Hey Kyle!

How are you? I was wandering from Red Sox blog to Red Sox blog, and came across yours listed in the blogroll section of OverTheMonster. I know Red Sox fans are pretty die-hard (especially when it has to do with the Yankees), so I thought you might appreciate this contest that Overstock.com is holding, called “The Ultimate Red Sox Experience.”

You get a chance to win tickets to see the Red Sox pummel the Yankees on October 2nd- including round trip air-fare,a pre-game VIP tour and the chance to turn the numbers on the Green Monster scoreboard during one inning. If you’re interested in knowing more there’s also a video that goes over the details.

Appreciate the contest? I LOVE the contest, especially since I live in Austin now, so it would be that much sweeter. But as a long time marketer and PR guy, who kind of “dabbles” in this “social media” stuff I also loved the pitch. Kudos to Selena Narayanasamy, the Director of Social Media Outreach at BlueGlass. Not sure if Selena knew some of the folks behind the Papelbon blog including Aaron, Tim Walker, Bryan Person, Adam Cohen, and Jim Storer…but let’s just say they are a bit of a big deal in the social media world and even bigger deals within Red Sox Nation.

Too much time is spent on the best practices of social media, or PR, or marketing, or lead gen….but what it all really comes down to is a few simple things that Selena did right:

1. Research your audience
2. Tell your story succinctly
3. Tell me why I would care
4. Make it easy for me to share the story

You could say the same thing for a great white paper landing page or email newsletter. The more things change in terms of our medium, the more the old best practices come in handy. I was so excited about this pitch, not simply because it really does seem like the ultimate Red Sox experience, but because it was a perfect example of a great communicator at work. If you want to check out the video it is below:

Marketing tools can often be confounding. They are overly expensive and over designed. They get deployed before they have a team to support the tool. They work, sometimes. But we try them all in hopes that they deliver what we need and provide us with more insight into the work we are doing. One of the tools I use each day is Act-On software and you can read how it provides real-time B2B marketing analysis, email management, demand gen automation and more, but it is not the tool I care to discuss today. Today I want to talk about Andrea and Dan, two people who work at Act-On and provided me with a wonderful example of proactive customer service.

One morning last week I got an email that Andrea and Dan, helping us with another issue, came upon something we had done wrong in implementing our forms. This was not a major deal, but it was causing problems in certain browsers (yes, that means IE). Now here is what could happen after they discover this issue:

1. Ignore the issue, AKA “Bad Customer Service”
2. Alert us to the issue, AKA “Customer Service”
3. Tell us how to fix the issue, AKA “Good Customer Service”
4. Fix the issue then tell us about it, AKA “Amazing Customer Service”

The fourth form of customer service is what I call proactive customer service and it goes way above and beyond what you expect of any company. But it is also that type of customer service that creates a loyalty to a company, a product, a person, a brand. That morning Andrea and Dan of Act-On took the fourth approach on customer service and it made a huge difference for my day. Rather than trying to figure out the problem and wasting a few hours I was off and running. Proactive customer service is the ability to put your customer’s needs completely ahead of your own, but then going even one more step further and providing a true solution.

Thanks Andrea. Thanks Dan. Thanks Act-On.

Take a moment and share your story of proactive customer service.

Time has altered us all, as is its natural tendency, and not only has business press not become as important to me personally or professionally, the business press themselves have endured their own deep scars. Today there are fewer publications and within those publications even fewer journalists. The odds now have become event more challenging and the return on the time it takes to generate ink is difficult to justify. This new landscape however does not change the thrill and pure joy a business press opportunity still brings to an old PR flack at heart.

Today I’m not even the one directly involved with landing such an opportunity, but when an email crosses your inbox with “BusinessWeek Opportunity” in the subject line it is funny that the heart still jumps like it once did. My gut tells me, from experience, that this is a long process and even with a great interview coverage is still a rarity. But for just a few seconds I’m back in 20th century and I’m pretty damn excited about this business press opportunity.

Privacy is important, or at least it should be, but unfortunately most people ignore their role in this tale. On the other end of the spectrum we have an organization like Facebook that has decided that privacy is the least of their problems and they are going to exploit an inherent weakness in people: Online Privacy Ignorance. This blog is not the place to resurrect what is currently going on in the world of privacy and Facebook, you can get that from better sources. But this latest privacy run around and “fix” has woken me up to the fact that I had created a very large group of FBFs (1,400+), many of which might or might not fall into the Online Privacy Ignorance category. Most, however, did fall into the “why do I feel it is OK to share with them what I am sharing” category. Listen up now, what I need to tell you IS very important: It’s not you, it’s me.

That’s right, we are no longer friends on Facebook. Please. Stop. Crying will not help us get through what are sure to be trying days. Instead I want you to think back on all the good times (cue cheesy flashback music and start montage):

• Hiding your Farmville updates as quickly as humanely possible.
• Removing that disgusting comment you made about me when I posted a family photo.
• The hours I spent building lists thinking that it would create different pockets of privacy.
• Hiding your MafiaWar updates as quickly as humanely possible.
• Disabling my wall to protect me, and you if I can be so frank, from malware and Phishing expeditions.
• Hiding your updates altogether during the last Presidential election cycle.
• Laughing out loud at the fact that you are still the only person that uses the “Poke” function.
• Wondering why you post drunken updates every Saturday night…with accompanying pictures of you in the restroom of local bars.

It is always hard to remember all those good times. Speaking of remembering, can you remember when we became FBFs? Or why? Strangely enough, I can’t even remember ever having met you in real life. When you have those types of challenges in front of you it is a wonder that our relationship, even this digital one, lasted for so many years.

The time has come for us to no longer be friends on Facebook. You may not even notice the change, since there is no way for me to contact you once we are no longer FBFs and we don’t even live in the same state and in some cases the same country. But thank you for being my FBF during a time when we all felt comfortable sharing intimate details about our lives with complete strangers. Today the world is simply a different place, and FBF, I’ve grown.

Perhaps one day I’ll regret this, but with my cursor poised over the “Remove Connection” button I bid you and 1,200 of my closest FBFers, adieu.

Warm and deep regards,

Kyle

Mix It Up

One of the most simple steps you can take is to mix up the people who will be conducting the interview. This is particularly important when interviewing marketing personnel, but it can also bring a fresh perspective to any role you are trying to fill. Many of the folks who came in to interview last week met with a variety of people outside of the marketing department, including our CTO. Obviously everyone in the company has a stake in who gets hired, no matter the position, but I often get the best opinions on a candidate from those outside of the marketing realm. These people know what is needed, but they can also remove any potential bias they may have about marketing talents and really cut to the core of the candidate as an overall talent. Just last week my CTO provided me with some terrific interview questions based on his conversations with a candidate. Make sure you include people outside of your own department in the interview process, it will open up your eyes to the strengths and weaknesses of a candidate.

Go Back For More

Traditionally people usually have one or two rounds of interviews and then make a decision. That seems a bit brash for someone that you’ll be spending 50-60 hours with a week, don’t you think? Would you get engaged after the second date? Don’t be afraid of having an extended interview process that could be 3-5 rounds. They don’t have to be all marathon-day sessions with multiple people, but it is good to get in front of a person several times to get a sense of when they are being a “job candidate” and when they are being themselves. Set up an initial phone screen, follow it up with an interview session with the marketing team, bring them back in for the interviews with folks outside of your team and then maybe close it up with a one-on-one session. Over time you will get a good handle on the different “flavors” of the candidate, their ability to schedule time into their calendar, attention to detail on how they remember items over a period of time and more opportunities to get to know this person you are about to spend so much time with over the coming months.

Spice Up The Locale

OK, I’m taking the “work relationship” metaphor too far, but what I mean is that you should interview the person at least once outside of your own offices. Personally I like to use the coffee shop across the street, especially for the first interview. There are many reasons for this including:

• Introduction–Did they do their homework and connect with me on LinkedIn, hence they know what my ugly mug looks like?
• Manners–How do they treat the folks working at the coffee shop?
• Personality–Out of the office, but still in a business-like setting, can they relax a bit and let out their personality?

I posed this question on Twitter and Jim Storer had an interesting suggestion, get the candidate on the golf course and you’ll learn a bunch of things:

Certainly a bit more intense than the coffee shop, but I think Jim would agree that one of the reasons the golf course works is because it is outside of the office space. Our friend Natayna Anderson had a good point of course, not everyone plays golf, but again I do think one could find a setting that would truly place a candidate out of their element and provide you with a much deeper understanding of their skill set.

Be Consistent

Asking the same exact question every single time is not only boring, but will also not give you a fair representation of different people. However, it is important to have some benchmark questions to ask each candidate, even if you tailor them to their personality or the flow of the conversation. The reason is obvious, you need to have easy ways to compare and contrast candidates. This becomes even more important when comparing two very strong candidates, providing you with a potentially tie-breaking formula.

Put Them To The Test

Some people are just really, really good at interviewing. You know who I’m talking about. Perhaps you are one of those people. But guess what those people can’t do, handle a challenging test. Don’t feel like you can’t tax your candidate with homework. A few suggestions, again from the marketing world:

• Rewrite the company boilerplate using all the information at your disposal.
• Provide a 90-day demand generation plan.
• Write a post for the company blog.
• Detail the five things you believe our competitors do better than us.

The ultimate lesson in interviewing is to be hard on the candidate, because their job is going to be hard.

Mix it up with the people interviewing, because they will have to have relationships with multitudes of co-workers.

Take them out of their element, it will provide a small light into their personality.

And don’t be afraid to ask for more, because the person who goes above and beyond is the person you’ll want to keep.

Kyle Flaherty on ROI from Tippingpoint Labs on Vimeo.

Peer motivation, on the other hand, provides the necessary inspiration from those surrounding you, but in a positive environment. This happens all the time in business, often through the creation of challenges amongst teammates to hit goals of self-inflicted peer motivation for folks driven to out perform others. Overall, peer motivation is something that we can harness in appropriate dosages to push ourselves and our teams to achieve great things, oh and it really works for parenting, but that is for another blog.

Peer Motivation and Athletics

When it comes to sports and athletics peer motivation is a critical part of the success recipe. Players often find themselves in situations where their peers raise their game to another level, not simply through the play of the game, but the influence of their workouts, diet or studying game tape. In fact, peers within sports are not necessarily on your own team, it could be your greatest opponent. Last night I was reminded of how powerful peer motivation can be watching “Magic & Bird: A Courtship of Rivals“. Growing up in the 80s, in Boston, it was a great honor to watch Larry Bird and Magic Johnson take each other to new levels, and along with it an entire professional sports league. This peer motivation happens all the time in sports, although not always to the level of a Bird & Magic, and it also happens for individuals who are…well…um…not professional athletes.

During the last part of 2009 I was training to run a half-marathon in Austin and for this ex-offensive lineman running isn’t exactly a natural physical state.

But throughout the training process peer motivation kept me going, and the “peers” didn’t even realize the effect they were having on getting me through my goal. One of those people, Tim Walker, has been chronicling much of his work out regimen and discipline on his blog and on Twitter. Seemingly, each time I thought about skipping or skimping on a run Tim would Tweet or post about a workout technique. Undeniably this would make me run longer and faster, helping push me to finish that half-marathon in February. Peer motivation.

Peer Motivation and Social Media

Social media is full of peer pressure, that has been well documented, but peer motivation is also a fantastic side benefit of social media. One great example is ChallengeApp, a new social network that allows you to challenge your friends or network to any type of challenge. Not surprisingly, Tim pointed out ChallengeApp to me and immediately we were in a challenge for the month of April. Our challenge is to get through 20 substantial workouts in April (join us?). We are only a few days into the month, but already I can tell this is going to drive me since we remind each other over Twitter and ChallengeApp about our workouts and don’t think it isn’t killing me that Tim has one more workout than I do already!

Peer motivation using social media or any other means is not just for athletics, in fact ChallengeApp (or really any collaborative platform) is a great tool for a team of bloggers looking for more production, fundraisers looking for more donations, company departments looking to out produce another department, the options are endless. Understanding how much power your words have on others may inspire you to be more proactive about peer motivation, and on the flip side you should search for people who will motivate you.

How are you going to motivate your peers today? Who motivates you each and every day and might not know it?

Plancast is getting a ton of attention lately and being talked about very highly by folks I know and trust. At first glance I too thought it was a fantastic platform for interacting and making plans, but I quickly changed my mind. But rather than turn away immediately I gave it another chance after Aaron Strout told me to give it another try and he recommended:

1. I follow the right people, i.e. be people that I actually know
2. Subscribe to the digest which is essentially an itinerary of cool things to do

This post is my response to Aaron’s challenge:

Firstly I find it interesting that most comments I’ve seen about your podcast center around iPadio, including my own. That tool is efficient, easy to use, helpful and brings something new to the table.

Alas, Plancast is only one of those things (yet). The current incarnation of Plancast is a glorified version of Upcoming and the other scheduling tools available. But lets start with the positive and what I like about Plancast:

• Easy to Use: Plancast is super easy to use and has a nice clean interface (unlike Upcoming). You can integrate it with your other social networks or choose to remain agnostic. This is nice since you can have a Facebook Event also show up in Plancast. Also they make it super easy to add events to your actual calendar and you can already “@” folks in the title of plans.
• Privacy: Plancast is doing a terrific job with privacy concerns, particularly when compared to other social networks. You can easily cancel your account under settings. You have to opt-in to allow others to automatically include you in their plans (hello Facebook photo tagging, are you listening?). You can easily block other users. Even the terms of service are tolerable.
• Responsive: The entire Plancast team are highly responsive, in fact I’ll bet they will respond to this blog post. Check out their community where they tackle user questions, needs, critiques and more. Very impressive. But better yet look at the privacy thread and you can see they are already implementing suggestions from people. Certainly a great example of community best practices.

But now it gets into where I think Plancast is missing the boat and let me first just say what I always do about new tools. These are NEW tools and typically in beta. As someone in the technology industry I understand how this works and empathize. Therefore most of the things I say are probably already being addressed or just as likely Plancast may not be the right tool for me, which is cool too.

• Too Much Noise: Just like Aaron I subscribed to the “right” people; my friends. And not “friends” like Facebook’s definition, but people I had actually met and value their opinion on events and plans. The homepage’s “upcoming” stream is not helpful because it is being pushed down the page by the “What are you planning to do?” box and then the listing of events are very noisy, particularly by the few friends who like to post every single thing that they do to Plancast. There is too much emphasis on the pictures of people attending the event so that I can’t easily scroll through the page, find an event I like and then expand to find additional people. The same thing can be done for the planning box at the top, or better yet put a “Make A Plan” button on the left-hand nav and save me some space.
• Filters: This is a corollary of the above since it is very difficult to actually find plans that would be useful to me. I’ve tried the search functionality to no avail. But I’d also like to see the ability to create filters by geography and even user list. For example, most of the people I’m subscribed to are in Austin. I’d love to make a list of just these folks and get a quick glimpse at what is going on in my town with my friends. Taking that another step, I travel a lot and am subscribed to people in San Francisco, Chicago, London, Boston and other locales. Can I have a filter or list for those geographies so I can check out what is happening the week of May 5th when I’m in Boston? Currently I go to the site, I scroll down my list of subscribers and I leave. I’m not getting anything out of the experience because it is not useful as currently created.
• Count Me In: With a click of a button I can put my name down on the list for a plan. One issue though is if the plan was created in Facebook…it won’t pull my RSVP through to Facebook. I’m guessing that this is something that could be addressed when the API is available, and it should be. But I’d also like to see it extend beyond Facebook to any network you have linked in including, well LinkedIn.
• Speaking of LinkedIn: As I’ve said on this blog before, I’m much more partial to LinkedIn than Twitter or Facebook, mainly because it brings me more value for my day job. Plancast seems like it was made for social media people and marketing consultants, not for people doing actual business. Perhaps this issue gets answered in my call for filters because it would be really nice to easily find plans that have something to do with my work.

And here is what it really comes down to, Plancast is for two main people:

1. People who want to plan social events with their friends that might run the gamut across multiple networks.
2. People who want to make sure everyone knows that they have social plans and hope that others will join them in those plans.

I need a planning site that is going to help me find events that are important for my job and my life, I’m not interested in using it to meet up with people at the Apple store. Ultimately the way I make social plans is on my actual calender, not on Facebook, Twitter or Plancast. Social networks are just ways for me to find out about events, not to RSVP or mange a plan. If I want to open up my socialization I use Gowalla; if I’m out and open to meeting up with folks in my extended network, presto I can make that happen. Obviously it is more in real-time, but that is the way I socialize.

Ultimately I think that Plancast has a significant opportunity to address the needs of people like me who are looking for great events that help them with their job and their lives, not just when the next tweetup is happening. From what I’ve seen on their forums and Twitter they are receptive to making changes, so my promise to them and to Aaron is that I’m going to stay on the network through the year and keep checking back to see if it has become a tool that I’ll put in my belt.

• Partitioned web server when I started my own consulting business in 2004.
• File server for 100+ GB of pictures, music and video, including a huge growth in files with the births of two sons (’06 and ’08).
• Accounting system for the entire family.
• Gaming system before I bought a Wii. My wife and I spent many an hour playing Civilization I, II and III on this piece of hardware.
• Home office computer part deux when my wife started to work from home after our move to Austin.
• Learning platform as I played around with education myself on the innards of computers, programming, HTML/CSS and networking.

Alas, all good things come to an end. The research towards a new computer begins today, but I’m looking for suggestions from all of you, who know me fairly well at this point. Tell me what computer would work best for my family, here are some critical points:

1. I use a MacBook Pro for work and love it.
2. My wife has a separate Dell for work now and she loves it.
3. We need a central computer in the house to serve as a primary system to hold all of pictures, videos and music for networking throughout the house.
4. The computer does not necessarily need any “Office” applications.
5. I need the computer to be partially partitioned as a web server to host my blogs, including this one and several family blogs.
6. I would like to start doing the family video editing on the home computer, whereas today I use FinalCut on my 15″ MacBook Pro.

What say you loyal reader?