High Five

The wired how to wiki is awesome.  You can learn how to do just about everything on this site.  Among this month’s featured “how to’s” is “how to throw the perfect high five.” The article is short, funny, and valuable if you are looking to improve your ability to slap some skin.  It features basic high five instructions, and alternative versions of high fives including “The Todd” - named for the notorious high-fiving, freaky character from the brilliant show Scrubs.   They even include this highlight clip from YouTube featuring the best of The Todd.

Just below that is a high five described as the “21 Jump Street.”  The picture makes me laugh, as it shows the rediculous huddle high five from that rediculous late 80’s show.  I actually remember people doing things like that, which is scary.  Better yet, they have the Top Gun high five too.  Oh, the 80’s…

Anyway, do yourself a favor and bookmark the wired how to wiki, or better yet subscribe to the feed and get updates as they appear.  Hive five to that!

High-Five - Wired How-To Wiki

Leverage LinkedIn with RSS

What if your number one competitor took away your number one client?  How much would you pay to know that they might be in conversation with one another?  Well, if you use LinkedIn and combine it with RSS you can discover a wealth of information about your friends, your clients, and your colleagues that might have otherwise gone unnoticed - and it will cost you nothing.

Sure, you read the latest updates part of your LinkedIn home page when you visit, but what about the rest of the time.  Certainly much is transpiring while you are away - some of which is important to know.  Here is an easy solution - RSS.  You can very easily use an RSS feed, which is built into LinkedIn, to track each and every change that takes place in your LinkedIn network.  Then you can review and catalog everything at your leisure.

It is as easy as this.

• Go to reader.google.com and sign up for an account
• Go to your LinkedIn homepage
• Look in the address bar and click on the little orange (blue in Firefox 3) box with the dot and 2 lines.
• Subscribe to the RSS feed.

Now, every time someone makes a change you will receive an update, which will appear as an unread item in your RSS feeds in Google Reader.  Now, you can quickly scan through the entire list of updates in one or two minutes.

As you proceed through them, you can mark items of particular interest with a star.  This might apply for people who have been promoted or changed jobs - at which time you might want to send along a nice note of congratulations.

This aggregation of information makes it simple to generate intuitive information from your LinkedIn Network.  Whether you seek competitive intelligence, personal information, or just want to make sure who are keeping up with who knows who, RSS makes it easy.  Did your #1 competitor just connect with your #1 client?  Using this method would let you know.  Is your best employee looking to leave your company?  Again, this might give you some clues if that is the case.  Best of all, you might find out early enough to actually do something about it.  Personally, I can tell you of several people currently in the job market simply based on watching my connections.  They have not contacted me saying “I’m looking” but it does not take much to connect the dots when you pay attention.  This give me an opportunity to help them without having been asked, and to discover more about what is going on in the market in the process.

RSS has so many uses, and using a feed reader like Google Reader, Bloglines, or others can save you valuable time and deliver important information to you that would have otherwise been missed.  Give this LinkedIn tip a try and see if you feel more connected to your network.  I hope this helps.

Beyond Borders: Faith and Action in the Arizona desert

My sister Rebecca was ordained as a minister last month.  (Congrats Beck!)  One of the projects she worked on while in Seminary was the production of the video Beyond Borders: Faith and Action in the Arizona Desert.   The video is described as “It’s a 25 minute documentary targeted to people of faith, about the work of volunteers on the Mexico/Arizona border who are on the front lines of the immigration situation.”

She worked hard to put this together, and it shows.  The finished product is thought provoking and puts a human face on the issue of immigration.  I applaud her for her fearlessness in going out into the desert to discover what is happening and then for sharing it with the world.  I was very moved by the piece, and thoroughly impressed and proud that my sister is responsible for its creation.

Beyond Borders: Faith and Action in the Arizona desert

Dropping Some Knowledge - Money Quotes from John Moore

Looking for some advice on how to build a successful brand?  Want to learn more about the importance of the customer experience?   Check out this post from my friend John Moore.  He lists “Money Quotes” from his book Tribal Knowledge - where he chronicles some of the wisdom he gleaned during his time at Starbucks.

John was kind enough to come to Dayton last year to speak at a PRSA meeting and then an AMA meeting.  Both presentations were incredible.  He shared so many fascinating stories about his life, and the lessons he has learned.  Both audiences were completely captivated by John’s creative presentation and compelling message.

I got to share the stage with him later in the day, when we addressed an auditorium full of students at the University of Dayton.  The experience was thrilling, and I hold him in the highest regard.  I also owe him a beer.

Get to know John Moore.  Check out Brand Autopsy and then pick up a copy of Tribal Knowledge.

Brand Autopsy: Tribal Knowledge Money Quotes
http://www.typepad.com/t/trackback/11572/30352818

David E. Bowman - Squidoo Lens Returns

I gave a speech earlier this week to the Dayton LinkedIn Group.  In the speech, I spoke about some easy ways that individuals can use the web to build their personal brand.  One tool I referenced was Squidoo - one of the most useful sites (or grouping of sites) on the web.

Squidoo is a powerful tool for sharing ideas, finding information, and building your personal brand. It is the brainchild of Seth Godin, one of the foremost thinkers in the areas of technology, business, and marketing.  The idea is that everyone is an expert at something, and thus should be able to use the web to help others by sharing that expertise.  Squidoo enables users to easily create a one page web site, called a lens, full of rich content, links, video, notes, polls, rss feeds, and other interesting items.  The beauty of Squidoo is that you don’t have to know anything about writing code to use it, and Google loves it.  It is easy to use, and provides in-depth information on hundreds of thousands of topics, and continues to evolve into a powerful research tool.

Well, many moons ago I built a Squidoo lens about me.  After all, I fugured that if everyone is supposed to be an expert at something, I should be the foremost expert on the subject of me.  It was up on the web for a while, but then I became dissatisfied with it.  As a result I took the site down for a makeover. Then, as happens, I got side tracked with other things, and the lens sat dormant.

Well, after giving my speech, there was a huge interest amongst those who attended in Squidoo.  Most had never heard of it, and many curious people have since emailed me for more information.  All of this reminded me that I still need to bring back the lens about me - and so I did.   View it here or by visiting http://www.squidoo.com/davidebowman.  The lens was very easy to put together, and offers the world a different look at me and some of my work.

They recently rebranded the “people” section of Squidoo - giving it the clever moniker of SquidWho.  Check it out, and let me know what you think.  Then, start building your own lenses.  Share your expertise with the world.

Some other lenses I have built include:

Dayton Marketing Community

Dayton Weblogs - which I need to update

The Epilepsy Foundation of Western Ohio - a work in progress

David E. Bowman

Voices: Episode 5 - Kate Early

In this episode I sit down for a chat with fellow board member and chair of the Epilepsy Foundation of Western Ohio, Kate Early. Kate is a dynamic leader, an active member of the Dayton community, and oh… by the way… she is also a practicing attorney with Dayton based law firm Sebaly, Shillito and Dyer.  Kate is a native of Beavercreek, and a member of the Dayton Creative Class initiative.

Listen in as we discuss some of the legal implications of emerging technology, especially as it pertains to marketing.  We also talk at length about the Epilepsy Foundation of Western Ohio, the upcoming mud volleyball event, the need for volunteers, committee, and board members, and other topics.

Thanks to Kate for taking the time to chat.

Podcast: VOICES

If I Was In Charge of Coke… or Pepsi

This week, I am offering a suggestion that can be easily implemented by either Soft Drink giant.  However, since I have named 2 companies, I will make 2 suggestions.  Fair enough?  Alright, here goes…

If I was in charge of Coke the first thing I would do would be to bring back real cane sugar.  I would eliminate High Fructose Corn Syrup from the core product, making the delicious beverage it once was.  The second thing I would do would be to package it in glass bottles.

Why?  First, anyone older than me can vividly remember what it was like to grab an ice cold bottle of Coke, and chug it down on a hot summer day.  Delicious.  I was reminded of this on Father’s Day.  For lunch, we went to City BBQ for a father’s day feast.  In addition to the delicious Carolina Pulled Pork Sandwich that I ate, I was delighted to discover that City Barbecue now carries icy cold, glass bottles of Cheerwine - a soda that is rarely found outside of the Carolinas.  Best of all, it was made with real sugar.  It was so delicious and refreshing that I went back and bought another bottle.

It got me thinking, why wouldn’t Coke and Pepsi take advantage of this.  After all, High Fructose Corn Syrup has plenty of detractors.  It has been suspected, but not proven (please no lawsuits), of contributing to diabetes and obesity.  More important to me, sugar just tastes better.  Perhaps in a blind taste test, I would never know the difference, but I am not blind.   I read the ingredients, and frankly I am predisposed to believe sugar tastes better.  (See Seth Godin’s All Marketers are Liars for more on that idea)

Now, surely I would not be alone in this predisposition toward all natural sugar and glass bottles.  Think of the aging baby boomer population, the largest segment of the population by the way, and how they might wax nostalgic for a good old fashioned Coke “like the singing international hippies in the commercials used to drink.”  No, soft drinks aren’t that healthy to begin with, but if they were less unhealthy - especially than that of competition, - that would be a selling point for some.  The glass bottles are reusable, and offer the sweet 10 cent bounty for turning them back in.  Being made of glass, which is made from sand, they would be more bio-friendly.

Because corn is in high demand relative to ethanol, the use of sugar would not be as cost prohibitive as in the past.  Thus, the switch to sugar might not even change the price.

So in summary, better tasting , more healthy, more eco-friendly product that would appeal to the largest group of consumers with the most disposable income on the planet.   That is what I would do.

How about you?  What would you do first if you were in charge of Coke?

High-fructose corn syrup - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Linking Up with LinkedIn Dayton

Today I was given the distinct honor of addressing the LinkedIn Dayton networking group at Champps in Centerville, Ohio on the topic of leveraging web based tools to build your personal brand.  I want to thank everyone who attended the event.  I hope you found it to be fun and informative. I know that I had a blast and made a number of professional connections in the process.

I was given this opportunity by responding to a call for speakers put out by Joe Durbin and Michael Morley, who organize much of the LinkedIn Dayton group’s actual face to face meetings.  This was the first breakfast meeting, and they sent out an email request for speakers, which I responded to immediately.  I thank them for allowing me to be the first, and hopefully not the last, speaker.

As for the content of the presentation, I offered my 2 cents on how to leverage the emerging web to build your brand and further your career.  I talked about my recent job changes, and the valuable lessons I learned about the importance of both knowing people, and more importantly, being known.  I have given similar presentations before, but have never related the personal history of how I even got into blogging and social networking relative to the crazy events of my life.

My message in a nutshell was this.  We live in a new age.  40 Years of “doing good work and getting a gold watch at the end” are done.  You have to take ownership of your life and your career.  Building a network plays a huge role in determining your ability to control your future.  This applies to all areas of life, not just finance.  The web makes it easier and more affordable to build your brand, and to leverage your strengths to create your future career.

I spoke about how individuals can leverage everything from Microblogs like Twitter and Plurk, to Blogs using Wordpress, Podcasts, Squidoo, Social Networks, and other free and easy tools to join the conversation and establish an area of expertise.  I tried to deliver enough explantion of these tools to make them understandable, without being too technical in how they work.  We discussed numerous ways to utilize LinkedIn, beyond just an online repository for contact information.  (Research Database, Employment Tool, Sales Information, Communication Vehicle, Information Source) In summary, it was a high level overview of a broad swath of web 2.0 tools that can benefit those who seek to leverage the web as a personal branding tool.

Blogging and social media have changed my life in so many ways.  They led me to my current job at LUCRUM - where we use blogs, social networks, wikis, and podcasts to build the company both internally and externally.  They have generated countless connections with other people around the globe, and put me in touch with some of the most brilliant minds on the planet.  I love what I do, and I am delighted that I not only get to do it, but that people are interested in hearing me talk about it too.

Thanks again to all who came to the event today.  If you have questions about anything I covered, or did not cover, in my presentation.  Please drop me a note.  I am happy to help in any way that I can.  I look forward to the next LinkedIn Breakfast, where I will get to eat, socialize, and enjoy watching the speaker.

David E. Bowman - LinkedIn

The Physics of Marketing - Second Law of Thermodynamics

The Second Law of Thermodynamics states that in a closed system entropy always increases.  That means that when you put Coca-Cola in a refrigerator, the Coke will get cooler - but the refrigerator will put out heat into the world in order to make that happen.  Yes the inside of the refrigerator is cool, but put your hand on the back, and you will get the idea.  To make the inside of the fridge cool, the heat energy must be dispersed out of the system.  Cold objects have low entropy, or disorder, and hot items higher entropy (think of those hot molecules wildly bouncing).  Heat does not flow from a cold object to a hot one, but rather from hot to cold until an even temperature is reached.  The Coke does not absorb the heat from the air in the refrigerator making the can warmer, but rather, as would be expected, the can gets cold.

I must admit that relating this concept to marketing has been a challenge, so I am really hoping to get some good feedback from the scientists out there.   Still, I will take a stab at it, and hopefully learn in the process.

The thought that comes to mind for me revolves around product launches.  A hot new product is introduced, like the iPhone.  With a good marketing campaign, this product creates tremendous disruption in the marketplace.and as people begin to use it.  Over time it becomes adopted, prices come down, and the heat generated by the product dissipates.  The product introduced disorder, which ultimately created change dispersed throughout our universe.  The iPhone will yield cheaper copy cat products, and the technology will eventually become integrated into the population. (Now this example assumes that the product is successful)

Know that because of this law, the heat of success will cool.  You had better be able to introduce further innovation if you want to remain viable.  Why has Apple had such a good run?  They have continued to introduce entropy into the marketplace with hot new exciting products.  iPod, Shuffle, Nano, MacBook, MacAir, iPhone, etc…

Another example that came to mind was the idea of maximizing your strengths as opposed to trying to focus on areas of weakness.  By focusing on strengths, you are more likely to produce change - resulting in entropy.  Focusing on doing what you do well, finding ways to do it better, and developing ways to add new and innovative value is similar to creating something hot and sending out that energy.  Weakness on the other hand, represents low entropy to me.  If you struggle in an area, chances are your improvements will be marginal at best.  Thus you are only going to go from cold to slightly less cold.  You are unable to impact change with the weakness approach.  Ultimately if you can generate enough heat with your areas of strength, you can make weakness irrelevant - because the final level of entropy will be elevated to a greater extent.   Be the best in the world at what you do best, and hire that best in the world where you are weak.

I would love to hear from you.  How would you relate the Second Law of Thermodynamics to Marketing?  Please share your thoughts on this by leaving a comment.  Educate me and the rest of the world with your brilliance.

Farewell Marley

Long before the book came out, there was Marley (my dog) and me.  I wanted to write a quick post to say farewell to Marley, who passed away earlier this week.  Marley lived a long and good life, and was a great dog.  I got her from a friend while I was in college.  She was a very rambunctious puppy, and his room mates were treating her very poorly.  He asked me if I would take her, because he just did not know what to do with her.  I agreed to take Shayna (her original name), and was rewarded with an absolutely awesome dog.  The first thing I did was change her name to Marley, the moniker by which she would carry the rest of her long life.

She survived countless college parties, lengthy excursions ( after escaping from my apartment ) through the Wright State Library and Rike Hall.  Miraculously, she always managed to make it back home - sometimes through the aid of friends who would help me search around campus for her.  Sure, she could be a challenge at times, but she was always a loyal and loving Beagle.

Through many of my ups and downs, Marley was there.  A loyal companion.  Later in life, as work forced me into jobs where I needed to travel extensively, my parents adopted Marley.  This arrangement quickly became permanent, as my mother and father decided it was nice to have her around.  They didn’t want to give her back, and she had it made in the shade.  So as a result, I got to see Marley plenty, and my folks got to enjoy many years with her too.

In recent months Marley’s health began to deteriorate, as tends to happen with old dogs.  Still, she lived a long and full life of 16 years, and she taught me so much in the process.  Marley, wherever you are, let me say to you one last time “good girl.”  You were a great dog.

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