I am inspired to write this post today because of all of the misguided suggestions and over-the-top spam warnings I come across when webmasters, bloggers, experts and bashers discuss link building.

Links are merely the Web’s version of a relationship, a publicly announced relationship actually. Pretty much like a marriage. The wrong people get married all the time, but that usually doesn’t work out. When the RIGHT people get married, great things happen, a family grows and the community benefits. Quite the opposite when the wrong people get married.

When the right links are built, with the proper motivation, intention and execution. Great things happen.

Eric Ward knows its not about how much or how fast, its about how natural. He is referring to motivation and intention here, as he and other great link builders usually do. If your motivation is to identify popular, targeted websites with users who would appreciate yours or your clients website - you have the right foundation.

Ensuring there is content on yours or your clients website that those users will appreciate, however, is paramount.

Most of this is common sense, but there are many marketers out there trying to do whatever it takes to rank in search engines. They are willing to do things that might not be based on providing users with great content, or developing marketing strategies that form smart relationships with popular relevant websites. True, sometimes it is just about getting the damn link, but in a world full of noise and robots competing against spam, the Linker (or Linktress?) with the most relevant (topical), trusted (authority), natural (varied) and keyword focused (anchor text) links - wins.

Links are an outcome of successful relationship building with influential players in your industry. Your customers, vendors, peers, associations, industry journalists, bloggers, conferences, college professors, webmasters, forums… who is influential in your industry? Who is already linking to your competition? This is your list. Now you have to prioritize it. Who do you contact first? What do you do first? This is what separates the Amateurs from the Players.

1. Make sure the website you are promoting has content your users would consider valuable. You can think like your users right?

2. Make your list. (This is about 37 sub topics and requires an article for each. There are some great places to start, I’ll be providing more insight in future articles.)

3. Always ask yourself, who is going to help me build my audience? Who is going to have the most impact to my Audience Bottomline? Don’t ask yourself who has the highest Google Page Rank or Alexa Score. Sure these are signs of a popular website, but is that site going to contribute to your Audience Base or not? To determine this I assign a “relevancy” score to each Link Prospect. Then I use a formula that factors in aspects such as PageRank and Alexa Score, as well as # of posts in Techorati that mention the Link Prospects URL, how many websites link to your Link Prospect, and finally…. the “Hub Count.” This is a theory that Competitive Link Builders must know, and it is a simple one. Out of all of your Link Prospects, how many of them link to your competitors, and how many competitors does each link to? If the Link Prospect recevies the highest overall score (relevancy + popularity factors) and is linking to more of your competitors than any other prospect - this is the first to approach, and the list is sorted from there.

There are many sites where you have an oppurtunity to add content yourself, such as Article Directories, Forums and Wikis. These provide an engaged audience who hate spam. So long as you actually offer a useful contribution you are cool. Remember, even if the Wikipedia Spam Cops tell you you’re spamming - “as long as you can find an opportunity to add your site where it will make a useful contribution, do it.”

Link build carefully. Some do it for Traffic and others for Rankings. Don’t be tempted to buy links unless they are relevant advertisements you would otherwise purchase for the traffic (and you agree with Jim).

Balance your activities wisely between being a “Link Ninja & a Link Baiter.” Why the hell can’t we just call it Business Development and Public Relations? And is this actually the first time I have linked to Brian Provost in one of my posts?!? Sorry Brian, you are FAR too cool for this to have happened.

A client shared this analogy: “I look on our lead generation efforts, particularly in the present economy, as I would a financial portfolio. If I can’t measure the tactics or programs in terms of return on investment to the organization – leads generated, business closed, opportunities in the funnel – then why should I expect the company to invest in my fund?” Which is to say, strive to maintain an assortment of researched and/or proven best-fit tactics.

What tactics are you using to good advantage? What tactics are your competitors using? The flexible and iterative multi-modal approach calls for a thorough evaluation and systematic planning of the various lead generation methods. Success depends on a balance of push tactics that encourage the contact to action and pull tactics that create a strong impression of your company and build brand awareness.

Analyzing, measuring and optimizing tactics is what it’s all about. Complacency is not. Tactics that perform well and under-performing tactics should be quickly identified and dealt with as required. And there is close correlation between tactics and budgeted spending; when the two are close together, you will achieve the end result of optimal return on investment.

Via pg 21, Start with a lead, Eight CRITICAL Success Factors for Lead Generation.

1. Ads may not be misleading or deceptive to the recipient in any way.
2. Ads promoting illegal products and services are not allowed.
3. The sponsor of any advertising message should be clearly identified either on the ad itself or on the resulting first-level jump page.
4. Special categories of products must comply with existing voluntary industry guidelines. This includes but is not limited to: alcohol, tobacco, sweepstakes/promotions and ads targeting children.
5. Any ad for regulated products must comply with existing guidelines for such advertising. (Example: pharmaceutical ads must comply with FDA guidelines.)
6. Ads should be age appropriate. (Example: if ads can be targeted by age, then alcohol ads can be shown to mobile users who are of legal drinking age.)
7. Potentially controversial ads should primarily be avoided but may be reviewed on a case-by-case basis by publishers and wireless carriers. (Examples: political organizations, adult or sexually explicit content, issues/causes, religion, etc.)
8. All claims made in an ad must be substantiated before the ad is scheduled to appear. Advertising that includes warranties, guarantees or other types of assurances to the user must comply with all applicable laws, regulations or guidelines regarding such assurances, including but not limited to those set forth by the Federal Trade Commission.
9. Ads cannot promote or glorify violence, crime, obscenity, the use of weapons or provides instructions on how to “get away” with crimes or unlawful activity.
10. Language that is offensive, or disturbing, or which is likely to cause outrage, general disapproval or negative opinion within the community is not allowed.
11. Any customer information provided is limited to the current campaign only. Further interaction with the customer requires an additional opt-in.

I found this list today at Marketing Sherpa at the bottom of an article about Mobile Advertising/Marketing. These “rules” apply to much more than just the mobile space and are well worth understanding and adding to your repertoire of things you know.

This month Infoworld reminded me of an experiment held by “Proctor and Gamble that provided 100 people with a box of Tide detergent and a video camera and asked them to film how they and their family clean their clothes. P&G believes this kind of advertising builds a personal relationship with the consumer and creates brand loyalty.”

Advertisers, especially today as the consumer gains more control over marketing, are trying to do anything to build loyalty in the consumer world. They are incorporating more authentic messaging, and allowing the consumer to create the marketing materials, as in the case of new social network socialDragon, where users can upload and tag videos of stuff, white water rafting for example, and advertisers can search this “real” content for parts to use in their advertising campaigns.

User generated content, while still being obviously in its infancy and therefore not matured, is rapidly increasing in value; whether this is an accurate representation of the value of socially created content is yet to be seen - I see a bright future for social media however, that’s for sure. And I also have to say I am quite pleased to hear all the emphasis placed on the consumer, authenticity and loyalty.

The reason band loyalty is important, the most widely coveted attribute by marketers and people everywhere, really, is because the purest form of brand loyalty, and the thing the most loyal people do, is make personal recommendations to others, to spread messages, stories and advertising, through word of mouth. Loyalty is what drives people to make recommendations. It can be easily argued that recommendations are what drive the success of virtually anything within the economy.

Loyalty is the life-force of the economy.

If the driving force of loyalty could be summed up in one word, I’d say that word would have to be satisfaction. Satisfaction really means that you got exactly, or more than, what you expected from something. When expectations are not met then you are obviously not satisfied, and when you not satisfied, well, why would you be loyal to that thing?

Always remember the importance of managing expectations, in life and in business.

It’s not about trying to give people what they want, it’s about making sure they know what they are going to get.

“It makes all the sense in the world for ad makers (both clients and agencies) to be well-stocked with people who understand consumers, whether young people who fathom the mysteries of cyberspace, a good mixture of people who reflect the ethnic and cultural diversity of our country, and, yes, even older people who understand the vitality and buying power of the great gorge of baby boomers overtaking our land. ” via AdAge

This is too funny and unsettling not to share with every marketer out there who has had experience buying PPC advertising from the Big G.

While managing one of our many ppc accounts with Google we noticed that they were displaying the wrong ad to a searcher who was looking for what our client offers. Instead of an, “it was just a one time bug” or, “CRAP! We’ll fix this right away!” they sent an apology email with an explanation and a work-around.

A work around?

This wouldn’t be a big deal if it were bug in a new product that’s in beta or if it were an issue that simply hasn’t been addressed by technology yet. But that is not the case here. Google informs us that due to “query parsing” they simply “chose” an ad from a GEO targeted campaign because the searcher put the keyword “MI” (Michigan) into the keyword phrase, when it *should* have displayed the non-GEO ad because *the search originated in Illinois!*

Here at PositionTech we manage quite a few search marketing campaigns. The things we see happen in our industry can get quite interesting, humorous, upsetting - or all of the above. First of all, Google does a pretty good job helping advertisers display ads to people searching for keywords they are targeting, and a pretty good job showing searchers relevant ads. For the most part, they let advertisers choose what ads are displayed when someone searches for something, and they try to help teach advertisers how to write ads and create landing pages that work. With that said, I feel like they let us down here.

The real issue is that after we pointed this out to Google, and basically asked, “Why are you displaying the wrong ad?” They came up with an excuse and a work around instead of saying “OMG, we’ll fix this right away we can’t believe this hasn’t been corrected yet!”

Here’s what they had to say:

The reason that you saw the ad from this regionally-targeted campaign even though you are located in Chicago is because of a feature called ‘query parsing’. When possible, Google analyzes users’ search queries for location-specific information in order to show regionally targeted ads.

Therefore, users may see your ad when they use location-specific search terms on Google, even if they’re located outside your targeted area. In this case, you’re located in Chicago, but you used the location-specific term ‘keyword michigan’, which is why you were still able to see your regionally-targeted ad.

Are you serious? Query parsing? “Users may see your ad when they use location-specific search terms on Google, even if they’re located outside your targeted area.” What?! I want them to see the ad I chose.

And the work-around:

In order to prevent this from occurring in the future, you can simply add the term ‘keyword michigan’ as a negative keyword in your ad group. As you may know, you will enter the keyword with a minus sign before it (i.e. -keyword michigan). This will prevent our system from matching that query to related keywords in the ad group. You can also put the keywords in this ad group into phrase match so that they are unable to be expanded upon.

Thank you for your patience while I followed up with our technical team. If you would like me to clarify any of the information I provided above, please reply to this email and I will be happy to assist you.

I don’t want clarification, I want you to show the ads I told you to show. Google, we all know you rock, and this is precisely why this issue should have been resolved soon after you launched GEO targeting in October of 2003 (over 3 years ago).

Please resolve this issue, I’m sure we aren’t the only advertising who have suffered from the wrong ad being displayed (surely many advertisers are unaware). I hope you will consider this request.

Affiliate marketing and banner ads aren’t *totally* evil… but mostly, right? I mean, we all love seeing tons of search results with different sites all trying to sell the *exact* same product - and banner ads - well those are just the best and most wonderful thing to see plastered all over the web! Right… The blogosphere is great because only people with something good to say make it to anything similar to what could be known as popularity.

Ecommerce is a bit different, but still, no one likes banner ads and not too many people would put affiliate networks in the “Do No Evil” category. 3.1 Billion dollars is a lot of money for Google to spend to purchase display advertising giant DoubleClick (to go along with their pay per action affiliate-ish network). It’s close to the most ever invested in an internet company. So just imagine the kind of bread that Google is planning to make with it - and all the rivals they have pissed off.

1. Google spent too much, agian, but made the right move in terms of accomplishing their “Rule The Universe.”

2. Yahoo! and Mr Softy will have a very hard time ever sitting at the top of the search / web empire… (hence being so pissed)

3. Unless of course MSN buys Yahoo! and AOL (hell maybe even the WSJ and NYT) - then big G will have their work cutt out for them (what a twisted world that would be).

4. Good News! Look for websites (in Google’s search results at least), whose sole purpose is to host ads to affiliate sites and make a buck, to disappear slowly but surely, stop cluttering up our search results, and be replaced by better sites (well prettier sites that actually have an audience) with quality content written by good writers (or at least writers who have something interesting enough to say that they develop *natural* links) - all because only the strong (and friend of big G) will survive.

5. The web just may get better. Of course, it can always get worse.

It’s no surprise that MSN is pissed. They should be. One Slashdot commenter suggests, “Google is the new Microsoft.”

The truth is they have every right to suggest that the deal be reviewed, everyone does. It’s pretty scary in many regards.

Google believes, “you can make money without doing evil,” so then why go after the affiliate and banner spaces you ask? To make *more* money. To increase shareholder value. To, “focus on the user,” “do one thing really, really well” and … wait a minute, that’s not right. To be “democratic on the web” or maybe it’s simply because “great just isn’t good enough.” It can’t be “doing one thing right” anymore, not after they keep trying to play with traditional advertising models like print and radio. It’s gotta be simply part of their goal to be Masters of The Universe.

It sounds more like “capitalism on the web,” plain and simple. But hey, I can understand - you can’t give everything away for free. Just look at Wikipedia and all the problems they have had because they just gave *it* all away for free. Jimbo is doing something about it with Wikia. It truly is always about the balance of providing valuable information *and* supporting the distribution of the information.

Supporting the distribution of anything, or capitalizing on it, does not mean you have to plaster crap all over it. One look at Times Square, or pretty much any other major city, and you can see how the “sell ads on anything and everything” mentality has gotten out of hand. However, with all this said, Google has historically been aware of this fact, with its stark interface and disdain for affiliate marketing in general. Google has a chance here to strip the crap out of affiliate marketing and display advertising. I hope they do.

Just after DoubleClick announces they are setting up an auction-like system for the buying and selling of digital ads (hint: pay per click advertising model), Google buys them. It’s no surprise that MSN is pissed. One Slashdot commenter suggests, “Google is the new Microsoft.” A thought on many people’s minds for years.

DoubleClick will charge a commission for each ad impression traded on its exchange. David Rosenblatt, the company’s CEO, believes they, “may derive the majority of revenue from the new service within five years.” HipMojo reminds us that the New York Times itself was only valued at 3.3B - barely higher than DoubleClick! John Battelle is surprised, “My sources told me that Google was building its own, now it’s clear it wanted the relationships which came via a market leader.” ValleyWag reminds us we are simply repeating history. I wonder how many people will compare this (like everything else the past 5 or so years) to another bubble about to pop.

This bubble isn’t popping anytime soon. As online advertising grows - businesses want as much as they can get of it. Google is simply trying to take over advertising.

They could be just after some buzz to increase their already obese stock price. But I hope not seeing as their stock fell over a buck after the deal.

Maybe investors think Google should stick with the “doing one thing great” approach.

Still, it generated quite a lot of buzz.

The simple and equally scary truth is that Google is so close to a monopoly it’s freaky. The “the giant will get even bigger.”

Yahoo! can always come up with the next wave of the social portals of all social ports, but industry analysts, “predict that Yahoo does not have the cash or the stomach to make major acquisitions.” People wondered if Yahoo! purchased DoubleClick that they *may* be able to really compete with Google - look’s like that’s not an option anymore

I’m not sure that its DoubleClick trying to be “the eBay for online ads,” but more like Google trying to take over affiliate marketing and banner advertising.

On a closing note, this is all just further evidence that, no matter what Jason Calacanis says, Search Marketing and SEO and eveything that’s in the umbrella in general, will never die.

*Thank you http://persuasion.typepad.com/ for the cool Google/Monkey graphic

Ok so they aren’t totally related. They both start with ‘J’ and are on my radar of things to play with though :).

Joost lets you watch your favorite tv shows where ever and when ever you want. They just opened the doors to the public, and its worth checking out. “Joost is a new way of watching TV on the internet. With Joost, you get all the things you love about TV, including a high-quality full-screen picture, hundreds of full-length shows and easy channel-flipping.”

Jotspot isn’t open yet (it was, for all those of you lucky enough to sign up early, now it being revamped by its new owner, Google), but its worth watching and waiting until it is. Basically Jotspot allows you to record a note using a phone and your voice, then it transcribes it and shoots the message to your cell and email. It can send messages to groups and will soon be able to send other forms of media… the possibilities are really phenomenal.

Keep both these ‘J’ companies on your radar.

Syncrestistic:

“The attempted reconciliation or union of different or opposing principles, practices, or parties…” via.

“Consists of the attempt to reconcile disparate or contradictory beliefs, often while melding practices of various schools of thought.” via.

Holistic approaches to marketing and business need to be applied practices to succeed today. Politics is on the band wagon and we all know eastern and homeopathic health buff’s have understood “the whole picture” and how it relates to living healthily for a very long time.

This “whole picture” mentality can do great things for your business, however, the whole picture may be bigger than you think.

Consider the word “Syncrestistic” during thoughts on future direction for your business or marketing efforts. “Union of different principles or practices” means thinking outside of your particular realm of business or marketing and into other areas of your life. Ask yourself what other schools of thought, what other principles or practices can you apply to be greater?

This may include painting, studying quantum physics, spirituality, gardening, camping… whatever it may be, it can probably add more value to your business and marketing efforts than you thought. For example, while camping, you must be efficient, pack light, focus, stay calm, enjoy being calm, think ahead, be prepared, etc… See how you can apply these principles to business and marketing? I thought so.

Apply syncrestism by spend time honing skills that may not be so obviously related to business and marketing, and asking yourself how you can apply it to other areas of your life.

What types of “non-business” and “non-marketing” things do you do? What does it take to do them well, and how can you apply the principles to your business and marketing efforts?

Today I rediscovered a software development business called Jackson Fish Market and am happy to find more and more people who share my views on how to approach business, and successfully operate one today.

Many companies, as Hillel points out, are built on a foundation of hopes to flip, or hopes to attract a large and loyal enough audience to generate revenue through advertising. The math he points out is simple, yet something few people think about. I spend my days immersed in marketing so math and data is always top of mind, however, not many think about the seriously ginormous amount of traffic it takes to create a healthy business based on advertising revenue alone.

The truth is, companies who are in business simply to flip or generate advertising revenue have very high chances of failure.

They have a high chance of failure mainly due to a shared mindset that everyone will retire. We all talk about the importance of commitment and passion in the workplace, but the reality is most people are looking forward to retiring, or the company their with selling.

Today, Hillel admits he never wants to stop working. He works because he loves it. This is exactly what my definition of a Geek is. He also shares my view on living the life you want now. This is also a part of a philosophy of being what I call a “Nomad”.

He states, “I don’t want to stop working. Ever. I couldn’t find the study I thought I read that showed that people with a place to go every day lived longer. But even if that was disproven I’d still want to work forever. It’s who I am. It’s how I want to spend my time. I don’t want to wait until I’m in my fifties, sixties, to spend extended time with my family, doing what i want, traveling the world, etc. To me the time to have those experiences is now. This is not a statement that having those experiences later in life is without value. It’s more that I don’t know why I should have to wait. I want to have those experiences now and later.”

I’m glad I rediscovered Jackson Fish Market. Hillel and I think *a lot* alike. We’ll have to get together sometime and revel in our similarities. I have a feeling Walter is just as cool :).

In summary the best way to create a successful company is to hire geeks and keep them happy by compensating them well. Focusing on how to increase your profit per employee and overall level of happiness (which leads to increased productivity, communication and everything else you need to run a successful group), is a much better way of creating a successful company today, than operating to flip.

The playgrounds and news hubs that exist today in the social media space exist because of a desire humans have to find, create and share information; to learn, to teach and to have meaningful, substantiative interactions. They exist because individuals are working to add value and substance to their social, personal, and professional lives and communities. They do not exist to allow a business to communicate to potential customers. It is important for business people who interacts with it to understand this difference.

Why do people publish?

People publish on the Web with a variety of motives. Of course businesses and individuals publish products and create stores on the Web in hopes to sell, but there are just as many other people, if not more, who are attempting to connect with like minds, absorb and share quality information, news and entertainment. People publish in the this space in hopes to share a message or information they believe to be valuable; or because they aspire to offer the most inspiring commentary on a particular topic. Some people do it to keep a live, globally accessible diary, filled with text, images, video and audio. Others publish simply to interact with their community of interest or to display their creative work.

There is one thing all participants of social media have in common.

Its a give and take situation. They absorb and consume information and media of all kinds, but they also interact with it, share it, comment on it, create it and otherwise give back to the space. In a lot of ways these creators are not much different than more traditional creators like journalists, writers, painters and musicians. They value what they do and they try to create value.

Social media is based on its authenticity and value.

One of the greatest things about social media, as many have agreed, is its authenticity. Its real-ness. People who are avid participants in social media expect this real-ness. As the space matures they are also growing to expect value. Sure humor, things with shock value and intrigue, really any kind of hook, can draw attention. But today people are all really after insight, edge, truth and meaningful commentary on the most current events of each day, and in each area that interests them.

Because of this media consumers have become hyper-sensitive super-critics, they expect so much more in terms of substance and value, or level and form of entertainment. They are desensitized to blatant advertising, and if you write with the sole purpose of selling a product or drawing an audience these harsh critics will smell it from a mile away.

And it’s good for everyone.

Now this is not to say that social media participants aren’t also shoppers, its simply that web users are growing more and more diverse and complex, more sophisiticated. This is a good thing for all of us. We are, as a result of this mass social media consumption era, creating better (and exposing those already existing) writers, journalists, thinkers, educators… and its all created through an authentic effort to particpate in the social media world. People blogging to teach something they know or share insight they have into a certain topic. Or experts hoping to add understanding and value to a certain industry by sharing his commentary and thoughts with the world.

Social media participants who create to share their views and insight, try to add substance to a particular channel through a well-created piece, and accomplish it - get my attention. I absorb it everyday. When I find them I add them to my RSS reader. When I see some blog thats obviously some PR or marketing campaign in disguise, that has little substance or value to it - I forget about it in a millisecond and usually never see it again.

I’m in marketing and even I understand this simple fact. I understand it because I participate, every day, and I’ve grown a keen eye for spotting crap, just like all the other social media participants out there. Our numbers are growing fast, and the media is continuing to be more controlled by the masses. As it should be.

The idea geeks are whiny punk kids are merely people thinking today’s whiny punk kids are geeks, and this is simply not true.

There has been a lot of heated debate on digg and reddit regarding the article I wrote, A Note To Employers: 8 Things Intelligent People, Geeks and Nerds Need To Work Happily.

This debate has really made me realize that geeks may be slightly misjudged.

We have been accused of being:
Introverted socially inept loosers
Prim Donna elitist as*holes
Whiny babies who want to be treated special

First, my goal in writing the piece was to communicate something I think about a lot. People, in general, should be happy at their jobs.

Lets do something to help add some clarity to this situation. I normally do not like doing this, buy lets divide the world up into two groups (I know, I know), with a whole lot of gray area in between that will hold the majority of the people. Lets label these two groups, “people who do what they love” and “people who do something because its a job and they do not really care too much what it is as long as they are paid enough to get by.”

I know, broad generalizations are playing with fire, but for simplicities sake lets just discuss these two groups and all the gray area in between.

“People who do what they love”
These people love what they do so much, it’s just that: it’s what they do. Some do other things, some don’t, but they all love it so much it’s almost impossible to describe. You know who I’m talking about: doctors who live at the hospital and spend every waking moment they are not saving lives learning how they can save more lives; the piano player who has stub fingers and barely weighs 100 pounds because she sits at their piano all day; the golfer who plays everyday and still smiles every time he takes a swing; the computer geek who will work 5 nights straight until he finds a bug before giving up; the news geek who reads 350 articles a day… These people can love more than one thing to this degree, although this is very rare.

Ok, now all the way on the other side of the spectrum, past all the gray area, are “people who do something because its a job and don’t really care too much what it is as long as they are paid enough to get by.” A lot of these people have great work ethics, a lot work sun up till sun down, just like their father and grandfather, of course some don’t, but they all work for one reason (ok, mostly one): to go home after work and do something else. To watch TV and relax, to go for walks or work out, to read a book, to be with family, to… well “live life.”

A “geek” is someone who lives so much in the “does what they love” category it’s almost scary. They eat, breathe and live it, because they love it. They absorb everything in thier area of expertise and strive to innovate and make things better. To quote a commenter on my last post, “They’re a weird, irreverent, eclectic bunch… but they do make the modern world tick.” I do not even have to list names of intellectual giants like Plato, Da Vinci, Gandhi, Franklin or modern day business giants like Gates, Jobs, Brin and Paige, for you to understand the type of person I am talking about. These people were geeks, through and through.

Now, I am not saying that every computer geek is in the running with these greats, however, geeks are the type of people that lean toward this extreme. They love what they do so much its their life, and they love it this way. They work extremely hard, not because they have to, but because they want to.

In the business world, people that lean in this direction tend to be some of your best employees and most valuable assets. They do whatever they have to do to get the job done.

These people have always been the most valuable asset, long before computers.

With this logic, there is such a thing as a “Customer Service Geek,” “Sales Geek” or even (maybe) a “Janitorial Geek.” There are also computer guys that are non-geeks and so forth.

Also to note, this is not to say geeks cannot detach from what they do. On the contrary, really talented geeks I know are able to detach from what they do and relax, be with family and otherwise do things that are part of what many call “a normal life.” Most talented geeks I know are also really into socializing; maybe they prefer to socialize with people of equal passion and drive to excel, but they seem to be handling socializing and the real world just fine.

Now that “Geek” has been more accurately defined (at least for this purpose), I’ll summarize why it is important for geeks to be happy in the work force (see the debate at digg and reddit to hear what others had to say).

Being that geeks are your most valuable team members, they work when they have to, are always learning and trying to innovate - they are generally happier people (because they are doing what they love). It also means you should do whatever it takes to make these people happy, within reason of course. People have to be present during some meetings, its just the way it is; people who speak on the phone with customers during business hours will have to be available on the phone during business hours. Each circumstance is unique, there is always a specific need you have of an employee (sometimes it changes, and you’ll find happy team members willing to help out in other areas, especially if is a start up or just a small team). This need is communicated to them when you hire them.

Geeks should ask for what they need to be happy at work. Employers should be willing to compromise in any reasonable area, and in fact, the more they compromise, the more everyone wins (happier employees equals higher productivity).

Something employers today need to keep in mind (and yes, great employers today already do this), is that in the technological world we live in, much more is possible than what used to be. There are tools in place to communicate and collaborate with that make virtual offices not only possible but successful. Video and voice conferencing applications like skype, web based project management tools like basecamp, presentation tools like webex and online collaboration vehicles like thinkature make virtual meetings, team management and collaboration possible and effective.

Employers and employees should not follow arbitrary rules set a long time ago, and instead, question each situation to figure out what is best for your employee’s.

To close, I think about how a lot of the working world is not happy with their job. I think about the passionate people who are damn good at what they do, yet are unappreciated.

I would like to recommend to these people that they strive to be happy, find a new job if they do not like their current one, and be willing to stand up for what they need to be happy.

Would you rather live the life you want all the time or only part of it?

And again, as a reminder to employers:
#1. Let them work when they want
#2. Let them work where they want
#3. Let them control their lighting
#4. Let them wear headphones
#5. Do not expect them to wear a suit
#6. Do not make them participate in company events (unless you are sure it is geek-friendly)
#7. Do not hold a lot of arbitrary meetings that could have otherwise been handled through email or IM
#8. Do not make them do anything other than work

*NOTE: “I recieved many questions regarding my own job, and like I said in my interview with Jason Calacanis - Position Tech ROCKS - this post was written regarding all the bad jobs I’ve had in the past and to all of my dearest geek friends who have to deal with crappy jobs every day.”

There are many reasons to let geeks work the way they want to work. Today they work in every industry. They are the knowledge base, blood and sweat equity of many businesses. They work harder than most. They work longer than most. Their job isn’t a separate “thing they do” while they look forward to going home and relaxing. Geeks *live* what they do. They eat, sleep and breathe it. They are your systems administrators, your IT team, your programmers, your web developers, your designers… and sometimes even your customer service and sales people. Anyone who understands how to leverage todays technology to increase intelligence, productivity and efficiency; anyone who stays up nights working to get better at what they do; anyone whose job is their life - is a geek. These are the most important asset your company has. For this reason, its important to give geeks what they want. Best part is, if you do, they most likely will not leave your company to work for someone who will.

#1. Let them work when they want
Geeks work almost every moment they are awake. They are online before they go to the office. They are home working after the office closes. They work weekends. They are even sometimes working in their dreams. Employers should understand this and more importantly appreciate it. Don’t force geeks to work 8 - 5 if there is no real need other than “company morale.” Meetings are one thing, so is socializing with coworkers, but a relaxed office schedule will do wonders for the contentment levels of your employed geeks.

#2. Let them work where they want
Geeks prefer to have a couch around to nap on if they are tired. Some like no windows, others want to stare out into a city or landscape. At home, geek’s offices are usually more lived in, more comfortable and enjoyable than anywhere else in the world. This is because they love what they do, and they do it so much of the time they need to be comfortable where they do it.

#3. Let them control their lighting
There is nothing more annoying than working in bright crappy fluorescent lighting if you prefer to work in the dark, or vice versa. Geeks usually have sensitive eyes from staring at CRT monitors for too long. The last thing you want is your geeks to have headaches. Most geeks aren’t very pleasant to work with when they have headaches.

#4. Let them wear headphones
Geeks are experts in the arts of “focus.” Focusing takes removing all unnecessary distractions from your environment and creating a state where nothing else is going on but what they are working on. The harder the problem they are trying to solve or the more creative they have to be, the more they need to focus. Headphones, or simply a lack of ringing phones and talking sales people allow geeks to focus much easier.

#5. Do not expect them to wear a suit
Geeks find arbitrary activities that lack real and meaningful purpose, a waste of time and energy. This includes attire. Most companies today are aware of this and even practice casual dress so as to make everyone more comfortable, but geeks are a special case. “Suits” (the kind of person) usually represent a business man who lacks most things other than a nice smile and great negotiation skills.

#6. Do not make them participate in company events (unless you are sure it is geek-friendly)
Most geeks will not be jumping up and down with joy to attend a company party to celebrate the local football team, unless of course there is beer, and they can hang around and talk to each other about geeky things. Keep this in mind when planning company events. Geeks like to have fun, just not the same kind of fun as your typical non-geek.

#7. Do not hold a lot of arbitrary meetings that could have otherwise been handled through email or IM
This one is important. Like I said, geeks need to focus to be happy and able to focus. Nothing is more of an interruption than someone walking into their space unexpectedly and saying “hey do you have a minute?” The answer is usually going to be a disgruntled “Sure.” The truth is geeks are fine with attending planned meetings (and will happily be there if the meeting is really a necessary one for them to attend in person), but are usually most happy communicating through email and IM. These forms of communication are most appealing to geeks because they do not interrupt you, and polite geeks will even respond with a quick “hold on a sec, I’m in the middle of something.” Email and IM are recorded, searchable records of conversations. They are efficient and to the point. This also makes geeks happy. Geeks can discuss anything through email and IM and will usually be more willing and thorough with their response. Face to face meetings are important, geeks know that, but I would guess that 90% of conversations and meetings held face to face, would be more efficient and end with happier people, if they were held in a recordable, written, virtual space.

#8. Do not make them do anything other than work
This one isn’t completely accurate all the time. Geeks are team players, but they are also easily insulted by being given a task below their level of expertise or outside of the scope of their position. They’ll do it, but they won’t be totally happy. This includes: answering phones, taking out trash, going shopping for company supplies, and “filling in” for a sales person.

I hope this summary helps employers further understand the world of geeks, and how to keep them happy. I also hope this helps other geeks out there approach their employers with a list of what they need to work happy.

I was watching c-span tonight (for some reason, the people talking about disease control and prevention were far more engaging and enjoyable to listen to than idiot sitcom characters - not to say that I don’t get a good laugh out of shows like family guy, and that hereos isn’t seriously a great show). Dr. Julie Gerberding, Director of the Research Center for Disease Control and Prevention, must have used the phrase “holistic approach” about three times. She was talking about integrating efforts of groups working in similar areas and connecting great minds to achieve maximum results. In response to a discusssion that was basically regarding “how to stand out in all the noise” she declared, “We have to somehow aggressively engage our public.”

Its funny how similar politics is to business and marketing.

Today, to keep up you have to be engaging, aggressive may be too strong of a word, but there’s no doubt you really have to put yourself in front of the right people, you have to work harder and smarter than the competition, you have to be efficient and you have to be great. You must stay up to speed with all the possible vehicles you can use to engage your public and never loose site of who they really are. Julie talked about keeping up with modern ways of engaging your audience, and she used one of my favorite words: “New Media.” She talked about podcasts and blogs, social networks and second life… and I just smiled.

At least people in politics are keeping up with whats happenin’ - sometimes I feel like we all live in a dream-world or something.

To do business or advertise in today’s digital world you must live it. Just as Babs Rangaiah, director of media and entertainment at Unilever USA is trying to convey when he says, “Planners have got to have a better sense of the entire media landscape.” Via Advertising Age.

Not only must you loose the silos but you must live the way the digital world lives to advertise in it.

You must understand how the digital world thinks, where they spend their time. Or at least be able to really try and think like someone else. Where would you spend your time if you were their age, and in their shoes? Would you frequent myspace and spend all day downloading torrents or be reading blogs like lifehacker, techcrunch, adfreak, adage, searchengineland, clickz, stuntdubl, searchreturn, alistapart, marketingpilgrim, seomoz, seoblackhat, graywolf, copyblogger, nickwilson, shoemoney, seobook, mashable, micropersuasion, coolhunting, fecalface and (well just check out the blogroll on the side of this page, you get the idea), tagging and bookmarking links to your del.icio.us account as you read them through your normal day’s rss and link-surfing trip? Or would you spend all your time cruising sites like fark and digg? Or maybe you’d be reading work-at-home mom blogs and forums?

Where would you be?

Still, today marketing alone is not enough, knowing where your audience is isn’t going to cut it. Innovation and creativity are what make all the difference. Are you solving a problem in a better way than everyone else? Are you using your imagination in the best possible way to add value to your business, further satisfy your customers and even create new demands? Asking the right questions is usually the best way to start.

“Search marketing cannot live in a silo anymore,” Says Nasreen Madhany, Global CEO of Neo@Ogilvy. “It needs to be part of a 360 strategy for delivering marketing solutions. When managed holistically, search marketing can deliver branding as well as business results.” Via an Ogilvy Press Release pointed out by Marketing Pilgrim regarding Neo@Ogilvy’s purchase of search marketing firm Global Strategies.

Nasreen’s word ring true. I have always spoken in terms of holistic approaches to business and marketing. Today its imperative to understand and apply this philosophy. I call it Modern Business.

Today a businesses cannot live silo’s.

Business today requires a holistic approach to all aspects of functioning in order to succeed. No one can live in a silo. Management, Marketing, Technology, Sales, Business Development and Customer Service must understand each others needs and concerns. This approach includes coherence between functioning bodies. It includes integration of tools and automation of redundant tasks. It’s about knowing your strengths and weaknesses, using everything in your power, and in technology, to stay at the front of the pack. This means constant refinement, combined with a unique and cutting edge value proposition. After all, you have to be amazing.

To succeed today a businessman cannot live in a silo. Today a marketer or technologist cannot live in a silo. Today, in Modern Business, no one can.

A holistic approach must be used.

A holistic approach means all contributing parties must work together, taking everything they interact with into account while functioning. It means that internal technologies, such as CRM and ERP tools, must interact with one another and external technologies such as analytical tools. It must take into account historical and market data. It must be driven by team members that are connected to every part of the group. It means that what you do, the way you look, how you interact within your organization and with your customers, must all be in line.

I believe we will see a further reduction of silos and more emphasis placed on holistic approaches and integration of all functioning bodies. The businesses that do not do practice this approach will have a tough time keeping up.

To succeed, ask these questions before every action:

1. What will my planned action ultimately affect?
What will this impact? What technologies can I use to ensure its efficiency? Who internally in my group will this affect? Who externally? How can I ensure each entity affected is approached in the best possible way?

2. Now, really ask yourself again, what *really* will my action affect? How can I integrate my resources and approaches in the best possible way?
How will this idea work with Marketing, with Technology, with Sales and Customer Service?

3. Who is the best possible person or people to solve goal?
Am I? Is my current staff or team? Should I hire an outside expert?

4. Am I really thinking about the value I am bringing my customers in each choice?
After all if the customer isn’t happy they won’t come back, and in business today you win by increasing the lifetime value of each customer. You have to “Give The Lady What She Wants.”

5. Am I really thinking of all the places I should “announce” my action?
Internally - am I telling the right people in my team? Externally - do I really know where my audience is? How can I find them? How should I communicate with them?

6. Is this really the best possible action?
Now you’ve asked yourself all these questions, is this the best choice? Is there better? Who can help me figure this out?

7. How can I measure this so I can refine it as much as possible?
Do I know the answer to this question? If not who can I ask?

By asking yourself the right questions in every situation you quickly bridge the gap between any silos. Most issues that lack a holistic approach are quickly resolved with the right communication, with your team, with yourself and your customers.

Never forget you have to be great. You have to make the best possibly choices.

It takes analysis and passion. It takes a drive to know as much as possible. It takes creativity, and you always have to ask yourself if your action will engage the participants, your team, and most importantly, your customers.

I use the terms “Modern Business” and “New Media” often to discuss those things that are at the forefront of today’s business and media world.

I do this because Business and Media to me are based on important principles discovered by great people throughout our history, however, if you combine this with rapid advancements in technology, an ever changing marketplace and human psyche - something new is created. This includes modern shifts in business inner workings and function including the informational revolution, the growth of the virtual office, the “trickle up” theory of leadership and management and the creation of virtual shopping , education and social interaction possibilities.

Value has become increasingly important. Actual cost has become less important as consumers prefer integrity, environmental soundess, purpose, helpfulness, style and probably most demandingly, efficiency. All of these things and other factors participate in creating value.

Modern Business is a label I use for a philosophy that basically means “doing *everything* one can *today* to create value and loyalty in the marketplace.”

“New Media” consists of things like Social Media, Social Bookmarking, Social Networking, the rapidly growing world of user generated content such as videos and blogs. New Media is the media of today.

In my mind, Modern Businessman are the Renaissance Men of today’s business world. We follow New Media and study Old Media. We consume as much information as our brains will allow. We work in a virtual and physical world. We are analytical scientists and creative artists.

We are the leaders of our markets.