Tag Archives: social web

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7 Reasons to Join me on the HIGH-TECC Caribbean Cruise

1) It is affordable! For less than the cost of a typical night’s stay in a hotel, you get deluxe accommodations, sumptuous food 24 hours a day, myriad amenities, and exotic ports of call.

2) It is tax deductible! The cruise will have pleasure time, for sure, but it really is about your business and features several conference sessions, so it is a deductible and truly is a genuine business expense.

3) It will give your business a formidable “edge up” on your competition. The theme of “Making the Most of your Internet Presence” will give your agency the extra life it needs to pull ahead of the crowded field of competitors.

4) It provides camaraderie with like-minded people. The participants at this year’s HIGH-TECC will be those people who, like you, want to make both strategic and tactical changes that impact their agencies and have true impact on their bottom line.

5) It is the perfect mini-conference. The HIGH-TECC cruise is a perfect place to combine the latest up to date information that will benefit your agency with travel and fun, all without taking too much time away from the office.

6) Great price. Steve Anderson routinely charges $2000 a day plus expenses for his consultation — and agents are happily paying that because of the real world impact this advice brings to their agency. For dramatically less than that, you get a world-class cruise AND get to spend quality time in a small, intimate setting working on your business with Steve as your personal guide.

7) Great activities! No matter if you prefer a wine tasting, swimming, or simply relaxing around the pool all day talking to fellow travelers, it is YOUR choice. There is an activity for any taste and any age! Now, join Steve on the HIGH-TECC 2011 cruise today!

In less than one month we will be together on the high seas enjoying sun, salt air, and extraordinary conversation on how your agency can be among the elite few who are making money by effectively (and strategically) leveraging their Internet presence.

I look forward to seeing you at HIGH-TECC!

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Who Owns What?

I spend a lot of time talking about generational differences. This infographic from the Pew Research Center is very interesting. It shows the results of a survey they conducted looking at generations and the gadgets they own. Click on the graphic to get the full details…

generations-and-gadgets

Click on the graphic to get the full details…

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The Cost of Inertia Has Gone Up

“We are now at the dawn of a profound technology-driven transformation that will make the changes we have experienced over the past 25 years seem small and slow.”
-Daniel Burrus, January 2009

I have used the above quote in many of my presentations over the last two years. Like many of you, I lived through the technology-driven changes over the past 25 years, and they hardly seemed small or slow. Yet the changes we’ve seen in the last five years have been dramatic: Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, the Kindle, iPhones, iPads, and the list goes on.

The world adopts technology and new ideas at a much faster pace than ever before. Just a few weeks ago, Facebook introduced a new profile feature and Google introduced an ebook store. Millions of people immediately adapted and adopted these new options. In fact, we have come to expect this kind of dynamic change.

This fast pace has created opportunity for some and has been the demise of others. But human beings — and the way we work with and manage each other — have not changed and have adapted nearly as quickly as needed.

The big question for agency leaders today is how they handle the implementation of technology inside their organizations and try to help their employees adapt and succeed. The leaders of the future will likely be those who are flexible enough to move with these fast changes.

What does this mean for you? As a leader, you still need to know where you want to take your organization, but you no longer have the luxury of planning the trip all the way to its final destination. Do you remember the 5- and 10-year plans? Today, those plans are a big waste of time.

If you’re going to survive this new faster race, you will have to be able to adapt-quickly. In the “good old days” business plans plotted the course from A to Z by connecting all the dots and creating a linear path that was easy to follow. A connected to B, B connected to C, and so on. In this transformed economy, A connects to B, but C might be something completely different than it was just a few months ago. As a matter of fact, C might not exist at all. Unless you’re able to live with ambiguity and embrace and anticipate change, you’re going to be left behind.

What are the implications? More than ever before, organizations have to know who they are and what they want because the “how” of their plans will be a constantly moving target. This can be frustrating for many, but it’s also exciting and dynamic for those who want to embrace change, try new ideas, and discard ideas and systems that stop delivering results.

The cost of inertia has just gone up. Way up.

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A Healthy Reminder — Are You Addicted?

A recent post by Chris Brogan is a good reminder that the social web can be addicting. “Just because you can connect to a lot of people does not mean it is very sustainable.” Listen to Chris’ thoughts. It’s only 1:30 minutes long.

So what about you? Are you connecting just to connect? Or, are you really working on your business?

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Franklin, Tenn Flooding & The Social Web

You may have heard on the news that a massive storm system parked over Middle Tennessee during this last weekend. This storm dropped 10” to 16” of rain over the area in a 36-hour period. A neighbor who lives one block down the street has lived in that same house for 40 years and said he has never seen anything like this.

I first heard about the storm and the torrential rains from neighborhood friends (called the Franklin Campus) on Twitter. I flew to BWI early Friday morning to drive to Mechanicsburg, PA to convince my Mom that she needed to agree to go into Assisted Living. I spent Friday afternoon with her and then drove down to Springfield, VA to meet Karen so I could help her mom.

Following the tweets all day Saturday, I knew things back home were bad and were going to get worse. I drove back to BWI early Sunday morning to fly back to Nashville. When I landed I didn’t know if I was going to be able to get home. I tweeted when I landed, asking what roads were open and the best route to take to get to downtown Franklin. I received several eyewitness suggestions and did make it home with hardly any trouble.

This video will give you an idea of the amount of flooding in several areas around Downtown Franklin. None of these locations are more than a few blocks from my house. Pinkerton Park is one block from my office where I often walk when I need a break from my desk.

Franklin TN Flood 05-02-10 May 2010 from Jonathan Melton on Vimeo.

Fortunately, we live up a small hill so the flood waters from the Harpeth River never got more than a block away. I did find 8” of water in my basement and a small roof leak upstairs. Very minor compared to many friends.

I knew I was going to need a pump to get the water out of my basement. I checked a couple of stores on my drive home Sunday and they were sold out. Last night I tweeted a request for anyone who had a pump or knew someone who did that I could borrow. Within minutes a friend who lives outside downtown said they had two. I drove to his office early this morning to pick it up. The water is now pumped out and the dehumidifier is running.

I am asked often “What’s the big deal about the social web?”

Events like this illustrate the power of being connected. Here are three reasons why the social web is a very big deal to me:

  1. It allows me to stay connected to my family, friends, and business associates in a way that is completely different than what I have experienced in the past. The social web makes staying connected easy to do, no matter where you are physically located.

  2. It helps build community. Unlike any neighborhood I have lived in the last 25 years, I have neighbors who will pitch in to help when the need is there. I live in a real, live community of people.

  3. It makes partying easier. OK, so our neighborhood likes to party. Neighbors were planning to throw a birthday party for their daughter Sunday night. But, no one could get there because the roads were closed. A couple of tweets and a couple of phone calls and the Franklin Campus gathered to help celebrate. We found out there were five friends who all had recent birthdays. Here is the iPhone video. (Randy @RandyElrod, Robert @TheRobertD, Megan @MegHMiller, Chris @ChrisJackson81, and me @SteveTN). This is just another way to enjoy and help each other.

How can you use the Social Web to build your own community and neighborhood?