Liz Strauss.com » Business Blogging

Social Media: I Don’t Want to My Information on the Web!!

Liz Strauss — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 12:33:13 +0000

Bad Things Could Happen

When clients raise the issue of possible dangers of putting information in public, I’m right with them. I listen in actively to see where their concerns lie.

Some worry about danger to their reputation — people who might want tosay bad things about them — unhappy customers, unethical competitors

Some worry about danger to themselves — saying something they might regret later.

I’d never deny the possibilities. Instead I listen to understand the core issues.

Then I often find myself outlining that arrive every day to protect us online — comment moderation, blind contact forms, the ability to respond quickly online to damaging information — and quoting the simple rule Microsoft uses to guide their bloggers, “Don’t be stupid,” as I put the listed dangers in context.

It’s true that those situations listed are serious concerns. We deal with them daily in our interactions in the concrete world, the in world of email, at conventions and in sales presentations, and even on the telephone. We know how to handle information to an audience larger than one person.

We don’t need to leave behind the interaction skills we already know when we move to the Internet.

Liz Strauss
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Personal Development: Blogging Is a Way to Find a Voice

Liz Strauss — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 13:38:26 +0000

Reasons to Write Every Day

Everything we write has an audience. Even a private journal has the author to read it. The more we write, the more we get experience with words, learning what they mean in varied contexts. As we look back over what we have written, we listen, consider, and question its power and impact.

Blogging has an audience that responds and reacts. The comments let us know whether the message we send is received fully and intact. By blogging often we develop a voice that is consistent and more natural. As we learn our personal writing habits, we gain confidence that powers our message forward. As we listen to our readers, we more finely tune our message to communicate with them.

Blogging gets us closer to a clearer voice that people understand.

Liz Strauss
Find out about working with Liz.
Get your best voice in the conversation.

How to Market a Model T in the 21st Century

Liz Strauss — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 02:44:44 +0000

People Aren’t Concrete

Whether Henry Ford actually said, “You can paint it any color, so long as it’s black,” it underscores Ford’s success at building for a mass market. He brought together an acceptable standard of quality, price, and reliability to sell 15,000,000 Model T automobiles.

It might seem that all we need to do is find our own “Model-T” and get it to the mass market. Some companies are trying to do that. The ones that are succeed understand that no product can serve a mass market in the 21st century.

If you’re marketing a Model-T — a single version product — in this century, here’s how to do it.

Identify a clearly defined key customer group who buy for reliability and low-price point value.
Study the products that this group currently buys to see the features those products have in common. Look beyond the features to the benefits that each feature offers.
Within the key customer group, meet with the car mavens — folks who offer friends detailed advice on car buying — and customer evangelists for the products that the key group is currently buying.
Build a product that includes all of the features that key customers value and none of those that they have no use for.
Offer it at a competitive price that requires no negotiation.
Provide fast delivery and excellent service.
Make the product modification friendly. Allow consumers to personalize it. Offer mod kits and merchandise that let’s folks feel part of a club for owning the product.
Take care with any new versions that you don’t revise out the value that developed the customer base that you’re enjoying.
Consider a limited and temporary brick and mortar presence and a huge online selling model. A consistent product with a simple sales story works well in an online situation.

A single version product that fits its customers perfectly still has a place in the 21st century market.