Whoa! Dude!

This started as a couple of Tweets. And then ...

4 most important words: "What do you think?" (Dave Wheeler @ tompeters.com: "Most important 4 words in organization")

4 most important words: "How can I help?" (Boss as CHRO/Chief Hurdle Removal Officer)

2 most important words: "Thank you!" (Appreciation/Recognition)

2 most important words: "All yours." (Hands-off delegation/Respect)

3 most important words: "I'm going out." (MBWA/Managing By Wandering Around/In touch!)

2 most important words: "I'm sorry." (Power of unconditional apology = Stunning! Marshall Goldsmith: #1 exec issue.)

5 most important words: "Did you tell the customer?" (Over-communicate.)

2 most important words: "She says ..." ("She" is the customer!)

2 most important words: "Yes ma'am." (Women are more often than not the best managers.)

2 most important words: "Try it!" (My only "for sure" in 44 years: /Herb Kelleher: "We have a strategic plan, it's called doing things."/Bill Parcells: "Blame no one. Expect nothing. Do something.")

3 most important words: "Try it again!" (My only "for sure" 44 years.)

3 most important words: "Try it again!" (My only "for sure" 44 years: Most tries wins.)

3 most important words: "At your service." (Organizations exist to serve. Period. Leaders exist to serve. Period.)

4 most important words: "How are we doing?" (To customers, regularly.)

4 most important words: "How was Mary's recital?" (Know your employees' kids.)

2 most important words: "Let's party!" (Celebrate "small wins" at the drop of a hat.)

1 most important word: "No." ("To don'ts" > "To dos.")

1 most important word: "Yes." (Hey, give it a shot/Anon. quote: "The best answer is always, 'What the hell.'"/Wayne Gretzky: "You miss 100% of the shots you don't take.")

2 most important words: "Lunch today?" ("Social stuff" = Secret to problem/opportunity #1: XFX/cross-functional Excellence)

4 most important words: "Thank Dick in accounting." (Readily acknowledge help from other functions.)

2 most important words: "After you." (Courtesy rules.)

3 most important words: "Thanks for coming."
(Civility. E.g., boss acknowledges employee coming to her/his office.)

2 most important words: "Great smile!" (Note & acknowledge good attitude.)

1 most important word: "Wow!" (The gold standard ... for everything.)

1 most important word: "EXCELLENT!" (The ... ONLY ... acceptable standard/aspiration.)

The only thing that matters is that you are genuinely interested and care for yourself and for others around you.

If you are not authentic, it shows. Get to a space where you don't have to pretend.

The “Context” Marketing Action-Plan Checklist

Here are the four ways you can use context to sell stuff online:

1. Compare your price to higher priced alternatives because it will help you create the context that you’re offering the best deal.

2. Demonstrate your product’s value. Instead of merely stating the price, go into detail about what people will get and explain how much it’s all worth.

3. Offer a bonus. If you don’t want to discount your price, offer a bonus with a marginal cost of zero. This works exceptionally well… especially when you use perception to build up price expectations.

4. Offer a physical bonus. If you’re selling a digital product, chances are you’re working with a high profit margin. You could use some of that profit to offer a physical good. This helps you sell because people are better at assigning value to things they can touch.

What they realised was that people behaved in different ways depending on how the risky situation was presented. Remember that if a risk is presented in terms of losses, people will be more risk seeking, and if it's expressed in terms of gains, people will be more risk averse.

Their classic example involves this fictional situation:

"Imagine your country is preparing for the outbreak of a disease expected to kill 600 people. If program A is adopted, exactly 200 people will be saved. If program B is adopted there is a 1/3 probability that 600 people will be saved and a 2/3 probability that no people will be saved."

Here, the risk is presented in terms of gains so people tend to choose option A (72%), which is, in fact, worse. Here's the same problem but this time presented in terms of losses:

"Imagine your country is preparing for the outbreak of a disease expected to kill 600 people. If program A is adopted, exactly 400 people will die. If program B is adopted there is a 1/3 probability that no one will die and a 2/3 probability that 600 people will die."

Now most people (78%) choose B because the problem is presented in terms of losses. People suddenly prefer to take a risk. In fact, if you look at both the situations you'll see that, mathematically, they're identical and yet people's decision is heavily influenced by the way the problem is framed. This effect has been termed preference reversal.

If people are presented a choice in terms of losses, they take risks. if presented a choice in term of gains, they become risk averse. HARDCORE stuff here.

Well at least for the first few seconds. That's all you have to convince someone to actually click through and go ahead and read your blog post. Writing an effective, enticing and irresistible headline is a skill and art that you and I need to develop if we want our blogs to kick on to the next level.

You want to grab the attention of your readers. Get them excited about the content to follow. SO how do you make yourself, your blog, and your blog title stand out from the rest?

Here are some tips on writing those killer headlines.

Write your headline/title last

Don’t try to write your copy around your headline. Write your post first, then you can develop a headline that encompasses your whole post. This way you will have killer content and a magnificent headline.

Use your best keywords

Organic search engine is all about SEO and keywords. Find your best keywords in your article and try to use that in your headline. Use only the best one or two. Any more and you water down the power of your headline.

Fulfil a human need

Before you write your article before you write your title, you need to know what motivates your readers. What their needs are. Fulfil that and they will be putty in your hands.

According to psychologist Abraham Maslow, human behaviour is always the result of one or more of five basic needs.

1. Physiological - Basic human needs include hunger, thirst, shelter, clothing and sex.
2. Safety (Security) - Human need for physical, emotional and financial security.
3. Social (Affiliation) - Human need for love, affection, companionship and acceptance.
4. Esteem (Self Esteem) - Human need for achievement, recognition, attention and respect.
5. Self-actualization - Human need to reach their full potential.

Ever wonder why headlines like “How to make money fast while blogging” works so well. Because it fulfils the human need for financial security. Work that into your title.

Size matters

But not in a way that you think. Many bloggers think that bigger is better. Nothing can be further away from the truth. Headlines should stand out, but still be readable. They should be in a comparable scale as with the rest of the copy font size.

Don’t end in a period

As children we were taught at school that a period signifies the end of a sentence. The end of a thought. We carry this teaching through to our adult years If we read a headline or title that ends in a period, our brains say that that's the end. We need go no further. However, where there is no period, we logically want to see what's next.

Use a headline formula that works

Smashing Magazine has made page one of Digg more than 200 times, frequently using the same headline formula (number + adjective + design-related item + sticky message – i.e. 83 Beautiful Wordpress Themes You (Probably) Haven’t Seen).

Here are some other formulas that have been proven to work

• Little Known Ways to *blank*
• Here is a Method that is Helping *blank* to *blank*
• Who Else Wants *blank*?
• The Secret of *blank*
• Get Rid of *problem* Once and For All
• Here is a Quick Way to *solve a problem*
• Now You Can Have [something desirable] [great circumstance]
• What Everybody Ought to Know About [blank]
• [Do something] like [world-class example]

The different types of titles

Below are several different formulas used by professional copywriters to write
compelling headlines.

• How to - "How to Increase Your Readers By 500% "
• Question - "Are You Sick and Tired of Working For Someone Else?"
• Command - "Write better blog posts"
• News - "Announcing a Brand New Breakthrough in Blogging"
• Testimonials - "How I Got My Readers To Comment On My Blog"
• Reasons Why – “5 Reasons to Comment on Other Blogs”
• Guarantee - “Double Your Income Within the Next 12 months -- Guaranteed!"

Use power words in your titles

Remember that old ditty, “Sticks and stones can break my bone but words will never harm me”. What a lie that was. The pen is definitely mightier than the sword. Choosing the right words can turn your post into a wild fire viral blogging phenomenon.

According to a Yale University study, the following words are the most powerful words in the English language.

• Money
• Discovery
• Save
• Easy
• New
• Love
• Health
• Proven
• You
• Results
• Guaranteed
• Safety

Check out my post entitled 101 Magnificent Words Guaranteed To Make Your Title Outstanding. to find some more magical powerful words to use in your title.

Conclusion

Writing headlines is more art than science. The best path is to consider it an iterative process, experiment with different structures, study your analytics and find what works for you.

But remember this, first impressions are the only impression. You only have one chance to convince people that your post is a must to read. You have less than 2 (two) seconds to do so.

So write those killer headlines.

Can you come up with some awesome, magnificent, audacious headlines? Share them with us.

What has been your best headline so far?

Related Reading:

7 Tips on How to write effective blog titles that solicit traffic

101 Magnificent Words Guaranteed To Make Your Title Outstanding.

Headlines will make or break you. The tricks to compliance rely on making users invest a little bit by clicking on the headline so they are more motivated to follow through and read the rest of the article.. Headlines are SUPER keys..

If you don't believe, You will now.

Loyalty lessons from Lady Gaga

There's a lot marketers can learn from artist and musician Lady Gaga.

At age 23, Lady Gaga has rocketed to global fame in less than two years. Playing piano at age 4 and New York nightclubs at 14, she recently broke Billboard's record as the first artist to have her first five singles reach number one. She's won two Grammys, and has sold 8 million albums and 15 million singles digitally worldwide. While her performance art-style stage shows and bizarre outfits have garnered much buzz, it's her loyalty marketing that may sustain her for years. Gaga is dedicated to her fans and clearly knows the elements of cultivating a community of evangelistic fans.

With that, here are my 5 lessons about building brand loyalty, Lady Gaga-style:

1. Give fans a name. Gaga doesn't like the word "fan" so she calls them her "Little Monsters," named after her album "The Fame Monster." She even tattooed "Little Monsters" on her arm and tweeted the pic to fans professing love for them. Now fans are getting their own Little Monster tattoos. By giving the group a formal name, it gives fans a way to refer to each other. Fans feel like they are joining a special club. (Related business examples: Maker's Mark Ambassadors and Fiskar's Fiskateers.)

2. Make it about something bigger than you. During her concert tour, Gaga recites a "Manifesto of Little Monsters" (text) (video). Although a bit cryptic, most Little Monsters see it as a dedication to them, that her fans have the power to make or break her. (Related business examples: Smoque BBQ (pdf).)

3. Develop shared symbols. The official Little Monster greeting is the outstretched "monster claw" hand. As all Little Monsters know, the clawed hand is part of the choreography in the video of her song "Bad Romance." Gaga tells the story of watching a fan in Boston greet another fan with the claw hand and that's when she knew this was the Little Monster symbol. Even Oprah knows the Little Monster greeting. Shared symbols allow fans to identify each other and connect. (Related business example: LIVESTRONG yellow wristbands.)

4. Make your customers feel like rock stars. One staple of Gaga's "Monster Ball" tour is to call a fan in the audience during the show. She dials the number onstage, the fan screams out, is located and they are put up on a big screen. While the rest of audience goes bananas, she invites the fan to have a drink with her after the show. (Related business example: eBay Live Conference where attendees walk through a gauntlet of applauding eBay staff as they enter the closing gala)

5. Leverage social media. Gaga has the requisite Facebook fan page (over 5 million fans) and Twitter ID (almost 3 million followers) but it's how she uses them that drives loyalty. On Twitter, she tells fans what she is doing, such as tweeting them before she opened the Grammy Awards. She also tweeted to fans that she was buying them pizza for waiting overnight at an album signing.

Some artists are very protective of their image and prohibit recording devices during performances. Gaga doesn't allow professional photographers into her concerts but is ok with fans recording and putting videos on YouTube.

1. Define and Brand your tribe
2. Have a goal the tribe can rally behind.
3. Have a shared sigil/symbol (Exclusivity)
4. Go all out for your Tribe - Treat them right!

[The "I'm Not Delusional" print, for sale on the gallery...]

Random thoughts on being an entrepreneur. [Originally posted January, 2007]

I wouldn’t say I was an authority on entrepreneurship, certainly not in the same league as people like Fred Wilson or Jason Calacanis. That being said, the last couple of years haven’t been too shabby, either. With that in mind, here are a few thoughts I have on the subject, in no particular order. The list, by the way, is far from complete- I’ll probably be adding to it sooner than later etc.

1. Everything takes three times longer than it should. Especially the money part.

2. The best way to get approval is not to need it. 3. People want what they can’t have. In fact, that’s pretty much all they do want. 4. Once you become an entrepreneur, you find the company of non-entrepreneurs a lot harder to be around. You’ve seen things they haven’t; the wavelengths alter, it’s that simple. 5. In a world of over-supply and commodification, you are no longer paid to supply. You’re being paid to deliver something else. What that is exactly, is not always obvious. 6. Word of mouth is the best advertising medium of all. The best word of mouth comes from disrupting markets. 7. People buy your product because it helps fill in the narrative gaps in their lives. 8. You can either be cheapest or the best. I know which one I prefer. 9. Some people think that once they secure venture funding, their problems will be over. Wrong. That’s when your problems REALLY begin. 10. It’s better to be underfunded than overfunded. 11. If an average guy in a bar can understand what you do for a living, chances are you’re halfway to becoming a commodity. 12. It’s easier to turn an ally into a customer than vice versa. 13. If you’re happy in your career before the age of thirty, you’re probably doing something wrong. Heck, if you’re happy in your career before the age of seventy, you’re probably doing something wrong. 14. Smart, young, artistic people are always asking me which is a better career path, “Creativity” or “Money”. I always answer that it doesn’t matter. What matters is “Effective” and/or “Ineffective”. 15. Write the following on a piece of paper, have it framed, and stick it on your office wall: “Have you hugged your customer today?” 16. People will always, always be in the market for a story that resonates with them. Your product will either have this quality or it won’t. If your product fails this test, quit your job and go find something else. Just making the product incrementally cheaper or better won’t help you. 17. Products are idea amplifiers. The molecules and/or bytes are secondary. 18. People remember the quality long after they’ve forgotten the price. Unless you try to rip them off. 19. Markets serve entrepreneurs better if the latter can keep the former undersupplied. Oversupply is the kiss of death. 20. I personally know a former CEO who, once he attained control of the company, ran an EXTREMELY profitable business into the ground in less than two years. From a market cap of $100 million to ZERO, just like that. Why? Short answer: He loved being “The” CEO, but he didn’t much care for being “a” CEO. 21. In terms of becoming an entrepreneur, probably the most useful thing I learned in the last twenty years was how to enjoy my own company for long stretches of time. 22. One successful entrepreneur I know well has a wonderful quality, namely that he never, ever compares himself to other people. He just does his own thing, which actually serves him rather well. Just because his competitor has bought himself a bigger motor boat, doesn’t mean he feels the need have a bigger motor boat. This quality helps him to build his business the way he sees fit, not the way the motor boat people see fit. 23. Running a startup is full of extreme ups and downs. Which is why so many successful and happy entrepreneurs I know lead such normal, stable, unglamorous, “boring”, family-centered lives. Somehow they need the latter in order to balance out the former. Extra-curricular drama looks great in the tabloids, but that’s all it’s ultimately good for. 24. MBAs are conditioned to use their brains in much the same way as sex workers are conditioned to use their genitals. Nice work if you can get it. 25. Bill Gates may have a million times more money than me, but he isn’t going to live a million times longer than me, watch a million times more sunsets than me, make love to a million times more women than me, drink a million times more fine wines than me, listen to a million times more Beethoven String Quartets than me, nor sire a million times more children than me. Human beings don’t scale. 26. F. Scott Fitzgerald once wrote, “There are no second acts in American lives.” F. Scott was a drunkard and a fool.

The best way to support gapingvoid is to sign up to "Hugh's Daily Frickin' Cartoon" Newsletter. A new cartoon sent out every weekday morning to your inbox [RSS version here.]. A wee chuckle to start your day off right etc.

HELLS YEAH!!