It started with one person who spoke out against automated photo enforcement. Then another person, then more people, then groups of people, then their friends, then many. Eventually it has spread amongst an entire community (and has evolved to a community itself). What is “it?” I’ll explain. Continue reading “The Showdown at Redflex (or How the Power of One Makes the Power of Many)”
Anyone who knows me hears my frequent criticisms of Microsoft Outlook. (Or at least the thunder from my fist pounding my desk.) Trust me, I got the proof and experience and can reproduce every single Outlook frustration on demand. That said, I have been on the crusade in the past year or two to properly use Outlook and acquiece to the pains of it and utilize it for its benefits.
The problem though in my adoption of Outlook is the horriblyslow performance that comes with it. Sure, it comes with a calendar, some RSS features and a ribbon UI … but it doesn’t mean anything if it hangs with every few messages or every time you perform a search for a distant email.
In the video above I explain the problem and the solution to Outlook 2007 hanging and freezing. It was amazing the results this one setting delivers. Outlook opens in about 25 seconds compared to the 4 minutes previous. Outlook also performs lightning-fast server-side searches without hanging. It’s a live example of my email at work, so product placement isn’t completely intentional, it’s just where I am connected to Exchange internally.
Compressing my PST or OST or whatever didn’t help much, but that would probably be an ideal solution if you use POP email. Many tutorials advise against unchecking the Cached-Exchange Mode setting as it is more network and server intensive. Given the advice our IT guys upgraded the mail server to newer hardware was the green light to put it through its paces and try it.
I only came about this feature after our IT guy suggested it to me one Friday afternoon. As a Microsoft proponent, he explained the benefits this does and showed me an example of it working with someone who receives the most email in the company — our director of finance. Still reluctant, I went over and asked him if he could show me how fast it worked and from that moment on, I was hooked. Changing the setting took about 30 seconds, closing and rebooting took about 3 minutes and everything after that has been very speedy in Outlook.
Again, two years of Outlook hell solved by this one simple setting. Who knew? Thank you Microsoft. (Sarcasm.) I hope this helps you if you wanted to ever find out how to speed up outlook or to stop it from freezing. Let me know if this helps.
I don’t intend to steal Gangplank’s thunder or Derek Neighbors‘ passionate discussions on collaboration versus competition – but I want to add some perspective to this. As the guy who listens to the industry and what other customers are saying and how other companies behave (directly or indirectly), I see a lot of in-fighting. It’s getting tiresome and ugly for people to watch.
Enough fluff. (Time for examples.)
I see the email marketing industry as a whole consuming itself with damaging claims:
“This one has better deliverability.”
“This one has more users.”
“This one has way more people recommending it.”
[Etc.]
In these examples, it makes people focused on one brand, one carrier and not the feature-set as a whole. What I’m saying is, consumers focus on the competitive claims of one email service over another without actually considering the concept or strategic benefits of that service.
It’s not the consumer’s fault. It isn’t.
It’s the company for not acknowledging to customers the right service at the right time. This is advocacy. This is honesty. This is valuing your prospects’ interests over your own.
The other day, I advised someone to get started with Constant Contact or AWeber instead of using my company. I have no shame in that because for someone who was merely starting out, we’d be overkill. However, I do support the notion that every company has its time for customers. A progression path, you might say.
For any company – B2C or B2B - there is always a progression path for people to graduate into. Knowing where you fall in that progression path is way stronger than simply competing for total market share.
I like competition. Believe me, AT&T and the iPhone taught me better on why competition and quality of service matter. Competition on hard, concrete features — not fluff or commercials — is what matters. Supporting industry peers despite inferior differences is key to growing relationships and trust.
In case anyone wonders why I recommend different company to different people, it’s because I can’t help but respect them for their strengths and be honest and upfront with what you need. I’d much rather you use the right service at the right time then graduate to our service instead of going through a rocky road with our service and defaulting to a lesser service.
You really can’t be everywhere all the time. Yes, I know there’s ping.fm, Facebook to Twitter and recursively, Twitter to Facebook plugins. The hard truth for many businesses is they can’t be everywhere all the time. This concept has helped me at least support several large communities and I thought I’d share it with you.
Often, many small businesses and entrepreneurs ask me about “How do I make a Facebook Group” … “Hubpage?” … “Twitter Lists?” … “Squidoo Lens?” … etc. You get the idea – basically these users want to systematically dominate (or claim) a piece of internet territory. Before I get too deep with my metaphors, I want to make clear that setting up these outposts on your business or brand takes time and effort.
Ok, let’s get creative.
Let’s assume each online property takes time to setup, we’ll call that building time. Simple, eh?
Well, now you need to update each property – based purely on time – we’ll call that rent.
Then, you need to keep up on the properties – changing the carpet, cleaning it, putting a new coat of paint on the exterior. That’s just “upkeep”
And then you know what, the land the house is on changes their financial terms without your full support. Let’s call that “taxes.”
With all this in mind, do you really want to have your business on several up to hundreds of sites that you don’t control yet invest the effort? Sure, you’ll get a bunch of sites loaded up in Google. Maybe even a few backlinks. But what good does that do when you’re never actually at the properties.
My suggestion is to accept that you can’t scale yourself to be everywhere at the same time.
Spread yourself amongst a few significant properties that you feel welcome, contribute to others and even can proudly call home. For many, Facebook or Twitter are their homes. That’s fine. There’s nothing wrong with that. I’d rather build one or two “homes” on the Web than hundreds of shitty ones.
It’s OK that you can’t be everywhere all the time, either. Prioritize your commitments to the most important, most valuable places and contribute yourself accordingly. Some places really don’t require much time. Other online properties require significant efforts. It just depends on your audience and what it requires of you.
That’s enough rambling out of me tonight. Apply yourself to only the most important, valuable communities; provide value for others and don’t be afraid of saying no to acquiring many online properties. It’s not worth it — it’ll consume you.
