Beneath our planets oceans and lakes, embedded in its rocks and tree roots lay nearly half the living material on our earth.
Scientists are claiming that our “subsurface biosphere,” extending thousands of meters, may hold keys to solving major environmental, agricultural and industrial problems.
I was interested to read about an Ocean Drilling Program that will send its high-tech drill ship, the JOIDES Resolution, to the Juan de Fuca Ridge off the Canadian coast in the Northeast Pacific. They will pump dyed fluids into selected places so scientists can follow the flow of water and microbes through a maze of subsurface “plumbing.”
One objective will be to determine whether deep sea chemicals, such as hydrogen and sulfur, that don’t depend on energy from the sun on Earth’s surface can nourish subsurface microbes. Too cool!
Our firm’s primary task these days is articulating the vision of HotClick Video to large groups of savvy investors. These presentations almost always include a Powerpoint Presentation and require that we get our points across in a short period of time. I have found that if I lose my audience for even a moment it is almost impossible to get their full attention again.
Three key things lessons I have learned recently:
Firstly, Your Presentation’s Objective is simple: To Show…
Secondly, Your PowerPoint Must Be Simple: More Points, Less Bullets
Lastly, Presentations Should Change every time: Relate to “this” Audience
One of my personal mistakes has been not to practice for each presentation. My innate knowledge of our company and the problems we solve hasn’t been enough. Getting to know each audience or individual has proven to change my presentation every time. By adding relevant and meaningful problems with a tailored solution to a specific audience, has improved their cognizance and our success rate.
Great Entrepreneur Blogger Mark Suster has some great advice from a 2 time entrepreneur who has joined the VC dark side.
At the heart of Social Media are Communities (SMC’s) that facilitate B2B communication in unique ways. B2B marketers that tap into powerful SMC groups can enhance their brand marketing objectives, establish Word of Mouth brand rapport and facilitate the resale of their client products. Social Media embodies the very spirit of B2B marketing by utilizing partner platforms to proliferate the use of their own products and in the process establishing a new virtual retail frontier.
When Digg , a site for people to discover and share content from the web, announced the addition of a new Trending tool, they built a special Twitter account to make it easy for users to follow the action. Twitter, a micro blogger community has utilized relative and meaningful business partners to make itself indispensable. Last month, Twitter and Microsoft struck a search deal to integrate Twitter within Bing and the same day they struck a similar deal with Google. More than likely if you hear about a top story these days it will come in the form of a feed from your favorite SMC instead of the front page of your daily newspaper.
We are living in a connected world where digital wrecking balls are tearing down communication barriers enabling cross-platform billing and universal data feeds to devices that can trans-code multi-media on the fly. This clear path of information exchange is giving rise to close relationships between brands that target likeminded consumers and the SMC platforms that support them. A B2B marketers’ challenge is to anticipate the unique needs each SMC and provide tools customized to these niche groups and their needs.
The spirit of B2B partnerships can be seen on LinkedIn a popular business network that now enables users to sync their status updates with Twitter so your updated LinkedIn status will also appear as a tweet on Twitter. Reddit a site that enables users to vote on what is most popular on the web is composed of hundreds of sub-communities, each focused on a specific topic. There’s a Reddit for Music and probably a Reddit for your nearest city. Note that when you access Reddit Science content that has been uploaded by users and often times from companies such as The New York Times, Wired Magazine and the tech division at Yahoo.
One of the highest grossing films of all time, Paranormal, used the business platforms of Delicious, Twitter, MySpace, Facebook, Digg, Reddit, Stumbleupon and Eventfull to promote, market and enhance their film. The User Groups that evolved from these SMC’s helped ensure the film was released by submitting over 1 million votes on the website Eventful.com. The viral nature of this program spawned hundreds of niche groups including a Paranormal Dating group on the dating site Geek 2 Geek.
According to ChannelAdvisor, Social media sites are now among the top 10 referring Web sites for most online retailers. With Monetization at the heart of every business enterprise, a virtual store within a niche SMC creates a direct connection to a targeted consumer. As more and more businesses seek to expand their identity and relevance on the WorldWideWeb, they are increasingly turning to SMC’s to establish storefronts.
While some SMC’s like Digg focus on advertising platforms and branded soft-goods a few SMC’s are providing commercial applications that will drive partner sales. On Facebook 1-800-FLOWERS was the first retailer to launch a full-service online storefront so users leave birthday wishes for friends, and then order them a bouquet of flowers without ever navigating away from the home page.
Paving the way for cross-billing platforms are payment options from companies such as Amazon’s Flexible Payments and PayPal’s Payvment API’s that give developers full access to billing systems for SMC’s. The ability to accept and distribute payments within SMC’s establishes a new commercial platform ripe for B2B marketers. Companies like Alvenda have taken newsfeed purchasing to the next level with plug and play shopping platforms that enable shoppable advertisements that can be embedded into any blog or SMC site.
In President Obama’s speech to US schoolchildren this morning, I remember him saying something similar to, “if you quit on school, you are quitting on your Country.” I like his reference toward individual responsibility and the values inherent in a good education. I worry, however about his inference that graduation is in itself a patriotic act. I am concerned because of the dichotomy of responses the term Patriotism can illicit over time. On one hand Patriotism is defined as love of one’s country. However, extremism often cloaks itself in Patriotic zealous defense of the interests of one’s country, but not all would agree such actions to be nationalistic. In an eighteenth century reference by Dr. Johnson a patriot was defined as ‘a factious disturber of the government’. In reference to the demagogue John Wilkes, he also said that ‘Patriotism is the last refuge of the scoundrel’.
Mr. Obama has done more to foment right, and left wing positive patriotism than any Presidency I have been privy to. However, the irony in opposing views on patriotism is as cavernous a gap as divides those that rise up for, and against, any change our President’s proffer. To affect change, within the framework of today’s fractious political and global climate, is challenge enough. I worry that he will exacerbate his tasks with an attempt to maintain the integrity of Patriotism when examples of such acts so often lead to disparate results.
I think I could turn and live with animals, they are so placid and
The other day, my wife watched in shock as a woman side-swiped a car in a parking lot, then did a 14 point turn to hightail it out of there. We discussed how un-cool this was and postulated that she was in a hurry to get home/Starbucks/the gym/nowhere; and leaving a note was beyond her conscience.
A few years ago I found my car had been side-swiped during the night, but on the windshield there was a note. It read something to the effect, “Sorry I backed into your car, please call Joey at 555…” While I was bummed to have a dented car I was impressed that the guy left a note. When I called Joey’s number, his Dad answered and said that Joey wasn’t feeling well but that he was sure to call me back.
Joey did call me back and had his insurance cover the damage. We talked briefly and it turned out we had mutual friends. I was saddened to hear that Joey died not long after that of pneumatic complications. Looking back on it, I am even more impressed by the integrity Joey displayed by doing the right thing.
Doing what is right may not affect you directly but it will contribute to the decisions those that you effect will make.
The entrance to the Svalbard “Doomsday” seed bank in Norway, 700 miles from the north pole in the Svalbard archipelago.
Am I following a dream, or living one? What’s important now is Family, Career and Health. I’m learning that I can’t get very far in any of these categories, by giving them each equal time. Balance is ever-elusive.
The heights by great men
reached and kept
Were not attained
by sudden flight,
But they, while their
companions slept,
Were toiling upward
in the night.
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
