“What have you got to lose?” is a well worn question that is often not asked except when someone is challenging someone to do something daring or radical. How often do we ask ourselves this question? Are we only thinking of the rewards as an excuse to act instead of the pitfalls? Regardless, this is something a  business person needs to think about more often.  When I saw Chris Brogan ask this question in his twitter feed it got my mental juices flowing. I realized I had a lot to gain by writing about the topic. I’m going to present my own list things I need to work on today and the next few days.  I will answer what I have to lose but also what I have to gain.

What do I have to lose and gain by doing the following today?

1. Reading at least two chapters in What Customers Want and The Levity Effect
2. Contacting potential speakers for a networking group I hold leadership in
3. Installing Adobe Lightroom 2.0 beta on my laptop
4. Going for a long walk on a nearby trail
5. Prepare announcement for a network meeting next week

Lose

1. It will take away valuable time I can be using on work projects
2. Nothing except a little time
3. Some hard drive space and maybe attention on other things
4. A good chunk of time
5. Nothing - I have already committed to getting this done - yesterday

Gain

1. Insight into ideas that may help propel my business to the next level
2. I will be more prepared with confirmed speakers or information that I need to seek alternatives
3. Knowledge and experience about an application that may greatly increase my photography productivity
4. Better fitness, exposure to sunshine and maybe I will meet other people
5. Information will be prepared and sent to people so they can become more organized

What did I learn from this exercise?

1. I need to devote my time to those things I already have a commitment to finish
2. I realized that although some things may take a little time they may save more time in the future
3. There is great benefits to some of the things I am putting off but I should reward myself with those things after I finish the prior commitments

What are some things that you have been thinking about doing today? Have you been putting things off because of fear or “lack of time?”  Consider doing this exercise to help organize your day, grow your business and add quality to your life. What have you got to lose?  What have you got to gain? What have you learned?

In case you haven’t noticed I changed the order of the articles in this marketing series. I moved “market research” to later in the series and today I’m going to discuss one of those very general terms that is often misunderstood yet a company of any size needs to come to a firm grasp of the principle, Public Relations.

It’s interesting that after getting sidetracked by other jobs or interests I am coming back to the exact group of disciplines I studied in my college major, Mass Communication. I was a Mass Communication major at Winthrop College (now a University) in Rock Hill,SC. My areas of study within that major were journalism, advertising, communication law and public relations. I wish they would have had “new media” studies back then but that was not a part of the “mass culture” at the time.

Sadly, I can’t remember a lot of the details of my public relations class but the principles have stuck with me and it’s exciting that I am using those skills in my day to day work and helping others achieve business success.

What are you doing to manage your companies or organizations success through responsible public relations? Do you have a consistent brand? Are you communicating to your potential are current clients through blogs, print and e-mail newsletters? Do you offer yourself as an educational speaker on subjects related to your business?

For the record I hate the term “spin” when it involves leaving out negatives or “padding” the truth. That is not responsible or even “ethical” public relations. However it is important to craft words, images, etc. in such a way that people can clearly see the good services and products you provide and submit them to the right channels. “SpinningSilk” is all about turning the raw product into a thing of beauty and strength rather than trying to spin around a coin to show one side of it.

Grassroots Innovation has a great post this morning about companies who don’t clearly communicate what they do. The gave the company SAP as a clear example. He also said,

“If you want to be innovative you have to have a product that solves a problem for a customer. Also, the customer should know this.”

Ok then, here are the ways we want to be innovative and the problems we solve as a company;

• We create web sites that are are user friendly for your customers
• We help you create compelling content so you will be noticed by people and search engines
• We take compelling and professional photos that showcase your products, personnel etc.
• We provide RSS tools so your content can be delivered when published to subscribers
• We produce professional business cards that enhance your brand and get you noticed in networking situation
• We get to know your company and help you have consistent branding across your different marketing pieces
• We research the latest trends, technologies, products and services that will help you succeed.
• We develop or convert an existing logo that can be used across you marketing pieces from business cards to billboards
• We develop media products customers can read and listen to anywhere, not just in front of a computer screen

The list could probably be expanded.  It looks like we do a “lot of stuff” but in reality a lot of them are intertwined and can be accomplished in the same work flow. We also have a mission statement that says we are, “Committed to creating, organizing and delivering compelling content” and a workflow outline that has the for principles of Develop, Organize, Secure and Share.

How can we communicate these better?  How can we help you communicate what your business does better?

One thing I am very passionate about is the whole concept of semantics.  You have probably started hearing some buzz regarding the “semantic web” and what that entails.

SpinningSilk Multimedia is making the whole concept of semantics a core focus in our business. It’s our goal to make the information people access easier to find and to have meaning. One example of semantics you may be familiar with and appreciate is when you discovered someone in your family was kind enough to write notes on the back of a photograph to identify family members. Have you ever listened to a sermon in church and the pastor made a point to explain what a certain word meant in the original Hebrew or Greek? Those are example of semantics in the non-electronic world.

We’re making the study of semantics both in terms of technology and programming as well as our business and writing processes a top priority in what we do?  If you’ll excuse the pun, What does semantics mean to you? Do you know about the semantic web? How are you using the tools available to bring deeper meaning and understand of what you do to your readers,  listeners and customers?

I wanted to point all my readers to an interview of Gil Gerretson of Biztrek.  I mentioned Gil and his company briefly in another post I made this morning. Gil is a marketing mentor who has years of marketing experience and teaching.  The interview was done by a Greenville,SC business newspaper called GSA Business.  The interview can be found under March 17th on their podcast page  of the GSA Business web site or you can for a direct link to the file.

A good part of the interview is about Gil’s company and his vision to take it nationwide. Later in the interview he mentions quite a few things about the need for web site to be dynamic and provide ways to interact with the reader. Gil also mentioned the value of social networking tools like Twitter, Facebook and linkedin.