I don’t often spill the beans on this secret, but I am sort of a psychic. It’s true. I have the ability to predict to most any professional their future office.
I can see yours now. It’s white. There are pictures displayed along the middle of it. The background seems clean. I can read the listing address. It reads, “www.Google.com”.
So maybe I’m not Nostradamus, but I was not lying either. The dynamics of the relationship between businesses and potential clients is changing rapidly and drastically. The modes for finding people and businesses are progressively relying more on internet search engines. As a result, businesses need to consider all the ways they are being represented, like an office for example.
Consider everything that goes into an office. Professionals dedicate considerable time, money, and resources into their office. They purchase offices in convenient locations with pretty views. They have it decorated in a manner that they believe best reflects them. They pay for a cleaning crew to keep it tidy. They staff people who will interact with both internal and external publics in the appropriate manner.
Consider this. There is a generation of people growing into potential clients that will never step foot in your office. The modes in which they have been groomed to research differ staunchly from generations of the past.
This generation of people is capable of locating information faster and more easily than ever before. They expect results instantaneously. They get them, too. If they cannot achieve the results instantaneously then they find a quicker alternative. This generation of buyers largely will not conduct the due diligence of research beyond plugging a name or a phrase into Google and Facebook. So the issue is what your office looks like online.
Imagine this. Someone out there unknown to you is ready to spend. Not only are they ready to spend, but they want to spend whatever it takes to get the job done. This could be the turning point for the firm. They walk up the stairs to your office. They open the door, and they get confused. They had the name spelled right, they went to the right place, but you are not there.
Instead, there are pictures of a dozen different people on the walls. Your logo is not anywhere to be found. The receptionist does not speak the same language and cannot understand what the person wants. That potential client gets frustrated and leaves.
This is the online office of many businesses. The problem for many professionals is that despite gorgeous and well run offices on top floors of expensive buildings, their online office does not show it. Their online office is a collection of loosely affiliated terms and links that disable the client from finding them.
The password to renovating your online office is S.E.O. "Search Engine Optimization" is an online business strategy with constantly growing importance. Web professionals everywhere are revising their current strategies as to best accommodate S.E.O.
S.E.O. is a technologically complicated concept with very simple ramifications. It deals with the many variables search engines such as Google take into consideration when compiling its list of results. The key from a marketing stand point is obviously coming up high in the results. The key to that from a web stand point is taking every effort possible to ensuring that traffic, content, and activity relevant to you is actually being registered to you through keywords and phrases.
There are many different ways to do that. Social media platforms have grown to become powerful S.E.O. tools. The amount of traffic and activity these sites generate enter into the search engines very favorably. It extends beyond social media though. Businesses need to be S.E.O. minded in everything they do within their social networks.
Sushi has become an American phenomenon. It continues to grow in popularity as consumers strive to incorporate healthy alternative food choices into their diets. Many sushi fanatics cite its natural qualities as supporting reasons for choosing it over other food types.
Those natural qualities are being compromised by another phenomenon. This phenomenon is a frightening one, worthy of being used as scare tactics. Quite simply, it is actually scary.
Brace yourself to gasp. Ready? Scientists have discovered trash in the Pacific Ocean.
Wait. Actually brace yourself this time. Ready? They discovered trash in the form of a singular mass roughly twice the size of the state of Texas. That’s right. A body of trash approximately the same size as the fictional asteroid threatening to destroy the Earth in the movie “Armageddon.” While it may not be Armageddon, it is not fiction either.
You might have heard it recently described as “trash island” in the news. Realistically, it’s worse than an island. The enormous body of trash is a tight collection of tiny waste particles constantly roaming the Pacific gathering more mass. Through a process referred to as bioaccumulation, this body of mass is affecting the entire globe, and could be directly affecting you sushi lovers.
As this body of mass moves around it passes through the homes of all kinds of fish and other ocean dwelling organisms. These organisms, fish, and birds often mistakenly try tasting the miniscule pieces of trash. The organisms do not have any sort of digestion systems that break down the matter any better than waste facilities, so the matter just gets processed like any other food. It becomes part of the organism.
“As an example, say some plankton (very small animals at the bottom of the food chain) eat some of this plastic. Then, a hundred of these plankton are then eaten by a small fish, like a Sardine. Then a Mackerel eats 25 of these Sardines. Then a Tuna eats 10 of these Mackerels. Then you eat a Tuna. Well guess what, you just ate a bunch of plastic, just how much? 100 (plankton) x 25 (Sardines) x 10 (Mackerels) = 25,000 pieces ingested by 1 Tuna.” (The Chic Ecologist)
As a result these fish are full of dangerous and often poisonous toxins. How many pieces of Tuna have you eaten recently? That is just one species.
This is a real problem. It exists. It is double the size of Texas floating in the ocean right now. No, it might not be Armageddon. It might not be the end of the world. But what if sushi, or any other sea food, means the world to you.What if you were one of the thousands of people out there dependent on seafood in one form or another in order to live. Define the word “world” as you know it.
Convenient is a troublesome word. If ever there was a need for a fine print disclaimer in this world, it is next to the word convenient in the dictionary. The word has more side effects than the rambling at the end of an off-putting (insert new erectile dysfunction brand here) commercial.
If there is one trend that has hereto defined the decade, it is the drive for convenience. Every new anything being marketed, advertised, or talked about today exists to turn a profit and to someway make people’s lives more convenient. Make no mistake, it ranks in that order. Everything in the convenience industry comes with a price.
Start with the basics as an example. A convenience store is somewhere you go for the sake of time and sanity. It is at the corner of the main road you live off as opposed to the shopping center in town. You don’t have to worry about taking the time to heat up the car, or even have to change out of your moccasins for real shoes. Parking won’t be a hassle, and there are no runaway grocery carts to worry about turning into battering rams in the parking lot. However, the side effects of convenience are lurking around every corner.
The one simple objective of obtaining a gallon of milk is quickly compromised by product placement. It is possible to responsibly navigate the massive milk section in a supermarket like a horse with blinders and avoid temptation. Where you had a fighting chance of only escaping the supermarket with just an additional fat-free Milky Way bar at the checkout line, the mission is compromised at the “everything refrigerated” section of the convenience store. The temptation is too much. The Ben and Jerry’s flavor of the week 2-for-1 deal located directly next to the milk is too good to pass up. Suddenly, the one simple gallon of milk has become a bit more complicated.
Beyond the milk costing double what it would have at the grocery store, add the ten bucks for ice cream. Then throw in that last second pack of Bubblicious tropical-berry-arctic-mint gum located conveniently next to the register. That is of course before that additional fat-free Milky Way bar you still justify buying by saying it’s fat free and you already have the twenty dollar bill in your hand. Who needs spare change? Walking out of the store, you have quadrupled your bill and your waistline is furious. All for a little bit of convenience.
This is the equation, and it extends everywhere. From the Snuggie to the iPad and everywhere in between, business is catering to the concept of making things more convenient for the client. The result has been innumerable new successful and innovative products and services. People are paying more to have to do less. The communications field has been at the forefront of this trend.
Mobile internet makes life easier and business more efficient. So, you buy a smart phone. The phone requires a data package in order to work so you have to buy that too. Not to mention the standard connection takes too long so you need to sign up for a 3G plan. You don’t even know what that means but it rhymes and you don’t think twice. The vender then mentions how the slightly more expensive Blackberry model has Wi-Fi capabilities and will work faster at the office, plus save battery life. Again, you’re not sure. But again, it rhymes. Sold.
In the end you may have made your life somewhat more convenient, but it has cost you a small fortune. Name the purchase, explain the convenience, and the result is the same. Convenience is costing more money. This is not news to most. There is a new lesser known evil to convenience however, that may be affecting your business today.
This recent trend of convenience has generated some serious effects on traditional modes of business. The trend has produced some of the most revolutionary developments of this generation. These developments have come to redefine some practices of communications. Resting comfortably at the top of the list are Google and Facebook.
Not only are they convenient but they are literally free of cost to the user. They make finding, researching, and connecting to people and businesses easier than ever before. They are so convenient that you can connect to someone or something without getting dressed or even opening a laptop. Just plug in the words to the application on that before mentioned rhyming 3G Wi-Fi Blackberry literally wherever you are (except if you have AT&T as a carrier).
Google and Facebook are just too convenient. People no longer waste the additional fractions of a second to type www.you.com. Instead, they just plug you into the convenient Google toolbar in the top corner of their browser and expect you to come up. The problem is that your website is out of date, you are not active on Facebook, and you do not have a Twitter, YouTube, or LinkedIn account. So, you do not come up. Instead, Google shows statistics for some football player with your last name, a news article written by someone with your first name, and some teenager’s Facebook page. Yes, you are there somewhere on the 4th or 5th page, but the damage has already been done. People will find a faster alternative if it is an inconvenience to them.
It hurts just as bad if they were not looking for you in particular, just something like you. They plugged in your exact services in the same zip code that you are listed. You don’t come up though, some less qualified Joe Schmo who managed to convince all of his buddies to like his fanpage on Facebook does. The rhyming Joe Schmo gets the email notification from your potential client on his 3G Wi-Fi Blackberry while working in his bathrobe out of his mom’s basement. You are sitting at the office lamenting finishing both of the 2-for-1 Ben and Jerry’s unaware that you have just paid tax to Google and Facebook in the form of a lost client.
The tax dues to Google and Facebook will continue to grow for businesses that remain in the bracket that avoids partaking in bolstering their web presences. Web presence management is growing to become one of the most essential components to business communications. There is no arguing that the subject is tedious, frustrating, and time consuming. However, that makes it no less essential. Allowing anxiety on the subject to overshadow taking the necessary steps to improve your web presence can be and will be harmful to your business.
The problems with web presence is sort of like the problems U.S Congress. There are way too many people both directly and indirectly involved in the matter. They all have completely different initiatives. There is a lot of both actual and theoretical money going in and out. No one will ever hear the end of it, and in one way or another everyone is affected.
Thankfully, there is a lot more upside to dealing with your web presence than dealing with Congress, because you can take control of it yourself. Unlike Congress, there should not be any anxiety about managing your web presence. There are a number of different strategies and approaches available to efficiently and affordably bolster your web presence. If managed properly, your web presence will become a convenience to you. No disclaimers needed.
An entire generation of people unwilling to inconvenience themselves with performing due diligence beyond Google and Facebook is growing. Soon will be a time that not coming up high enough on Google, or not being described enough on Facebook, will equate to not being qualified enough as a business. If this new convenient method for research sounds troublesome to you, it is probably a good idea to consult with a social media professional today. Now is the time to take this trend into your own hands and reverse the effects in a manner that is convenient for you.
An article was recently posted on Soshable.com discussing the fall of the MySpace empire. The author named Mr. Rupert Murdoch as the culprit.
To be fair, it is not very original to blame Rupert Murdoch for anything now-a-days. He’s a popular target, managing to assume public blame for everything from people not having health insurance to people getting paper cuts. So, naturally he could be a great venting point for someone mourning the recent death of their beloved MySpace.
If Fox had anything to do with the fall of MySpace it was just being on the less clever side of a ratings war with NBC. Realistically, the death of MySpace had less to do with Fox News and more to do with one of their biggest competitors Dateline NBC. This is not to start a political conversation, by all means please believe in whatever political faith your little heart desires. Being reasonable though, it was NBC’s “To Catch a Predator” that molested MySpace and put the handcuffs on the entire operation…
Come on, why don’t you just sit down. Have a seat. Let’s talk…
Apologies for the puns, but people could not stop watching Chris Hansen talking to those guys in the kitchens of alleged adolescent children.
Chris Hansen on the microphone. Pervert in the kitchen. Camouflaged SWAT team in the bushes outside. All culminating with an ensuing Ray Lewis quality tackle of said pervert by said SWAT team. It was some of the best television ever made. But at that moment, every “digital-immigrant” parent in the United States turned into an angry soccer-mom. MySpace never stood a chance. It lay dead in the tracks of a couple million minivans.
Suddenly every 12-17 year old in America had to shut down their MySpace accounts. If they did not they would be grounded by their parents or sexually harassed by an online predator. This accounted for a loss in probably over half of all regular MySpace users.
And you know who was watching as all of this unfolded? The true murderer of the once mighty MySpace. Mark Zuckerburg, fresh out of his Harvard dorm room.
MySpace was the too-unregulated, too-insecure, too-anything goes social media monster. Facebook began making a point of describing itself as the academic, scholarly, Harvard uniform wearing , safe-to-socialize with sweetheart. It swept America off its feet, and MySpace off the map.
The article does however highlight an important concept.
Social Media has limitations. They are not always finite, but they are everywhere. For anyone looking to utilize social media for any purpose, the nature of the beast must be understood. The success of the initiative is contingent upon the limitations set upon the people involved. Social Media must be managed in a manner that reflects the audience.
Communication is a complicated equation of variables. It can be simple. It can also be comprised of a multitude of separate factors that culminate with a complex product that is difficult to decipher depending on different situations.
Culture tends to lean towards the latter of those two modes of communication. People either directly or indirectly complicate communications. For some, it is deciding to use specific terms in the attempt to appear more credible, more authentic, or even more natural to the setting. For others, it is a method to dance around emotions, expectations, or known obstacles to what is the desired end result.
Averting simple communications for any reason is detrimental to the message being conveyed. Any one person’s internal vocabulary is preset in a manner individual to that person and that person only. Complicating language as to incorporate less familiar or even unknown choices of vernacular is a great way to cause anxiety or unease in conversation.
More simply, no one wants to be in a conversation where they don’t know what they’re talking about. Social media is a conversation many people are entering into. Social media is a conversation most people don’t know what they’re talking about.
It is full of made up terms, practices, and programs that are completely foreign to people who are not natives of the field. Many people shy away from it as a result. It sounds complicated, tedious, and foreign.
Here comes the kicker. The same applies for every field. Law jargon frustrates those who speak accounting jargon which is a pain to those who speak computer jargon which is annoying to those who speak law jargon and so on. It is a big simple cycle of perplexing communications.
Nip Jenkins is a firm believer in one of the best pieces of information one could ever pass along to another; keep it simple sweetheart. No matter who you are or what profession you’re in, you will be a better communicator and thus a better professional if you keep it simple.
Jenkins recently embarked into very foreign territory. Jenkins launched an internet and social media campaign for his private law firm. He asked one basic thing of his marketing firm. Please keep it simple.
Over three decades in a field of complicated and anxiety inducing jargon led Jenkins to figure it out. There are many different languages inside of the English language. Different professional languages have different effects on people.
Jenkins did not and will not ever speak the language of technology. He was given a word association test that any American teenager would surely pass with flying colors. It was full of recent internet and computer terms. Jenkins’ responses were reflective of his familiarity of a new generation of language.
Word: Four Square (A social media program based on tracking locations.)
Jenkins: … And seven years ago. (The opening line of the Gettysburg Address... sort of)
Word: Pandora (Social media online radio program.)
Jenkins: Box (Duh.)
Word: USB (Acronym for Universal Serial Bus, the do it all computer drive used to plug the next word into)
Jenkins: Bank (United States Bancorp- one of the largest banking organization listed in the New York Stock Exchange.)
Word: Thumb drive (Small portable memory storage device that plugs into a Universal Serial Bus/United States Bancorp)
Jenkins: TV remote (Toss me the thumb drive I need to see how USB closed out today.)
Jenkins successfully identified over half of the words on the list including some of the more strange words such as Groupon, reTweet, and Wikipedia. Nonetheless, if a technology professional was carrying on with a conversation using these terms freely, he would be inferring entirely different meanings for much of time. This is often the case with many professional conversations. People use slang, jargon, and acronyms often in conversation unconscious of what the person on the other end of the conversation is inferring or feeling.
“Communicate naturally and simply and your message will be better received,” said Jenkins. “People are often uncomfortable in conversations about subjects unfamiliar to them, especially law. Communication is the key to building good relationships with clients and associates.”
Calling him old fashioned would not cut it. Calling him behind the times would miss the mark. Somewhere in the shades of gray, Nip Jenkins is smiling perfectly content.
Jenkins has done things in a particular way for longer than he can remember. The private attorney born and raised in Baltimore developed a manner for operating his practice and that was never extraordinary by design. He never changed. The times did.
An era of technology transformed what was regarded as the norm. The pace of the world grew faster. Advancements in every field came to redefine those who worked in them. A new breed of business overtook traditional ways of thinking. Now, lawyers and Blackberries are inseparable. Delay in communication is unforgivable. A lack of internet connection is unthinkable. New is an urgent necessity. Just not for Nip.
If not for the advancements, Nip’s office would seem perfectly ordinary. The 6th floor corner office in the heart of downtown Towson is full of windows, each with their own captivating view. Out one is the most perfect angle of the historic State Courthouse Building that a photographer could ever ask for. Another overlooks building rooftops all the way to the clock tower of Towson University. On the walls hang accolades and excerpts depicting over three decades of a successful law career. Because of the change, however it is host to several peculiarities.
There is no laptop open on Jenkins’ desk. There is not a printer-copier-scanner-fax-tanning bed combo machine inconveniently stuck behind his chair. There is no wireless modem, there was no digital clock, there is no spider web of wires hanging off of anywhere. Hell, there wasn’t even a bulky old PC stuffed behind the closet door. Yet, much to the chagrin of Radio Shack, Best Buy, and Alan Elkin, Nip Jenkins goes on.
This is not to say necessarily that Jenkins is behind the times. Jenkins has written and read thousands of emails. He just has never actually typed one. If you have ever received an email from Jenkins, you are likely in an elite crowd of people on Earth who have ever gotten a hand written email. Jenkins writes each and every email response by freehand, then has his legal assistant type and send the document.
“Many people might not believe me,” said Jenkins. “But I am actually fascinated by technology.”
Jenkins described his immense appreciation and admiration for technology. Using great depth, Jenkins explained the benefits of computer programs that help businesses to remain organized such as Quickbooks and Microsoft Excel, despite the fact that he has never personally used any of them. Using great depth, Jenkins described new applications on the Blackberry and iPhone that can be used for advanced navigation, despite the fact that he has never personally used either.
Jenkins owns a cell phone that he carries around with him at all times. It will never interrupt a meeting or conversation however, as Jenkins is adamant about having it turned off except for in times of emergency or when it is in use. Jenkins has his own website. He just has never actually accessed it on a computer himself. Jenkins is even one of the first attorneys in the state of Maryland to have his own Facebook page for his law firm, but don’t expect to receive any “pokes” from him anytime soon.
One meeting with Nip and it is clear that it is not a matter of elitism, just a matter of choice and a belief in specialization.
“I see great value and use in many of these new products and applications,” said Jenkins. “However, I am not very good at using them. So rather than interrupting time and effort from what I do best, I invest in others to implement these programs and applications for me and it’s working out in the end.”
Jenkins’ perspective likely has much to do with the way he regards his work. He holds a more traditional belief towards the field of law, adamantly defending it as a profession rather than a business. Jenkins said he cringes at the notion of lawyers being more regarded as businessmen.
“You go to a lawyer when you have a problem that requires professional attention the same way you go to a doctor,” said Jenkins. “I guess in many ways we as attorneys have brought it upon ourselves, because I rarely see doctors attentively seeking out patients.”
Jenkins said he felt that some of the use of advertisements in the legal field has cheapened the profession. Particular forms of advertising, such as buying print space, radio and television air slots, would have been referred to as barratry years ago. The practice of seeking out legal clients was once more intimately scrutinized. Derogatory terms such as “ambulance chaser” related to such practices are not as commonplace as they were years ago.
"Advertising certainly has a way of creeping into venues where it does not belong,” said Jenkins. “In sports for example, it started off on the outskirts of the stadium. It made its way down to the field. Soon enough it will be like soccer, and be right there on the jerseys front and center.”
The simple word of mouth has always been enough for Jenkins. He said that the human element of his work is the most important part for him. Jenkins is well known for his charisma. His skill as a communicator is an asset in his profession as well as in networking. His appreciation for communications and networking is what led him to explore social media.
"Social media was described to me as a vessel in which to communicate and network with people based off of word of mouth,” Jenkins said. “The ability to communicate with people through these means is a fantastic alternative to advertising, which is something I never wanted to do.”
Jenkins continues to have success using an old fashioned approach to keeping up with the times. Sometimes, the simplest approach to things is extraordinary in the end. Advancement without direction leads nowhere. Much can be gained, however, by utilizing technology with an approach which works both personally and professionally. It is important to remember that even in this new high speed era, how things work does not have to impact the way you work. Jenkins has done things in a particular way for longer than he can remember. His choice of how things work around him allows him to do so.
