How I used Twitter to put a CEO on the street
WAIT! I’m not here to evangelise Twitter or to pick news items out of it merely because it seems to be a slow news day. There’s enough of that out there already. The merits of Twitter still need to be demonstrated to me. To me, it seems like the digital equivalent of entering a sports arena full of people all shouting random things at the top of their voice in the hope that someone is listening. This goes against the very basics of marketing - segment then target.
What I’d like to share with you is an experience I had last week that made me think there may be something more in this after all.
Last week it came to my attention that St Vincent de Paul held an annual fundraiser to give CEOs an experience of what it’s like to live on the street. A quick web search revealed that the annual CEO Sleep out was happening that night.
Later, in the lift, I joked with our CEO that he should attend. He said nothing but instead just gave me ‘that look’. You know, the one that says, ‘Stop talking. Now.’
An hour later he was back at my desk with a challenge. If I can raise at least $300 in sponsorship, he would attend. Within minutes, his profile was registered and an email went out to staff, friends and family asking for donations to put a CEO on the street for the night. I copied this email to my blog and used that as a gateway page. I created a tiny url to my blog and announced my evil plan to the twittersphere.
My profile has over 1,500 followers, so it made sense to twitter from that account rather than his. Using one of the fundamentals of offline networking, I asked for the referral and asked followers to spread the word with a retweet. Within minutes I was getting replies passing on the requirement to donate and make a CEO sleep rough.
In the next hour, I saw the fundraising total move past my $300 baseline target, and it didn’t stop there. The total continued to grow, $400 … $500, and I started to wonder how far we could push this.
I kept the updates flowing as the totals climbed and climbed. Before I knew it we were looking like we could be on track for $1,000. By the end of the afternoon we had raised $1,250 for charity from nowhere. It seems this Twitter thing could have legs after all.
Lessons learned
So what lessons can we take away from this experience? Lessons that we may be able to apply to using Twitter for business?
- First and foremost, understand that my tweets were not about selling anything or self-promotion. Instead, we used our twitter networks to spread the word about a greater good or worthy cause. To put it another way, get to know your network and deliver value to them. Send them links to news articles that you find which you think will be genuinely valuable to them. By default we raised our profile, but that was really a secondary outcome.
- Count downs. Twitter seems to be great for counting down to events or deadlines. “Only $125 to go before we break the $1k mark!” or “2 days left to register for the Business Solutions showcase.”
- Hash tags and keywords. Advanced users don’t really follow other users, they follow trends by using keyword digest tools or hash tags. Tweets relating to this event used the hashtag #CEOsleepout. In this way we knew that people who followed us from this activity were likely to be Sydney-based and networked at CEO level.
- Ask for a retweet. The benefits are obvious.
- It’s not about you. Nobody likes a show off, so start getting to know people and discover what you can do for them. Karma will pay you back, I promise.
- Use opposing concepts. A little trick I learned for writing an attention grabbing headline is to use two seemingly contradictory concepts in the same sentence. In this case, the CEO and the concept of sleeping rough were at odds with each other and invited people to click through to find out more.
- Use a landing page. There’s only so much you can do in 140 characters, so explain what you mean in more detail before you invite people to take action.
- Surprisingly, this didn’t take all afternoon. I still met my deadlines and had a full, productive afternoon. I simply took time out for a few tweets here and there.
Originally posted at http://anthillonline.com/how-i-used-twitter-to-put-a-ceo-on-the-street/
How to make a CEO sleep on the street
Tonight CEO’s and business leaders will sleep rough in order to raise money for charity. Every year St Vincent de Paul invites CEO’s to experience the hardship that is endured daily by Australia’s homeless for just one night. At the eleventh hour, I have registered our support!
Kareem, our CEO has pledged to take part on the proviso that at least $300 is raised for the cause. I have started the ball rolling by donating $30 to his fund. If you wish to support St Vinney’s and help counter the problem of homelessness or simply to see Kareem Tawansi sleep rough for your own personal enjoyment, please donate by following this link:
https://www.ceosleepout.org.au/donate/donate2/ceoId/4404
Please also feel free to forward this email in order that we can raise as much as we can.
p.s. Its tax time and deductions are available for donations above $2
Business Technology - Are you saying no to the Gatling gun?
I guess you have to be in IT sales to get this. All it takes is an afternoon of cold calling to understand why I find this funny.
Gatling Gun comic strip, war to fight
Most business leaders are so head down fighting the war that they forget to take a moment to think about the bigger picture. Maybe, you don’t need 1000 archers… maybe you need to keep pace with technology and do more with less
This is also a great reminder for me to get to the point and explain ‘what’s in it for them.’
Augmented Reality
I don’t have time to explain this but the video says its all. I’ll say one thing - This is cool!!!
Watch the video and then search for “Augmented Reality” on YouTube to see a world of new possibilities
Microsoft reveals its search for answers - web - Technology - smh.com.au
Microsoft reveals its search for answers - web - Technology - smh.com.au.
This week we have seen a major development in the world of online search as Microsoft lifted the lid on their 2 year secret squirrel project.
Despite the fact that there has been very little hype of lead up to the launch it seems to have become very big news in the media and the blogosphere.
The new search experience from Microsoft
Perhaps the reason behind the hype is not so much what it does but who is behind it. Its clear that Microsoft is taking a huge swipe at the Google incumbancy of online search and for good reason…
According to SMH the Australian search market alone is estimated to be worth around $800 million. Its probably worth noting that this is not the first time that our Redmond friends have had a stab at this. It’s not that long ago that Live search was called MSN after all.
So is this just a re-branding exercise or is there some innovation that MS is bring to our search experience.
Well actually its seems that this is a space worth watching after all. In search, relevancy is everything. The relevancy of the results that google returned, combined with a fresh brand and interface was a large part of why Yahoo got knocked off its perch not so long ago.
Microsoft claims that you can ask Bing a question and it will return an answer, but I have to admit that my experience of Bing so far has returned a page of links. The experience is really no different to Google.
More functionality is due down that track that will similar technology to mash-ups or aggregation sites so I think its a bit early to make a full assessment. On thing is for sure, if MS want us to start ‘binging’ things, they have one hell of a fight on their hands!
Like I say, watch this space.
Keeping high priority cost savings initiatives out of the too hard basket.
Successful Business owners and senior managers share an ‘efficiency mindset’. In everything they do, they seek the most cost effective method and look to maximize ROI at every stage. Following on from the Global Financial crisis, managers have been put under unprecedented pressure to lean up their business and every cent of every dollar of expenditure has been put under scrutiny. This flurry of cost reduction activity has caused some senior managers to become somewhat over excited. The mindset has moved from ‘doing more with less’ to one of simply survival.
The biggest problem with this mindset it that sooner or later when the economy does turnaround, your business needs to be fit enough to survive the feeding frenzy that will ensue. It may be attractive to cut suppliers or reduce your headcount now but what does that do for your operational effectiveness. Is your business really capable of reacting to a spike in demand?
Managers are therefore on the lookout for cost reduction strategies that can save money now but have more long term operational effectiveness.
One area that CFO’s and COO’s look towards are business process improvements initiatives. By analyzing the processes in a business and ‘re-engineering’ them, substantial cost savings can be realized and in the process, making the business more effective and agile.
The benefits of Business process improvements are well known and acknowledged but they are largely thought about as long term initiatives. Most CFO’s view business process improvement initiatives as an exercise that will take a minimum of 6 months to implement and it’s not uncommon for projects to blow out to two or even three years. In this current economic climate, many ‘C’ level executives are overly focused on short term initiatives and rule out business process engineering before they have really had a chance to consider it.
The reason that this is such flawed logic is that Business Process engineering doesn’t have to take this long. Modern days consulting houses such as Synoptic document, analyse and re-engineer a business process in only 5 – 8 days. Exactly, how they do this is beyond the scope of this article but the time-frame is involved is what is most important to understand.
Next, having established our “to –be” processes a vehicle is needed to ‘operationalise’ the changes. Again, based on previous experience ‘C’ level executives perceive Software implementations as both longwinded and costly affairs and sadly some of the best intentioned projects never see the light of day.
Software development has moved on in leaps and bounds in recent times which means that ‘C’ Level executives need to takes a revised view what is possible with modern software development toolsets.
One such toolset is SEBA from Solentive. Rather than start from scratch with each new development, a licensed version of their software development ‘chassis’ is made available. This means that timeframe and budgets for the implementation of new business processes are reduced with dramatic effect.
A tool set is made available to Managers or ‘business process owners’ to allow them to build or modify business processes as they change. What the manager perceives as a business process in their management application is viewed as a series of screens for the end user at the shop floor level.
Furthermore, through a powerful combination of workflow and business rules engine technology, SEBA can guide the user to make more cost effective decisions at decision points along the path of the process.
By combining the best of both of these approaches, ‘C’ Level executives could potentially move from mapping to implementation of business processes in less than 14 days. This can be very attractive to a manager who is looking to refine business processes and see a rapid return on their investment.
More business technology articles by David Birchall can be discovered at http://www.davidbirchall.bircko.com
The Neat Company - Neat Company Scanner Software
The Neat Company - Neat Company Scanner Software.
Check out this for a sweet piece of kit! I was on the look out for a card scanning solution to sort out my huge pile of business cards in the corner of my desk. On my travels, I discovered this…!
The neat card scanner is part of a family of neat products that can declutter you life. Take the neat receipt scanner. What better way to declutter you wallet that with a trick scanner that uses OCR to populate a ledger for you.
Or if you want to go all out, try instead the all in one solution to declutter your desk. Neatdesk does documents, receipts and business cards.
Neat!!
10 Reasons to Evaluate InRule Business Rules Engine
If there’s one thing I have learnt in the world of IT sales, it’s this: Busy IT buyers have enough on their plate without all the waffle and three letter acronyms (TLA’s) that get banded around the IT industry.
In my experience, people appreciate it if you just get to the point and quickly. So without further a do, here’s 10 reasons why I choose to evangelise InRule Technology. See how much of this makes sense for your department / business.
1.) Write business logic code faster and more efficiently
InRule allows you to write business logic statements and create decision tables without the need to for code. As a rough guide 5000 lines in C# can be achieved in only 150 rules in InRule. Faster programming means quicker return on investment, a happy boss and more chance of getting your annual bonus.
2.) Write business logic statements that communicate directly with the business , not just your IT department.
Ask yourself what the average business person understands… a page full of code or a report or repository of business rules using familiar and domain specific language.You can even set your own vocabulary. Wouldn’t that make life easier?
3) Centralise and collaborate on your business logic.
Two minds are better than one,three minds are better than two and the story goes on. Remember the days when you could only make changes to a website via an HTML competent webmaster? Along came content management systems, changed all that and we have never looked back. This evolution in technology allowed us to make changes to content and fast track the change management process. Now, multiple staff members could work simultaneously on web content.
The development of a truly functional rules management system allows your business to enjoy the same benefits in your business logic. However, this evolution in rules management has a much larger consequence for the business.
Since rules exist in every part of the business, there is now an opportunity to catalyse every area of the business. Rules can now be placed in a centralised repository or catalogue and can be understood by non technical business users.
When everyone has visibility of business rules, you can start to collaborate, and that’s powerful!
4) Easy integration with minimal coding or SOA connectivity
InRule can be bound to your business logic layer with only a few lines of code in .NET. If you’re using another flavour of code or you have mixed architecture they have thought of that too. InRule has SOA functionality out of the box making connectivity a doddle.
5) Complement the connectivity of BizTalk with the rules functionality of InRule for a killer package
InRule for SOA comes with irAdapter for Biztalk server. This means that InRule and Biztalk can function harmoniously and make your life easier.
6) Inline ruling of not –it’s your decision
Put your rules in single long line or organise them in branches. Create rule on rules, time trigger them, lock them down, print them off, verify them…. the list goes on. Well there’s a reason it’s called business rules management
7) Killer performance
What use would a knock-out Business Rules Management Application be if it wasn’t backed up with a highly optimised, low foot print rules engine to execute them. Let’s just say that InRule doesn’t disappoint us here.
8)It’s not going to break your budget
It’s free to try and pretty darn reasonably price to buy. Given the impact that Rules management can have on a business, I struggle to think of a singular piece of technology that provides more business value.
9) You’ve never met a bunch of people more willing to help
They were great with us when we were a customer of InRule and we’ve since met plenty of other customers that sing their praises. Just let them know what you’re trying to achieve and they’ll do their best to help you achieve it.
10) Business Decision Management Works
When a Top 5 Bank in the US moved from hard-coded logic to automating business logic with InRule for use in Risk Rating scorecards for various forms of lending, they enabled risk analysts to “configure new scorecards and revise existing ones, taking 68% of programming out of the cycle time and significantly enhancing the Speed to Market.”
To find out more about how managing the rules can make your life easier and your business more effective visit http://www.inrule.com/
Or visit http://www.inrule.com/products/productEvaluation.aspx to start your free trial
Putting your inhouse IT team to better use…
Apologies for the quiet time. I’ve been in the UK VFR (Visiting friends and relatives for non-tourism academics)
On returning to Solentive I was excited to find that the team have been putting the finishing touches on our new Support and Maintenence program. This has been something we have been considering for sometime and have prioritised in recent months due to a steady steam of related enquiries.
The new support and maintenance program goes as follows… There are two main areas to get your head around.
Firstly, there is the Solentive Support Agreement - Should your system encounter an error, your staff can rely on Solentive to identify the root cause of the problem and suggest actions to remedy the situation. You as the customer can then task you own staff, a third party vendor or Solentive to take action using the SDP.
Secondly, there is the Solentive Development Pack (SDP) which is prepayed blocks of credit to be used for bug fixes, minor upgrades and patches.
Turn around SLA’s are available for both parts depending how business critical the system is.
One of the biggest distractions for IT teams is in the maintenence of legacy systems. A system error is almost impossible to plan for and has a habit or coming along at the just the wrong moment, putting your other deliverables in jeopardy.
The support and development packs are a methaphorical panadol for an IT headache that you no longer need to have. By removing the burden of maintenance you can plan your resources more effectively or reduce the associated overheads associated with such a large team.
So you think the jury is still out on Twitter?
