How many mistakes have you made?
I’m sure you’ve learnt from them? – then why be worried to try new things?
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Bal’s Friday Thought…
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Everyone starts with zero
Saw a great quote from Gary Vaynerchuk the other day –
Now, if you don’t know Gary – I suggest you go and google him, watch some of his videos, check him out on social media. He’s a great guy – and he’s sharing some brilliant and very simple advice!
In fact, this is one of my favourite videos… (taken from his fan page!)
Now… there’s various folk whom I talk to, and they’ve either started their journey (this could be anything) or have always thought about it but never got going.
In this blog post- I’m going to focus on social media for a moment.
We all know the dividends that social media pays. It’s HUGE!!!!
If you, your business, your organisation – is not on social media, you’re missing out BIG TIME!
On top of that – you might be on it, but not using it effectively. Post now and again…. and then wonder, why you are not getting followers, why you are not getting engagement, why you are not growing!
It’s not all about you.
It’s all about others. The more you engage with others, the more others will engage with you!
Have a clear focus also. What is it you are using social media for?
Is it to gain more followers?
Is it to gain a following which you can interact with and therefore translate into profits?
Is it to increase awareness of your brand?
Like any good strategy, work out your Goals and Objectives and work accordingly.
I’ve been helping a number of folk out recently – and most recently, I took over the twitter account for a local charity.
We went from zero to 65 followers in a few weeks. The objective is to increase awareness and have more volunteers. This all links with the overall marketing strategy of the charity. More volunteers means more help which means more hands which results in more getting done in the same time (time is a variable that can’t be changed!)
And lastly… if you do want to learn more – I’ll be interviewing The Coopers, who’ll share a few secrets about their Instagram page!
They went from a couple of hundred followers to over 4,700 followers in a short space of time! All genuine followers – so what’s the secret?! – well… you can find out soon…. (by the way, if you can’t wait for my blog post with The Coopers, go follow them on Instagram – search for Coopers New Build)
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Just look here – thank you.
How many passwords do you have? I’m guessing, quite a few… you’ve probably got a few different ones as well – one for twitter, one for facebook, another one for your emails, and maybe a few more for all the other apps you got on your tablet or phone.
I’m guessing you probably struggle to remember them all as well?
Well – good news. You may not need to remember them all.
How’s that Bal?
Well.. if you’ve got a fairly modern phone, chances are you probably use your finger or face to unlock it.
It’s all called ‘biometrics’.
It’s going to be the way we ‘unlock’ things in the future.
In fact – it’s happening now!
But what is Biometrics? – Biometrics is the technical term for body measurements and calculations. It refers to metrics related to human characteristics. Biometrics authentication (or realistic authentication) is used in computer science as a form of identification and access control.
Is that the official statement, Bal?
Yes it is! – what is basically means is – when the camera looks at your finger or face, it takes a number of measurements and then saves these and destroys the original image.
These measurements and calculations are used every time you unlock something… Basically, the information (measurements) which are stored, can be accessed later for comparison with “live” information!
So by having these biometric data – you won’t need to remember passwords!
It’s happening more and more – where you can use your finger or face – to be recognized – and to make payments… may be we could use biometric data one day to vote!
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Bal’s Friday Thought…
Ever wondered how your life will pan out.
If you had to read a book about your life… how would it go? Would it be predictable or would it be adventurous?….
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Till free Sainsbury’s!
You may or may not remember – I spoke a while ago about how Sainsbury’s were working on an app – on which you can scan items and then pay for them!
Guess what – they’ve now got it across the Holborn Circus Store in London on a three month pilot!
That’s right – Sainsbury’s has launched the UK’s first till-free grocery store at the central London branch, which allows shoppers to pay with their phone and then walk out of the shop without going through a checkout.
Customers use the app to scan groceries as they walk round the store, bag them and then pay in the app, scanning a code to confirm payment.
Now, where have I heard about this concept before Bal?
Amazon are doing it…
For us Brits – especially at Sainsbury’s – more than 80% of payments were cashless (honestly, I thought it would’ve been higher!)
Now this pilot – involves a revamped store to cater for the ‘food to go’ people. Alcohol and tobacco have been removed because it takes ‘time’ – and by that, I mean ‘people time’ to verify the age of the person buying it. I’m sure in due course, there’ll be verification steps within the app to allow this… and maybe a shelf locked with a pin code to allow access.
So what’s the feedback?
A beaming lady declared the system “easy to use and a complete timesaver” – and the overall feedback has been positive.
Will we see more of this? – I believe so….
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Bal’s Friday Thought…
I’m often asked – Bal’s what’s your top tips for success, or what are the best things to do, to achieve and be the best.
Well, there’s a few – but for me, the below sums it up perfectly! – From the Master, Jackie Chan.
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I made a video…
… of my trip to Ikea!
That’s right – following on from my recent blog post about Ikea, I made a little video.
As previously mentioned, there’s a lot more to why we spend so long in Ikea…. be great to hear your thoughts.
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Clearing those emails…
Well, first and foremost – I hope you all had a great Easter break.
Now, I appreciate, I have many readers from around the World, and not everyone celebrates Easter – but I’m living in England and we do.
Whilst on the whole, it was thoroughly enjoyable with the hot weather… there was one small problem I found… .that I’d have a million emails when I log back in when I’m back at work.
Now… being honest, we’re never away from work – are we? – we’re always connected. Mobile phone in hand… we will receive notifications of when we get an email (Yes – I do turn my notifications off whilst I’m on ‘holiday’)
However – you do see the number next to the icon (if you’re on iOS) just increasing all the time.
But can we move away from Email… the answer is Yes!
How’s that Bal?
Well… some people are saying, that email is dead. Technically, and if you ask me – it’s not dead… but is dying.
Because we have so many other ways to communicate.
WhatsApp for example.
It’s quicker. It’s easier. You can have groups. You can send attachments….
There’s so much going for WhatsApp – that it makes a variable alternative.
But there’s not only WhatsApp – there’s other tools as well…. for example Slack.
I do like Slack. You can create channels – have people invited to collaborate on certain topics… share files (attachments), and do so much more.
Then there’s other tools based around projects, based around events, etc…
So that’s why, I think email is dying…. we haven’t got the attention span – well, I say we, it’s these young folk! – Millenials have an attention span of 12 seconds!
It’s even disappointing with the Gen Z…. 8 seconds.
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Bal’s Friday Thought…
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Buying something I don’t need…
On LinkedIn, Tuesday morning – Dean posted this…
It’s true- people do.
On Tuesday – I had the day off (I know, right? – I actually put an Out Of Office on and took a day off!) – so, Tuesday…I decided to go to Ikea.
Now, many of you who go Ikea – will know, doesn’t matter what you aim to do – if it’s just looking, or you’ve done your research and know exactly what you want, you’ll always end up buying something that you think later… do I really need it?
So why does Ikea do this? – (and this blog post idea was created by my friend Raj, who mentioned the below….)
Well… so during my visit on Tuesday, I did wonder, a) what will I end up buying and b) there must be some science behind it!
Now, before I even entered the store – I knew what I wanted. I knew the exact items, etc… however, yes – like most folk, somehow… I’d ended up at the cashier till with not only the items I wanted to buy originally but some other nice ‘additions’ in the basket.
Now… couple of reasons when I did some research and looked into this…
- Children – or shall I say, ‘children-less’. That’s right, Ikea have Smaland – a place where you can leave the kids to be entertained and you go off to enjoy Ikea without the nagging, shouting, fighting… and ultimately thinking ‘hope my kid doesn’t break that’.
- Windows – Now, I’d heard about this previously – but it is kind of true! – There aren’t many windows once you are in the realm of Ikea. This means, you are isolated some-what in the Ikea World, and have no idea what time it is (obviously you can check your watch)… clocks on the wall don’t tell the real time – so being honest, you can literally spend hours…and hours…. and hours….
- List – I always thought it’s very kind of Ikea to provide you with pencils and the measuring guide…. oh, and the paper list (to write down what you want). Yep – there’s science behind that, once you write down what you want or thinking to get – you’re kind of making a commitment to purchase it. You’ll only write things down you want – and if you’re in two minds – chances are, once you’re written it – it’ll be in the back of your car in no time.
- Mix – I love it, that I’ll be walking looking at beds, and all of a sudden… I see an extension cable. Why would I need an extension cable? – maybe because I can plug several things that need charging overnight near my bed? – oh look… this bed side table I was looking at, can store everything I want an on top, there’s space for my mobile phone… Do I have enough sockets… I think I should buy one to give me that flexibility. And there you go – there was a reason I picked up that blue/yellow bag at the front of the store – to pick up little items that might make my life easier.
I think I could write a book about this – in fact, I’m sure someone has already!
The other final note was – Ikea Family. Not clubcard, not Nectar points, not anything like that… not even loyalty card… but Ikea Family card. That’s right, You’re part of the family. And family support each other.
So, there you go… so much we can learn from Ikea to incorporate into our organisations, into our companies and places of work…
… and yes, I didn’t even mention the hot dogs. That’s a whole blog post on it’s own!