Nathan Hangen

Be the Best at What You Do

Catapulting to the Top

I was thinking the other day about how TMZ came out of nowhere and became the dominant presence in the celebrity gossip niche virtually overnight. They broke the MJ story, got the LeBron video, and have been on top of every other news outlet in the world. They’ve done it in a highly competitive industry, thanks largely in part to theirCEO’s vision and willingness to do what it takes to get the story before anyone else does.

Looking at some of the other dominant faces in the business world, such as Apple (iPhone/iPod), Google (search), Cervelo (triathlon bikes), Nike (shoes/apparrell), etc…you’ll see that there is a common trend between most of these companies. Sure, marketing has a lot to do with it, but the key is knowing the importance of having a good product to market. All of these companies, at least during their most successful years, became popular because they are or were the best at what they do..
Becoming a Legend

People are trying to duplicate the iPhone, but they can’t. No one can touch Google…haven’t been able to for years. Cervelo is the most popular triathlon bike manufacturer in the world, and Nike became a legend thanks to the way they revolutionized the sporting goods industry.

What I’m trying to say here is that if you start a business, you need to excel in one specific area and become the best at what you do. If you sell widgets, you need to make the best damn widget in that niche. If it isn’t the best, then you’d better have a proprietary feature that kicks ass.
How to Become #1

If you aren’t the best, then you will be competing with every other company for that 2nd slot, which in my opinion, is much harder to achieve than the first. After a while, everyone gives up trying to be #1, but there are lots of companies that won’t settle for less than #2.

TMZ became the best by focusing on being the first to break major stories. Now that they’ve been able to do it more than once, they’ve taken the #1 spot and are unlikely to give it up any time soon.

The same goes for many of the other companies on this list, including many that aren’t. Once they surged to that #1 spot, they not only kept it for years, but put many other companies out of business.

Quite simply, if you want to create a successful business, you have to be the best at what you do. You can scrape by if you like, but the one and only true way to go big time is to put out the best product in the marketplace. Do that and then market it well…you will find that #1 is not only within reach, but very likely to be yours.

What if You Couldn’t Smile?

But I’m Smiling on the Inside!

This might end up being an odd post, but I was inspired by something that happened to me today and I can’t help but to see how this post ends up. One of my least favorite things to do is to get dental work, but in a dentist’s chair was exactly where I found myself today. I didn’t need anything major, just a few old cavities to be fixed. It had been several years since I’d had anything more than a cleaning, but the process hadn’t changed much.

They inject you with a bunch of Novocaine and you sit until your mouth feels like it is melting and you have no control over your facial expressions. Then, for some reason known only to those in the medical field, they begin to try and have conversations with you. Don’t they realize that you have no control over the movements of your face? Don’t they realize that you feel like an idiot trying to move your mouth to communicate? Is this some sort of joke?

But…I digress. I made it out of the chair alive and they sent me on my way. As usual though, the medicine hadn’t worn off yet and my face was still numb as hell for another 2 hours or so. This is where it hit me, over the course of several attempted conversations. I realized that I couldn’t smile, at least I didn’t feel like I could.

What this did to my personality was amazing. Not being able to smile made me feel like an outsider. I couldn’t respond emotionally to people that I wanted to thank or send a little reassurance to. I couldn’t act like myself, and I felt terribly uncomfortable. Such an odd reaction for such a simple thing lost.

What I realized is that being able to smile is a gift. Smiling can literally change the way you feel about yourself, your life, and others around you. I hadn’t anticipated this reaction, but it happened nonetheless.

Odd to think that something we do so often can be taken for granted the way it is. To experiment yourself, try going to get some dental work done…no, just kidding. Seriously though, just try and spend a day without smiling and see how it makes you feel. See how it changes the way you interact with people. If your experience is anything like mine was, you’ll probably feel like an onlooker, rather than someone that belongs where you are. A small distinction I know, but sometimes small things can change our worlds in amazing ways.
Smiling In Other Places

Now, take this concept to the internet world, where many of us play. Take a look at your interactions online and examine how “happy” they are. Do you phrase things differently on a bad day?

I used to work for a direct marketing company and we’d have to make phone appointments in order to survive. Our motto was “smile when you dial,” and it really made a difference. The same thing applies to your interaction with others in the social media landscape. Sometimes, a simple can make a big difference.

Even if your comments look neutral, sometimes just trying to spin your Tweets, comments, and replies in a positive light, rather than a neutral or negative, can have a big impact on the reaction you receive.

What do you think?

Why I’m Removing Twitter Updates from Facebook

The Time Crunch

Let’s face it. As bloggers and business owners, we don’t have a lot of time to spare on social networks. Personally, I like to spend time on Twitter, but I don’t have a lot of extra time for Facebook, YouTube, and LinkedIn. Sure, I make time when I can, but it just isn’t that easy to find time in an already jam packed day. This is why I tried to cut corners and use Twitter to automatically update my status in Facebook. I used this feature for several months and thought it was working well, but it looks like I was wrong and now I’ve decided to pull the plug.
What Went Wrong

I use Facebook different than many people. I don’t keep a fan page (I have one I just don’t use it) because I like to stay connected and I think that having a fan page can at times look pompous. I don’t have 5,000 friends on Facebook because I just don’t have time to get there. As a result, I’ve got a mix of old friends, new friends, family, and associates that see my status updates. Although most of my business associates, blog readers, and fellow networkers understand the use of Twitter with Facebook, I would constantly receive comments from people about how many status updates I had on Facebook. Many of them simply didn’t get it and worse…many didn’t want to.

My family and friends don’t need to see what I’m doing on Twitter. It simply doesn’t interest them. My old high school pals thought I was crazy and wondered who I was talking to. They want to talk about their kids, their jobs, and their pictures…not blogs, RT’s, and social media.

I thought maybe I could educate them…pique their interest. I was wrong. They simply don’t care.
Why It Doesn’t Matter

No one told me to remove my updates, but I knew that someone might eventually. I didn’t want to be removed from news feeds and I didn’t want to scare away any friends or family members. I realized that posting the same message everywhere can be rather redundant and I’m thankful for the lesson in humility and in understanding an audience. The fact is, if people want to learn about what I do on Twitter, they can follow me there. Nothing wrong with posting occassional links on Facebook that point to a Twitter page, but it is important to remember to treat Facebook like the medium it is.

I don’t believe there is anything wrong with using this feature on Facebook, but there is a time and a place. It might work better on a fan page where you can target a specific demographic or audience. I’d recommend keeping it there.

I know how to use Facebook, but I’ve been too lazy to do it. Thankfully, I’ve gotten a gentle reminder to get back to the basics and to make time for interaction on Facebook. I’ve got a group there I’ve been slow to promote, and I’ve got some other promotions I need to manage. Being lazy just won’t cut it.

Where are you trying to cut corners in your marketing efforts? Where could you improve personal interaction? These are questions we should be asking ourselves every day regardless of how much time we have to spare.

Then again, I could be crazy…what do you think?

How to Launch a Website

This is a quick video I put together about the importance of giving clear direction to your customers. If you want to create something new, chances are high that people will be slow to get involved because 1) they don’t understand your product, and 2) they don’t know how to use it. Watch this video to see a great example of a company that gets it.

Can’t watch the video? Click the link below to read more.

Abusing a Social Media Voice – My Take

So a few days ago I was reading a post by @dannybrown regarding @dougmeacham’s interaction with Best Buy’s Chief Marketing Officer (@BestBuyCMO). You can read the original post that started it all here, or Danny’s reaction here. Now, the thing that struck me about both of these guy’s opinions, is that both of them took a very hard stance on either side of the line.

Doug saw a price discrepancy between a Best Buy item online and the same item in the store. The item in the store was 50 bucks more, which doesn’t surprise me because Best Buy seems to have issues with being congruent on the two fronts, but that isn’t the issue here (although it should have been). What ended up happening was that Doug got pissed and was able to get the Best Buy associate in the store to match the online price. Great right? Well…here’s where it gets hairy.

Getting the right price wasn’t enough for Doug, who then proceeded to go to Twitter and openly blast Best Buy’s CMO. Apparently, he was out for blood because if you read the interaction, it was more of a one way “show” where Doug tried to educate a freaking CMO about how to handle customers. Now, I give Doug the benefit of the doubt for having a gripe. I might have done the same thing, but once he actually got a reply, he started acting like an ass. This is a big no no and is why Danny decided to blast him for it.

The problem I have here is that there are too many “social media experts” trying to pose as God’s gift to new media. They think it is their duty to educate people that do this for a living. I’m sure Best Buy’s CMO didn’t get there yesterday, he knows a thing or two about marketing. Sure, he might not be the best social media expert, but he is on Twitter and he does pay attention to his feed. I’d say he’s at least slightly clued in.

Now what you have is a guy like Doug trying to put himself on a pedestal, talking and not listening, which in the end makes every one else in his niche look like a tool too. If I were to try and sell myself as a social media consultant to Best Buy’s CMO, he’s going to put me in the same category as Doug, and I’m going to have to dig myself out of a hole in order to do business.

This happens ALL THE TIME in the social media landscape, especially now that Twitter allows any regular joe to pretend to be anything he wants to be. Suddenly everyone is a Twitter or social media expert. Really? Weren’t you living in your parent’s basement yesterday? Weren’t you living in cubicle nation taking spoon fed orders from a boss? Now all the sudden you have Twitter at your side and you can show everyone how it is done?

Look, I’m not one to talk. Yes, I do social media consulting, but I don’t call myself as the King or Queen. I let my clients do the talking for me. The same should be true of people like Doug.

He had a great point in his blog post, but he blew it when he acted like a child on Twitter. Danny had it close, but I think he missed the point that things are changing and not everything goes through the same channels it once did.

Use your connections to make things happen (Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn), but don’t act like a child. I’ve said my peace…what do you think?