Am I the only one?

I know I have a lot of pent up rage in me and I pretty much know why.  The ‘why’ is not important and mostly boring but the random flare-ups sometimes surprise even me.   

Am I the only person, for instance, who witnesses a scene in my own mind of me standing on the hood of an oncoming car while aiming a 25 x 20 foot, 8000 watt  spotlight into the windshield of a selfish, inconsiderate asshole driver with those blinding blue-tinged headlights on his car that fry my cornea?   Is it just me?  The entire fantasy only takes about a ½ of one second but it’s all there in full detail.  Me, blinding drivers who offend my eyesight and teaching them the ultimate lesson in humility.  I’m doing it for the greater good.  And it only takes a second. 

The Money Shot in Iowa

I remind myself constantly that cameras - while they may not lie exactly - only reveal snapshots.  How many times have you been questioned about the look on your face at a particular moment, "Are you mad?"  "What's so funny?" "what are you thinking about?"  When in reality, your nose was itching, you remembered a forgotten task, you had a foot cramp or actually, you have no idea why your mouth turned up or your forehead wrinkled?  Looking at photos of my own self, I often wonder, What Was I Thinking??
Cameras hyper-focus an audience on the face and body language of its subjects.  We have these two-hour time frames during televised debates to stare at (and listen to) people talk and display a whole range of emotion, physical reaction and thought.  What  looks  like an arrogant smirk may well be the result of holding back a fart.  These are, after all, human beings.  Farts and all.
Televised debates are incredibly powerful influencers because we are so visual and so vain and so attracted to perfection and so fickle- always looking for that one tell-tale moment when the candidate reveals the whole monty with that one  expression (the money shot?).
Or, maybe I'm just shallow.
I think these GOP (and most) candidates are courageous and patriotic and ultimately, love America.  I had a moment last night while watching the debate where I was overcome with patriotism.   I watched these people on the stage in various camera angles, up-close-and-personal, and I just felt so strongly about all of them.  I was proud and touched by their courage to be up there. I was overcome with gratitude to be an American and I thought, for a minute, that these candidates are all mostly good, or want to be, and mostly trustworthy and mostly meant, or wish they meant, everything they said.  It was weird.
All of that, I think, is a result of  'seeing' the people instead of  just hearing them.  I can't help but wonder how much that affects my opinion and I am trying hard not to let it.  I often wonder how just 'hearing' and not 'seeing' the campaigns of 2008 would have changed the result.
Like so many other people watching, I am listening for ideas, platforms and issues that speak to me directly and that represent my exact vision of my country.  Therein, of course, lies the real debate.  What, exactly, is my vision?
I am certainly not liberal but I am also no longer a strict conservative.  Libertarian ideas appeal to

Here, put this on

me but I refuse to try on Ron Paul's tin-foil cap - although I have toyed with the idea.    Other than the isolationist concepts, he has some pretty appealing platforms.
I want to like Bachmann.  After watching the debates (so far) I am starting to warm back up to her, although, she seems a bit high-maintenance for the job.  How long exactly, does all that make-up take her to apply  everyday?  I know, I know.  Shallow.  I don't like any kind of religion in my politics but I do believe that we should base decisions on goodness and justice.   All of that goodness mostly comes from God, doesn't it?   Whole 'nuther subject there.  Extremism scares me.
I like Santorum.  I actually, probably, like him the most.  But - there's that whole religion thing again.  I just don't really give a shit what gay people do.  Get married, don't get married.  I don't care.  I do believe in a strong family unit and I don't think it is affected by what gay people do or don't do.  Either you are gay - or not.  Period.  I'm not.  My family unit looks pretty typical.  I don't mind if my neighbor's does not.
Huntsman 'appears' to be a bit smug and over-confident.  Maybe he just has gas.  I generally like his platforms, although, honestly, I have not studied him much.

Romney.  I like him.  He does not appear to be basing business decisions on any weird, cultish, Mormon philosophy.  He just seems like a regular Christian guy who is smart and decisive and a savvy business man.  He does make stupid faces while he listens to the other candidates.  I bet he never farts.
Perry- I just don't know.  Hard not to like a cowboy from Texas.  He seems a little slippery.  I worry about international affairs with him on the throne.  Is he smart enough?  Would he be true to American values or be another bumbling goober like our current president?  Texas is one of the only states that is still thriving.  That says something.

Ultimately, Gingrich appears to be the wisest, smartest and most qualified.  He does have that baggage and there is something lurking there.. for me.. that keeps me reserved a bit.

I think I would be fairly comfortable with any of them.  Except Ron Paul.  I would be okay with him as VP, although Biden has proved that office to be fairly useless.
So... what are your thoughts?

Stop that Blogging up there!

 Who should blog?

Social media, Facebook, blogging, tweeting:  All deceptively easy to get the word out about your product.  Right?

Actually, yes.  But who is your audience and what exactly are they looking for from you- the CEO/small business owner/seller of  A La Widgets Galore?

If your audience is looking to you for indications that the company is in the able, competent hands of a leader, you may need to be a little more thoughtful about your posts. It may be tempting to blog about folksy, familiar, familial topics but be careful that you draw a line between folksy and downright next-door-neighborly.  Your potential clients may not be motivated by your gardening tips if financial planning is why they subscribe to your posts.

When readers research companies on line- will they look to the blogger with a consistent message of leadership and motivation or one who randomly slips into philosophical prose about the blue tulips in his yard or the rushing waves he battled on his sail boat last Saturday?  I guess it depends on the product.  If you are selling Baltic Yachts waxing poetic about sailing may be a nice departure from the nuts and bolts of running a sailboat factory.  If, however, you are investing the retirement savings of bio-engineers it may be wise to stay away from flowery chit chat about your hybrid tulips.

Patricio Robles said,

...it's probably safe to say that consumers are not going to jump for joy at the opportunity to tweet with Rex Tillerson, the CEO of Exxon Mobil, or to poke Vikram Pandit, the CEO of Bank of America. No, all most of them care about is the availability of gas when they go to fill up the tank and the safety of the money they've deposited at their local bank...

One of the primary reasons to stay in front of your target market with blogs, tweets and a professional Facebook  presence is to keep them confident that you know what you are doing running your company.

Find your Customers

Looking for the Forest through the Trees
-Using Target Intelligence to find your customers:

It does not seem logical that having a practically infinite audience sitting in front of your message is an ineffective way to market your wares.  Information technology has advanced to a level that allows billions of prospects to see your message, your product, your click-here-for-more-info button.

Target Intelligence is the tool used by savvy online marketers, most of whom got into the online marketing game early.  Understanding that your message can set idle in front of those billions of online eyeballs, or, it can reach the hundreds-of-thousands of people who are actually your customers is the difference between effective marketers and those just lost in the cyber masses.

Mark Schaefer recently wrote:

Become a beefy marketer.  An ability to navigate Facebook or YouTube might be enough to get you an entry level job at some places but to really build a career you should become proficient at the fundamentals of marketing.  Star performers will be able to apply their love of the social web to marketing research, consumer behavior, product development, personal selling, and brand-building.   Get a degree if you can. If that’s not possible, join the American Marketing Association and immerse yourself in their journals and webinars. Read all you can, attend free webinars every day of your job search, create an effective RSS feed for yourself.

Done correctly, target intelligence allows marketers to take the data, click ratios, sales figures, and demographics and put the information into contextual format, allowing you to market your product to the people who are most likely your customers and not the billions of others who are by and large, ignoring your message anyway.  Why waste valuable resources when the technology is available to you to get in front of only those who are looking for you?

The recent emergence of online media such as Facebook, Twitter and possibly the pioneer in massive online communication, Myspace, although, it is now very specialized for the music industry, have made the possibilities for businesses to get in front of unlimited numbers of prospects a bit dizzying.

On one hand, the platform is there- the audience is there- the marketing budget is there.  But then there is that.. other hand.  It is a bit too massive.  Target intelligence is the only way to cut through the mind-boggling numbers of people online- and find the ones looking for you.

That's What She Said..

That’s What she Said

What are influencers?  Who are they influencing?  How did they get so powerful?

When was the last time you researched a product you were considering for purchase?  Christmas time?  Probably not that long ago.  Where did you look for the ‘expert opinion’ on the subject of said purchase?

Likely as not, you went to strangers in the internet and read reviews of the product you are thinking about purchasing.  You may have read an especially useful, well written, expertly articulated review of the Handy Cam you are looking to buy at Best Buy.  

Did you look at Best Buy’s web site or Amazon?  People are talking about that very product there now.  And, likely, you will take their advice.

How did these strangers become so influential?  It has been a wave.  The wave of influencers has slowly rippled across every product line, every demographic, every large and small business service and product in the world.  It may have started with Google but it is so far beyond that now it is actually impossible to measure the weight that these influencers have brought to the marketplace.  

Businesses large and small want to be talked about on the Web.  It is no longer enough to flush hundreds, thousands, millions of dollars down the print ad toilet.  Television is powerful.  Radio has some strength.  But those strangers talking about products on the Web have taken over as the primary influencers of our time.   When will they be talking about you?