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Promote YOUR Blog Day

By Mike Myatt, Chief Strategy Officer, N2growth


Today is promote your blog day 2012. Today is your day for fully authorized, gratuitous self-promotion of YOUR blog. For one day only, this is your chance to shamelessly plug your blog in the comments section below. I did this last year and thought I’d make it an annual event. It’s a fantastic way to help readers who share common interests find one another. So here’s how it works – In the comments section of this post include: Your name, blog name & description, link to your blog, RSS feed, your Twitter handle and any other relevant information you think would be of interest to other readers. I’ll approve all comments appropriate for our audience (G-rated only). If you participated last year, feel free to do so again. If you don’t have blog, but want to promote someone else’s blog that’s okay too.



 

Flattery and Manipulation

By Mike Myatt, Chief Strategy Officer, N2growth

The most common form of manipulation comes packaged in the form of flattery – it’s also the most dangerous. The veil of most “hidden” agendas are also typically cloaked in flattery. The insidious nature of flattery is that it becomes most powerful when it is served to those who thirst for it. Leaders who place their need for adoration and acclaim above serving the needs of others are high value targets for those who would abuse the misplaced trust given to them. If you take one thing away from this post it should be this – the power that comes with a leader’s ability to positively influence others is only trumped by the power given away as they are adversely influenced by others. In the text that follows I’ll share my thoughts on what has been the silent assassin of many a leader – flattery.



 

Is Your Message Relevant?

By Mike Myatt, Chief Strategy Officer, N2growth

When was the last time you bothered to read, watch, or listen to a message that wasn’t relevant to your needs? Great leaders understand the power, influence, and leverage created by relevant messaging. Put simply, relevant messages are engaging because they connect – they add value. Great (relevant) messages usually contain one or more of the following aspects: they are timely, informative, actionable, revealing, ground-breaking, inspirational, challenging, empathetic, truthful, cautionary, or even rebuking.  They have some sort of emotive, intellectual, or instructional appeal to the audience being addressed. No appeal equals no relevance. Perhaps more importantly, no relevance erodes influence (real or perceived).



 

Social Media for CEOs

By Mike Myatt, Chief Strategy Officer, N2growth

Nary a week passes where I don’t hear from a CEO who’s grappling with this social media conundrum: should I, or shouldn’t I? The inquiry usually goes something like this: “I’m interested in learning more about social media, but my board thinks it’s a bad idea, I don’t have any additional bandwidth, and I’m not even sure where to start…is social media really effective for CEOs?”  The discussion about whether or not CEOs should become more digitally accessible  is certainly not a new one, but in my humble opinion, it’s a tired one that should have ended long, long ago. In today’s post I’ll share my thoughts on why it’s time to put a fork in the social media debate…



 

The Lost Art of Brevity

By Mike Myatt, Chief Strategy Officer, N2growth

The Power of BrevityDo you ever grow weary of listening to the verbose, or reading the work of those that have issues with clear articulation? I certainly do…but fear not; the lost art of brevity is making a comeback. Those of you that know me have come to understand that I prefer to cut to the chase. I like to get to the root of an issue as quickly as possible. While I appreciate the great oratory skills of those who communicate using wonderful word pictures, or the academics who can wax eloquent while always using the best form of prose, I prefer my business communication to be quick and dirty. In the immortal words of Jack Webb: “The facts ma’am…just the facts.” In today’s post I’ll look at the benefits associated with the resurgence of brevity.



 

Brand Exposure

By Mike Myatt, Chief Strategy Officer, N2growth

Do you understand the difference between presence, visibility and overexposure? Have you figured out how to apply the laws of scarcity to brand management? If not, then this post is for you. While a brand without exposure is not much of a brand, I consistently find that brand exposure is an aspect of brand management that is all too often overlooked as a success metric. Whether you’re assessing the strength of a personal or corporate brand, finding the appropriate level of brand exposure is key to sustainable growth in brand equity. 



 

To Blog or Not to Blog?

By Mike Myatt, Chief Strategy Officer, N2growth

I think you’d be shocked at how many people still struggle with the “to blog or not to blog” dilemma. Most of you who have been following this blog know that I’ve been an a strong evangelist of social media, and perhaps even more so of blogging for several years now. So why is it that so many people still seem paralyzed when it comes to taking the plunge? Let’s look at the numbers…While the numbers vary depending on which source you believe, the total number of blogs on the Internet is generally thought to be in the range of 200 million blogs. By any category analysis or analytical standard blogging has obviously developed into a powerful communication medium. However the question remains, do the numbers in-and-of-themselves mean that blogging is right for everyone?



 

Social Media Responsibility

By Mike Myatt, Chief Strategy Officer, N2growth 

My wife pointed me to an LA Times story today that made me cringe…The article recounted how TV personality Bill Nye (“The Science Guy”) suddenly passed out while speaking at USC. While this caused a tense moment, he appears to be okay now. However what incensed me was how the crowd reacted. Witnesses noted the crowd did nothing, they did not come to his aid, and they were of no help to Bill whatsoever. But the audience was oh-so quick to grab their phones and tweet/IM/Facebook about what they were watching. Therein lies the problem – they were watching, not acting. In today’s post I’m going to explore responsibility as it relates to social media – the responsibility that comes with living in the real world vs. a perpetual state of virtual reality.



 

Best Leadership Blogs 2010

By Mike Myatt, Chief Strategy Officer, N2growth

I know we’re all a bit election weary, but I’d like to encourage you to consider casting one more vote this year. Kevin Eikenberry (@kevineikenberry) opened-up voting for The Best Leadership Blogs of 2010 yesterday, and the N2growth blog was one of 11 blogs nominated for the award. The winner will be the blog receiving the most votes (One vote per email address), and you can vote by clicking on the link above. I know all but one of the other nominees and would highly recommend any of them as a high quality source of leadership information. If you are a regular reader of this blog and feel it has added value to your growth and development as a leader I would greatly appreciate your vote. If you don’t cast a vote for this blog, please vote for one of the other nominees. If there is a blog you feel should have been nominated but wasn’t, please share that information in the comments below and I’ll pass it along to Kevin. I’m Mike Myatt and I approve this message…



 

20 Reasons Websites Fail

By Mike Myatt, Chief Strategy Officer, N2growth

For years now I have consistently received inquiries from CEOs who wonder why their web initiatives are falling short of reaching their objectives. Because most of these inquiries come from executives suffering from web maladies of a similar nature, I decided to put forth a list of what I consider to be the 20 most common website mistakes hindering success on the Internet. The sad part about the following list is that none of these typical mistakes are difficult to remedy, yet most offenders simply fail to correct the issues and wonder why their Internet presence isn’t producing the desired results… 



 
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