How to market to me

January 16, 2012 in Life and Work with 0 Comments

Today I received an unsolicited email trying to sell me Toshiba computers. Although I am a “Mac Guy”, we actually bought Toshiba computers for all of our teachers this year. In the next few months, we’ll need to buy another 10 or so for our new staff who will be joining us over the summer. So I am THE PERFECT CUSTOMER for this email. But this email really hit a nerve. Instead of just blasting the sender, I thought I’d also include a few tips for how to market to me. But before I share the how to’s, let me share the how not to’s:

1. Undisclosed recipients.

The sender could have used a program like Mailchimp or ConstantContact to personalize the message to me. Instead she just blind carbon copied everyone. (Likely the statewide principal list). This may have saved her a bit of time, but it screams SPAM, as the message could have been sent to thousands of people (which is very likely).

2. Poor grammar.

If you are going to send a message to a thousand potential clients, check it over. Read it twice. Print it out and read it again. Have someone else go over it. Mistakes in the first sentence (as was the case here) is a great reason to press the delete key.

3. No unsubscribe link.

Since it was clear that this was a commercial message, there is very clear law to follow, which she did not. Here’s the link:

http://business.ftc.gov/documents/bus61-can-spam-act-compliance-guide-business One of the rules is that there is an unsubscribe link. Say, for example, that I am not the person who makes computer buying decisions. I should be able to click a button and no longer receive these messages.

Now here is what works when you are trying to sell me something. I know these tactics work because they have been used to sell me products or programs over the last 30 days.

1. Referrals from friends and colleagues

The best way to sell me anything is to have someone I know and trust recommend it to me. When my buddy Jared Loftus recommended I check out a recent deal from App Sumo on building your small business they had my attention.

2. Great reviews from bloggers and sites I trust

When a product is featured on TechCrunch or on Tim Ferriss’ blog, it is likely to get my attention. This is how I bought my Vibram shoes and Lytro Camera

3. Build a relationship with me

If you can’t get recommended by one of my friends or be featured on a blog I read, the next step is to build a relationship with me. A recent example is my new friend Ryan Sides who first friended me on LinkedIn with a very nice intro message. He took the time to get to know me before talking about his social media consulting business. Although we haven’t worked together officially yet (building relationships takes time), I refer people to him frequently, just because of his approach.

I know that all of this sounds like hard work, but that’s how we need to approach marketing our products and services these days. It’s all about relationships.

Seth Godin calls it permission marketing
Chet Holmes calls it your dream 100
Gary Vaynerchuck just calls it hustle

Whatever term you use, it’s the way to get me to buy your stuff.

225 magazine people to watch

January 3, 2012 in Teaching Tips with 0 Comments

At the start of the year last August, students at Mentorship Academy met for classes at LSU. “Start at college, end at college,” was the message executive director Brian Dixon was sending to his ninth- and 10th-graders.

Dixon began the school two years ago at the corner of Fourth and Florida streets downtown as a Type 1 charter school focused on technology and projects. Students have a choice of two technological directions: the digital arts, including creative filmmaking, website creation, graphic design and computer programming, or science, including engineering, chemistry and math. Projects trump lectures, says Dixon, because they foster critical thinking, problem solving and team building.

The son of a clergyman, Dixon grew up “all over,” living in California for seven years before he came to Baton Rouge. His original ambition of becoming a rock star morphed into sharing his creativity with kids. He spent eight years teaching English, theater arts, filmmaking and digital production, authored The Innovative School Leader’s Guide to Social Media, and still runs a website devoted to helping small businesses with social media marketing. brianjdixon.com —M.H.

Waking up on the app side of the bed

December 19, 2011 in Life and Work with 0 Comments

Most school leaders wake up between 4:30 and 5:30 to get ready for a school day that starts at 7am. Waking up groggy and tired is something that every school leader struggles with; and often educators welcome any advice for better waking and managing sleep. Well, there is an app for that!

SleepCycle is a smart alarm clock that measures your movement throughout the night. There is a correlation between your movement and your state of consciousness. Most alarm clocks are set for a specific time. People who wake up at 5:15 every day find that on one day they’re wide awake at 5:15, and on another day they’re very groggy. Without getting too far into the science, the basic reason for this is that on days that you feel awake, the 5:15 is at the end of your 30-minute sleep cycle. The days that you are feeling groggy, you are being awoken in the middle of your sleep cycle, out of deep sleep.

The SleepCycle app measures your sleep cycle and intelligently wakes you up when you are most awake. Simple choose a 30-minute window to wake up, with the absolutely latest time as the highest number.

For example, if you traditionally wake up at 5:15 but don’t mind waking up at 5:30, set the alarm for 5:00 to 5:30. SleepCycle will measure your movement and wake you up at the optimal time during that 30-minute window. One day you will wake up at 5:25, and one day you will wake up at 5:03. I have used SleepCycle for over a year, and I always wake up energized and refreshed. Often, I open my eyes, look around, wonder “What time is it?” – and that’s when the alarm goes off. SleepCycle knows when I am awake (based on movement) and intelligently wakes me up.

Waking up rested and ready for your day can make a dramatic impact on your outlook. Your attitude and behavior towards colleagues will set the tone for your school. This one app alone could completely change the attitude and behavior of your entire faculty. When you are positive and alert, you inspire others to be the same.

The next step for Kinect

November 15, 2011 in Teaching Tips with 0 Comments

Code Space — the next extracurricular activity for the gaming controller which sees it teaming up with smartphones and laptops to present information on a shared screen. — This could be revolutionary when it comes to classroom presentations. If we are to finally “Think Beyond the Ban“- how might we use mobile tech to share student created presentations? This could be a first step.

Following models, engaging mentors through Twitter

October 27, 2011 in Social Media with 0 Comments

Creative Commons photo courtesy of Topeka & Shawnee County Public Library

One way to use Twitter with students is to have them follow five luminaries in the field of their choice in the local area. If, for example, Janie wants to be a veterinarian, Janie should follow five veterinarians. Perhaps she even makes a Janie vet account on Twitter specifically for these conversations. Her assignment is simply to check Twitter once every few days, read the tweets of the mentors, respond when appropriate, and ask intelligent questions. By showing that you have done your homework and are willing to work hard, students make an impression on the professionals and are much more likely to win scholarships, build relationships, and get connected to others in the field. This takes work and effort but can be well worth it. Twitter is still, for the most part, an unfiltered communication tool, with the actual experts checking their own account. Gaining direct access to notables in the field is a rare commodity these days, so students should be encouraged to use this direct access wisely. A student who wants to be a news reporter can follow five local reporters and comment on their stories, send them article ideas, and post links to their own stories from their own local newspaper. These posts may gain some traction with the local reporter who might be thinking of doing a special interest piece. The possibilities are endless.

Walking in the dark towards a cliff

October 11, 2011 in Teaching Tips with 0 Comments

When we “simply digitize the current version of school” we are walking a dark path towards a cliff even after turning on the flashlight.

Tom Van Der Ark‘s wonderful book, “Getting Smart“, comes out soon. Here’s a clip from a great review from tom abeles, a member of Amazon’s innovative “Vine Program”:

Tom Vander Ark’s insightful volume basically declares that most of the early innovation in the arena of digital learning has either fallen by the way or is rapidly becoming the key to significant change in how we learn from PreK to gray, with the focus of this book being primarily in the K-12 schools. To ignore this or to treat it as “another technology” to be grafted onto the current lock-step, age-defined, cohorts of the traditional school is to mistake the fact that we are now, globally, turning the corner towards the rapid rise on the familiar sigmoid curve of digital learning environments. The innovation phase is passed and the early adoption period is rapidly ending as digital technology from smart phones and tablets to cloud computing become the “new normal”.

In summary:

The future could not be more clear. Soft skills: critical-thinking, problem-solving, innovation-based constructs are key to achievement in this age. Seth Godin recently wrote: “The biggest cultural shift that the Internet has amplified is the ability to make an impact on your own culture.” Student creation is the solution.

LinkedIn Best Practices

September 30, 2011 in Social Media with 13 Comments

LinkedIn best practices- Provide value

Give before you take and deposit before you withdraw. Savvy school leaders know that before you make a negative phone call to a parent, it is always a good idea to have established a positive relationship. Find ways to say something positive before you criticize. The same is true on social networks. Before you ask for something, always give. Your contacts need to be wooed. Become the person that provides value to your network.

Four ways to provide value on LinkedIn are to share great content, write recommendations, connect others and stay current.

1. Share great content: Add links to articles, videos, blogs and professional resources that you feel would benefit your connections. By regularly and frequently sharing valuable content, your connections will see you as a resource for valuable information. When they need assistance, they might turn to you for help. One strategy to share great content is to read with a purpose. With all of the social news tools available for sharing information and articles, when you are reading the Times or Education Week and you find something interesting, instead of just highlighting the article or photocopying it for your faculty, consider who in your LinkedIn network would also benefit from the article. Send them a message on LinkedIn saying, “You might want to check this out. This might be helpful to you.” Get in the daily habit of reading with a purpose and sharing valuable content. When the time comes to ask for something you will be seen as someone who provides value.

2. Write recommendations: Use LinkedIn to recommend those you have worked with in the past. Writing short recommendations on LinkedIn only takes a few minutes and makes quite an impact on others. This is a great way to provide value to your connections without asking for anything. Often, your generosity will be reciprocated. As an added bonus, others who read the recommendation will be able to link to your page and learn more about you and your school.

3. Connect others: Set yourself apart professionally by building relationships between your connections. Look at the list of people you know and consider how they might add value to each other. Make an introduction between two of your connections, expressing the mutual benefit they’ll receive. Become a connector invites others to connect with you.

4. Stay current: Make it easy for your connections to the stay engaged with your professional work. This is as simple as a status update once a week, sharing your excitement for a current project. Now that you’ve created your LinkedIn profile and made connections, it is time to manage your profile and update it. Make updating LinkedIn part of your regular routine. Seeing LinkedIn as part of your professional practice will help you both increase your brand equity and also grow professionally. The worst time to network for a new position is when you don’t have one, and the best time to network is when you are happy with your current position. Become a frequent LinkedIn updater. Establish a regular linking routine of posting a link to a favorite article once a week. For those just getting started, simply set a schedule reminder for Friday morning to visit three educational websites, read through five or so articles, and post a link to one that seems interesting. This regular routine of posting links to interesting articles will help you stay in the mix of your connections. This is important as your connections are infrequently looking to connect. You want to stay “top of mind” and the best way to do this is to the regularly post content that is of value.

Top reasons to use Facebook in the classroom

September 21, 2011 in Social Media with 15 Comments

Saw this great post on kqed.org.

Some of my favorite reasons include:

Students are simply more connected: Many teachers are familiar with Blackboard and other classroom community systems, but students typically only check in when necessary, while students are often checking Facebook multiple times per day.
Calendars and events are easy to share: Remind students of important dates and events right where they hang out — on Facebook.
Students will learn 21st century skills: A study from the University of Minnesota discovered that social networking sites like Facebook help students practice the skills they need to be successful in the 21st century.
Students want to share beyond the classroom: Facebook and other social media tools open up the possibility for students to share what they’ve learned not just with their fellow students, but with the world.
Facebook encourages collaboration rather than cliques: Everyone can speak up and work together on Facebook, where students may be held back socially in the classroom.
There’s an opportunity to discuss appropriate use: Set students up for success in social media by discussing appropriate ways to use it.
Students can learn about social media in a safe environment: By using Facebook in the classroom, you can teach students about the safe use of social media.
You’ll save paper: Permission slips and flyers that used to be sent home on paper and eaten by the dog can bow be uploaded in Facebook groups for parents to use instead.