{ 1 comment }
January 2009
Is Apple missing out on a huge amount of business from affiliate marketers? Do they care?
Granted this would be a move very unlike Apple but would it not boost sales?
An even better move would be to allow individual developers to opt-in to an affiliate system they could use to help market their application. This way Apple’s revenue would not be affected and the affiliate revenue share could come out of the developer’s pockets.
If I was a an iPhone developer I’d definitely opt-in in hopes of increased awareness and sales.
Will this ever happen? Highly doubt it…
{ 0 comments }
One of the reasons I absolutely love blogging is that real value comes through the discussion in the comments. Yesterday I wrote a post that spurred a great conversation both on Twitter and in comments and we collectively figured out some of the problems. In this post I want to address one of the problems – how do you define expert?
I’ll keep this short and sweet… Here is how I define an expert…
- Always learning
- A thought leader who invokes discussion and teaches others
- A community leader whose goal is to raise collective awareness
- Results oriented, not jargon oriented
How about you? How do you define an expert?
Let us know in the comments…
{ 7 comments }
Yes, yes… we love Basecamp. But we don’t just use it for our web strategy and internet marketing projects… Basecamp is a powerful tool for non-business projects as well. Here are 3 other ways you can use Basecamp, outside your business…
Home Improvement
We are currently in the process of remodeling our basement into a man cave. This project is HUGE and has been going on almost six months now. We have been using Basecamp to manage the entire project. We set up milestones and associated tasks to them. We assigned the tasks to either us or our contractors. And any ideas or products we want to remember we just upload as messages… It works FANTASTIC. I’d recommend this to any small or medium size contracting or service company. It works excellent – and you can manage it in your hand, with your iPhone.
Podcasting
You can use Basecamp to manage your podcast or other multimedia productions. Doug and I use it to collaborate on our internet business podcast throughout the week – to figure out what we are going to talk about. We use messages and comments to shoot ideas back and forth. We actually do this using email, but it’s all logged as a threaded message in Basecamp – awesome. Once we have our ideas set we use the Writeboard feature to create our script and the message features again to jot down show notes and links for post production. This works fantastic for collaborating the creation of our podcast remotely without ever even discussing it in person.
Wedding Planning
A friend of mine is getting married next year and I set he and his fiance’ up with the free version of Basecamp to manage the planning of their wedding. Obviously there are certain planning aspects that need to be done on time so they have setup milestones for when they need to have the photographer reserved by as well as other reservations like the reception location. They are using the tasks feature to assign each other items to take care of – which of course are attached to milestones. And they use the messaging feature via email to talk about ideas. And last they are using Highrise (contact management) integration to create their guest list. How bout that for organization!
How are you using Basecamp outside your business use? Let us know in the comments!
{ 0 comments }
I really don’t get the “Social Media Expert” or “Social Media Consultant” backlash that is spreading across the interwebs. People are making snide comments all over the place saying “Well, everyone thinks they are a social media consultant” or “People think just cuz they use Twitter and Facebook – they too are a social media expert“. Hell, this guy’s Twitter bio openly proclaims him to be a “Social Media Consultant mocker”. And Micheal Pinto recently claimed “Social Media ‘Experts’ are the Cancer of Twitter (and Must Be Stopped)” in a flaming linkbait blog post. Social media darling Chris Brogan was recently quoted saying, “I’m a social media expert? That’s like saying you’re an email expert. Fuck off.”
So what’s the problem here? We’ve seen the same backlash for “SEO consultants” and “Internet Marketing Experts”. Just because there isn’t a license or a Microsoft Certified Exam for social media does not mean it’s not an important aspect in the internet business landscape. This importance has created a real business need for consultants and experts to help train and educate businesses that don’t get it. You people that bitch about it should a) spend your time more constructively and b) remove your head from the vacuum you live in and realize businesses need help with social media. Just like they need help with accounting, web development, and legal affairs.
Granted, anyone can say “I’m a social media expert“. You can do that with any knowledge based profession. I claim to be a “web strategy expert“. There is no license for that and you can throw your flaming poop at me all day long and say “Just because you have a blog and do web development, doesn’t mean you’re a web strategy expert”. What it boils down to is the fact that I can prove it. I blog about it here every day. Doug and I have an internet business podcast to help businesses improve their web presence. I help clients use their websites to improve their business and increase their cash flows. I am completely open and transparent about it.
I have never claimed to be a social media expert, but they do exist… Their names are Nathan Wright, Mike Sansone, Scott Monty, Robert Scoble, Wayne Sutton, Jeremiah Owyang, etc. There are many, many social media experts – does that dilute their expertise? No – it just proves there’s a market for these experts. These guys have proven they are experts by teaching you to be an expert too. Ask their clients or their community and they will back them up. That is what defines an expert. That is what defines a consultant.
So quit your jealous bitching complaining and embrace them – they are experts helping businesses use social media to reach out and have transparent discussions with their customers. That’s good right?
What do you think? Let us know in the comments…
{ 30 comments }
