Getting Unstuck.

by Gradon on March 8, 2012 · 2 comments

in life,social media

man running Getting Unstuck.There are two kinds of busy social media strategy folks:

1. Those who continue to publish at their blogs, no matter what, so their presence stays fresh, and readers come to expect their perspective on the issues of the day; and…

2. … everyone else.

If you’ve been keeping tabs on my blog for a year or more, you’ll note that I have little rushes of content… and then I’ll disappear for a few months. Or more than a few. Which puts me squarely in the second camp.

I think it comes from an odd sort of perfectionism — I don’t want to write anything unless it’s useful, and I actually like what I’m saying — combined with the need for a bit of a mental break after my typically busy day as a community manager. We’re either responding to customers and looking ahead to the next content we’re going to share, or exploring what initiatives or projects we want to take on… so to come home after that and produce something salient?

Bit of a challenge.

But as with most things in life, the fact that it’s a challenge seems like a good reason to try it.

That, and my belief that the impulse to express yourself is one that should be rewarded.

I’ve just started running after months away from it (I’ve gone running twice this week! Points for effort!) and my lungs and my legs are feeling challenged, to say the least. I was a track and field guy in high school, so there’s muscle memory in there somewhere, but it’s going to take a bit of time to get my distance and efficiency up to par.

The decision to get back on the trail was one I made on Monday. And as soon as I made that decision, I headed to City Sports, down from my office, to get some running pants suitable for the weather. I didn’t wait to see if I had something at home I could wear, because I knew that could put things off for a day.

And it was great to be out there in my new pants with my not-exactly-new-but-remarkably-unworn (oops!) running shoes. Great to breathe deeply, great to do something for myself.  It was great yesterday, too. And it will be great on Friday.

Mind you, I’m not going to be ready to run a marathon anytime soon… but that’s not why I’m doing it.

I’m doing it because I want to train myself to act on the positive impulses in my life, and to act on them right away. If I feel like a run? I should go for a run. If I’m thinking I should drink eight glasses of water a day, I shouldn’t wait for the next day to fit in the full eight… I can go get a glass right now. If my allergies are driving me bonkers, I should make an appointment with an allergist. How much longer do I need to wait and see if they’ll get better, anyway? The desire for change right now is a good reason to act right now.

That’s why this is my third blog post of the week.

I’ve been thinking about things and pondering ideas and shoring up opinions just as often as I normally do, but I haven’t been taking the time to put them down in words. I tell myself that I can start tomorrow, or that it would take too long to express things clearly, or that I haven’t been reading enough of what everyone else is writing to see if I’m rehashing what’s already out there, etc. etc. And I’m tired! And I already published a bunch of content!

But the impulse to do it, as easily quelled as it may be from day to day, is a good one. And good impulses deserve to be obeyed.

So I’m going to be writing more regularly.

And it won’t even require special pants.

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Big Convenience (and a Little Jar of Curry)

by Gradon on March 6, 2012 · 4 comments

in Brands,Marketing

IMG 0414 Big Convenience (and a Little Jar of Curry)Last night, we had a rare occurrence: Meg forgot we were out of an ingredient critical to our planned dinner: Thai curry paste. But no worries… we live a short walk from a small neighborhood grocery store. I walked down and scanned the international foods aisle, but couldn’t find the paste. We were out of luck, and would have to order out — a $40 mistake, perhaps.

Or were we out of luck?

The commuter rail station, between the grocery store and our house, is home to five Zipcars. And in my pocket was an iPhone. As I walked out of the grocery store, I opened the Zipcar app and saw that a Honda Insight hybrid was available right that minute. I finished the reservation process — a couple taps on the screen, really — as I arrived at the car.

I spent $7.75 to reserve the car for an hour, but could have spent half that if I was willing to wait another 12 minutes (I wasn’t.) For less than 1/4 the cost of take out, I rented a car, drove to another grocery store, and bought the missing curry paste. AND some other stuff we remembered we needed on the way.

Zipcar’s incredible growth over the last few years is based on a pretty basic formula: They have reasonably nice cars (the Insight is just about the worst car I’ve ever driven, but that’s Honda’s fault, not Zipcar’s), they’re affordable, and they make the entire process easy.

Whatever industry  you’re in, think about your typical customer experience. Do you offer a good product? Is it priced right? Do you make it easy — pull-out-a-phone-and-make-a-few-taps-easy — to buy? If you can’t say yes to all three of these, the Zipcars of your industry are going to happily, easily steal away your customers.

Any other examples of companies providing similar services with similar ease? What other companies could be rock stars if they just made it more simple to buy?

{ 4 comments }

Be Your Own Tough Editor

I’ve been blogging since 2006 in one form or another, and when I look back on posts I wrote more than five years ago, I have to admit I cringe a little. Spelling mistakes, grammar issues, rambling paragraphs, obscure industry jargon… you name it, I did it. Repeatedly. While my friends might chalk up my [...]

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Say It Now

A member of the social media community died this past weekend. Who he was or how he died won’t be a part of this post. I never met him, and had only conversed with him a few times, so using his information to win a boost in visits from Google would be, well, sleazy. But [...]

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#10x10X10: The Radian(t) Lauren Vargas

Thumbnail image for #10x10X10: The Radian(t) Lauren Vargas

Back in February, I started a series of conversations with people who participate in the operation of social media programs for a variety of different brands. Today, I’ll continue with thoughts from the spectacular Lauren Vargas. Lauren Vargas, Director of Community at Radian6, is a Boston-based communications professional with a decade of experience in community relations, [...]

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What Kind of Experience Does a Strategist Need?

Yesterday, I had the chance to sit down with Peter Kim of the Dachis Group and talk social strategy. We talked about different social media programs and the people behind them. Towards the end of our chat, he said (I’m paraphrasing here): “You can’t do strategy until you’ve done other things.” This struck me for [...]

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