happier.

Top 5 Regrets, Inverted (by Paul Graham, an essayist, programmer, investor, and founder of Y Combinator):

Don’t ignore your dreams.
Don’t work too much.
Say what you think.
Cultivate friendships.
Be happy.

“Managing regret productively may be an essential ingredient for mental health, a good quality of life, and a positive sense of well-being.” — Michael Craig Miller, M.D. Editor in Chief, Harvard Mental Health Letter

So, what are you going to do today, this week, this month, and this year to live with no regrets?

How You Will Win with Twitter Today

Mon, 13 Feb 2012 18:26:00 -0600

Let’s face it. If you are reading this, odds are you aren’t Lady Gaga, Justin Bieber, or any of the other top 100 most followed on Twitter. If you aren’t on Twitter yet, sign up today. In fact, do it now and then come back and finish reading this post.

Twitter isn’t new. The more people that join and follow other users, the more your tweets get diluted. The secret is to not wait for followers to come to you. Don’t tweet and hold your breath to see who replies, mentions, retweets, or follows you (but, if you do receive replies, mentions, and retweets, be sure to respond to ALL of them).

The key is to consistently send tweets, but spend the bulk of your time using search.twitter.com. Search for your company or brand name, products or services you offer, competitors, and any other relevant keywords related to your industry. Then, start authentic conversations with all of the people that are already sending relevant tweets. You can quickly build real relationships (and followers) by taking this approach. And, the best part is that you can be certain that the people you are talking to are highly engaged. Quality over quantity.

Twitter even put together its own tips on how to use Advanced Twitter Search.

What Small Biz can Learn from Big Brand Super Bowl Ads

Tue, 07 Feb 2012 00:44:00 -0600

Image: MightyBoyBrian on Flickr

Super Bowl XLVI was the most watched television broadcast ever - estimated at 111.3 million people.

Did you know the Super Bowl ended in a tie? According to Marketing Land, out of the 59 Super Bowl commercials, there were 8 Facebook mentions and 8 Twitter mentions.

As the game ended, Twitter counted 12,233 posts per second, the most for any English language event in the six-year history of Twitter.

So, how did the big brands fail? Simple. They didn’t give the viewer a good reason to continue the conversation online. Simply adding a Twitter hashtag or Facebook icon/URL at the end of an ad is not enough. Big brands paid big budgets to gain the attention of 111.3 million people and then left them hanging. It’s going to cost them a lot of money to regain that attention in the future. To make matters worse, a lot of the brands that showed Twitter hashtags in their commercials were not actively engaging with tweeters online (#wasteofmoney).

Whatever you do as a small business, always keep the conversation going (Gary Vaynerchuk is a big advocate of this).

Be sure to subscribe so you can read my next post: How your Small Biz will Win with Twitter.

3 Things you Must Learn from Gary Vee and the Social Media Hustle

Thu, 02 Feb 2012 17:25:09 -0600

Image: postaletrice on Flickr

Most people either love him or hate him. Personally, I love him, and I love him for one simple reason: Gary Vaynerchuk (“Gary Vee”) is a social media doer. He has practiced everything that he’s preached. For those that aren’t aware of him, you can read about Gary V here.

There are tons of books, blog posts, news articles, tweets, and videos about Gary Vee, but I’m going to focus on just a few recent ones:

After reading his book and watching all the videos, here is what you need to know:

1) The businesses with the most real relationships win.

Much of his book centers around this principle. Gary believes we are coming full circle; back to a time when our great-grandparents ran businesses and knew each of their customers by name (as well as their life stories). There are some fantastic quotes including:

“No interaction left behind.”
“Caring first, sales second.”
“Scale caring.”
“Invest in relationships.”
“Treat every customer as if they are the most important customer in the world.”
“Create advocates by offering superior customer service. Offer superior customer service by building one-on-one relationships using social media.”

Gary doesn’t believe in social media campaigns, or “social media one night stands” as he refers to them. He believes in “marrying your customers.”

2) Hustle: Talking vs. Doing

Finally! I’m glad this topic is getting some well-deserved attention. Gary wants to know how you’ve executed. Seriously, what have you done? Have you actually used social media for your business, or have you just been talking about doing it? As I mentioned at the beginning of this post, this is exactly why I respect Gary. He believes in the hustle, hard work, and doing. He believes that he got to where he is today because he “outworked you.”

“You can’t read about push ups in order to get muscles.” In his opinion (and I agree), there are way too many people reading and regurgitating vs. doing. “Everybody is half pregnant…Go all in.”

3) Successful Storytellers and Storytelling

This deserves its own point even though it was only briefly mentioned by Gary. Success in social media means success in storytelling. People connect with those who have a compelling, authentic story. Just look at TOMS founder, Blake Mycoskie (highly recommend his book, Start Something That Matters, as well).

So, there you have it. Marry your customers and invest in real relationships. Hustle! And, have a compelling story and share it with the world.

Who are your social media inspirations and what are your tips for success?

Top 5 Most Compelling Social Media Stats for Small Biz

Wed, 09 Nov 2011 17:35:00 -0600

5) 1 out of 5 social network users is likely to visit another social site after leaving one.

4) There are now more than 800 million active Facebook users, with over 200 million added in 2011.

3) More than half of Facebook users log in every day - that’s more than 400 million people.

2) Americans spend more time on Facebook than any other U.S. website.

1) Nearly 23% of online time is spent on social networks.

**BONUS: Small businesses don’t have to spend much to get results. Zoomerang found that nearly 60% of all small business decision-makers spend less than $100 on social media and 74% of businesses don’t employ anyone to manage their social media marketing.

Source: Read 20 more stats on SocialMediaExaminer.com

"We believe that the most compelling case for social commerce is fan-economics, using social media as..."

Wed, 02 Nov 2011 11:20:10 -0500

“We believe that the most compelling case for social commerce is fan-economics, using social media as a fan-commerce channel to deliver fan-experiences designed to help fans advocate.” - Paul Marsden, Social Commerce Today”

- How to Calculate Fan Value: Fan Economics 101

"All of these problems at the end of the day are human problems,” he said. “I think that..."

Thu, 20 Oct 2011 17:24:00 -0500

“All of these problems at the end of the day are human problems,” he said. “I think that that’s one of the core insights that we try to apply to developing Facebook. What [people are] really interested in is what’s going on with the people they care about. It’s all about giving people the tools and controls that they need to be comfortable sharing the information that they want. If you do that, you create a very valuable service. It’s as much psychology and sociology as it is technology.” - Mark Zuckerberg”

- Read the full post here.

The Social Media Buying Process (in a nutshell)

Tue, 18 Oct 2011 22:39:00 -0500

Nice wake up call here. Originally posted by Brian Solis on SocialMediaToday.com.

“Over the years, I’ve researched the gap that exists between what businesses think consumers want in social networks and what it is that they really want or expect. As you can imagine, there’s a significant delta between each and here, Nielsen delved a bit deeper to share insights into specific brand-related behavior by consumers in social networks. Much of their time is spent in pre-commerce phase of decision making, reading consumer feedback and learning about products. At the point of the decision, they seek to obtain coupons and promotions. Post commerce, they’re actively posting positive or negative feedback, thus influencing the decisions of others.”

Read the full article here: The State of Social Media 2011 - Social is the New Normal

Does Facebook <3 Small Businesses?

Wed, 28 Sep 2011 09:25:00 -0500

In early 2012, Facebook will give each qualified business at least $50 of free advertising on Facebook.

The social network also promises free resources and information on how to market your business on Facebook. The company is sending its reps out to meet with small business owners in person. Since Facebook has a self-service ad platform that’s actually geared more to small advertisers than large ones, the program seems to be about building awareness, especially since 64% of small businesses think social media is unnecessary.

Do you think this will attract more SMBs to Facebook and other social networks? Or, will most take the money and run?

SMB owner? Why aren't you using social media?

Tue, 20 Sep 2011 01:38:00 -0500

Not knowing enough about social media is no longer a good excuse for small businesses. Based on the eMarketer study above from July 26th, only 14% of SMBs claimed to not know enough about social media. Therefore, SMBs are now educated about social media, however they choose to not participate. A whopping 43% believe that it’s not necessary for their business.

According to the CMS Wire post here, some of the highlights of SMB social media usage include:

The self-employed and small business owners were more likely to report new partnerships, with at least 59% noting a benefit.
Small businesses were twice as likely to find qualified leads than other types of businesses.
48% of self-employed and small business owners saw improved sales as a direct result of their social media efforts.
The self-employed (59%) and small business owners (58%) were more likely than others to see reductions in marketing costs when using social media marketing.

Why aren’t you using social media for your small business? Please share your thoughts.

"Silence is no longer an option. People are online talking about your company as you read this,..."

Tue, 20 Sep 2011 01:21:15 -0500

““Silence is no longer an option. People are online talking about your company as you read this, whether you like or not.””

- http://www.forbes.com/sites/kymmcnicholas/2011/09/19/how-to-use-social-media-to-promote-your-small-business/

Top 5 Quotes and Themes from Radian6 Social 2011

Sun, 10 Apr 2011 19:18:00 -0500

Top 5 Quotes:

“Your brand isn’t what you say it is, it’s what Google says it is. It’s also what Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn say it is.” – Mitch Joel, President of Twist Image & New York Times Best Seller

“Be real. Be there. Provide value when people need it most.” – Wendy Harman, Social Media Director, American Red Cross

“Empower the subject matter experts…experts will become our best marketers.” – Adam Brown, Executive Director, Social Media, Dell

“You can make a dollar from four quarters; you can also make a dollar from nickels, dimes, and pennies.” (referring to the power of influence) – Build a Better Campaign Breakout Session

“A friend can set up your dating profile for you, but they can’t go on the date for you.” (referring to community management)

Top 5 Themes:

REAL + REAL-TIME

o Real interactions between real people

o Real interactions = Don’t be fake. Be real, engage, connect.

o Real-time monitoring leads to real-time participation in the conversation

- The conversations/interactions are highly distributable online

ADVOCATES + INFLUENCE

o Quality, not quantity!

o Enable your advocates to become influencers (the crazy 1% that have your brand’s logo tattooed on themselves)

o A really satisfied customer is the best person to talk about your products/services

o Focus on the “already influenced” instead of the “influencers”

- Niche content creators that are constantly talking about your topic already

o Connect people around universal passion points

EMPOWER

o Empower everyone (internal and external) to communicate for you

- Your employees are some of the people who care about your brand/company the most

o Strategy is thinking of one line of connectivity

- People are fundamentally connected

o Every consumer has the ability to have a thought and publish it to the world

TRUST

o You trust people like you (not necessarily people you personally know)

o People trust a company with a human face that they can identify with

o A negative review converts more effectively to a sale than a positive review

- Power of customer reviews and trusting your peers and people like you

EXPERIENCE

o Your new home page is Google.com, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube…

- First page of search engine results is a brand experience

o “No amount of social media can save you if your products/services suck” - Mitch Joel

o You need to provide a great experience every time someone touches your brand

Do you know the best times to post on Facebook, Twitter, blog, and send email?

Wed, 30 Mar 2011 10:45:01 -0500

Here are my notes from the “Science of Timing” HubSpot webinar yesterday presented by @DanZarrella. Some really good info was shared with over 24,000 people who registered for the free webinar. Highlights are below, and here is the deck and webinar recording: http://www.hubspot.com/webinars/science-of-timing-thanks

*Note: All times are in Eastern time

—————————————————————————————————————

Twitter:

· Most Retweets: 2-5pm (best time is later in the day and best days are later in the week)

· Check out www.TweetWhen.com to see your most retweetable day and time

· Highest Click-Through Rates (CTRs): Sunday, Tuesday, Wednesday (no dip on the weekends) at 11am and 5pm (although CTR is consistent throughout the day and night)

· 22 tweets/day is the ideal number

· Key Takeaways:

Tweet more, not less

Tweet the same link a couple different times throughout the day with different content surrounding it (different quotes from the article, etc)

—————————————————————————————————————

Facebook:

· Pages who post every other day had the most page “likes”

· Shares by Day: Facebook sharing on links spikes on the weekend

· Shares by Hour: 11am is highest (although sharing is consistent throughout the day and night)

· Key Takeaways:

“Don’t crowd your content on Facebook. Let it breathe.”

—————————————————————————————————————

Email:

· Most emails are read in the morning (however, over 50% of people also check email at night)

· Opens by Day: Highest on Saturday and Sunday because that’s when people have time to give email more attention

· Opens by Hour: Highest during the early morning hours

· Clicks/Day: Highest on Saturday and Sunday

· Clicks/Hr: Highest during 5-7am

· Frequency: Sending 1-2 emails/month yields the highest CTR (although, CTRs are relatively the same whether you are sending 4-30 emails/month)

· Unsubscribe Rate: Highest for the less emails you send (and less unsubscribes the more emails you send)

· People pay the most attention when they first subscribe

The more recent the subscriber, the higher the CTR

Send new subscribers the best offers within a few days of their subscription

· Key Takeaways:

Send more email.

Your newest subscribers are the best.

—————————————————————————————————————

Blogging: Analysis was of 40,000 blogs

· Blogs are read the most in the morning, then it declines throughout the day (although, over 40% of people still read blogs at night)

· Most Views/Hr: 10-11am (and also 11pm)

· Most Comments/Day: Saturday and Sunday

· Most Comments/Hr: 8-9am (morning hours)

· Most Links/Day: Monday and Thursday

· Most Links/Hr: 7am (morning hours)

· Be careful posting all of your blog posts to Facebook (frequency issue)

· Feed blog posts to Twitter

· Key Takeways:

Know your audience.

Blog on the weekends if you want more comments

Blog early morning for more links

Blog more frequently: More posts = More links and traffic

—————————————————————————————————————

Lead Nurturing:

· Track the timing of when you send the highest value offers

· Track where your referrals are coming from

· Always measure how much money you are making and when you are making it

—————————————————————————————————————

Overall Takeaway: Experiment!