Sep
28
According to Wikipedia, the 80/20 Rule or Pareto principle “states that, for many events, 80% of the effects come from 20% of the causes”.
The 80 and the 20 are not exact. The 80/20 Rule is what’s commonly known as a rule of thumb.
The 80 20 Rule is an abstract concept, but it’s important to understand it, so let me provide you with some concrete examples that I believe will help.
The 80/20 Rule and You
Approximately 80% of all income is paid to 20% of all people.
The highest paid people earn substantially more than the lowest paid ones. This is a phenomenon of which nearly all of us are acutely aware, and it often seems unfair.
However, 80% of all productivity comes from the efforts of 20% of all people. These 20% of people are the ones who:
- have a good measure of internal motivation
- have a high level of personal productivity
- consistently invest in personal development
- commit to their goals and focus their efforts
- leverage their money and their time
Needless to say 80% of all people follow the 20% of all people who lead them.
While 80% of people spend their disposable income on what Robert Kiyosaki points to as worthless items which they think are assets, the 20% live frugally and spend as much as possible on income producing investments that pay them over and over again.
While 80% of people trade their time for money, the 20% use their time to develop businesses that leverage the time of the 80% – employees — and also outsource and sub-contract to other businesses in order to gain even more leverage.
The 80% of people tend to take it easy or look for get rich schemes and shortcuts to success. They follow the path of least resistance, and they settle for much less than they really want.
Are you in the 80% or the 20%?
If you’re in the 80%, ask yourself what shift in thinking could transform you into one of the 20%.
The 80/20 Rule and Other People
If you’re in the 20%, then you need to apply the 80-20 Rule to the people around you:
- 80% of your work is done by 20% or your workers. Spend 80% of your time developing your most productive workers.
- So too in a direct or networking sales business: 80% of your results will come from 20% of your team. Spend 80% of your time developing your most productive team members.
- 80% of your business comes from 20% of your clients or customers. Your time should be spent conducting business with your best clients. There are some business experts who would go as far as firing the 80% of unprofitable clients. That may not always be feasible. In many industries such as health care or telecom firing costly customers could result in a public relations nightmare.
The 80/20 Rule and Social Marketing
Here are some Internet and social media applications of the 80-20 principle:
- 80% of all blogging is done by 20% of all bloggers
- 80% of all blog comments are made by 20% of all blog readers
- 80% of all online social networking is done by 20% of all online networkers
- 80% of all networkers flock to 20% of all social networking sites
- 80% of all traffic goes to 20% of all websites
- 80% of all spam is generated by 20% of all spammers
You can add to the list when you comment on this post — assuming of course that you’re one of the 20% of all readers. 
You Can’t Know Everything
Expertise is a valuable asset when it comes to personal branding. As an expert you can teach and mentor others and differentiate yourself from your competition.
To become a top expert in any field requires years of dedication. You still won’t know everything there is to know.
You can generally acquire more knowledge than 80% of all people with 20% of the effort it takes to become a top expert. This feat often takes much less than a year. To overtake and pass the remaining 20% of all people might take many years or even a lifetime.
I like to call this particular aspect of the Pareto principle The Law of Diminishing Returns. Beyond a certain point each successive increment of result will require more effort than the previous increment. It becomes harder and harder to justify additional time investments.
In this era of specialization you can read a few books on a subject and know more about a subject than nearly everybody else. That’s the kind of expertise I’m recommending — coupled of course with some practical hands-on experience.
Invest your time to acquire knowledge that your prospective clients or customers will appreciate.
When I was a teen I worked and struggled obsessively to become a top chess player, and I succeeded.
Nowadays I prefer to grasp multiple subjects and to seek synergies among them: many types of data analysis, search engine optimization, marketing, social networking, blogging, etc.
My broad base of knowledge — fused with solid logic, trusted intuition and other abilities and skills — fuels my overall critical thinking outside the box strategy.
You Can’t Do Everything
Like it or not we can’t follow up on every idea or opportunity that presents itself. The Law of Diminishing Returns guarantees that. Therefore we must make value judgments and set priorities every day.
Fortunately the 80/20 Rule is on our side.
80% of all benefit accrues to us by accomplishing 20% of everything on our plate. Each day we ought to focus on a half dozen high priority agenda items that will move our businesses and our lives forward.
If only we did that consistently each and every day our lives would be filled with accomplishments and satisfaction.
Nobody however is perfect. We all have bad days. Yet, the 20% group prioritizes and moves forward with much greater focus and consistency than the 80% group.
Please don’t underestimate the power of the 80/20 Rule and the enormous potential of a modest 20 percent.
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Sep
22
How Do You Like Your SPAM?
Filed Under Networking and Marketing Strategy, communication | 20 Comments
What is Spam?
Wikipedia defines spam as “the abuse of electronic messaging systems to indiscriminately send unsolicited bulk messages”.
While most people think of spam as junk e-mail, Wikipedia points out that the term applies equally to the abuse of other electronic media:
- Instant messaging
- Usenet newsgroups
- Search engines - This includes creating spam websites, keyword stuffing and social media abuse.
- Blogs - Besides the computer generated spam a blog receives every day, there are people who believe that a blog’s comment space is some kind of billboard. The same people like to advertise on social networking sites in their and other people’s comment spaces.
- Wikis - Wikipedia itself is a target of spam content.
- Online classified ads
- Mobile phone messaging
- Internet forums - This is a first cousin of blog and social networking comment spam.
- Fax transmissions
Spam is Offline Too
It is easy to extend the definition to include non-electronic media and communication:
- Three foot rule - Anybody unfortunate enough to be standing next to the spammer gets an earful.
- Car windows - This includes flyers on the windshield and sizzle cards between the rubber and the glass of the driver’s window.
- Telemarketing and automated dialers - They really sound pretty much the same. It’s hard to tell which is real.
- Rest room graffiti - Okay, maybe I am taking this a bit too far. However, I couldn’t resist. I’m sure by now you get the general idea.
Spam is Bad Business
Spam is anti-social, alienating and unprofitable, unless as Diane Hochman says, you’re going to do it right and set up an offshore server to blast spam messages to millions of inboxes.
Spam is highly inefficient and ineffective. Nearly everyone is turned off by spam or chooses to ignore it. Some forms of spam are illegal in many jurisdictions.
Forty-four years later, spam is a perfect example of Marshall McLuhan’s “the medium is the message”. The spammer’s methodology becomes the focus of attention rather than the message’s intended content.
Why Do People Spam?
Spammers mistakenly believe that spam is marketing. Spam seems like a good simple marketing shortcut.
Spammers are taught to play the numbers game. Somebody out there is going to fall for it. When spammers fail, they rarely consider that their spam “strategy” was flawed.
The Law of Attraction
Learning to market correctly takes time and effort, but it’s worth the investment. You will attract success. Spam only attracts failure.
Read my articles on online social networking, blogging and personal branding, and come join me to learn more at My Private Classroom.
Real marketing and personal branding shall prevail.
Please share your spam stories. Post a comment. But please, no you know what.
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Jul
20
My Online Social Networking Strategy
Filed Under Favorite Posts, Networking and Marketing Strategy, Social Media and Social Networking Sites | 12 Comments
How I Use Social Networking Sites
I wouldn’t start a blog called Online Social Networking if I didn’t like social networking sites.
Let’s look at the many ways that I use social networking sites to meet my business networking objectives.
Casting a Wide Net
I join a wide range of social networking sites. I know that even if I will not be active at a particular social site, the profile I set up there will add to my online presence. So if I like the site, I’ll become part of the community. If I don’t, there’s no harm. My profile will remain there as long as the site continues to operate.
Consider the social networking site Yahoo 360°. If you Google me, this networking site will appear in the top search results. Sometimes it will even show up in the top position on the first page of results. Yet, this is a social networking site I rarely visit. It’s not my cup of tea.
When you Google me, you’ll find page after page of results that are me. What happens when people Google you?
Joining a bunch of social networking sites should jump start your web presence. It’ll give you some Google juice. Why not join some of my favorite social networking sites featured on my blog’s sidebar? As a plus, in most cases we’ll automatically be connected as “friends”.
Building Large Targeted Lists
When I like a social networking site, I settle in and become part of the community.
A winning strategy on nearly every social networking site is to build a large targeted list of friends or contacts, generally the larger the better. Thousands are better than hundreds.
For some sites such as MySpace, Facebook and Yuwie there are friend adders, but I don’t like to use them. I prefer the personal touch, and I don’t want to risk losing my profile for suspected spamming. I spend a modest amount of time each day requesting new friends on each of my favorite social networking sites.
There are two ways that I target my requests.
On sites that allow profile browsing by specific demographics such as age, gender, geographic location, marital status, and parental status, I browse to find people to add.
On sites that have groups or clubs I browse the groups that are likely to attract the people I’m looking for.
I tend to accept nearly all add requests from others. I reject blatant spammers, men masquerading as women in order to attract favorable attention, and crazies.
Networking and Attraction Marketing
Social networking sites are meant for online social networking and not for advertising or spamming. They’re a great place to get to know people. You get to know people by asking them questions.
Please visit or revisit my earlier post, Social Networking vs. Advertising, for a full explanation of this absolutely crucial concept.
Social networking sites are also great from attraction marketing. Be the type of person you want to attract, and that person will be attracted to you.
Videos of you presenting useful information or explaining an important idea, not making a sales pitch, can showcase you as the knowledgeable leader you are.
Blogging is a big part of my branding strategy, so when I network online, I invite people to visit my blog, read, comment and register or subscribe. And many do.
I invite people I like on one social networking site to connect with me on another site. I don’t want to lose track of them if the first site closes down or if one of us happens to have his or her profile deleted. And yes, many do… connect that is.
At Direct Matches, I invite people to visit my profile page where I have a subscription form, and people can sign up for my training newsletter. And again, many do.
Every time people go along with my request, they’re opting in another time to our relationship. It’s sort of like dating.
Branding Yourself
Social networking sites, video sites and blogs are great for personal branding. In fact, your whole online presence can serve as a branding mechanism.
Craft your personal branding strategy and develop a web presence that is consistent with your strategy.
Being Consistent and Following Through
Possibly the most important online social networking strategy is to be consistent and follow through, not to expect instant results.
First you need to build your list, and then you need to gain credibility with the people on it.
When I’ve tried to push things, people sensed it. When I’ve been patient, people have often come to me, and what could be better than that?
Don’t miss any posts. Register, it’s easy, or subscribe to my RSS feed! You can also subscribe by e-mail using the form at the top of the home page sidebar.
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May
25
Before You Begin Blogging
Filed Under Networking and Marketing Strategy, Search Engines, Social Media and Social Networking Sites, blogging | 2 Comments
The decisions you make and the actions you take before you set up your marketing blog are at least as important as the steps you take once your blog is up and running.
Proper planning can help you avoid many false starts and much backtracking.
Start by asking yourself basic marketing questions such as these:
- How will you monetize your blog? For ideas refer to Blogs and Blogging for Fun and Profit.
- What will you sell?
- Which are your target markets?
- Can you reach them through advertising? Offline business networking?
- Can you connect with them at social networking sites such as MySpace, Facebook, Direct Matches, Yuwie or Ryze? While you’re building credibility with the search engines, you can use online social networking and forums to enlist subscribers and readers for your blog.
- What can you write about in your blog or what other content can you offer that will attract them?
- Which keywords are they searching for that are relevant to your project?
- Which keyword searches can you realistically compete for?
- How will you position your products and brand yourself?
Asking these questions up front will make it possible to develop a coherent plan of action, and we will consider them in coming weeks.
You will need to choose a home for your blog, and that raises another key question.
Will you join a blogging community such as Blogger.com or Wordpress.com — or will you host your blog independently? I explain in Creating a Home for Your Blog why serious bloggers usually prefer to host their sites independently, and later we’ll look at what that entails.
And you will also need to evaluate your marketing and technical skills. Where are you on the learning curve? What will it take to get up to speed? Will you require some amount of personal guidance to get off to the right start?
Don’t miss any posts. Register, it’s easy, or subscribe to my RSS feed!
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May
22
Blog Marketing
Filed Under Favorite Posts, Networking and Marketing Strategy, Search Engines, blogging, communication | 3 Comments
Blogging and Personal Branding
Personal blogs and business blogs often factor into the marketing mix of both large and small businesses.
Blogging is interactive and enables direct communication with the customer or end user, a subtle form of business networking.
Blogging as a form of networking is not as direct as attending a meeting of a chamber of commerce or a small business association — nor does it replace online social networking at social networking sites. However, it builds credibility while refining and reinforcing the blogger’s personal or corporate brand image.
Search Engine Optimization
As I stated in Top Reasons Why I Blog, “Blogging endears me to the search engines.”
Search engines love to deliver fresh content to their clientele, and that’s what blogs are all about. Each blog post creates new content for search engines such as Google to sink their teeth into.
Search engines send visitors. Some of those visitors become readers and bond with the blogger and his or her company or cause.
Make Money Blogging
This bond presents opportunities.
For example, when bloggers are looking directly to monetize their blogs, as is very often the case in the world of blogs, their readers are often redirected to another site or to a sales page to purchase an endorsed product or service.
This transition is easy once a trusting relationship has been created between blogger and reader.
To learn how to make money blogging, my previous post, Blogs and Blogging for Fun and Profit, is a good place to start.
We’ll continue to explore the relationship between blogging and search engine marketing.
Be sure to visit the Blog Marketing and SEO Training page.
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Jan
8
Tell Your Story
Filed Under Networking and Marketing Strategy | 2 Comments
Do you want to draw people to you? The right people?
Then why clutter your social networking pages with high bandwidth graphics and auto-playing videos?
These may be a form of self-expression, but they slow your page’s download and do little to showcase you as a person.
Consider cutting down on your high-bandwidth low-content stuff. Instead write a meaningful story or provide important information about yourself.
What would you like me to know about you? Use your profile page to tell me.
Don’t miss any posts. Register, it’s easy, or subscribe to my RSS feed!
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