Shift Happens Video

Exhilarating and depressing all at the same time. Worth 6 minutes of your time.

15 Tips on Using Wiki in the Office

Interesting article on using Wikipedia to collaborate in your office, regardless of the industry. Wish I could tell you more, but I’m not as wiki-savvy as I should be. Thanks to Blog Bites Man for the link:

How to use a wiki for marketing (15 ideas) « Blog Bites Man

How to use a wiki for marketing (15 ideas) « Blog Bites Man

What is your Big, Comfy Chair?

About 10 years ago, I can remember arguing with friends inside of a Barnes & Noble over reading the books in the store. Many of them would tell me how they loved to go stake a claim in the store, grab a book and read it through. But never buy it.

“It’s not a library!” I would always argue.

“But they’ve got big comfy chairs,” my friends always seemed to rebut.

I was pretty set in my principles. I thought my arguing was helping out Barnes & Noble. I felt like I was standing up for their business model, and identifying those who were taking advantage of it. I was an ambassador, a protector. “Don’t sit around and read the books,” I would say. “Buy it, and read it at home like a normal person. This is business, not a pool hall.”

Looking back, I don’t think Barnes & Noble wanted me as their ambassador. Looking back, I can see I was wrong about their business model, too. They thrive on people hanging out for hours in the store, reading books they’ll never buy. It’s really quite obvious – they have big, comfy chairs.

Drew details what’s really going on here in his post. Now, the most successful businesses seem to be experts at the facilitation of “hanging out.” Drew gives examples of brick and mortar businesses, but it’s becoming even more important to create a hangout space on the web. As you look at the most successful sites on the web right now, they’re all about community. That’s nothing new. Sites like Twitter.com and, of course, MySpace have taken web community to the next level, and people spend lots of time on those sites, just like people spend lots of time at Barnes & Noble. Those sites have an online version of a big, comfy chair that’s fitted perfectly for certain people.

So why do we like hanging out, and how does it lead to actually buying something at the place we’re hanging out? There are a few reasons, but I think it comes down to a simple reaction to being overwhelmed with messages in our lives. The TV screams at us, radio screams at us, email screams at us, the web screams at us. But we can’t handle all that anymore – there’s just too much. Instead, there’s something inside us that prompts us to get to know the business. Date it, even. There’s an initial attraction, we go explore it, but we don’t dive in head first. We test it, observe it, then take another step. Then another. Then we start to enjoy the whole experience. We realize it’s not just a one-trick pony; there’s depth to this business. We keep it going for as long as it takes, and then we’re convinced that this relationship is a good thing, and we open up.

We buy a book. Probably lots of them.

And it all started with the big, comfy chair.

You are part of the 40%

A telling bit of news here on Steve Rubel’s blog about new bloggers and new blog readers. Seems as though 40% of the population has a least read a blog post in the last year, and it’s climbing at a staggering pace. Interestingly enough, the number of bloggers is rather steady.

Here’s a quick two cents on this:

• An increase in reading vs. a flatline in writers = more bloggers seen and recognized as pretty reliable authorities in their areas.
• Content is king; give people something worth their time, and they’ll come back.
• Make it quick – one of the beauties of reading blogs is that it is in crumb-sized pieces, and it’s focused.

Give That Extra 5%

Great site here with what appears to be a simple idea that could result in greatness. Thanks to Home4Business for passing it along.

There’s no substitute for one really big, great idea, obviously, but sometimes doing a smidge more across the board can lead to huge gains, too. In other words, sometimes the best idea is implementing several good ideas.

Supply is the New Demand

We’re starting to stray from the pillar of business that says that supply and demand are equal partners in a proven cycle that has the power to either explode or implode your business.

Now, in many cases, where your product and/or idea is supplied often creates the demand. The demand is becoming a result of the supply, or better yet, how it is supplied.

Get your product in the right mega-store, and it will sell. How often do you go to Target and buy something you had no intention of buying? The fact that it is there, staring you in the face creates the need.

Get your webpage on Digg.com, and the traffic will start flooding in, exponentially. (By the way, you can dig this post while you’re at it . . . . 

Get your song on the homepage of iTunes, and watch it soar.

Get your book on Books – Bestsellers of Amazon.com and the sales will inevitably grow.

Get your video on this page and watch the views take off.

It’s even as simple as someone at work putting candy on their desk. You might not have wanted it before, and you might not have any reason to go to that person’s desk otherwise, but I guarantee you you’ll be visiting all day with your new desire for sweets. All because the supply created the demand.

So the question is where can you supply what you’re writing/selling/thinking/offering?

We’ll talk about the who and when in another post.

Weekend Reading, March 2 – March 4

Some cool articles and posts I dug this weekend:

1. Nice post here at WebWorkerDaily on new ways to make money online. I thought the notes on Lulu.com were extremely interesting.
2. Todd And points us to this really cool billboard ad.
3. Michael has a great “Note from Boss to Employee.” First, this post is awesome. Second, some idiot decided to leave a real cocky comment under an anonymous name. I commented and expressed how I feel about that, so be sure to read it.
4. Scott Burns, a Dallas Morning News columnist, had this to say about Home Depot in Sunday’s paper. Interesting to see how Home Depot has fallen from grace.

So what’s Web 2.0?

This video is worth you time. It’s a great way of showing what Web 2.0 is all about. I don’t completely understand it, but I think we can be sure that “this web thing” is completely changing everything, and the rate at which it’s happening now is astounding.

By the way, this video is spreading like wildfire. I’ve seen it on three major blogs in just the last 3 days . . ..