Social Media for Real Businesses

Well I’ve finally got a published book with an ISBN number – (well its the second one really – there was always the Business Link’s Fast track to e-commerce published in 2002)

It’s called Social Media for Real Businesses and is there to help people who are a bit unsure about all this stuff how to use it to create the social proof that people look at when wondering who to buy things from.

It covers how to create your story, how to develop the digital collateral to back it up using tools like YouTube, Slide Share and Paper.li and how to get other people to talk about it in social media networks. And how to use twitter to tie it all together.

The book recognises that most of us are not selling to the twitterati – we want to sell real goods and services to real people that we meet or are introduced to. What we want from all this web malarky is ways for people to find us and find out what we’re good at so that when they meet us they take us seriously.

That’s what it covers and it’s based on our current business (which after 7 years has several online businesses ranging from Plants4presents to 1Man Brand) fortified with a long running research collaboration with several business schools into how businesses really market and sell, what are the reasons that people go on line and what are the special requirements of companies in supply chains and one man knowledge businesses.

You can check the book out here and read some of it for free.

Or if you’re already sold you can buy it directly from me here.

I’ve been using it for nearly a year now – I was able quite easily to turn the report from the Growing Jobs project into a paperback and have used it to create a pre-production version of “Social Media for Real Businesses” which summarises the work that Lisa Harris and I have distilled from our long running research project into how small companies really use the internet to promote themselves and work smarter.

I’ve decided to have a real push on this in the next couple of months and to produce both paperback and e-book versions of

Social Media for Real Companies – which is about how to build a digital presence using social media
Growing Jobs – which is about building a world class workforce
21 Business Stories = my wit and wisdom (such as it is) from running businesses for 30 years.

The social media ones are done and the growing jobs expanded version with the evidence base in it is going live in the next couple of weeks.

I’m really excited as these all have ISBN numbers, will be available on Amazon in both paper and kindle format and can be embedded and read on line. Like here

They take most of the pain out of doing this and as I’m paying the higher sub (which is still under £15 a month) I can buy ISBN numbers at under a fiver.

You can check the book out here

It’s a fascinating read about how we find it so difficult to assess whether what we’re seeing in the market place is the result of skill or chance. If we are looking at something that requires a large number of small transactions that require demonstrable skill – such as playing the piano or dentistry then it’s unlikely that someone who has performed well on several occasions will be able to bluff their way in the future if they are incompetent.

By contrast individuals whose work involves a small number of large operations and who are measured by results rather than process plus results – such as CEOs or investment traders may well – if there a larger number of people engaged in the profession be successful entirely by chance. Probability tells us that if there are enough monkeys in the market then some will be successful every year for years on end. This is because we lose sight of the unsuccessful ones. This is a particular problem in a random environment such as the market. Not only do we perceive random success as deliberate – the successful do too and it affects the way they behave.

Taleb explains that while looking at the past delivers a pattern – almost ANYTHING can deliver an apparent pattern – that’s what chaos theory tells us. It can’t be used to predict the future. While you can use statistical probability to help you make aggressive bets, you can’t use it to manage risk. To do that you have to make sure that you protect yourself from unexpected events – Black Swans Taleb calls them – which can wipe you out.

So the rules of thumb as to whether a track record is valid or not is

1)    Are there so many players that a significant number would statistically look good for 6 or 7 years – given that we only see the winners?
2)    Is the environment for the activity non-random?  Engineering is non-random – if it goes wrong people die while government activities are random as in if they go wrong nothing very much happens really.

If we reviewed offers made to us in this light and applied some elementary statistics then we would get on better.

But why do we find it so difficult to manage rationality? – Because we need emotion to make decisions and rationality is only wheeled out after the event to make it look good – something that every salesman knows.

We don’t use logic – we use heuristics – quick and dirty rules of thumb which save us time. Scientific method takes too long.  Taleb argues that our brains are wired up to ensure the spread of progeny and get us out of trouble quickly. If we processed things to explain the world as it is – the time lag would kill us – particularly with a woolly mammoth and a couple of sabre tooths on our case.

Our brains use modules to kick in and solve problems on automatic pilot. Really there’s no central processing unit which is very much in line with modern brain research, There’s a really interesting description of how this works in Bob Cialdini’s book on influence but basically it’s about the search for pattern and the use of certain short cuts like social proof, authority, and reciprocity to make quick decisions rather than logical decisions. We’re much better at spotting cheats than using logic for instance.

Taleb argues that our decision making is biased against perceiving abstractions as risks.  Being non critical of how much are own or others success is random rather than achieved leads into all sorts of difficulties, particularly where the “noise” is great compared with the “signal”.

It’s a timely reminder that the survivors are the ones who haven’t bet the company.

Alan

The book was launched on the 25^th May and went straight to number 2 in the Amazon Business Books Chart.

This was a real example of on-line collaboration in action – the 19 authors agreed among themselves that approaches to people on Ecademy would be done centrally by Ecademy press while the individual authors were to contact their own mailing contacts with a centrally agreed list of offers.

The offer list with the attendant email is shown in the text of the previous blog entry.
As it happened, this co-ordination was enough to get the book into the top 20 bestsellers on Amazon on day 1 and to number 2 in the business books.

If you would like a copy of the book you can buy it at this link. While I can’t offer you the full range of offers, you can certainly have a free copy of my Market on-line e-book worth £15 if you send me a copy of your Amazon invoice before June 30^th.

On Friday 25th May for one day only, we are launching a new book, BusinessWise, with a special promotional offer that will be available to anyone who purchases the book on Amazon.co.uk on that day.

BusinessWise is a revolutionary new business book which distils expertise from 19 authors, with more than 300 years of experience between them. Each is a professional in their field, and imparts advice gleaned from successful careers and hands-on experience. The £9.99 price is a fraction of the value of the saving businesses of all types will make, from errors usually learnt too late.

Brian Chernett, Founder and Chief Executive of The Academy for Chief Executives says of BusinessWise – “Starting up in business is fraught with pitfalls and problems. The rewards of a successful business, however, outweigh the risk. I want to see many more successful Chief Executives and this book provides valuable help from a number of entrepreneurs that have succeeded. “

When you order this book from Amazon.co.uk, on Friday 25th May and only on that date, we will add to your purchase a set of bonus items and offers that take the value of your purchase to over £200. All you have to do is to follow the simple steps we set out below.

So what are these bonus items and services?

6 months free Business membership of Business Scene worth £30.
Business Scene is a combined effort between local Organisations. Their main focus is on quality events and helping people to build new and improved business relationships. They have activity across the UK, Australia, Germany, India, Pakistan and USA.

Personal Webhosting Package worth £49
Marieke Hensel offers a great value webhosting package including 50 MB webspace, 2000 MB traffic, 20 email accounts, a PHP/MySQL database and a free .com domain name. Guaranteed uptime of at least 99.9% with great support staff 24/7.

Internet Marketing Action – Plan A – One year’s subscription worth £66
Ecademy Press Webmaster and BusinessWise author, Barbara Saul offers a wealth of information for and about your website and the Internet – whether you’re taking care of your own website and Internet marketing or getting someone else to do it for you. The Internet Marketing Action – Plan A provides you with access to constantly reviewed and updated information and tools for anyone with a website. Included: design tips and templates, usability guidance, search engine optimisation (SEO) actions, online forum and support, and more. All in plain English, useful and enabling you to take action yourself. More details at www.internetmarketingaction.com.

“MarketOnLine!” ebook by Alan Rae worth £15
MarketOnline! is a 97 page e-book about using the internet to appear bigger than you really are. The e-book shows you how to use pay per click to establish what key-words people are looking for and then how set up a web of placements on the internet which point back to your home web-site. Based on our own online trading businesses we show you how to combine PR, offline and online marketing into a powerful strategy. We cover tools like Squidoo, and how to set up a blog which you can spread far and wide via RSS (really simple syndication) feeds. It’s full of practical tips and examples to help you get started.

BusinessWise Collaboration SkypeCast worth £25
Join our collaboration specialist, Tom Evans, for a very special lunch hour without leaving the comfort of your own desk – the BusinessWise Collaboration SkypeCast. These sessions are very lively and interactive and you will be guaranteed at least one new priceless business connection. Maximum 20 attendees.

“Don’t Publish Your Book!” ebook on publishing options with a £9.95 value.
Publishing a book is something that most people dream about. The fame, the fortune… at least, this is the common myth. It’s true that bestselling authors today can make serious money and attract attention from the media. But first you need to find a major publisher. The vast majority of aspiring authors spend months and even years just trying to find an agent to represent them and sell their book to a publisher. The reality? Even after years of rejection letters, only one percent of all books submitted are ever accepted by traditional mainstream publishers. Help is at hand! In this short, insightful book, Mindy Gibbins-Klein (also known as The Book Midwife) walks you through the three main publishing options available today and gives practical advice to help you with your decision.

One Hundred Years of Ermintrude audio and musical ebook worth £4.99
Listen to the inspirational story of a woman’s life in your next coffee break. Written by our collaboration specialist Tom Evans.

“A Friend in Every City” ebook worth £5.99
A Friend in Every City is an inspirational and practical guide to the art and science of networking. The book looks first at the forces shaping the new ways of working, then at how online networks, such as LinkedIn, Open BC (now Xing), Ryze and Ecademy, are evolving to provide support for them. The authors look at how an individual worker can leverage these changes to their best effect.

Mike Southon, Co-Author of ‘The Beermat Entrepreneur’ and other business books says of BusinessWise – I’ve been an entrepreneur for many years and believe in encouraging more people to find their passion and pursue it. I’m pleased to see this book also encourages the idea that entrepreneurs can succeed and provides practical advice to help them do that. As a long-term supporter of Ecademy and a life member there myself, I’m delighted to recommend this book.

How do I get these bonuses?

Simply purchase BusinessWise from Amazon.co.uk on Friday 25th May, 2007 and send us a copy of the receipt for your purchase to info@ecademy-press.com*. We will then send you a link to a special download page** from which you will be able to access all of the bonuses set out above. These bonuses have a combined value of over £200. The business wisdom and information in BusinessWise alone justifies the investment of £9.99 plus postage and the additional bonuses are our way of saying thank you for helping us make the launch a success.

Buy BusinessWise on 25th May on Amazon.co.uk.

If you wish to include your network in this offer foward them this email***.

Make sure you purchase the book on 25th May to qualify for the bonus offers.

Thomas Power, Chairman, Ecademy.com comments “I have always believed that if you put people together, magic will happen. The right people will find each other and work together. New ideas and projects will be born. This book is proof of that. The authors met through networking on Ecademy and have used mostly electronic communications to develop this collaborative book. Each of the authors is brilliant at what they do – together they have produced a formidable business book.”

If you have received multiple copies of this email from your network, please accept our apologies. It means that several people in your network think you would appreciate this new business book and the special promotion.

All the best

Alan Rae on behalf of Mindy Gibbins-Klein and Andy Coote

Publishers – BusinessWise

www.ecademy-press.com

* Receipts need to be received by us by midnight on Tuesday 29th May, 2007 to be included in this promotion.

** The weekend following Friday 25th May, 2007 is a Bank Holiday in the UK. We will use our best endeavours to provide access to the download page promptly. However, there may be a delay in providing this information.

*** A copy of this email will also be found at the Ecademy Press blog at www.ecademy-press.com/wordpress.