Archive for February, 2008

What bothers me most about the word “monetize” (and there are many things) is that 95% of the time it’s used in our industry and in our context, it means “figure out a way to sell it or staple ads to it.”

Which is entirely self-limiting.

There are so many other ways to build actual business value, and to connect that to content. My buddy Christopher Penn’s Financial Aid Podcast is hugely profitable because it helps his company sell student loans. My own blogging and microblogging brands me, helps me network and has led directly to 5 of the last 5 new client inquiries. The right content-focused but commercially branded widget on a DIY blog could help readers buy supplies for their project.

The challenge I put to people when they struggle with this question: if advertising currently makes money because it helps companies sell stuff, how can future models of commerce and content make money by HELPING PEOPLE BUY stuff, when they already know they want to. Call it what you want, for me, that’s “where this all leads…”

What do you think?

Why aren’t presentations becoming generally better despite so much great thinking on how to fix them? Is it because many come together at the last minute?

Presentation Zen (which is awesome) got me thinking. What can you fix if you only have a few moments? Say you don’t have time to master the concepts in Garr’s book, you haven’t been reading presentations blogs, your company didn’t invest in training or coaching, and you’re on the spot. What then?

10-minute overhaul to improve any presentation:

Audience & Objective
Put your slides (or script/visuals/etc) away and get out a piece of paper. Imagine that you just gave the presentation. Now write down answers to:

1. Who was in the audience? What motivates them? (2 mins)
2. How did my presentation connect directly to their interests and motivations? (1 min)
3. What did I achieve? What is the audience going to repeat from my presentation? How will they answer “What did you just learn?” (1 min)

These answers determine your purpose. They show your “audience-specific objective.” Know who you’re talking to and how to connect their needs to your goals.

Get Darwinian
Back to your slides. Delete or hide any that do not support your audience-specific objective. (2 mins) (If you MUST, promise you will click swiftly through with little comment. If knowing it’s there makes you calmer, well, calmer is better.)

Reorder
Start and end the presentation with your big idea expressed as “what’s in it for them.” Tie it to your audience’s interests and motivations. At the end of the presentation, connect your big idea to what you want to achieve. Your presentation should start something. It should stimulate an active response from the audience. (2 mins)

Extra time? Arrange your entire deck to build up the case for your big idea. Illustrate with simple stories. Sort concepts and stories into coherent sections and use clear transitions between them. Find a sequence brings the audience to your conclusions.

Lightning Round
Race through your presentation using no more than one sentence to explain each slide. Take no more than five seconds per slide. State the point in just one short remark. If you can’t, kill the slide. If you can’t kill it, “maim” it until it has a point. (2 mins)

Extra time? Go through the presentation several times in “lightning round” mode, and do significant edits between rounds. Work in teams to collaborate on the best “main points” of the presentation.

Come see this in action. Join me on ooVoo (sign up at www.MyOovooDay.com/signup.php) at 4 PM on 2/12, 2/14, 2/19 or 2/21. We’ll experiment with the ooVoo videoconferencing software (download required) by discussing how to use this fire drill. The seminar is FREE and benefits the Frozen Pea Fund.

I use the word “slide” in this drill. Most formal presentations still use slideware. They DO NOT have to. If yours does not (YAY!), substitute “paragraph” “supporting point” “story” “example” to best suit your presentation.

Have you seen Alltop?

I LOVE. LOVE. this interface for blasting through a lot of headlines & summaries fast. I wish my RSS reader could do this. Way to go, Electric Pulp.

Alltop has nine category sites: Celebrities, Egos, Fashion, Gaming, Mac, Oddities, Politics, Science and Sports.

Each site displays:

• Array of popular sources.
• Last 5 posts from each.
• Summaries on hover.

The look is sexy. I love the translucent static color bar that brands the site and houses the (minimalist) administrative links for the page.

Is this a future for RSS that will make sense and catch on “outside of the fishbowl?”

I also appreciate that “Egos” makes a point of promoting women’s voices. I noticed right away since Lena, Jeremiah and Geoff recently highlighted the topic. Thumbs up!

(Via Guy Kawasaki)

Full disclosure: Guy is a friend and gave me a sneak preview of this last month. Nice feeling, but that’s not why I’m raving about it.

Musing. Twitter makes me more: informed, networked, amused, challenged to think, aware, enlightened, distracted, curious, connected, loved… I could probably go on all day. what about you? How would you fill in the blank: “Twitter makes me more ____________.”

you replied:

Matt Shandera @MattShandera Hmm good question: how about visable?

AnnOhio @AnnOhio *willing to spread my wings and try new things* Like meeting and connecting with soem amazing people. :o)

Jim Turner @Genuine exposed

Tom Summit @tsummit Twitter makes me more: human and gregarious

Laura P Thomas @LPT twitter keeps me more informed, connected and up-to-date.

Aneel L @aneel twitter makes me more chatty

Chris Wilson @Aithene Distracted. Cozy. Its like I’m hanging out in a room full of people I mostly like.

Ed Illig @Illig That’s quite a list. H’m, “…a better cook.” also inspires me to continue learning, appreciate/respect creativity of others.

Stowe Boyd @stoweboyd “Twitter makes me more messy, and messiness is good.”

royblumenthal @royblumenthal Twitter makes me more connecting.

Colin Walker @ColinWalker using your “Twitter makes me more…” tweet in a blog post as an illustration if you don’t mind. (@colinwalker have at it, thanks!)

Starman @istarman connected

jljohansen @jljohansen Twitter makes me feel less alone in my cube

Adele McAlear @adelemcalear Twitter makes me sharper, at the front of the curve, more concise, connected, informed…

Phillip Zannini @phillymac Distracted

Tiara Shafiq @divabat “…likely to procrastinate.”

squishythefish @squishythefish …informed

(LOTS more answers if you click “more”)

continue

Today is Go Red for Women Day. Share with a woman you love how she can protect against heart attack and stroke. Love your hearts, ladies. Learn the signs of heart attack and stroke, and react quickly if you ever observe them.

Women are notorious for not taking care of themselves first. Heart attack and stroke are dramatically under-diagnosed in women, so badly that survival rates for women are worse (I will find a stat later, but wanted to get this post up fast). UPDATE: Some links below.

• Spain, 1998, women 70% more likely to die of their first heart attack.
• heart disease is THE leading killer of women
• 65% of women who die of heart attack had NO prior symptoms

You are better off, every time, to seek medical attention and have it turn out nothing was wrong. Too many women ignore their symptoms and risk factors until it’s too late.

Know the risk factors, but don’t be lulled into a false sense of security. I had no risk factors or warning signs prior to my stroke, and I ignored the (fortunately subtle) symptoms for hours. I got very lucky.

Women, love your hearts. Please.

UPDATE: @heizusan in line with that you can point people to www.americanheart.org - it’s a good site about heart health & awareness.