How to Be More Productive at Work

By Mark Evans in Main Page 1 Comment Tags: , ,

A few weeks ago, I wrote a column for the Globe & Mail on how to be more productive and efficient at work. It was inspired by the constant challenges that I meet in making my business operate better. This is particularly relevant given I’m a one-person operation.

The column was read by someone within PWC Canada’s marketing department, who thought I would be a good speaker for one of their weekly meetings. This is despite the fact I’m by no means a productivity or time management practitioner or expert. I do, however, continually seek new ways to become more efficient so what I do bring the table is real-world experience and, of course, an enthusiasm to share.

Below, you’ll find my presentation. Don’t expect to discover any silver bullets that will change how you work overnight. But you might come across some tips, techniques or tools that resonate in some way. As I said during the presentation, getting more productive and efficient takes time and it’s always work in progress. The good thing is if you focus on applying new tools and techniques, there will be dividends.

Work Better, Smarter and More Organized

The End of TechCrunch As We Know It

By Mark Evans in Blogs, M&A 2 Comments Tags: , , ,

With 24 hours to think about it, the sale of TechCrunch to AOL strikes me as a head-scratcher, even though TechCrunch founder Michael Arrington says it make complete sense. Of all the potential suitors, AOL would not have been on my list. Instead, it would have been headed by a digital publishers such as CNet or one of the large newspaper publishers such as the New York Times or Washington Post looking for a deeper digital presence.

The rise of TechCrunch into one of the technology industry’s most influential players is an amazing story. Started by Arrington, it was just one of many technology blogs battling for attention at a time when the technology market was just starting to re-emerge after the dot-com boom went bust. TechCrunch wasn’t an immediate smash-hit but Arrington’s energy and connections started to make it a must-read. In time, TechCrunch expanded with other Web sites and conferences, while Arrington became an active player in the Silicon Valley ecosystem.

While Robert Scoble suggests TechCrunch’s sales is the end of an era in tech blogging, it’s far more accurate to suggest it’s the end of an era for TechCrunch. Tech blogging will continue with existing players getting stronger, and new players emerging.

Meanwhile, TechCrunch will, no doubt, become a different creature. Sure, Arrington is going to stay involved with TechCrunch but the reality is it’s difficult, if not impossible, to maintain the same kind of involvement when you’re an employee rather than an entrepreneur putting your heart and soul into growing a business. While Arrington will be a good AOL employee for awhile, he’s an entrepreneur who will be lured by other activities and interests.

In time, TechCrunch’s influence will change as well. As much as TechCrunch has a large following, Arrington is the driving force behind what makes TechCrunch different from GigaOm, VentureBeat, Mashable and ReadWriteWeb. He is the TechCrunch brand.

Rather than being the end of an era for tech blogging, the landscape will start to shift and evolve. TechCrunch will likely remain a popular destination but the tech blogging landscape could become a more interesting place now that TechCrunch is part of AOL. With change comes opportunity – maybe even a new Arrington-like blogger with big dreams, great writing skills and a knack for self-promotion.

Not everyone may be a fan of Arrington but you have to give him huge credit for building TechCrunch into an online publishing powerhouse. As TechCrunch moves forward with a new owner, it will interesting to see how TechCrunch changes and, as important, how readers view the new TechCrunch.

Sorry Storify, I Totally Don’t Get It

By Mark Evans in Social Media 1 Comment Tags: , , ,

It’s tough being a startup.

Not only do they need to create a product or service that fills a void or need (or, at least, convinces potential users they have a void or need that needs fillings), they have to do an excellent job of marketing themselves to rise above the competition.

This is why messaging is so important. In a world in which people are time-strapped and multi-tasking, startups only get one shot to make an impression. If they fail to capture someone’s attention right away, it’s end of story, even if the service has some value or usefulness.

As much as I don’t like to criticize people doing hard work, an excellent case studies is Storify, which presented today at the TechCrunch Disrupt conference.

Storify is a real-time curation platform to help journalists, bloggers and experts tell stories with elements of the social Web. It is, therefore, somewhat ironic that Storify does a bad job of telling its own story.

In particular, Storify fails to explain why anyone would want to use its service. Here’s Storify’s explanation about why someone would use it.

“That’s up to you! You can create a story around an event using social media from people who were there, or put together a story using your own Tweets and photos. If you’re a business, you can use it to compile what people are saying about your product. You can also make an online scrapbook from a wedding or party with posts from your friends.”

The problem is Storify is making me figure it out. When I’m checking out a new service, I don’t want to do the work; I want a start-up to clearly explain why they do and, more important, what’s in for me (the user). Storify needs to do a much better job explaining the benefits of using it services other than to “put together a story”. Sorry, that’s not good enough. Instead, it really has to explain why its service is better or different than other social media tools.

Another problem spot for Storify is its corporate demo video. Right off the bat, I want to know what the service does. It has to be clear and well-articulated. I want to quickly think “Yes, I totally get it”. Instead, the video is unclear. It’s hard not to get the impression that Storify was rushed out of the gate too quickly. If you haven’t nailed your messaging, it can be kill any chance of getting traction, even if the service is pretty good.

Storify demo from Burt Herman on Vimeo.

Five Questions With….Bryan McCaw

By Mark Evans in Five Questions With..., Social Media No Comments Tags: , , ,

When I started my consulting business in January, 2009, one of my first clients was WineAlign. Created by Bryan McCaw, WineAlign is an online service that makes it easier to make smart buying decisions at the LCBO (the place where consumers in Ontario have to buy their wine and beer).

Bryan is a dyed-in-the-wool entrepreneur who has bootstrapped WineAlign and been patient and persistent in convincing the rest of the world that WineAlign is a better way to buy wine. In recent months, WineAlign has seen strong growth, suggesting it has started to see hockey stick-like growth. I asked Bryan to provide an update.

Since WA launched, what are some of the biggest start-ups lessons that you have learned?

That’s an interesting question. People assume that start-ups are different than regular businesses, but at the end of the day they are like any other business. The lessons that I have learned over my career are still applicable to WineAlign. Primarily they remain providing a high level of value, service and responsiveness to customers. Staying focused on priorities and applying resource effectively. Creating effective metrics to measure your progress and staying on top of them. Closely managing cash and cash flow, I’ve had to say no more than few times to nice to haves.

With respect to a start-up in the Internet domain, I have learned the following:
- There is no silver bullet for growth. Things don’t go viral. You don’t have 10,000 users on day two. You have to keep plugging away.
- Understanding your customer conversion rates and customer acquisitions costs are critical. If you know it takes $X to acquire a customer you can use that number to make a lot of decisions.
- Google has an amazing suite of free products: Analytics, AdWords, AdManager and Webmaster tools. Use them to manage your business.
- You will always have lots of feedback, as you mature the feedback, while important, is less important than at the beginning of the process. Learn to say no more often as the product matures.
- There are two great government programs available: SR&ED and the relatively new Ontario Interactive Digital Media Tax Credit.

If you had to go back and change anything, what would top your list?

Two things: Software startups are generally run by developers (I am a reformed one myself), who want to incorporate more and more features. These tend to address Wants not Needs and deliver little additional value to 90% of users. Once the core functionality is there, start spending more on marketing. However, when spending on marketing we have found that print ads in traditional media are a waste of money. People have to remember you and then type you in later. When the time is right, a PR program makes more sense.

Can you talk about how WA has powered its marketing efforts? What role does social media play?

We’ve taken a multi-prong approach. Google AdWords has been a great source of customers. Bing is now gaining traction and providing sign ups. By knowing our conversion costs we’ve been able to pay for leads from partners. We use promo codes to entice and track new signups. We also reward members who invite new users.

We’ve done some pretty unique things with Twitter using their search tools and API. We’ve been able reach out to thousands of people in Ontario and let them know about WineAlign. Responses to this out reach have been 99% positive. We have integrated the Facebook LIKE into our site and we automatically forward wine reviews to user’s Twitter streams.

What has subscriber growth been? Has it met your expectations?

Growth has been steady and well below my expectations. Before launch, I was confident that we would have 10,000 users in the first month. With the viral nature of the Internet and the ability to invite friends to a cool new service with a single click, we’d have thousands of users in days. Despite glowing accolades from users it took us 21 months to reach 10,000 users (about 2% of our target market). Growth remains steady at around 7% per month so the number of new users we are adding per month is significant and growing. In fact, we’ve added over a 1,000 users in the last 30 days and have over 11,000.

What’s next for WA? Can you talk about any new features in the pipeline?

We have recently completed support for wines that are NOT carried by the LCBO. This will open up a new world to wine consumers. Only a small portion of the wines available in Ontario are distributed through the LCBO. Mobile is the future. While only 7% of our users have used our mobile website we will be committing more resources to it. Natives apps, barcodes & images are in our future. We want to expand nationally and hope to add another province (or two) in the near future. Expect to see more meet-ups and exclusive events for our community members.

Career 2.0: Life After the Newsroom

By Mark Evans in Social Media No Comments Tags: , , ,

A couple of weeks ago, I appeared on “Career Buzz”, a radio show on CIUT-FM hosted by Mark Franklin. The show is focused on exploring how people select and change their career path.

It was an interesting opportunity to talk about what I’m doing and, as important, reflect upon some of the major changes my career has undergone over the past four years since I walked away from being a newspaper reporter.

What strikes me most of where I’m at now is how the path has been full of zigs and zags, and that even bad jobs and experiences ended up being positive things at the end of the day. For example, I never planned to be an entrepreneur until a friend, Mark Walker, approached me in 2000 about doing a start-up with him.

At the time, I was a technology reporter with the Globe & Mail, which was an excellent job. I told Mark that I would join him if he raised financing but I never thought he would actually do it..but he did. In many ways, it was the start of my next career path, which has been a fascinating journey over the past 10 years.

Here’s a podcast of the show.

The Early Bird Can Catch the Worm!

By Mark Evans in Social Media 3 Comments Tags: , , ,

Mitch Joel wrote a post earlier this week in which he talked about how much he liked waking up early. “I’ve learned to embrace, love and be inspired by the quiet of the early morning and the silence of the world,” he wrote.

It was a post that resonated because I have become an early-riser. It doesn’t help that I’m not a good sleeper but I think one of the reasons why waking up seems such a natural thing to do is that the world seems like a different place when everyone else is still sleeping. It’s quieter, the coffee tastes better, there’s more time to read the newspaper and the ideas seem to flow easier.

A key part of how I do business is writing – be it proposals, reports, Web site content, video scripts or blog posts. Most of my blog posts happen during the first cup of coffee in the morning. I don’t know where the ideas come from but I think they have been nestled somewhere in my dreams, and waiting for me to wake up to get them out. Earlier this week, for example, I was coming downstairs in the dark when a great idea for a Sysomos blog post popped up.

The mornings are a great time to share content because it’s a good time to consume content. If you look at my Twitter stream or Facebook updates, most of my activity happens between 6 a.m. and 9 a.m. I’m not sure how much of an audience exists at that time of day but it’s the time when the content flows out.

Another great thing about the early-morning is the sense of accomplishment that you have done so much even though it can only be 10 a.m. Sometimes, I do mini-review that shows I have written three blog posts, gone through a bunch of e-mail and sent out some proposals. Not that it lets me cruise for the rest of the day but it means the day has gotten off to a productive start.

One thing I don’t like to do in the morning is talk a lot. When my wife also happens to wake up early, she’s happy to talk about stories in the newspaper she finds interesting. It takes a healthy amount of self-discipline to happily nod in agreement.

Of course, waking up early isn’t for everyone, which explains why a lot of my 6 a.m. e-mails don’t get answered until after 10 a.m. But that’s okay because if everyone woke up early in the morning, it wouldn’t be a quiet or as nice.

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