Results Count ... everything else is conversation.

Social Media Has the Power to Kill Pink Slime

Bettina Siegel is the poster child for what a blog can do!

Social media gets a lot of hype, but how much power does it really have to change things?  If you don’t know Bettina Elias Siegel, you are probably in good company.  Ms. Siegel is the author of a small blog that popularized the term “pink slime”.  Her blog could be a case study in the power of “viral branding,” which impacted an entire industry.  Now, if she would just take on “meat glue”.

7 Ways to Wake the Dead and Inspire Action

How to use PowerPoint without boring people 

If you are in business, most of you probably put together “decks of slides”.  Outside of business, many of us get called upon as leaders to orchestrate meetings.  Even if you have a slick deck with cool graphics doesn’t mean you won’t bore your group.  I often get asked how we put together decks that engage workshop attendees.  I had an opportunity to provide our 7 tips in a recent guest blog for “SmartBlog on Leadership”.

What’s a name change worth … Results Count!

The shoemaker’s kids finally have some new shoes! 

When you are in a client service business, the focus is rightfully on the clients.  And, when you work with some the largest Fortune 500 companies, there never seems to quite enough time to work on your “own stuff”.  The classic saying is that the “shoemaker’s kids are barefoot and have no shoes.”  Well, 2012 became our year to get new look and a new name.  

Adding up “The 12 Days of Christmas” for 2011

Would you pay less if you purchased the gift list online?   

The Twelve Days of Christmas is an old English Christmas carol that enumerates a list of increasingly grand gifts celebrated across a 12 day span for the Holiday.  Each year, companies like PNC Wealth Management do a price index on what it would cost if you purchased the actual gifts mentioned in The Twelve Days of Christmas carol.  The shift to the internet has been getting a lot of press this holiday season … but would you pay less for the 12 Day gift list online in 2011?

PCs Are Dead - Just Ask the Toddler with an iPad

Today kids’ first experience will be on a tablet not a PC

Yes, PCs are still be being sold by the millions.  But, if you want to see the future, just watch a toddler using an iPad.  The interface is instinctive, intuitive, and addictive.  Kids below the age of 2 are flicking and flipping through their parents’ iPads before they can even talk.  And increasingly, parents are buying both tablets and apps just for their kids.  Is the tablet just a new “digital pacifier”, or will it be the future screen of choice for today’s youth literally cutting their teeth on a tablet?

Hitting the pause button … Time to celebrate

The rest of the story to “It shouldn’t have happened” 

I haven’t missed weekly blog post in over 3 years.  Would anyone really miss a Results Count blog this week before the US Labor Day weekend?  I doubt it.  Truth be told, I had severe case of writer’s block as I prepare for this special weekend.  Since blogs are supposed to have a “personal flavor”, this week became an opportunity to share the rest of my story to a post almost a year ago entitled:  "It should not have happened but did”.

If you haven’t met TED … you’re missing out

Remarkable talks by remarkable people, free to the world 

As a public speaker and blogger I pride myself in being pretty well read, at least in my industries.  But I never knew about TED until my daughter sent me a link to a great speaker.  TED is an on-line collection of video clips from talks by amazing speakers, across a wide variety of topics, made available for free.  Think YouTube on steroids for professionals.  If you haven’t tapped into TED, you’re missing out on a great resource.

Does Dunbar’s number apply to your social?

If you can’t keep up, maybe you’re hitting Dunbar’s max

A number social media pundits refer to Dunbar’s number when analyzing social media.  Based on researching historical social relationships, Robin Dunbar concluded that most humans can maintain a maximum of about 150 stable social relationships.  If you are delisting friends on Facebook you probably have exceeded Dunbar’s number.  But does Dunbar’s number apply to all social media and marketing?

Is Bentonville going bonkers … on social?

Why would Walmart spend $300M on a Social Agency?

In case you missed it, Walmart spent $300M US dollars in April to acquire a social media startup.  Admittedly, $300M is chump change for someone like Walmart.  But having experienced the outright frugality of the folks in Bentonville, one has to initially question the wisdom of their purchase.  Has the “beast” finally awakened to the reality of social marketing, or is there something more to their social strategy that other e-tailers are missing?

QR Codes popping up … even on a tombstone!

5 ways to optimize QR codes before the end of the line

QR codes are those funny little square boxes with a bunch of hieroglyphics appearing on everything from product tags, to TV ads and billboards.  And in case you missed it, the first QR code has just appeared on a tombstone.  Rather than wait to the end of the line, marketers can in fact learn a great deal about how to effectively optimize QR codes by studying the case of the tombstone QR code, designed to create a living memorial.