TJ MacDonald, E-Learning Specialist, Market Education Strategist and leading exponent of Marketplace Learning, talks about Learning, Technology and their strategic role in Business Development
Though written a few months ago my comments point to an excellent use of blogging by Mark Joyner of Simple-ology fame, in which he uses his blog posts to help people in his marketplace learn things that are good for his business.
Joyner cleverly takes his readers beyond ‘information’ to ‘action’ by offering his blogging course free to anyone prepared to spread the word for him in their own blog. I did. Many did. From personal blogs to a multitude of business blogs like Tshombe Brown’s “Coaching for Real Estate Agents“, people started talking.
As an indication of the viral nature of this form of communication, just consider how many people are blogging about blogging.
My interest in this relates to the different ways business people are using blogging to influence marketplace learning. However you view blogging for business, you are now, unlikely to be alone. Here is a handful of some of the latest views being expressed online:
Why corporate business blogs are important to your marketing strategy - It is becoming more and more important for corporations - as well as businesses of all sizes - to have a blog in today’s world where so many people own computers. But if your business has put off starting a blog for far too long, …
Boost Your Online Business With Effective Business Blogging - Statistically speaking, business blogging is the fastest growing form of online advertising, and the key is that there aren’t any catchy words to toss out, no copy and paste data entry to deal with, and no fees for competing with the …
The new rules of Business Blogs - Just came across this wonderful free E-book by Linas Simonis called “The new rules of Business Blogs“. This short and concise e-book explains how business owners and managers should act in blogosphere if they want to make maximum …
So, what do you think about the uses and benefits of business blogging? Go talk to your colleagues, write on your own blog, or click the comments button below and share your thoughts.
Not everyone has the resources to do a Star Trek trick and beam into a distant location as a walking-talking hologram that’s life-size, full-colour, three-dimensional version of themselves.
When Prince Charles addressed the World Future Energy Summit (as a hologram), he suggested a substitute. Globe trotting business people were challenged to make more use of teleconferencing or video-conferences.
If you don’t need the ‘live’ interaction of conferencing, then ‘beaming’ in one-way as a video-stream is an easier, low cost option.
With all the social-media sites like YouTube happily hosting video for you, your distribution costs can be ZERO! Not a cent!
Plus there’s a swag of production tools available for next-to-nothing (even free) that continue your cost savings. The embedded YouTube video above is one quick example of idea-to-broadcast in no-time flat.
When having your message up and out their is more important than agonising over production values, then do-it-youself video broadcasting is worth a shot.
There are however, situations when you should NEVER use free public services. And tons of tips to know when you do.
That’s just one of the reasons I’ve been asked to co-ordinate a practical learning workshop to:
help build digital leverage into the expertise of people who
educate, train or coach others as part of their business.
If you are interested, jump over to www.WEBuWIZ.com and shoot me your questions if you have any. You can ask them here, as a comment, if its easier.
Warning: When you get immersed in ways to use technology to expand the scope, range and impact of educational messages, it’s hard to stop babbling about 21st Century concepts like digital leverage, electronic delivery and virtual learning.
But how does it all fit in to the lives of ordinary people? Or celebrities? Or plain old-fashioned, fuddy-duddies? With that in mind I just have to say…
You gotta love technology! Odds on, that’s what all the critics of Charles, Prince of Wales, heir to the throne of England must be thinking at the moment.
Prince Charles is a hologram.
“Hooray!. Can we keep him that way?” they are asking. “When he waffles on too much with his loony ideas, or upsets too many people with his political insensitivity… “ (Or is that his father, Prince Phillip? Maybe there’s a hologram of him too?)
Back to those fantasies of the anti-Charles brigade… when you’ve just had enough, find the switch, remote-control button or whatever powers these things and poof! – or zzzzt! – or Just Silence! He’s gone. Vanished from before your very eyes.
Fortunately for Camilla, Princes William and Harry, and all the Charles fans round the world, holograms also have an ON switch, so he can also be brought alive in a flash.
This just happened at the World Future Energy Summit in Abu Dhabi.
Sky News has just been beaming images of holo-Charles to my TV while I had breakfast this morning. Please, don’t anyone ever try to serve me virtual muesli though. I’m far from ready for replicated food. But for communication, this virtual stuff is really cookin’!
Thanks to another bit of electronic wizardry, I finished off breakfast with a quick scan of the Telegraph (a UK newspaper, being read in Australia - get the picture? Obviously it’s the online edition, different format, but the news is the same.) Here’s what I read:
The Prince of Wales was beamed in Star Trek-style for his first appearance as a hologram when he delivered a powerful speech on the environment to the world’s leaders before vanishing into thin air.
We’re talking life-size, three-dimensional image of the Prince. Scary? Cute? Who cares? It was mighty effective – “powerful” they described it – and an excellent choice of medium to deliver his educational message. Because that is exactly what Charles is doing – educating! Helping people think. About things and in new ways that can have long lasting effect.
The people at this Future Energy get-together presumably have a keen interest in that nebulous thing called “effect-on-the-environment”. So wasn’t Charles only preaching to the converted? Maybe, if it had been a conventional address. But clever use of technology suddenly shifted audience learning opportunities into a new dimension. Even added new audiences.
Hoards of people have criticized Charles’ thinking on many issues in the past, but has that dampened his zeal for the things he fights for. You be the judge. My view is his latest speak-up is brilliant. In several senses of the word.
Let’s have the Telegraph pick up the story again.
The Prince was reluctant to attend the summit in person because the flights for him and his entourage would have generated an estimated 20 tons of carbon waste.
In comparison the hologram is thought to have left a carbon footprint equivalent to a lightbulb.
The hologram drew much surprise from the 2,500 delegates, most of whom had flown thousands of miles to discuss how to save carbon emissions.
Just for a moment ignore where you, personally, sit on the green debate.
Look at Charles’ message. Not just the words – the whole package.
The man’s a genius – or has one advising him. If so, I would love to get together one day (virtually, of course) and chat about the thinking that went into this presentation. It really is brilliant communication. More specifically…
This is brilliant educational communication
Although Charles’ message was important and its mode of delivery was clearly entertaining, I doubt that was the primary objective of the address.
My guess is Charles wants people to learn something from his presentation. In my book, (and I suspect His Royal Highness’s as well) that means acquiring new knowledge, skills or attitudes – that RESULTS in CHANGE! Most certainly, Charles’ message is educational. So what is he looking to change?
It’s often argued that electronically-assisted learning is better suited to facts than feelings. But, once again, “It ain’t necessarily so!” In this case, I believe any facts Charles uses are, like his choice of technology, aimed less at transferring knowledge and more at changing attitudes.
Let’s face it. Most of his audience probably already knew more about global warming issues than the high-ranking hologram addressing them. But how much did they actually ‘feel’ what they were at the Summit to discuss? Or was their interest more intellectual, commercial or political? My guess is – whatever their reasoning– they are ‘feeling’ it more now.
How many were squirming just slightly on their flight home, trying to calculate the impact of their frequent flyer miles, multiplied by 2500? And then, ashamedly, tried to stop comparing it with the light-weight, ‘like-a-lightbulb’, carbon-footprint left by Charles’ visit.
It was reported that ‘the hologram drew much surprise from the 2500 delegates’. Much surprise? Really? That sounds like classic British understatement to me.
Sure, appearance of the hologram may have been unexpected. But if it wasn’t accompanied by a rippling of Ah-Hah moments (even amongst the converted) as its – sorry Your Highness, YOUR message – the total, holistic message – beamed in to them, then some people were surely at the wrong Summit.
Part of the genius of this particular message is that, like a diamond, its brilliance has multiple faces.
Now, if for a moment my writing can resist being further influenced by mental images of the crown jewels, I will explain. Briefly.
If Charles had attended and spoken live, his exact same words would have conveyed a weaker message to a single audience. Some delegates may have even nodded off, like I have been known to do during an ‘important’ speech. (If you are going to try that yourself, do not snore. Or you may forever remember, not the speech, but the incredible force a young daughter can deliver through her elbow.)
Thanks to an astute appreciation of technology, a potentially forgettable speech is unleashed with a tiger in its tank. Suddenly, it’s got power.
I must be on a hobby-horse. I’m getting carried away. Didn’t I just say I’d explain – briefly? (Perhaps I meant “in a moment”. As in “be there in a moment”. When has that ever been related to time?)
A big part of that power is derived from the technology, its efficiency and the leverage it generates. Put simply, a few itty-bitty electrons turns a little bit of input into a big amount of output. And transforms it from local event to global reach - in a flash!
Need an explanation of this power-boost?
OK. Here goes…
For starters, Charles’ message has transformed from a short, local speech. (6 minutes I believe – must be a record for a dignitary.) It is now a sophisticated communication that has multi-messages, multi-audiences and multi-purposes.
Multi-purposing is a strong feature of electronic media but I promised to be brief so I’d better start leaving stuff out. So let’s look at just the first two areas of leverage: message and audience.
First, let’s make something clear. By multi-messaging, I’m certainly not inferring Charles is sending mixed-messages. He may have done some of that in his time but definitely not here.
Far from being confused he has cleverly presented multiple messages in one. It’s cleverly leveraged to now mean something to multiple audiences. He has:
• One message to the delegates (as discussed above),
• Other messages for the global business community (e.g. if you can’t reduce jet fuel emissions by going holographic, try teleconferences or video-conferences).
• And a personal message to his detractors (maybe Charles is not such a dill).
Six minutes. Three messages. Three distinct audiences.
And that’s not to mention the extra mileage his message(s) get when the world starts talking about them. (Ahh! I knew there was a reason I couldn’t brief.)
Now that’s leverage!
Where did this extra power come from? I referred earlier to ‘an astute appreciation of technology’. I should have said – an astute appreciation AND USE of technology.
But even that is not quite explicit enough to be the right answer (although it is implied in ‘astute’). Earlier in this discussion I commented on the appropriateness of Charles’ choice of medium to delivery his educational message. If you recall, I was impressed how the medium was at much part of the message as were his words.
It’s time to jump back to that point because now, finally, I’m getting to the point of all this. So, briefly…
Does technology make an educational message more powerful? Uh-uh! It ain’t necessarily so!
If you want to see power unleashed in your message, make sure you couple that message with APPROPRIATE technology. That’s worth repeating.
If you are using technology to give digital leverage to your educational message, your success depends not just on technology you select, but on how appropriate it is to your purpose.
Take a lesson from Prince Charles and his hologram. I salute them both.
When it comes to using technology for educational messages, Charles is already the King.
TJ MacDonald
PS If you’re a fan of Prince Charles (or critic looking for an off-button) – or just love your technology, have a peek at holo-Charles, here:
Let’s have a specific example of electronically-assisted learning in process. Even better - one that illustrates its power for commercial advancement.
Blogging is a great place to start, particularly given how easily it teams up with humble emails.
Marketing maestro Mark Joyner created a behavioural philosophy he named Simple-ology, the simple science of getting what you want. It’s rapidly grown into a global community of performancy oriented people who are learning and applying Mark’s concepts for their personal, business and financial growth. All supported online with practical, fun and easy-to-follow courses. Surprisingly, the most important one is free. (You will find more on it at http://learn.simpleology.com).
Blogging has been part of Simplology’s growth, which is closely tied to clever leadership of Marketplace Learning. Specifically, Mark has strategically set about helping people in his market learn beneficial things about themselves, their behaviour, his constructs and his solutions to create change in their lives.
He certainly told a lot of people about Simplology via email, and they told a lot more people.
A big part of the explosion was through a more formal process - offering a free multimedia course that gets people understanding and using his principles.
Structured cources delivered online are just one way of helping your market learn what they need to form a business relationship with you. Mark also knows the value of blogs for helping others understand what you’re doing, where you’re coming from and what you can do for them too. All pretty good stuff for preparing the way for trusting, enduring relationships with his audience.
So not surprisingly, Mark Joyner has a Simpleology blog. And with his commitment to helping other people learn things that can benefit them too, he’s just released a new multimedia course on, you guessed it… Blogging!
And he’s using blogging to help spread the word. Is it working? Well, you’re reading about it on my blog aren’t you? And if you’d just received the email I did about another blog that subsequently caught my interest (at www.CoachingforRealEstateAgents.com) then you might have seen another blogger write:
Do you have a blog?
It’s seems to be a near-necessity these days in personal marketing. It’s a way to give value (in the form of education) to your clients and potential clients, as well as give them the opportunity to get to know you as person, rather than simply as your title.
Isn’t influencing a person to know, trust, and like you at the core of whether or not they ultimately do business with you?
If you do have a blog, is it effective? How are you measuring its effectiveness?
Whether you have a blog or not, you’re in luck.
One of the world’s biggest names in Internet Marketing, Mark Joyner (known for his Simpleology course, among other things), is offering his new how-to-blog course for free.
The kicker is that to get my hands on it, I’m supposed to post the following copy right here on this blog that you are now reading — which, by the way, is a excellent example of free viral marketing.
My advice? Take note, Listen, and Learn!
Here’s that copy (which itself is a good piece of compelling copywriting):
I started out thinking it would be helpful for readers to have a definition of e-learning. I listed some definitions currently being used then I condemn some of them as “rubbish” that “stifle opportunities for profitable learning”. Was there a reason, or had I just breakfasted on grumpy-beans?
My criticism is not so much with inaccuracy of the alternative definitions of e-learning as with blinkered views that are too tightly focussed to embue e-learning with the exciting scope and potential that is evolving - especially for the business community.
One of the things I really push is the value of e-learning as a commercial tool to profitably shape marketplace learning. However, writing about e-learning if a reader doesn’t understand the term, is a little like talking about lollipops to a kid who’s never seen a candy store. I do hope that’s not you.
I’m getting people ask for an explanation - some just plain-and-simple don’t know the term. Its totally foreign to them. That’s OK - it is one of those terms ‘initiates’ use more freely than you hear in general usage.
Then there’s others who have widely different perceptions of what e-learning means. (There’s a bit of deja vu here. I seem to have talked about the same thing in an earlier post about the meaning of ‘marketing’.)
I have my own (hopefully) easy-to-understand definition of e-learning, but before I share that with you let me share the results of a Google search to find… Read the rest of this entry »
Anyone incorporating e-learning in their business development strategy has a large arsenal of tested weapons to select from. I referred to the scope of this selection when defining e-learning in an earlier article.
Start making a list of those choices and you’ll see what I mean. Here’s a rough list I started preparing for an upcoming presentation via live webinar.Read the rest of this entry »
It’s time to start talking about e-learning and its value to marketplace learning. So far I have been hammering the importance of doing things that help put a positive skew on marketplace learning. The emphasis has been on the concept of taking action to influence what is known, thought and done by people in your marketplace that will be of benefit to your business.
Traditionally, in commercial situations this has been done directly between people in good old face-to-face mode. Then sending messages through the post broadened market territories, as did other print and broadcast media that followed.
Your market is your source of income. But how well do you manage it?
In a broad sense, a market as a body of existing or potential buyers for specific goods or services. In other words it is a group of people or other entities that possibly want to buy your product.
Every business has one or more markets with which it intends doing business. The individual members of the market are not necessarily customers or clients of your business. In fact, it is highly unlikely that they all will be at any one time. After all, how often do you hear of a business that can honestly claim to have 100% market share. Even in a monopoly situation where there are no direct competitors some members of your defined market may still be drifting to indirect competition. They may opt out of the solution you can provide, choosing instead to modify their need.
So “your market” is more a potentiality, rather than a reality. Just like Schroedeger’s cat, it requires your involvement to bring it (or, more likely, part of it) into your reality. Read the rest of this entry »
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You gotta love technology! Odds on, that’s what all the critics of Charles, Prince of Wales, heir to the throne of England must be thinking at the moment. 
