In today’s business world using social media is part of the strategy but similar to other aspects of life, some with be good and others not so. The book The Impact Equation written by Chris Brogan and Julien Smith published by Portfolio Books/Penguin, NY, 2012 will help the social media releases create impact with the formula Impact = C x (R+E+A+T+E)  or CREATE. The letters stand for Contrast, Reach, Exposure, Articulation, Trust and Echo.

Reach is the platform which is the combination of tools you use to reach others and communicate ideas. The tools run from the internet to mainstream media outlets. Reach is almost never built quickly, it takes practice which means learning from your many mistakes. Reach can take lots of money to seed to people to share it and sometimes it can be done with very little money. Reach is not about fair.

Echo is about keeping the message fresh so it feels pertinent to newcomers.

Articulation means keeping the message and brief size.

Advertising means borrowing audience attention and diverting it toward what you are trying to sell.

Platform is different – its purpose is to audience build. Reaching people does nothing unless you provide them enough value to make them stop what they are doing  and participate in your media.

Value can mean money but does not have to mean money. The new value market often means give away as much as you can for free and only charge for the difficult parts. The important aspect is connect with people to serve them first.

Launching Products

1. Do not focus on your audience; focus on other audiences. Your audience is already sold on you, work on collecting allies.

2. Always ask beforehand, not the day of the launch.

3. Create real incentive and/or scarcity.

4. The quality of the work must be consistently excellent.

Exposure

Is your content seen as hype or does it really matter?

1. Your material is something someone would be delighted to come across.

2. You, your department or your clients look forward to what you send them.

3. You content is like a TV show – no advertisements.

Exposure is the art of hitting people, again and again, until they finally decide to take some kind of action.

The ideal time to post your blog is anytime as long as people can use and relate to the information or it is information that will prompt them to maintain some kind of relationship with you.

For long-term exposure follow these guidelines:

1. Start with like-minded people.

2. Tell stories that relate to people who do not share your cause.

3. Tell stories that make the buyer the hero.

4. Help others first. – earn the attention.

Linking to dividend paying stocks, the exposure and value have things you are not supposed to do all the time. If your company is breaking those rules with you – selling all the time, pretending they have no competition; what do you think the reaction is towards a non sold person?

There are more questions than answers, till the next time – to raising questions.

In today’s business world using social media is part of the strategy but similar to other aspects of life, some with be good and others not so. The book The Impact Equation written by Chris Brogan and Julien Smith published by Portfolio Books/Penguin, NY, 2012 will help the social media releases create impact with the formula Impact = C x (R+E+A+T+E)  or CREATE. The letters stand for Contrast, Reach, Exposure, Articulation, Trust and Echo.

Articulation is to seed ideas in anyone’s mind without creating unnecessary barriers. One method is to tell your story like the person is 6 years old. To do this, use small words which will allow people to connect to the idea and learn to make them their own. To have impact especially one that contrasts against people’s expectations is better. Try an exercise using small words

Describe what you do for work. Describe what your company does.

Describe the movie the Matrix.

If you won $ 5 million, what would you do with it?

What do you want most in a new hire or colleague?

Now that you can use small words, the trick is learning which words to choose. Which words can you lose to pare down the idea? What aspect do you need to write a few more words to explain what your idea is. The process is called the synthesis or narrowing down the information to what really matters to help connect the dots for the reader.

There are many ideas, hopefully too many for you to act on all on them, how do your narrow them down to the do list?

Business Ideas

1. Does this idea fit our mission and goals for the year and beyond?

2. Is the new idea revenue generating (or cost cutting)?

3. What would it take (money/time/resources) to get the idea launched?

4. Who would champion this idea and do they have the time?

5. Does it meet our Internal Rate of Return expectation?

6. How much money can we make and is it worth it?

Creative Ideas

1. Does this idea connect with any of the themes of my work?

2. Does this idea stretch me as an artist?

3. Can I use my skills to execute this idea?

4. How much time and other materials are involved in this idea?

5. Do I care whether this idea is salable or not?

Making a point is easier if you are brief. Articulation is about picking the best words to allow people to respond and buy into the idea.

Look at your favourite ads what do they say and why? In the overwhelming majority of cases you will see brevity is a selling point.

Linking to dividend paying stocks, one easy method is to look at how the company is selling itself. Are the ads clear or from your opinion needs to be cleaned up to tell the story. In the President’s letter to the shareholders what great ideas were highlighted, ask about the process from idea to product or service.

There are more questions than answers, till the next time – to raising questions.

In today’s business world using social media is part of the strategy but similar to other aspects of life, some with be good and others not so. The book The Impact Equation written by Chris Brogan and Julien Smith published by Portfolio Books/Penguin, NY, 2012 will help the social media releases create impact with the formula Impact = C x (R+E+A+T+E)  or CREATE. The letters stand for Contrast, Reach, Exposure, Articulation, Trust and Echo.

Contrast is an idea has to be similar but different from what is out there. Other words are differentiation, positioning, interest.

Reach  – the higher number of people you connect with, the more influential your idea can become

Exposure is how often you connect to them.

Articulation is being understood instantly

Trust is trust but you need to know why people trust you

Echo is about the feeling of connection you give your reader, visitor or participant.

Contrast is about ideas and understanding them. The shape of an idea matters. Every idea has a sender and a receiver.The receiver must be open for the idea to take root or have resonance. They have to get it.

Human beings are powerful pattern recognition machines, we do it very well. It helps us see what works and what does not; it helps us see which of our actions are worth repeating and which are not. Contrast is about pattern breaking and the first method to do this is think about who the message is for. Thus contrast is about strong positioning of your ideas which allows it to create value. To come up with the ideas there is a process which helps

1. What is the goal of the idea? why do you need one?

2. How does this idea fit my existing framework? does it?

3. How much work does this idea add to my life?

4. What will it take to accomplish this idea? List what will it take to get your idea going.

5. What additional resources do I need to make this idea work?

6. How will I know whether to keep going or quit?  A useful resource is The Lean Startup by Eric Ries. He uses the term pivot which refers to the moment a start-up has to decide whether to press on with the original idea or pivot to a new angle.

7. When will I be done?  is the ideas temporary? what makes it a success or failure?

How will you know you have a good idea?

Good ideas make you feel ….  something, anything!

Good ideas attach themselves to other concepts in the brain

Good ideas fulfill a need.

If no need is being fulfilled an idea will die a quick death, the challenge will be to find people with the need. In terms of attachment to other ideas, emotion plays a role.

How to use Contrast if you have an existing business:

1. Judge the value propositions of the space you are engaging in. What other offerings define the space?

2. Pan out. Is your value information or emotion? Is it entertainment or education?

3. Where must you compete and what is critical in this space in order to maintain position? If you lost an entire arm of your products would you go bankrupt?

4. What can be diminished? What really matters to the audience you are targeting? Do they really care about a given product or part of your business?

5. What can be eliminated? The values you serve are not equal to all of your customers.

Linking to dividend producing stocks, as social media continues to evolve, companies need to evolve to capture spending and to grow, how is your older established company doing it?

There are more questions than answers, till the next time – to raising questions.

If you read a newspaper one of the sections is the sports section. The reporters cover what happens on the sports field of the city particularly professional sports. The professional sports greatly helped by TV revenues but started with exposure on radio, for the TV networks professional sports are relatively inexpensive to produce, but guarantees in every game examples of determination, imagination, courage, drive, highs and lows or a microcosm portion of life. Within each sport of the hundreds of athletes which can be seen only a few emerge to change the game or dominate it with their play. Every sport has one – their names reflect the before and afterwards, before the player the sport was played; during and afterwards the player dominated a part of the game which meant everyone else had to change to both defend him or her and play like them. In the book, The Dominators – The Remarkable Athletes who Changed Their Sport Forever by Frank Orr and George Tracz published by Warwick Publishing, Toronto, 2004. Professional sports are a big field and as North Americans the sports more athletes are from there but the names are world-wide – Muhammad Ali. Lance Armstrong, Bjorn Borg, Jim Brown, Babe Didrikson, Julius Erving, Wayne Gretzky, Mia Hamm, Michael Jordan, Sandy Koufax, Nancy Lopez, Maradona, Rocky Marciano, Helen Wills Moody, Joe Namath, Martina Navratilova, Jack Nicklaus, Bobby Orr, Pele, Richard Petty, Jacques Plante, Jerry Rice, Jackie Robinson, Patrick Roy, Bill Russell, Babe Ruth, Pete Sampras, Michael Schumacher, Secretariat, Annika Sorenstam, Lawrence Taylor, Serena Williams, Tiger Woods and Cy Young,  There is no doubt other names could be put forth but the authors had to narrow the field down.

Linking to dividend paying stocks, the dominator in this case are the companies who have continued to make profits and raising their dividends on a yearly basis. The reality is there are not that many companies on the list but those on the list make it look easy to do. One of the biggest challenges on choosing the dominator is to narrow down the field which allows you to pick one of many great choices. When investing try to pick a dominator or best in class and although stock prices will go up and down, your choice will pay off well.

There are more questions than answers, till the next time – to raising questions.

There is an interesting story going on in the taxi industry, although none of the companies are public. The taxi industry is regulated by municipalities who issues plates and then drivers rent the plate to work. Those that own the plates charge rental of the plate and franchising fees for name of company and connection to the routing center. Within this heavily regulated business comes Uber who does everything by its app or mobile phone system. This means the players in the regulated system are fighting the new, how it works out in the end is anyone best guess except the cost f the rental plates at the taxi service is likely to significantly fall.

Linking to dividend paying stocks, in all industries that are regulated, someone is always offering an alternative. Often those alternatives are in left field (or far from the action) but if the correct conditions begin to allow expansion, the gateway is open. Thus you can see the near monopoly businesses fighting to save their margins and suggesting the public is better served by the existing system. It is easier to see in some industries such as the taxi one, but as an investor you need to pay attention to the alternatives of the companies you are investing in.

There are more questions than answers, till the next time – to raising questions.

Living in a North America, we have been very fortunate not to fight in a war on own soil, the situation is different in Europe where 2 world wars were fought. In each war, the place of battle and use of technology changed. Prior to the World Wars most wars were fought in the country, the change brought the war to the city. Within the cities, particularly wealthier ones is art. Some of the art was in private hands and others the art viewed by the public. If you grow up around it, you will begin to treasurer the art which is in your community either outside or in the galleries. The art in the public galleries is not for sale and is considered to be priceless by the community, what happens during war? In a book called The Rape of Europa by Lynn Nicholas published by Vintage Books, NY, 1995.

We each have a perspective of the Germany at the time of the Hitler and Nazi Party, but few books deal with their attitudes and actions towards art or at least expensive art. There were two aspects to their attitude – one Hitler wanted to established great buildings to showcase Germanic art and the development over the years; the second one concerned people they thought of less than them. They were opportunity seekers lead by Goering who first decorated his home in Carinhall and sold some to pay for the war efforts. The first group as shown by Mrs. Nicholas that researchers were sent to countries around Europe to identify which art was where and where it would go when it came back to Germany (after invasion).

The second group lead by Goering, as the Jewish population was put in ghettos, the homes which had art was taken, if it was valuable went through the process of Goering, second to German galleries and museums and then to storage areas. If the artist was Jewish it was labeled as decadent and generally went to storage. If it was expensive and owned by a Jewish family, then it was not decadent, but enriched the lives of Goering and museums.

The Germans used the same system in each country it invaded. First they sent in researchers to locate and catalogue the art, particularly if it was related to German roots. The country would invade and take the art (it was an interesting use of manpower or extreme confidence that people would not fight back or in the losses would not be great).

In each country which was invaded, people had to find ways to protect and hide the art till their country was free again.There are many wonderful stories of how people protected the art in the community.

After the war ended the operation to bring back the art to the owners has been a long one which was not the first priority of the victors. The victors first priority was to feed and cloth Europe. Art was a secondary concern, but to many countries represented different things to the people of the country and rallies for support could be done.

Linking to dividend paying stocks, the markets did not operate in wartime, which means it was very hard to sell, fortunately for many people in North America that is not our first concern. In time of war, having access to readily saleable items was important to flee and to start again. At the present time,  many stocks are listed on different exchanges and there is greater protection than in the past.

There are more questions than answers, till the next time – to raising questions

John Heinzl writing every Wednesday in the Globe and Mail about dividend stocks noted his investments did what they were expected to do and all is good. Mr. Heinzl predicted Johnson & Johnson or J&J and Proctor and Gamble (P&G) would raise their dividends in April. They both did. Reliable dividend growth is one very good reason to own these stocks and the premises profitable companies which increase their dividends is a very good way to increase your wealth with relatively low risk. Mr. Heinzl looks at what if you had bought $10,000 worth of shares in J&J 20 years ago?  Those shares would not pay you $1,875 a year in dividends; the value would have grown to $105,000 and you average return would be 12.5% a year.

J&J is in the health care field and with a rapidly aging baby boom, health care expenditures go up for we as humans need more health care at the beginning of our lives and the last 10 years of a mythical average person. In today’s low-interest environment averaging a 12.5% return on your investment with limited risk is a great return.

Linking to dividend paying stocks, there are multiple ways to invest, trying to lower the risk and maintain a healthy return is often a challenge which is made simpler investing in quality companies which are both profitable and have a history of raising their dividends over the years, J&J is a great example and there are other companies out there.

There are more questions than answers, till the next time – to raising questions.

The NHL or the National Hockey League is in the playoff season which means exciting hockey for fans of the sport. In the Globe and Mail there was an article about the Winnipeg Jets titled Jets set the bar for small-market franchises. On the same day there was a picture of some of the fans who attended the game and it seemed everyone was wearing $ 100 Winnipeg Jets’ sweaters. In simpler terms the fans are very passionate about their team being in the playoffs. How well they will do is another issue, but how did they get there is today’s subject. The commissioner of the league Gary Bettman said there were 3 reasons why the Jets are very popular in the city.

1. Ownership – they have deep pockets as well as very committed and passionate about the game. The owners have done many things correct.

2. The arena is new with the bells and whistles in it as well as seemingly to be an intimate setting.

3. the NHL has a system of parity (revenue sharing) which allows all teams to be competitive and sustainable. Although big market teams can and often spend more money.

Linking to dividend paying stocks, the 3 above reasons can easily be translated to any sector of the economy. Ownership or management is a deciding factor in the success of an organization. The building or the equipment the people use or the technology the people use to deliver their goods and services has to be current. (there are very few organizations you deal with that do not have email). The third factor is the competitive environment, in the NHL they try to keep large areas as monopolies, although the competition is whatever else people do if they were not watching hockey. When you are evaluating your investments, if you are a sports fan bridge to investments.

There are more questions than answers, till the next time – to raising questions

In the book Work in Progress written by Michael Eisner, published by Random House, NY, 1998, Mr. Eisner discusses his life and the people he has met in the entertainment world. Mr. Eisner is known for being CEO and President of Disney. While at Disney Mr. Eisner made great strides from bringing Disney back from the doldrums to creating wonderful animation to improving the theme parks to using video libraries to buying Cap Cities to gain ABC and ESPN and a multiple of things inbetween. The picture he paints is both Frank Wells and him were thinking about the long term of Disney and were very well rewarded with stock options that came in the money in the long term. On many different levels what happened at Disney was remarkable the pieces fell together and how much the goodwill the average person has to the Disney brand. Over the years, the management team tried to keep costs down and concentrate on the story for Disney is about storytelling. How well they do it over the multiple venues is a testament to the people who work there. The management team believed much of the work could be done in house as opposed to contract it out and the strong suit is the excellence of the brands and the exclusive content that Disney is in a position to provide.

Linking to dividend paying stocks, with a stock such as Disney the brand is great storytelling. If the storytelling quality goes down it is time to look at alternatives. The Disney company where there are multiple possible of cross selling and as long as it is done well, the experience will be terrific. One can imagine a cruise ship with a marvel comics theme or star wars or endless and execution within the creative design is easy to see if they are doing or it does not work. Disney has the potential to always be a work in progress linking the creative side to the financial side – as someone with goodwill to them, I want them to succeed, but every venture will not be storybook ending.

There are more questions than answers, till the next time – to raising questions.