Let the year in review lists begin! Here’s a good one that compiles the most significant and entertaining media errors and corrections of 2006. (Thanks to Mark Evanier’s News From Me for alerting us to this one.)
“In the past a leader was a boss. Today’s leaders must be partners with their people … they no longer can lead solely based on positional power.”
—Ken Blanchard
Drowning in email? Join the club. This article from Entrepreneur.com purports to provide seven tips for managing the flood. Let’s take a reality-based look:
1. Get rid of consumer email solutions. Well, sure, an email address at your own domain looks more professional than a Hotmail address, but it does nothing to lessen the volume.
2. Learn how to really use your email program. I gotta think if your unread emails are numbering in the hundreds, not the dozens, then knowing how to use Outlook is the least of your worries.
3. Keep your inbox manageable. Isn’t that what we’re aiming for? But storing those emails in different folders is just moving stuff around, not disposing of it.
4. Maximize the use of folders and 5. Automate your email with filters. These are just two more takes on suggestion three, and neither of them is getting my head any more above the rising waters.
6. Be secure. Well duh. But: Where are your suggestions for managing my flood of email, already?
7. Backup your email. Great, so I’m gonna double the volume of email I have to deal with, not slice it in half?
Sorry, Entrepreneur, I score this one an 0-for-7 whiff — I’m still looking for powerful tips for better inbox management . . . like just about everyone else I know with at least two email accounts (one personal and one business).
This one’s been making the email rounds again lately, at least among several people who have access to my inbox, so what the heck — here’s a midweek chuckle around the subject of particularly bad URL choices.
1. At Who Represents, you can find the name of the agent that represents any celebrity. Their Web site is:
http://www.whorepresents.com/
2. Experts Exchange is a knowledge base where programmers can exchange advice and views at:
http://www.expertsexchange.com/
3. Looking for a pen? Look no further than Pen Island at:
http://www.penisland.net/
4. Need a therapist? Try Therapist Finder at:
http://www.therapistfinder.com/
5. If you’re looking for IP computer software, there’s always:
http://www.ipanywhere.com/
6. The First Cumming Methodist Church Web site is:
http://www.cummingfirst.com/
7. And the designers at Speed of Art await you at their wacky Web site:
http://www.speedofart.com/
Takeaway for marketers: Every letter (and space, as you can see in this blog post’s headline) makes a difference. Do you have a professional editorial eye at your disposal?
B.L. Ochman’s blog alerts us to an upcoming MarketingProfs.com seminar, “Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Metaverse: Second Life for Marketers.”
I have mixed feelings about this. Marketers absolutely need to discuss virtual worlds and do some hard thinking about how to appropriately present themselves in these environments, if at all. This white paper by Kevin Glennon is a good place to start.
But on a certain level, it feels like there will be marketers who take this seminar and then think they know what’s happening in Second Life. I submit that these are exactly the kind of marketers who need to stay away from Second Life.
Marketers who open a Second Life account, build an avatar, learn how to fly, manipulate textures, create clothing and objects and more — well, those are exactly the marketers you want to listen to if your company is considering a presence in Second Life.
Not a knock on MarketingProfs.com — I like their site a lot. I’m just sayin’, you know?
Takeaway for marketers: Much as we all wish there were, there are no shortcuts. It’s important to remember that from time to time.
