Life as a Carny - Day Four

Yes, this is a buzz marketing blog, but I am working a carnival with my daughter this week and I am recording my new marketing insights as a carny through Sunday. See here , here and here for earlier posts. ----- Sunday the carnival ended. I am so tired from the whole thing. Alexandra made about a $40 profit for the whole four days of work. I believe the carnival was most effective from the Marketing standpoint for vendors, and not from sales. Steak and Shake was giving away tons of free food coupons when you signed up for the raffle. They donated $600 to the band, but more importantly, when we stopped down to collect on on milkshakes, the restaurant was packed. While the carnival was a bust, it did teach Alexandra about money and work. When her foot started getting soar and bleeding a bit on Saturday night, she refused to leave. When people told her about other shows, she knew she did not want to waste her time and money again. That gave me the chance to talk to her about not judging too quickly based on one result. She will be doing an analysis over the next day or two and post it on her blog at Kids Roar. Thanks for tolerating my divergence from the core buzz marketing topic.

Life as a Carny - Day Three

Yes, this is a buzz marketing blog, but I am working a carnival with my daughter this week and I am recording my new marketing insights as a carny through Sunday. See here , here and here for earlier posts. ----- Yesterday was the big day. 13 hours of work with no breaks. In the office it would not be a big deal, but in a tent on black top in 85 degree weather....yuck. Alexandra did a good job with being elastic on price. At first she would drop the price right away, but we made the rule that she would offer to drop the price if they took a step away. She will probably loose money. She is up to $230. If she sells $60 more today she will break even on the booth... Speaking of booths. I guess my carny slang is not very honed yet. Tom Hoey wrote in a comment

"FYI. Carnies do not call their games or food operations...booths. They call games their joints and food operations are grabs. Check out the Carny Lingo at http://www.carnytown.com/ They occasionally do say, "we'll make the rent" or it's a blank or a bust. They would never say booth. A booth is in a restaurant or bar...where you sit. Just a little info from a real carny."

Here is the cool thing. I wrote my blog post about being a carny and within 24 hours I had carnies reading it. My post was quoted in other carny blogs and I never promoted it. It just shows how quickly you can reach different people. It also shows how quickly you can reach your target market if you know what your target market is.

Carnival Business Lessons Learned:

• Wear sunscreen even if you are under a canopy.
• Coming down a buck or two does make a difference.
• Many vendors at carnivals are highly educated people just trying to create buzz in the community.
• Be nice to the other vendors because they will buy things from you. (It is almost a BtoB setting. Or I should say Joint to Joint setting)
• Talk to the other vendors and get an idea of where the good shows are. They all agree this one we are at is not a busy/profitable one....but then why are they there?

I know I am looking forward to going back to my nice cool office, where I do not have to move heavy boxes and try to talk kids into buying $11 dinosaurs.

Life as a Carny - Day Two

Yes, this is a buzz marketing blog, but I am working a carnival with my daughter this week and I am recording my new marketing insights as a carny through Sunday. See here and here for earlier posts. ------ Friday was tiring. I talked to some of the other booths and they are getting worried as well. "Will we make our booth", they were asking. That is new carny slang I learned for making enough to cover the cost of booth rent. Alexandra, my nine year old, spent $145 for the booth, $600 for inventory, $95 on a tent and $20 on a sign. In two days of hard work she has brought in $85. Of course, Saturday will be a big day and she is selling some of that inventory on the kids roar website as well. Alexandra quickly learned that when people say they are coming back they are liars most of the time. (I would lie too, it is just human nature.) I told her then she needs to close the sale when they are at the booth the first time. Today she might try dropping the price one dollar if they buy the first time. On a different note, beside us is a Steak and Shake booth that is doing a raffle. You buy a ticket and get in the raffle to win a bike.....but then you also spin a wheel and get coupons for free stuff at steak and shake. It always works out to be worth more than what you put in. They are donating the proceeds to the band boosters. What great buzz marketing. Alexandra and I have already had shakes. In my upcoming buzz marketing book I talk about unexpected booths and organizing fund raisers to create buzz for yourself and this is an excellent example of restaurant buzz marketing. Their booth is always packed. There is also an insurance agent that has a booth and it has been interesting to see him work. He is so friendly and knows enough people in the community that he always has a bunch of people around talking to him. He also keeps giving the vendors free drinks, and when one vendor accused him of trying to buy him as a client, the insurance guys response was "hell yeah". Not beating around the bush and a great way to work the vendors. All in all I think that promoting on the web is more effective than being a carny, but I have heard that some of these festivals you can really do well at. For now I am just trying to keep Alexandra's enthusiasm high. She is tired, but gets very excited every time someone buys something.

Good Stories Spread

A good story that makes people smile will spread without a lot of effort. The same goes for eCommerce. Thanks Guys

• Landing the Deal
• Woodruff Direct
• BizInformer

My Life as a Carny

OK, so working one day at a carnival booth may not get me into the inner workings of carny life, but it is a different environment. For those that do not know, my daughter started a business called Kids Roar last year when she was 8. She sells her products on the web; she does speeches and puts on events. To pump up sales we decided to try a booth at a local fair. Here are some observations from the first day.

• I didn’t realize so many people still smoke.
• Teenagers love carnivals and buy silly things at them.
• People are very guarded at a carnival, even when a little kid tries to hand them a piece of paper.
• Vendors buy a lot of stuff from each other. The steak and shake booth was responsible for half of Alexandra’s sales yesterday.
• People do not notice stuff lower than 3 feet off the ground.
• The crowds have more tattoos than the carnies.
• Always have a back up plan. Many parents bulked at Alexandra’s items that are over $10. She gave them the option of buying 3 small plastic horses for $1 so that kids did not walk away with nothing. Some adults bought these from her just because they wanted to contribute to her success.
• It is possible to create a buzz in schools. Kids were coming up to Alexandra and saying they had studied her in their class, and that what she is doing is cool

So ends my carny diary for day 1. Absolutely something outside of my comfort zone, which means I am learning a lot. We will return to your regularly scheduled buzz marketing on Monday.

Kids Roar Booth

This post is purely personal. My daughter is having her first booth for her company, Kids Roar. If you are in the Akron, Ohio area please come over to Streetsboro and say hi. It is This Thursday through Sunday. Here are the details on the kids roar blog.

Your most important trait

What is the most important trait you can have, personally and professionally, and how does it manifest itself at home and in the workplace? I guarantee that this one trait defines your success, or lack of success, at home and at work.

Only today it hit me that people carry traits from work to home, home to work, and they just show up differently even though they have the same root. I know that I am going to get blamed for ruining people's day with this post, but here it goes....

The trait is: Taking responsibility instead of looking for people to blame.

You have heard this before, I know. But have you considered how it manifests at work and at home for the same person?

Keep reading. There is a marketing point I am getting to.

At home and in social settings, someone that takes responsibility will give people the benefit of the doubt. They will get burned occasionally, but they will chalk that up as a learning experience. Since they see themselves as the master of their domain, they will feel confident that they are improving and they are helping the people around them improve.

The opposite of this trait are those people that blame. The world is not easy for them and it is everyone else’s fault. Sometimes it very well could be someone else’s fault, but by not taking responsibility for their contribution to a situation, they are not learning or improving. These people start building arguments for why other people caused a situation or why they failed before it occurs.

Based only on my own unscientific observations over time, which has included many years as an entrepreneur and manager, I am going to make a troubling statement:

There are many times the numbers of people that blame than there are those that take responsibility, and people that blame are not employable.

Ouch.

Why are blamers not employable? It is probably obvious by now.

Blamers will never be happy. No amount of money, no cushy job and no relationship can ever make them happy. They are planning for the failures in their head all the time. At work, they will try to take less responsibility and they will be upset with any task that is outside of their narrow job description. Instead of thinking about how to be successful at a new task, they will start devising excuses for the failure that they are sure is coming.

Buzz Marketing with Winners

Buzz Marketing with employees is only going to be successful if you have a group of people that take responsibility and enjoy the challenge. They accept the responsibility of helping create a more successful business and they do not feel entitled to anything that they did not earn. People that take responsibility are winners even when they fail. They are not afraid to make a mistake and take responsibility when they do make one, and learn from it. They also enjoy life and celebrate success because they take responsibility for the good and the bad.

The good news is that once a blamer becomes aware of this, they can work at it and make the shift. I would suggest reading all kinds of empowering books and keeping aware that they are in charge of their life.

Two good friends of mine have books that, at their root, address this issue.

Career Intensity is excellent at taking responsibility for your career.

Make It Great is about not settling for good. Make your life great.

More Stuff vs. Better Stuff: How feature creep effects buzz and your future?

This is a buzz marketing note to those technology entrepreneurs out there. Feature Creep is when people keep asking for new features and you keep adding them for clients. You end up with a bloated system that is difficult to manage. It is easy for entrepreneurs to fall into a trap. The trap is in your mind when you rationalize that it is a good idea because it will make the product better. It is also difficult for new entrepreneurs to say no. The simple truth is, you should listen to your clients and you should consider every suggestion, but keep some simple things in mind.

• People buy software that they understand and can easily use. Not because the software has 100’s of features.
• Better software that is easy to use and easy to achieve results with, will be sticky and generate buzz.
• If you continue to add features but not improve the base product, you will end up with a support nightmare at some point as you try to support many features that each have a few users and are mediocre.
• Just because one person wants it does not mean everyone wants it.
• Just because you can do it does not mean you should.

Feature Creep is a big Buzz Marketing issue, believe it or not. Buzz and Word of Mouth happens for products that are easy to use and have a surprisingly big benefit. If you are a technology entrepreneur focus on making a great product and choose your new features wisely, and you will be on your way to generating the sales you dream of.

The Long Tail and Buzz Marketing

I am currently reading The Long Tail. While I already had an understanding of the basic premise, it is still a fun read. It got me thinking about how Buzzoodle is the Long Tail of buzz marketing. A normal buzz marketing or word of mouth marketing firm is going to try to sell you on a campaign. A set of activities that will climax and achieve incredible buzz. Of course, the idea of 3 or 6 months leading up to buzz that changes the company is not practical. In some cases it may work, but in many more it will just produce noise and a blip in marketing that will quickly fade. The Long Tail says that the majority of products are not best sellers. But when you take them in aggregate, they produce incredible sales. (I am simplifying) Instead of focusing on one buzz marketing or word of mouth marketing campaign, create a culture of buzz. Buzzoodle instructs clients to get everyone involved in creating a little buzz on a regular basis. In aggregate, you get more buzz and longer lasting return on your investment most of the time. The long tail makes perfect sense in marketing. If you consistently choose marketing that continues to give you a return after many months, you will develop a long tale of people hearing about you.

Why Smart Employees Create Buzz

The Employee as Advocate It is obvious that organizations benefit from employees creating buzz. How do the employees and other advocates benefit? The reality is that employees who create buzz for an organization benefit in many ways.

• The organization has more success which provides employee with more security.
• Employees that contribute more to organization’s success could expect more opportunities and rewards in the future.
• A work atmosphere that encourages buzz is frequently a more open and fun environment.
• Creating buzz gives employees an opportunity to learn about and use new technologies and improve communication skills.
• Employees who become active buzz creators become can become respected as industry experts over time and may get invited to speak and write.
• Employees who are good buzz creators will have other opportunities from within an organization and from outside as well.
• Good buzz creators tend to know more people and can accomplish more in life via their extensive network.

Remember it is a win/win situation. Sell yourself, sell your expertise and sell your employer.

Publishing your Marketing Secrets

A good friend of mine is putting together a marketing book with 100 marketing experts contributing to it. Here is the info: --------- I'm sending this invitation to you to join me and 93 other marketing experts to contribute one chapter in a new book, 100 Marketing Secrets to Small Business Mastery, written by Marketing Experts. Although marketing is one of the most important aspects of the success of a business, it can also be the most difficult. In fact, as a business owner, how do you bring fresh marketing ideas to your business that work? We are looking for Marketing "secrets" that are proven , that works and you are willing to share. We have no preconceived ideas about marketing and as a result we know there are some unique and different ideas that would be well accepted if known and understood. Our objective is to find the best 100 marketing secrets that work and put all these great secrets into a book for the small business owner. Once I have 93 ideas I am going to shut down the process so if two people have the same idea the first one wins. Here is how it works: I would ask you fill out the form and tell me the topic you wish to write about. When I received your draft of between 600-1200 words I will let you know if our team of judges a will accept the article. If your article is accepted you agree to purchase 100 books at $6 each. You may give the books away, sell them to recoup your investment, send them to prospects to show them the elite company you are in, etc. If there are changes or someone else has a the same or similar topic you will be notified and given an opportunity to submit a new topic or correct the existing article. Once accepted, we will take all the articles and have them edited to ensure they fit the guidelines and send them back to you for review. When we complete the book you will receive your 100 books. Out first run is planned at 10,000 to 15,000 copies. Of course you are not limited to 100 copies. If you want to purchase more let me know and we will give you a price. As the publisher this book, and author of two of my own books, I plan to bring a voice to subjects that benefit others. Your contribution will allow business owners to achieve a greater understanding of business and business marketing. Let me tell you more about the other marketing experts have joined me in this book. We have seven highly skilled and very accomplished authors who have joined us so far. They include: Join Dr. Tony Alessandra, author of The Platinum Rule and 14 other books on sales and marketing, Rick Barrera, the best selling author of OverPromise and OverDeliver, Terry Brock, a genus in relationship marketing, David Garfinkel, a world famous marketing copyrighter, Dr. Pete Johnson, an internationally acclaimed expert on Competitive Strategic Marketing, Bob Scheinfeld, author of The Invisible Path to Success and The 11th Element, and Thomas Winninger, the author of the best selling books MarketQuake, Price Wars, Full Price and Sell Easy and his just published book BULLSEYE! - What Market Leaders are doing to consistently HIT the BULLSEYE! They have teamed up me, Ron Finklestein, Small Business Success Expert and author of Celebrating Success! Fourteen Ways to Create a Successful Company, to provide this unique and one of a kind solution. This is not self publishing. We are different in that we already have a contract with New York Publishing House. As a contributing author you would be able to state that you are published with some of the biggest names in the industry. We will get this book on Amazon and Barns and Noble. We are negotiating with several different book marketing companies to promote the book and gain the widest possible distribution. What's in to for you? There's the obvious advantage for the contributors that they are now published authors. Many of the authors speak about the topic, and having a book is a great way to establish credibility. There is the benefit of cross promotion between the authors, and of course, the book will be a very effective marketing tool and a useful gift for current and past clients. Being a published author and having a book to your credit...

• Establishes your credibility as an expert. Potential clients will be more inclined to work with you knowing you are a published author.
• With your credibility, you will be able to increase your fees.
• A published book raises your influence and prestige like no other marketing tool.
• Your book becomes a magnet to attracting clients.
• Having a book creates new opportunities, including speaking engagements.
• Of course, your name is listed on the back cover.

The short bio will be included at the end of your chapter to give you credit for your contribution and position you as an expert in your particular brand of marketing.

When you indicate an interest in becoming a contributing author, I will set up a phone call to discuss your ideas and direction of writing. When you let me know you have decided to participate, I will email you a contract for your review. Contributing authors will be completely confirmed only with receipt of deposit and signed agreement.

The spaces have been filling. If you want to contribute a chapter, Press the link below and fill in the required information and we will contact you within 24 hours of receiving your information. I recommend that you respond now, and let me know you want to do it.

http://www.yourbusinesscoach.net/marketing-anthology-registration.html

This is an exciting opportunity for all of the contributing authors to have a product to sell. Joining give you the opportunity to reach audiences you might never reach on your own. If you know of any other marketing experts who might be interested in participating as a contributing author, please let me know their name and email address. I'll send them this letter, and tell them you recommended them.

If you have additional questions email me at ron@yourbusinesscoach.net or just click on this link http://www.akris.net/marketing-anthology-registration.html and enter the required information.

Buzzoodle Buzz Marketing - Coming Fall 2006

The Buzzoodle Buzz Marketing Book

Put Buzzoodle Buzz Marketing in the hands of every employee in your organization and watch the world start talking about you.

Buzzoodle Buzz Marketing contains clear steps to creating buzz online and off. Most of the buzz marketing challenges can be done by anyone and many can be done in 5 minutes or less.

This book is a quick read with clear steps to building buzz for individuals and organizations.

Add your name to our waiting list if you are interested in developing a clear buzz marketing strategy that gets the people in your organization working together towards bigger success. You will be notified as soon as Buzzoodle Buzz Marketing is available for preorder.

Sign Up Here

I am perfect

It is nice to be me because I am absolutely perfect. One of the many qualities that make me perfect is my ability to forgive the people around me for being less than perfect. It is a tough world for people that don't forgive others for their lack of perfection, just as it is a tough world for people who do not look in the mirror and smile. If you want to create some buzz you have to build relationships. You have to be confident in who you are, and you have to accept the fact that EVERYONE will eventually do something that makes you mad, annoyed or upset. Accept that fact that you are the only person in the world that is perfect. You are the only person you are always going to agree with. When you build honest, forgiving relationships you will have more advocates and friends. Who turned this thing into a damn self help blog! I have to go have a talk with myself.

A baby among blogs

Congratulations to Dan Tudor. He and his wife just had a son. Dan has an excellent blog on landing the deal. My favorite thing about blogging has been the great people I have gotten to know. Dan has been fun, frank and active in promoting others as well as himself. I have not gotten to know people in the social networking sites like I have via blogging. Stop by and tell him congratulations.

Are you letting your Army drift away?

Growing up, we always looked forwards to walk-a-thons and bike-a-thons. I guess the money went to help some cause or another, usually cancer I think. I do not remember if we got a thank you after the fact. We did it because it was fun. Now I wonder why they did not keep in touch. Sure, I am old and keeping in touch was more expensive back then, but we were an army of kids going door to door collecting money for them. They could have built a much more powerful advocacy group if they got creative. Who is your army of advocates and potential advocates? What are you doing to keep them your advocates when they are not directly involved? Your Potential Army is bigger than you think:

• Employees
• Customers
• Family
• Friends
• Ex Employees
• Co-workers from previous jobs
• Classmates from school
• Suppliers/vendors you do business with
• Other business owners in your community
• Business Reporters and bloggers
• Local government officials (While they cannot promote you, they like to talk about success stories)

OK, so you have a lot of potential advocates. Now what? Begin by setting some very long term goals for yourself and for your business. Some examples might be to double your referrals. One may be to find a new job or to find new employees. Now build a database of your advocates and start communicating with them periodically. Do not start your first communication as “I need…” Build the relationship back up and when they ask how you have been, that is the opportunity to say, “I am well, thanks. I would be much better if I could…” Don’t do it for the goals though. Do it because you want to. Do it because you want to help the people that also care about your success. This is the road to growing your army of advocates.

Blog comments - How do they effect you?

The funny thing about blogs and the comments is that it is an open invitation to slightly promote yourself. People are so self conscious of the comment that they fear posting something. Our friend Phil at Make It Great has a lot of traffic and is asking for people to post, but still only has 2 comments as of 10:00 AM on July 17th. Get over there and post something. Create a little buzz for yourself. He even gives you a format, to make it really easy.

Do they love work?

David Lorenzo at Career Intensity has a nice post about knowing if your job is right for you.... If your employees feel this way, they are waiting on direction from you on how to create more buzz.

Ingenutiy Festival - Cleveland

Today starting at 2:00 (until late) I will be volunteering at the Red Room Revolution booth at the Ingenuity Festival in Cleveland. Stop by and say hi. If you follow what I write, you know that I practice what I preach. (This blog is one way of many I create buzz.) Volunteering and being involved in local economic development are other ways I create buzz. I will make about $10 today in drink money, but I will also get to meet a bunch of people, and that I find fun and valuable.

Go Big Network - Building a place for entrepreneurs to meet.

I was down in Columbus to meet a client yesterday, and we took time to meet up with some local entrepreneurs. We met Eric Corl and Wil Schroter from GoBig. They had great energy and vision, and it was a lot of fun. If you are involved in business, the goBIG network is great. I get a lot of buzz by posting select blog posts in their blog tool (which is more of an aggregated.) Check them out at: www.gobignetwork.com and feel free to look me up and add me as a connection.

Creating Buzz with your Existing Customers

Yesterday I was talking to one of our long time clients. He is enamored with a new feature in our Outstanda eMarketing solution that allows him to build databases on the fly. I am worried he is going to spend his whole weekend building simple data forms. As I was guiding him through some of the special features he asked if there is a way to do a grid. Why not use surveys? I asked. Those are just for eNewsletters, aren't they? He asked back. No, You can do huge research projects with this thing..... He'd been a client for years and never realized some of the key features and products he had under his nose and free for him to use. Within 24 hours of finding this out, he was so excited he was out creating buzz and sent us a referral. My point is this: Make sure your existing customers know everything you do, even if they do not need everything you do today.

Success Secrets for your Personal Buzz Marketing

Here are some basic principles that will help you be more successful with buzz challenges. These success secrets are centered around building quality relationships and being generous. Keep these in mind when buzzing and you will be building good will and standing out from the crowd.

• Talk less than half the time. A good listener will always stand out more than someone that dominates a conversation and does not give others a chance to express themselves
• Build a personal network even if you do not need it. You may not be in sales and you may not need to know lots of people, but start behaving like a network is essential to your job and success. A strong network will always pay dividends eventually.
• Don’t be afraid of Link Love. Link to other people’s websites, blogs and other online resources and they will often link back to you.
• Don’t hold back. Connect with people when you have the chance. Say hi and smile more. Don’t wait for someone else to break the ice.
• Give generously. No, don’t give away your money. Give people value by making introductions with people they will benefit knowing. Give people information they will like reading. Give value and knowledge without worrying about how you are going to make money that day.

Buzz depends on people talking to other people. It starts with you. Build good will and great relationships and creating buzz will be a much easier task.

Amanda Congdon & Rocketboom

First my confession. I'd heard of this Rocketboom before but had never taken the time to check it out. I'd never heard of Amanda Congdon. This post is for people just like me. You see, I started seeing so much news about it that I had to check it out. If you are unfamiliar with this, check out the CNN article. The article mentions blogs, Craigs list, video blogging and how to become well known on a shoe string. If you go to Technorati, Rocketboom and Amanda Congdon are top searches. I have seen mention on several big name blogs, which is what first brought them to my attention. I frequently talk about making every employee into an expert or celebrity. Here is a great example of someone who has done it. Just be sure to have a back up plan.

Frontier Towns and the Internet

I live in a city that is celebrating 200 years of history this year. It got me thinking about what it was like back then. With a few thousand dollars and the spirit of adventure, you could set off into the wild and not just strike gold, but build a city. Heck, lots of people were founding cities. You bought some land, ideally along a river, path or railroad, and you started your buzz marketing campaign. “Come live in the best new city in Ohio…” Practically anyone could do it. If you got a good location and good buzz, you succeeded. The Internet really is the new frontier. Myspace is a big city. Look at the July 2006 trend briefing at trend watching. If you think of your new Web 2.0 system as a new city you need to create buzz for, you have a much bigger chance to succeed.

What is your Niche Attitude?

In business, we know that by focusing on a niche we can often be more successful. If you try to be everything to everyone, you are a watered down jack of all trades and no one will see you as a specialist. Many small business owners water down their attitude as well. They are afraid of offending someone and loosing sales. By no means am I suggesting you go out and upset people, but take some time to figure out what attitudes make you who you are and take pride in them, even if not everyone agrees. For example, I have an attitude that many business owners do not like. I believe that if an employee is not willing to spend 5 minutes a day on their own time creating buzz for where they work, it is grounds to fire them. I believe that is the owner’s responsibility to provide guidance, encouragement and incentives to do this, and that employees along with owners and management must do it. Period. You would be surprised at how many owners have said “But my employees hate working for me…” Then stop worrying about buzz marketing and fix that problem first. That is my Niche Attitude. Love it. Hate it. I don’t care. (And yes, I know it is easier said than done.) What is your niche attitude? Use the comment option on this blog to let us know, if you are brave enough.

Reenergize your advocates

Whether you have a small group of people that care about your success or a world cup soccer stadium full of raving, fanatical fans, it is always good to reenergize your base whenever possible. How do you do this? Ideally, you have a way to contact people that are fans of yours. It may be an email list, it could be a newsletter and it could be doing presentations at regular networking or social groups. How do you reenergize them?

• New product release
• Big Success Story
• Discount offered for referrals only
• Contest
• Survey

For example, for the last week I have been doing marketing research on the mock up’s of our new book cover. People stay after meetings just to participate and one person today said “Make sure you let us help you promote it.” (As if I will say no….) Don’t assume people are keeping you top of mind. Having something new and interactive will help you energize that base and get people to actively think about you again.

Interview Questions - Starting trends on other blogs.

Over at Career Intensity David used my Interview Question post to start a trend of his own. If you have some favorites, send them to him.

Should your company be in Fast Company?

Celebrating success stories in the Akron Ohio area could get your company profiled in Fast Company. I just found out the top 12 will be published. If you do not qualify for this conference, find one you do qualify for. Nominations are a good way to create buzz.

Favorite Interview Questions

Whether marketing interview questions or technology interview questions, this list of 5 interview questions will help you cut through the clutter and find out who the applicant really is. I am listing these here, because to hire great people that are going to buzz about your organization, you have to look past the skill set and find out if they are capable of creating buzz for you. Here are 5 interview questions to add to the basics.

What are the last 3 books you have read and when did you read them?

What is the most important thing you have learned outside of school?

Who are the 3 most influential people you know personally and how did you meet them?

What is the worst product or service you have experienced in the last year and why? What could have made the experience positive?

Why did you choose this career? Why do you stay in it?

10 Ways to Make It Great!

A friend of mine has a great book out on attitude. 10 Ways to Make It Great! by Phil Gerbyshak ISBN: 1-4196-2998-0 It's a quick read that will brighten your day.