Intellectual Paranoia

 

I've copied and pasted this. It comes from 100%Open. Anyone reading this from a publishing/content perspective is bound to have a view. 

I wonder: if publishers and others are confident in their own creativity and business processes, i.e they know that they can deliver their output to market better and quicker than anyone else,  do they have to worry about ring fencing their intellectual property? Instead of building walls, be nomadic about your inventions and keep moving on to the next thing! 

If you need continuous creativity for your digital and online strategy, eezap.com might be a good place to start.

Anyway here is the article...

IP = Intellectual Paranoia

There are two schools of thought on whether Intellectual Property helps or hinders innovation.
The traditional argument is that the ability to own the rights to an invention ensures that your years of hard work generate some payback.  It’s hard to see big pharma companies ever abandoning this model for example if they stick to their current blockbuster-based business model.  It’s also hard to see the likes of James Dyson or Apple giving up on their closed and secretive ways of working.  But how curious that 21st century businesses like these are stuck in an 18th century paradigm.  So is IP just intellectual paranoia?

 (photo credit to blather.net)

The counter-argument is that most innovation is collaborative by nature and that therefore secrecy and isolation hinder product and service development.  Furthermore, an open approach to ownership is often likely to help embed and rapidly spread a new product.  This is why Hoovers will never be called Dysons or PCs Macs.  The case of how Microsoft’s operating system grew to dominate the world is moot.  Apple protected theirs jealously and became a niche player in the computer market as a result.  (Quite a successful game of catch-up ever since of course!) Nevertheless the sight of Apple and Samsung suing each other over tiny product features is undignified and makes me, for one, a little less fond of both brands.
So where does 100%Open stand?  We believe that innovation isn’t just about IP.  It’s about generating value for those who invent and commercialise new products.  This is important because the sole reliance on IP (and its retinue of self-interested and expensive consultants) can get in the way.  Consider P&G who are committed to open innovation.   Even they won’t have ‘confidential conversations’ which leads to them missing out of many unpatented ideas for fear of later complications.  This is why we invented (but haven’t protected!) the airlock process.  But of course we don’t advocate completely abandoning IP.  Here’s our open business model spiral for example.  There are many ways to form productive partnerships and some, e.g. cross licensing do depend on IP whereas others don’t.

It’s a staggering fact that 80% of the UK economy is based on services rather than manufacturing.  Much of the innovation 100%Open helps with is in this service arena where it’s hard to get a patent or design right although easier to assert copyright or register a trade mark.  So our advice is often to create mutual dependencies that aren’t reliant on IP but matched capabilities or the joint delivery of a service.  This way collaborators are free to turn their attention to creating value for the customer and themselves rather than arm-wrestling over ownership.
So in a connected world where is it becoming pointless to try to innovate alone, a reliance on developing and protecting IP looks increasingly like Intellectual Paranoia.  We need more sophisticated ways of making products and services that depend on cooperation and mutual help.
Leaving aside the weirdness that is patenting human DNA and without entering into the controversial realm of medicine patents there’s one question that should be bothering all inventors.  Should you spend your life suing obscure Chinese factories for patent infringement or could you be leading the creation of whole new markets faster than anyone can follow?
David Simoes-Brown
PS as you might imagine, it’s our policy not to over-protect 100%Open stuff so this and all our blogs are Creative Commons.   So go ahead and steal with pride!  It would be nice if you mention us though.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License

Hone your Hunter Gatherer Technique

“People sometimes sneer at those who run every day, claiming they'll go to any length to live longer. But don't think that's the reason most people run. Most runners run not because they want to live longer, but because they want to live life to the fullest. If you're going to while away the years, it's far better to live them with clear goals and fully alive then in a fog, and I believe running helps you to do that. Exerting yourself to the fullest within your individual limits: that's the essence of running, and a metaphor for life — and for me, for writing as whole. I believe many runners would agree”

― HarukiMurakami, What I Talk About When I Talk About Running

I practiced what I preached in my previous blog. I spent Christmas staring at customer databases, and only survived by running. At least twice per week. 

The best run I had was an hour and 45 minutes long around the hills of North Dorset, in the Sun, on the snow. Fantastic: out there on your own, in the dead sound of winter. Like Murakami, I find running clarifies goals for me. Clear goals will definitely help you as you set up your marketing strategy. 

Running is also a goal in itself, and supremely clear goal. Sometimes work and business can seem awfully muddy and out of control, especially in a recession. So give yourself something you can control, completely control, minute by minute: a running plan.

Plan something like three runs in one week. Make sure you do them, don’t let anything get in your way. Whatever happens at work or in your business, at the end of the week there’s something you can hold up to yourself as having turned out as you planned it.

I like to take a couple of other things from running too. 

Firstly, running brings out the cave man in me. When I’m on my own in some silent shadowy wood, 45 minutes from home, I can really get into hunter gatherer mode. I can imagine that I’ve been stalking something for hours and that I better kill it and get it home, because that’s the only food there is for my family in the middle of winter.

At the end of the day isn’t that what running  a business is about?  Peel back the IT issues, balancing your books, dealing with Health and Safety, manipulating databases or restocking the stationery cupboard. That’s NOT what business is about. Business is about putting food on the table.

Secondly there is a technique to running effectively, and the technique is different depending on what you’re trying to achieve. Many think that running is putting a foot in front of the other quickly, and most runners out there probably never thought to explore their technique. But if you want to run well, then learn how. 

Rip up what you think running is and follow this link: POSE.  Then start looking up other coaches’ tips on running and it won’t be long before you’re overwhelmed with technique choices and decisions. Check out Born to Run too.

Running your business is the same. Most people can carry out every part of a business averagely well. But a top business makes sure its people can excel at their functions. And if you can’t get the best people or the best techniques under your roof, try hiring them from outside. 

If it’s digital and online marketing you want to excel at then try eezap.com. (You knew it was going to end with a plug right?)

Start with your Database

So there you are, you've built your website, you have your Facebook page, Google+ and your Twitter pages up and running. But, hold on a minute... where are your followers?

You seem to be following everyone, and no one really seems to be following you. This is not what is meant to happen! You and your business have a lot of interesting things to comment and write about, and no one is reading!

What's the next step?

The title of this post is a bit of a give away. Start with your Database.

The most effective way to build up your followers in Social Media is to write to your own database and get them following, liking and joining your businesses social media pages. You can get your customers to join you by offering incentives through competitions, special price discounts and so on. Once they are on, make sure that the content on there is interesting and relevant and CONTINUOUS. Your followers will soon forget you if you are not posting regularly.

We work with a couple of foodie clients, and one of our associates regularly cooks and photographs recipes with our client's ingredients (check out Dorset Riverford). This makes their Facebook page highly attractive and informative as well as showing customers how those ingredients can be used. eezap.com and it's associates can do similar things for your businesses social media pages. This means that we keep those customers with us and coming back for more.

If you don't have a database, then you need to create one.

This may be a bit of a slog, since it involves some serious market research. Sit down with trade magazines, local journals and so on and find potential clients. You'll then need to go online and grab those clients' email addresses and store all this info on an excel spreadsheet.

Your other option is to buy data from local chambers of commerce and drop those into excel. Once you have set up your database, drop it in to an email app such as Mail Chimp and you are almost good to go. Write the email, click send and it's done. You'll soon see your following grow if you have created the right incentive and messages.

If databases make you go stone cold, then either wrap a warm towel around your head for a couple of weeks and slog through, or get in touch with eezap.com for some help.

Once you have your database up and running it's simply a case of writing to your customers and getting them over to your pages. Again, if you need some help with any of this drop eezap.com a line .

Good luck, Happy Christmas, and Merry Databasing. (Between Christmas and New Year is an excellent time to work up some data!)

What's Your Story?

There is regular talk on social media sites about narrative. Either personal narrative or business narrative, in either case the theory is that humans love and relate to stories, rather than products per se.

Take a company like Dorset Cereals. If you want to look at some really good use of social media, the DC team have got it down to a fine art. But even before social media had come along, the company worked on its story. After all, oats, raisins, and other dry goods in a box aren't on their own, that appealing. But give the box nice warm colours and create a narrative of honest Dorset goodness and it becomes difficult to tell what's more wholesome, Dorset, or the cereals from Dorset!

Once you have a narrative like that, social media becomes a little easier. So to those businesses that say that social media is not for them, or doesn't go well with their industry, we beg to differ.

What is your company's story? What is the extra something that you are trying to get customers or clients to buy into? Once you have defined this, then knowing what to say, or show, or connect to, via social media, becomes a whole lot easier.

 eezap! What's your narrative? Our website begins to say it in pictures. We use an existing physical network of intelligent ABs who have time to spare and the ability to get themselves around others' marketing aims.

Our clients know they are handing over their social media to clever communicators. We have the techies too, but there are quite a few of those around. It's our ability to communicate intuitively, minute by minute with a deep understanding of a client's key messages, which makes eezap stand out.

The fact that a physical network sits along side a digital one means the two work together to spread the word for our clients. Because eezap is a physical network of bright, worldly people, it can transpose very successfully to a digital network. Don't forget that a physical network itself becomes an ideas factory. Few businesses have the resources to focus a group of creatives solely on social media. eezap solves this by putting such a group at a client's disposal.

How is this reflected in our posts and blogs? Well, this blog in itself is a case in point. You can read it and get guidance. Follow us on Facebook and you'll begin to see posts which will prove instructive to you and your social media activity. And once you need to hand that activity over to an intelligent network of communicators, you'll know who to get in touch with. 

What's your story? eezap can help you define it, and then build the narrative online.

Twitter, Facebook and Google+

The three social media platforms that are the most talked about are the ones your business should consider mastering immediately. Think of them as The Friendly Giants: Twitter, Facebook and Google+.

Each platform has a slightly different appeal to its users. Facebook and Google+ are similar and centre on an individual’s Facebook or Google+ page. You’ll need to set up a page for your business in either or both Facebook and Google+. From your page you can then begin to link up with businesses and people that operate in your industry or are potential clients.

Twitter is slightly different. You’ll still need to set up a Twitter page, but Twitter emphaises the actual tweet, rather than your page. It’s usually interesting to look at different Facebook and Google+ pages, not quite so interesting to look at different Twitter pages. Tweets, rather than pages are the main attraction.

That said, it’s a subtle difference, and all three allow immediate interactive posting using a laptop or mobile phone. As a business, your skill in posting or tweeting is what will drive potential clients to follow you and visit your web pages. To achieve a good following, you’ll have to make regular postings that are relevant, amusing and not necessarily product driven. However, throwing in the odd offer for your products won’t hurt. 

Step one in developing a TFG strategy is going to be following others who operate in the same line of business as you, or simply people you are interested in following. At eezap.com we’re following other social media experts, business experts and internationally famous entrepreneurs. Why not? Anything they say that we find interesting, we’ll resend to our social media network. 

After following others’ posts and tweets, you might consider a social media strategy that takes account of the following:

• How are others using social media in your industry or locality? 
• What character do you want to have, and what guidelines would you give your staff for posting or tweeting on your behalf?
• Be as true to yourself and your business as possible, followers will respond to your honesty.
• Plan to tweet regularly, even drawing up a communication plan if necessary.
• Post material that can be shared or re-tweeted easily.

Once you’re posting or tweeting successfully, your followers will begin to re-send or re-tweet your posts. At this point, not only will you be communicating regularly with your immediate followers, but also with your followers’ followers, and with your followers’ followers’ followers. I could go on, but you get the idea. Your potential reach is exponential.  

Say you build up 600 followers on line, and each of those has their own 600 followers, your communication could be reaching at least 360,000 businesses or individuals. That's not including the followers that each of the followers of the followers has! The numbers are pretty impressive, and that's why, your business needs a well managed social media strategy.

One last thing, be sure to get the Twitter, Facebook and Google+ buttons on your website pages. Anyone that finds your website relevant and interesting can begin following you and advertise your website content to their network.  

If you want to discuss the possibilities around The Friendly Giants and how they can help your business reach a very wide network indeed, get in touch with eezap.com. We’d be happy to help you out.

Link your Blog to your Site

Once you have begun writing your blog, it helps if you link it  to your website and vice-versa. By getting your blog and your website linked, you'll be combining community and interaction that blogging offers with the powerful shop window that is your website.

So how is it done? If you need to tell people over cocktails what you're working on, the official terminology is: you're going to create an RSS feed of your blog and then feed it into your website.

There are a couple of steps to take to achieve the link-up between your business blog and website. If you're prepared to hang in there, this is all perfectly doable. If you can't manage it, eezap.com is here to help!

The first step is to get your blog picked up by Feedburner (http://feedburner.google.com). You'll need to do this anyhow, so that others can begin picking up the feed too. Once Feedburner is picking up your blog, and creating a feed, we then need some code to pick up the text and pop it into your site.

There are several websites where you can get this code. We used RSSinclude.com . Once you have told RSSinclude where to find your blog at Feedburner, it will generate the code for your website.

What this code does is create a rectangular space within a webpage of your choosing. That rectangle is filled by your blog. Again for the cocktail chat: you have used a widget!

In truth, the trickiest bit comes next. Unless you're on top of your html, this step will involve your web designer. You'll need to tell them where you would like them to drop in the code created by RSSinclude.com, and they will probably need to create a new space on your website for the widget.

Now in reverse: it's equally important for you to make sure that there is a link from your blog to your website. This is far simpler and can be done when you set up your blog. In Blogger it's done in the page layout options.

So why link your blog and your website in this way? Your blog is far more interactive than your website could ever be. Your business can build followers on your blog, and your followers can comment on what you write. That's the strength of the blog, but it can't be a website or a shop window for your business. Working together, your blog and your website can become powerful partners in increasing interest in you and your business.

In postings to follow, I'll be looking at how we bring in Facebook, Twitter and Google+ to make your site and your blog even more interactive. Before you know it, your business will build an online community using these tools!

Discovering How to Blog

Social media is your business tool to engage in one-to-one marketing. It should form a central plank of your marketing strategy.

So what’s the first step? You or your business could start anywhere, and it really depends on your defined aims.  At eezap.com we’re going to start with a blog. This gives us an opportunity to scope out what we do, but perhaps more importantly, we get the chance to put some content online. This allows us to begin building interest around our services. 

How do you go about setting up a blog? That’s easy enough since there are lots of options. For the eezap.com blog we had a look at Wordpress, Blogger, Typepad, tBlog and others. We are going for Blogger. It’s easy to set up, is well used and is free (not true with Typepad, which you pay for, but is ad free).

Now let’s post our first post. What is your blog going to be about? It needs to be relevant to your business, and you probably want to write it so that it doesn’t get too personal. Remember, what you write is going to be out in the public domain. Don’t be shy of including information that gives some of your expertise away. “Sharing is caring” as the saying goes, and you want your community to feel that it’s worth reading your material. 

Once you have written your first post, pop it up and... er... well, it’s not a case of build it and they will come. But at least now you have made a commitment to write a piece about your work on a regular basis.

You can begin to build followers to your blog. Your followers can comment and they can spread the word throughout their own social media networks, simply by clicking a button.

Plus, once you have got a post up, we can start customizing your blog, linking it back to your website and telling people about it. That means you can change content on your website by posting to your blog. This has many benefits which we'll explore in the next post.

Have you linked your blog to your website and vice versa? What was the easiest way you found of doing this?  Feel free to comment!