Integrated

The Perfect Plan of Imperfection

by CHICKMELIONfreelance


Think about it...an entity that created an entire universe inadvertently neglectes to create perfection within the human race? Sounds a little off...

No!. I am sure there is an ulterior motive to our imperfections in the grand scheme of things.

In retrospect, the only ones who demand perfection from each and every "other" individual are us alone... the human race. I say "other" because we often are more than willing to give a little leniency with our own frailties.

Now, nowhere in the golden book of rules have I found any expectation for perfection from He who created us.... heck if there was, we wouldn't need any commandments clearly spelled out to us....in order "TO LIVE BY"... as it says. And in our perfection we certainly wouldn't need them to be spelled out to us numerous times either.

So why then would One who creates perfection in a universe tolerate mankind in their imperfections? I believe it comes down to one little concept we own all for ourselves...."FREEDOM OF CHOICE."

Another state of being we as humans feel compelled to take from one another and control for ourselves, all the wile exerting our own freedoms to choose. Nowhere is there evicence of an Omnipotent being far greater than us, infringing on our own freedoms to choose. Now why is that?

It comes to me that in His tolerating our ever persistent blunders, He allows us to give to Him the one and only thing we truly own for ourselves. Our choice to be reverent towards Him. Our choice to be bonded to Him....our choice to love Him of our own free wills....

For what relationship has any longevity if there weren't an exchange between both parties? Now He has given us so much... what have we to give to Him? What else is there on this earth that we have created of our own hands without the use of His resources?

If we were born in perfection we would have no choices... we would not need to learn to appreciate Him and His wonder... His creativity...His splendor...

Yet I ask you,...had we not ourselves made errors in judgement and tasted the polar opposite of His blessings.... tasted a bit of our own hell... which we created... would His splendor, His forgiveness, His patience with us be any where near appreciated and as soothing to our souls? Would we come to appreciate the fullness and compexity of who we are loving unless we took the ugly along with the good? Could we say we have a well rounded relationship with our Source.... or would something always be missing....off balance? Does He not in our imperfections model to us our own direction we need to foster with each other in order to obtain the peace we all quest for?

We were born of love.... born to love... our love fills the universe with the positive vibe it needs to thrive... we were born to sustain Him with love as well... fulfilling an endless cycle of choices to be a part of the greater good.....

IN THE (Internet and Marketing) NEWS

IN THE (Internet and Marketing) NEWS

There is not much riveting in the Internet Marketing front in the past little while, but you can certainly sense a storm a brewing on the horizon on at least two fronts: the rumors and posturing of cellular wonders ready to set the stage as worthy competitors to the still hot iPhone introduced last month... (we would like to wish them luck... it’s an aggressive and vicious market to try to get a toe-hold in...) and Facebook seems to be kicking up a bit of a dust storm in it’s attempts to take over the world.

But before we get into those areas, I would like to point out how quiet it has been on the Google home front lately since the China storm seems to have blown over( for the time being at least.) Facebook might want to take a look at what went down ... there’s a few very blunt lessons here to be learned when a singular regime sees fit to stand up and take over the world. In this "ME" generation it appears a singular supremacy that appears to get "puffed" up can find it’s self dropped like a hot potato in a New York minute.

Here is what went down:

-No China did not bend to a large corporation from a Democratic Western Culture attempting to, not only dictate, but seemingly blackmail their views in attempts to gain a global monopoly.

-No China’s internet activities did not grind to a halt when Google pulled out. For them life rocks on and Google can no longer lay claim in its media releases of its intent to be a globular force to reckon with.... in direct relation to this Googles market shares dropped .

-No Google could not prove that China was indeed the country which the scammer’s attacks stemmed from or as China claimed, merely caught in the middle as the sophisticated scam bounced off of their IP signal in attempts to be elusive.

-And here’s the big one... as China dug in standing on their right to run their country their way... no one was willing to stand up and back Google in it’s attempts to force democacy on a socialist country. The US government backed down, the corporate world kept very silent on the situation, the only ones to stand behind Google were "GoDaddy.com". Why the abandonment from such a worthy cause? Perhaps because it was seen by most as a purely business maneuver as opposed to protecting the civil rights of the global computer user. Googles had to admit soon after that their business moves tend to make more enemies than allies, (read more)

On another front... who is going to kick the iPhone off of it’s pedestal? There have been PR pushes already and rumors of companies with their own versions to take on the very lucrative market. Rogers I see plans to introduce a "Social Networking" phone soon, Sprint will launch a new 4G phone on June 4th and Google’s Android takes number 2 spot from the iPhone... although Apple balks at these stats as being irrelevant.

No matter! The important factor we all as marketers need to understand is that 1/4 of every household in North America uses a cell phone solely... no land lines involved. Clearly we are looking on a new frontier of advertising. Pocket billboards begging for more and nouveau applications to intrigue the hungry downloader. Always the challenge facing we the entrepreneurs: new ways of attracting the market with pocket sized interactive ad machines. So whose going to win in the cell race? Well there has been a lot of rumors lately about head crunching and brain collaborating to get that android technology into the hands of almost everyone... and that is by making the technology accessible... price wise that is. My guess is the true winners in the race are you and I...(wink!!!)

Finally and certainly not least. No doubt we will be headlining this story in the blog for a while to come: "Facebook the New World Leader! " You think I jest? Facebook is now the number one social site on the global web and kicking up some serious dust in it’s wake. The meat of the matter is Facebook’s desire to carry more clout in advertising revenues ( read more) so it made a few moves that worried a few people about infringements on privacy including the Senators who tell Facebook to tighten up on their privacy policy (read more).

This was only compounded by a momentary blunder when a bug related to a feature on the fast-growing social network site allowed a user to see how their profile will appear to other users. By manipulating the "preview my profile" feature, Facebook said people were able to view their friends' private chat messages and pending friend requests for a limited amount of time on Wednesday. Facebook worked furiously to correct this problem.


As we have reported earlier this year in our news blog (CHICKMELIONfreelancer) that Facebook is riddled with bugs and viruses. It is a large headache for businesses whose employees use company computers to interact on the site. There have been corporate leaks, systems crashes and spammer attacks involved. A survey cited that 70% of viruses found in corporate and business systems have come from social sites with management claiming that Facebook was the most likely of all to pass off a virus. Ahhh! The pains of being popular. A new form of "socially transmitted diseases" emerges!

It seems not in light of all this there is a bit of an exodus from Facebook. A few reasons cited: the ever growing security concerns is the top reason, in addition to people just plain being bored with the site it’s self. (read more.) It will be interesting to see just how Facebook will address this exodus. In light of a lot of marketing gurus who urge people to stay because of the benefits of the new "like" option, history has proven that if one forges a new path and is successful with it... the herd of competitors will follow.

To all those unimpressed with Facebook and the way it is set up... hold your breath, surely an alternative is already on the drawing board. That’s the way it goes with success isn’t it... someone’s always ready to throw salt on your game. Oh by the way... isn’t the share button a wonderful alternative in showing your support for a business and ideas? After all, when you can buy your "like" supporters (ahem... sorry it is called crowd sourcing instead isn’t it ... forgive me) how important will the numbers be in the mind of the consumer ?

HOBO MARKETING

“Hobo” Marketing

by CHICKMELIONfreelance


“Hobo” Marketing



There is a trend in marketing which may come as a surprise to a few. As cited by Trend Hunter Magazine (.com) It is the return of the “vagabond.” Now when you think about “hobos” your mind wanders to a time of the great depression where many people who lost homes and jobs traveled from place to place in search of that next meal... and Lord be willing ...a home. In researching the culture of “hoboism” it is interesting to note that the term goes a little further back than that; more to the civil war era of the mid 19th century. That’s where it’s roots spawn from. Men trying to wind their way back home in a desperate and nightmarish time in history. Either way the concept of “hoboism” creeps in as a spokesperson in times of belt tightening, losses and hardships. Not withstanding our own current slow crawl out of the global credit crisis, it is not a long stretch to imagine our own culture identifying and romanticizing our hobos of past. They were, as we are now forced to be...survivors.

And that is the heart of the marketing concept that is currently gravitating around “hoboism.” Yes, it is an actual marketable movement where even the fashion industry is climbing onboard designing and marketing “haute-couture” fashions as “Hobo-Chic.” Hey why not! In an industry which is expected to crank out innovative looks on an annual basis, it only stands to reason that the never before looked at possibilities of the vagabond lifestyle present themselves as fresh new avenues to exploit. Attitudes are changing! We over used our credit cards to look above our means. We paid a hefty price for it and now that we are all in the same cash crunching boat, it presents it’s self as a similar sense of comradery as our hobo heros once had.

It goes a little deeper than that too! With a global crisis looming and forewarned shortages of many necessary luxuries such as food, water, oil, electricity, (only to mention a few) we are learning to cut back. We are now very familiar with the term “green living” and even expectant of perhaps taking it to a whole new level in 2012, as doom sayers predict an all out global crisis or pandemic. Our cars are getting smaller, our vacations more closer to home....our products are suspiciously shrinking in size because the marketplace just can’t tolerate the price hikes any longer... and there is a quiet acceptance to this... we all have been familiarized with belt tightening and can empathize better with this movement. Now that we are eyeball deep in it ourselves.

Activism is also a key trigger that aids this movement. With an ever growing homeless and addiction problems, some very tragic and large scale natural disasters, and a few large scale environmental tragedies, people are getting ever loud about the direction and choices our culture calls for. Fearing our destiny, many social activists are taking very candid shots and using a medium no other generation had access before to get their point accross... the internet. We are on a daily basis reminded of humane frailty and the frailty that our own comforts offer. How it can all be gone in one moment. Yes we are all faced with the concept of “what if....” and trying to visualize ourselves surviving. Survival gear, survival kits... even businesses and governments and are faced with the ever importance of setting in place current continuity plans, just in case. It is safe then to say that this mind set is going to be around for quite some time. In light of that, it may well be something you as a marketer will want to consider when putting your voice out there in the marketplace in hopes of calling to and attracting your target market. A more human approach seems to be a key concept. Social media has blossomed because it understood and monopolized on it’s ability to offers a human voice to both marketer and market and I don't see much glitz and glam going down there either.

So what are the implications of “hobo” marketing? I think the key words are: down played, laid back, minimalist, free, care free, conscious, organic, comfortable and down sized. You know there was a code of ethics that the hobos of the past followed. It allowed for their survival in the harshest of conditions. it might well serve a purpose here to retell a few of them to you, so you can fully grasp the heart and soul of the movement ....( from wikipedia:)

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Don't take advantage of someone who is in a vulnerable situation, locals or other hobos.

Always try to find work, even if temporary, and always seek out jobs nobody wants.

By doing so you not only help a business along, but ensure employment should you return to that town again.

When no employment is available, make your own work by using your added talents at crafts.

Always respect nature, do not leave garbage where you are jungling.

If in a community jungle, always pitch in and help.

When traveling, ride your train respectfully, take no personal chances, cause no problems with the operating crew or host railroad, act like an extra crew member.

Help all runaway children, and try to induce them to return home.

Help your fellow hobos whenever and wherever needed, you may need their help someday.

If present at a hobo court and you have testimony, give it. Whether for or against the accused, your voice counts!


Goodness seems to be the prevalent message. in order to survive be good because in tight situations it becomes “we need to be able to live and work together” in order to make it through. Man, not much has changed has it? We are still struggling to attain success with the same pursuits, and far from crawling out of our economic woes, the hobo mindset will prevail as people look to the past in answering for an uncertain and expectedly difficult future. So it really isn’t too difficult as marketers to gear our messages towards a more compassionate and comradery oriented voice. It is after all the signs of times and we all know as marketers, to be effective in hitting our audience we best read the signs.

The Taming of The Facebook "Shrew"

by CHICKMELIONfreelance

Like several million other business people I have and hold an existence on several social sites, Face book being one of them. I was encouraged repetitively and quite convincingly by savvy marketers pimping social networking as a viable means of doing business successfully online. They hammered it into my head via webinars, emails and articles. So I eventually went with the flow down stream with millions of other businesses creating an entity in an ocean of bits and bites.

I have a problem now, my smorgasbord of virtual life has taken on an entity and persona of it’s own, overpowering me at times and certainly thinking it can consume a large portion of my rare time and attention. It is my own fault though, I allowed the monster to grow on it’s own without pulling back on the reigns earlier than this. Wooed by multiple “friend” requests from fellow marketers, I allowed my list to grow and grow rapidly. I however don’t know a majority of these people and if given an exam regarding their livelihoods ... I would direly and embarrassingly fail.

Not from my attempts to try to familiarize myself with them. But some re-occurring and annoying scenarios keep popping up. It seems the fine art of networking is for the most part a lost and rare concept. It seems accepting a “friendship” solicitation has opened me up to spam notes in my mail box more than anything else. It has gotten to a point that I don’t even read them any more. I just don’t have the time nor interest. Why? Because these solopreneurs had never even made the effort to familiarize themselves with me, nor attempted to help me become familiar with who they were. This whole attitude flies in the face of the realities of social network marketing. Where the consumer, (you and I included,) flows to this type of forum to be recognized NOT ignored. Such business behavior is counter productive to the medium they are utilizing. I myself am annoyed by this mailbox spamming practice and I know I am not the only one! Time to do some spring cleaning!

I recognize that I need to define my purpose for being on this site first and foremost. I need to look at my goals as a business entity and as an individual, because I am not about to compromise and lose who I am in this flood of people with their never ending wants and needs. This is a personal choice and it may not be something you the reader agree with, but I am not really here to make sales. I am here to network! I recognize that I have this wealth of global “Chamber of Commerce” like potential right in front of me and I want to tap into it...yeah...meet and greet, that’s my goal. And in this meeting and greeting, I want to see if I can arrange some cross promotional handshakes and yes even gain a business friend or two! (Hey we all need our moments in the day to lighten up and just be people.) I know I appreciate everyone on my page who recognizes the same thing and pops in just for the sake of saying hi! To let you in on a secret, I am far more willing to want to bend over backwards for people like these when they have a need for something I can help with.

After defining my purpose and goals, it is time to re-organize my list of contacts. I recognize three very clear sub-sets of personas that I can divide my friend list into. I have my dear friends and I certainly don't want to lose them in the crowd. God knows there are days that these are the only people that stand in the way of me pulling my hair out.

I have also had the privilege of meet people who are willing to network with me and I really need to set up a separate specialty list for these very important people. Because networking is all about fostering and nurturing relationships, I need to get to know these people better. Be intimate with their products and services and allow them to come to know me. Build trust and a “team like” spirit of comradery. Not only does this foster the ability to gain valuable word of mouth for both of us , but it also builds the arena necessary to understand each other and their needs well enough to put our heads together for cross promotional purposes.

I will go through my list of friends (and yes my spam mail as well) and look for more potential prospects for networking as well. I will be looking for those who are not in direct competition with me but can compliment my mix with products and services. I will be very open and direct with these people regarding my intents because I have already learned the value of cutting off the fat and keeping activities lean. If they are not willing to play, I’m taking my ball and playing elsewhere.

Better yet, I’m taking their name and putting it on the third list I have planned. I will call it my “society list”. Yes it is all the other people I co-habitate with and as in life I will smile as we pass and be friendly when they approach. I will keep them for two reasons. Firstly I respect their choice to be on my page. That means something to me and I am not going to turn my backs on that. Secondly... hey I’m a marketer! I recognize that this affords me increased visibility among business and peers and who knows what the future holds. They may well become friends or networkers of like mind in the future.

I feel better now that I am organized. I am ashamed I allowed things to roll so much out of control. Since I have whipped the monster back into a more productive pace, I can feel better about opening my mailbox, having now options and clearly defined motivations on how to deal with the individuals vying for my attention. Being more efficient with my short supply of time has allowed me a little extra moments to finding the time to smile and pass a few extra jokes towards my friends whom I do appreciate. Heck I can even find them faster now! Got to love spring cleaning. It gives such a renewed sense of control and vitality. And hey, just before i go... you can join me on Facebook if you want...(wink!)

When The Buckshot Approack Fails You

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by CHICKMELIONfreelance

In the advent of social media marketing ”networking “ has never been a more important concept. It is what the online user desires, whether they be the consumer of fellow solo/entrepreneurs. An open flow of communication is what is expected in order to gain loyalty and word of mouth. People want an exchange of communication now days and expect a forum available to them that their voices can be heard. With “like” buttons becoming common and prevalent it is essential that the businesses of the modern age learn how to “be liked” and bend to the new rules of modern marketing and networking. It seems as though the fine art of networking has however been lost in the high speed shuffle and that is a very dangerous and time consuming mistake to make. Especially if you were enticed into the numbers game and now have a large page of individuals you don’t know and are still attempting to cold call. Networking is about give and take. The consumer, (and we are all one of those) have come to expect something valuable and viable as an offering in order to woo their attention and loyalty. Being pepper sprayed with non-solicited and UNTARGETED advertising is NOT a practice anyone is particularly fond of. Yet it seems to be very prevalent on the pages of every social network going.

I get a lot of what I call “spam” mail from such entrepreneurs in my own profile pages and to be honest, I don’t read a single one. In fact I am rather annoyed by them. It seems to me that their only interest is to deliver their own self serving advertising. That not only offends me... as a consumer, I am really not interested in doing business with them. Let me tell you, this practice is so counter productive to the whole concept of why social network marketing has taken flight and become so popular in the first place. Think about it. The entrepreneur needs to slow down the pace and with a pre-determined set of objectives work a little smarter with their marketing efforts.

The buckshot approach:
In the zeal to satisfy the articles and webinares which tell us to get onboard with the lucrative marketing rewards that social networks offer; we as business people instinctively think to collect as many common and like minded people we can find and then inundate them with our own concept of “vital facts” hoping they have the time and fortitude to see what we see and will be excited to do business. Unfortunately these cold calls get lost within a ton of other spam like messages offering links as well. Be honest, do you even look at them in your own mailbox? How about the group pages? Do we think because the medium is free we can pepper spray our advertising messages in hopes of making a hit, without even offering anything valuable and viable other than how to make a fortune in a quick five minutes? What ever happened to “targeted” messages? Yes! I want to quit my business... the one I built by my own blood sweat and tears to take on a pyramid scheme and make a bundle in a flash! Is annoying our fellow friends and businessmen a cost effective way of getting the word out? Or is it a gross waste of time and effort, it also comes close to potentially earning a negative reputation? You be the judge.

There seems to be a lot of confusion gravitating around the numbers game and the concept of soliciting friends. The name of the game should not be an attempt to rack up the “people” points in numbers as much as it should be a focused effort to foster positive word of mouth prospects and networking partners for potential business alliances. We are talking about a quality issue as opposed to a quantity issue and that takes careful forethought , planning and time to pull together before you can reap rewards of a beneficial and mutual relationship. So let’s take a closer look at the concept of networking and see if we can dissect some good and viable strategies from it with which to apply in our social networking practices.

A Definition to live by:
In old school terms, networking has always been synonymous with developing and maintaining contacts and personal connections who might be helpful to you, and your enterprise. These contacts can be very useful in keeping you abreast of:
-upcoming opportunities,
-insights and opinions that can be valuable to make cost effective business decisions from,
-alliances for the purposes of cross promotion,
-expertise you can tap into,
-as well as a support network, and Lord knows we could all use a bit of support sometimes!

The fine art of networking:
It is about building relationships of trust. That requires contact, communication that is multi directional, considerable etiquette and a sense of give and take from both parties in order to make it work. As in all relationships nothing comes quick and easy. It has to be worked at by keeping up regular contact, listening as well as speaking, remembering to be polite and thanking people for their insights and help; as well as freely helping others when asked without expecting a return. Rapport is best built when you don’t need anything from whom you are interacting with. So stay in touch and foster conversations that are purely social. This not only helps you connect on a more human level, it will also builds a foundation of comradery where there is a willingness to put the heads together to advance both parties in their endeavors. Now you got each other’s back and potentially with a bit of creativity, you can dream up some cross promotional ideas that can benefit both, all the while offering the cost effective benefits of a joint venture. This all hinges on the fostering of a relationship. You have to take the time to get to know who you are dealing with in order to build the good will necessary to promote one another’s interests. Best of all it is TARGETED promotion. By networking, you are increasing the range of people who can hear about your business. By learning about other businesses, you are able to refer them to your clients who want something you can’t offer, and vise versa. Your clients won’t forget you for this, nor will your network partner, and we all know that word of mouth is the most powerful form advertising there is!

Fostering a strong and viable networking group may take a bit of time to build but it can be a major factor in business growth, it’s survivability is for the long run and is much more effective than the buckshot approach of unsolicited and untargeted spam messaging any day. Fewer people are going to be upset with you. I guarantee it!