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Written by Matthew J. De Reno Friday, 20 April 2012 02:44
The Pros and Cons of Serious Lego Play, Team Building, and How To Deal With Insufferable Cynics
Recently I participated in a "Strategic Lego Play" team building exercise at an engineering retreat. Strategic Lego Play (a/k/a, LEGO SERIOUS PLAY, the trademarked name of the activity by the LEGO company) is a team building activity whereby groups are given piles of Legos to build models that conceptualize certain ideal engineering and management principles. For example: with a given pile of Legos, we were tasked with building a model of what an efficient management process would look like to us. I suppose the challenge is you have finite resources, limited time, a team you must work with, and a goal to do something. I'll buy that.
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Couldn't we simply do this exercise, however, with anything that happened to be in our immediate area? Couldn't we gather a pile of sticks and figure out how to make something? What about random items found in the nearest trash can? I am wondering now - and you are probably too - if I am simply too cynical to get value out of strategic Lego play? And, when did I become the insufferable cynic when it comes to these team building type of activities? How do you deal with people like me?
The good sport in me says "Oh, strategic Lego play is a different kind of team building exercise." The cynic in me says, "This is a game for Kindergarten age kids. "
Read more: Strategic Lego Play, Team Building, And How To Deal With Insufferable Cynics
Written by Matthew J. De Reno Wednesday, 04 April 2012 20:04
Where Patch.com Went Wrong with Hyperlocal
Patch.com (owned by AOL.com - yes, of 1980s Internet fame) set out to do something ambitious: become the national media leader on delivering profitable hyperlocal news coverage. By all indications, it does not look like that ambition will bare fruit. I am not celebrating that fact, but traditional media will likely smile.
What Is Hyperlocal?
Hyperlocal describes websites that focus on very specialized topics of interest only to people in a very limited geographic area. Typically, school board meetings, restaurants, community group meetings, and garage sales are big news makers for hyperlocal websites.
To carry out its ambitious plan, Patch systematically launched hundreds of hyperlocal websites, each with a full-time editor, sales person, and a network of listings contractors, and what have you. The idea was to provide coverage of the so-called lesser served suburban communities, which typically are made up of attractive market demographics.
Written by Matthew J. De Reno Tuesday, 20 March 2012 07:27
The Pros and Cons of Free or Low-cost Websites For Your Small Business?
Many small business owners who are just getting started in the online world of websites for their small business (and believe me there are more of you than you think), have probably come across very cheap and free website options. This article aims to examine the pros and cons of low-cost, free website solutions for your small business.
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Read more: The Pros and Cons of Free or Low-cost Websites For Your Small Business?
Written by Matthew J. De Reno Wednesday, 07 March 2012 10:44
Think Like A Hub To Grow Your Small Business Website
According to latest trends, index search appears to be going down whereas "app search" - as in mobile app stores - appears to loom as an emerging, ultra-competitive Internet marketplace. It would further appear that more and more Internet surfers are relying on trusted brand awareness sites, which serve as marketplaces for well known products. This possible shift in the search marketplace could be the power of hub centrality at work: the bigger a hub gets, the more links it tends to attract.
Google should take notice because the power of hubs just might be the reason that Google someday looses its own preeminence in the search marketplace. You, as a small business owner, should take notice, because the principle of hub centrality can work for you or against you in very powerful ways.
Hub centrality is a network phenomenon that is not merely a property of dominant websites but most things that exist in everyday life. The people with the most friends, tend to attract more friends much easier than those that didn't have many to begin with. So what does this mean for your small business website?
You can leverage the principle of hub centrality to great advantage. At the very least, you should be educated about how it affects you.
Case in point: a key component of the Google search formula is that inbound links are super important. How many people link to you, increases your value in Google's eyes, which by virtue places a great value on the principle of hub centrality. Google, then, is in the business of creating and promoting hubs. As hard as it is to fathom today, if Google doesn't innovate and try other things, they will likely give way to even a greater hub than itself.
Read more: Think Like A Hub To Grow Your Small Business Website
Written by Matthew J. De Reno Tuesday, 07 February 2012 16:38
Ask Not What Your Website Can Do For You — Ask What You Can Do For Your Website!
For the small business owner, the days of throwing up a website and watching your brick-and-mortar business prosper simply because you happen to have a website are long gone. So what should you be doing to make your small business website a tool that can grow your business? This article aims to address that and the following:
- What should my website be doing for my small business?
- How will my website generate business for me?
- How should I market my website?
- What should I be doing with my website?
Read more: Ask Not What Your Website Can Do For You — Ask What You Can Do For Your Website
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