Respect: A Success Indicator

Watching people interact with each other can be entertaining and fascinating to observe. Given the numerous factors of role, relationship, situation and many other variables at play, they often lead to interesting and unexpected conversations. Some of my favorites are observing elderly married couples treating each with the utmost kindness and respect. Another, well mannered children talking where there are questions, answers, discovery and understanding. Truly warms my heart.

Conversely, for a long time now, I've been disappointed in the way most people talk AT (operative) people working in retail environments. All too often it seems that the customer could be talking to a kiosk, rather than another person. They have no respect for the person trying to serve them. The excuses for this behavior are plentiful, but I do not accept any of them. The most popular is blaming the level of customer service these days. Again, not accepting it. I've never worked in retail, so I personally can't describe the experience, but I imagine it to be tiring and demoralizing.

I can identify with, and have experience in, the way businesspeople interact with each other. Similar to the way retail people are treated, I've seen (as I'm sure you have as well) patience, disrespect, stubbornness, kindness, anger, etc. Name that emotion, and if you've spent any time in the business world, you've likely witnessed it. Respect of others I believe to be the most important trait in business as it is so fundamental. Without it, I don't believe effective collaboration and dialog are possible. Certainly, there are many jobs out there where this is not necessary, but how about marketing? Can you be a effective marketer today if you go about being disrespectful others? Can you anticipate customer needs if you fundamentally don't respect others? Can you communicate with them? Can you design a quality marketing experience without respect? Maybe in days of yesterday when marketing was a one-way medium, it was possible, but today it is much more like to a two-way dialog. Without inherent respect for others, you cannot be a successful marketing professional. When choosing marketing partners, it might be wise to go to lunch together before making a decision to work together, and observe how they treat the wait staff. You might just get a glimpse into the potential success of your future marketing programs.

Mom 2.0 Summit Redux

I wasn't able to attend the recent Mom 2.0 Summit in Houston, but felt almost like I did since I followed the prolific number of tweets (twitter posts) during the two-day conference, and the subsequent blog posts. Even though now it's a thing of the past, you too can catch up with the event through these links.

Twitter tweets

Flickr photos

Blog posts

Your Social Media Strategy

In today's business environment, many marketers (us included) are being asked to do more with less. One way is by attempting to harness the power of word-of-mouth and find social media glory. Social media works best for businesses when it is approached as a strategy with the objective to become involved in conversations relevant to your their business and industry. There are objectives, measurable goals, a budget, resources, a team of people with responsibilities, and a plan. A simple business 101 statement I know, but how does your social media effort stack up?

Moms' Lifestream Feed

An important ingredient of successful online marketing today is being
where your customers are, instead of requiring them to come to you
(e.g. corp. web site). Thus less emphasis is on getting web
site visitors and more on communication, service and content
distribution. With that basic strategy in mind, lucid
attempts to satisfy marketers needs and interest in information 'all
things marketing to moms.' This email newsletter is one way.
As a subscriber, you receive a monthly summary of what's been happening
along with some of our thoughts. You can also subscribe to
our rss feed, daily email, twitter, facebook, or friendfeed
account. Whatever suits your preference for taking it in. We
hope you find value and benefit. To expand the service, we now offer
ability to follow what many moms are discussing online right now with
Moms' Lifestream Feed. The content comes from their twitter tweets, blog posts, flickr
updates, facebook feeds, and others. It's a great way to get
your 'feet on the street' of social media and motherhood, the same way
we do. Subscribe to this RSS feed. (If you don't yet have an RSS
reader, try Google Reader)