It is extremely hard to sit patiently by and watch someone do something incorrectly. I don’t know if this is some sort of strange personal issue like my being a little anal-retentive, but it drives me nuts none the less.

My issue is aimed at those companies out there who are in the tech field or market and then mess up in that community. Originally I was going to just rant a little about one issue, but I know people prefer lists. So here is my list of things to never do when you’re a company on the internet.

1. Do not embarrass your company by creating an account on a social network and then (pardon my language) half ass your efforts on that network. If you want to be on twitter, USE IT! If you want to have a Myspace or Facebook then you NEED to give your friends and customers a reason to add you, follow you, or interact with you. Dead accounts are like giant signs saying, “Uh…we really don’t know what we are doing.” You’d look better not being there than being there and being dead.
2. For the love of all that is in existence do not spam the crap out of people. Doing this takes your companies face and attaches it permanently to those emails I get from the prince of Nigeria offering me a boat load of money, a smaller waist and a bigger wang and all for just my bank account number. Everyone please take a moment to take a good look at the following companies on twitter as an example of HOW to run your business:
   1) GoDaddy
   2) JetBlue
   3) Sun And Ski Sports
   4) Mosso
   5) 37 Signals
   6) Less Accounting
   What do these companies all have in common you ask? A) They are not posting constant ads asking people to try their product, visit a site, use a coupon, or following a thousand people and not having anyone follow them back. And they interact with the community. They are active members in their own right with their own unique posts, but it’s not just 100% “Hey check this out” or “Look, a sale”
3. If you are going to have your company take up residence on the internet for heavens sake invest some money in your design. Free templates with sites are awesome, but they’re not unique to your store. Give your customers something nice to look at that serves a purpose. If you’re going to have a blog with Blogger or Wordpress do you leave the default blog template? Remember that thing your parents told you about first impressions? Make one.
4. Don’t be a jerk. Honestly, I’ve spent years working in customer service. Yes, on occasion you find that one customer that is able to get under your skin and make your blood boil. (In my opinion these are the people that live under rocks and have no idea what reasonable means. Every person reading this just thought of that one customer right now) Regardless of how badly this customer gets under your skin, do not give them more firepower than they already have. The internet is a community. Customers talk, and most of the time they can spot these crazy people a mile away. This does not mean in any way that your customers will not side with you if you take one step out side of the professional bounds. So, to avoid getting flamed on your own blog, forums, or Google reviews do not do the following:
   1) Call your customer names. This includes “Crazy, psycho, nutbag, or delirious”
   2) Forget that your customers can record calls and chats just like you can!
   3) Shut down and refuse to work with them.
   The last point folks is the most important. The moment you shut down and refuse to negotiate with “that” customer you let them win. No one will blame you for refusing an outrageous request, but customers will raise alarm if they feel you just stonewalled anyone.
5. Treat your customers like GOLD. Everyone has their bad days, but we are much more willing to forgive and forget a bad experience if it is surrounded by mounds of good. For example, I recommended Mosso to someone on twitter and they (Mosso) immediately responded to it. Sun And Ski sports had been following me for several days before I began following them. When I did I received a direct thank you from them. I received a thank you for following us tweet from JetBlue before I had time to return to my own homepage.

These companies know their customers are on the internet and they treat the consumer nation with the respect its buying power deserves. They do things right.
While I would love to provide everyone with examples of who’s doing it wrong I have two big reasons for not doing so.

First, not worth someone swearing they’re not spamming anyone foolish enough to add/ follow/ or friend them and then suing us for saying something about their bad behavior.

Secondly. I would be sad to see someone be inspired by the sheer numbers some of these poor examples generate in followers/ friends/ and buddies.

So really, I’m saving some of you from your selves. With all of these things in mind I encourage you to get out there and join the social web. Be interactive, smart, and courteous. Then see how much you grow from your social interactions to your business interactions.

I finally got around to reading some old RSS subscriptions and I came across the following article: Real Life Examples of Business Owners Using Social Media from Small Business Trends and I was intrigued. I really wish I could have gone to the event. It would have been nice to have learn and listen to everyone who had attended. I love the fact that this article discusses the positive ways of using Social Media and also how so many people question it.

One thing that I do agree with is that you should definitely pick a few outlets and focus on them. Make sure they fit your target market. Also, the time aspect can be a problem. You can always outsource to people who know what they’re doing, or you can make it a company project and have everyone contribute (this works really well for Blogs). The main reason why I personally love Social Media is that the company no longer is just a company, but its something more personable and approachable regardless of the medium someone would find them through.

Twitter, my new personal favorite medium, is a great tool that I find that a lot of companies are under-utilizing. There are a lot of users, and although its fairly new (not really, about a year plus old), everyone is still learning the best techniques.

@37signals is a provider for a lot of the online applications that Border7 uses. I believe that everyone of their staff is also on Twitter (I am following quite a few of them). They use their Twitter account to notify their users of any downtime on their various products, and I am notified by at least 4-5 tweets telling me so.

@LessAccounting created a website (We All Hate QuickBooks) that displays a live feed of all Tweets that mention Quickbooks. The website is unfiltered, so it shows positive and (mostly) negative comments that people are making of one of LessAccounting’s competitors. Its a genius marketing strategy in my opinion. Also, I would never have found them if it wasn’t for Twitter. I was looking for other accounting providers, and they started a discussion with me (Twitter can be a great sales tool).

Which brings me to my next point. @Freshbooks saw that I was looking at other providers, and they used Twitter as a retention tool and talked me into staying with them as well. Fortunately, I needed something from both companies that only each uniquely provided.

@Zappos (I do not follow them since I’m afraid I’ll waste my entire paychecks shopping with them) is also a prime example of how to make your company personable. Almost everyone who works for them utilizes Twitter and they are encouraged to discuss what they’re doing, what is working for them, and what is not. The CEO is the one who runs the main Twitter account (I believe, so don’t hold me to this) and they respond to people, plug products or blog posts, and all in all, just make the company that much more approachable.

And with that, if you’re a Twitter user, I would suggest following @Border7 for all the Border7 news. If you want to get to know me (do so at your own risk) you can follow me @kamylynn.

Also, if you just want to read some general demographics, refer to the recent Time’s article on Twitter.

Accounting software should allow you to keep track of all your expenses and also how much you are making. The idea behind it is simple and easy and you would think that a monkey could do it. Well, with that said, I want you to all know, I HATE QUICKBOOKS.

Whew, with that off my chest I can tell you that Border7 has finally decided on what we are going to be using for all our Billing and Accounting needs. In the beginning of the year we had found Freshbooks, and we loved their invoicing system. It was great, and it also lets your clients submit tickets for support requests, etc. Now, although these features were great, we never could figure out the expense reports. They let you pass expenses to your clients, but actual company expenses were not easily trackable. So we started looking for a new application. Through the use of Twitter, Amy found LessAccounting and this accounting software was great. It had everything that Freshbooks was missing and included an online invoice and proposal system. So we decided to start using them.

Well, because of Twitter, and how both companies interacted with Amy, the company decided that we will be using both software. The invoice system for LessAccounting is nice, but our clients log into Freshbooks to see their invoices. Also, the ticketing system of Freshbooks is a nifty feature that we are going to start using more heavily. LessAccounting allows us to monitor our income and our expenses and we can correlate between the two.

This is more than a lesson in accounting. This is about marketing, sales, and retention. Both companies directly contacted Amy and showed them how great they are. The fact that they were attentive and provided answers in an open forum was great; not to mention the fact that Freshbooks put Amy on the spot and asked her why we were “breaking up with them.” A lot of companies can learn from both of these companies. They interact with their customers. By doing that, you one] make them feel special, two] make it harder for them to leave — After being put on the spot, Amy fought with everyone to find the reasons for us to stay with Freshbooks, which by the way were all valid — so now we’re going to rework our billing & accounting process so that we use both applications.

Hype is a mixture of direct marketing, advertising, buzz, and just word of mouth. Hype is a fun marketing technique that, when used on something that is worth the hype, is amazing.

The Good

In this day and age it seems that hype is really a part of our culture. Everything is hyped to be something great, amazing, or the next big thing. The Dark Knight had a lot of hype. Because of that hype, I went into it with really high expectations. Did it live up to my expectations? Oh boy, did it! It not only fulfilled my Batman love, but it made me ALMOST consider it better than Iron Man — I would like to take this moment to explain that I consider Iron Man to be the better movie for three reasons. One, I like that superhero better so I am automatically biased towards him. Two, its Marvel, and again, I am biased towards any of their work over anything DC related. And three, Iron Man did not have a love story or a leading lady completely make or break the plot line — but as it stands, they are at a tie for my love and affection.

The Bad

Now, another good example of hype would be the Hulk movies. The one from 2004 was heavily hyped and did not live to anyones expectations. Granted, if it wasn’t so hyped, maybe our expectations would not have been so high and we would not have been so rudely disappointed? No one will know for sure, but one thing that it do was ensure that the following one would have very low expectations coming into it. Because of that, I actually liked the movie. I did not expect it to be an amazing movie but I left it content and somewhat all right with spending some money on movie tickets.

The Ugly

Every day something new comes to market. The people behind these products and services are hoping to create a buzz that looks like unpaid hype. Great examples of where this went wrong: Speed Racer, the Zune, Star Wars III, and possibly other things, but they disappointed me so much that I can’t even remember what they were. All had a crazy amount of hype to build them up to be something they weren’t: Amazing.

Just remember that if you are going to start hype about something, make sure that you can follow it up with one 100% surefire bonafide kick-ass thing.

Yes, we love XKCD, but who doesn’t? This particular script makes a very valid point when looking at relationships, but the same can be said with anything. When you think ahead, you look for potential problems that may arise. When you do that, sometimes you throw yourself into a panic and then you run away - in turn, not pursuing what you were thinking ahead about.

At Border7, we try to think ahead for everything we do. We establish all the risks involved, what potential problems may arise, develop contingency plans, and make sure that if anything happens, we will ultimately be prepared. Sometimes we find that there are a lot of risks involved, and then discuss if we should jump out a window instead of proceeding. For the most part, we usually continue anyway and just make sure we know what to do if something wrong happens. Other times, we really do jump out the window.

Can you name any other things that were so awesome, but ultimately scared you away?

Duct Tape Marketing just posted about the book “How to Demonstrate Word of Mouth” and Dave Balter of BuzzAgent. We just got a copy of the PDF and are going to be buying a copy from Amazon.

It was really good timing because yesterday during a staff meeting we were discussing some Marketing techniques that we should employ to help get our business, and all our side projects out there.

One technique that we currently use is a referral bonus for our existing clients. For each new client they refer to us that results in a project, we give our client a coupon for 20% of the project total. Some people may think this crazy, but its a cheap way to drive new business. Not only are you getting a new client, but your giving your old clients a reason to use you again.

We’re going to read this and see if we can get more ideas. What techniques do you use to drive word of mouth?

The Celtics are my favorite to win the Finals. Why? Because they aren’t about being a one-man show (unlike many of the other NBA teams out there). The entire team, the entire organization, all work towards the same goal - Winning.

What does this have to do with business? Well, its simple, if you can have everyone in your company all on the same page, working towards the same common goal, it makes it more achievable.

This week Iron Man comes out and I cannot begin to describe how stoked the office is. In anticipation, we decided to discuss what you can learn from the superheroes and how it’s applicable to the business world.

Case 1: CounterBalance

Tony Stark is in charge of Stark Industries and is a multi-millionaire, if not billionaire. His line of work is arms-dealing, but through the breakthrough technology that his company makes in that industry it allows for funding & research in other areas of our lives. I’ve seen a few bits and peices, and there is a part where he tells an Interviewer about how the funding from the goverment allows them to make strides in the health industry.

Lesson: Since the nature of their business is not necessarily the best morally or ethically, they try to counterbalance it with positive attributes. Not only is it a karma thing, but it is also an opportunity to provide positive press.

Current companies employing similar strategies: After the Movie “Super Size Me” McDonalds was put in a very bad light. They were now associated to heart disease, increased heart attack rates, and all in all anything that could kill you. They’ve recently been changing their menus, offering salads, adding apple wedges, milk, etc.

Case 2: Man Up to the Consequences

Tony Stark let his company be ran by business people and he stuck to research. He trusted Obadiah to make all the business decisions, and because of this, Stark Industries begins to double deal. This is also the beginning of the whole story for the movie, because now Stark must go and make amends for the troubles his company has caused.

Lesson: One, you can’t really trust people. Or you can, but make sure that you really can trust them. Two, when its your fault (even inadvertently) that something is not done correctly or something goes amiss, its your job to fix things and make it right.

Current companies employing similar strategies: EA, they use to have an amazing game lineup. Recently though, the things they’ve been putting out have been crap. However, they realized this, and then decided to only release quality titles (Battlefield: Bad Company and Spore for example).

You are all aware of my obsession with 37signals. Well, they recently posted an article stating you should Fire the Workaholics. In this article, there are 5 reasons. Sadly, I was able to relate to all five.

Enjoying 14 hour days

I work hard at Border7 and also with other ventures. My work day starts at 6am and doesn’t end till 2pm. Where I will take an afternoon nap for an hour. Then work again till about 10pm. There are a few breaks in between there, but that’s a long day. I am very productive and get a lot of work done during these time frames. However, depending on what is going on, I will work even longer hours and just get the project knocked out of the way. This is all good and dandy, but David makes a valid point, “when the burnout crash comes and it will, it’ll hit all the harder.” I usually get decommissioned for a day or two after pulling a few days of really long hours.

Shear Hours to Fix Problems

They make a valid point that working more does not necessarily fix the problem, especially when the problem is something creative.

Effect on Company Morale

Since I work a lot, other people may not feel they are working enough. They are working their full hours (sometimes overtime) and giving 110% effort, but I’m a workaholic, and exceed them by double generally. It could “lead to guilt, misery, and poor morale. Worse, it’ll lead to ass-in-seat mentality where people will “stay late” out of obligation, but not really be productive.”

Misguided Values

I miss out on a lot of the things going on around me so that I can work more. I’ve lost a few friendships from my workaholic ways. Even my friends here in the office like to go out and do things. Its even worse then, because I’ll decline, and when they ask why, I’ll have to say “to work”. This leads back to the reason before. Now they won’t want to go have a good time because they think I’ll think less of them. Not good for company morale, AT ALL.

Working with interesting people is more interesting than just working.

Luckily, everyone here says I’m interesting (or they’re lying since I sign their paychecks). But the point is still true. A person who only cares about work, and only lives to work, is not that interesting of a person.

Anyway, the first step in the program is simply admitting you are one, so again my name is Amy and I’m a workaholic. It feels great to get that off my chest.

“If you think you are too small to be effective, you have never been in bed with a mosquito.” -Betty Reese (per 37signals)

As you all should be aware, we’re in love with 37signals. Well they posted this quote a few weeks back and it made me realize that the size is not really important. A mosquito lives by eating blood. It’s small but effective. Some companies have problems because they over think things, hire too many people, and then when they realize that they could achieve the same results with fewer resources, people get hurt.

Personally, I rather be understaffed as it makes people be creative. You can easily get the same results that you would from a greater amount of people. However, you also need to know when you’ve reached 110% of your resources and are cutting it thin. What would you say is the line?