Marketing Me! Agendas are neccessary

I am in Atlanta this week. Lots more on that later.

One thing I have learned for any interview, sales call, customer meeting or discussion with your employer - have an agenda.

In our informal, shirt sleeves workplace, many believe in getting together to "brainstorm" and discuss openly a number of topics. Nothing could be more unproductive.

When calling a meeting, put forth an agenda. It could be as simple as:

Discuss contract for Burns.
Review compensation package.
etc..

Then complete a short list of points which are part of the topics on the agenda:

Burns contract -
Non recurring charges
Certification status
Contract signing update

When meeting, make sure one attendee agrees to act as recorder. Their job is to capture all salient points, assignments and agreements for the meeting.

Finally, even if the agenda topics are not completed, send out a follow up communication after the meeting which includes a record of everything accomplished at the meeting.

Marketing Me! Plaxo Pulse

I have been getting deluged with emails like this..

John Smith wants to add you as a business connection on Plaxo Pulse.

To accept this connection request, go to:
http://pulse.plaxo.com/pulse/connections/confirm/xxxxxxxxx/xxxxxxxxx/xxxxxxx

If you use Plaxo I am sure you have as well.

I have used Plaxo since about 2003 when a friend sent me a link to join. Since then, I have successfully used Plaxo to maintain and organize my email addresses and contact information for hundreds of contacts.

It has worked great for that purpose and now Plaxo wants to take advantage of all of those users (15 million as off 2006 according to the Plaxo website).

So, following the Web 2.0 social network craze, Plaxo Pulse was born. A Facebook meets Linked In "let's get to know each other and network" platform.

I am always a fan of new social media sites so I updated my profile on Plaxo Pulse. The first thing I noticed is that current Plaxo members are not obligated to use PP. They can only use the address book version.

Next, you will start getting more invites from other Plaxo members to join networks.

Also, there are groups to join with shared, networking interests. I have joined a couple already.

Finally, Plaxo Pulse is just another way to network and meet others. This tool is only as good as the amount of work you put into it and the interaction you have with members of your network.

Marketing Me! Suvival of the adapter

Neo-Darwinists love to cite, "survival of the fittest" as their misconstrued mantra. The corrected statement should actually read, "success of the adapter".

Adapters adapt to a changing environment and continue and succeed. In the natural world, success may be the ability to continue their existence. In the work world, success (or survival) means having work and continuing to grow new opportunities.

Would it be that life were perfect. The U.S. manufacturing employee laments the loss of the base in his or her particular geographic area. But manufacturing jobs continue to be found here, here and here.

For the U.S. manufacturing employee, to adapt means leaving Massachusetts, Michigan or Wisconsin. It may also mean adapting to an individual contract rather than collective bargaining situation.

Adaption for work means success, not survival. Survival is after losing his mortgage broker position, the office worker sells his home, moves in with relatives and mows lawns to pay bills.

Success is about lateral and upward moves to greener fields. Successful adapters may scale back temporarily but eventually they return and thrive. The successful adapter will come to dominate his world whereas the survivor awaits extinction.

Remember, when the term, "Survival of the fittest" is bandied about, remind the speaker of the Tyrannosaurus Rex and the lowly mammal. The T-Rex was bigger, faster and stronger, but where is he now? And the mammal? Now he dominates the earth.

What will you be?