This Stuff Takes Time

Years to become an overnight success.

I attended a dinner in April 2008 that changed my life. When I returned home that night, I started this site. And 965 days and almost 600 posts later, I have had the unique privilege to be able to interact with some amazing people.

What Now?

It all came back to me this past weekend as I was back and forth with someone on Twitter about his new online journey. He just started blogging, his Twitter profile has been launched and he finally dove into Facebook. His cynicism over how social networking wasn't going to work for him has been crushed by his wonderment of what else he can now do.

He asked how often he should publish new material, what interface he should use and whether I had any feedback on his writing so far. I congratulated him for starting, because that is half the battle, but now the work begins. Patience is not our friend and like a new workout regimen we get discouraged when results aren't immediate.

Navigate and Congregate.

Part of my gig is helping companies and organizations better understand the online world but I’m still blown away by you taking your valuable time to visit here for a while.
I reminded my new colleague when others shoved me in the deep end.

I was looking at some numbers the other night and the readers of my little spot on the www come from literally everywhere. I am honoured and in shock. Top three places are Canada, U.S. and of all places, South Africa!

Top 100 include: India, Australia, Germany, France, Netherlands, Brazil, Singapore, Philippines, Italy, Malaysia, Ireland, Spain, Sweden, Turkey, Romania,  Morocco, Egypt, Kuwait, Nepal and Malta. Isn’t that crazy?! In the past 12 months, this website was visited by people from 154 countries.

It is quite overwhelming. Thank-you for making time to drop by.

The increase in traffic from all over the planet fuels me to write better posts and help even more. And do more travelling! It also reminds me of the sustained focus and work that is involved when someone asks what will best work for them.

There are no short-cuts. This stuff takes time.

The essence of my consulting work is to help companies integrate all they do with all they do, specifically in the areas of marketing, social media and training. And I am always interested in meeting business owners and managers I can help. If that's you, let's have a chat sometime.

I don't help clients do what everyone else does. It has to work for them and it has to be something they will actually execute. This isn't a bottle of diet pills and an ab roller.

If you are wondering whether you or your company needs to get more active online, remember one crucial element, the results will not be obvious for a while. But if you work at it every single day without exception, people will start to pay attention.

And if you think the large companies have it all figured out, they are working at it every day like the rest of us.

What's your story?

knealemann | email


image credit: psychologytoday

Location Location Location

Amid the housing and mortgage crisis I got to thinking about a mantra this industry has used since the dawn of time – location location location. I asked a real estate buddy once if it was better to tear down a shack and retrofit or rebuild in a good neighborhood or buy a nice house in a lesser neighborhood. His answer was swift and without hesitation – rebuild.

Importance Of Location
Location is important when looking for a place to live. Location is paramount when deciding on a website address. Location is essential when choosing who you work with on projects and initiatives. Location is vital when choosing to be nimble verses stagnant.

Making Useful Media
Chris Brogan wrote a brilliant post today about making useful media. If you work in television, online content, radio, journalism, marketing or promotion – take a few minutes and read this post. Then send the link to everyone you know!

Bad TV
Mitch Joel recently wrote a post entitled Bad TV. It's a great view of something that is dear to my heart - content! Mitch poses the simple question: Would you rather have bad tv or good internet? Read and share as well.

Short-Term Fear | Long-Term Growth
I spoke with a friend who is a senior sales manager at a prominent cell company last night. He has a customer who is worried about spending a few hundred dollars because his budgets have been frozen – even when my friend has shown this customer how he will save thousands in mere months.

The location of your psyche is even more important than the place you reside. Forest and trees are being lumped in with news reports about falling markets and bailouts.

In It For The Deal
My post-secondary life was a time of change in both my thinking and work ethic. I was studying to become a radio broadcaster and despite my complete indignation toward my high school “career” I felt it was time to go big or go home. So along with being the Program Director of the college radio station, a DJ and bartender at the campus pub, I also worked in a sports store selling shoes. We got great deals on the sweetest new shoes on the market. At one time, I probably had 30 pairs.

Deals Are Not Always Deals
I had to take two buses from my place to get to this job, hated the hours, disliked my manager but stuck it out. I finally had to resign because it was affecting all the stuff I wanted to do in my life at that time. When I did it, a friend asked me why I had stayed so long. My response: because I got a deal on shoes.

Location is important but often it has nothing to do with geography.

How is location important to you?

km