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I’ve been thinking a lot lately about problems, and more importantly the solution to problems.  The thing that strikes me is how often we attempt to solve yesterday’s problems, and in doing so, we create the problems we will have tomorrow.

You see, as human beings, we like to work within the context we know.  That means we’re really good at seeing the things we’ve already seen, and conversely we often remain completely oblivious to that which is new and different to us.

I was reading Steve Yelvington’s post from the other day entitled “The Baby and the Bathwater” which covers the growing calls for creating a blogger code of conduct, to help combat what’s seen as a growing wave of cyber-bullying via comments and even post, and this struck me, as it had over the weekend.  For the record, I agree with Steve; I think a code of conduct is a ludicrous idea.

But it brought me back to the realization that we’re very good at fixing the problems we’ve already had.  The ones we’re probably not likely to have again…

I think about my search for a new boat.  I am looking for something with a very high freeboard and splash well, because I don’t *ever* want to be sunk by a wave from the stern again.  The truth is, I did very well with the last boat for 20 years – what would make me think that problem was anything more than a one time incident?

And I was also thinking about my daughters tooth incident last week.  How do I keep that from happening again?  I guess I could wrap her in bubble wrap, but then she’d probably get run over by some other kid on their scooter, because she couldn’t waddle away fast enough to get out of the way.

We’re very good at identifying those problems that we’ve seen before, and our tendency, especially in business, is to codify a solution to those problems.  There is a reason so many companies have 5000 page employee handbooks, but the truth of the matter is this: no regulations or protocols can take the place of good common sense and instinct.  By allowing our past problems to restrict our future actions, we’re calcifying our businesses, and in the long run, we’ll find we have less and less ability to capitalize on opportunity, and worse, we’ll find that solution for the problem we had yesterday creates the problems we will have tomorrow and beyond.

If you blog, you no doubt already are aware of the huge problem that blog spam represents.  Few of us who have been at it for any period of time haven’t had the awakening moment of logging into our blog to find we’ve got 200 or more new comments, all about teen boy sex or viagra.  The same problem exists for forums, and it’s often worse there.

These are automated comments which have been posted by a mindless bot someone unleashed to help increase their SEO efforts. 

So the other day I noticed a post asking for information about a product called XRumer.  A really novel approach – as most bloggers or forum administrators (the same problem exists there) would probably google up and answer and post it.  Then the clowns got an inbound link of relatively high value, as it is in the proper context.

So I read the description.  They claim they can auto post to any forum or blog software, and they include a database of 102,000 blogs and forums for you to spam.  They also claim they can get by virtually any defense, including captcha, javascript and even the question-answer solutions.

From the Xrumer site:

The system is fully user-independent and requires minimum skills to handle: you only need to choose the proper links database, create a message text with one or several hyperlinks and hit the ‘Start’ button. THAT IS ALL.

But here’s the kicker:

In no way XRumer acts like a spam-bot since spam is defined in legislation as ‘unsolicited email’, whereas XRumer simply posts messages created by users, which cannot be illegal providing the user does not violate the legislation by provoking racial hatred or anything prohibited by the law. Besides, in most cases XRumer is smart enough to find sections like ‘Flood’, ‘Off topic’, ‘Flame’, ‘Chit-chat’ where advertising takes place with the permission from moderators and webmasters. XRumer is not an email spam bomber and should not be confused with such software. The laws of USA, Russia, Canada, Spain, Germany, France and other countries explicitly state the illegal nature of email spam which XRumer has nothing to do with.

A pox on your house, XRumer… 

If this isn’t illegal now, it needs to be outlawed.  This is the sort of thing crap that is bringing the Internet to it’s knees.  Also, despite their protestations that it is illegal and “free speech,” they offer no physical address, which is generally a sign of someone trying to avoid litigation.  I have literally spent hours deleting crap generated by this and other programs like it.   And I can assure you it is not free speech if I am forced to pay the hosting fees and bandwidth for them to post their drivel.

At Reel-Time, I’ve finally had to resort to moderating all new users for their first 10 posts – any off topic junk and they get banned.  It’s at least keeping the stuff off the forum, and denying them even a moment of benefit.

(By the way, my blog spam filter caught 43 spam comments between last night and this morning.)

I’ve been thinking a lot about legacy brands of late.  You see, I live with one every day.  It’s been around a long time, and although we were once considered the absolute cutting edge to the point that we defined our industry, we are now looked on as old technology.  Even though we’re still in so many ways on the cusp of greatness.

My post last week reminded me that I’m not the only one who wrestles with the problems inherent in a legacy brand.  If fact, there’s one brand that’s effectively turned their legacy, old tech image around into a positive attribute. 

Do you perhaps remember the 1970’s – back when Harley-Davidsons conjured images of Hell’s Angels and hootchie mammas, riding motorcycles that hadn’t really changed since the days when Harley’s chief competition was literally the Indian Chief?  I do, and I remember that they’d become a laughing stock, for providing bikes that were of utterly inferior quality when compared with the more refined products from the Japanese, or even the British and Italians.  The worst came in the late 1970’s when they were owned by AMF and produced bikes so horrible they almost completely destroyed both company and brand.

But they were able to come back.  And they did it the old fashioned way, by making good products.  They realized that they didn’t have to completely change the customer perception, they just needed to make it work for them.  Make the best products you can make, know your customers and work with them.  Now a Harley rider is as likely to be an executive or senior manager.  And the funny thing is, the “outlaw” nature of the thing is one of the strongest points of the brand; it’s the thing people like! 

Last week Mary Schmidt had a pointer to this post by Mike Wagner and he makes the salient point:

After leaders have had “their people” trained and maybe hung a few motivational posters in the break room, they realize there also has to be a change in behavior:

• Change what I know about food, no weight loss
• Change my attitude about certain foods, the pounds still don’t come off
• Change what I eat and I’ll start to make progress on my waistline

Change behavior and now knowledge and attitude really mean something.

That’s how it is with branding. A brand is something you demonstrate, not just talk about. Demonstrate your brand and the marketplace takes notice.

I think the big change at Harley had little to do with marketing per se, it was the fact that they got behind their products, made the best product they could, and through that were able to answer the most fundemental marketing problem they had.  From that point, perception was able to shift just enough to make the image of the Harley rider something the main stream market could accept. 

Many of us spend too much of our time trying to run away or reinvent our legacy brands (especially if they’ve tarnished over the years).  We really need to fix our core issues, and find a way that we can perceptively adapt our legacy brand to fit our new view of the world.  Real change tends to come in increments, not in waves, especially in marketing.  Think about it, and let me know your thoughts.

(Thanks to Jill Cole for the excellent graphic…mnc)

I finally got my “Express Vista Upgrade” last week for our emachine computer.  Total elapsed time 4 1/2 months, which really put the lie to the word “Express.”  So I sat down Sunday am at our “Vista Ready” Emachine T5048 to do the upgrade, only to be warned that more memory was required.  Of course, that sunk the upgrade for Sunday since the stores were closed.

I guess Emachines should have called the T5048 “Vista Almost Ready.”

So I grabbed a chip yesterday, slammed it into the machine and did the upgrade.  It went fairly well, although the installer noted that MS Messenger won’t work with it (no loss there) and that McAfee Spam Killer won’t work either (again no loss, as I have been trying to remove that unwanted software from the box for months).

So about two hours later, the machine is working.  I’ll post after I’ve had a chance to work with it, but for now it seems slick.  I like the rss feeds cycling on the desktop, but that’s pretty simple stuff.

I got one of those calls every parent dreads Friday night; my 8 year old daughter Mackenzie had knocked out her two front (permanent) teeth when she fell off her skooter.  Luckily my wife Mary Jane had worked for years as a Dental Assistant and she went out and found the two teeth and jammed them back into Mackenzie’s mouth (my wife notes that she didn’t “jam them back” but rather carefully worked them back into place).  She then called the oral surgeon who was no where to be found.  The next call was to her old boss, our family dentist Dr. Steven Janko (office in Hopedale, Ma.) who was in Boston for the evening.  He had her call our orthodontist Dr. Carrie Webb of Whitinsville (again, my wife notes that Dr. Janko had her call the oral surgeon, and that calling Dr. Webb had been her own idea).  Dr. Webb directed MJ to get her to her office on Church St. right away.  Even though we’re only a few miles away, Dr. Webb beat her there.  The teeth were apparently put back in correctly, and Dr. Webb put on some braces to stabilize the teeth.  Time will tell…

I’m utterly thankful to Dr. Webb, who’s calm manner made it much easier on my daughter, wife, and even this distraught dad.  We could not possibly have expected such great service, and such a caring, thoughtful provider!

The following day, Dr. Janko took xrays and got pictures to document the accident.  Again, incredible service, from a man I’m proud to call my family dentist. 

Mackenzie’s a trooper; she really sat well through all the stuff she had to endure.  It was great to see her smile again on Sunday.  They say there’s a 90% chance she’ll keep the teeth, although we won’t know for a little while if it’ll require a root canal.

Again, thanks to Carrie Webb and Steve Janko – you guys are absolutely the best dentists and caregivers around!  And also thanks to my wife Mary Jane for being so cool under fire and doing the right thing.  I realize now I wouldn’t have known what to do…

(Edited for clarity at the request of my wife…4/10/07)

So I was sitting around with my buddies JB Menides and Mike Branche, both good friends from high school, and JB mentioned he’d picked up a balm for sore muscles earlier in the day for his dad.  Mike commented that his knee was aching quite a bit.  I then recounted the story of my torn ligament and meniscus, and that some linament my wife provided the other day had seemed to make a big difference – no more of those sharp pains.

I had to start laughing.  They looked at me and I explained “20 years ago, we’d have been passing around something entirely different.  Now we’re passing around the darned Badger Balm.  Hey man, I got some good stuff…”

For the record the stuff that appears to be helping my knee is Joint Formula 88 which she got from QVC.  I can’t be postive that’s what’s helped the pain, but I used it and the next day it felt much better.

Congratulations to Roger Wykes of R & R Rubbish, both on his up coming marriage, and on the great interview published in the Worcester Telegram on Monday.  He and his brother Robert have been providing rubbish removal, remodeling, gutter and siding work in the Worcester area (and beyond) for many years, and it’s tremendous to see them recognized.

There’s a few points that the contractors (and any small business) among us can take from Roger.  Many are the same points I make over and over again. 

• They stress professionalism – when they tell someone they will be on the job at a particular time, they will be there.
• Branding – All the company vehicles are painted and act as excellent marketing vehicles (pun intended).  It’s a great source of new business for him.
• Keeping what works – they will always ask how you heard about them.  Roger keeps the particular marketing tactics that are working for him, and isn’t afraid to try new means.  For his business, the traditional items are the starting point, prominent Yellow Pages positioning, Classified Ads in the local paper, plus his website, which comes up #3 in Google for Rubbish Removal Worcester, MA.  They review what is working for them, and adapt their marketing, always improving.
• Word of Mouth – the best advertising is from satisfied customers, and they realize this.  As Roger notes in the article, you can’t satisfy everyone, especially when they’ve been burned by other contractors before. What he doesn’t note is that when you do it right, your customers become your best salesmen.  I know, Roger does work on a fairly regular basis for my Mother, both of my brothers, and I’ve recommended him for countless jobs, and never has anyone had anything but thanks for the referral.

The take away here is that the small marketing can be done effectively, and you don’t have to break the bank.  Take a note from Roger’s success and put these basics to work for you!

Rough, loud, goodness – be sure to catch the jam at the end.

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Maureen Rogers posted a comment on my post “Business Websites with a Human Side” that got me thinking.

Your list is great, but would look overwhelming to an understaffed company with one product, little news, etc. Any suggestions for the little guy? 

Maureen’s right – the list does seem daunting, but in my mind, it can be done by the small business easily.  The trick is to work smarter, not harder. Here are a few points:

• Regular content updates on the site (besides press release) can be as simple as adding a quote from a customer, updating a list of new customers, or even posting information on your most frequent customer support request (this helps to cut down on those calls in the future).  “Did you know that you can…”
• Blogging is cheap, as the software is generally free.  You can make a decent impact by blogging twice a week.  I suggest one post consisting of something new and original on the business or a personal aspect of it, and the second post being commentary on an issue, either from someone elses blog or from the industry at large. 
• Wikipedias – the really nice thing here is that site users actually build out the content.  You edit a little, approve a little, and perhaps add a post once in a while.  The time committment is slight, unless it really becomes a hit, in which case, you’ll be glad to put in more time. You can get a good list of free wiki software here.
• Participating in online communities can be very easy.  I make a point of browsing several at lunch every day.  I try to answer one post a day on Sitepoint or comment on one of the blogs I read where appropriate.  Sitepoint has a neat “unanswered posts” feature on their forum that allows me to find an unfullfilled need easily.  Total time commitment: perhaps 15-20 minutes a day, while I snarf down my tuna wrap.
• Automate the rotation of your products on the homepage, so that you can select your “product spotlights” for a month.  Make sure you have either a default product set, or you default to a random display if the hopper is empty, so you don’t leave a blank spot on the homepage. 
• One of my small business secrets is that sponsoring niche communities is dirt cheap, and can be the best way to get in front of your core customers.  I know one software company that started out with a small group of about 10 people, and sponsored a web design forum.  They’re a big success now, and they routinely hear from buyers that they saw them first on that forum.
• Alternate means of getting information – again, this is something you automate. Pull your content out of a database, and then you can automatically construct an RSS feed which is pushed out whenever you update.  Similarly you can reuse the content in an email news alert which again wouldn’t require you to manually format it.

The big idea here is to work smarter.  Apply a little time, and reap big benefits.

Let’s face it, most business websites could use a little love.  Make that a lot of love.  Honestly, it’s rare for me to find a site that really speaks to me, that encourages me to do any more than simply read what I want and leave, generally to never return.

It’s the human side that’s missing for me.  The day of the static website is over; done, finito, all she wrote.  Static websites remind me of the dark old days when someone would hand us their product catalog and we’d simply put it on line, in the hopes someone would find it and buy something. 

What we’re missing is the human side; the fact that a business is a community.  If we’re doing our brand right, our customers really want to think of themselves as part of the team.  Think of Harley-Davidson; you know you’ve reached brand nirvana when your customers are tattooing your logo on their arms (and elsewhere). 

Okay, realistically most of our brands will never inspire our customers to set ink to flesh, but nevertheless they do indeed want to be inspired. It’s up to us to provide that inspiration. 

So how do we accomplish this on the web?  We do it by embracing community.  By showing our websites the love they need.  We tend our garden.

Here are some points to consider in your quest to make your brand sing online.

1. Press releases don’t take the place of real website updates.  People need a reason to come back to your website on a regular basis.  Keep your site absolutely up to date with the latest product information, and consider offering alternate means of getting that information.  Avoid pdf datasheets, instead go with short flash animations showing the product in use.  Instead of vast pages of text, go with bullet points.  Keep the main product page short and if needed link to further information on other pages.

2. Become the go to source for information on your industry.  You are professional, act like it.  Blog on industry issues, and bring those blog posts forward to your homepage.  Actively solicite questions, and answer them on an open format, such as a blog or forum.

3. Literally define your industry – consider putting a wikipedia on your site and allow your readers to help build the dictionary of your industry.  It will become over time one of the best evergreen (always fruitful) content areas of your site, bringing in new eyeballs day after day, week after week, and year after year.

4. Participate in the online community at large.  Post on forums, comment on blogs, and do so without trumpeting your products.  It may seem counter intuitive, but the truth is the web is a place where less can sometime be more.   By taking part in the online discussion, you will create good will.  The problem is such groups have extremely limited tolerance of overt commercialism.  Be careful.

5. Pull your products to your homepage.  Try rotating a product of the day or product spotlight on the site, which will give a new look to the site on a daily basis.  Customers will become accustomed to visiting your site more often.

6. Sponsor niche communities in your industry.  Community sites such as forums generally offer advertising at extremely competetive rates.  Get your name in front of the right eyeballs by sponsoring a site where your potential customers would be found.

7. Give people alternate ways to get information from you.  Email newsletters, rss feeds, blogs, etc.  All are viable means to keep the customer up to date on all the great things happening at your company. Also allow them to request email updates when specific product pages are updated. 

That’s just a start.  Let’s hear your ideas…