Stop Jon: the writings and ramblings of Jon Pederson

Advertising: When Is Enough, Enough?

In most cases, I would tell people to never stop finding new creative ways to communicate with their customer, but the key word in this statement is “with,” and if it becomes interchangeable with the word “to” then you should have shut up a long time ago.

Ever get into a conversation with someone, and no matter how hard you try, there is just no polite way to indicate they are babbling on about something you have absolutely no interest in? Or, even worse, they keep going on trying to explain the same concept in as many ways they can think of, but are incapable of making sense? You’re stuck having to just be rude; telling them you have to go get your cat out of the dryer, or pickup your grandma from work. That’s what I’m talking about, so don’t be that guy. (more…)

Get Engaged, Now!

Digital Strategy - A Deeper Engagement on Every Level

The internet landscape has changed so much in the last decade. I networked with people all over the country back then; emailing lists and individuals… and lots of phone calls, but it was not to the scale it is now.

Today there are not only more methods of communication, both individually and socially, but there are more platforms for engaging with people. This opens the doors to meeting more people, and having more conversation, but it also forces us to realize we must have a strategy for managing this environment or become shallow and ineffective.

There are three main aspects of communication to include in your digital strategy:

1. Broadcast Messaging: this is proactively communicating with large groups of people with like interests who are truly interested in your message. This is where facebook pages/groups, corporate twitter accounts, discussion forums, blogs, marketing website, etc. play a key role.
2. Mass Engagement: responding to the open dialog created by groups of interested individuals. This is reactive involvement through, many of the same initiatives above, but segmented into subsets of people.
3. Personal Conversation: relationships are grown at this level; understanding both person’s needs, desires, challenges and opportunities, and working together for mutual benefit.

These three “levels” of communication can be applied to any digital strategy for internal and external corporate growth, or personal branding and marketing, and are necessary to engage on a deeper level. Depending on the goals of your strategy the value of any particular level will change, but if not identified you will be left spinning a lot of wheels and wasting a lot of time trying to find meaning in the social media noise out there.

I’m always helping companies and individuals develop their digital strategy so they know where to focus their energy, and identify their most valuable relationships. The methods of communication has changed dramatically in 10 years,  I would love to hear your experiences and feedback.

What I Learned From Some Chairs

I had two recent experiences with customer service for similar issues and the way they were handled was almost entirely opposite. I learned a lot about customer service, and what NOT to do in resolving issues.  It seemed more fitting for the Pondry company blog so I posted it over there.

Social Networking and the Necessity of Real-World Relationships

Most of you reading this post are using twitter, facebook, friendfeed or any number of other socializing services on the Webernet.  Social apps are a great way to keep in touch with people, and build relationships with people you’ve never met face-to-face, but how many of you have been focusing too much time on using these services?

As great as it may be to have short (140 character) instances of communication with many people, don’t think that it even comes close to building real-world relationships.  Getting away from your desk and interacting with another person is where awesome things happen.  The popularity of tweetups are becoming rampant, and for good reason.  It’s pretty easy to know about a lot of people, take Guy Kawasaki, Gary Vaynerchuk, Jason Calacanis or Loic Le Meur for example, but to know someone takes more levels of communication than what can be accomplished on the Internet.  When it’s time to get serious work done, it’s not happening on facebook.  It’s happening at a table.

So, take the opportunity to get to know some of these people you currently only know about.  Organize a tweetup, grab coffee or lunch, and start making your time spent with social networking worth something by creating real-world relationships.