So I have 2 posts about the speakers at GROWCO (here and here). The first one is a rant because I was frustrated and disappointed, but the second one does offer some tidbits gleaned from the speakers.

On RAD’s Radar has a bunch of the insights and quotes from the sessions I attended at GROWCO.

Now I will sum up the conference in 4 points.

Number 1: I would have to say that in order to really grow your business you need to tell a story. That’s first and foremost. And not a story that is Me, Me, Me. Over the ages storytelling is how history was passed down. You know your own family history from listening to your parents and grandparents tell you stories. If you want people to talk about your company and refer business to you, you need to be able to tell a clear, concise story about what you do that benefits the person who is listening. (It takes time to create this message).

Whether you are networking, giving a presentation, answering a customer complaint, or on a sales appointment, remember that people care about themselves, not you. What message do you want them to take away? (It can only be one message).

Your Brand is the Emotional memory that a person has for either your company or logo or product. I usually describe it as 1K of memory storage of everything they know or have heard about your company. But there has to be an emotional string there somewhere for them to care one way or another. Apathy is the absence of emotion. [FYI, the Coke/Pepsi Challenge with brain imaging]

“You are building a relationship not a sale,” says Norm Brodsky. Raving Fans, Repeat Customers, and Referrals all come from relationships. You need to care about your customer more than making a sale. Period.

It all starts with the Hiring. You can’t teach Friendly. Hire Slow, Fire Fast. If the candidate isn’t smiling and trying to win the position, don’t bother hiring them. Corporate Culture is about hiring friendly, trustworthy people that care about the same things that you care about. [See the story of Zappos.com or any article by Norm Brodsky]

So I am trying out Google Buzz, which is integrated into my Gmail account. I didn’t pick many folks to follow in my experiment. But it has quickly become like Facebook to me: too much noise to be worth the time spent.

I find that if I don’t carefully monitor my social media time, I can quickly have 30 tabs open in Firefox and be lost for hours replying, commenting, reading, re-tweeting, until the morning or afternoon is gone and I have to get in fireman costume to get any real work done.

And notice that much of that is just following links and reading the feed. There’s a lot of information out there. I’m slowly learning how to scan and move along. While I am not sure what I expected from Buzz, I do know that it is becoming like Posterous. People are using Buzz as an aggregation of all of their social media interactions – tweet, blog, yadda yadda. Whereas I was looking for a filter to get less noise, I know get more noise from each person I follow.

I have to wonder, what are these people thinking?

Sally Hogshead, the author of Fascinate, noted this, “In an attempt to be all things to all people, most brands end up being nothing to anyone.”

Take a moment to think about that.

Why is that? Let’s take a look at Oil of Olay. Back in the day I worked for Richard-Vicks Research just as Proctor&Gamble acquired them. At the time, there was only the pink bottle of Oil of Olay. We were working on the first non-pink version, Young Oil-Free, which was removing the coloring and re-formulating it without oil. At the same time, we were working on a clear, colorless eye conditioner. And so began the expansion of the Olay Brand. Today, there is about 8 feet of shelf space in Publix of Olay products. They have diluted the brand to the point that no one even knows what product to buy. I watched two women look at a few bottles each and end up choosing none.

Social Media is a great platform for Personal Branding. However, I see that people want to be all things to all people. They want their message to be seen by all people. They want that message populated across all networks because someone may miss it.

Trust me on this: most of the messages (blog, tweet, whatever) are not so significant that everyone has to see it. I get to see it for many people at least twice a day – the same tweet or update – and it is tiresome.

Most of this noise isn’t even a conversation, but a broadcast. It’s a news update from your own station.

It’s not even a conversation starter. It’s Advertising. Why do I say that? Because it’s “look at me!” “look at me!” We need less of that.

I know that there is some overlap in my social networks – LinkedIn, twitter, Facebook, Buzz, etc. I do know that my goal on each is very different. On LinkedIn, it’s all business. LI is my rolodex and my resume. Twitter is about news and connecting with others in the industry. It’s a news feed as well as a place to have a fascinating conversation. Facebook is where you go if you want to see a more personal view, but I rarely connect with folks on FB and LI anymore. I push everyone to LI. In most cases, I don’t need to know that much info about someone I do business with. Remember how your mother said not to talk about politics and religion at dinner? There’s a reason for that – even moreso today in our very much polarized world.

So what does all this rambling mean? What is your goal on each network? Is it to be like Guy and broadcast your message across all platforms to every single set of eyeballs?

As Steve Tingiris of Enthusem.com told me, we are at a point when the marketing is getting closer to one-to-one. If that is so, why are people still trying to puke on the masses? They are listening less and less. (See Deanna’s stats from Spike Jones at Social Fresh Tampa: “76% of people think that companies lie in advertising. 77% Percent of people trust companies less than they did a year ago.”)

I would venture to guess that your message could be better targeted as well. It’s easier to broadcast across all streams, but what is your goal? Who are you targeting and why? And where are they? And why are they there?

As the unemployment rolls top six million people (plus the uncounted and totally discouraged), we have to face a couple of facts:

1. quite a few people do not have the skills for today’s knowledge economy

2. our education system doesn’t equip students with employment skills

We live in an Outsourcing environment. Companies are downsizing, but are also hiring contractors and consultants to fill needs and get projects done. We are moving to a world of Freelancers.

This is scary for many people because there is no job security in freelancing. There are no vacation and health benefits. And you have to sell yourself! That’s the scariest part. It’s like being on job interviews all the time.

Let me tell you something: as a W-2 (employee) you don’t have job security either. But you do have the illusion of it that let’s you sleep at night. Benefits are even being cut to the retirees! What? you put in your 20 years and along comes a benefits cut! BAM! What now?

Americans rely on the state and federal governments for too much. And the taxpayers get mad when the budget skyrockets. The government back stops insurance, banking, education, infrastructure, the military, etc. It can’t do that forever. You will need to take some responsibility for it yourself.

As we move into the Era of Freelancers, you will need to keep current on your industry as well as on skills. For instance, as a web designer you have to keep up on CSS, Java, PHP, .NET, etc. As a graphic artist, you have to keep up on Adobe products, but also mobile web sizing.

Many businesses will be relying on the skills of freelancers – consultants, contractors, 1099′s – for long term and short term projects, goals and skills.  The soon you get used this idea the sooner you can start planning for it.

1. What marketable skills do you have (what’s your cash machine)?
2. How will you market those skills?
3. What training do you need to stay current (or certified)?
4. What conferences do you need to attend to stay current and noticed?
5. What are you passionate about?
6. How will you Crush It?
7. How do you become a Linchpin in your niche?
8. Think about the Brand Called You!