Author Archives: Jason

Social Media instead of Living Life

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Social media is… funny.

I wrote two books on social media. I train people how to use (mostly) LinkedIn. I talk about how job seekers can use these tools, and I talk a lot about personal branding, whether it is online or offline.

I’ve been on these tools for years. I’ve had heavy-use periods, and light-use periods (right now I’m going through a light-use phase).

I’ve seen people become consumed with social media, whether they think it is going to be the silver bullet to end their job search, or get them gobs of new customers, or just find a friend or share stuff… social media has become too-consuming.

Here’s a clip I found on TechCrunch where a comedian who has made over $.5M in one test/campaign using social media shares his thoughts on how we use it.

Some of my favorite parts:

Um, I don’t have any favorite parts.  The entire thing is a favorite.

So where does social media fit in? It’s a TOOL.

How can you use it as a tool, instead of YOU being the tool (see #4 here)??

 

Functional Design (from Sexy, Functional, Easy)

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Today on my JibberJobber blog I wrote about three critical elements of good design: sexy, functional, easy.

I’m sure many books have been written on each of these three things.

I want to share a quick thought about FUNCTIONAL.

Functional doesn’t mean LOTS OF FUNCTION.

It simply means that the software (or widget) has to do the job.  It has to work.

Some functional software will be overly complex.  Common example: Microsoft Excel.  I’ve heard many people say they use less than 10% of the features of Excel.  Most people have no clue what a Pivot Table is in Excel, or how to create or use one.  It is part of the 90% that people don’t use.

Other software/applications are super-easy (from the user’s perspective).  Think Flickr: simply posting pictures.  Or Slideshare: embed powerpoint presentations online (on their website and/or from my website).  PRWeb: post press releases and have them distributed.  The decision to use a less-functional application is quick, since there aren’t a lot of factors to think about.  Do I want to blast my press release out? Yes or No.

JibberJobber has a lot of complex functionality because managing relationships, and the job search, and networking, and follow-up, is a very complex process.  We try to make things simple for the user, and hide the complexity on the back end.  Sometimes we do a great job at that, other times we are lacking.

The more functionality a system has, the harder it is to get customers, educate them on the why and what of the system, and turn them into users.

We want the “easy button” in software, which works sometimes, but not all the time.

Finally, separate function from functionality.

Function = it has to work well.

Functionality = how many things it is doing (the complexity of the system)

Why Write a Book?

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I got an email from a friend this morning and she was talking about the books she has inside her that she has thought about writing.  She’s wording about the process: writing, editing, revising, etc.  She didn’t mention PUBLISHING, which should be at the top of her list (although easy to resolve).

In my response to her I said:

“The bigger question is, why do you want to write a book?  Is it to sell the book, or get speaking engagements, or to be known as an expert?”

Let’s break that down:

To make money selling books: Everyone says you don’t make money selling books.  I’m here to tell you, that is not accurate. People make money selling books.  I’m one of them.  Over the last 4ish years my royalty checks have surpassed one year of what I used to make as the general manager of a software company. It’s not enough to live on, but it is a great supplement to my other revenue streams.  I’m expecting the book I’m working on now, 101 Alternatives to a Real Job, to sell a lot.  Each sale will be profitable. I will make money selling books.  And then I’ll get the benefits of the other things listed below.

To get speaking engagements: I told my publisher I had no interest in speaking (or consulting).  Then, a few weeks later, I was offered $5k plus expenses to sit on a panel interview at a conference.  In less than one second I decided that HECK YES I was a professional speaker! Since then I’ve been paid a number of times to speak at conferences, do training for companies, on webinars, etc.  I don’t know the exact figure right now, but since I started speaking I’ve made more than six figures as a professional speaker.

To be known as an expert: I had no idea that writing a book on LinkedIn would make me a “LinkedIn Expert.”  Sounds silly, I know, but that’s not why I did it.  I did it to get exposure for my company (JibberJobber.com).  That worked, but a major side-effect was that I was known, world-wide, as an expert and authority on LinkedIn.  Will being known as an expert help you, somehow, in your career, even if you don’t care about book sales or speaking or consulting?

To just get it out of her mind, and off her bucket list: This is more of a vanity play than anything else… not that that’s bad, but there’s no real reason to do it, other than to say you are an author?

If you have a book in you, and it is just nagging at you to get out, why do you want to do it?  Is it one of these four, or something else?

Developing Mobile Apps: Need To Know

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I am regularly asked about developing web apps, like JibberJobber, or mobile apps (which I don’t have experience in, but am interested in). I found a really good post on Mashable titled 8 Things You Should Know Before building a Mobile App.

Lots of interesting tidbits in there…. the one that all my buddies need to pay attention to, first, is this:

Making an app will cost you, at the very minimum, around $10,000. This is for a super-simple program — none of that fancy enterprise or social networking jibber-jabber. Even still, any app worth its weight in code will likely cost you closer to $20,000.

Yes, you can do it for less, if you are a developer.  If you aren’t, get out your wallet.

And remember, there’s maintenance… p0tentially lots of maintenance.

Website Design: What’s Important in Design

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I’m no design expert (you can see that from my sites), but I’ve recently been working with designers on major overhauls of my stuff.  Last night I was in meetings with a team for a new project and I had a personal epiphany of what makes a site awesome.

After a couple of hours, I narrowed it down to three components:

Sexy: It must look cool.  It has to look modern, and have current elements of design that don’t make people think – wow, that was so last decade!

Functional: this is where my applications have always shined… even though they didn’t look very good, they have always been extremely functional.

Easy: If it is not easy to do a “thing” (like add a new record, etc.), then people won’t use it. I tried to use financial software for a while but it was just to dang hard, and I gave up.  People will give up if it is not easy and intuitive, no matter how complex your process is.

How would you grade your offering (or design) on those three things?

Which is more important than another?  I have focused on funcational, then moved towards easy (there’s still a lot of work to do), and have neglected sexy.  But sexy is coming in the next little while… which means the next task is to focus on easy.  Oh man, it’s going to get good 🙂

Reid Hoffman: Ten Entrepreneurship Rules for Building Massive Companies

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Brilliant post by Reid Hoffman.  Sounds like simple stuff, but I’ve read and reread and asked myself where I am at on each of these 10 points…

Ten Entrepreneurship Rules for Building Massive Companies

Are you an entrepreneur, or aspiring entrepreneur, or business owner?  Read the post.

And then read this: Analysis for Continuous Delivery: Five Core Practices

Brilliant “About Us” Page

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Have you seen a really cool About Us page?  Something that is really about the company, and with personality?

Look no further than GaryVee’s Vayner Media company’s About Us.

The abnormal starts off with a picture of everyone on his team.

That’s cool enough.

But it gets brilliant… mouse over each of the pictures, and you see PERSONALITY!!

I love what Vayner Media is doing here… they are showing they are normal people with all their pictures, and then showing personality just seals the deal for me.

AWESOME!

 

Camille Carboneau Roberts on Screen Sharing Technology

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One of my favorite techie colleagues is Camille Carboneau Roberts, who specializes in in resumes (and especially federal resumes).  Camille always has great insight into techno-geek stuff.  She wrote in about her favorite screen sharing software/systems, and gave me permission to repost here.

I’ve been using GoToMeeting, GoToPC, and GoToWebinar since they first came out. I’d have to say for at least 12-13 years. So long ago, that the price I pay per year is not even half of what they charge now because I set it up to renew annually. I do get my money’s worth because I use it for training-software, social media, and on occasion 1:1 with clients on their projects.

However, now, I use join.me for the quick individual sessions. Clients don’t  always want to download the software even though it only takes about 2 minutes and join.me is just really simple to use. I also use it to “remote” in and do computer/file/software fixes.

There are hundreds of others that work well including:

WebEx.com

Glance.net

Skype

TeamViewer.com

Mikogo.com

Freescreensharing.com

CrossLoop.com

and a small drum roll:  Google+

There has been Remote Assistance built into the last few versions of Windows, but not a lot of people know about it… and it is a bit buggy if you aren’t tech savvy.

If you are looking for simple, you can’t beat join.me.

Thanks for the list Camille!

Speaking Testimonial: Not too shabby :)

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It took me three months to finally come to terms with the worst professional speaking engagement I’ve had of my life.  It was really, really bad. I blogged about it here.  I almost gave up and stopped speaking completely.

I did pretty good last year, brushing off the dust and getting back into a groove as a professional speaker.  I guess what I really did was get some confidence back.

Last month I spoke 13 times in 4 days, and it was awesome.  The 12th presentation I did was to the National Speakers Association chapter in Minneapolis.  It’s always scary to speak to professional speakers because I feel like they are critiquing my style more than listening to my message.

But I did it, and it went well.  How well?  Here’s the feedback I got from Gaye Lindfors, president of the NSA Minneapolis chapter:

You hit a home run out of the ballpark this morning.
Your content was relevant and helpful…
Your presentation style was engaging…
And you sent us home with ideas we can start using today.

It was fabulous.

Thank goodness for good people to help us know that we are doing alright!