Less-Than-Free model should be a new chapter in Chris Anderson’s Free

Benchmark Capita’s Bill Gurley post Google Redefines Disruption: The “Less Than Free” Business Model earlier today. It quickly became a hot topic and defined a new business model.

In his post Bill describe the disruptive model used by Google to distribute its Android operation system for mobile phones. Google offers the system free of charge and will split their ad revenue with the developers.

The Less-Than-Free model is also relevant to the debate between Anderson and Gladwell, which I described in my Free post – Will newspaper be able to build a Less-Than-Free model to improve their distribution both online and off line?

It’s a giant cupcake and Android! (@ Googleplex – B44), by David Recordon.	Chris Anderson’s Free

If you enjoyed the post, please consider sharing it or leaving a comment, and come back tomorrow for the next post in The 100 Posts Challenge.

How do I find blogging ideas?

1. For this 100 posts list I use Chris Brogan’s list of 100 blog topics.
2. I read a lot. My Google reader account includes a little over 150 subscription and I try to keep up with them.
3. Mutual discussions of work and experience with friends generate new ideas and extend my horizons.
4. I follow over 350 people on twitter. I picked people who are working in related fields to mine like marketing, social media and strategy and people who are working on fields that i find interesting like photography and music.
5. I listen to NPR every day – both Atlanta’s WABE and LA’s KCRW.
6. TED serves as a great place to learn about various topics.
7. My Wired magazine subscription is a monthly delight of fascinating articles and columns. My netflix post is an example.

The biggest challenge I have is finding the right items to blog about in a way that will serve my audience. I can not blog about everything and as the blog evolve, I will try to get it focused.

Warhol’s Light Bulbs, originally uploaded by zetson.

Why preparation will save you bad time at a conference?

A conference can serve as a place to advance your career. It’s a place to learn from vivid discussion, meet with companies and have fun. My friend Guy posted an example of such a positive experience.

Conference, originally uploaded by Myles!.

Since not all conference were created equal,  a conference can be so boring and irrelevant, you wish you didn’t attend it. The secret to workaround this bad time lies in the preparation. Here are some tips:

• Read – about the topics, the speakers, the panelists. It will probably improve your time in the conference. Listening to a person of whom you just read an article is a lot more interesting. Bad time will be a good opportunity to re-visit your notes before the next sessions.

• Tweet – Once you registered, tweet and let other people know you are going. (Don’t forget to use the conference # if it has one). During the bad time you will be able to converse with other bored attendees.

• Network – Prepare your visit by sending out emails to people you know in the city, to other attendees and even to speakers. Set up some meetings in advance. It will improve your experience and the value you receive from the conference.

• Bring a pen and a notebook – Good Time at a conference will bring new ideas. Write them down. On the bad time you will be able to expand them.

• Buy a magazine – On your way to the conference, get yourself a magazine you usually don’t have time to read. Something that is not as fun to read online, with good long articles, and only a few ads. Pick one that will make you think. Try The New Yorker, Harvard Business Review, The Atlantic and their kind.

For some more funny way to save bad time you might check this post Fast Company.

The Did You Know video series  is essential to any business today.

The data presented in it, should serve as a reference point on your next decision process.

If you enjoyed the post, please consider sharing it or leaving a comment.

How to comment on a corporate blog?

To me, a corporate blog is like a company representative. It represents the company and should be able to host conversations about the company and its products/services.

Some of the rules are relevant to any responder while some are specific rules for blog readers or for corporate employees.

General rules:

• Keep It Simple – don’t make your comments feel like an appendix to the blog. Write to the point
• Write to the point – Comment on the specific subject that the post handles. Replying to a comment, refer to it even if it doesn’t refer to the post.
• Be polite - This will earn you respect and will allow appropriate consideration to your comments.
• Contribute – It’s a conversation, feel free to join.

Rules for blog readers:

• Identify yourself – Consider leaving your email, name or a link to your blog. This will allow a company rep to get back to you.
• Visit again – Even if you only visit to leave a complaint, come back to this post in a few days. You might find a relevant reply or a company response.

Rules for company employees:

• Remember - you are the face of your company.
• Follow the rules – Many companies who run blogs created a tool kit for the blog writers. This will be valuable for your comments
• Respect – your customers
• Join – It’s a conversation, don’t just read it
• Other tools – Socialmedia.biz posted a good list of corporate blogging best practice

Comments, originally uploaded by merezha.

What can your business learn from flickr?

Founded on February 2004, flickr achieved the amazing mark of 4 billion (4,000,000,000) pictures on October 12 2009. This means over 1,900,000 per day or a little over 106,000 pictures since I’ve started to write this post.

There are a few valuable lessons your business can learn from flickr success. They are relevant for an onlilne orfor a brick and mortar business.

 

flickr Badges, originally uploaded by poolie.

• Innovate - flickr constantly introduces new features to enhance the experience of its user on one hand and to make the site look better for it’s random visitors. Two recent examples are the people tagging option and the new search results page with various presentations of the results – When is the last time you introduced a new idea in your business?

• Listen – Long before the days of social media and brand reps on twitter, flickr actively uses its forums and FAQs to listen to its customers and communicate with them. Bugs, ideas and questions are asked and being answered constantly – What was the last customer feedback you turned into a best practice?

• Enable sharing - Users on flickr can post their pictures and those posted by others to their blogs, facebook profiles and other outlets. Registered users can communicate with each other, comment on their pictures and add notes – Do you enable your customers to share their experience?

• Cooperate – Photo editing using picnik, personalized business cards using moo, gift ideas by QOOP and more are available for flickr users – Which partners allow your customers to enhance their product experience?

• Open your platform - What now looks like a common practice with facebook apps and LinkedIn extensions was not as common back in 2004. By creating an open API, flickr allows developers from around the world to create new tools for the site. Open API allowed twitter find the perfect tool for search – Can someone from outside your company create an added value to your business?

• Blog - A blog is a great tool to communicate with your costumers, share information about new features, great achievements and more – Do you use blogging to deliver your messages?

If you enjoyed the post, please consider sharing it or leaving a comment, and come back tomorrow for the next post in The 100 Posts Challenge.

How does LinkedIn empower my job search and my career?

1. Meet people – LinkedIn allows me to meet new people through my current network and through the groups I am a member of. For example, while preparing to a business trip in California back in July, I have contacted various people from my groups. Two weeks of meetings were quickly filled up with very interesting and willing to help people.
2. Establish my reputation – The description of the companies I have worked for and the work done allow people to better understand what my skills are and how I can help them in their own business.
3. Find job listings by relevant companies - LinkedIn search engine is pretty powerful. It allows looking for companies in my field of interest and learn about them. Company profiles, the career paths of its employees and the progress od people within a company are useful when I consider a company.
4. Improve my interview preparation – Learn about the interviewer, find people in my network that are working for the target company and chat with them, learn about new hires and what are their skills that were relevant for the company.
5. Assist my friends – Through LinkedIn I am able to introduce my friend to people they are interest to meet as business partners or future employers. Since I value my friends and believe in them, I am always happy to help.
6. Improve my search engine results -My blog, twitter and flickr account, all enjoy the high credibility of LinkedIn. You can use the “other” option on the description  to have better results on search engines for people who search for you.
7. Find experts in my field – When I prepare to a meeting or learn a new subject I find it useful to search for professionals in the relevant field on LinkedIn. Experts with well-maintained profiles share presentations, link to their websites and blogs.
8. Learn – LinkedIn Answers is a valuable source of discussions. The questions asked get picked up by experts in various areas like business operations, finance and marketing. These Q&A allow to meet new people, prepare to interviews and learn about the subjects I find interesting.
9. Share knowledge – When checking the questions by other users, I enjoy sharing from my experience. The most recent example was as I was searching for information for this post.
10. Groups activity – As a member of various groups I am learning about new job listings, conferences, issues that matter to people who share the same interest and background with me and more.

LinkedIn welcomes you – Palo Alto office entrance, originally uploaded by Jerry Luk.

LinkedIn welcomes you – Palo Alto office entrance, originally uploaded by Jerry Luk.