One of the best starting points for a strategy session is at the end of it. Starting by clearly expressing what the end results should be, serves as a clear target for participants to aim for. I’m talking about more than the objective, but what the experience will be for customers and employees.

The sketch below was in my planning notes for a series of sessions I led for Starbucks Coffee some years ago. We were building their annual marketing promotional calendar and each promotional season needed to be thought through.

I needed the team to think through the eyes of the customer. How the customer would be “changed” as a result of each seasonal promotion. What would the customer feel? What would they now know? What should they do? This exercise helps if a team seems to get caught up in what “they” think is neat or cool versus what would be effective and meaningful for the customer.

[pre-meeting sketch]

To be playful, I drew a comic character representing the customer for each promotion. I used ‘word balloons’ as the space where participants would write what the customer should know, feel, and do, as a result of the marketing programs.

Periodically, we would refer to these future visions/end results to gauge whether we were still on target with our ideas.

[Fall Promotion]

[Winter]

[Annual Brewing Sale]

[Spring]

[Summer]

These cartoon “customers” worked well. It made the point without forcing it.

Maybe a collage with images from the internet, newspapers, or magazines will work for you… A demographic mood board. Some companies set an empty chair at their conference table, representing the customer. Some invite real customers in to get real-time feedback.

One way or the other, don’t let them become some abstract “thing.” Find ways to make your customers real when building your plans for them.

Sand For Your Inbox – Aug/Sept 2010

We make decisions all the time. Big ones, small ones, easy and tough. Making the right choice can be obvious, and sometimes it requires time invested in thought. Luckily we have simple tools to help.

(1) Pro & Con

First, the basic Pro and Con list. A list of the good and bad aspects of a particular choice.

If listing alone doesn’t help you make the decision, consider a Pro and Con list with scores.

(2) Scored Pro & Con

You can add a numerical weight of importance to your pro/con list. For example, a pro with a weight of 5 is more important than a pro (or con) of 1.

Scoring your list changes it from ‘which side has more thoughts’ to ‘which side is more critical.’ Add up your scores and see which side comes out stronger.

(3) PMI Method

A third way to examine choices is the PMI Method, invented by Edward de Bono. PMI is an acronym for Plus, Minus, Interesting. It takes the Scored Pro & Con a step further by forcing us to think about “what is interesting” about the choice.

• Plus are the pros. What’s good about the idea.
• Minus are the cons, the bad points of the idea. And finally,
• Interesting. What is interesting? What are the possibilities?

This chart is especially handy when brainstorming and you have ideas that are not really a pro or a con. Rather, ideas interesting to think about. To calculate your PMI score add up your (Plus) + (Minus) + (Interesting) scores. Items in the “interesting” column can score as a plus or a minus depending on the implication of the thought.

In the example above, the plus score added up to +13, the minus -12, and the interesting column was +3. Added together this idea scores a +4.

While it is easy to think-up why we like or don’t like something, we don’t usually think about it from the perspective of what is interesting about the idea. Using PMI encourages exploration of possibilities that arise from thinking about it from three directions. It enlarges our view of the situation.

Give it a try, and let me know what you think!

Take care,

Paul Williams
professional problem solver
Idea Sandbox
Twitter: @IdeaSandbox

p.s. This was sent first to those who are members of the free “Sand for You Inbox” eNewsletter. Sign-up today!

It Is Planning Season!

Idea Sandbox can build and host your next brainstorm|strategy session and help you create remarkable ideas to grow your business.

Do you need help…

• Coming up with the “big” ideas for your promotional plans?
• Building your 2011 strategy?
• Improving your customer service strategy?

Call Paul at (202) 506-9537. Or learn more at the “What We Do” pages of this website.

That’s a quote by Tim Kern. He was a coffee guru at Starbucks Coffee. A long-time employee who was caught a the lay-off sweep a couple of years ago.

The artwork is from a notebook Starbucks handed out to participants in a leadership conference. The notebook was sprinkled with quotes provided by partners (employees).

Tim’s point… Garbage in equals garbage out. You can have the highest quality, best machine in the world, but if you fill it with bad coffee – you’re going to get a bad product.

This is a challenge that happens with problem solving. The best people, using the best process, in the right place won’t made headway when they’re addressing the wrong problem.

Sometimes we don’t spend enough time identifying the root cause of a problem. As a result, we do a really good job fixing the wrong thing. It ends up wasting time, money, and effort. Worse – thinking the problem is indeed fixed (a false sense of security) – the root problem has a chance to deteriorate further.

The return for ensuring you’re addressing the root cause is worth the investment.

Tips to Find Root Cause

Here are a few articles I’ve posted in the past that will prevent you from properly solving the wrong problem.

• Ask Why? And Why? Again
• Measure Twice, Cut Once
• Take Charge Of Your Life With Problem Solving

A great quote found Roger von Oech’s book, ““A Whack on the Side of the Head” reads as follows…

“Discovery consists of looking at the same thing as everyone else
and thinking something different.

The quote is attributed to the Nobel prize winning physician Albert Szent-Györgyi.

You’ve probably heard the expression, “There is no such thing as a new idea.” Discovery suggests, rather, that there are new ways to look at things.

But, how do you look at something different?

One method I recommend is to “SCAMPER.”

Yes, hopping around like a small animal or child *is* fun, but that’s not what this scampering is. SCAMPER is an acronym for a set of techniques that help you see things different.

You can apply this to a problem, a potential innovation, or to explore ways to make your weekly staff meetings more effective. You can filter your challenge through one or all of the following SCAMPER steps.

Seth Godin, in his book Free Prize Inside, recommends a process called Edgecrafting to create remarkable ideas. He suggests pushing an idea to the limits – the edge – and seeing what can be created. SCAMPER is the perfect tool to help with Edgecrafting.

When you’re needing to make a discovery or innovation, or just come up with an idea… consider the techniques of Scamper and find new ways of thinking about the challenge.

SCAMPER Background

For those interested, SCAMPER was created by Robert Eberle using Alex Osborn’s 1953 book, Applied Imagination. It’s an often recommended strategy found in most creative problem solving books. (So even SCAMPER itself was Robert’s way of thinking something different from Alex did about these ideas).

By the way, I’ve incorporated SCAMPER (and other related methods) in a tool called Big Dig. You may enjoy checking it out.

For the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, China wanted to ensure rain storms took place where and when they want them to… That did NOT include the opening ceremony. So, the Weather Modification Department in China seeded approaching clouds with activators to induce rain storms outside the National Stadium. Over the past 12 years of testing they’ve increased rain storms by 24%. Not bad.

How cool would it be if you could do with brain storms, what China did with rain storms? What if you could employ activators when problems are approaching and seed brain storms to produce 24% more solutions?

The Problem Modification Department at Idea Sandbox has prepared this short list of activators for you to employ.

(1) PROBLEM DEFINED – A caveat as we start… Our focus is HOW to fix a problem, not figuring out what is broken. I’m going to assume your problem has been properly defined, and now you need potential solutions.

(2) CONDUCIVITY – You need to fish where the fish are – sometimes that means moving your boat. You will increase your chances of coming up with great ideas if you surround yourself with the right resources and remove interference. The formula Tim Gallway outlines in his book, “The Inner Game of Work,” works well for me:

Increase idea performance with these interference-removing practices…

• People – Make sure you’ve assembled a combination of both subject matter experts and those new to the challenge. Also, you don’t need cynics at this stage, you need ideaists… those willing to throw out any potential solution. (There will be plenty of time for filtering ideas that won’t work at a later time).
• Energy & Stimulation – Be well rested. A well-rested body makes a more productive brain. Take breather breaks every few hours. Skips the M&Ms and Skittles for energy/brain foods such as: fresh bananas, almonds, and pumpkin seeds. Keep your hands busy; it helps you to think better. Equip your space with Play-Doh, TinkerToys, Legos…
• Place – Be somewhere free of distractions, email, phone, and interruptions. The further you can get away from the “real world” the more creative your ideas will be.

(3) RESOURCES – Finally, if you want more than a misting of ideas… Instead, I’m talking about a river-flooding, downpour of ideas… You need to follow a structured process. Simply sitting in a conducive room with conducive people won’t get you there. Adding structure and timing will ensure you work the problem and stay on task.

Here are a list of immediate (NEED IDEAS NOW!) and short-term (GOT TIME) resources that will provide you with the tools you need to dissipate problems.

NEED IDEAS NOW!

If you don’t have enough time to check out your local book store or get an overnight delivery from Amazon, use these immediate on-line resources.

• WikiMindMap – enter your topic, click enter, and you’ll get a mindmap full of related ideas.
• Special Projects Idea Generator – An electronic slide-wheel creates a random combination of three words. Great to start ideas.
• Creativity Toolbox and Head Shed – offer a ton of links to tools, ideas, thought-starters.
• InnovationTools Site – A great collection of brainstorming links, tools, reviews…

GOT TIME.

If you have the luxury of a day or two, order some of these great tools. (Most of these provide process without a lot of reading).

CARDS & DECKS

IDEO Method Cards by IDEO
William Stout Books


Creative Whack Pack (Cards) by Roger von Oech
Amazon US | Amazon UK

KnowBrainer by SolutionPeople
SolutionPeople Site | Purchase


Thinkpak: A Brainstorming Card Deck by Michael Michalko
Amazon US | Amazon UK

Free The Genie by Idea Champions
Idea Champion Site | Purchase

“101 Creative Problem Solving Techniques” by James Higgins
Amazon US | Amazon UK


“A Whack On The Side Of The Head” by Roger von Oech
Amazon US | Amazon UK


How to Have Kick-Ass Ideas by Chris Barez-Brown
Amazon US | Amazon UK


“Creativity Today” by Ramon Vullings and Igor Byttebier
800CEORead | Amazon UK

Best to you using these activators to get you the biggest, nastiest, squall of a brain storm!

You should be in business for yourself. We all should. I don’t mean quit your job and form a new company. I mean right now – at the job you are in – you should be in business for yourself.

You see, we manage ourselves differently when we’re self-employed versus working for a company.
When you ‘work for a company’ you rely on systems within the company to:

• recognize the great work you do,
• reward your achievements,
• upgrade your salary when appropriate, and
• promote you to a more challenging role.

I should also add…

• Fire you when you’re no longer growing or adding value.

When you’re in business for yourself, as a freelancer you don’t have “systems.” You have you.

Many of us have learned, during the interview process, to interview the company just as much as they are interviewing you. But that is often where many of us stop managing ourselves.

Instead of thinking of them as your employer, see them as if you were a freelance worker – supplying projects and experience in exchange for compensation.

In business for yourself, you manage your own marketing mix. You manage your “Four P’s”

Product – You would seek out projects that appeal to you and/or provide experience. You provide the products and services based on your core strengths.

• Instead of filling out the company forms and business templates, is there a better way to present and communicate information?
• You set your own standards – hopefully higher and more critical than the company’s.

Price – You would negotiate your fee (compensation) based on the value you provide, versus being dictated by the annual percentage.

• While human resources does outline guidelines, reality is, compensation rules can be broken. While a taboo subject – I’m sure you’ve heard stories and know others around you are making less and making more in the same job title. A freelancer manages this much different than the ‘employee’ who is at the mercy of the system. I look to be paid for the value I provide versus simply a flat rate, hourly sum. (Caution, if you don’t perform well, this can work against you. You need to be good, not just independent).

Promotion – You manage your own advertising, sales promotion, publicity, and personal selling.

• You may have a great boss who is into ‘personal development’ and helping you grow. More than likely they are motivated by their own measured goal of ‘people development’ versus the joy of helping you. (Don’t get me wrong… There are plenty of great bosses out there – but unless you work with your mom, there is no other person who cares about you as much as you.
• Comping Yourself – You may get high marks from your boss during your performance review, but still lack challenge and opportunity. If you were a business you’d measure your comp scores – how you’re performing this year over last year. Are you growing? Do you have new opportunities? Are you better off than last year? If not, you can do something about it.

Placement – How you reach the the customers (your employer). What are your channels, geography, segments?

• Instead of following standard company protocol and working within your department silo… In business for yourself, you gauge who, where, how, and when you deliver your messages. Networking, informal relationships, and looking at the broader horizon within the company offers more opportunity.

One of the most important benefits of being in business for yourself is knowing when to let a customer go. Most often we quit a job after an extended period of dead-ends, or perhaps to preempt being fired. If you’re not growing or ‘comping yourself’ you need to move on to a different role, or a different company.

Finally, I need to note… Being in business for yourself doesn’t mean being disloyal to the company you are doing business with… You are bound by the minimum performance and legal requirements as a typical employee.. But you are empowered with looking out for your best interest while supporting your employer’s interest.

Give it a try. You’ll find yourself energized and with power you didn’t even know you had. It feels much better to be the driver of your career rather than a passenger.

So, start minding your own business!

“How do we define service at this company?”

If you were to send that question in an e-mail to the person responsible for operations, the person responsible for hiring, the person responsible for marketing, the person responsible for sales, the head of your company, and a front-line employee (assuming these aren’t all the same person)… would they all respond with the same answer? Same words?

Even if the answers are similar… close isn’t good enough if you expect to provide a consistent and quality experience for every single customer.

If we were talking about a car part, you’d never expect the designer, the part manufacturer, and the specification manual to differ in their understanding or description of a specific part… It is surprising to me that we let service – a HUGE part of most of our businesses be treated with ambiguity.

One of the challenges is that service is situational. Each customer needs to be treated as a fresh, new individual. Even regular customers aren’t the same everyday they enter your business. You can’t script conversation – employees need to quickly assess and react appropriately. So, that’s where service differs from a car part.

One of the last projects I contributed to while working at Starbucks was the “Green Apron Book”. This pocket-sized booklet describes the language we calibrated at Starbucks. These became known as the “five ways of being” – the core behaviors/actions that ultimately provide the “Starbucks Experience.”

First, we had to gather all of the different versions that existed. My colleague Jennifer interviewed people from all over the company… old, new, junior, senior, customers, vendors, you name it… She distilled the responses down to these basic themes:

• Be Welcoming
• Be Genuine
• Be Considerate
• Be Knowledgeable
• Be Involved

We then went further and added a bit of clarification…

• Be Welcoming: Offer Everyone a Sense of Belonging.
• Be Genuine: Connect, discover, respond.
• Be Knowledgeable: Love what you do. Share it with others.
• Be Considerate: Take care of yourself, each other and our environment.
• Be Involved: In the Store, the company, in your community.

The beauty of this new, calibrated language is that it is not prescriptive. You are expected to demonstrate these behaviors/actions, but how you do that is up to the individual.

Every partner at Starbucks has access to the Green Apron Book and should be using it as a guide for “how we define service at this company.”

How are you ensuring calibrated language at your company?

Does this article look familiar? I original posted it on the MarketingProfs Daily Fix Blog.

Huh? Am I asking you are from Belgium? Or have a cold… phlegmish? No. No. Do you flemish?

To “flemish” is to coil the loose end of the lines* (ropes) used when boating.

It is an attractive and safe way (reduces tripping) to tidy and stow loose line.

Not all boaters do this, but when you see it, you think…

1. they care,
2. how neat and professional, and
3. what great attention to detail.

One of the reasons I admire Walt Disney is the way he pushed his teams to take extra steps to care and make their work neat and professional. His animation, theme park legacy, and brand was built on this attention to detail or “flemishing the lines.

Are there things at your business, with your products or services – or perhaps personally – that are being left untidy? Knotted ropes? Things customers could trip on?

If you fathom the benefits, take the time to coil those loose ends. Trust me, the tangles are noticeable, flemishing will reflect positively on your brand.

*Just like marketing, boating has lots of jargon. When boating you never call them ropes, they’re “lines”. Also the kitchen is called the “galley,” maps are “charts,” and the toilet the “head.” The expression “bitter end” comes from boating… it’s the last just before a line ends.

Problems. Challenges. Opportunities.

Whatever you call them at your company, we want them fixed. Our gut reaction is – come hell or high water – to find a solution. However, there are times when there is no fix… You’re stuck with it.

For example, your business may be experiencing a challenge with the current “economic condition” in the United States. The challenge with the downturn/recession is that as an individual business there is not a lot you can do. You have to deal with it and wait it out.

Another time when we face challenges beyond our power, is when doing SWOT analysis. You can manage the Strengths, and Weaknesses and you can exploit the Opportunities. However, the Threats are out of your control… you’re stuck with their reality.

So, what can you do?

Your options are to…

• find a way to live with the problem, or
• find ways to flip the situation so it is seen as an asset versus a deficit.

(1) Living with the Problem

At first, this sounds fatalistic; not a ‘victory’ situation. However, the realization that you can’t fix something can be liberating. It frees you to focus resources on things you can change. You manage recognizing the problem is simply part of your playing field.

(2) Flip from Deficit to Asset

A second option is to find a way to work the problem to your benefit. Change the deficit to an asset. This is called asset-based thinking.* Okay, so customer traffic has slowed at your business, maybe this is your opportunity to shift your model from a focus on quantity to quality. Instead of relying on new customers from new traffic, perhaps you should look at your existing satisfied customer base. Can you reconnect with them and create higher satisfaction and incremental sales? There are a slew of approaches once you turn the problem on its head.

Brian Clegg and Paul Birch in their book Instant Creativity recommend examining your situation in two stages to “make your problem state desirable.”

Ask first:

• How could you change the world to live with this problem?
  (This creates your first set of solutions)

and then:

• How could you change the world so the problem goes away?
  (This creates a second set of solutions).

They recommend taking the results of these two questions and combining to determine potential ways to manage the situation.

While not all problems can be fixed, at least you can reduce your angst and find a way to flip the problem to benefit from it.

*Incidentally, you can learn more about asset-based thinking at the “Asset-Based Thinking” website of Kathy Cramer and Hank Wasiak.

Thought you’d like to see this sketch I found in my picture folder.

It’s a simple (if not silly) way to plot how, during the brainstorming process, there is shift up and down between gathering many ideas to narrowing to fewer ideas.

[click for larger view]

The technical terms for these thinking styles is divergent production (going in different, many directions) and narrowing ideas is called convergent production (closer, coming together).

These terms were coined in the 1950s by US psychologist, Joy Paul Guilford as part of his “Structure of Intellect” theory.

Do you regularly attend networking events? Do you have a system for processing the names and business cards you gather to quickly follow-up with new contacts?

New to my market, I’ve made it a goal to get out of the office once a week to meet and mingle.

When attending networking events with the goal of driving sales, your strategy is to meet and gather business cards from potential clients and those who may be able to generate leads for you.

While I have a contact management system, I did not have a formal process for filtering and categorizing the cards before I put them into that system.

Brushing up on my networking skills, I picked up a copy of Get Clients Now!: A 28-Day Marketing Program for Professionals, Consultants, and Coaches by C.J. Hayden. Among many other strategies and tools, C.J. outlines a simple method to manage gathered business cards.

Inspired by C.J.’s process and the paper placemats used in wine tastings I created a “Networking Follow-Up Guide.” A one-page “placemat” (pictured below) to print out and use to sort business card piles into actionable categories.

I’ve linked the Networking Follow-Up Guide (PDF, 23kb) for you.

Summary: Following Up With Contacts

Here is a quick overview of the process C.J. outlines in the book. (You’ll find more detail on the print-out, and in the book).

(1) Sort your business cards into three piles:

• Prospective Clients,
• Useful Networking Contacts, and
• Other.

(2) Next, subdivide the Prospective Clients pile into: Hot, Warm, and Cool leads. The Hot leads are those who already indicated they need you. The Warm, those who mentioned a problem or goal you know you can help with. The rest would be Cool.

C.J. recommends you stop sorting and immediately follow up with the Hot and Warm leads.

(3) Then, split the Useful Networking Clients pile into (a) those who could directly lead you to prospective clients, and (b) those who may lead you to potential marketing opportunities (speaking gigs, networking events).

Again, she suggests follow-up right then and there. This time, with those who may have leads for you. Your goal among these contacts is to build an ongoing give-and-take relationship.

I provide detail for each of these steps (and more) on the sheet.

(3) A real ah-ha! moment for me was in C.J.’s final step. After review and follow-up – including the Cool Leads and Marketing Opportunities – you’ll still have your pile of “Other” cards. Her smart advice: “Unless they belong to people you would like to have a personal friendship with now, throw them away. If they aren’t worth following up with now, they don’t belong in your contact management system.” Such smart advice. Why waste your time? Why waste their time?

I hope you find the one-pager helpful. It helps me manage new contacts, and act to get new clients.

It is clear, I recommend Get Clients Now! . C.J. not only does a great job helping build a comprehensive ‘new client’ strategy, she also provides details on how to implement the tactics and tasks – a great book.

This article is a simulpost, written for the MarketingProfs Daily Fix blog

John Moore, the marketing medic at Brand Autopsy, has written another book that offers succinct marketing and branding advice inspired by working at Starbucks Coffee Company.

It is called: Tough Love: Scripting the Drive, Drama, and Decline Of Galaxy Coffee.”

Although… I’m wrong to call it a book… It is a screenplay disguised as a book. It wasn’t written to be turned into a movie, rather it is John’s remarkable way of offering a novel novel. It works.

TOUGH LOVE… is actually a screenplay masquerading as a business book. It reads just like a Hollywood screenplay with standard script format, seven main characters, and two plot lines that tell the story of how a rags-to-riches entrepreneur finds success building a company (Galaxy Coffee) to be bigger only to realize, the hard way, that smaller is better.

Inserted throughout the TOUGH LOVE script are breakout business lessons and thought-provoking business advice geared towards entrepreneurs and small business owners.

In addition to loads of valuable, bite-sized, actionable marketing lessons, it tells an interesting story pretty close to what it was like working within the Starbucks marketing department at the turn of the century.

Starbucks lovers and haters will find the read equally interesting.

Behind the scenes

Many of the character names are amalgamations of Starbucks marketers… Including (I’m honored to write) me! I’m disguised as Denny Williams. (That’s a combination of Paul Williams and Lisa Denny. Lisa was one of our favorite, and smartest bosses at Starbucks). John’s use of similarity to actual people make the read more realistic.

I highly recommend downloading a copy of John’s marketing screenplay At $9.99 it is a steal! While you’re at it, check out John’s first book…Tribal Knowledge: Business Wisdom Brewed From The Grounds Of Starbucks Corporate Culture. too!

Sand For You Inbox – July 2010

When a scientist or engineer designs a new process, they run into many unknowns. That’s expected when creating something from scratch. However, they could have so many unknowns, if they tried to solve each as they happened, they’d get mired in minutia and never finish the project.

To deal with these sticky spots, they put each unknown into a “black box.” This serves as a placeholder for what they’re missing. They assume what comes out of the black box is what they need to continue the path in the process. This allows them to progress without getting distracted.

They will come back to their black boxes later and figure them out, or find someone who can.

The black box technique can come in handy when us non-scientists get stuck on something.

For example, when working on your marketing plan, you know you should include a social media strategy. But, you don’t know much about social media or the right tactics.

Your lack of knowledge may cause you to:

• (a) omit this as a strategy, or
• (b) head off to immediately become a social media expert.

If (a): You may miss a potentially critical strategy.
If (b): You’ve lost focus and spun off into a tangent.

Either way your plan may suffer.

So instead, insert a black box representing your social media strategy. Continue with the rest of your plan and return later to add the missing details.

Next time you get stuck on an idea, try using black boxes. Don’t let a temporary lack of information hold you back.

Take care,

Paul Williams
professional problem solver
Idea Sandbox
Twitter: @IdeaSandbox

This post was first sent directly to members of the Idea Sandbox eNewsletter. Click to subscribe for free.

I need to get the word out about my business. I want to effectively reach my target audience and drive sales.

Yesterday I was challenged by Todd Sattersten to justify why print ads beat social media for getting the word out. In this exercise, I have two venues to compare

• (a)newspaper ads
• (b)social media venue (we’ll make it Twitter).

Why A Newspaper Print Ad Beats Twitter

Print Is Targeted

I can choose to place an ad in the New York Times if my target is nationwide or in my town’s paper if it is locally relevant. I can direct (control) who sees my ad.

The folks following me on Twitter are from all over the world. As far as I know, there isn’t a simple way to reach only the those in a particular market. Nor do I currently have a strong enough local base of followers. I would need to find someone else local with a bunch of followers and hope they’d re-tweet for me.

I’d rather rely on the established newspaper with established reach.

Print Has Stability, Credibility

There is something final about putting and seeing something in print. Reading it in print. Ink on paper.

It is a miracle how much data can be stored on an iPad or laptop and what the internet can bring to you digitally. However, digital feels flimsy, fleeting, fly-by-night… Print feels established.

Because the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Washington Post have been around for ages – we know they are a trusted source. While we may not always agree with their approach to a story – we trust those mastheads. They’re establishments.

NYT online is popular because the foundation of trust behind the website is the newspaper.

BP has been taking full-page prints ads to let America and the world know they are working to fix the oil spill. I’m certain their media mix includes other medium, the Washington Post ad is the only place I’ve seen the ad so far. They reach me, via print.

Print Has Established Reach

I can count on the fact that the newspaper is delivered to the tens (or hundreds) of thousands that have asked for it. They subscribe. They buy it. They value it.

Social media, hypothetically, lets you fish where the fish are. The bait on my hook is the right bait my followers want. So, while I have a smaller audience they’re following me because they’re already interested in what I have to say. They’re pre-qualified.

However, the newspaper allows me to fish a huge area with a huge net. The majority of the fish will be thrown back – they’re not into my message. But, I’ll still be left greater exposure via the newspaper.

And, if only 1% may be interested in buying what I sell. I’d rather take 1% of larger newspaper audience than 1% of the Twitter followers.

Print Ads Are Clearly Pitches

When you open a newspaper and see a print ad – you know the game. A business has given money to the newspaper to print prepared information about that business for the purpose of getting the reader to learn or buy.

In social media the process is supposed to be organic. You’re not supposed to be overt in your ask for business. Direct sales pitches are a turn off. A faux pas. You’re supposed to ‘add value’ or ‘add knowledge’ and let people find you. Let word of mouse spread the story. When enough people in the social pyramid are buzzing about you – eventually some will find their way to your website and may contact you about your services.

However, in print, I can cut to the chase…

“Hi. I’m Paul Williams from Idea Sandbox. I help businesses create remarkable ideas to drive their sales. You want more sales? Hire me. Thank you.”

That message goes out to the 600k people who get the paper. A fraction of those readers see it. A fraction of those may act.

I don’t have 600k Twitter followers, and neither do you. The average number of followers on Twitter is 126. That means, I would need to have around 4,800 followers and rely on every one of them re-tweet my message to reach the circulation of the The Washington Post.

Print Is Faster

I need customers now!

I don’t have time to build and grow a social media base. I know I can place an ad in this week’s business section – and I will more than likely receive calls next week.

I do terrific work that provides an excellent ROI for my clients. And, I know I’m better than much of my competition. However, there is nothing freak-show about what I do that is going to get me to go viral this week and reach the Twittersphere in a meaningful way. (Nor am I convinced that a viral video about Idea Sandbox is going to make you want to be a client).

Social media is the shiny new trendy medium that we can all pull-up on our mobile phones and iPads. It is sexy, magical, and changes daily.

Newspapers are ancient. The same stuff our great, great grandparents read. We didn’t invent them, so we aren’t in love with them anymore.

Eureka!

Social media is a great way to keep the conversation going with your customers outside of your store. A way to listen. A way to learn.

Social media is our gold rush. With the zillions of tweets, Diggs, blog posts, and Facebook updates all panning for attention I’ve only heard of a few who have ‘struck it rich’ as a result.

With $10,000 to spend. I’m going to put it into a well designed ad, in a print medium, my target audience reads.