The Web in Sixty Seconds

Lovin' Every Minute of It


A fun infographic that has been making the rounds is one that shows the multitude of things that happen online every minute. It was developed by the web design company Go-Globe and when I first saw it, like most, I was impressed. But then it reminded me how overwhelmed business owners and managers feel on a daily basis. How do you keep up? What channels do you choose? Where do you focus your efforts? How can you digest the never ending amount of content?

Some highlights of what happens on the Internet every minute along with some additional items you may experience today.

• There are almost 700,000 Google search inquiries
• Flickr receives more than 6,000 photo uploads
• You surfed that car site instead of making another sales call
• Over 70 new domains are registered
• Twitter gains 320 new members and almost a hundred thousand tweets are sent
• More than 22 million meetings ended with no definitive decisions
• In excess of 168 million emails are sent
• iPhone customers download 13,000 applications
• You read this post
• Over 350,000 minutes of voice calls are done by Skype users
• LinkedIn gains another 100 members
• You started another game of Angry Birds at your desk
• Over 25 hours of videos are uploaded onto YouTube
• 700,000 status updates, 80,000 wall posts and 500,000 comments on Facebook
• More than a hundred questions are asked on answers.com
• Scribd receives another 1,600 reads
• You checked your Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter profiles
• Over 1,200 new ads are created on Craigslist
• Pandora streams more than 13,000 hours of music to users

How will you spend the next sixty seconds?

Kneale Mann

image credit: goglobe

Start Up Gobble Up

There's more to the story.

If we look at tech news over the last 48 hours we see that AOL bought TechCrunch, RiM released their tablet solution PlayBook, Google bought a million bucks worth of shares in a monorail company, Twitter gave us more details on promoted tweets, and Facebook is apparently finalizing a partnership with Skype.

The high-tech world is getting as much attention in the news cycle as Obama and the economy. I do some work with a start-up and it can be tempting to build something that perhaps one day can be swallowed up by a bigger fish but so can cashing your pay stub at the lottery kiosk.

If you are daydreaming about the sports car and lakefront property you will buy, you may be distracted from building what someone may want to purchase one day – a profitable company.

Twenty years ago, most of these companies didn't exist and now they're buying each other. We often forget that even Google and Microsoft were once start-ups hoping to make it big one day.

Tech is sexy now. Although it is much tougher to get funding these days, calling your company a start up is way cooler than simply calling it a new company. Start-up sounds feisty and scrappy. It’s cool to be a geek.

Here are some questions you may want to ask yourself. These are valid in start-up mode or at any point in your company's maturity.

• Do you have a documented Plan?
• How often do you review your Plan?
• If you are a start-up, how long will you call yourself a start-up?
• Is your goal to build a company or be acquired?
• Do you know what holes exist?
• Have you identified the strengths of everyone in your organization?

What would you add to the list?

knealemann

image credit: ecomodder

It’s Not About Twitter

Nice to meet you. Now what?

The best advice I have ever received with regards to social media is to build relationships past the original connection. You must begin to take those connections off-line to a coffee shop or phone call or Skype chat or something other than quips back and forth in 140 characters or less.


Nothing has changed

The barter system is alive and well, so is social networking. Both are more than 10,000 years old. If I have a bag of rice and you have a goat, we may be able to help each other. This is not to suggest that you and I do everything for trade or free but relationships are built far past the widgets and services we exchange – aren’t they?

You can’t drink coffee from an empty cup.

Without the key, the $150,000 Porsche is a gorgeous piece of German engineering to admire in your driveway. The new house without furniture and memorabilia, friends and family is simply a building on a road. The restaurant without chatter and laughter and human exchange is simply a collection of man made things in a room.

Where are all the people?

When I was a kid, I had this recurring dream of waking up and all the people were gone. It stemmed from some movie I had seen but imagine if you had every material desire at your finger tips. The best cars, the coolest homes, all the toys but the only stipulation was that you were not allowed to share it with anyone, you had to be cut off from any human interaction.

Is this really about websites and stuff?

Still interested?

We don’t live this life alone unless we choose to so before getting too caught up in tweets and followers and friends and ranking, let’s remember what’s important - real connections with each other.

Have an awesome weekend!

@knealemann

photo credits: journal.davidbyrne.com | getentrepreneurial.com

Do You Trust Your Social Network?

We're all born brave, trusting, and greedy.
Most of us remain greedy.
Mignon McLaughlin

If you have spent some time in any social networking site, you know it can be an exciting place. You can meet people you would never have met otherwise. Conversations can run the gamut between personal stuff to professional solutions.

Few delights can equal the mere presence
of one whom we trust utterly.
George MacDonald

If you want to make money on the Internet, litter your sites with Google AdWords and hope for the best. If you want to lock in deep connections with others, have more conversations.

There is still evidence that direct mail and telemarketing work for some situations but if you want to secure a strong cemented rapport with others, it will take time. And that time, is well worth it.

One must be fond of people and trust them,
if one is not to make a mess of life.
E.M. Forster

We often toss around words like friend, follower and connection with wild abandon while travelling in these channels. How many friends are you finding? Of those you follow, who is offering you value? Are you holding up your end of the bargain? How many of your connections do you trust?

If we are talking about business transactions, this is about creating win/wins which will gain people's trust.

You may be deceived if you trust too much,
but you will live in torment unless you trust enough.
Frank Crane

I tweeted last night that I would help five people in my Twitter stream on actual client issues. One hour, on Skype to talk about something that will help their business. No strings, no scams, no client theft, real help. We'll see what happens.

Life happens at the level of events, not of words.
Trust movement.
Alfred Adler

A study released a couple of months ago suggested that the more time we spend online conversing with each other, the more damage we do to our own social skills. It’s odd that ‘social’ is in the name yet it seems to be the most difficult part of this process.

Our distrust is very expensive.
Ralph Waldo Emerson

At PodCamp Toronto in February, someone admitted that events like that intimidate them and they were much more comfortable talking with people in the comfort of their own home office. If you can form friendships, meet new colleagues and gain trust, you will win.

What has been the biggest benefit to you from social media?

@knealemann

photo credit: www.skydive.ie
photographer: dave clarke

Friends - Colleagues - Storytellers

We all love stories. Stories are about real life people, imaginary characters, creative freedom and all the other delicious things our minds may conjure.

More Than Opposable Thumbs

Stories connect us and separate us from the rest of the creatures that roam this blue sphere. Years from now, you will not still be remarking about that new shirt you bought last week or the presentation you have to work on or the email that went unanswered.

But you may remark on someone you met, someone who helped you or changed your life. You may comment on how you changed someone’s focus or assisted in helping their business or life.

How Long Has It Been?

In the last week, I reconnected with someone I admire and like very much. We hadn’t spoken in four years. It was one of those situations where you just pick up where you left off; life gets busy but that all washes away. He is in a completely different industry now and is applying all his experience and ideas to a group that needed a fresh pair of eyes. He is a storyteller, a connector and it’s thrilling to see how he is applying all that to his latest project.

Do I Know You?

A few weeks back, I made a connection on Facebook. We had not met; we had some mutual friends. In the course of a handful of emails, we got on Skype and had a great chat about her business. In the course of the conversation, she came up with some ideas for me. We were oblivious to each other’s existence until a few weeks ago, now we are helping each other. She is an engaging storyteller who is great at making stuff way less complicated.

Can I Help You?

Someone sent me a DM on Twitter a couple of weeks to ask for some advice on their blog. Me? Someone who got in to this space a year ago on the advice (aka a dare) of a few people at a dinner. Two storytellers exchanging thoughts and ideas. What a difference a year makes.

Thanks CC!

Yesterday, CC Chapman wrote from the heart in a piece entitled Reflections Of The Future. CC is a great storyteller who loves to help others and share. Read and be inspired.

The Power of We

We run into old friends, contact complete strangers, connect with new colleagues across the globe and these moments are chances to widen our knowledge and create deeper relationships.

Who are you going to meet this week?

@knealemann

photo credit: thefarside.com

That's Not What I Meant

It is fascinating how we can seamlessly communicate with each other via social networking sites, cell phones, emails, pins, texts, landlines, Skype, and snail mail.

What’s equally fascinating is how little information reaches its intended recipient in-tact.

Newsflash: email is not the best way to share ideas. The meaning gets lost, we all make mistakes in the words we select, and the mood at the other end is out of our control.

More text messages are sent each day than there are humans living on the planet. And that will only grow. There are an estimated two million emails sent every second!

We are spending a lot of time and money trying to reach each other.

But are we communicating? Are we receiving information in the same light as it was intended? Are we listening and reading?

The telephone game is a simple one – and you know it – the message begins with one person, who tells it to another and the more people who touch the message before it gets to you, increases the chances of inaccuracies.

You've been there. It begins with an innocent email only to end in a flurry of misunderstanding and half sentences. No one has decided to bail in lieu of an actual converstation and the whole thing becomes a mess.

We try our best to re-explain ourselves which can make things worse. The result is a string of emails that begin to make no sense and the original question or comment or content is buried three pages down.

Mean what you say and say what you mean. Easier said than done.

It's worth a try. Oh, and the smartphone does have a phone option.

km