Wyoming Entrepreneur Blog

Amazon's Top 10 Leadership Lessons

I just read an article the April 23, 2012 issue of  Forbes article, George Anders talks about Jeff Bezos’s “Top 10 Leadership Lessons.”  The article is well worth reading, but to summarize here they are.  Jeff Bezos, the founder, president, chief executive officer (CEO), and chairman of the board of Amazon.com.   This is a guy who walks the walk and has created one of the most innovative and game changing companies ever. 

1)       “Base your strategy on things that won’t change.”  In Amazon’s case this means that to sell more things, offer wider selection, lower prices and fast and reliable delivery.

2)      “Obsess over customers”.  When you have a meeting of the important people in your company who’s missing?  At most companies the answer is “the customer”.  At Amazon, the customer is always the  prime consideration.

3)      “We are willing to be misunderstood for long  periods of time”.  Most companies expect success in short order.  Bezos is willing to stick with a plan for a long time if it makes strategic sense and if there is a good long term payoff.

4)      “There are two kinds of companies: those that try to charge more and those that work to charge less.  We will be the second.”  Most companies talk about holding down costs, but Amazon lives for frugality.

5)      “Determine what your customers need, and work backwards.”  At many companies products flow from the engineers and reflect their tastes.  At Amazon, the desires of the customer are considered first.  If the customer doesn’t like something, then Amazon gets rid of it.

6)      “Our culture is friendly and intense, but if push comes to shove we’ll settle for intense.”  At Amazon results and data count more than building a friendly culture.  I’m not sure I agree 100% with this idea, because I think a friendly, cooperative culture has huge dividends, but it is hard to argue with Amazon’s results.

7)      “If you want to be inventive, you have to be willing to fail.”  Lots of books and experts say this, but Amazon has lived it.  They have had numerous failed initiatives, but they learn from them and move on.

8)      “In the old world, you devoted 30% of your time to building a great service and 70% of your time to shouting about it. In the new world, that inverts.”  In this age of viral videos, social media and consumers who talk about their experiences, the old way of advertising is dropping away. Instead you need to work with your customers and get them involved in your company.  Word of mouth (or keyboard) really is key in today’s world.

9)      “Everyone has to be able to work in a call center.”  Amazon managers, including Bezos, work at least two days a year in the call center handling complaints.  Does your company president?

10)  “This is Day 1 for the Internet. We still have so much to learn.” Bezos said this in 1997.  It is still true today.  Just look at the number of companies that have come and gone since 1997.  Amazon is still here.

The lessons of Amazon and its success have bearing on us here in Wyoming.  After all, JC Penney started in Kemmerer.  Who’s to say some Wyoming company won’t be the next Amazon?  What do you think? Are these a good set of rules for today’s company?

Your Company’s Name – It’s Where It All Starts

I’ve had a number of clients over the years ask me why their company never shows up on search engine results.  There can be any number of reasons why search engines aren’t “seeing” your website.  However, I’d like to discuss one that often times is missed in the rush to “optimize” a web site.  A key reason for search engine invisibility can simply be the name of your company.

When Google looks at a search term, it tends to first think of it as a brand before anything else.  Ann Smartly, writing on the MarketingProfs website (www.marketingprofs.com) gives an example of the results for the term “Armstrong”.  She indicates that most people would think of “moon”, “space” or “Tour de France”.  Most people would be wrong.  Google shows “Armstrong Flooring”, “Armstrong World Industries” and “Armstrong One Wire (an internet service).  The astronaut and the bicyclist follow these “brands”. ; As Ms. Smartly says, “Google seems to favor brands and is likelier to suspect that your intent is navigational instead of informational (go instead of know).”

One way of winning the war is to instead of fighting a battle against multiple opponents; try to make your brand name unique.  This can be challenging if you have a common name.  “Jones Consulting” would be a pretty poor choice.  There are a lot of companies with that name out there.   Renee Jones Engineering Consulting would be better, but with such a common name, you might need to look for a more unique usage.  “Rock Springs Engineering Consultants” would, as I write this, probably come up first in Google as there are no companies showing up with that name. 

The idea is to become the dominant interpretation of the combination of words in your company name. Google suggests that if you can make your name and brand stick together, you instantly become a dominant interpretation.  Using this concept, a company called Renee Jones Mining Engineering would likely rank number one on Google.

So there you have it.  Before you worry about optimization of your site, and certainly before you sign incorporation papers, spend some time searching names on the internet.  A unique business name can be an important first step in achieving online visibility.

Have you had problems naming your company?   Do you have a great name?

Website Usability: Keep it Simple

One of the most common problems on websites, and one of the most easily avoidable, is usability. Usability encompasses many aspects of a site: organization, ease of navigation, visibility of important information, loading speed, etc. Basically, anything that affects how somebody interacts with your site (and how easy that interaction is) can fall under the "usability" umbrella.

There are many ways to improve a site's usability, but I've included three basic tips below that will give you a good foundation on which to build each page on your site.

• Don't try to fit too much information on a single page. A lot of times, you'll have so much great information to share that your first instint will be to put as much as possible on each page. Resist this urge. Limit the textual content on each page to a few short paragraphs at most (pages that require too much scrolling actually get abandoned pretty quickly). Highlight the most important points about that page's topic and don't oversaturate the page with a large amount of text that people won't read anyway. If people spend more than 30 seconds reading text on a page, you're lucky. Keep that in mind when creating content on your pages.
• Keep the navigation bars on every page consistent. Make sure that your navigation bar always stays in the same spot on each page and contains the same links. It will only serve to confuse your customers if they visit a page and try to navigate elsewhere only to find that the navigation bar has moved or has new links in a different order.
• Keep images to a minimum whenever possible. It's no secret that alluring images and graphics can enhance a website's aesthetics, but too many of them can have a negative impact on a site's loading speed. Above all other usability issues, a slow loading speed can be the quickest way to get somebody to leave your site. Images are fine, but make sure their file sizes aren't too large and they aren't causing your site to load slowly. Finally, avoid Flash animation as much as you can.

In addition to these three basic tips, you can always find checklists to use to make sure your site's usability is functioning smoothly. A simple Google search for "website usability checklist" will get you started with plenty of options.

Why Use Social Media?

Increasingly, many consumers are using social media channels like Facebook and Twitter to discuss companies, products and experiences with their friends and peers.  Monitoring what people say about your company, your service and your products is an excellent way to find out what you’re doing right or wrong. 

Consumers are also using these sites to research buying decisions.  If you are being discussed, it’s probably a good idea if you are part of the discussion.  A recent survey by ROI Research asked social network users the reasons they use social media to discuss products and services.  The table below shows some of the results:

View this photo

The study points out that when consumer voice complaints using social media channels, they tend to be in the areas of household products, telecommunications and healthcare.  Sports-related brands, magazines and newspapers and alcoholic beverages tend to receive relatively low levels of complaints. 
Would you refuse to discuss your products and services with a customer who came into your store?  If the answer is “yes”, then social media is probably not for you.  However, if you refuse to talk to your customers when they are trying to tell you what they like and dislike, then you may find it very challenging to be successful.  However, if you are interested in understanding how your and your products or services are perceived by the people who pay your bills, then social media can be a valuable tool and a way to connect with your customers.

No matter the industry, your customers are using social media and the web to research and discuss you.  If you want to be part of the discussion, you have to enter the conversation.

What have been your experiences with social media and your business?

With All of the Abilities of Social Media Are Websites Necessary?

Social media has exploded over the past several years.  In a listing dated August 17, 2011 showing the most popular websites, Facebook at number two is only topped by Google.  YouTube is third, Twitter ninth, Linkedin is 13th and WordPress 18th.  I’m pretty sure that our WyEn.biz isn’t in the top 1,000 and I guess that yours is not either.  So why maintain a website in the face of the barrage of social media?

The reason is simple.  Handling all of the options available to market your business on-line is a huge challenge.  Customers are faced with an absolute deluge of information and data, and if you want to help them, they need a central location to go to act on the interest that all of the social media efforts you may be doing has generated.  Social media is changing rapidly and social media sites come and go.  Your website can be a source of stability for both you and your customers.  Your website is where customers go when they want to get detailed information about your products and services.

Another reason to maintain your site is that YOU control the content.  Social media by its very nature is uncontrolled and you can present the story you want customers to read and address any problems on your terms.  This doesn’t mean that people won’t look you up and confirm your information on social media sites, but it does mean that in at least one area you can manage the discussion.
A final reason to keep your website is to avoid limitations.  Facebook, Linkedin and MySpace can all have e-commerce tools added in.  However, these tend to be limited in terms of layouts, size and content.  With your website, you can tell your story your way and be much more creative and unique.

In today’s world social media is a vital part of the marketing mix for any business, but don’t neglect your homebase – your website!

Are you using social media in conjunction with your website?  Have you decided to eliminate your website altogether?  If so how is it working?

Password Management Mania

If you are like me, you have exceeded more usernames and passwords than you can possibly remember. Just generating a password is frustrating. Hopefully you are not using the same username and password for every site you log into: social media sites, banking, credit cards, your favorite online retailers i.e. Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble, L.L. Bean, etc. If you are, then you need to change that practice quickly. As you can imagine, if somebody figures out your username and password on one site, they can access all of your sites. Also, don’t use names or numbers that a hacker can guess or can easily find the information (i.e. your children’s names, pet names, addresses, birth dates, etc). Don’t make it easy for someone to access all of your “secure” online sites.

What are you doing now? How do you remember all of those passwords? Do you keep a little book with all the information written down? This is not a great idea. You can lose your book, or leave it where someone can peek and copy the information. Maybe you have a file on your hard drive where you have spent hours constructing a table and listed each account and the respective username and password. Not a good idea either, especially, if your computer is a shared computer at work, at home, or if it is stolen.

I would encourage you to consider using password management software.  A few popular tools include Roboform, 1Password and KeePass. The software when downloaded is stored on your computer and/or on a USB and in some cases on a server. You can either purchase software or try free software. Basically what these services provide are encrypted database templates to safely store information. Other common features include password generators and automatic log-in to your account urls. You will only need to remember one master password, but make sure it is a really strong password. Check out this article from Microsoft on creating strong passwords: http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows-vista/Tips-for-creating-a-strong-password.

Don’t know where to start? Ask friends what they are using or, check out reviews. I usually google keywords and go from there. In this case, I googled “password management reviews”.  I also check out recommendations from sites I trust, for instance Mashable.com. If you are currently using a password management tool, share your experience.

Attended a virtual conference recently?

For the month of May I attended a conference on Social Media. Yes, an entire month of sessions about social media presented by amazing speakers and opportunities to network with people from all over the world. How do you attend a conference for an entire month? It was a unique conference as the entire event was implemented virtually, utilizing social media sites/tools for presentations and networking. Michael Stelzner, author of “Writing White Papers” and the founder and executive director of the online magazine, SocialMediaExaminer.com, was also the person behind the Social Media Success Summit of which I was a participant.

Virtual conferences are an intriguing idea to me. Virtual conferences eliminate travel, hotel and various other expenses associated with conference traveling. They allow you to participate from the comfort of your home or office. You get the front row seat, so to speak. The presentation is clear, you can ask questions, receive handouts or links and network with the speaker. Maybe the most wonderful benefit is I didn’t have to run to the next session and fight for a chair and feel exhausted at the end of the day. I was able to focus on the speaker and really listen to what he or she was saying.  Pretty amazing! The 2011 Social Media Success Summit fueled the excitement for me to chair our Virtual Women’s Business Event scheduled for March 2012 (which is also Women’s History Month).

Thanks to our state director, Diane Wolverton, our organization has made a commitment to have a presence on many social media sites and assist Wyoming small businesses as they market and set-up “shop” utilizing social media. Diane wrote a grant and received funding from the Small Business Jobs Act to implement several special projects and one of those projects is the Virtual Women’s Business event.  Consider this the first public announcement.  Congresswoman Cynthia Lummis is co-sponsoring this event with our organization; Wyoming Entrepreneur. We have a vibrant and talented group of professionals working on the committee. Visit our website: www.wyomingentrepreneur.biz and link to our many social media sites to track our progress.

Have you attended a virtual conference? Tell us about your experience. 

Social Media Meets Corporate Ethics and the Law - Part 1

John W. of Casper asks, “As my company increases our use of social media as a marketing strategy, I find myself encouraging my employees to participate on social media sites as a work activity.  How do I determine what is ethical in terms of how employee time is spent online and what is expressed?”

The Problem 

Every day, more and more people are actively participating in online social networks.  Statistics show that over 80% of Internet users participate in a social networking site.  These networks are about communities, collaboration, and user-generated content.  Not only is the size of the social networking audience of interest to businesses, but the facts that information moves instantaneously and across global boundaries are also significant.  In this new “online, social world,” business reputations may be defined by customer opinions and ratings.  Companies that formerly feared the idea of social networking are embracing these sites to utilize for lead generation, employee recruiting, branding, customer service, and other typical business marketing functions.  

The use of social networking in the workplace raises many new and unique legal and practical issues for businesses who want to harness the benefits of increased employee participation in social networks, while avoiding the pitfalls.  On one hand, unregulated employee use/misuse of social media can result in an employer having to deal with unprofessional, and possibly illegal, actions by employees.  On the other hand, employers that enact tough restrictions may violate federal or state electronic monitoring laws, or laws relating to legal, off-duty personal conduct.  To navigate this minefield, companies are adopting official policies for social media usage, while the courts are simultaneously making rulings about the legality of those policies.  

Let’s examine some of the issues that may arise.  Decreased work productivity due to time spent online is one obvious problem.  Legal pitfalls, such as the possibility of an employee revealing confidential or proprietary company information in a social media post, are also a concern.  Another possible issue is a supervisor or employee posting discriminatory remarks about the company, a co-worker, or a company product on his/her Facebook page. Online harassment is an undesirable possibility.  What about an employee who engages in criminal conduct using his/her employer’s computer?  As companies flock to use social media outlets for marketing purposes, they must consider how employees can put them at risk and how to protect themselves.  The best solution is probably for businesses to adopt a set of clear, written social media policies that are consistent with their organizational culture.  

See next week's blog for more information about social media policies.

Promoting Your Business Online - What is Social Media?

By Jason Kintzler
We live in an unprecedented time. You, as a business owner, now have tools at your fingertips that allow you to connect your services or products directly to your customers and customers-to-be. Better yet, it doesn't cost much to make an impact. This fundamental shift is called, social media. Simply put, it's blending social interaction with technology. The cool part? New tools exist that can help you interact with your customers directly, instead of spending thousands on old advertising models. Tools like email, Twitter, Facebook and PitchEngine make cultivating of networks and sharing content more efficient.

These new channels allows organizations to interact directly and individually with customers and influencers. Organizations that do this well will naturally prosper (e.g., New Belgium Brewing, American Red Cross, and GEICO). The internet has brought us unprecedented transparency. Your ability to reach out directly to your consumer means no longer relying upon others to tell your story. The story is now yours to share, complete with all the passion and experience that you bring. After all, doing good business shouldn't depend on your ad budget.

Jason Kintzler is a former journalist turned PR pro. Jason is Founder and CEO of PitchEngine, in Riverton, Wyoming. Pitchengine has 30,000 brands ranging from Fortune 500 to independent business owners using the platform to promote their business online. He maintains a blog at: jasonkintzler.com and can be found on twitter at @jasonkintzler.

The Internet and the World - an introduction

By Anya Petersen-Frey, Regional Director, MBA, PhD (abd), Certified Global Business Professional

Recently, Amy in Burns asked me about tips to use the Internet to explore reaching the global market for her retail product.  Below is just a small initiation into this topic but it is a starting point. 

First let's review the value of considering the worldwide market.  Anne Kennedy, in an article for Web Content Today (January, 2011 from http://www.wilsonweb.com/seo/kennedy-global1.htm),  offers the following data:

• 86% of the people using the Internet around the world are outside the US, quite a drop from 1996 when two-thirds of the world's Internet users were US-based. Europe is home to more of the world's online population than all of the Americas combined. Add the burgeoning Internet use in large populations in Asia and it becomes clear the best opportunities for website marketing will be outside the US.
• US search engine searches expanded only 18% last year. But China's searches grew 32%, Korea's 34%, and Brazil's 38%. The biggest gainer was the Russian Federation with a whopping 92% increase in search engine use.
• The percentage of Internet shoppers in the US has been edged out by South Korea, Germany, Japan and the UK, where virtually all those with Internet access shop online.

In theory, as soon as you build and publish your website to the world-wide web you have created a globally accessible page.  But just because a global audience can get to it, does not mean that your page will be understandable around the world.  And this does not mean just language. While a great deal can go into creating a more world-wide friendly website below are a few things to consider that are relatively easy to implement:

• If your page is about a regionally specific topic, then make sure you indicate that. Preferably right in the title of the page. Put the region in the keywords and page description as well. This will insure that someone in another country does not get frustrated by a site that only caters to a certain geographic area.
• Even a regional topic or product might have value to global viewers. What if someone from another country, say Germany,  is visiting your home town and needs a particular service there? You might consider expanding your site to give more generic information that would appeal to a more global audience.

Have you ever found your way to a website in a foreign language and attempted to buy something on it, or even to just navigate it? Think about how confusing that experience was for you and realize how confusing your US-based English language website could look to visitors in other countries.  Simplify pages as you are able and assess ease of navigation.

The first step might be to have a web optimization and review done on your website as it is now - and then decide where it can be simplified or adjusted to better meet a broader world view.   Contact our Market Research Center or myself to order a web optimization report at no cost.

The following blog, Building Keystones, gives some nice examples of how website are viewed in different countries.

http://www.buildingkeystones.com/2010/11/designing-for-different-markets/

If you have a business that has had success getting orders via your Internet site, please share your experience with us here.