Australian Anthill's Cool Company Award

The Australian Anthill magazine has opened nominations for their awards program, the Cool Company Awards.

The inaugural Cool Company Awards was launched in February 2006, as a way for Anthill to recognise Australian companies that are doing things differently – defying business conventions, launching exciting new products, implementing new ways to do business, undertaking ‘rule-breaking’ thought leadership, challenging the status quo. Six (6) criteria and (7) judging panelists will be called upon to identify ten (10) winners. These ‘cool companies’ will be profiled in the Aug/Sep edition of Anthill Magazine.

To self-nominate or nominate another company

What type of networking functions should a business owner target?

Networking is not only about acquiring new business, it is about surrounding yourself with a support network for your life in general. I have never met anyone who said they have too many contacts.

Many make the mistake of not networking when everything is going well for them in the business or career. Then when the wheels fall off they have no contacts or support and need to start relying on people with whom they have never bothered to build a relationship.

My suggestion is that you always belong to your industry specific network and also non-industry specific network. There are many reasons for this concept but here are just a few.

Your own industry network can assist you to stay up-to-date on your industry and competitor’s knowledge, who’s who in the zoo and also any future job prospects etc.

Your non-industry network will expose you to a good cross section of business people who can offer fresh ideas that can be applied to your career or business and access to future career aspirations, mentors and information.
 
What are your tips on how to get the most out of a network event? Ie don’t stand in the corner, get your elevator speech ready etc.

Always arrive on time. This way you can introduce yourself to organisers and get a feel for the event, the format and have a quick look at the guest name tags to see if any of your contacts are attending.

Always have business cards on you but use your cards with respect. If attending a networking event for the first time act as a facilitator do not let it show that you feel like a fish out of water.

Do not take someone with you for support as you will inevitably use the event as a catch up – convincing yourself afterwards that the event was a good networking exercise as it gave you the opportunity to catch up with your colleague.

The truth be know you were never going to get any networking results because guests didn’t want to interrupt the personal meeting you were so obviously engaged in. If you invite a colleague to attend with you split up during any networking period and catch up after the event for your meeting.

Tips from Lynette Palmen, Founder, Women’s Network Australia

How to structure a great article

Some time-tested approaches for structuring an article:

• Identify a problem, give a solution
• Suggest a new approach
• Develop the pool of knowledge on a subject
• Describe the lessons learnt from a project/transaction/ruling/issue and their applications to other areas
• Conflict the majority view or “perceived wisdom” Chronological
• Give the “inside” story – new information about an already well known event, activity or undertaking.

Your article can generally be improved by using another source. Your article is about showcasing you and your firm’s competency/brilliance. It has a lot more authority if your customer or client is saying this, and is an active part of the story. If your new product/service is brilliant, get a client, buyer or user to say it.

WEB 2.0: risk & reward

Web 2.0 refers to social networks, blogs, wikis, online message posting, podcasts, and other web-based communities that create their own content to interact with one another. MySpace, YouTube, Wikipedia, Skype, blogs, online message posting and podcasts are part of the vocabluary and second nature to most 15–34 year olds around the globe. However, corporate Australia is regarded as 2-3 years behind the rest of the world when it comes to harnessing the potential of Web 2.0.

A recent study by web audience measurement firm Hitwise showed that Web 2.0 style sites now account for 12 percent of US web activity, up from just 2 percent two years ago. For Australian businesses, web 2.0 represents new ways of marketing to forge stronger ties with customers. It’s also a great opportunity to monitor – free of charge – what consumers think about them and their products, competitors and industry.

There are also big risks in a format that is essentially word-of-mouth gone global. If a consumer has had a negative experience with your business or product, their online comments can reach thousands of people immediately, and stay in cyberspace forever, picked up by every Google search of the company name or product. Web 2.0 can impact heavily on businesses who may not place much importance on customer service, but will reward those brand who do. If you do want to utilise Web 2.0 to your advantage, be honest, be accessible, and above all be open to the comments your consumers feel the need to post.

What makes a great network?

Excellence in networking groups are developed on strong leadership. The right network for you will offer a broad range of membership services and activities which fit with both your business and personal agenda.

A network should tap you into a dynamic group of individuals who are dynamic and willing to share business expertise, concepts and ideas. The group needs to encompass both rookie and veteran business people who can blend their experiences into the mix of the group. Networking is a reciprocal process and both your strengths and weaknesses need to be utilised or addressed by any networking group to which you belong.

A network should give you a feeling of belonging in essence you are building a framework of individuals around you who are supportive of you in your business or career and you visa a versa.

Information from an interview with Lynette Palmen, Women’s Network Australia

Homepreneurs are attractive to marketers

The Amanada Gome’s business blog, SmartCompany recently featured a very intersting article yesterday regarding Homepreneur – the home-based business sector. Marketers have largely ignored this group because it is so diverse and difficult to reach – and I would also imagine because they beleive they are are not successful businesses.

However research into the home worker (which also includes people working from home that are employed by large corporations) shows there are 2.8 million home workers and 45% belong to a higher socio-economic segment. They are twice as likely to be managers and administrators with professional qualifications and six out of 10 are big spenders, with almost half owning and trading shares. They also seek a constant supply of information on business opportunities and investment decisions.

• Also homepreneurs are:
  mostly ambitious males who want to run successful businesses
  Most homepreneurs work very long hours and run established businesses.
  technologically very savvy.
  more likely to be extroverted.
  comfortable parting with money.
  chasing opportunities.
  big risk takers.
  dress for success.

Read the full article – Homepreneurs, the myths and facts

How to write a great article [part 2]

As a follow on from Part 1 - It is worth remembering that every media is merely a conduit to an audience. Who are the people you would most like to read your article and what is the best media to reach them?

Using lots of jargon in your article will lose you a lot of readers, and detracts from the quality of your message. If an article cannot be understood by a reasonably intelligent person who is not involved in the sector, it is likely to be overly¬ jargoned. This is particularly so for technical and information technology subjects.

It is important that the article is factual. Your views alone on where the stock exchange may be heading are of little interest or value outside your office or telephone circle. Research which factually supports your position or conclusion is valuable.

If you are offering opinions or arguing a controversial or adversarial position, you’ll need to back it with facts, preferably new ones or make sure you pass the “so what” test in capitals.

To gain attention and enhance credibility your opinion must be intellectually sound. If your opinion contributes a genuinely fresh and different perspective to a topical issue, then it has a better chance of receiving the prominence it deserves.

Australian companies fail to take on the blog

An article in today’s Sydney Morning Herald has reported that just over half of Australian companies were interested in social networking tools but were not using them yet. Another 26 per cent had begun a trial or were using them.

Why is it that so many businesses are still just thinking about it? When I develop PR strategies, when relevant to the business, I suggest developing a blog, but very few clients develop one. It is one of the few areas that levels the playing field between SMEs and corporates.

• Three-quarters of Australian companies are interested in using social networking tools such as blogs and discussion forums to improve communication between their employees.
• Australian companies are lagging: one in three overseas companies surveyed had begun a trial or were using social networking tools.
• Only 10 per cent of Australian respondents had set up corporate blogs, although another 19 per cent planned to.
• Almost half the respondents had either set up, or planned to set up a facility for employees to bookmark internet sites and share the links with each other.
• Almost a quarter had RSS feeds and discussion forums, while 15 per cent had a wiki and a further 16 per cent planned to have one.

It seems that althought SME Australia is still thinking about developing a blog……Social collaboration, and the use of Web 2.0 ideas in a corporate context, is becoming a key part of enterprise services, said Tien Tzuo, chief strategy officer at on-demand software company Salesforce.com.

Mr Tzuo said classic content management software was about storing and finding documents but by adding Web 2.0 tools such as tagging, a company could create a more co-operative environment.

The software could also be extended to bring the company closer to its partners and customers, he said.

Salesforce is using this model to develop ideas about features and fixes for its software. Customers suggest and promote ideas they want developed on the IdeaExchange website.

“The concept of voting (for software features) sparks participation – the user community is galvanised around that,” Mr Tzuo said.

In a previous post we reported that Australian CEOs are failing to use blogs, and in this The Intranet Dashboard survey also found that Australian chief executives were less likely than overseas chief executives to contribute to an internal blog.

• Only 13 per cent of Australian chief executives surveyed had a blog, compared to 20 per cent of those overseas.
• In Australia, 9 per cent of chief executives used their blog for regular communication with employees, while 4 per cent used it to communicate outside the company.

How to deal with TV, radio and print media interviews

Each medium – radio, TV and print – have specific requirements you should understand before the interview.

Radio
The main feature of radio is that it is a personal medium. Radio gives the illusion of a one-to-one relationship, which means that you should adopt an appropriate style when you go on radio programs.

You should adopt a friendly approach in interviews on programs such as talkback. In radio you are talking to or with people, not at them.

The radio message is a fleeting moment of sound. It is not the medium for complex explanations or lists of facts and statistics. The listeners have to be able to grasp your point at one pass of the information, as there is no visual reinforcement and no hard copy to check back for verifications.

Television
Television is demanding in the sense that the audience see you as well as hear you. Your body language, dress, background and movement all contribute to communication with the audience.

To appear credible on television, you must sound and look credible. Sit rather than stand, as you need controlled movement and remember to use slow, controlled gestures. Review your appearance before the interview, ensuring your dress, hair and facial expression come across credible.

The power of television is its visual impact; you must be brief, to the point and get the key message across in a limited time. Allow yourself time to think, look away and think about the question (look down to the floor not to the ceiling). Use silence instead of filler words such as ‘um’ while thinking.

Print
Press interviews have similar requirements as electronic media in terms of news value and brevity.

The apparent relaxed nature of press interviews should not lull you into a false sense of security. Ensure you get your key messages in early, be careful of rambling and place tonal emphasis on key messages. A trick for press interviews over the phone is to stand up while doing the interview – it will give you a lot more confidence.