By Paul Krupin, Publicist for Scott Ginsberg

Most authors pontificate about how many publishers and agents rejected them before they made it big.

Ten years ago, Scott Ginsberg hired himself. Since then, he’s written and published thirteen internationally recognized books that have made money, made a career and made a difference. And the best part is, he hasn’t been rejected – even once.

“Why torture ourselves listening to voices that don’t matter when we could be executing work that does? Seems to me, the best way to bring home the bacon is to raise our own pigs. That way, when we’re hungry, all we have to do is grab a knife and go outside.”

Impatient by nature, Scott’s is attempting to garner the official Guinness world record by a single author officially releasing eight books on one day (depicted above).

It’s a global message about the state of the publishing industry and a thank you in perpetuity to the audience that has supported, shaped and stuck with him over the past decade.

Here are six lessons Ginsberg has learned in ten years of publishing:

1. Digital isn’t the future – it’s the present.“Books aren’t going away, paper is,” writes Ginsberg on his award-winning blog. “Which sucks, since I love the smell of books. But I write faster than I can print. And now, thanks to digital, that velocity can convert into value for my readers.” That’s the state of the industry, Scott says. With the infinite shelf space of the web, with the major publishers approaching irrelevancy, with the long tail knocking down barriers to entry, with behemoth retailers like Borders going bankrupt, with zero printing and shipping costs, and with minimal design and setup costs, digital is here to stay. “Never again do writers have to wonder: Who’s going to let me? Now the only question that matters is: Who’s going to stop me? And the answer is, nobody.”
    
2. Volume is the vehicle to value. “Some authors are good writers,” Ginsberg tweets, “but most are just good businesspeople riding the wave of past literary glory.” For Scott, his enterprise is all about ubiquity. And after a decade of writing, publishing, performing and consulting, here’s what he discovered: Volume trumps accuracy. It doesn’t matter if you’re right; it matters if you’re everywhere. Volume trumps knowledge.It doesn’t matter if you know what you’re doing; it matters if you’re doing a ton of it.Volume trumps popularity. It doesn’t matter if the world likes you; it matters if your audience loves you.And volume trumps influence. It doesn’t matter if you’re persuasive; it matters if you’re pervasive. “Some people have babies, I have books,” laughs Scott, “they’re not as fun to make, but certainly less expensive.”
    
3. Mainstream is lamestream. “Instead of buying tickets for the starving artist lottery, I just went out and created market for what I love,” Ginsberg shared on a recent podcast interview. “The hard part was divorcing my ego from the illusion that market size matters. It doesn’t. If size mattered, the dinosaurs would still be around.” In order to win the publishing game, Scott encourages us to change the game, change the rules of the game, or create our own game so there are no rules. That way, by learning which of the mainstream hoops aren’t worth jumping through, it’s easier to forge ahead without stopping. “Artists like Henry Rollins, Radiohead, Trent Reznor, Seth Godin and Kevin Smith have been doing this for years,” Ginsberg notes, “And those heroes taught me that we can’t sit back and wait for some invisible jury to stamp our creative passport and tell us our art is okay. We ship our work to express ourselves and please our audience. Everybody else can go to hell.”
    
4. Access doesn’t lead to the value – access is the value.“It’s impossible for writers to matter in a void. If we want to win, we need an audience. Otherwise we’re just winking in the dark,” Ginsberg tells graduate students during a campus seminar at Xavier University.Fortunately, our work is no longer limited to living in one place, he says. Thanks to the web, access is the new currency. Thanks to the web, we can reach anyone, anytime, anywhere. Artists who used to be chained to a single gallery now have multiple entry points to their marketplace. Businesses whose sole distribution used to be limited to a few channels now have the advantage of infinite digital shelf space. Foundations whose financial support used to flow from a few wealthy donors now have access to social microfunding worldwide. Access doesn’t lead to the value – access is the value.“When we run into the corners, nooks and crannies, make something we love for the people who love us, focus our time on creating brilliant work that speaks to people in a way they have never been spoken to before, we change everything,” Ginsberg says.
    
5. Where have all the original ideas gone? Everything that comes out seems to be a sequel, a prequel, a remake, a revisit, a reboot or a reinterpretation of another artist’s work. “That’s fine if we want to ship easy, predictable safe work that appeases our corporate masters and their incessant pressure to create fail proof work,” Ginsberg tells the viewers of his online television network, NametagTV. “But there are no cover bands in the rock and roll hall of fame.We need to make our own music and walk a new path. Not an old path in a new way. Not some supposed new path that’s really just a nicely packaged book report of a bunch of old paths. Something new. Something scary. Something people don’t even have a name for.” And this stuff is possible because it’s always been possible, he explains. As long as we’re willing to cede permission, risk our face and step across the lines of artistic safety – at the risk of getting a few black eyes – originality can happen. “If we think there’s nothing new under the sun, remember that the sun is eight hundred and sixty four thousand miles in diameter. If we can’t find something new under it, we’re not looking hard enough.”
    
6. Build a strategy to leverage free.The greatest barrier to success as an artist isn’t incompetence – it’s anonymity. For that reason, Ginsberg recently gave away all of his previous books for free, no strings, forever.“It was a tough call to make, but I’d rather be heard than paid. Besides, my entire career as a writer, publisher, performer and consultant has flourished on the power of giving myself away.Considering the current expectation of the marketplace, whycharge customers for a digital cow they’re already milking for free?” He knows it’s a bold move, but by leading with this gift, he believes his new work will bediscovered, attract attention, spread and then lead to some portion of the masses actually buying his other products and services. “We can’t set art off in a corner,” Ginsberg says, “Without a collision between our work and the outside world, we’re the tree in the forest that nobody hears.The upside of exposure is everything, and I’d rather be risky and everywhere than safe and invisible.”

Scott Ginsberg has been internationally recognized as "The World's Expert On Nametags" and "The Authority on Approachability." As the only person in the world who’s made an entire career out of wearing a nametag 24-7 (since November 2000), Scott advises companies worldwide on how to leverage approachability into profitability.  In 2007, Alexa and Technorati voted Hello, My name is Blog! As a “Top 100 Business Blog on the Web.”

He's frequently interviewed by various online, print, radio and TV media for his unique expertise. He has been featured in hundreds of media outlets such as 20/20, CNN, USA Today, The Wall Street Journal, The Associated Press, Fast Company, Cosmopolitan, The Washington Post, Paul Harvey, The CBS Early Show and Headline News. The St. Louis Small Business monthly voted Scott as one of the “Top Young Entrepreneurs of the Year”. He also wrote “The Quiz on Approachability” for Cosmo Magazine.

He lives in New York City, NY.

Ginsberg’s eight new books, published through his company, HELLO, my name is Scott, are now available for sales on Amazon.com.

For more information visit www.hellomynameisscott.com 

By: Deborah Sweeney, CEO of MyCorporation

The first step in modernizing the United States Postal service has been taken. The Senate has passed a bill that would downsize the postal force by 100,000 workers, mainly through early retirement and buyout offers for affected employees. While it still needs to go through the House, it does give us a glimpse as to what the final USPS downsize will look like. Processing centers will be closed, rates will continue rising, and five-day delivery, a change the USPS has been clamoring for, will likely be implemented.

            And, for the thousands of businesses that use direct mailing to contact their customers, this news is pretty grim. Business owners have already been hurt by the recession, and any change to how the postal system works, and what it charges, will hurt their bottom line. Luckily, there are a few things small business owners can do to prepare for the USPS’s impending downsize.

Communicate online as much as possible

            Direct mailings have been an advertising staple for decades, but the cost of mailing these little bits of paper could begin to outweigh the business they generate. Business should modernize in this field anyway – most flyers and physical letters are tossed in the bin the minute they’re received. We aren’t reaching anyone AND we are paying out the nose for postage.

            I’ve tried to focus on social communication instead of direct mailing. All it costs is a bit of my time, and it enables better engagement than physical mailings – customers can log onto Facebook or Twitter, shoot their questions over to my company’s online profiles, and get a quick, personalized answer. As of March 2012, over 80% of US households have internet access according to the Office for National Statistics, so reaching your target market online is not an issue. So cut the letters, save on postage, and engage with your customers!

Be ready to change your billing schedule

There are plenty of businesses that still send out physical invoices and bills to their customers, and Saturday delivery has meant they could expect these bills to get to their destination at a certain time. Once five-day delivery is implemented, your billing schedule will have to change. I should also mention that Saturday service might not be cut – the Senate’s version of the bill would allow six-day delivery to continue for the next two years, and the USPS would only be able to cut Saturday if they could prove it was seriously harming their finances. But the USPS is lobbying heavily for five-day delivery, and the House will be more willing to make any and all cuts.

My advice is to prepare for the demise of Saturday delivery sooner, rather than later. If you inform your customers of the change in billing schedules and ease them into it, you’ll encounter less resistance. And you’ll be able to test out your new schedule and iron out any kinks while still being able to fall back on Saturday deliveries. Of course, the best thing you can do is to modernize your billing and give some sort of incentive for your customers to pay their invoices online. But if that isn’t in the cards yet, you can at least begin preparing for the inevitable.

Avoid shipping physical documents when possible

            Granted, this tip is a little obvious but a lot of firms I talk to don’t realize they no longer have to ship physical copies of certain documents. My company used to be bogged down in postage and forms that needed a physical signature before they were processed. But twelve years ago the Uniform Electronic Transactions Act was proposed and, since then, 47 states have adopted it, giving the same legal recognition to electronic signatures as is given to physical ones. As of 2009, the remaining four states also officially began recognizing e-signatures, despite not adopting the UETA into their own law. This is a huge win for businesses and drastically reduces the need for mailing, but I still hear about companies that mail out every, single document they need signed. If you are one of them, look into what the law is in your state of business and see if you can make the switchover.

            The downsizing of the United States Postal Service will impact small business owners, but if companies begin to modernize now, they will easily survive the transition. Try moving certain aspects of how you run your business online, and test how accommodating changes in the USPS will affect you once those changes are made law. The trick is just to get these changes figured out and implemented as early as possible, so you aren’t stuck with a broken system without any time to fix it.

Deborah Sweeney is the CEO of MyCorporation, an online filing services company that specializes in incorporations and LLCs. Find her online at mycorporation.com and on Twitter @deborahsweeneyand @mycorporation

By Daryl Reva, Senior product and channel marketing manager, Fonality

It’s no secret that small and mid-size businesses (SMBs) are the backbone of the U.S. economy. These companies serve a vital role in employing millions of Americans across a spectrum of industries. Contrary to larger counterparts, SMBs are actually gaining momentum. In fact, the SMB space is the strongest growth sector for employment. According to the ADP National Employment Report released in Jan. 2012, small businesses (defined as 1-49 employees) added 95,000 new jobs and medium-sized business (50-499 employees) added 72,000 jobs. Compare those numbers to only 3,000 positions for large companies (499+ employees).

SMBs are clearly in growth mode, and assuming a role in the economy once reserved for industry giants. While it is clear jobs with SMBs are prevalent, what remains lacking are the tools and resources which enabled larger companies to be efficient, productive, and, most importantly, profitable. True, many SMBs don’t require the same sophisticated enterprise resource planning or customer relationship management (CRM) systems, but the need for tools, such as a reliable business communications solution, does transcend business size.

To offer world-class customer service and be as responsive as possible to the needs of clientele, an SMB’s communications solutions must offer more than basic interaction with standard dial tone. Because of the new economic role for SMBs, there is an increasing need to engage a wider variety of customers, partners and vendors. As such, a different mindset and the corresponding resources will be necessary to manage communications.

Understanding business needs

To ensure an SMB is getting the most out of its communications system, it’s important to determine business needs. If a company relies on multiple employees to conduct customer service or sales calls by utilizing the phone for the majority of a day, they are actually working in a contact center environment – albeit a scaled-down, “micro” version.

While contact centers, otherwise known as call centers, have typically been the purview of large enterprises with large budgets, virtually limitless resources, and hundreds or thousands of employees, times are changing. New technology has leveled the playing field so SMBs can benefit from the same rich contact center features without exorbitant expense.

The advent of cloud computing has made enterprise-class delivery of business communications solutions possible. Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) and Unified Communications (UC) systems can now be delivered through the cloud and made affordable for virtually any size business. Best of all, these solutions can be budgeted as a routine operational expense, rather than a large capital investment. A VoIP and UC deployment can replace antiquated legacy phone systems while offering far more advanced features.

While the cloud can seem like a nebulous concept, it quite simply means the delivery of computing power from a centralized location. Instead of a network of servers onsite, and the accompanying cost, cloud computing allows companies to utilize this processing power remotely. Further savings are generated because IT staff and/ or engineers aren’t required to manage the system.  Best of all, Fortune-500 grade VoIP, UC and contact center capabilities can be accessed without the cost or complexity – definitely a “win-win” scenario for SMBs.

New capabilities

VoIP and UC technology can deliver dynamic solutions to the micro contact center environment, combining virtually all communications methods into a single user interface. Users can utilize capabilities like “find me/follow me” which allows them to customize how they are contacted, and by whom. For instance, calls can be programmed to reach desktop phones and mobile phones simultaneously.

Basically, all communications channels (voice, messaging, video) are in one place. With UC, workers can communicate, and be communicated with, in the most efficient way possible. As a result, productivity can dramatically improve, benefitting the employee, customers and the organization as a whole.

From a management perspective, extensive contact center features can facilitate ongoing measurement and evaluation of a business and its employees. The number of calls per hour, duration, customer escalations, call recording, etc. can be easily tracked to determine high customer service levels. This information can then be used for improved training for a positive impact on customer care, which helps strengthen relationships. In addition, all of this interaction can be documented and fed into a cloud-based CRM application, like Salesforce.com or NetSuite, for even more actionable intelligence.

Technology Options

Cloud-based VoIP and UC resources can be accessed in two ways:

Hosted:
Basically, “plug and play.” By plugging directly into an Ethernet outlet, this mode of delivery doesn’t require any technical expertise to implement or scale. Adding extensions, features or services to the phone system can be as easy as the click of a mouse.

Hybrid-Hosted:
This approach combines a traditional, on-premise model with all of the advantages of a pure hosted play to offer the “best of both worlds.” It consists of the server and hardware residing onsite, with service, maintenance and configuration automatically transmitted from the cloud for ease of use.

New horizons

Powerful VoIP, UC and contact center capabilities were once cost prohibitive for SMBs. But, with such remarkable growth in the market segment, these tools and resources are essential to sustain growth, and are now obtainable. By leveraging the cloud in a hosted or hybrid-hosted manner, SMBs can enjoy the same communications tools as large companies to compete like never before.

Daryl Reva is senior product and channel marketing manager for Fonality, a pioneer in business communications delivering cloud-based, hybrid-hosted, on-premise and mobile solutions for small and mid-size businesses. www.fonality.com

by Erin Nelson

There is no right way to engage with social media. There are however, wrong ways … and plausible solutions. If you are a small or medium sized company, chances are you struggle within the existing (popular) social media sites. This is not entirely your fault. More often than not, it is the case that these sites were built for a purpose that does not align with your business intent. Facebook? This is to keep friends and we-hope-them-to-be-our-friends in constant contact. LinkedIn? That is a database to access company and personal information, used mainly in the cases of recruitment and backlinks. Twitter? This is a blast out mail system that turns information over at an extremelyhigh rate and measures success and failure according to the celebrity of the user.

The reality of these sites is that they were not built to engage businesses with the their potential clients, partners and collaborators. They do not exist to harbor meaningful knowledge or a foundation for lasting professional engagement. To use them alone for your social media business needs is certain to disappoint, as they (mostly) function as ineffective substitutes for what we actually need: thoughtful and creative material within a substantial platform, built specifically for building business relationships.

So where do you go from here?

Let’s first take a look at five, common social media mistakes companies make:

1.     Abstaining entirely

2.     Not emphasizing the importance of high-quality content

3.     Acting within the restraints of rigid convention

4.     Acting with resentment and/or fear

5.     Not diversifying your social media exposure

The first step to launching a successful social media campaign or structure is to have one in the first place. If you do not have a social media presence, chances are you will cease to exist to a wide array of potential consumers, clients and associates. The Internet Renaissance is here, so why are you living in the Dark Ages?

High-quality content is essential for creating an effective repertoire and following. Why would anyone – business or otherwise – care to be informed about the information you have to offer if it gives him or her no value or entertainment? Your goal should be to provide content that is relevant to the people your company serves. It should provide stimuli or knowledge that without your aid, they would have never been exposed.

Though relevance should not be ignored, avoid following rigid boundaries in your attempt to remain “focused” on your company services or product. If you sell household and yard products, don’t only share the latest deals in your store or link images to mundane products. Give your audience tips on how to remove that tough red wine stain from their white carpet, give them links on ways to redesign their backyard, and inform them of the latest news on solar energy. Do you think Coca-Cola and Bing only features product specials or services? Absolutely not, they communicate what they wish theircompany’s ethos to be, finding creative and entertaining ways to actualize their vision for their audience’s enjoyment.

It may take you awhile to build your following; you may feel in the meantime that your efforts are not being rewarded. This is not a reason to give up – and more importantly, it is not a reason to act afraid. Fear will only limit your creative approach; resentment will inhibit your desire to reach out to costumers, clients and collaborators. Be bold, and be brave. The worst that can happen is nothing (in less, of course, you are caught doing something illegal or outlandish on film), so loosen your bootstraps and try differentmethods until you find what works for you.

Now back to the platform problem.   

Many small and medium businesses owners and employees are under the impression that the largely overpopulated sites are the only place where they have the option to expand their social media presence. They are indeed a means to reach an expansive and diverse quantity of people (if these people can, in fact, be reached). Use them as tools by which to push meaningful content, however: be sure to includemore specialized networks in your social media agenda. Develop a company blog and find a content oriented article site by which to establish yourself as a leader within your industry. After all,once you have spent time concocting the right material for your social media agenda, you are going to want to display it somewhere where it can be found.

Happy Social Media Marketing.

About the Author:

Erin Nelson is the Communication & MarketingManager for the Berlin-based startup, exploreB2B. The new social platform, exploreB2B, allows individuals the opportunity to connect and collaborate with other professionals through reading and writing self-published articles.