Life Without Rules

A couple of years ago, I wrote a post entitled Lord of the Flies: The Business Model. Since then, I have recounted my theory on this countless times. It's the story of kids left on a deserted island to fend for themselves. At first, they are celebratory. There are no rules. And then anarchy ensues. We like rules yet we live in a time where some claim they own the rule book.

The premise is simple. The social web is a place where there are no rules or guidelines. Anyone with a keyboard and an Internet connection – and there are now over two billion of us – can publish online content.

No, you don’t need to use Blogger, TypePad or WordPress. Comments do not have to be activated. You don’t even have to be on Facebook or Twitter. In fact, you don’t have to read another word of this post. You can just go do whatever you want to do.

The Choice is Yours

You can post content on your company’s website or send emails to anyone you want. It is completely up to you. Google+ will go on with or without you. You don’t need to listen to anyone. It doesn't mean anyone will listen to you but that's okay.

It is rather curious how much online time some people spend trying to tell us the way to do things. This is especially tricky inside a larger organization where the evangelists are screaming (not literally) down the hall for the company to embrace all these cool channels and tools.

People are Listening

Then you have the advocates who are beginning to listen to all this screaming. And somewhere up the ladder you will meet a wallet. This is where the toy may or may not be taken away. These are the people who may or may not agree this activity is valid but will ask very succinctly, why and how long. They want a return on this investment.

Business is not charity. Work is not free. Time is not endless. So in order for ideas, concepts and interactions to accelerate, you may want (not have) to build in some rules – your rules. It is strongly suggested (do what you want) that you create even a rough outline of your company’s digital engagement policy and a set of guidelines for stakeholders to uphold.

Company Rules

After all, you do have schedules and meetings, dress codes and client deliverables to manage. No matter if you are a kitchen table company or running a worldwide enterprise, you have to be accountable to someone. So it stands to reason, your deserted island may need some parameters.

Your rules may not be right for me and mine may not work for you. So instead of telling each other what to do, let's share best practices and see if we can both improve.

Does that sound like a plan?

Kneale Mann

image credit: bikingtoronto | original: july 2011

700 Posts in 42 Months

It happened at a dinner on April 23, 2008. After the 5th person asked me where they could find my blog, later that night I started a blog. Like millions before me, I had no clue what I’d write about and I didn't think anyone would read it. So I started writing and I'm still surprised people read it.

I thought I'd write every now and then which turned into 699 posts in three and a half years with more than 12,000 comments and readers in 147 countries. There have been fun times and not-so-fun times in my career during that time but this space has remained the one constant. Thank-you for ensuring my thoughts aren't just fired into the abyss. If you want to write, don't wait for permission, write and keep writing.

Connect and Collaborate

Through this and other social channels, I have met literally hundreds of people I would never had met otherwise in a ten lifetimes. Some have turned into business colleagues, friends and clients. And the focus of this space continues to be to share creative ideas for business, leadership, strategy, marketing, social media and life.

My passion is to help business owners and managers become better leaders, build better teams and grow their companies. So let's keep sharing ideas and don’t hesitate to email, say hi, send thoughts, book a call or grab a coffee.

Thanks For Dropping By!

Kneale Mann

image credit: wikipedia

There Are No Rules

A couple of years ago, I wrote a post entitled Lord of the Flies: The Business Model. Since then, I have recounted my theory on this countless times. It's the story of kids left on a deserted island to fend for themselves. At first, they are celebratory. There are no rules. And then anarchy ensues. We like rules yet we live in a time where some claim they own the rule book.

The premise is simple. The social web is a place where there are no rules or guidelines. Anyone with a keyboard and an Internet connection – and there are now over two billion of us – can publish online content.

No, you don’t need to use Blogger, TypePad or WordPress. Comments do not have to be activated. You don’t even have to be on Facebook or Twitter. In fact, you don’t have to read another word of this post. You can just go do whatever you want to do.

The Choice is Yours

You can post content on your company’s website or send emails to anyone you want. It is completely up to you. Google+ will go on with or without you. You don’t need to listen to anyone. It doesn't mean anyone will listen to you but that's okay.

It is rather curious how much online time some people spend trying to tell us the way to do things. This is especially tricky inside a larger organization where the evangelists are screaming (not literally) down the hall for the company to embrace all these cool channels and tools.

People are Listening

Then you have the advocates who are beginning to listen to all this screaming. And somewhere up the ladder you will meet a wallet. This is where the toy may or may not be taken away. These are the people who may or may not agree this activity is valid but will ask very succinctly, why and how long. They want a return on this investment.

Business is not charity. Work is not free. Time is not endless. So in order for ideas, concepts and interactions to accelerate, you may want (not have) to build in some rules – your rules. It is strongly suggested (do what you want) that you create even a rough outline of your company’s digital engagement policy and a set of guidelines for stakeholders to uphold.

Company Rules

After all, you do have schedules and meetings, dress codes and client deliverables to manage. No matter if you are a kitchen table company or running a worldwide enterprise, you have to be accountable to someone. So it stands to reason, your deserted island may need some parameters.

Your rules may not be right for me and mine may not work for you. So instead of telling each other what to do, let's share best practices and see if we can both improve.

Does that sound like a plan?

Kneale Mann

image credit: loarules

Why Social Media

What's In It For Me?

I’m looking forward to working with a group of about a hundred people next weekend for my social media strategy workshop.

The executive director of the event was gracious enough to give me access to the list of attendees and I sent out a questionnaire. My goal is that each participate can pick up a few actionable ideas they can implement immediately.

There is no shortage of theory. Many assume everyone gets all this digital stuff. Some do, some don't, some are working on it, some are afraid to ask. And that includes small, medium and large companies. The exploration continues for all of us.

Human Networking

The essence of online social networking is what you bring to the equation. The choices of tools and sites can be overwhelming. No one has mastered them. It is an evolution for everyone. We are all cobblers in one way or another. I see far too much smugness on the social web from self-anointed experts touting everyone should be at some level. There are no levels, we are all learning. I have colleagues who are mortified that I still use Blogger while Seth Godin and David Armano grow large strong communities on TypePad. If it was about software, we'd all be rich.

This will be a workshop with professionals who have jumped into the social web and want some advice on how to navigate it better for their situation.

Here are some questions that came back from participants

• How can social media transform an organization?
• What are the limitations?
• How can I earn a living where standards and payment of content is low?
• What social networking sites should I consider using?
• How can I use social media more efficiently?
• Is the expense of reinventing my business worth it?
• How do I manage the time it takes to use social media?
• How can I find a new revenue stream?
• What can I do so social media doesn’t run my life?
• How important is blogging to my business?
• Where can I go to get information about sites and terms?
• How can social media best create new relationships?
• What's next?

What would you add?

Kneale Mann

image credit: noupe

The Cobbler and the Three Year Old

Up On The Hoist

I wrote about the Cobbler Complex a while back. I am the giving the issue serious thought with regards to my business, client work, fellow colleagues and the tone of meetings with prospects.

Humans have the collective patience of a three year old. When I mention the cobbler and the three year old, I have yet to find someone to disagree.

You Are A Client Too

You are in marketing but you fail to make time for marketing efforts of your business. You are a plumber but your bathroom desperately needs remodeling, or a teacher who never has time to read new books.

We want this quarter to be better than last quarter. We want this year to kick last year’s butt. We want more clients and more revenue. We want it now! Patience is a virtue, not a business plan.

Where am I going with this?

Well, I am here to admit in the open nakedness of the online world that I am ashamed. I have let it go on far too long and it’s time to fix it. I help clients aggregate their web presence and build stronger strategies, assist them with the application of social media tactics to their overall marketing thrust and I wake up every morning staring at one big item on the to-do list.

So after far too long and a few kicks in the pants from dear friends, I am building my new website. It will be on my company's domain - YouIntegrate. It's about you and integrating all that you do with all that you do.

Walk A Mile...

I am putting myself in the place of a client and as one of my clients goes through the same thing, the process has been cool. I am sifting through design ideas and color schemes. Where will this button go and how will I organize hundreds of One Mann's Opinion posts. How long should the bio page be and should I include this widget or that widget.

Feel free to add your thoughts on this space or perhaps some of the fun you had redesigning your space. We cobblers need to stick together.

@knealemann
strategy. marketing. social media.

photo credit: apple2org

The Social Economy

Imagine the Internet is your investment portfolio.

There are an estimated 1.7 billion people online. That’s one quarter of the world’s population.

There are over 400 million in Asia with Internet access and three quarters of North Americans are online.

We're Rich! We're Rich!


The number of people on the Internet is increasing at just shy of 20% annually. Venture capitalists are frothing over these numbers and it is the reason why some of our favorite social channels receive more funding.

Media are/is Mediums.

We can officially stop making the distinction between "traditional" media (print, radio, television, outdoor/transit) and digital media. What is paramount is our ability to navigate all of the available mediums as well as the communication between companies and customers.

A flag and an anthem.

With a population of over 300 million, Facebook would be the fourth largest country on the planet where 1.6 billion pieces of content is exchanged every day.

Blogger, Digg, Flickr, YouTube, LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter get over 900 million daily visitors. We can safely put the apples and oranges away and call it all media and mainstream.

Social Media are the mediums in which we socialize.

We all too often forget what it’s like on the other side of the counter. We are all customers and we are all service providers. But the connection often breaks down when discussions surround building online communities with a business application.

If you could see a 20 point increase each year, would you be interested?

If giving up control to your customers would increase their spend, are you still reading?

Are you willing to let your customers have the ability to have actual direct contact with you?

Are you ready to put some time and resources and sweat equity into your Internet portfolio?

@knealemann
marketing and social media strategy

image credit: doorsofperception.com