OMGosh – back to middle school terminology, every new business needs people, or a posse, to like them. Without that we are total ‘double losers’.
So your new, and you want to show everyone you’re the best thing ever, but resources are limited. It goes without saying to utilize all social media outlets such as Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, WordPress and hey even instagram if it floats your boat. The difficult part is using these correctly to hit your target outlets. Don’t be discouraged, it can be done!
First things first, don’t reach out to people/businesses/journalists/TV shows who aren’t in your company type. For instance, as digital innovators, we are not going to follow 50 Cent on Twitter because, well, that makes no sense in terms on business development unless its our birthday.
Secondly, keep outreaching to your followers and potential followers. Don’t allow people to forget you are making moves. If you fall off the radar, it can be difficult to come back on. Lastly, (well almost but we don’t want to give away all of our secrets!), constantly grow your outlets to fit the times. Digital marketing is difficult in this part because the culture is changing every minute. Look at poor MySpace. That was the social marketing tool that helped many bands be heard, and now it’s a bunch of inactive pages and a few tweeny boppers. You must, must, MUST stay relevant.
Relevance is the most important tool for a growing business. You stay relevant, you grow. In other words, if you’re still Tivo-ing Family Ties and posting pictures of the Fonz, you may want to rework your messaging.
Just yesterday Jeff Hoffman set off to Johnson County Community College in Overland Park, Kansas to speak to college entrepreneurs on how to be successful. He drew from one of his favorite examples, Sam Walton eating apple pie with customers, to denote the most important aspects of business, “look at how and why the customer buys”. This integral part of business is exactly why ColorJar gets out of bed in the morning! We go looking into our clients to see what they want to make of themselves and compare that to the wants and needs of their customers. If you are to be successful in your venture, you have to look at it from all angles (even those nameless competitor’s). Not only should you look from the buyer’s point of view, you should think like them. Many times you will see that there is no buyer for your product and therefore need to take a different approach…
His talks were so impressive they made the first page of the Kansas City Star!
Lights, Camera, Jeff! — That’s my quick summary of TEDxWallStreet.
Seriously folks, it’s not every day that you see a huge TEDx banner covering half of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE). No surprise, expectations were high and the speakers delivered. Kicking off the day, author Don Tapscott gave a rousing and relevant speech on the future of Wall Street and the need for integrity, collaboration and transparency, giving great examples of how to make these values matter to your organization. Another great speech was closer David Rose (Co-founder: Singularity University) who discussed redefining success from a corporate context to an individual context and cited Reid Hoffman’s (Sorry, no relation to Jeff) book The Start Up of You. Lastly, I’d like to give a special shout out to ColorJar friend and ally Sergio Fernandez de Cordova (founder: Fuel Outdoor), who gave a terrific talk on media and the need to use it before its shelf life expires.
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Hey folks, if you happen to be in the Big Apple tomorrow, you may want to check out Jeff Hoffman speaking at TEDxWallStreet. And if you can’t make it to New York/weren’t able to snag one of the limited number of tickets, there’s always the live webcast from the TEDxWallStreet website.
This the first-ever TEDxWallStreet, a not-for-profit event that will take place at the New York Stock Exchange. As with other TED events, pioneering thought leaders are brought in, this time to address an audience of 300 business, social, and academic influencers, as well as those viewing via live webcast. The discussion will focus on “Redefining Success” within the Wall Street community and beyond.
Jeff is the penultimate speaker for the day’s events, so if you can’t spend the whole day in front of the computer screen, tuning in around 4:15pm EST should let you catch it live. But Jeff’s certainly not the only speaker of note; view the full day’s itinerary here.
So tune in, enjoy, maybe even do some TED Dancin’…
In the fast-moving world of Startups and Technology, the catchphrase of the day is “pivot.” Switch a photo sharing app to a video sharing app? No problem. Reinvent a social networking site for gay men into a flash site for discounted designer sales? Sure, Fab.com did it — and won big! Sounds easy right? Not so fast.
In our single-serving society of disposable items and quick fixes, the pivot mentality makes sense, all the more so when coupled with every entrepreneurs guiding light mantra: “Fail Fast!” But are we failing too fast? Maybe I’m cynical, but as this approach continues to be bandied about, becoming more ubiquitous than the catchphrase “At The End of The Day,” I wonder if it isn’t time we pivot away from the pivot.
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There’s a saying within the open-source programming community: if it’s broken, then “fork it and fix it!”
That’s because the community revolves around the sharing of code – hence the “open” in “open source – using source control services like Github.com. If a script, plugin, library, gem, or whatever other piece of code you’re using in your project has been shared using a service like this, then chances are it lives online within what is called a code “repository.” It’s a lot more comfortable than a code suppository. continue reading
Okay Einstein, maybe you’re not solving mass-energy equivalence, or launching a bagel empire but there’s good news: your idea can make it. What idea? The groundbreaking concept, the new take on something old, the meal that’s going to be your meal ticket. It’s the one idea you’ve fallen in love, but while you know what the meal is, you’re not so sure how to make it from scratch. How do you start executing? People use the term start-up all the time, but how does one start one up?
Well first things first: do something, anything really. That’s what we mean when we say “get off the couch.” Have you researched if anyone else has your idea? Chances are they probably do, but that’s okay. What would you do that makes your idea different? Put together a business plan that maps out what you hope to achieve. You want to be able to talk to people about your idea. As you start digging deeper into what it is you’re really creating, you might find yourself very far from where you began. But that’s okay. In fact, it’s great, because more times than not your product will end up being different than what you first imagined. continue reading
On February 4th, ColorJar’s David Gardner and Alex Schwartz (both seen at left – we’ll let you guess who is who) shot down to Saatchi & Saatchi Manhattan to hear some Disruptive Ideas at TEDxBigApple. Here’s what Alex had to say:
The event was packed and we were thrilled to see our client Music For Tomorrow hard at work in their sponsor booth, educating attendees on how to book bands, and the awesome work M.F.T. has done to re-invigorate the Jazz scene in post-Katrina New Orleans. The TED talks themselves were great. I was especially impressed by Vijay Govindarajan’s compelling thoughts on Reverse Innovation as applied to the Developing World with specific recent examples culled from India. Anyone interested should consider buying his new book: “Reverse Innovation: Create Far From Home, Win Everywhere.” continue reading
We here at ColorJar would like to officially welcome everyone to 2012. While January traditionally marks the start of the year, it’s a busy month full of making resolutions (I’m running at 1280 x 800 on this laptop right now), and it’s in February that you truly begin to be accountable to sticking by them.
What were our resolutions? We can’t say, because resolutions are like wishes, if you say them out loud (or type them on the internet), they might not come true. Well, not really, but we keep those to ourselves because at ColorJar it’s about the clients. So many companies say it, but just because something is oft-repeated, doesn’t mean it’s any less true. Without our clients, we don’t exist. We’re really happy and grateful to have worked, and be working, with great companies and individuals, doing unique and great things. continue reading
ColorJar was delighted to receive mention in some pretty notable Chicago news sources for our inclusion on the Empact 100 list. Take a look:
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News stories are from November 17 and 18, 2011.
