I was planning for months to execute this strategy. Unfortunately, scheduling conflicts and timelines did not pan out. However, I at least put together a pretty cool proposal on how this was going to be executed.
Hopefully this helps you out and if you have any suggestions, questions, or comments please feel free to comment!
26.04.2011
Finally, a subject that has no distinct answer. Love is perceived as a polarity of hate, which in this case, values it an extreme measure. This instantly creates stipulations around this unfamiliar subject.
When you see love in movies or television, you are being projected a vision of stability and limitation. Guarantees and rules do not enable anything to truly grow. At least, not like “network effects“.
I see love in everything. In this blog post. Behind the products of Facebook. Layered in the keys of Avicci‘s beats. How my mother thinks about me. During the creation of Prometheus Springs. The way I truly get excited when I see someone experience that same feeling. In preparation for TED talks from their speakers. In everything, but only in moments.
When thinking about love it is more balanced than anything. It happens without force and unfolds naturally.
Take all of the successful networks and new businesses that are growing exponentially. They are all companies that deliver love. Their intentions are to build products that people love. In doing so, employee’s make sure to build things they love. In turn, there is an exponential effect that we are only beginning to understand.
Writing this post about love to hopefully inspire you to look at everything with love, is simply love.
What is love to you?
For the last two and a half years I have been drifting here and there contemplating my post-collegiate blues. Destiny didn’t do me any favors as I graduated college in the spring of ill-fated 2008. I graduated with degree in Honors English, a 3.8 GPA, membership in too many Honor Societies to remember, and the recipient of various scholarships. This looked great on paper, but there was one thing I didn’t have — a clue what I was going to do with it.
I’m not going to bore you with my life story so here’s the abbreviated version. My mediocre LSAT score prevented me from pursuing law school — I had enough sense not to go in for student loans. From there, I ended up as a Ford model which brought me from Miami to L.A. My love of carbs and hostility towards the anonymity of being identified as “on model” led me to start looking for something more worthwhile to do.
The first day I moved to L.A. I met Christopher Prince Boucher. I remember that first night I said to him, “you guys are on to something here.” Destiny threw me a curve in 2008, but this time it was right down the middle. He and I instantly connected and over a few months and many fish tacos from Dukes in Malibu, I found myself lobbying for him to take me on in the company. Fortunately for me he did, and as of 2011, I was an associate of Follow The Prince.
Although I was thrilled to get involved in this world of innovative brand development via social media, I had a few doubts in myself. Mainly, I had a degree in English and only took classes in liberal arts. If you want to talk Shakespeare, Faulkner, or Nietzsche, then I’m your man. Excel, business models, and Marketing pitches however, I’m wasn’t so keen on. It was time to go back to school.
Fortunately, Chris was eager to take me on and was willing to help me learn the ropes. I became his protege, started devouring online content, and subsequently learned a lot in a short period of time — three weeks in the Mid-West while at parents house over Christmas. Since then, a month, I am well on my way to earning and deserving my title as associate. My metamorphosis from literary nerd to tech geek gives me confidence that anyone can learn any skill or profession independent of academia and university diplomas. All thats necessary is the desire and will to materialize your aspirations. Put yourself in the position to facilitate learning, read as much as you can about what niche market you want to enter. Believe me, unless you’re a total innovator, someone brilliant is out there blogging about your niche. It would be worth your while to listen to what they have to say. However, don’t just listen to anyone. Use tools such as Google, Facebook, and Twitter to search what blogs are most relevant, command esteem, and have the strongest following from their social communities. One of my favorites is Mashable, and they don’t have 2,173,579 twitter followers from spouting out crap.
Once you’ve selected your niche, try to penetrate that community – once againSocial Media and Blogs are a great avenue to do this. Look for like minded people in your area or even better befriend a guru who can teach and support you on your way rockstar status.When your ready, start off with something small that you can manage on your blossoming knowledge. I started by learn the art of building a marketing deck to propose an idea to a potential client. First thing to learn, was research. Learning everything I could about that potential client was critical in comprehending the vision and purpose behind our pitch. Like anything else, knowledge is power. My best advice in ascertaining said powerful knowledge is via the internet. Google is a verb — use it. If you have trouble, try different buzz words and eventually you’ll get there and probably end up with intellectual equity worth about three hours college credit. Use Google Reader to stay on top of blogs and current affairs within your niche.
In all honesty that was my main focus on my first deck. Chris and a talented friend of ours Joe Nash designed and built the deck accordingly what our targeted client was lacking in their current business model. I played the role of a sponge, sopping up as much information and technique I could. I sat there learning through proximity of their talent and loved every moment of it. Nash is nasty in all things adobe. The team used knowledge of the client, to take a subjective look at what it was we needed to deliver. Asking ourselves the question, “what do they need?” and “what problem do they have, and how can we resolve it?” After research, identifying how we could supply a service, we began creating a strong initial pitch deck which Nash created in Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator. It was slick, but anyone can build one nearly as good in powerpoint or a corresponding program.
What I learned while observing the Jedis at work is while building your deck you want to be as concise as possible, try to keep it under ten slides. One nugget of information I found in my own research was from the blog Read Write Web which says:
Guy Kawasaki’s 10/20/30 Rule of PowerPoint remains some of the most important advice: Keep your presentation to 10slides. Keep your presentation to 20 minutes. Don’t use anything smaller than a 30 point font.
Following this rule helps in building curiosity in your brand, and why the client needs you to make their business better. Tell them who you are, what you do, how you can help them by solving their problem, how long your project or service will take, and what you will need to do the job efficiently and properly. As far as I’m concerned, thats what’s important.
Keep it simple
Once you start on your first pitch deck, you might be tempted to build a complex, visually stunning deck, but that might not be in your greater interest. Stay within the scope of your clients problems, and your solutions. However, don’t ignore aesthetics, your deck should look good, but keep it simple. Not to be cliché but less is more. Your client wants a clear picture of what service you are providing and more importantly, what they’re spending their money on. In this economy, no one is buying colorful fonts and superfluous powerpoint pictures — they’re buying results.
Simplicity and clarity are key. Remember we’re talking about an initial pitch deck. So when you’re writing it, let the bullets fly. Use bullet points to give relevant, to-the-point words. Tease them. You want them to ask for more. From there, you elaborate, which manifests opportunity to blow them away and close the deal. If done correctly and with enough bravado, the client will be interested in you and your product, which will no doubt precipitate a second meeting where details can be discussed like monetary compensation — the fun part.
Wrapping this up, your first deck should be basic yet informative. Identify a problem and supply the solution. Listen to what your client is looking for and what they really need. Also, you should be having fun doing this. Keep your tone business but let the style reflect your company or whatever it is you represent. By not catering to anything unauthentic will ensure you’re enjoying yourself. If you care, by default, you will produce quality. This quality should speak for itself, while adding cred to your pitch (or your product) as you fill your client in on the details. Furthermore this is 2011, and we at FTP are all about transparency. The cutthroat days of trying to screw-over the competition have come and gone. Best them with superior product and customer service. Pay it forward and watch your business transform into long-lasting, meaningful, relationships.
Oh, I almost forgot. A tailored suit and hand made shoes from Italy wont hurt either.
Thanks for reading!
14.09.2010
Learn to manage your Facebook applications with this simple video tutorial.
It’s been a long time of yearning to video blog. So here we go!
Please leave your comments and questions below!
Since Facebook’s colossal milestone of 500m users, there has been a quite positive shift in the sentiment. People have been very doubtful of the social network, however their loyalty is uncanny.
Too many people think that Facebook is not an important place to promote business, other than having a page where people can “Like” a business. I beg to differ. (And that’s a blog post for the future.) In the meantime I would love to provide you with some simple tactics that will increase the awareness of and engagement with your brand through Facebook.
Do you have any examples of tactics that work on Facebook? Please let us know in the comments.
