jordanpfowler

In case you missed the Mayweather vs. Ortiz fight, here is a quick recap as HBO has shutdown any youtube recounts.

• In round 4, Ortiz headbutts Mayweather. Looked highly intentional.
• Referee stops fight and deducts point from Ortiz.
• Ortiz tells Mayweather he is sorry and gives him a man hug.
• The fighters separate and Ortiz unwisely looks to referee, dropping his gaurd while Mayweather is closing on him.
• With eyes still poised on the Ref, Ortiz receives two crushing blows from Mayweather, knocking him out.
• Immediately afterwards, veteran 80-year-old boxing commentator Larry Merchant interviews Mayweather.

Martin Rogers describes what happened next.

Merchant suggested that [Mayweather's] tactics may have been either illegal or outside the spirit of the fight game, and then Mayweather vented his ire, referring to the 80-year-old broadcaster by an expletive and barking that he should be fired from his television position.

“You never give me a fair shake, all right, so I am going to do you a favor and let you talk to Victor Ortiz,” Mayweather said. “You never give me a fair shake. You are [expletive] and HBO should fire you. You don’t know [expletive] about boxing. You ain’t [expletive].”

Merchant, however, a veteran of more than 50 years in boxing, got the last laugh with a witty retort to Mayweather, whose victory earned him Ortiz’s World Boxing Council welterweight belt.

“I wish I was 50 years younger,” said Merchant. “I would have kicked your [expletive].”

Despite its initial punchiness (sorry about the pun), this was poor, reactionary messaging. If Merchant was going to make a retort at all–which I would have advised against letting Mayweather silently soak in the stew of his own making– he should have emphasized his core value. He has years of experience covering boxing, not actually fighting. A much better comeback would have been, “I know more about boxing than you do all of life, son.” That would have played into Merchant’s core value of having years of experienced knowledge and wisdom in the sport. It also would have exposed his ‘verbal competitor’s’ lack of wisdom and experience in dealing with life, as the boxer Mayweather has had recent run ins with the law.

This would have been more accurate messaging as any real fan knows that Merchant would have gotten battered by Mayweather even 50 years ago. However, Merchant at age 11 probably had more life wisdom than Mayweather will have at 80, a point he should have emphasized if he deemed it necessary to speak. Better yet, a silent, pausing look at ‘Money’ Mayweather, followed by the statement, ‘And still Floyd plays the coward, ducking the truly best pound-for-pound-fighter in the world, Manny Pacquiao.‘

How are you tempted to market yourself or your company in a reactionary rather than proactive way? What can you do to insure you amplify your core value?

How to Make People Happy, a Million Bucks, and The World a Better Place

Simple:

Find something people love  (A) _________ and make it (B) ___________________.

Find something people hate (A) _________ and make it (B) ___________________.

(A) doing, having done to them, experiencing, being, etc.

(B) easier, cheaper, richer, more portable, faster, slower, more effective, more efficient, more fun, convenient, etc.

Take all the money you make and don’t spend it on yourself, give to others in need and solve global problems.

Share your ideas in a comment.

Job searching in the “new normal” is tough. You need a creative cover letter to set yourself apart in these post-recession times. Use your creativity to your advantage whenever appropriate.

Jordan P Fowler Cover Letter-FB Style | Click to open in your web browser. Magnify if necessary.

Here is my cover “letter” I am using for my current job search. It is a jpeg link that opens in a prospective employer’s browser. The jpeg has the look of a facebook page complete with humorous status updates that all contain a subtle ‘value add’ I bring.

(Disclosure: The text you read above has an embedded subconscious message telling you to ‘call jordan now at 817/889.1487 to schedule his interview .’  If you know someone who needs a marketing/business development person or strategic processes and leadership, send them my resume and a link to the FB cover letter or my more serious, professional cover letter if they are a bit more dour).

Want the most effective times to Tweet, Facebook status update, blog or email to get the most responses? Here they are based on scientific research done by Dan Zarella.

These times apply for business social media and personal social media. They are empirically based versus conventional  wisdom.

• Twitter Friday afternoons 3:30-4:00 pm for most ReTweets. (Runner-up Twitter choice: Wed or Thurs same time).
• Facebook Saturday mornings from  9 -10 am for most Shares.
• Blog Monday-Thursday mornings 6-7 am for most incoming links.
• Blog Saturday mornings 9-10 am for most comments.
• Email messages Saturdays 5-6 am in the mornings for most click through responses.

All times are EST, if you have a national following convert for your timezone (9 am EST converts to 8 am CST). If  you seek a regional following, simply post at the times listed above (9 am EST post at 9 am CST). Remember to change your wordpress blog from UTC time under General settings in your dashboard.

If these times seem inconvenient to you, use an app such as www.hootsuite.com to schedule postings of your pre-written content. Notice I scheduled my Twitter and Facebook to share this at different times.

Of course, if everyone on the planet shifts to using these times things will change. But it will take a long time for evidenced based social media usage to overcome conventional wisdom. It always does.

This information was drawn from the fantastically valuable and scientifically precise brand new book by Dan Zarella,  Zarrella’s Hierarchy of Contagiousness. Get it. Much more gold to be mined!

(Please retweet this or Share on Facebook if you find it valuable. Thanks)

You are missing a great opportunity to reinforce your brand and let others know what you are doing if you use a boring or form generated away email auto-response. Be creative.  Here’s a great one from my buddy Josh (twitter: @JW ) a few months back:

Congratulations! Your email has now joined the hundreds of others that are piling up in my inbox during the SXSW festival in Austin. Sadly, unless you’re my wife, immediate family, or we have some other previous conversation going on, the odds of me reading or replying to this email in a timely manner are worse than Keegan Jones at the craps table.

So… here are your options:
A) Set a reminder to email me again in 2 weeks
B) Ping me on the Twitters: @jw
C) If you ARE PRESS and you’d like to meetup at SXSW, email pia@gowalla.com
D) If you ARE NOT PRESS and you’d like to meetup at SXSW, email
veronica@gowalla.com

If you’re at SXSW, drop by our Airstream and say hellos. We’re at 5th
and Trinity.

Thanks for rolling with the fun.

jw

This response reflects the image of their company, is completely and unabashedly honest, and has a bit of humor. It offers clear ways to still access Josh during a crunch period.  This strategy if much better than relying on the canned vacation response your email account automatically generates.

• Look for ways in which your auto-response can reflect your brand
• Let others know what you are doing or developing
• After this, inform them when and how they can have access to you.

(Please retweet this or Share on Facebook if you find it valuable. Thanks)

I see businesses (and churches) all the time that are small yet they try to play big ball (huge marketing campaigns, etc) when their strengths are relational community and viral word of mouth. It is okay to be who you are. Be a point guard. Exploit your nimbleness and lack of bureaucracy for quicker reactions and doing more intimate relationships than a 6’11″ company would ever consider.

 Example: Offer a personal handwritten thank you card to every customer with a small appreciation gift included and 3 business cards for referral.

A great article on why you can play small ball and win.

This morning I awoke at my in-laws house, journeyed downstairs, and headed to the Thermos in which my father-in-law pours his pot of coffee (he says to prevent the burned taste). As I poured my cup of Joe, I considered all things ‘Thermos.’ Some brands are synonymous with a product. Thermos is one of those. I asked my Father-in-law if he ever knew of a time when a Thermos was called something else. He couldn’t.

In the 1970′s, after throwing your Thermos in your lunch pail and heading to the office, you would have asked a secretary, “Can you Xerox this for me?” But by the 80′s you would have learned that not all brands-as-synonymous are permanent. In my career lifetime, I have never requested my admin assistant Xerox something.  Copy it, yes.

Kleenex, Levi’s, Speedo, Rolodex, Bobby Pins and other brands have or have had brand-product synonymy. Sometimes brand as product name is regional. In Texas, we’ll ask you if you want a Coke, then ask you ‘What kind?’

Having a brand-as-synonymous position does not guarantee a sale, it only means you were an originator or set the quality bar. Rejoice if you have it, but do not rest on your laurels. The last time my family bought a box of Kleenex, we were Xeroxing.