In their one-hour core conversation at SXSWi about breaking into the paid speaking business, Nick Morgan and Tim Sanders gave attendees priceless advice. (Had I heard this advice back in 2005, it would have saved me from learning those lessons the hard way — that is by doing it and at times, failing by doing it.)

Nick is a speaking coach for executives and consultant-types. His first book, “GIVE YOUR SPEECH, CHANGE THE WORLD” is a must-read for anyone who delivers presentations. Tim Sanders is coached by Nick and has carved out a lucrative career as an author and speaker. These two guys were both being sincerely helpful by sharing their no holds barred advice.

The first piece of advice from Nick & Tim is get a book published. Yep. A published book that’s found in Barnes & Noble nationwide is the ante for getting into the paid speaking game. (That’s how I started. I even used the book they recommended to write a book proposal.)

Second piece of advice is get a quality speaking demo produced, edited, and shared online. Part of a conference meeting planner's job is to eliminate risk when hiring a speaker. As in a meeting planner must feel confident and comfortable a paid speaker will deliver the goods. An easy way for them to get confident and comfortable is to see video of you on stage delivering a presentation. (My demo reel isn't slick, but it does help to show a meeting planner the substance of my presentations and my style.)

Third piece of advice is exude enthusiasm, passion, and charisma when delivering presentations. The difference between a travel-fees only speaker and a well-compensated speaker comes down to style. It’s a given that both of these speakers will have smart content. However, the ones who get well-compensated understand they must not only share knowledge, they must also inspire attendees to act upon the knowledge they just heard.

Nick and Tim shared lots more advice on breaking into the paid speaking business beyond what I shared. Samantha Bell gives a detailed summary of their SXSWi session. Read it, it’s worth your time. You can also read the tweets from the #blogmoney hashtag.

Last week, I attended a webinar from WOMMA where WOMMA General Counsel Tony DiResta discussed the importance of disclosure across social media. This conversation normally focuses on brand-blogger relationships but the same best practices and government guidelines may also affect your Facebook Page.

Here are five things to keep in mind about your brand and disclosure on Facebook.

1. Employment is “Consideration”: The FTC requires that any consideration from an endorser be disclosed; “consideration” includes anything that might sway endorsers’ words and this includes employment. Make it clear to employees that posting an endorsement or review on your Facebook Page without disclosing that they are employees is unacceptable, this also includes commenting on other Facebook Pages or Facebook content just as it does commenting on blogs.
2. Video Contests: If you are soliciting Facebook videos about how much fans love your product to be in the running for a million dollar prize treat this the same as you would if you were requiring a blog post about your product as a contest entry. Help fans by requiring that they include a link to your contest rules or a including the contest name in the video description- this disclosure will protect your fans and will raise awareness of the contest.
3. Disclosure in Celebrity Status Updates: Status for Sale is forbidden by the Facebook User Guidelines but do make sure that any celebrity spokes people disclose their relationship with you should they be posting about your products a lot. There is no standard format for this disclosure, the status update might include (sponsor) in the text or the celebrity might list the sponsorship or spokesperson relationship prominently on their Page information.
4. Disclosure of Celebrity Photos: If celebrities and influencers are seen using your products in paid advertisements or at your events it’s understood that these are paid endorsements and no disclosure is needed but a photo of a celebrity using your product lacking any description or context is more ambiguous. To be safe, if you are posting photos of paid celebrities or event attendees using your products make sure to add a note to the album description or under each photo as to where the photo came from.
5. Disclosure in Foursquare: One great question from the webinar was around Foursquare and whether free products or gifts given to a Mayor needed to be disclosed- Tony confirmed that they do. Since many people are now using Facebook and Foursquare together I thought this was worth including.

Remember to use common sense with social media campaigns just as you do traditional advertising campaigns and keep your customers’ best interest in mind. And no matter how much you study this stuff don’t forget the gut check: if you think you might need to be disclosing something you probably do.

A special thanks to Tony DiResta for his input on this- for continued discussion and updates about best practices and guidelines check out Tony DiResta’s blog on the WOMMA website see the full disclosure webinar here.

Registering bicycles to make them easier to track down if lost or stolen isn't new. Many bike retailers put identification numbers on bike frames, and in some cities you can register bicycles with the police. The problem is that these methods... Springwise http://www.springwise.com

Photo via flickr via Carolina

I make decisions daily. We all do.

Big ones and little ones.

We are often in meetings where we ask our clients to make really important decisions, often as a group. Yesterday I sat in on a meeting with a new client who flew in for a presentation. And there was a decision that needed to be made quickly. A lot of the solutions we presented felt right to them. So the team did one of my absolute favorite things to do in a meeting.

We passed out the orange index cards.

And said.” Before we discuss this any further. Write down your gut reaction. We won’t hold you to it, but it’s very helpful.’

Cordell reminded me of some research that says your gut is often your better decision maker. Love it when science backs up my gut.

From an article in New Scientist:

It turns out that because our emotions emerge from our unconscious mind, from our internal supercomputer, they tend to reflect more information than our rational mind.

Pretty cool. Huh?

I am making a ton of decisions for Brains on Fire these days. Business is good and we are moving fast. It is an exciting and encouraging time.

I put off a decision recently that I knew I should make — in order to gather more information. And it turned out I flat out should have trusted my gut. I didn’t need fact to validate my gut. Not at all.

Gut instinct is powerful.

Has there ever been a time when you trusted your gut and it let you down? Mine has worked every single time.

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When SXSW, one of the largest gatherings of minds and enthusiasts in the digital world, didn’t feature more than a handful of panels on the intersection between health and social media - an “unconference” event called SXSH sprung up to fill the void. Yesterday that event came together in Austin and included speakers and pioneers in using social media to communicate for health issues in regional hospitals, government agencies, health insurers, nonprofits, epatients and pharma companies. Just about every part of the healthcare world had some sort of voice in the discussion as everyone gathered to share ideas on how the industry as a whole might use social media more effectively by building greater trust.

The day long discussion featured many highlights, starting with a talk from Doug Ulman, CEO of Livestrong about the power of health based communities online and how important real time information is to improving healthcare and the patient experience. Greg Matthews from Humana shared how a health insurer can innovate internally and use that to improve patient relationships and Jenn Texada from MD Anderson shared how she and her communications team use social media tools to interact directly with patients for customer service. David Hale from the National Library of Medicine presented an innovative new database to help identify unknown pills called Pillbox and Fabio Gratton shared how to build a movement through a case study of the success of the #FDASM movement in November of last year around the FDA hearings. In the “unconference” part of the day, companies such as ReachMD and WEGO Health talked about their communities and content and how they help bridge the gaps between patients, doctors and healthcare providers.

In the final session of the day, I tackled the question of trust. A central issue in healthcare communications, the session posed the question: why don’t people trust us? Or more specifically, what creates the culture of distrust online that so often causes negativity towards some companies in healthcare and what could we as an industry do to combat this? Our aim in the session was to brainstorm ways that healthcare organizations could overcome these barriers and build more trust and credibility. The entire room then selected what they felt the strongest ideas were and I promised to compile the results into a single blog post - which you’ll find below. In the spirit of the unconference, all of us who managed to be part of the great discussion would love to hear your thoughts on any other ideas that we could add to this list too …

1. Listen to and implement ideas from the community. Being part of a community or interacting with individuals is a great first step, but the real trust that can be built from this comes when people see some sort of action come as a result of the participation in a community. It is not the act of listening, but the impact of that listening which makes it real.
2. Have shared values on good health. Often the distrust in healthcare organizations stems from a belief that priorities are mismatched. Our priority as a patient is to get healthy, and their priority seems to be offering more medication or delivering care in a more “efficient” way. In order to build trust, it is crucial that people feel our ultimate goals are aligned toward making them healthier. We need to focus on prevention instead of promotion.
3. Answer your patient’s or customer’s concerns directly. With social media tools, people have the ability to broadcast their thoughts and desires. Often they are doing so because they are seeking a response. Having a smart listening program that can help you find these queries and a strategy for responding goes a long way towards demonstrating that you care and truly want to help.
4. Aggregate or curate useful information. Sometimes the problem isn’t a lack of information online, but a dearth of it. When information is scattered all over, it can become very confusing about what is credibile and which things to trust. One of the simplest roles for any healthcare organization to take is that of a curator of great content. By doing this, you can create resources for people that will be useful and demonstrate your commitment to their needs.
5. Serve as a resource or guide for the community. One of the things that many organizations neglect is actively using the experts that you may have internally. When it comes to marketing and communications, part of the role should be to unlock the best voices from within an organization (many of whom may not necessarily be in the marketing or PR departments). By bringing these voices out and encouraging them to share information, you can connect patients and customers to the individuals who can truly bring insight and deliver thoughtful and useful information.
6. Set expectations on what you do and why. Lack of trust can be based on a misunderstanding of motivations. There are times when people may assume that a policy or practice is done simply for financial reasons or because of legal motives when actually there are other concerns they don’t know. Being as transparent as possible about your decision process and thinking can go a long way to remove this misunderstanding.
7. Focus on setting a clear mission for employees. The most trustworthy organizations often are the ones that have a very specific and defined vision that everyone is working to implement. When the message coming from employees is consistent, it goes a long way towards establishing a belief in the organization from outsiders because they know what the group stands for.
8. Communicate results and outcomes. Large organizations in particular are often good about communicating outcomes or results in financial terms on a quarterly basis or some kind of cost related metric, but not as good about communicating impact of their efforts in human terms. To inspire belief, it is often the results in human terms that people respond to far more than the financial ones - so refocusing on how that story is told becomes vital.
9. Recognize both sides of the issue or data. Many people inherently believe that data and reports presented by many healthcare groups (and pharma in particular) is delivered with a strong bias towards whatever is most self serving for the group. When information is not presented in a more balanced way, the likelihood that people will not believe it is entirely credible goes up.
10. Build trusted long term relationships. Beyond all the other suggestions, the one thing that establishes a foundation for everything you do are the trusted relationships with influencers and individuals that you build online. You need a group of people who know enough about what you do and the real philosophy and thinking behind your actions that they can serve as vocal advocates for your brand if needed.

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I caught up with our own Thomas Crampton last week in Istanbul. Thomas runs our teams across Asia and one of the big events coming up this year is the Shanghai World Expo.  To help inform our work and our clients who will participate in some way or another, Thomas developed some great research on the current buzz throughout Chinese social media on the Expo. I had a chance to ask him about what he found:

Q: Can you tell us briefly what the Shanghai World Expo is and what it may mean to China, its government, business leaders and even the people there?
A: Shanghai Expo has been billed as one of the largest events of its kind in China. While people outside of China may not have heard of the event, the organizers expect a extremely large domestic audience.

Q: You did a unique survey of what the Chinese people were saying online via social media about the Expo, what surprised you most?
A: One of the biggest surprises about the discussions online was the intensity of discussion taking place more than three months before the event began. While you might expect sponsor and the government to speak about the event, it was interesting to see the level of discussion going on among China’s netizens.

Q: Can you tell two of the insights in the survey?
A: The report gives insights into how individual citizens and companies are already gearing up for the Expo. In terms of Chinese citizens, the report shows that they are concerned about ticket prices and taking action. Among the initiatives are group purchasing of tickets and rural citizens asking for advice on how to buy tickets.

Q: How could brands engaging in the Expo use this survey to their advantage?
A: By understanding the concerns of consumers looking at the Expo, companies can find ways of offering value to those who may visit the Expo. One interesting example in relation to the ticket prices is one company, , that is offering tickets to Expo at the original price. The promotion costs them very little - the difference in ticket price is very small - but the publicity and discussion about it has been fairly extensive. As we follow the Expo with these publicly available reports, companies will be able to see possible hooks for their own Social Media strategy.

Shanghai Expo Chinese-language Social Media Buzz

View more documents from 360 Digital Influence, Ogilvy PR Worldwide.

“If you had to choose social media* or 100% engaged employees for your brand, which would you choose?”

I recently asked that on Twitter and the responses were pretty interesting. The question forces a choice, which many of the people who responded had a hard time making. One person even called it down-right ’silly.’ Generally, people wanted both - engaged employees who use social media. Fair enough, but not a singular answer the question begs.

If you’re having a hard time with the answer, this might be a good gut-check.

You see, the answer gets at a deeper question - what is the most valuable asset that your business has?

We’re not denying that social media can have massive influence for a brand, or even that it can add to a brand’s bottom line if wielded correctly. But I am saying that we would bet on a business with engaged employees and no communication through social media over a business with mountains of online ‘influence’ any day of the week.

Why?

It’s pretty simple: one of the foundations of a good business is an amazing customer experience. And employees provide that experience to customers. And 100% engaged, passionate employees do that in a way that turns customers into loyal fans. So if we had to choose between an online communication tool and people who’s hearts beat to turn customers into loyal fans, the choice is clear.

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“Here is Edward Bear, coming downstairs now, bump, bump, bump, on the back of his head, behind Christopher Robin. It is, as far as he knows, the only way of coming downstairs, but sometimes he feels that there really is another way, if only he could stop bumping for a moment and think of it.”

A. A. Milne, Winnie the Pooh

We all seem to have that instinctive thought, the same feeling as Edward Bear that there has to be a better way. When I’m standing in line at the DMV for 45 minutes, on hold with the phone company with the fourth representative…you bet I’m thinking there has to be a better way. Yet, I still stand in line, stay on hold and in essence keep bump, bump, bumping along.

And as a result, I have been asking myself how we can challenge ourselves (as an industry, society, culture) to walk down the stairs instead of bumping along to avoid the headache that Edward Bear has?

Take the time to explore.

Explore new options to solve problems, explore new problems that need to be solved, JUST EXPLORE. The best part about exploring is that you don’t have an end destination and end up somewhere you never knew existed. Some might define exploring as another way of “getting lost”, but when was the last time you got lost and didn’t learn something new?

Help turn bump, bump, bumping into…upright movement.

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In my readings far outside the business world, I read this yesterday:

“Crisis is a word that is often mistaken to mean tragedy or threat. A truer understanding is that crisis means a turning point.”

Nice. While not written for business, the implications for businesses are real and aplenty.

Dominos faced a crisis with the realization their pizza lacked zest. They responded and changed course by changing their pizza recipe.

Toyota is facing yet another crisis associated with quality issues. Clearly, Toyota is at a major turning point. Fingers are being pointed that Toyota must change the course of its company culture to emerge from this mess a stronger and healthier business.

Remember, a crisis isn’t a distraction. It’s an opportunity. An opportunity to question business practices and an opportunity to make decisions so that a company can become beloved again.

In my readings far outside the business world, I read this yesterday: “Crisis is a word that is often mistaken to mean tragedy or threat. A truer understanding is that crisis means a turning point.” Nice. While not written for... johnmoore (from Brand Autopsy)

Ellen McGrit and Maxim Williams right before they went on stage.

Last week was a great week.

It ended with the best couple of days I’ve had in Greenvegas in a long while. I had the honor of being the “official timer” at the first ever TEDx Greenville. (And for the record, even though it was threatened — I never got officially fired.)

I sat backstage and chatted with some of THE most amazing people on the planet. Seriously, it was truly the best seat in the house. I have this theory that all of us are a bit vunerable right before we go on stage. No matter how much we like or dislike the spotlight. It was so interesting to see that and then see these amazing people take a deep breath, step onstage and watch their passion and stories blossom from their hearts.

I was just in absolute awe of the talent, the greatness in everyone around me that day.

The presenters, the planning committee, the attendees. Each and every person there had a remarkable story to tell.

And it was funny. Surrounded by all that inspiration, it was as if we were all seeing the potential of each other with eyes wide open. It was hard to ignore.

You know, I think we are all guilty of going through the motions of life sometimes, doing just what is expected of us. We need experiences and surprising connections to others that shake us up, and wake us up.

Hard to explain in words really.

I’ll let you know when the videos go up so you can check them out for yourselves. Believe me, there were some ideas worth spreading at this event. And I’ll do a post or two — or ten — about the lessons I learned in that one single day.

Last but not least, I promise to do a post about the experience I had with some of the TEDx presenters and attendees at the BMW Performance Center on Saturday morning. That place is amazing.

So lots to talk about. Just need to organize it all in the coming weeks.

When I finally took a moment of stillness on Saturday afternoon, I came in the office and found this piece of paper.

Funny how things like this just show up in my life.

Anyway after a bit of poking around yesterday, I discovered they were Cordell’s wise words. And I want to share. Enjoy.

“The capacity for greatness is seeded in each of us. The journey to discovering starts with understanding that your greatness is yours alone. For too often we look out at the world and we see others greatness as the greatness we want. In doing so, we limit ourselves and far too often fall way short.

For some greatness is something they feel unworthy of. Maybe even fear the embarrassment of their own unique greatness because it feels out of sync, peculiar or taboo.

For others the enemy of greatness is good. We reach good and we give up on great. Maybe we decide good enough is good enough. Maybe we get scared the chance at greatness isn’t worth that chance of losing what’s good. But whatever barriers exist, exist only in our hearts and mind. The world is always ready for the next thing. All we have to do is own our greatness and let it shine…”

Hmmmm.

Let your greatness show this day. Come on. The world is waiting…

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  Watch my segment at Fox Business Live

Last Friday, I discussed the state of the beauty business on Fox Business Live. The clip is above and below is an overview of my comments and some of addition thoughts.

 

In spite of the economy, the beauty business is holding up quite well. Apparently most people are more concerned about their looks than the food they eat, the clothes they wear or the cars they drive. 

 

What works in the beauty business? The same thing that works in all businesses. Own a word in the mind. 

 

Typically, a beauty brand will start out by owning a word and then get line-extended like crazy. Still the brand might remain powerful because consumers remember the past. It wasn’t the line-extensions that created a powerful brand like Dove, it was the original focus of the brand that did that job.

 

Dove started out as “one-fourth moisturizing lotion” and is still the No.1 bar soap with 24 percent of the market. And lucky for Unilever, that focus helped maintain the brand’s power in spite of its endless extensions.

 

Olay is Procter & Gamble beauty brand, also line-extended to death. By like Dove, Olay still benefits from its history as “Oil of Olay,” apparently a magic wrinkle-remover ingredient. 

 

Aveeno, a Johnson & Johnson brand, became famous for its “active naturals,” a concept trading on the trend towards organics, naturals, etc. 

 

Neutrogena, also a Johnson & Johnson brand, was the first “hypoallergenic” soap. And today it still benefits from its association with the concept. 

 

Clinique, an Estee Lauder brand, became famous by being the first hypoallergenic department-store beauty brand, a concept the company apparently has forgotten about, but most consumers still associate the brand with “hypoallergenic” properties. 

 

Almay, a Revlon brand, was the first drug-store “hypoallergenic” brand and also benefits from its association with the concept. 

 

New brands in the beauty aisle are about as rare as a wrinkle on a super model in spite of the fact that launching a new brand is the real key to growth.

 

Look at the success of Axe, the first body spray for men. The brand has been wildly successful primarily for its sexual implications. Teenage boys will do almost anything to increase their odds with women.  

 

Except for Axe, there have been very few new brand introductions in the beauty business. It’s all line extensions.  Confusion reigns in drugstore aisles.

 

Walk into any drugstore and watch consumers spend an incredible length of time figuring out what to buy.   There are 26 types of Pantene shampoo, 42 types of Crest toothpaste.

 

It’s a pity. Companies believe consumers crave endless choice. Yet nothing could be further from the truth. Consumers want simple, clear brands that stand for something.

 

Sometimes fewer choices are better. Compare shopping in a Walmart supercenter versus shopping in a Costco warehouse store.

 

My favorite beauty brands are Dove and Axe. Both have strong positions in the mind. Dove is one-fourth moisturizing lotion and advertises its “Campaign for Real Beauty.”

 

Dove’s moisturizing focus targets older users who have dryer skin. So the “real beauty” idea has resonated extremely well with them. 

 

Axe is focused on male sex appeal, "The Axe Effect." Unilever has cleverly verbalized the benefit of the brand’s core idea. One recent tagline said “Spray More. Get More.”

 
 

 Both brands have used extensive social media campaigns that have gotten rave reviews. But was it social media that created the brands successes? I think not.

 

Social media is a tool and a tactic. Not a strategy. For any tool to be effective, a brand needs an effective strategy.

 

That is why this sudden craze over social media doesn’t make sense. A company should set its strategy first, then pick the best tools to execute its strategy.

 

Doing it the other way puts the cart before the horse.

To get consumers excited about your brand in their minds, in the store or on the Internet just liberally spray on some Focus. I call it the "Focus Effect."