Ralphie runs upstairs to the bathroom, locks the door and rips open the package. There’s the pen and the secret code. He gets to work. Meanwhile his little brother is knocking on the door. Nature’s calling, but Ralphie keeps plugging away at that message, oblivious to his brother’s dilemma. The pounding gets louder in the scene, both from the door and Ralphie’s racing heart. What does this message say? Whatever it is will change the world, he knows it! Keep going, push through and figure it out, for humanity’s sake! Finally the message is revealed: Remember what it was? DRINK MORE OVALTINE. Even better was Ralphie’s response: “Son of a B****!!!” After all of that buildup came a tremendous letdown.

Fast forward about 50 years from the setting of the movie. Last night my wife discovered a QR code on the newspaper, so she grabbed her Android and I my Blackberry, each one equipped with code readers. Kind of a “quick draw” competition if you will. We each pointed and shot the code, then waited for the phones to decode the message, like we were using Ralphie’s decoder pen. Within 30 seconds the message was revealed: It said: “Here’s the Deal”…It was a site that directed us to a coupon for a restaurant we’d never heard of in a place we never go.

Therein lies the dilemma: We have all of this new technology that could be used to help people, build business, and attract and maintain attention. Or, we could put QR codes all over the place that tell us to “Drink More Ovaltine”. I think we can do better than that.

Who is this ad targeting? Simple: It’s a B2B ad looking for panicked business owners who suddenly realize they are behind and want to catch up with this trend by YESTERDAY. Everything is fast and easy, right? Everything except relationships.

Advertising has always been about the “easy solution”. Who has the time for anything else? Just throw out a hundred and two will stick. I’m not concerned about the two that bite and get frustrated after 6 months, not 60 days, that their plans are not working like this organization has promised. I’m concerned about the 98 who are skeptical about the opportunity that is in front of them because someone is making a traditional promise that is just too good to be true. Those 98 don’t know who to trust because they’ve been burned before. Please, 98, don’t give up. There are realistic people out there who value relationships and will treat you right. You just can’t find them in a radio ad. Look me up on Facebook. Connect with me on LinkedIn. I’ll introduce you to the same great people that have helped me develop my business over the last TWO YEARS. (The icons at the top of this page are links.)

Make it a great day.

This issue is extending to personal relationships as well. How many blogs are there? Over 1.9 Million and growing. What are they about? Better yet, what AREN’T they about? Individuals can literally search for any topic of interest and discuss it in any format they choose: Skype, e-mail, blog, text, phone, letter (not likely), FB, Twitter, My Space, YouTube, LinkedIn, …… You get the point. The challenge is that our tolerance for discussion of topics OUTSIDE our interests is drastically reduced…we’d far rather give attention to things we genuinely CARE about…not things SOMEONE ELSE cares about…There simply isn’t enough time in the day to learn enough about someone else’s interests to engage in an intellectual discussion with them included. Like it or not, this isn’t going to change. Call it information overload in the Information Age, call it targeted social interaction, call it whatever you want. It may or may not break down longstanding personal relationships depending on the coping capacity of the people involved in the discussion.

People are actually finding themselves drawn to others who share much more TARGETED interests than 20 years ago. Remember in the 80’s and 90’s? What did we have to talk about? Football, basketball, local news from the NEWSPAPER, what mixes well with watermelon schnapps…Are we on the same page? Today, we are all challenged with too much information. Dining room table conversations don’t happen like they used to, even when the entire family is present. Family gatherings are becoming stressful instead of relaxing because there are now MILLIONS of topics someone could possibly choose to discuss. For example: If a discussion begins about something for which you are totally unprepared, what do YOU do? I personally feel that’s the reason there’s football on Thanksgiving.

Happy Holidays.

You think this is about road construction, but it’s not…It’s about business. Many of the traditional paths to success taught by corporations, mentors, business schools, and other resources are being cut off. Businesses are now seeing signs like: “Dead End—Do Not Call, Do Not Solicit”, “Detour—Land Line Disconnected”, “Closed Indefinitely Due to Budget Constraints—Find Alternate Path to Household”. And yet the proposed alternatives are nothing more than revisions of the original traditional concepts: SPAM e-mail, automated text messages, and the inundation of visual brand images on television, in newspapers, and on Facebook ads. The interesting thing is that the general public will be a lot less patient with these “proposed detours”.

It took radio 37 years to acquire the attention of 50 million listeners and television 15 years to acquire 50 million viewers. It only took 4 years for the internet to acquire 50 million users. If you think building a road of alternative, permission-based marketing solutions is going to take longer than two years to build, I’d say you’re kidding yourself.

The main challenge for those in either school of thought, in my opinion, is held in the context of these two strategic decisions.

The penalty for waiting in any game is the forced “catch-up” process… The panic instilled in oneself when they discover the boat has already left port and they’re still holding their suitcases. Trying to catch up with a moving boat leaves you exhausted, frustrated, and “all wet”. The greater challenge with social media is that it’s moving faster than the boat.

The penalty for doing it wrong is loss of credibility. If 95% of your Facebook posts are about what your company has to offer the general public and are “me-centered” instead of “them-centered”, it’s called mass marketing. If you tweet links to your business’ microsite 50 times a day, it’s SPAM. If one day you have 5 LinkedIn contacts and the next you have 500, what is that saying to your “audience” about the value you place on relationships?

So, what’s the context of your social media presence? What’s the history behind “why” you are doing what you are doing? What’s the “WIIFT” (not the traditional “WIIFM”)…What’s In It For Them: Your readers, friends, fans, contacts, followers, or whatever different platforms call those who are engaged in their conversations?

Thank you in advance for your comments.

There is no more “the way you have always run it”. That’s how most people react to this evolution, by thinking it will go away. Ignorance is bliss, right? WRONG. It’s inevitable. Change is coming. It’s on the horizon, and if you haven’t thought about attempting to do business in a way that doesn’t constantly interrupt people to get your point across, the forward-thinking minds out there are going to bury you in your own traditions.

Instead of falling by the wayside, why not embrace it and become an active member of this tribe of change?  It would be better for everyone, including your clients.  And if you don’t know how to start, talk to Robyn at CaptiveAgents.com.  Sure she has an insurance background, but her information is applicable to just about any type of service organization out there.

Everyone everywhere is being interrupted every second of every day…computer-screen pop-ups, television commercials, radio ads, flashing billboards, text messages, cell phone ring tones…Holy cow, it’s like technological Chinese water torture out there.  The interesting thing is that many of us ignore the fact that we actually have control over these external stimuli and go about our business every day accepting these interruptions as the “norm”.   Think about it…twenty years ago, how many of these interruptions existed?  That’s right, NONE.  We only had 3 channels on our television!    Today, we have over 300 with the ability to DVR  two shows while simultaneously watching a third. 

Priorities today are being established for us by other people, other companies, and other influences through repetitive, strategically placed messages intended to disrupt our routines and make us question our relationships.  The more attention we give to these external stimuli, the more uncertain and fearful we become about our own decisions that impact what matters most to us.  Only we can change this status-quo by taking back control of our time and important decisions and strengthening our trusted relationships.

Imagine if you could make service 5 times more productive and you could sell 3 times as many widgets, all while improving your customers’ experiences.  How would this change your world?  It’s possible.  But what needs to happen first is that more people embrace this technology.  It’s not going away.  Perhaps we should even change the business category of the platforms of Twitter, Facebook, Ning, LinkedIn and blogging from “Social Media” to “On-Point Media” just to change the perception of what they are useful for.  Why?  As I learned from my 13-year-old, we have no time to waste…even on pauses, breathing, or thinking.  “On-point media” conveys that message.  When people we interact with think through their situations, questions, thoughts and problems on their own before contacting someone to help them, both parties’ time is actually used more effectively. 

Are there any times this wouldn’t work?

So, how does one get their point across?  A very good way is e-mail.  It forces you to think about the problem and how to communicate it before you press “send”.  If the phone is the preferred method, the discussion tends to be improvisational unless the call is scripted in advance.  This then wastes 10 minutes on a 1-minute point.  By using e-mail, both parties also have a record of the question and the response so a printed copy is available if the response was forgotten in 6 months.

So why does it matter where an office is located anymore?  Is it still necessary to be “where the action is” or is it possible to have relationships with clients a world away?  There are certainly differing opinions about this across the business spectrum.  But really, how much does it matter that the person you know and trust isn’t physically around the corner when their “virtual office” is only a foot away from your face?  With the costs of doing business on the rise, why not make the most of the technology we are constantly being introduced to?  You may actually have more time and money to share with the people that matter most to you if you just embraced the change.