With: Accompanied by, moving in the same direction, in concert and in proportion to something or someone.

For: In benefit of, or employed by someone or something.  In the service of someone or something.

As an idealist (according to Myers-Briggs, as well as the dictionary definition), I have a tough time dealing with offenses against the human spirit, and an even harder time dealing with what I consider at first to be offenses against my own human spirit (dreams, goals, ambitions, passions).  So it occurred to me, that perhaps the slight shift in usage between these two words might be a telling signal.

Consider phrases that use the preposition, “for:”

• I work a 9-5 job for Super Mega Corp.
• I make dinner for my family.

Now, consider:

• I work a 9-5 job with a team of bright and talented individuals.
• I enjoy an hour of my evenings with my family, cooking dinner, eating and talking about our days.

Again, it is subtle.  But I’m discovering that there is more power, and potentially more joy to be found by behaving collaboratively, building towards an ideal goal.  It starts with the way we focus our energy, and energy focus starts with the way we formulate our ideas and thoughts.  Life becomes less about enduring hardship, and more about overcoming it.  Choose a positive thought!

Makes sense, retailers want to put this kind of information in the hands of their customers, so that it’s available immediately online. Let’s search for the local store on hardware retailer Rona’s website.  When Google <store name> + <city name> doesn’t work, I’m stuck with using their website. Here’s a great example of what not to do:

Step 1. Go to home page and enter postal code into the box.

Step 2. Click on the “Find a Store” link at the top of the screen.

Step 3. Enter your postal code again.

Step 4: Fantastic! A Map and Everything!

Rona’s website fails this test.  Not only am I required to enter my postal code into a form to get into the site (hint: search engines can’t do that), I have to enter it a second time to find my closest store. Now I’m frustrated.

How to avoid this kind of pain:

1. Ensure that all retail locations of your stores have a page on your site that can be browsed to. This will improve the chances of a search engine picking them up, and providing the user with a direct entry point to the store.  Remember that your site’s search functionality is nowhere near as good as Google.
2. Asking for postal codes or user’s location should always be optional. This forces the user to abandon the usual mouse-click flow of a website. Instead, allow a “browse” option. If specific location is required for pricing or availability, don’t display the price/availability first. Or figure out a better business model.
3. Never ask for the same piece of information twice. It’s annoying, redundant, superfluous and unnecessary. It’s worse than a business associate forgetting your name. Websites have cookies, sessions and a million other ways to keep track of customers. Make use of this technology. There is no excuse.

In the past, communities were centred around geography.  In the past decades, geography has taken a back seat. Life has become a series of drive-thru conveniences, with very little connection between people.  Along came the Internet, and the definition of community grew to include groups of geographically-separated folks with common interests.  Thousands of sites now exist with the purpose of bringing people closer together.  We now, more than ever, have the ability to connect with each other, learn and grow as a society.

We must think about social media marketing not as a business practice, but a symbiotic network building practice.  Symbiosis is balance, and without natural balance, we push so hard in the wrong direction that eventually the whole thing snaps.  I don’t intend to turn this post into a rant about why leveraging (as in the stock market) is a bad thing, as we have seen recently with the global economic condition.  But as a counter-example, we can all see how anti-symbiotic the financial community has been over the past decade, eventually leading to a complete collapse.

Social Media Rules

The key is symbiosis. How can we attain symbiosis with social media marketing?

1. Be authentic. The most important rule. If this is as far as you read, know that being completely honest and authentic is the only way to truly succeed. Word of mouth is the best advertising, but it is can also be your worst enemy. Social Media has the same benefits as the open source software community: There are thousands of people who have nothing better to do with their time than poke holes in your arguments.  Ultimately, you need customers in order to sustain your business, but remember, those same customers will abandon you if you take them for granted.
2. You are not elite. Think of your customers as peers heading for a common goal rather than revenue-producing units. Social Media gives the impression of an even playing field, and your customers want to feel like they are your friend. If you don’t want to be friends with your customers, then you are in the wrong job.  Since you are being authentic, the customer/vendor relationship becomes one of mutual benefit.
3. Open your doors. Show the world who you are. Provide profiles of team members, and even a way for customers to talk to them. And not just the executives. Remember that if you want your customers to be your friends, they want to be your friends too.  It’s a two-way street.
4. Let your customers sell your product. Provide high-quality pictures, details, recommendations – the usual.  But also provide a place for the community to discuss the product.  I am more apt to listen to someone who tells me what the limitations of a product are, so that I can make an informed decision as to whether it is suitable for my purposes or whether I should go for the next step up.  If you’re trying to pull the wool over your customers’ eyes, again, you’re in the wrong job.

I am disappointed, especially since I’ve been training for the past three months, but at the same time, I know that there’s more glory in not finishing than there is in not starting.  I can’t say I didn’t try.

In all this bad news though, I am still well on track to participate in this year’s Chip’s Not Dead Yet Memorial Mile (which although timed, is more of a party than a race).  The idea is to celebrate the fact that we’re alive, and make use of our lives while we still have them.  We’re not dead yet!

Twitter Tools

via URDB – Most Expensive Cupcake .

Why can’t we do like other countries do?

In Spain, Mexico, and other places that use Spanish words, they have a thing called “siesta.”  People take a rest in the afternoon and (usually) come back to work afterward, refreshed and ready to take on whatever’s on their plate.

In Japan, like we all saw in that episode of Heroes, they go up to the roof every morning and do crazy exercises. Workers begin their day with oxygen-rich blood coursing through and feeding their brains.

Here in Canada, what do we get? Maybe a bike locker in the basement and a maybe a shower room. The rest is up to you. As long as you don’t do it around company facilities or on company time.

But study after study shows that workers are more productive when they have endorphins running through their systems.  Easy to write a business case and point to these kinds of things.

Are companies just to chicken to expose themselves to the legal implications of doing anything other than sitting in an office chair? Mind you, I have a massage therapist who tells me that more of her patients are so messed up from sitting in office chairs all day…

Don’t get me wrong, I love the kind of work that I do, I just think it needs to be more balanced.  I’m a bit upset today since I haven’t been feeling well, I haven’t been able to get outside and run or bike, so perhaps at this moment I am just feeling a bit of cabin fever.  Fortunately for my work, I am able to sit here in a chair with my laptop.

So, in an effort to actually propose some kind of solution rather than just complain, here goes:

Work from home one day per week.  Instead of commuting, in the time that you would normally commute, go for a run or a yoga class.  Then get to work (and quit blogging all the time)!