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BUSINESS: Core Values

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I have been thinking about core values. It seems contradictory that as values in public life have declined, hopefully now on the rebound, organisations such as the Financial Conduct Authority in the U.K. who are regulated by the government, have pushed forward with legislation to include fairness and good outcomes into members’ processes when dealing with customers. As well as widening the net as to who should be regulated. With good leadership it is not difficult to establish these into any business.

Here are some of the lifetime values embedded in my personal and business philosophy.

Equitable (fair and reasonable)
Aim for Great Outcomes
Transparent
Enthusiastic
Committed

A few more…
Non-negotiables e.g. Ethics & Honesty
Adaptable
Creative
Encouraging
Innovative
Collaborative
Motivated
Inquisitive & Learning

Do they align with yours? Feel free to message me with your thoughts and a few of your own.

Please take a look at my profile and get in touch if I can help you unlock the potential in your business. I specialise in Small & Medium Sized (SME) business improvement with nearly four decades experience in sales and marketing including e-commerce and finance brokerage.

SOCIAL MEDIA: Back To The Futurism 3

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Futurist Preamble Ramble Pt.3:

The Clubhouse app analogy. Like attracts like, people follow those they respect and meet more like minded, all these people invite their friends to join the app and a ripple effect of like minded & a virtuous circle. An app that existed before the pandemic but floundering, came alive when we were stuck at home and realised that interactive podcasting meant you could contribute to the discourse of your pet subjects and interests. Typically, the larger platforms are now on the bandwagon with their own offerings. Speaking and sound was the last of the senses to be properly catered for by Social Media, the effect of hearing tone in someone’s voice is more personal than text creating an unexpected hit. Unexpected seems to be a thread.

At the creator level, ideas from people across the world are disseminated and applied to individual markets. Collaboration is a natural effect.

On a buyer level, obviously influencers are embedded, but micro influencers are targeting a smaller niche audience from subsets of interests. It’s simpler to market a niche product or service than larger.

How many have dyed their own hair during the pandemic and how many have sought reviews online? Some ultra agile smaller brands have capitalised mightily in the last twelve months by creating simple to use products and receiving rave reviews. The rise of the #RavingFan !

Social Media Groups are simple to create and market to. Brands who interact at a quantum level in these forums build trust in a subscriber that they are the most qualified supplier of goods and services (Social Listening). Backed up by encouraging great feedback within these forums and the Internet in general. Your brand’s clean fingerprints have never been more vital in a world where you simply cannot erase a poor review.

SOCIAL MEDIA: Back To The Futurism 2

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Futurist Preamble Ramble Pt.2

Creatives can use Blockchain as a method of dating and copyrighting their output – Intellectual Property is becoming critical when nation states are prepared to steal copy ideas and products. Leading creatives will create a Cryptocoin that reflects any rise in their stock. Imagine investing in designers Johnny Ive, Dieter Rams or architect Frank Lloyd Wright stock at the beginning of their careers.

The development of creator to brand exchanges where creatives will bid for work and brands can pick from the most competitive and creative talent to bring new messages to their customers.

We have only scratched the surface of the effect of Blockchain and Cryptocurrency. There is nothing to prevent well known brands jumping this bandwagon, encouraging investment in their coin generating interest bearing tokens that can be exchanged for limited edition products, uniquely offered sale goods and media launches and cross brand endorsements. Brands expanding outside of the regular economy into the decentralised economy that even countries like the newly independent Great Britain*, a G7 economy are considering entering – maybe tied into Free Port policies.
*I am Remainer lol but we are stuck with Brexit so we have to make it work.

In summary, a new breed of independently funded creators will provide infinite new competitively priced content to brands wishing to personalise their offerings to a savvy consumer.

Convenience
Consumers want Ease, Speed, Reliability & Consistency.

The rise of apps. Expedited delivery. Free Returns

Tribes & Influences
People want advice from like-minded people or people they admire & respect. We all want to belong.

They want to support brands they relate to and admire too. Cont.

 

Clubhouse Crack

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If Sting were writing lyrics for The Police today instead of 1980 and coming up with ‘When the world is running down, you make the best of what’s still around’ he’d probably write ‘While the world is speeding up, you have to keep your feet on the ground’. OK that’s doesn’t quite scan, but you get my drift?

By 7am GMT today I’d been in Clubhouse an hour – the new currently ‘Invite Only’ to add an air of exclusivity Social Media In-Thing App. With thanks to an Instagram friend for the invite. Already I’d listened to a debate on the proliferation and development of Artificial Intelligence (AI), dropped into a Q&A with internationally famous artist and brand collaborator Takashi Murakami, then when he closed the room I was into Art Provocateur Kenny Schachter’s Instagram linked article on NFT (nifty) Art (non-fungible tokens, believe me, it’s B-I-G) and Nifty Gateway which, also being in the realm of data mining and Crypto Currency, is a parallel world. Art, Music & Tech, that’s all right up my street.

Taking all this detail onboard is what I’ve been doing ever since the Internet became the font of all knowledge and the proliferation of Apps like Clubhouse are supercharging our learning, particularly in the field of business and marketing. Yes, by all means continue to read self-help books, but in less than five hours listening in on my iPhone (iPhone only right now) to what may be described as 6x NY Times Best Selling International Marketing Rock Stars and many other mere mortals from the University of Life I’ve gleaned an immense amount of useful information around Social Marketing and Personal Branding for free. With the kind of people involved in some ways it’s a little like a live and interactive Linked-in but without the political sycophancy in replies that often annoys me.

Think back to the Industrial Revolution, most people were so poor they kept their worldly possessions in a purse tied to their belt and paid a penny to stand against a rope most nights to sleep undercover in a ‘Doss House’, the endeavours of Victorian Superstars such as Isambard Kingdom Brunel (what a name!) were a world away. It took a week to cross the Atlantic. The way steam engines work and smelting iron are also fairly easy to understand. Yesterday, I was in the comfort of my own home sharing an interactive electronic ‘stage’ using super-fast WiFi chatting tips and traps on a ‘telephone’ about how to work the platform with likeminded people of all ages from Atlanta, Los Angeles, Dublin, Manila, Melbourne and Delhi. And we don’t even think about that anymore!

Clubhouse or CH as it’s known shorthand, is best described as Interactive Podcasting. It’s an online space where ‘Clubs’ are created and ‘Rooms’ are opened within each club. So, for example you could have a Club titled Running a $10M Dollar Business and a Room in that club scheduled at 3pm EST could be about Personal Brand Building on Instagram created and run by a couple of industry expert moderators who share a ‘Stage’ with erudite speakers. If you’re in the room and raise your hand you may be invited to the stage to ask a question and enter the debate. It’s addictive. The upside, you can be anywhere, in any environment work, home, gym. You could be painting your lounge with it running alongside and ‘Chime In’ to comment at will, nobody will see the paint brush! The downside, since it’s all spoken word it’s invasive and if you really get into it, and you will, because you love learning stuff and can put up with some people ‘going on a bit’, it could begin to replace your time watching TV or listening to music. That’s a big thing for someone who plays vinyl records to listen to his HiFi 😉

It’s amusing that many of the moderators and recognisable ‘super-users’ appear to be around much of the time to the exclusion of everything else. Of course, they’re really working and have CH ‘on the side’ and can interact at will. But it reminded me that as a kid I never thought about the Sixties and Seventies pop and rock bands you saw on TV doing anything else than living together 24-7 in a big country house, in stage wear, makeup, and being chauffeured to Top Of The Pops or Juke Box Jury / Superstore etc. Now picture Kiss, Roxy Music or The Sweet in their Glam Rock pomp…..

Anyway, CH is here to stay and bar one or two obvious improvements (it’s in Beta at the moment) good to go. Quite what it will be like as v4.1 once the developers have tinkered too much with the algorithm and altered the functionality, like Twitter or Instagram for example, remains to be seen.

My point in flagging up our over-speeding world is a reminder for my fellow creatives and a mental health one. Take a step back, go walking, get some fresh air, read books, listen to music, chat to loved ones, because knowledge and it’s availability is high frequency and it’ll suck you in and spit you out if you don’t take care.  It will be there tomorrow.

As is custom to sign off in CH. “I’m Steve and I’m done talking”.

Bye for now.

Clubhouse @thestevecee