jgreghenderson: life in manual focus

Reworked

Mon, 23 Aug 2010 15:00:54 -0500

I can’t shake the overwhelming feeling that there is something wrong with business today. Grant it I have been reading books like Linchpin and Rework, but they have been confirming my thoughts rather than introducing radical new concepts. The amount of excess and waste is astonishing and entirely ineffective.

A Story.

An organization I recently did some work with had 5 people in the office. This seems like a fairly waste free office on the surface right? Expect when you start going position by position. You had 2 low pay position, one a financial and one an analyst, a mid range marketing/communications person, a high paid operations person, and director.

Simple.

Except the analyst and marketing person each had about half a job to do, and worked closely with each other. The financial person and the operations person were the same way. The director did next to nothing. 5 positions could have easily become 2. So when I asked this organization why they had 5 the answer was because they had funding for 5, so they may as well use it.

Idiotic.

As a good friend of mine likes to say, just because you can do something doesn’t mean you should. Fast forward a year or so later and that same organization is looking at a financial issue. It seems their budget projections no longer match their requirements. Their solution is to add more people to the organization in hopes of generating more money. They want to shift product offerings and gradually abandon the things that have given them a strong market share to something that has yet to find an audience.

Cart before horse.

This seems to be a common problem I see. Companies get into a pinch and they decide to make radical changes. The first thing they decide is that whatever service or product that got them to this point must be wrong and needs to be dumped for something new. What new offerings do they choose? What they are interested in obviously. They fail to take the step to see if their customers want this new offering.

Man in the mirror.

The next step is to do one of two things, either grow rapidly hoping that more people = more money or remove people hoping that less salary = more money. The problem is that growth is rarely the solution, and the people you remove are typically (not always) not the problem. Sometimes it is that high paid employee who contributes nothing to the organization other than supervision. Bees can still live without the queen, but they starve without the workers.

What if?

What if you had an organization that had a solid product and worked each day on making it better? If that organization hired just what they needed and got the most out of each person, including the CEO/Owner? If before making a move, even small, they asked why, and is this needed? If this organization focused on making work beneficial to everyone (workers, owners, customers) would you want to be a part of it?

The Future of Work

Mon, 19 Jul 2010 11:46:37 -0500

Last week another example of how quickly and collaboratively ideas move thanks to the power of social networking, I unexpectedly found myself in the process of starting up a co-working location for Little Rock. To me this concept reflects where the future of work is heading. This is why I am interested in this project, and excited about the possibilities it brings to Little Rock.

To understand where we are going we have to, as often is the case, understand where we have come from. The idea of working for a large company in a big office building is a new concept in the history of the world, yet it is the only mass way of work that any of us know. However you only have to look as far as the late 19^th and even early 20^th century to see how this has not always been the case.

Historically people were independent workers. Individuals had various skills that they would sell out or trade other individuals in the community or general area. More successful independent workers would have a small business with a handful of wage workers under them, but by and large the corporate system that we understand today did not exist.

This all changed of course with the factory system, suddenly hundreds and thousands of people worked for the elite few who distributed wages and owned the company. The skilled independent worker became an unskilled factory line employee. You all know the story.

The factory system spread to ever area of our workforce. Sitting here now in my office I am a factory worker. True, I manage marketing and communications, but that is my widget that I build for the corporate structure. However if you are to believe Seth Godin in his book Linchpin, which I personally do, this system is about to change.

I believe the new system will look a lot like the old and forgotten skilled independent worker of the past. Instead of taking our skills to our neighbors however we will take them back to the companies we broke free from. Companies will essentially employ fewer and fewer workers, until all that is left are the people who own and run the place. We will work on contract, and we will be on contract for multiple companies at once. This system, I believe, works in the benefit of all. Companies assume less risk for workers, and workers will be less controlled by the fear of layoffs, firings and corporate bankruptcy.

The system will happen very slowly, for certain there will be bumps in the road, but more than likely we will never realize the transformation until we reflect back on the changes. In a sense it is already happening. I recently visited a company where they certainly do not use these terms, but it is exactly what they are doing. They review regularly how well the employee fits, how well they fit the employee and then they continue or discontinue the services. What really made it feel like this new system however was not the structure but the actual work environment. It looked very much like co-working.

The office was an open area where people worked on sometimes common tables. Most were working on different projects, but they would frequently discuss with others around them ideas on how to make each other’s projects better. This is the heart of co-working. See we realized something in working with others in a factory system. When a problem came up or new ideas were needed it was helpful to be in close connection with others to share ideas and brainstorm how to solve problems. This is the one thing that the previous system lacked.

My idea for co-working is just that. A friend of mine @Arlton has started a co-working location in Conway and looks to be very successful. I think this idea can be expanded on to serve more than just coders and designers, but any independent worker. With various types of course comes various needs, so what this will look like is still a bit of an unknown. But I am willing to figure that out.

If you are interested in keeping up with the initial exploration of a co-working site in Little Rock or want to get on the list to be a part of the interest meetings please follow @LRcowork.

Social Media Predictions, Twitter is not dying

Fri, 02 Jul 2010 11:17:01 -0500

Since everyone has been telling me it is the start of a new physical year I thought it might be an appropriate time for one of those looking forward post.

Recently at a conference which I did not attend a “social media expert” made the bold statement that Twitter will be dead in 12 months. I’ve been asked multiple times from people who have attended the conference what my thoughts are on this statement. The person went on to say that location networks, specifically Whrrl, would fill the void of Twitter, and that Twitter offers no conversation or relationships.

My initial reaction to this statement would be to simply say no, that is untrue, and walk away. Besides, the person who made this statement offers no rational reason why Twitter would go away. I however will not stoop to that level of unprofessionalism. While I may not be a social media expert, I do consider myself a social media professional.

Twitter will be dead at some point, or at least in the sense that MySpace is dead now. This however will not happen anytime soon. To understand why this is the case you have to look no further than MySpace and understand the pattern of death associated with a network of this type that has reached a substantial number of users. First there has to be a mass desire for something better or against a problem with the network. Second there has to be an emerging network that not only addresses those problems, but adds an unexpected benefit over the dying network. Third and finally the emerging network must gain enough popularity among early adopters to encourage average users to join the new network.

This process can take years because getting enough people on an emerging network to have it present a threat to an establish network is not easy. It took Twitter 3 years to reach a critical level of members, Facebook was 4 years. The only mass complaint against Twitter currently is the downtime of the service. I predict that with the inclusion of sponsored tweets, which finally gives Twitter revenue, the Fail Whale will be virtually gone in 6 months. There is no emerging network that fills the same basic category of Twitter and yet adds additional value.

My bold statement however is that Whrrl will be dead in 12 months, along with a lot of other location based networks. In location based you have 4 Square, Gowalla, and then everyone else. I predict that in a year Whrrl will either be forced to close due to lack of support, or be bought out by Gowalla. I also predict Twitter will at least try buy 4 Square and integrate it in some fashion to their new location based services. I think Gowalla has the potential to be the biggest player in location based services, they had a bit of a rough start. Gowalla had a rough start, but it has tremendous upsides over 4 Square and a Twitter based location service.

The larger thing I would keep an eye on however is Facebook. If you go through my steps above they have very clearly entered into the first step. Watch and see what Google does with its Google Me service. Google has had a very hard time breaking into social media, Buzz, Wave, and Orkut have been complete flops. However I think that they have learned from their lessons and might be bringing the real deal this time. With the strength of Google Profiles they could very rapidly over take Facebook. I see it happening in the next 2 years.

Oh, and Ghana will win the World Cup… Not sure about that last one though.

It is not About Social Media, Stupid

Tue, 25 May 2010 14:00:00 -0500

*Note: I’ll admit, I’ve been a little surprised by the response to my Practicing Social Media blog post. I’ve had more comments both in passing and through email that I ever expect. Like any good blog post of course it did make a few people mad, but the comments have been overwhelmingly positive. This was all originally part of a larger idea about social media that I had, so consider this post chapter 2.

I’ve watched over the last year or two as social media “experts” and companies have struggled and failed at social media. It is sometimes like watching BP trying to stop the oil spill. The problem is that this whole thing (which I will hopefully try to define) was never about social media. As soon as you try to establish yourself a social media “expert” or try to start a social media division of your company you have already failed.

Let’s return to the doctor analogy from last time. I am going to pretend that I am a cancer doctor. Now if I focus all my efforts on being the best in the world at injecting chemo into a cancer cell where does that leave me when a better and more effective method comes along? I’ve branded myself as a chemo expert, I’ve put all my eggs in the chemo basket, and suddenly I am more focused on the procedure instead of the intended outcome, which is curing cancer. Due to my expertise in chemo I am going to be slow to move past that, because I am the best in the whole freakin world at it. The reality is that my patients don’t care if I am the best or not, if there is a better more effective solution they are going to move toward using that, leaving me behind, and causing me to fail.

Now let’s say I turn the situation around. I am a cancer doctor most interested in the problem (cancer) and finding the best possible solution to reach my intended outcome of curing cancer. With that mindset I am going to continually search for better ways to reach that intended outcome. I will fail a time or two, that is certain, but in the strive to be an expert in the problem, not a specific solution, I will succeed.

Social media is the tool, it is our current treatment for an illness. Some companies and “experts” try to use it as a tool for the wrong illness. They have traditional marketing practices of bombarding potential customers with information in hopes to get a sell. That is like trying to treat cancer with an ice pick, it is going to hurt like hell and not do any good in the end.

Our ultimate goal however is a relationship. It is something I like to call Relational Marketing. My intended outcome is not to sell you anything at all, it is to form a relationship between you and me. The illness is that in mass marketing we have severed these relationships. I am not going to form a bond with Tony the Tiger any more than I am with BP. As soon as I find something better or you fail in some fashion I am going to leave you.

By creating a relationship you create loyalty. You feel like you are a part of the company, like your opinion matters. I fly @southwestair every chance I get. Have I had a bad flight with them? You bet, it is inevitable. However I know that if I have a complaint they will respond. They may not do anything to fix it, but I know that they care and will try to do better next time. On the flip side, I have no loyalty to United Airlines. I’ve never had a bad flight (been delayed but that is the airport), but I don’t feel a relationship to them. As a result I fly Southwest any chance I get, even if they have a slightly higher fare on the flight.

Social Media is a great tool for forming these relationships. It works even better in conjunction with other tools of course, just like chemo and radiation. By focusing on the tool and not the intended outcome of a relationship though quickly are passed by when a new tool comes out, and you never really reach your intended outcome because it is not the primary focus.

Be an expert in relationships. Try to connect with people. Try to strengthen those connections. Use the best possible tools for the job that are available. If you do that you will succeed an a much larger level than ever intended.

Fear of Social Media

Thu, 13 May 2010 15:18:40 -0500

When I was little I would get scared a lot at night. Boogy man, zombies, aliens, @andreasmalec’s Chicago accent… you name it when the lights went off it scared me. So what I would do is hide my head under the covers. By doing that I could pretend it didn’t exist, I felt safe and protected. Now of course my threats were imaginary (except Andrea’s accent), but I always felt the best way to avoid my imaginary fears were to hide from them and pretend they didn’t exist.

Some organizations take this approach to social media. They ban it, block it on the server and threaten to fire employees if they don’t stop blogging … everything short of physically hiding under the covers to pretend it doesn’t exist. Much of this fear is imagined. And just like me as a child, if there really is a treat in the room by hiding from it that zombie is going to eat my brains for dinner.

The National Weather Service (NWS) today reinforced a ban on social media and blogging. This lead to immediate removals of a number of blogs and social media accounts by employees of NWS such as Arkansas very own @wxmandan’s blog. This is certainly not the first organization to ban social media by its employees, and I highly doubt it will be the last one.

Their fear is that their employees will release information about local weather conditions before they are verified by NWS. They believe that by posting potentially false information that it will do … something, I still haven’t managed to figure that out.

Their fears are absolutely grounded in myth. What is the absolute worst that can come out of an employee distributing false information? An individual will be prepared for a non-existent threat? Is that not the whole premise of the early warning system?

Other organizations have this same problem. News organizations are worried about having stories go out that turn out not to be true (as opposed to all the retractions they have to make on a daily basis anyway), businesses are worried about secrets being leaked (as opposed to what is leaked by word of mouth), and government is afraid of the release of any information (which can be obtained anyway through freedom of information act). The vast majority of these, like that of the NWS are imagined threats.

The reality is that on the other side of the blanket that groups like the NWS try to hide behind there is a real world that moves on without them. The last major outbreak of severe weather in Arkansas proved this point. This was before the ban reinforcement and the most up to date information came by way of individuals updating each other about the weather. One of those individuals happened to be @wxmandan whose twitter post from that night were some of the most informative of the night.

See, what organizations like NWS and any others that try to hide from imaginary threats like this fail to realize is that the conversation is still happening. By removing yourself from the conversation however you have given up your power to move and shape this conversation. By hiding from your fears you let your fears run wild where real damage can occur. The imaginary threat has the potential to materialize and do real damage to your organization.

Buckets of Crap

Tue, 11 May 2010 14:05:18 -0500

To say that the last few years have been rough would be an understatement. The reality is though, that it is going to get a lot worse. Companies and organizations that went through (or worse) were started in the 90’s got a little spoiled. People would pay for stupid, worthless crap. Especially when it comes to B2B sales. Instead of trying to buy a quality product or service that would move a company forward, employees of the buyer’s just tried to spend money to make themselves look like they were working and contributing.

The truly sad thing is that it worked. You had companies who provided a bucket of crap selling to companies who could buy a bucket of crap and still continue to make profit. People spent freely and the bucket of crap continued to sell.

Fast forward to today. Your worthless employees who were buying buckets of crap and justifying that as a job are started to get weeded out. The sad thing is that there were a whole lot more of them out there than we expected. There are still some more to weed out truthfully. That is not to say that any employee laid off during this recent downturn is that type of employee, some of those had bosses that were this type of employee and instead of buying crap they pour their buckets of crap on someone else and stick around for a few more years.

This model doesn’t work anymore. I say it is getting a lot worse because the first round was the crap buyers. When consumers started not buying their un-innovated services and products because they have been filling it with crap for the last 10 years, they started going under. Now it is time for the second wave, those companies who have been selling the buckets of crap to other businesses that are no longer in business to buy their crap.

Here is a real life example. I was forced to work with a consulting firm by upper management. This firm is sort of a catch all bucket of crap firm. They try to do everything under the sun from HR consulting to marketing consulting, and are really good at none of it. They are hired in so that every other week I can sit in a room with them and tell them the progress I’ve made on a marketing plan (which is another bucket of crap to talk about for another day). What value does our $14,500 give us in return for this company that we have hired?

Businesses must be innovative and drive in new value added ideas, services and products if they actually want to survive. When it comes to buying a bucket of crap or making payroll, the businesses that they are selling to will make payroll and try to survive for another month every time. Instead though for the most part these businesses are not changing, but rather trying harder to push the same old services they did 10 years ago and they are going to fail.

Another example, people talk about print being dead. Print is not dead, print companies are dead. Print companies (by and large) refused to change business models. When the businesses they sell to start making budget cuts things like letter head show their big, ugly, non-value added, bucket of crap face. It gets cut. Envelopes get cut. That customer newsletter gets cut. The catalog that gets pushed out once a quarter of products gets cut because there is already a website. So slowly but surely the print company loses their B2B client. As more clients face shrinking budgets, the print company loses more clients. Soon enough by sticking to their safe tried and true business model they become a dinosaur. They are still alive, but the asteroid is coming.

The print company that decided to evolve however lives. And therefore print lives. That company realizes the need for 5,000 letter heads is declining so they switch to digital print that can run off 10. They see newsletters and catalogs going away so they change their company model to match what the client actual needs rather than what makes them feel safe. They suddenly become something different than a print company because print companies are dead.

This is not unique to print, many other industries will see a fallout over the next few years. Consultants, public relations, marketing, web design, advertising, and many others that sell to businesses that need evolution rather than buckets of crap to survive will find themselves going away.

Evolution is tough. But in times like this, it is necessary. Ask yourself if your business is constantly pushing forward to provide a better product or service that will add value back to your clients, or are you just selling them a bucket of crap and hoping they buy it anyway. I know I’ve been on both sides of this one, and chances are you know the answer even if you are not willing to admit it.

Location Matters - So Does Social

Tue, 27 Apr 2010 08:23:00 -0500

Last night I saw a local blog post by Brant Collins that was a response to a twitter conversation with a good friend @Tsudo. In it Brant expresses a very elementary understanding of location based social media that sadly I have seen other “social media experts” struggle with as well.

First you “experts” completely downplay the overall value to the end user. Thinking of location based media as a game is stupid. Yes those elements are there, and I will get into that later, but it is not the true value to the user.

The value is in being at a place and sharing it with friends and seeing where your friends are. It really is that simple and it really does work on a much deeper level. Yes, as an end user when I enter a place it is great to check-in and see others that I know there. I am likely to seek them out and visit. Also if I see friends of mine checking in at a restaurant that I have not visited or watching a sports game from a team I do not follow, I am more likely to check that out because they took the time to check in and let me know they were doing that.

Because of this is the reason I tend to side with Gowalla more so than 4square. I think Gowalla’s use of location based pins helps to give a better sense of where someone has been. Featured locations tell me when visiting a new city some places I should visit. Lastly I am a huge fan of the event checkins, because sometimes simply being at a place does not tell the whole story. If I were to check-in at the River Market on May 28th, that would not be the real story of why I am there, It would be the event of River Fest, or a specific concert.

Second, the real value back to companies lies in the fundamental principle of social media, that is the value of word of mouth. What businesses (at least should) be most interested in is not who visits, but the influence of those who visit. This is a real struggle for businesses and one I’ve dealt with personally. You can’t measure influence by a stat, only by long term growth. This is a common problem across all social media. The more you try to measure hard data the more you are going to fail. The value of influence and word of mouth trumps everything, all you can do is encourage it. Which leads to…

Third, everything else is just a hook. Games, badges, mayors, coupons… it is all just to encourage the end user to check-in and tell their friends. This tends to be a way to move a casual or new geo-social user into checking in. In my experience once a user gets to know the system all of this fades into the background. It honestly sounds like to me Brant that all you want is free shit, and if that is your whole driver in social media then you have a larger problem.

See the reason your pipe-dream of you walking into a place, it automatically knowing that you are there, and giving you something for free to encourage a further purpose tells me that you don’t get social media. “Social” here is the key word. It is not centered around you and your purchase, it is centered around your interaction with the world.

By having a platform that just automatically posted when you are somewhere it completely destroys the legitimacy of the platform. This gets back to influence and word of mouth. I hold value in check-ins because I know that the people I chose to follow took the time to inform me of their location. Now the experiences of those check-ins is not always positive, but with comments there is a way to share negative experiences as well. I wouldn’t think as much to just seeing where people are automatically, of course I hate it when people auto post every single time they turn on Live Stream too, so go figure.

Again I am no expert, I’ve expressed that over and over again. I am very likely wrong about something in this post. All I try to do is think less about what something means to me personally and more about the big picture. There are plenty of people who disagree with that perspective, but I like to think there is a little more to the word “social” than just me.

Practicing Social Media

Tue, 13 Apr 2010 13:43:11 -0500

Several years ago I had a good conversation with a friend going into medical school and I asked him a question that had always made me curious: “Why do doctors call it practicing medicine?” The answer has stuck with me for a while, an answer I find confirmation in from time to time by doctors who enter and exit my life. The answer was “Because the day you stop practicing is the day you fail to understand medicine”.

See, in medicine the world is constantly changing. Every week a new study or drug comes out that has the potential to shape the way a doctor treats her patients. Spend some time in any hospital and you will see a huge emphasis on continuing education at all levels of medical service. True, some people get to the point where they can become experts in a particular field, thanks to mind numbing research and dedication they because leaders in an area and define how others practice medicine. But even with them, the day they stop trying to push the edge is the day they suddenly fall behind.

I have a habit of calling people out about saying they are a social media expert. See I view social media much the way that I view medicine; in fact it is the story with any form of human interaction. You never learn all there is to know; the field is changing too rapidly for that to ever happen. The best chance you ever have to be effective at social media is to practice the art by constantly trying new platforms, reading new studies, and most importantly interacting with other people who are doing the same in order reassure yourself that you never have it all figured out. Secondly, and was the real story behind my mini-twitter rant, you have to actually use the damn thing constantly in order to understand it.

In med school your real hospital experience comes by working 12-24-48 hour shifts (even longer in some instances). Why? Because you have to be saturated in it to fully understand it. Social media is the same way. If you go weeks without sending an original (ie: not retweet) post, you are not saturated. If you are hearing about new services a year after they have been launched, you are not saturated. It is a lifestyle, not a conference that you are paid to attend.

Here is the general problem with people who think they are experts, once they believe they are an expert they stop practicing. I’ve been quoted a thousand times by now for my SoSocial intervention where I said “If you are an expert today, you are a dumbass tomorrow”. The reason is because you stop pushing the envelope, you stop trying to learn.

Yes you can carve out a niche, say Twitter or Gowalla, and learn absolutely everything there is to know about that one specific area. You are then a Twitter expert or a Gowalla expert. That is obtainable. But just like being a flu expert or an AIDS expert does not make you an expert in medicine, being an expert in a niche area or platform of social media does not make you an expert in social media.

A little help with twitpic of the year

Fri, 09 Apr 2010 08:54:55 -0500

So it is the last day of the Tweetie nominations and you are having a little trouble picking the photo of the year? I’ve had a few people mention my photos so I figured I would make it easy and pull out a few of my favorites. You can of course just browse through my twitpics at http://twitpic.com/photos/jgreghenderson

Here are my top 6 in order of favorite, click on the photo to pull up a large version and grab the URL:

1) The alley monster outside @TheRep:

2) This is actually the original stolen @capitalhotel pen photo

3) Trying to cheer my wife up after our bad baby news

4) Well dressed homeless guy asleep outside @ArkBusiness

5) @LRTweetup strikes again (at city fest)

6) Living the High Life @robbymatthew’s house

The slow painful death of Mr. Snowman

Thu, 18 Feb 2010 08:29:57 -0600

The slow painful death of Mr. Snowman

Measuring up

Wed, 10 Feb 2010 10:57:49 -0600

Measuring up

Sweet Home Chicago

Thu, 04 Feb 2010 08:58:55 -0600

So after 16 or 17 years, I am going to go back to visit Chicago. It doesn’t seem like that big of a deal, but for me it feels a little like a home coming.

I grew up relatively poor, mom worked as a dental assistant and a secretary, dad worked as a truck driver. Him being a truck driver though is the source of this particular reflection.

He worked for a manufacturing company in Little Rock called Munsey Products, they made small kitchen appliances. Dad’s job was to go and pick up the raw materials weekly to produce the products. Since he just made one trip a week usually when I was out of school I would ride along with him.

Early on he went to New York every week. I have very few memories of New York, all the industrial district where it was dingy and dirty. However they changed suppliers and started getting steel from Chicago.

I probably visited Chicago 100 times while he was driving there. Unlike New York we would occasionally drop of the trailer and drive around the city. We would go sit at the end of O’Hare and watch the planes come in, it felt like they were going to land on top of the truck. I remember several times watching a storm come in and the lightning striking the Sears Tower. All in all very positive memories of Chicago.

I’ve spent my entire life in the Little Rock metro, so it is a little hard to call any other place home. However I as far as cities go, I probably spent the second most amount of time in Chicago.

I’ve been struggling a bit lately, life has really started to drag me down a bit. I finally told Brandie that we just need to get out of town and away for at least a few days. I initially thought of Chicago, but then decided to change to some place new. However several friends all mentioned Chicago out of the blue that I should go to get away.

After giving it a lot of thought Chicago is exactly what I need. A return to the one place that I do not have a single bad memory. Sure I have some terrible ones with my dad, but they are not there. Right before things got bad at home between my parents my dad changed jobs and we stopped visiting the windy city. Chicago is the last unblemished city for me, I’ve visited a lot of places since those days and many were happy times, but I’ve carried baggage with me each time and not the kind you check at the airport.

My hope is that Chicago will stay that way. Even though I am using this to get a break from problems there finally is one additional unblemished thing in my life. I have avoided Chicago for a long time to keep it pure in my memories. I guess it is a little fitting that my first trip back is also our first trip after Brandie became pregnant.

Come on, baby don’t you want to go
To the same old place, sweet home Chicago

Responding to Situations with Social Media

Tue, 02 Feb 2010 08:52:00 -0600

I have two things lately that I am publically passionate about: social media and photography (I am equally passionate about politics but I keep it off the radar most of the time). Normally I reserve this space to express photography, my thought is that between my work with Tweetup, Southern Socials, and RefreshCA anyone who cares about my take on social media has heard it several times. Today however I wanted to take a brief moment to highlight something great in social media that probably went unnoticed yesterday.

Arkansas Business Publishing Group, who I am a big fan of, launched their inArkansas.com website. I personally think this is a great move by ABPG and will only further establish their dominance in central Arkansas print/web media. However ABPG broke the cardinal rule of website launches, they didn’t monitor it all day on the official launch. Now I’ve been in the web business for a while now, I’ve probably launched somewhere around 50 sites myself, and the rule is that no matter how good your beta and soft launch is tested, it will break and all fall apart the minute you show your face and tell people it is ready and open. There are many reasons for this that I will save for another day, but the fact is that it almost always happens.

Now ABPG has a very talented group of people surrounding this launch, Lance Turner, Chip Taulbee, Brent Birch, and Chris Earls to name a few, all who I know in some context and have respect for the work they do. However after seeing that the inArkansas.com site had been down for a couple of hours on launch day I sent a half joking tweet that said

“Anyone else just getting a message that says “It Works” on inarkansas.com? @ArkBusiness #InArkanFail”.

Believe me, I’ve been there and I’ve had it happen to me. What happen was one of the best moments in social media customer service that I’ve seen in a while. Jeff Hankins publisher and president of ABPG, and a guy who has way more to do than sit around and read tweets, immediately saw the tweet and had his guys fix the problem. He then publically responded apologizing for the problem after it was fixed, and this all took place in a span of less than 15 minutes.

For those of you who know me know that I am focusing on crisis communications as part of a master’s degree I am working on. This is a good example of how to manage even a small crisis effectively. Jeff showed very quickly acknowledge the problem, showed visible leadership as the head of the company, and took action instead of placing blame. In all this was a shining example of how to use social media to respond to issues, and why if you are not monitoring social media you should be.

Chances to Get Cool Prints and Help even Better Causes

Thu, 14 Jan 2010 10:22:34 -0600

Couple of Art related things coming up, a chance to get some great artwork and help support local causes.

Jan 21 Starting Early - Arkansas Repertory Theatre This will be a party at the Governor’s Mansion and included will be a silent auction. I have donated a nice 16x24 version of the print above. The print is done on metallic paper on a nice gallery style display. Cost of admission is $50. All proceeds from the admission and silent auction go to benefit the Rep and all the great work they do

Feb 14 St Margaret’s Episcopal Art Show This one will be an art show featuring local artist at St Margaret’s in Chenal. There will also be a dinner and other activities during the event. I will be selling this collection of prints. 25% of sales go back to support St. Margaret’s and their ministries.

In addition to these two art sale opportunities I will donate 50% of the proceeds from any print sold this month to Haiti relief efforts. If you are interested in purchasing a print visit my Flickr Photostream and contact me about pricing.

Seems like there is always a point in doing anything that you...

Tue, 05 Jan 2010 13:37:26 -0600

Seems like there is always a point in doing anything that you have to ask yourself “How much do I really want to do this? How dedicated do I want to be?”.

I made a decision to get serious about photography starting in 2010. I already had to ask myself that question this morning when I couldn’t feel my fingers this morning in the 13 degree weather.

Still the end result is worth it, the shot was more than excellent when processing I found a flock of birds had flow into the view, check out the larger version when you click on the photo. Dedication pays off sometimes.

Morning in Little Rock

Tue, 05 Jan 2010 08:33:03 -0600

Morning in Little Rock

Welcome to 2010, the Rebirth of Print

Mon, 04 Jan 2010 08:24:40 -0600

customxm:

Welcome to 2010, I think this is going to be a very good year compared to the one we just made it through. Few have had a worse year however than the print industry. Which is why I am a little surprised to be here writing this for CustomXM. See I grew up in the digital age, marketing directors like myself have basically killed print. In developing my skill I embraced the computer monitor, and swore off paper. I met Paul Strack from CustomXM and found some of the neat things he was doing merging technology with printing. I quickly realized that I was wrong to abandon print all together. Print is not dead, print is in the process of being reborn. The print we knew 10 years ago is dead, in it’s place however is something much better.

This blog will serve as a mix of things to help you understand this new reborn print industry. I will focus on some tips that I’ve been able to pick up, ways to enhance marketing through print, some case studies that Paul will share to show how other companies have utilized print, and some behind the scenes views of the print shop. With this my hope is that through a better understanding and some strong examples you will be able to enhance your marketing.

A first of the year post would not be complete without a list of New Years resolutions, so here are mine for marketing:

1 - Step outside of the box and do something completely radical to market my company.

2 - Give back as much marketing insight (both success and failures) as possible.

3 - Enhance the tie between my print marketing and online marketing.

4 - Find some way to incorporate dimensional printing.

5 - Find a better way to utilize social media as a communications tool.

So those are the areas I plan on focusing in this year. Why not drop a comment and share some of yours, I’ll even give the best few a very awesome 2010 CustomXM calendar featuring local photographers like myself.

-Greg Henderson

Large version on click through. So I decided recently to start...

Wed, 30 Dec 2009 14:04:08 -0600

Large version on click through.

So I decided recently to start getting up earlier, hoping that maybe I will get out and do some photography in the mornings.

Today started that, which was miserable. Cold and cloudy, no sun rise. I was just able to get a few off before it started to rain.

This is taken from behind Winrock International. The building to the left is Morgan Keegan, not sure about the other.

For Christmas we decided to tell our parents (and one...

Sun, 27 Dec 2009 14:00:00 -0600

For Christmas we decided to tell our parents (and one grandparent) that we are having a baby. We gave them a grandparent’s brag book as a gift. Here are their reactions to receiving the present.

2009: Hell of a way to end a decade

Wed, 23 Dec 2009 10:50:49 -0600

This is the time for reflection on the year that is almost gone. Every news site, blog post, and twitter update just about has some reflection. So I may as well go with the crowd.

Time Magazine recently called the ‘00 decade the worst in American history, and dubbed it the “Decade from Hell”. I certainly have to agree with them. However, for me 2009 was a hell of a way to end the decade from hell, and that is a good thing.

I believe I am fortunate enough to have seen my personal brand experience a large jump in 2009. From jobs, photography, honors, to just great people I have got to meet, here is how it looked from my side of the fence.

Jobs: When 2009 started I was working at a decent, but very low profile job at Perfect 10, a satellite equipment distributor in NLR. There I was wrapping up the creation of an online division of the marketing department. When I left in April I had been able to move most of the marketing online and hire an assistant to work under me. I took the job at Arkansas Manufacturing Solutions to create a marketing department here. With it comes plenty of challenges, working in a state government system is certainly not for me, but the organization has the potential to really help the state. Through it I have gone to a much more high profile position allowing me to be much more visible than before. With it I have learned how to market an organization not by generating sales, but by increasing influence around the state.

In 2010 I hope for more opportunities to grow professionally and become even better at what I do. This organization faces challenges that will require an even different take on marketing. In addition it appears that I will be for the first time be marketing on a national level rather than local or state.

Photography: I had always been interested in photography, but never put the time in to develop it. In 2009 I finally committed to photography and found out I was decent at it. I’ve received far more compliments than I feel like I probably deserve, but I take what I can get.

2010 looks like a big year potentially for my photography. I have agreed to work with two local non-profits to do photography for their events. In addition I have been asked to show my photography so far 2 times in 2010, and looking at others.

Honors: This one certainly blew my mind, I was named to the first list of Arkansas Business’ 20 in their 20’s. Looking at the others in the group I don’t quite feel up to their standard, but it shows that maybe I am doing something right.

I don’t expect anything like that in 2010, but who knows what will happen.

New Faces: The best part overall was the great people I ended up meeting in 2009. Friends from LR Tweetup, RefreshCA, and other groups have made a huge impact on my life. Little Rock has an amazing group of people living here, I am thankful for every one I have got to know this year.

At the same time I feel like I have just began to scratch the surface. In 2010 I hope we can grow some of these groups and get to know even more people.

There are other things that 2009 has brought me, not all of which I can say at the moment. It has been one hell of a year, and looking back it gives me hope for what is to come. Maybe there is something good in store for the ’10s.