Dennis O'Neil - Speaker & Author on Internet Sales, Marketing, and Social Media » Online Behavior

What Makes Start-up’s Different from Traditional Business and Why You Should Think Like One.

dennisoneil — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 15:18:00 +0000

I am regularly amazed at how difficult some companies make it to business with them, or simply get a taste of their product or service. Traditional businesses are terrified a potential customer/client will find a way to take advantage of them; a way to skirt their beloved system and get something for free. They setup rules and policies to prevent any circumvention – making sure no one uses their product or service in a way they didn’t intend. This is a problem.

Who operates differently?

While no longer a start-up, consider how Google operates. Is Google afraid you’re going to get something for free or take advantage of their work without paying anything? Of course not. They want you to take it for free. Outside of advertising, most of the products they sell are upgraded versions of a free product – after millions of users have provided them with feedback about what they’d be willing to pay for.

Does Facebook care that I’ve never clicked on an ad? Maybe they want me to click, but they’re not going to kick me out if I don’t. They’re not going make it harder for me to use their platform until I start clicking. They recognize that they need to fit their revenue model to my behavior, not attempt to twist my behavior to fit their revenue model.

Does Twitter try and stop people from using their service in unconventional ways? The founders of Twitter admit that they never realized the service would end up supporting so many uses. When these new users took advantage of the Twitter system and benefited for free, did Twitter try and squash this use? Absolutely not. It watched and learned how people were using what they built. They didn’t care how, but they wanted people to use their service.

Start-up’s are about identifying new revenue models. Traditional businesses are about clinging to the ones they already have.

Start-up’s don’t care how customers use their product, they just want them to use it. Those users help define the value of the service and identify the revenue model.

What can you do?

Clearly a currently operating business cannot start giving away its product just to learn about its users, but it can let down its guard a bit. Instead of directing is customers and stifling creative uses with regulation, it can see what happens with less system. You could learn a lot. Enough to see new opportunities.

There are businesses clinging to old models that are simply unsustainable in the long term – too rigid, too closed, too cold. Take the risk and let people take advantage of you. Let those people help you determine what your next revenue stream should be.

Instead of an environment of defensiveness, create an atmosphere of welcome. Otherwise, some start-up may do it for you.

Effective Communication with Social Media

dennisoneil — Mon, 22 Mar 2010 06:30:29 +0000

On March 9th, I had the pleasure of speaking to over 200 new home sales and real estate professionals at SMC SalesCamp. My assigned topic was “Effective Communication with Social Media.”

The videos below contain my full presentation.

In this presentation, I was able to introduce the concept of Lead Curation – Creating an environment conducive to growing connections into prospects. I’m looking forward to digging deeper into this in the coming days/months.

I’ve also included my presentation, and the handouts made available to the attendees below. Please feel free to share this with anyone you think may benefit.

Part One Video:

Click here if you can’t see the videos, presentation, or handout

Part Two Video:

Effective Communication with Social Media on Prezi

SMC SalesCamp Spring 2010 Handout

Are you Sharing Enough? Presentations, Video, Content, etc

dennisoneil — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 13:50:53 +0000

Upon reviewing 2009, and planning for 2010, I realized I want to be sharing more content than I have in the past. I rarely get the opportunity to write as much as I like (and that’s a goal, too), but mainly I thought about the volume of media I’ve produced over the last year – videos, dozens of PowerPoints, reports, etc. Most of these would hold some value online in one way or another.

So I’ve decided to take a serious dose of my own advice and go through 2009 to share what’s still relevant, and continue to share more throughout 2010.

Have anything in your digital archives to share? Here’s a few good places to start:

Video: YouTube will almost always be (one of) the right place(s), but also consider Vimeo from non-commerical high quality video, UStream for live streaming video, and Qik for brief video updates. Find my new profile on YouTube.

Presentations (PowerPoint/Keynote): Slideshare is the place for this. You can also add an audio track to turn your slides into an all out presentation. Great to share a recorded webinar. Find my new profile on Slideshare.

Papers: Scribd is my preference for this. I uploaded my “Intro to Social Media for Business” paper there early in 2009 and it quickly racked up over 3000 readers. Find me on Scribd.

Look for upcoming posts to include some of 2009’s media.

Its all the Newspapers’ Fault!

dennisoneil — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 18:30:34 +0000

I’ve used this video in more than one presentation, as I find it to be a great reminder of how far the Internet has come in a very short time. This video from 1981 shows some very early methods of transferring data, unbelievably, launched by the major newspapers! One wonders whether the papers would have been embracing the technology so enthusiastically had they known the eventual impacts to the industry.

While I’ll argue that the Internet was coming with or without the newspapers, its a shame that more of them couldn’t have used this early enthusiasm to better plan their new business models.

As you watch, listen closely to the reporters last sentence – it’s a classic.

So what will the next 28 years bring us?