From the desk (and BlackBerry) of Keith Parnell

2010 has been an exciting year so far for me, professionally. My speaking line of business has exploded through Digital Media Seminar. My two companies are exceeding sales goals to-date and looking good for the 1st quarter.

Pondering the causes of this growth during a tough economy, I thought back to my professional goals I set for myself on January 1, 2010. Here they are.

1. I will identify those in my network of influence (on me) that are negative and impress upon me a non-productive demeanor. I will totally eliminate them from my circle. * a carry over from 2009
2. I will attempt to increase the quality of my network of business partners. I will work my hardest to learn from their experiences and offer my participation where appropriate. * a modification of a resolution from 2009
3. I will be more cognizant of my personal brand and achieve to sharpen its edges. * a carry over from 2009
4. I will be more streamlined in my efforts to accomplished my goals on a daily, weekly, and monthly schedule.
5. I will work harder to build and execute a more effective new business development plan that directly reflects the assets of my company.

Hard Work Means Success

I can honestly say that I am well on the way towards accomplishing each resolution. And even better than that, I can attribute much of JASE’s success this year to the processes I am living to achieve these goals. So for twice (2009 was a good year) in my life, I can say that I am living up to my New Year’s Resolutions and they’ve not been a total waste of my time to establish them.

- Good thing I didn’t throw in the ‘lose 30 pounds this year’ resolution! - * Unfortunately, this is a carry over comment from 2009 also!

What about you?

How are those resolutions going for you?

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On Twitter? Follow me at @parnellk63.

Listening to Tobacco Road by Johnny Lang & Edgar Winters.

We all knew this was coming. The 8-18 year-old generation is tomorrow’s business leaders. This generation will be 100% connected when they hit the workforce because it’s been a normal way of life all of their lives.

A national survey by the Kaiser Family Foundation found that … today, 8-18 year-olds devote an average of 7 hours and 38 minutes (7:38) to using entertainment media across a typical day (more than 53 hours a week). And because they spend so much of that time ‘media multitasking’ (using more than one medium at a time), they actually manage to pack a total of 10 hours and 45 minutes (10:45) worth of media content into those 7½ hours.

How does this compare to your digital life? The technology is here today to retrieve, and have pushed to you, any type or massive amount of information you could imagine. Whether you want to or not, the means to make you more efficient is here in our laptops, smartphones, tablets, and desktop computers. Are you taking full advantage of the digital revolution?

Photo credit: waxmerchant

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On Twitter? Follow me at @parnellk63.

Listening to Dandy Life by Collective Soul.

I attended a pre-proposal meeting this morning that our agency was invited to. Without divulging too many details, this city commission asked several regional advertising agencies, marketing agencies, new media agencies and communications firms to participate in their RFP process. JASE was selected to be a part of this prestigious process.

As I quite often do, I exited the meeting wanting to call every person on our team and begin brainstorming ideas instantly. As I ran through this list of people in my head I noticed the types of folks I wanted to talk to - creatives, operational, techies, thinkers, and the list goes on.

Now to make my point - I promise there is one.

In order to keep your agency in the running during the bidding process of a project, both right-brain folks and left-brain folks are equally important and must work together. One side out maneuvering the other would be catastrophic. What do I mean?

Left Brain

Your initial contact (in our case, the written Answer to the RFP) with the potential client is all about convincing them that you belong on their pitch process. They need to see:

• Your team’s professionalism and confidence in your work.
• How your team thinks logically, strategically and on-task.
• The quality of your team’s credentials.
• Examples of successful campaigns.
• The creativity your team can demonstrate.

Right Brain

Once your pitch has made it through the cut process, you must then address the more emotional senses and concerns that will differentiate you from the next agency. They need to see:

• The passion your team has for their project.
• The overwhelming innovation your team’s brainstorming processes have produced.
• Your team’s creative concepts have aligned with their strategic goals.
• The working chemistry your team can share with the client.

We hope to have a very successful bid process on this particular RFP. And hopefully these points can help you. Good luck in your agency’s next pitch.

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On Twitter? Follow me at @parnellk63.

Listening to Take Five by Acoustic Alchemy.

I had the great privilege of being present last night for the Internet Law & Your Business seminar given by Bambi Faivre Walters, PC at the Hampton Roads Internet Marketing meeting.

Below is a review of my live tweets (in reverse time order) from the seminar.

@parnellk63 - HR Int Mktg (on Int Law) : Awesome presentation by Bambi Faivre Walters, PC on Internet Law & Your Biz! #hrva #hrbiz

@parnellk63 - HR Int Mktg (on Int Law) : You should register a DMCA Agent within your company. #hrva #hrbiz

@parnellk63 - HR Int Mktg (on Int Law) : The type of Copyright determines the amount of damages awarded in court. #hrva #hrbiz

@parnellk63 - HR Int Mktg (on Int Law) : Search Google Patents for a great list to start your research. #hrva #hrbiz

@parnellk63 - HR Int Mktg (on Int Law) : Virginia Inventors Forum meets next week in James City County (VA). #hrva #hrbiz

@parnellk63 - HR Int Mktg (on Int Law) : UIAUSO.org is a good resource. #hrva #hrbiz

@parnellk63 - HR Int Mktg (on Int Law) : Provisional Application Patent is very affordable. #hrva #hrbiz

@parnellk63 - HR Int Mktg (on Int Law) : Common Law Copyright always exists. #hrva #hrbiz

@parnellk63 - HR Int Mktg (on Int Law) : Creative Commons Licensing maybe a clean way to go for you - creativecommons.org #hrva #hrbiz

@parnellk63 - HR Int Mktg (on Int Law) : Copyright.gov is a good reference point. #hrva #hrbiz

@parnellk63 - HR Int Mktg (on Int Law) : Should have both a Terms of Use and Privacy Policy for your website. #hrva #hrbiz

@parnellk63 - HR Int Mktg (on Int Law) : Oops. Digital Millennium Copyright Act. #hrva #hrbiz

@parnellk63 - HR Int Mktg (on Int Law) : Millennium Copyright Act covers your image (photo of you) even if Copyright not filed. #hrva #hrbiz

@parnellk63 - HR Int Mktg (on Int Law) : chillingeffects.org - a fun consortium website on copyrights / trademarks. #hrva #hrbiz

@parnellk63 - HR Int Mktg (on Int Law) : Should copyright your website content. #hrva #hrbiz

@parnellk63 - HR Int Mktg (on Int Law) : TM’s are geographic. Should register in each region and/or go with USPTO.gov #hrva #hrbiz

@parnellk63 - HR Int Mktg (on Int Law) : TM applications online at USPTO.gov website. #hrva #hrbiz

@parnellk63 - HR Int Mktg (on Int Law) : TM turns into R once the gov’t has approved and the TM does not confuse consumers. #hrva #hrbiz

@parnellk63 - HR Int Mktg (on Int Law) : distinct difference between physical good TM and service TM. #hrva #hrbiz

@parnellk63 - HR Int Mktg (on Int Law) : Check trademark names before registering your URL. #hrva #hrbiz

@parnellk63 - At the Internet Marketing meetup on Internet Law & Your Business. #hrva #hrbiz #fb

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Listening to Jackie Blue by Ozark Mountain Daredevils.

I stumbled across this really cool interview Robert Scoble (Rackspace Hosting) did with Jeremiah Owyang (Altimeter Group, formerly of Forrester Research) and Ray Wang (Altimeter Group, formerly of Forrester Research). I can’t remember the last time I didn’t stray from a 27 minute video. These guys are fascinating and definitely forward-thinkers that you should follow.

My takeaways from the video:

“Sometime real-time is not fast enough.” - Jeremiah Owyang

Translation: We must think about what will happen tomorrow and predict moves, changes, issues, and trends.

“B2B and B2C is dead.” - Ray Wang

Translation: Because of the ‘best of breed’ concept between on-premise information storage and cloud computing, the fundamentals of relationships are changing.

The Social CRM Space is becoming evermore dominant. Mapping out your social graph is what companies are doing today in preparation for tomorrow. Facebook wants to become an identity company, not a social network. Their vision is that wherever you go on the web, your Facebook friends go with you.

“I put that [RSS Reader] away. Most of my traffic is coming from Twitter.” - Jeremiah Owyang

Translation: We cannot afford to not have real-time data today.

iPhone vs. BlackBerry vs. Android - “Definitely iPhone because its platform is easier to build on.” - Ray Wang

Translation: A lot of developers will be able to build on the iPhone platform much easier than any other. Simple for the developer means power and more technology for the consumer and enterprise user.

Special Note: This may be the first time any comment has intrigued me about the iPhone. Being a BlackBerry evangelist (!), I’ve always contended that BlackBerry will be tops for a long time. I’m interested now in the iPhone purely because it could solve some of the limitations I have now with mobile technology.

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On Twitter? Follow me at @parnellk63.

Listening to I Still Believe by Norman Brown.

If you catch yourself always trying to play catch-up on your competition, you’ve got problems … serious problems. Even Dilbert thinks so.

Be a thought leader. Followers never get ahead.

What are you doing today to be a thought leader?

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On Twitter? Follow me at @parnellk63.

Listening to Jesus is Just Alright by The Doobie Brothers.

image credit: flickr.com/sjememe

The downside to a busy schedule and running crazy is that some tasks pay the price. For me, it’s been the normal day-to-day communications. I have no excuse.

If I owe you a phone call, or an email reply, or a retweet, or a tweet reply, or a Facebook reply, or a video reply, I’m in the office all day on Thursday and Friday. I’ll catch up with you and you will have my undivided attention.

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On Twitter? Follow me at @parnellk63.

Listening to For the Good Times by Al Green.

Do you encourage your clients to communicate with you over Twitter, Facebook, FriendFeed or LinkedIn? Or do you bounce back to the old reliable email?

I think it’s smart that we make ourselves available through almost any social network. Our clients know how they can reach our sales team, our support staff, and me. But we do encourage the traceability and the power (unlimited threading, attachments, etc.) of email.

What about you? What percentage of your client communication is over email?

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On Twitter? Follow me at @parnellk63.

Listening to Puttin’ on the Ritz by Ella Fitzgerald.

Okay, maybe not exactly “dead”. But if Rupert Murdoch has anything to do with it, Google will have no parts of the New York Post’s news.

What happens when Google can no longer spider News Corp websites? That includes the New York Post, Wall Street Journal, Daily Telegraph, and USA Today. Rupert Murdoch, Chairman & CEO of News Corp, says the time is near.

Murdoch says that Google is in the group of people that just take our work and steal our stories. Murdoch also says that News Corp’s family of news websites are very close to blocking Google from gaining access to their content.

That means when you searched “shootings at Ft Hood” last week, none of the major news sites would appear in the Google results.

Many of the news generating websites will be by subscription only or the search engine companies, Google, Microsoft (Bing), etc will have to purchase the ability to spider their news content in order for their news articles to appear in the search results.

I borrowed this quote from Jason’s blog:

So, for a moment, imagine a world where Bing could say in their TV commercials:

“Want to search the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, USA Today and 3,894 other newspapers and magazine?”

“Well, then don’t go to Google because they don’t have them!”

“Go to Bing, home of quality content you can trust!”

What do you think? Would certain information or certain current (quick) news make you change search providers?

RSS and Facebook readers: watch the video here.

Sky News political editor David Speers talks to News Corporation chairman and CEO Rupert Murdoch about paywalls, politics, and more.

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I had the amazing privilege of having coffee this afternoon with a new, local client. Rosemary Thornton is a 4-time best-selling author that has come to us to guide the marketing, advertising and public relations strategies of her upcoming book. We will have more conversations about Rosemary here so stay tuned.

In the mean time, if you catch yourself traveling through the Granby Street area of Norfolk, stop in to see the friendly folks at Riverview Coffee Parlor. You won’t be disappointed!

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Coffee with the CEO: Let’s Live Social Media in Ghent

Date: Tuesday, October 27, 2009
Time: 10:00am - 11:00am
Location: Panera Bread, 739 West 21st Street, Norfolk, VA

Description:
Come out to Panera Bread on 21st street in Ghent, Norfolk, VA on Tuesday morning at 10:00 AM and have coffee with Keith Parnell, CEO of JASE Group Marketing & Advertising and CLO of NeedLocalHelp.com.

No agenda. No sales. Just sharing.

Talk social media.
Talk new media.
Talk about your business.
Talk about how to grow your business.

Let’s live social media!

Register here on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=164193846985

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Here are a few Chief Executive Officers that I have in my Google Reader. Do you have others?

Donald Trump
Trump Blog
http://feeds.trumpuniversity.com/blogs/trumpblog.rss

Jason Calacanis
Jason Calacanis Weblog
http://calacanis.com/feed/

John Bruce
Living Enterprise 2.0
http://john-bruce.awarenessnetworks.com/rss.asp?id=2B5A9058-C92D-4979-867A-D1C676966D86&full=1

Jonathan Schwartz
Jonathan Schwartz’s Blog
http://blogs.sun.com/jonathan/feed/entries/rss

Mark Cuban
Blog Maverick
http://blogmaverick.com/feed/

Keith Parnell
From the desk (and BlackBerry) of Keith Parnell
http://feeds.feedburner.com/blog_keithparnell_com

Ross Mayfield
Ross Mayfield’s Weblog
http://feeds.feedburner.com/ross

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Users don’t care about the difference between rich Internet apps and desktop apps. They just want software that is simple to use no matter where you lead them.

Have you lost touch with their needs?

This picture, taken from an AdRANTs article, brings to mind a few funny, and true, points not the least of which is to not neglect what got you where you are now.

No matter what your profession of choice, at some point in your career you were a sponge. You would spend countless hours researching, learning from others, and soaking up every little morsel of information and experience you could find.

Don’t let that stop. The ability to continuously absorb and process more information is one the fascinations of the human brain that we shouldn’t abandon.

Feed your mind. Study. Research. Watch others. Continue your intellectual and professional growth at all costs. Don’t fall behind because the results could be ruinous for your career.

During these days of tight economic times a lot of us that are decision-makers for our respective companies are thinking hard about the details of our marketing initiatives. How should we market? Should we market? How should we spend? And at what rate should we spend?

JASE published an article on our company blog a few months ago that references thoughts from the Harvard Business Review. It’s worth the read.

Harvard Business Review - How to Market during a Recession