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Bruce Prokopets

How To Network

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Networking is important. We all know that. In my experience, being able to pick up a phone and call a contact for relevant information has been priceless. But making contacts is not something I would call "easy". Networking can be awkward and uncomfortable. Unfortunately, if you are really going to be a rock star in your field you’re going to have to learn to live with networking.

Last year I attended the GDC Focus On In Game Advertising Summit in San Fran, Can. The company I worked for at the time sent me out, all by my lonesome, to learn more about an in game ad project we were working on. I decided to live blog the whole event so my seniors and co-workers could keep up to date on what was going on. I blogged about each speaker as they spoke. I went into painstaking detail about what I was learning. I was becoming an expert at something I knew almost nothing about only days earlier. I figured I would return a hero.

Then my boss left this comment on my blog:

Hope we got more out of this event than what is written about here. Did we get any designer leads or cards from any other in game agencies?

I suddenly figured out why I was really sent to San Fran: Networking.

If you are being sent by your company to an industry event there is a VERY slim chance they want you to sit attentively at every track and simply debrief them upon your return. If you want to come back a hero you’ll need to have a virtual Rolodex of new contacts in hand. That’s the bottom line.

I’m not shy. I’m not scared of the public. I’m not scared of social settings. But something changes in me when I have to use social skills to actually produce a result that my boss is counting on. I’m not alone though, seems many professionals have this very same problem.

Some common misconceptions that hinder the networking experience are…

  • Everyone here knows already knows each other, except me
  • I will annoy people
  • No one wants to talk to me
  • I’ll be outed as a rookie immediately
  • I have nothing valuable to add
  • I’ll look like I feel: nervous

Here are some great links to help you network better and get over my all-too-accurate bullet points.

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The Social Customer Manifesto

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Socialcustomermanifesto The Social Customer Manifesto is by Cerado, Inc co-founder Christopher Carfi. There is all kinds of interesting stuff in this blog about how to communicate with customers. He has a really great post about the upcoming VRM (vendor relationship management) revolution which I’ll be sure to monitor.

Here is a really great clip from his "about me" section in regards to his company

We work with companies to help them to understand what their customers are thinking (by doing crazy things like going out and having conversations with those customers).

There is also a Business Blogging Field Guide avail in HTML and PDF.

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Do You Know How To Make An Idea Stick?

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Guy K. posted his review and interview of the new book "Make It Stick" by Chip and Dan Heath. The book discusses what makes ideas stick in the publics mind. Read reviews here. Along with the interview, Guy has posted a Stickiness Aptitude Test that will help you take measure of how sticky YOUR new idea might really be.

BOTTOM LINE: I plan on reading this book. One theme I see from the posts, Amazon, and the SAT is that simplicity is a big part of stickiness, especially in the pitch. For instance…

  • (about the birth of Southwest Airlines in a bar) "… the original core idea fit on a cocktail napkin."
  • (about how ALIEN was pitched, one sentence analogy) "JAWS on a spaceship."

LINKS:

  • YouBlog– Cocktail napkin presentations, how to
  • MUST READ! WhoHasTimeForThis?– Practicing The Art of Pitchcraft, elevator pitching

RANDOM GREAT IDEA: I think I should start a site (pitch-on-a-napkin.com?) where people can submit their great ideas. Your idea can be big, crazy, and even require tons of dough…but it still has to be simple to communicate. So the catch is that you have to be able to pitch the idea in only 3 sentences (or some small character limit) and a picture on the back of a napkin that you upload. People can post comments on other ideas with their own napkins, seeing who can make the most simple napkin pitch from the same idea.

The Closing Of Market Smart Interactive (Re-Visited)

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MarketSmart Interactive has closed it’s doors, kept a handful of staff, and rolled up into MarketSmart Advertising. This is a pretty big story considering MSI was heir to a respected seo/sem legacy from Keyword Rankings/Websourced. But the real story is the conversation going on about this in the b’sphere.

Seems as though MSI has been doomed for a while. Much of the top talent has been leaving the company for some time now. After a broad stroke layoff exercise at MSI this week, many bloggers and former employees (including top search talent like Andy Beal, Garret French, and Adam Shultz) started posting about all the talent that was now jobless.

This whole story is important for a few reasons…

Perfect example of blogging, a brand, business, and a human story coming together organically. This conversation is not a PR or marketing effort, it’s natural and it’s happening right now.

Perfect example of how an out of touch company can lose control of it’s identity. MSI was a titan of an SEO firm with respected talent, but most of the talk about the company got worse as years went on. Why did we only hear bad news for so long? Why was MSI so unusually silent about their problems and criticism?

Perfect example that talented bloggers can be the face of your company (if you have them). I have been reading many blogs of former MSI employees and didn’t even know it until I started tracking this story. I find all these bloggers to be more of an authority on search than the company they all came from.

Perfect example of sales side vs service side antics at a web/tech firm. Just read the comments.

BOTTOM LINE: Pay attention to the blogosphere. We have watched this company go slowly downhill for quite sometime. We have all seen former employees move on to better things (and followed them there). We have watched bloggers try to help laid off talent. We saw all this through the Internet, through blogs, through a virtual conversation. What did MSI see?

LINKS:

My del.icio.us tag roll for this story.

Evan K. Roberts- Why MSI/WEBSOURCED/KR failed

10 Steps To A Terrible Brand

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via Seth

  1. The author of HeeHawMarketing recieved a Kohl’s gift card
  2. He proceeded to visit Kohl’s
  3. He found the place to be a disaster (I ain’t talkin’ just messy, I mean like a bomb went off)
  4. He took photos with his mobile phone
  5. He posted them on his blog
  6. Many people commented about a similar experience at their local Kohl’s
  7. Blogger recieves PR bullshit voicemail
  8. Blogger posts again, this time with a slideshow
  9. More comments
  10. Kohl’s does nothing

BOTTOM LINE: Kohl’s could actually benefit from this coverage and use this as a way to really get things in order starting with an average consumer’s perspective. Instead, they do what every other clueless company does…nothing. Watch the amazing slideshow below.

A Guide To Fad Marketing

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via Dr.Fad

When I was a kid there was a show called Dr.Fad that I loved to death. Kids would show off their wacky inventions on the show and I can say with pride that it’s shows like this that made me the geek I am today. I happened to have stumbledupon the Dr.Fad site and found something very interesting…Dr.Fad’s Guide To Fad Marketing

Highlights…

  • A Fad is not a Vegematic. If it slices and dices and broils and boils, it’s not a fad. A fad only slices.
  • Keep it short. For radio and TV you need a fifteen-second explanation.
  • Every sample is worth a thousand words. Everyone loves a freebie, especially if it’s fun.
  • Don’t take the pros’ advice as gospel. They’ve had some successes, true. But their mistakes are hidden.