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Observations by Marc Primo about TED Talk by Chris J. Anderson

An effective speech can change our world. TED brings us together with inspirational talks from scientists, inventors, opinion leaders, artists, and authors. How are these speeches prepared and why are they being watched?

Anderson’s guide has garnered endorsements from an impressive list of intellectuals, including Steven Pinker, Elizabeth Gilbert, and Adam Grant.

“The TED Talk has reinvented the art of rhetoric for the 21st century. Goodbye to windy academese, scientific gobbledygook, pompous moralizing, powerpoint chloroform – we now know that “ideas worth spreading” can indeed be spread far and wide, and with clarity and panache. Behind this revolution lies Chris Anderson, who had a vision that powerful ideas can improve the world and has developed a coherent philosophy and a set of guidelines for compelling communication. This book may restore rhetoric to its time-honored place as one of the essential skills of an educated citizen.”

—Steven Pinker, Johnstone Professor of Psychology, Harvard University, and author of HOW THE

MIND WORKS and THE SENSE OF STYLE

“Nobody in the world better understands the art and science of public speaking than Chris Anderson. He has nurtured, coaxed, and encouraged so many speakers over the years (myself included) — helping us to bring forth our very best performances onstage, even when we were at our most nervous and overwhelmed. He is the absolutely perfect person to have written this book, and it will be a gift to many.” —Elizabeth Gilbert, bestselling author of BIG MAGIC and THE SIGNATURE OF ALL THINGS

“This is not just the most insightful book ever written on public speaking—it’s also a brilliant, profound look at how to communicate. If you ever plan to utter a sound, this is a must-read. It gives me hope that words can actually change the world.” -Adam Grant, Wharton professor and New York Times bestselling author of GIVE AND TAKE and ORIGINALS

Chris J. Anderson took over TED in 2002 and created a worldwide phenomenon. Anderson, pondering the details of making good speeches for years, has brought together the secrets of the most-watched TED speakers in this guide. TED Talk is a book for anyone who wants to make an impact with their ideas through public speaking.

-Observations by Marc Primo

Killers of the Flower Moon

How a Native American tribe became the richest people per capita in the world and why they died because of that.

The following is a review of “Killers of the Flower Moon” by David Grann by Marc Primo

In David Grann’s (“The lost city of Z”) new book the author dramatizes a series of events which occurred in Oklahoma at the turn of the century when Osage Indians endured a “Reign of Terror” because of the land the U.S. government exiled them to.

Osage Indians were first discovered by French explorers in the 17th century in Missouri. In 1804, president Thomas Jefferson purchased this territory from the French and the Osages had to move from their native land. They ended up in Kansas but were soon moved from there by white settlers.

As David Grann recalls in his new best-selling history book “Killers of the Flower Moon and The Birth of the FBI”, the Osages had to look for a new land. In the 1870s they found it in hilly Oklahoma, a barren land unsuited for cultivation and bought it from the Cherokees. Some years later, they added a provision for owning the land’s gas, oil, coal and other minerals too. Nobody cared for that at the time.

The author focuses his attention on the period known as the “Reign of Terror” in the 1920s when a series of unsolved and brutal murders of Osage Indians took place. By that time, the Osages were known as the richest people per capita in the world. This came about when they discovered that their patch of “barren” land in Oklahoma had some of the biggest oil deposits in the United States. All the Osages had to do is rent the land to the prospectors and accumulate their enormous wealth.

Grann tells tails of the way the lifestyle of the Osages changed in these years. They bought big houses, cars, and planes and hired white men as their servants. But this couldn’t have lasted long. Soon enough a large number of hopefuls, smugglers, and criminals flocked to the Osage reservation in hope of benefiting from their wealth. Some were petty robbers but others had more long-term plans.

The only way to claim the right to this rich land was by inheriting it. And this is exactly what the hopefuls were intending to do. They began marrying into the tribe and waiting, and often helping their rich wives and their families to die. The central story of the book concerns the fate of Mollie Burkhart who married a white man and lost her family one by one. Her mother was poisoned, her sister Anne shot dead and other sister Rita blown up. Mollie narrowly escaped death by poisoning and finally got her justice in court but not everybody was so fortunate.

The FBI, with its new ambitious director J. Edgar Hoover, took the credit for solving some 24 Osage Indians killed in the “Reign of Terror” but more recent studies suggest numbers in the hundreds.

David Grann has again masterfully used personal stories such as the struggles of Mollie Burkhart to bring to life one of the most brutal periods of American history and in the process, present us the unusual early days and the creation of the institution known as the FBI.

“Killers of the Flower Moon” by David Grann reviewed by Marc Primo

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Technology is vital for all businesses nowadays. It unlocks all sorts of benefits... Not only reducing costs, but also delivering growth. Nearly every busine...

Digital systems make it easier and cheaper than ever for companies to test new concepts and challenge conventional wisdom

The New, Faster Face of Innovation. Thanks to technology!

How To Outsmart Your Competition With Content Marketing

After reading the following link: http://www.forbes.com/sites/briansutter/2015/09/29/how-to-outsmart-your-competition-with-content-marketing/#25e5a5c417a5

Everybody wants an edge. And hey, everybody needs one. Small businesses launch and die too often. Even if you’re among the lucky ones that thrive, there are no guarantees for the future.

The best way to beat your competition hasn’t changed since business started. Just create a killer product or service, delight your customers, and do it all profitably. However, you’d be naïve to think that simply being good is enough to win in business.

Just ask Ned Stark from “Game of Thrones.”

You have to know what your competition is doing. It’s too easy to get blindsided otherwise. And, ideally, you need to beat them at their own game.

Content marketing is particularly well suited for this. Here’s why: Most of what works or doesn’t work in content marketing is public. Because of this, it’s easy to take all of your competitors’ successes and failures and leverage them for yourself. Here’s what you can learn about another company’s content marketing program:

• What they publish (both on their blog and anywhere else)

• How well what they publish does on social media

• Which keywords they rank for

• What they’re doing with pay-per-click advertising, which terms they bid on, what they pay for it, and their ad copy

There’s more, but that’s probably enough to pique your interest. The point is that you can get a complete content marketing diagnostic on any competitor you want, then use that information to avoid their mistake s. Apply your time and resources to do more of what’s worked for them. If you do discover they are dominating one topic, niche or angle – learn how to side-step their strengths so you don’t compete with them head on.

Sound good? Let’s dive in.

How to find out what they’re publishing

First thing to do is to sign up for their newsletter or subscribe to their blog’s RSS feed. You may want to sign up under a personal email account to stay below their radar. Then make a folder in your inbox for each competitor you want to track. After that, follow them on every social media platform they’ve got a username on.

The next thing is to set up a few Google Alerts for their company name, top products, the names of key executives and any other term someone might use to refer to them. Google Alerts are free and take about 10 seconds each to set up; however, they won’t catch everything. If you use only Google Alerts, you’ll miss references from social media. So also set up a listening station on SocialMention.com or Mention.com

Social media monitoring tools provide real-time updates on social media mentions for the term “beef jerky.” (Credit: SocialMention.com screenshot)

See how well what they publish does on social media – and who’s sharing it

Go to BuzzSumo.com. Paste in your competitor’s website URL. You’ll get back a list of the top articles, infographics, videos and interviews they’ve published. You’ll also be able to see how many shares each piece of content got on the major social networks.

Best of all, you’ll be able to see who shared their content. These sharers are the influencers we all talk so much about. Now that you know which content the influencers in your industry are interested in, follow them on Twitter for a while, and then tweet to let them know when you’ve published something they might like.

Digital systems make it easier and cheaper than ever for companies to test new concepts and challenge conventional wisdom

The New, Faster Face of Innovation.

Incentives, Marketing and Social Media

To quote marketing guru Seth Godin, it is cheaper to create an innovative product than to heavily market an average one. What you need in that point is an innovation that stands out from the pack that helps you market the product or service. How does this strategy affect SEO, social media marketing and content creation? The Stand Out Innovation When you create a new innovation on a product or service, this is what you want to highlight in the product description on product directories and in the webpage descriptions so that you stand out from every other product or page that people see. This is what makes you different – so use it to stand out from the pack. If you find people who need the benefit of your innovation, you know what type of content to create – articles on how to solve that problem that feature your product as the solution. The content needs search engine optimization for the description of the problem or the query “how do I fix X?” In contrast, you shouldn’t try to use generic slogans and descriptions, since this won’t entice people to buy your product or service and it certainly won’t improve brand recognition. Team Effort When you find that complimentary product or service, you’ve found a new channel to sell through. You can promote the content that the complimentary group makes that sells both your products. You can write content that references both products together and enjoy two groups sharing the links.

When there is a dual effort to promote the combined use of the products, you can choose to alter your main content’s SEO to rank well with this or create new content specifically for the combined use without affecting the main SEO. If you chose the latter, don’t forget brand heavy SEO. This improves the brand’s weight with search engines even if it doesn’t directly improve the rankings of your main content. Also add back-links to your main page on any jointly created and promoted content, since this is still used as a signal by search engines to measure the value of your main page. The Free Prize There is a reason free prizes were so often offered in cereal boxes. When the marketplace was crowded and there wasn’t a clear stand out innovation or complimentary value added offering, the perceived greater value was the free prize. “We offer X, but you get a free Y, too!” Now you’re competing on the perks that you offer. Online content can use a similar methodology, whether it is offering more in depth answers or more specific solutions than anyone else. You can give them access to subscription only content for a month as a reward for a purchase. Or make your product stand out by offering better service, whether it is free shipping, faster shipping, a longer warranty or free maintenance for the item. If you use this type of “free prize” as your differentiator, it must be prominent in the content, the product listings, and the website information. This is why retailers that distinguish themselves by offering free shipping put it in bold text under the website link in search results – to make sure everyone knows that they offer it. The Niche Approach Sometimes you don’t have to come up with a unique innovation of your product, simply find an under-served market or unique use for your product and market it that way. Seth Godin’s curve showed an upward curve for one’s breakeven point as one spent more money on advertising. This curve initially referred to print and radio advertising, where doubling your advertising more than doubled the breakeven point of how much return you have to make on the advertising expenses. What is surprising is how relevant this curve is when applied to key words. For example, “insurance” is a very high cost key word for advertising and very competitive as well. “Insurance in X” zip code costs less and has less competition. When you find the key search terms that have little competition but strong correlation with your business, advertising to that niche in the channels where your most likely customers will be is very cost effective.

When you advertise to someone as a local service provider and community member, your SEO needs to focus on location based references and business directories that all refer to the business with the same information and format. You’ll rank much higher in any location based search than a national service provider – and you won’t waste time and money advertising to people who will never be customers. In this case, being the local and engaged service provider is your “stand out” feature. What if you promote your product as a solution to a common problem? You’re competing against many brands that are also trying to solve that problem. What if you promote your product as the solution to a hobbyist’s problem or niche demographic? You have less competition for these key terms and marketing channels, so costs are lower, while you’ll see higher conversions for customers. Promoting your product as the solution for a problem no one else is trying to resolve should dominate your SEO, such as citing the issue in the title and section headers of the content.

By: Sergio Buckingham

Work Hard, Play Hard #quotestoliveby #instaprimo #workhard #stayhumble #quotes #motivation #risk

#stayhumble #motivation #risk #instaprimo #workhard #quotes #quotestoliveby

(via https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iXu44FFGOpw)

6 Things NOT To Do On Social Media, So Your Followers Won't Hate You:

Nowadays, every brand should be present on one or several social media channels. However, not every brand has a healthy social media presence. In fact, most of them have no idea what they are doing. It is a shame that some marketers are wasting the great potential of social media, by doing things that annoy followers, rather than engage them. Here is a list of social media „dont's”, so you won't become one of those bad marketers. Don't mass tag random people It is a way to make sure your follower sees your post, by having a tag notification pop up. However, it is an annoying inconvenience and will likely make that person hate your brand and less so care about what you have to say. Besides, people often get tagged to malware links and virus posts, hence they may simply associate your brand with malignant practices. Don't post only sale pitches OK, you want to make sales. Yes, it is perfectly normal for a brand to want that. But people on social media just don't care about what you want. They are spending their time on social media to have fun, learn something new, or get inspired. If your post doesn't fulfill one of these needs, then it will hardly be engaging. Sure, you may post about your Black Friday Discounts or Christmas Specials, but usually people don't want to see sale pitches. Don't overpost When saying „overpost”, we think about those pages that write about a dozen updates per day. Those that seem to flood your feed so bad, that you are forced to unfollow or unsubscribe from them. See the result? Too much posting means that people will get fed up and simply ignore your brand altogether. There is no perfect number of posts per day, but there are some general recommendations for minimum and maximum: at least an update the every other couple of days (to keep people aware of your brand) and at most three per day. Exceptions could be made for some niches, such as news pages, which rely on timely updates. Don't spam your followers or friends with page invites You just started a new brand page and are so excited to show everybody how awesome it is and what great info you will provide. So you send a mass page invite to everybody. And from the 800 friends you have, you get a massive response of....14 likes. Again, it may seem harsh, but people don't care about your brand. At least not from the start. And it is annoying to see those invitations always popping up. It is better to first segment your list of friends and think about who would actually be interested in your page. Then send them a customized, unique message and ask them to take a look and like it only if they do. It may seem tedious to do, but quality always beats quantity. Don't post robotic holiday posts Do an exercise: on a holiday (Thanksgiving, Christmas etc) visit the pages that you follow. Most likely, you shall see some sort of holiday message. However, most of them feel bland and without any humanity. They have been written only to appear. Next time when you want to write a holiday update, think if you truly feel like it. If you can't channel that positive holiday vibe onto your followers, then it's better to just not post at all. No one will notice if you don't. But some will notice if you post and it seems you did it only because you had to. Don't post personal opinions A.I. Is catching up fast, but for now social media accounts are still managed by people. And people have emotions and personal opinions regarding almost any topic. However, when following a brand you don't think of it as a person, rather as the whole company. If you use you brand page to post a personal opinion on a sensible topic (or any topic for that matter!) you risk antagonizing a large chunk of your follower base and ruining your brand's reputation. Use your personal account for personal business. These are some of the biggest mistakes that social media marketers are doing over and over again. By avoiding them, you already removed some of the biggest threats to your reputation and follower engagement. Do you know any other bad practices that you should avoid in social media marketing? Feel free to let us know and share this article if you think someone may find it useful too!

BY: David Buckingham

Are you a Social Media Baby?

Are You A Social Media Baby?

to people - your local citizenship plus your netizenship. With the introduction of social media, it paved the way for a faster communication and interaction for people all over the world. It served as a gateway for people of different background and culture to network and for loved ones in different places get connected in real time.

Whether you are from Generation X, Y or Z, have you ever thought what social media mean to you?

Have you ever considered yourself a social media baby, too?

Here is a checklist. Let's see.

1. You have at least three (3) social media accounts. Aside from your precious e-mail account, you own not less than three among the popular social media accounts - Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, LinkedIn , Google+, Tumblr, Youtube, etc.

2. You own a camera phone or smart phone. Your phone isn't only meant for calls and texts, you have to have the latest phone with the best camera and right photo/video editing app to capture the food you eat, the places you go, the people you're with and your daily activities.

Your phone has instant messaging apps, too, to ensure you are connected to your friends and loved ones 24/7. You'd rather chat or do video call than texting.

3. You own a selfie stick (and, maybe a drone). You understand the worth of selfie stick on your activities and trips. You definitely need it in finding the best angle to capture that perfect moment, even when you're alone.

After all, you are doing the whole world a favor by showing them that you are doing just fine through that perfect photo.

4. You can't let a day go by without posting anything on your social media accounts. As you open your eyes in the morning, you immediately grab hold of your phone to check for updates, to know who liked and commented on your previous posts, and then start to wonder again what to post for the day.

Before you sleep at night, you can't help but check you social media accounts again to know what your thousands of friends are up to, or you post another status to let them know of your current state and thoughts.

5. To be in a place without internet feels like #forever. You, definitely, wouldn't want to be in an area without internet. And when you are, the world suddenly stops and becomes silent.

By: Marc Primo

#marc primo

Marketing Challenges Investors in The Developing and Developed Countries are Facing:

Marketing is critical to the success of your business. It helps people out there know that your business exists and convince them to buy your products. Marketing also helps to notify people about the new products in the market.Through marketing, a business can boost its sales and increase its profits. This will make the business stable and long term. Identifying the right technology to use Depending on the target audience of your business, this might prove a challenge to many investors. Finding the right technology to use in marketing has been identified as one of the biggest challenge to investors in the recent past. The reason this is a challenge to investors is that feedback on technology is scattered. Investors might turn to family and friends which technology fits their business only to find that feedback is spread across emails and social media from reputable sources. Marketing budget Sometimes the marketing budget can prove too costly for the firm. Small businesses who don’t make a lot of profits are the most affected by this. Investors are willing to spend more money on marketing to improve their sales, but they always find themselves allocating less money to it and allocating the rest on more pressing matters. Finding the best marketer This can be a hectic activity sometimes. Every investor wants a marketer who will help them achieve their marketing goals, someone who is cost-effective, and someone who they can trust. These qualities are hard to get. So many people nowadays are offering these services, yet they have not gone through the right schooling. The investor should do a background check on the marketer to see whether he is qualified for the job. Training your marketing team Most firms have an internal marketing team that comes up with the right marketing strategies for the business. The team also controls the internal marketing such as social media marketing through Facebook and Twitter. It is always challenging to train this team on the right marketing methods and the new trends in the market. Measuring the return on investment of your marketing activities Every entrepreneur wants to know how the marketing activities are benefiting the firm or not. Finding a way to measure this has proven to be a major challenge to investors. It is important for investors to know the benefits of the marketing strategies. In conclusion, if investors find ways to address the above challenges they will be a mile ahead when it comes to marketing.

By: Marc Primo

#marc primo

(via https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8XQ1onjXJK0)

Effect of Technology on Civilization and Culture

Undoubtedly, the greatest invention that our generation is witnessing is the rise and widespread use of technology. Growing up as a young person, some of the tools that technology has birthed today were unimaginable to me. The few that existed seemed complicated and could only be operated by a few individuals whom the community respected so much. Today, a gadget that looks complex can be run even by my last born child who is 5-years old. There has been a rampant increase in the use of smartphones, computers, and the internet. This rise has consequently brought about a paradigm shift in the civilization and culture of our society.

Ten years ago, the primary source of knowledge for me was the school. The much information that I and my age-mates gathered was from our teachers. Today, even without going to school, I can use the various search engines such as Google, Wikipedia, Yahoo, among others on the internet to access the information on a particular area that I am interested in. Ten years back, learning could only happen when the learner and the instructor met physically. Today, however, students can take online courses and even proceed to graduate and obtain their certificates at the comfort and convenience of their homes. All that they need is a working internet connection. Digital technology has made access to diverse forms of information easy and possible in this age unlike it was some time back.

Today, social media has turned tables on the traditional physical meetings that were being used as forums for discussing issues and passing resolutions. My friends and I no longer need to meet in coffee shops and restaurants to iron out organizational matters. We can simply chat on WhatsApp and Facebook groups and decide on important issues. Regardless of the different geographical regions that members of a group may be located at, we can unanimously agree on a particular time, date, and platform on which to meet and sort out team issues.

Finally, it is worth noting that the future of digital technology is bright. With the cost of data and cost of digital devices falling drastically, one can only expect an unprecedented rise in their use. Besides, almost all spheres of our livelihood in one way or the other, depend heavily on these digital gadgets. In churches for instance, projectors are used to pass announcements and to display the lyrics of the song the lead singer is singing. At school, they have replaced the usual chalkboards. In executive meetings, they are used to make presentations and summarise the proceedings of the event. More innovations and renovations of the existing tools will have a definite increase in the use of these gadgets.

By: Marc Primo

#marc primo

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