Tips and Tools - Jim Lastinger

Why Relationships > Followers

January 31, 2012 by jim · Leave a Comment
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I know that it’s been said many times before, but you shouldn’t worry about the number of followers you have on Twitter, fans on Facebook, or whatever other social metric you’re tracking. Relationships matter more. It’s quality over quantity in a certain sense.

I think that most everyone tends to increase the number of Twitter users that they follow over time, which necessarily increases the number of posts in their stream. The perpetual stream growth means that your posts are getting squeezed out, or they will be soon. Relationships, however, will survive the stream squeeze. Taking the time to create genuine relationships with your Twitter friends will get you added to lists of favorite users or get your posts noticed more. Personally, I pay much more attention to tweets from users that I recognize and have had conversations with.

Take a few minutes today to start creating some true relationships. Pick a few of the Twitter users that you follow and strike up a convo with them and see what results you get. I’m sure you’ll be pleasantly surprised at the number of people looking to interact with you. Then you should take the users that care enough about you to respond and put them in their own list so that you can always give them extra attention… they’ve earned it. That’s why relationships trump followers.

Image credit: marianNYC on Flickr

Filed Under: Social, Tips and Tools · Tagged With: followers, relationships, social, social media, social networks, tips, twitter

How To Stop Worrying About Building An Audience And Just Get Started

October 24, 2011 by jim · Leave a Comment
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Have you ever thought about starting some sort of venture and found yourself wishing that you had done it five years earlier? I certainly have, and I’m willing to bet that you have too. That’s what I was thinking when I was in the process of starting this blog. I knew that growth would be slow and that it would be discouraging at times. I thought that if I had just started this blog five years ago when I first entertained the idea then I could potentially have a huge following by now and have surefire international fame and notoriety.

The best motivation I’ve found to combat the five year remorse is to just get started. If you don’t get started now then you could regret it five years from now, wishing that you had finally acted upon your idea. Just do it. If it’s going to take years to get where you want to go then there’s never a better time to start than the present.

Your Homework

What have you been putting off doing because it seems daunting or because you know that success is years away? Go ahead and put that idea into motion. Get started by doing something concrete that will help push the idea to fruition. Start that blog, contact that lead, just do something. Let me know what you’ve done in the comments.

Image credit: mikep on Flickr

Filed Under: Blogging, CEO, Entrepreneur, Features, Tips and Tools · Tagged With: audience, getting started, jfdi, just do it, motivation

Discussion: What Metrics Do You Track?

October 21, 2011 by jim · Leave a Comment
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I was recently looking at the tracking charts that I have setup for one of my sites. I looked at charts regarding membership counts, revenue, etc. That got me to thinking about all sorts of things related to metrics and charting. Let’s have a discussion about what you track, what you get the most value from, and what advice you have for others.

What metrics do you track and review?
Do you have a dashboard collection of charts that you review daily?
Do your charts update daily, hourly, or in real-time?
Do you still have charts in spreadsheet software like Excel or Google Docs?

Leave your comments below and let’s talk about it.

Filed Under: CEO, Tips and Tools · Tagged With: analytics, charting, data, excel, google docs, metrics, startup metrics

Web Apps That We Currently Pay For

September 21, 2011 by jim · Leave a Comment
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I use a lot of different web apps to manage things at MediaLeaf. We try to use 3rd-party apps whenever we can to avoid reinventing the wheel. We don’t have the manpower to be spending time duplicating the functionality of others, so I typically don’t have a problem paying monthly for tools that are useful to us.

I love promoting the great work of others, so I’m going to give you a rundown of all the great apps that we use regularly. The list only includes the apps that I currently have paid accounts to. I have free accounts for many other apps. I’m probably also gonna forget a couple of apps. Here goes (in no particular order):

Mailchimp – The best marketing email platform around
Followup.cc – I’ve written about Followup.cc before.
Tout – Simplifies the process of sending repetitive emails. I use this for finding leads.
Basecamp and Highrise from 37signals – All of the 37s products are exceptional and need no introduction.
Endicia – Handles all of my mailing needs
ThinkVitamin Membership – Great set of training resources. I haven’t used TVM anywhere near as much as I need to.
Zendesk – I should get a volume discount at Zendesk due to the number of helpdesks I have setup with them.
SEOmoz.org and DIYSEO – I have 2 different apps for tracking/optimizing SEO. One day I’ll condense these down into just 1 app.
Beanstalk – Hosted SVN solution that works really well for us.
Postmark – Great system for handling all of our transactional emails.
Hootsuite – The best social media management console.

If you have an app that you’d like me to consider then feel free to email me.

Image credit: Scott Ingram Photography on Flickr

Filed Under: CEO, Reviews, Tips and Tools · Tagged With: basecamp, followup.cc, highrise, hootsuite, mailchimp, SEO, tips, tools, web apps, zendesk

Time is Your Most Precious Asset

September 19, 2011 by jim · Leave a Comment
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Never has the title of this post bene more true than in the last few weeks. I’m juggling a lot of MediaLeaf projects and I’ve recently purchased a new home, so time has definitely been a diminishing resource lately.

Times like this are a good opportunity to take a step back and look at everything you’re doing. Is everything that you’re working on directly related to your bottom line? When you’re pressed for time, as all of us are, it’s hard to justify spending your work time on anything that isn’t directly related to your bottom line or charitable pursuits. Here are a few ways to make sure that you’re focusing your energy and time most effectively.

Record Everything

For a few days, or even a whole week, keep a notepad with you and record all of the tasks that you spend your time on. You don’t have to keep diligent records of how long you’re actually spending on a task, just record what the task is. At the end of your experiment look through the list and see what unnecessary items you’re doing. There’s bound to be a few things that can either be delegated or ignored altogether.

Delegate More

Many founder and CEO types have problems delegating, especially in smaller companies. You’re used to doing all of the work yourself and feel most comfortable that way. I used to have that same problem, but over the years I’ve realized that there just isn’t enough of my time to go around and that I have to delegate low level tasks.

Delegating also means not spinning your wheels trying to figure something out. If you’re working on a project and run into a problem then it’s OK to get someone else to help you. You don’t have to waste time just so that you can figure it out yourself.

Focus

This one goes without saying, but it’s particularly hard for me. I have a tremendously short attention span, so it’s hard for me to concentrate on one task for more than 3-4 minutes at a time. I’m constantly playing with new methods and tricks to lengthen my attention span. If you have focus and attention problems then keep trying to make improvements. I’d love to hear your suggestions in the comments.

Image credit: blinkingidiot on Flickr

Filed Under: CEO, Features, Misc, Tips and Tools · Tagged With: attention, delgation, focus, time, time management

Why You Should Ignore Bad Press

August 9, 2011 by jim · Leave a Comment
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Time for a little against the grain advice. The common response to bad press and criticism now is to face it head on, own up to the problem, take responsibility, and be as transparent as possible. The utopian approach is all well and good, but I believe that in many situations the proper response is to simply ignore the bad press and criticism.

Don’t Validate the small issues

Any time that you (your company) responds to a criticism you are validating it. If there is a criticism that is definitively unfounded then it’s OK to say that, but if the criticism is valid then the best response, at least initially, is to ignore. When you make a public response to a criticism you are validating the issue and giving the party making the allegation all the power. Unless the criticism is coming from an outlet with a huge following then ignoring will usually lead to the problem just going away.

Here’s an example: If your app has a bug that’s being discussed on a forum then you should work as quickly as possible to fix the problem, without trying to join the conversation. Once you fix the problem the forum’s users will see that and the tone of the conversation will change. They will suspect that you’ve heard their complaint and addressed the issue, but they won’t be sure. For all they know it could’ve been a temporary issue or something maintenance related. If the issue continues to spread to other forums, blogs, or social channels then it may be time to start rolling out the public relations campaign to respond The goal is to act quickly to resolve the issue to keep it from ever reaching the masses in the first place.

This Isn’t Always The Solution

If you have an issue that’s gaining widespread attention then you should immediately seek to gain control of the issue. If there’s a bug to be fixed then fix it and respond. If you have a business practice that others are maligning (right or wrong) then you should wait a couple of days, and if the issue is still there, you should formally respond. It’s OK to defend yourself. In today’s uber-politically-correct world people forget that they actually have the right to defend themselves. You don’t have to just sit back and take the criticism. If you want to fight the allegations then you absolutely should do that.

Bringing It Home

What’s your response when you start receiving bad press? Do you immediately respond? I’d love to hear your experiences!

Image credit: HPUPhotogStudent on Flickr

Filed Under: CEO, Marketing, Misc, Tips and Tools · Tagged With: bad press, ignore, PR

Yep, We Still Heart PHP

August 4, 2011 by jim · Leave a Comment
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Ah, PHP. It’s been endlessly scorned by cool developers everywhere, but it’s still the backbone for the vast majority of websites. PHP is kind of like the boring accountant in the back room that no one really pays any attention to but is essential to running your company. We all know the knocks that PHP has against it: weak OOP principles, syntax requirements, etc. I certainly don’t disagree with any of those facts, but they are minor issues to me compared to the benefits of using PHP.

Frameworks to the Rescue

The frameworks of the last 5 years have taken PHP to a new level. We use CakePHP for all development at MediaLeaf, but we’ve heard great things about Symfony 2 as well. Frameworks make it super-easy to build out a prototype app quickly. CakePHP has command line tools that will create your CRUD scaffolding (Create – Read – Update – Delete) for you. Frameworks take care of the chores that go into each and every development project, particularly items like database connectivity and interaction.

Huge Community of PHP’ers

The huge community of PHP developers makes it rather simple to solve any issue that you come across. A simple Google search usually will yield results. Failing that, you can turn to the countless PHP forums. The vast number of PHP devs nearly guarantees that someone has already solved your problem. The key is usually figuring out the best way to describe your issue so that you can efficiently search for a solution.

PHP is Standard

Most hosting solutions, both cloud and dedicated, have PHP as part of the standard installation. This usually means that your hosting provider will provide you support relating to the PHP install itself. For smaller companies without system admins (like us), this is ideal.

It’s Proven at the Highest Levels

PHP is the engine that runs Facebook, WordPress, and countless other very large apps. If it can work effectively and efficiently for those guys, then we shouldn’t worry about it at scale for our applications.

We’ve evaluated Rails several times and have yet to find a compelling reason to move. We’re certainly not interested in migrating any of our existing apps away from PHP, but if something clearly better comes along then maybe we would consider it for future dev projects.

Your Turn

What are your thoughts on good-ol’ PHP? Do you still use it or have you abandoned it? Which PHP frameworks do you prefer?

Image credit: drewm on Flickr

Filed Under: CEO, Tips and Tools · Tagged With: cakephp, development, frameworks, PHP, symfony

Christmas in July – 10 Free Startup Ideas

July 14, 2011 by jim · 5 Comments
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Our team at MediaLeaf is pretty small, so there are many, many ideas that we have that we know we’ll never get to. I figured I would do a public service post and just give 10 of these ideas away. These ideas are completely free and up for grabs. Some of them may have even been already attempted, but there isn’t any implementation popular enough for me to know about it. These are in no particular order.

Positive news aggregator. 99% (just my gut feel) of the news reported is negative. Positive news is a nice niche market.
Visual marketing email design app. The key here would be that designs could be exported to major email service providers.
In-depth email marketing analytics. Major email providers provide some basic analytics, but detailed reporting and A/B analysis could be extremely helpful.
Mobile app to take a daily picture of yourself. Would be able to show slideshows, flipbook-style animations of how you change over time. App would send notifications to remind you to take a daily picture.
Generic social profiles. Portable, pre-populated social network profiles for fictitious users. Useful for dev purposes on new social sites.
Hyper-local shopping. Mobile app to visually browse/search inventory at stores as you walk by. Promotions can help catch passers-by.
3rd generation business directory. Aimed at online B2B companies. Would require being recommended by X number of users before being listed. Kind of like a curated list of popular B2B apps.
Weekly meal planner. Mobile app that would allow you to enter your favorite meals and help you decide how to plan your week’s meals.
Email reminder service. Would let you schedule recurring tasks to be emailed to you on a periodic basis. Would allow snoozing and reminding of tasks. Create recurring tasks simply by sending an email. Like followup.cc for recurring tasks.
Social media marketing conversation topics. Could be a private, paid mailing list. Each week would feature X number of conversation topics and advice.

Thoughts?

What do you think about the ideas listed? Interested in trying one or more of them? Have any others to add to the list?

Disclaimer: I bear no responsibility for the quality or viability of these ideas. It’s likely that a lot of people will see these same ideas, so if you see one you like then you should move on it quickly.

Image Credit: zophonias on Flickr

Filed Under: Blogging, CEO, Misc, Social, Tips and Tools · Tagged With: free, giveaway, ideas, startup, startups

Beginning CustDev for Bootstrappers

July 6, 2011 by jim · Leave a Comment
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Customer development is well-published topic, so I won’t spend time defining it or rehashing it’s benefits. This post is all about how to get started with custdev in a bootstrapped environment. Custdev can be used in any business environment, but it’s particularly useful for bootstrapped companies, where budgets are usually tighter. Also, it’s best to use the customer development process when starting on a new business or product, as opposed to trying to add it in later in the product development cycle.

In a nutshell, the goal of customer development is to help get you to a product that appeals to customers in a decent-sized market. You accomplish this by constantly validating your assumptions about your new product and making changes when those assumptions fall apart.

First Steps

If you’re considering bringing a new product to market then customer development is going to be your best friend (or your worst enemy, depending on the results). Before you spend any time actually developing your product you should start the process of validating it. The validation process itself is pretty simple. The methods depend on how your new product relates to your existing products.

1. Related Products. If your new idea is a product related to an existing product that you have then you already likely have a built-in base of customers who could quickly validate your idea. Try to setup in-person meetings or phone calls with a few of those customers. Tell them about your new product and see if they are interested. Test their interest by asking them to start paying for the product then and there.

2. Completely New Market. If the product is in a new market then you’ll need to rely on the more traditional customer development methodology. Create a simple PPC campaign with a landing page that directs users to a mailing list. The number of entries to the mailing list is a rough approximation of the potential for the idea. Try to conduct interviews with the mailing list members and validate your idea.

Review Your Learnings

Are you getting the interest in your new product that you expected? If not, it may be time to pivot. Use the learnings from your interviews to make adjustments. If there is no interest at all in your product then this is a good time to cut your losses and let the idea die. If you decide to pivot then you should start from scratch with steps 1 and 2 above and validate the new solution.

If you did get some serious interest in your product then you should move ahead and start creating prototypes. Conduct another round of interviews and demos for the prototype. From there you can revise the prototype or move full-on into production.

This is a simplified approach to customer development. I whole-heartedly recommend you read some of the following books to get a more complete understanding of the process. Comments welcome!

Resources

What is Customer Development by Eric Ries

The Four Steps to the Epiphany (Affiliate Link) by Steve Blank

The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Customer Development: A cheat sheet to The Four Steps to the Epiphany (Affiliate Link) by Patrick Vlaskovits

Image Credit: jurvetson on Flickr

Filed Under: Bootstrapping, CustDev, Features, LeanStartup, Tips and Tools · Tagged With: bootstrap, bootstrapping, custdev, leanstartup, learning, products, validation

How To Setup Your Own Short URL

June 22, 2011 by jim · Leave a Comment
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I recently setup my very own short url, jimla.st, for shortening all of the links that I share on Twitter. Plus, it has the added benefit of automatically tracking the number of clicks my links get. Here’s a quick rundown of how to setup your own custom short url.

1. Take a look at the available TLD’s. You need to look through the list of available top level domains (TLD’s) to see what the options are. Some of the more popular ones recently are .ly, .me, and .in. Most of the TLD’s that would be suitable for a vanity short url are actually country code domains. Here’s a full list of the country code domains.

2. Pick your url. Using the list of available TLD’s you can start thinking about what url might make sense for you. For me, I just picked my Twitter username. Maybe you can your company name, remove all the vowels, and come up with something. The possibilities are endless.

3. Register your URL. The registration process for the domain is going to vary by TLD. Some of them are accessible through Godaddy, other’s have to be registered through the country’s preferred registrar. I chose a .st domain, which was registered through nic.st.

4. Configure your new url through bit.ly. I love bit.ly. It’s the url shortener of choice. Now they give you the ability to use your own custom short url on top of the bit.ly platform. All you have to do is point the A record for your new domain to bit.ly. Done and done.

That’s it. Using a custom short url let’s you give the links you share a little personality, plus it has to help push forward your own brand in some small way.

Filed Under: Tips and Tools · Tagged With: bit.ly, short domain, short name, short url