Ahuvah Berger

I have been reading Ravit’s blog for years – I Will Teach You To Be Rich

I am a firm believer that in order to sell something (anything), you need to tell a story. By telling a compelling story, you are drawing the audience in.

Here is a video by Beth Comstock, Chief Marketing Officer and SVP of GE: You Have To Tell A Story, Before You Can Sell A Story

By the Author Simon Sinek who wrote “ Start with Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action”

Sheryl Turkle, a MIT technology and society specialist and author of Alone Together, presents the impact of technology and how now we are all connected via our devices.. but yet we are still alone. Being online is “easier” than being physically present.

It is an interesting video. Watch.

This morning I was discussing my frustrations with Facebook and Google+ with a friend. Most of my frustrations with Facebook (and who yet knows about Google+) is that it is the same articles, statuses, and posts are regurgitated over and over again. There is a “herd” mentality on FB.

His next question was – doesnt Twitter have the same issues as Facebook (same content appearing over and over) and my answer was – not in my feed.

My Twitter feed is made up of so many different people from all over the world who are interested in a huge variety of topics. I purposefully chose not to just follow people in the high-tech scene. I wanted variety .. I wanted to learn new things and this was the forum do just that.

And the most astonishing conclusion I came to this morning was: I do not have the email addresses for the people who I consider most interesting on the web.

And this is why Facebook and Google+ will never satisfy my needs. I want to connect to strangers, not people I know.

Today my friend sent me an article from Wharton titled: One Woman’s Advice to Another -  It’s Always Time to Speak Your Mind

The essence of the article is that women typically do get what they want because they do not ask for what they want.

I can relate to this article as I am sure many of my female contemporaries can as well.

Here is snippet from the article that rang true to me “The book concluded that girls are taught to be others-focused, that women settle for the salary they need rather than fighting for the amount that they are worth, and that women often struggle between being too assertive and not being assertive enough. The book also said that women don’t ask for what they want or feel they deserve because they are fearful they won’t be liked, whereas men perceive asking as a fun and exciting game of strategy with little downside.”

I recommend you read the article in its entirety.

Yesterday I spoke at MEGAComm 2011 and shared with the audience the presentation below.  The most important point I need to stress is that using twitter to generate leads is not for every organization in every industry.

I think that this is an important watch for both parents and future parents growing up in our generation.

As an adult with ADD – I can really relate to this video. I have always stated (unscientifically) that we could probably trace the increase of ADD in my generation to Sesame Street.

Sesame Street was  the first TV show I watched – and it was geared to attract my attention for brief periods of  time and then jump onto another topic keeping me highly engaged.

My main issue with Sesame Street is  that it was my first educational setting and it instilled within me a need for short bursts of information and a hyper stimulated experience to keep me engaged.

This video just emphasizes the enormous divide between student and educator. Educators are not trained to deal with overly stimulated children and  children need to be medicated to focus. Medicated during their formative learning years- does this frighten you like it does me?

Watch. Please.

Excerpt from the King Fish Media report: Social Media Usage, Attitudes and Measurability: What Do Marketers Think?

“The responsibility for creating and maintaining social media falls mainly on the marketing department and in most cases it is an addition an existing job, not a dedicated job function. Only a small minority of companies are outsourcing their social media efforts as they are mostly done internally. When they do outsource it, a freelancer or agency is the likely candidate. ”

Did you know that according to this study, only *9%* of companies have a dedicated full time person working on the company’s social media strategy and activity?

So let me get this straight -  the objective of using social media platforms  (according to this study) is to focus on the relationships  of current customers and lead generation.

Yet only 9% of companies have a dedicated internal person working on strategy and implementation full time? Companies fail to understand that social media implies hiring a web schmoozer who understands the technology, brand and corporate goals. This is not a one way street where you shout out your company message all over the web. These activities mean engagement.  Dialogue. Two way street. You cannot spend 2 hours a day and expect effective relationship building.

I would recommend internal, external and all the “social media guru’s” out there to take a look at this study. Read it.

Please understand that there are people out there that truly understand the power of Social Media and can work with the internal individuals so that their activity is that much more effective with an ROI. But you must be very selective and ignore “buzz” words.

To read the full report you need to register here