Open up your mind and say, ahh...

It’s not clear to me why business plans are the way they are, but they’re often misused to obfuscate, bore and show an ability to comply with expectations. If I want the real truth about a business and where it’s going, I’d rather see something else. I’d divide the modern business plan into five sections:

• Truth
• Assertions
• Alternatives
• People
• Money

The truth section describes the world as it is. Footnote if you want to, but tell me about the market you are entering, the needs that already exist, the competitors in your space, technology standards, the way others have succeeded and failed in the past. The more specific the better. The more ground knowledge the better. The more visceral the stories, the better. The point of this section is to be sure that you’re clear about the way you see the world, and that you and I agree on your assumptions. This section isn’t partisan, it takes no positions, it just states how things are.

Truth can take as long as you need to tell it. It can include spreadsheets, market share analysis and anything I need to know about how the world works.

The assertions section is your chance to describe how you’re going to change things. We will do X, and then Y will happen. We will build Z with this much money in this much time. We will present Q to the market and the market will respond by taking this action.

This is the heart of the modern business plan. The only reason to launch a project is to change something, and I want to know what you’re going to do and what impact it’s going to have.

Of course, this section will be incorrect. You will make assertions that won’t pan out. You’ll miss budgets and deadlines and sales. So the alternatives section tells me what you’ll do if that happens. How much flexibility does your product or team have? If your assertions don’t pan out, is it over?

The people section rightly highlights the key element… who is on your team, who is going to join your team. ‘Who’ doesn’t mean their resume, who means their attitudes and abilities and track record in shipping.

And the last section is all about money. How much do you need, how will you spend it, what does cash flow look like, P&Ls, balance sheets, margins and exit strategies.

Your local VC might not like this format, but I’m betting it will help your team think through the hard issues more clearly.

In celebration of National Small Business Week…

For entrepreneurs, business owners, investors, and consultants, one of the most exciting prospects of social media, lies in the ability to dramatically amplify your visibility and value proposition among existing and potential stakeholders. Social Media finally places small, local and emerging businesses in the spotlight in ways that up until this point, were largely unattainable.

New Media is rapidly shifting the landscape of how people find and share information and much of it isn’t just moving online, it’s connecting people in ways that weave a dedicated network of prospects and advocates within networks that invite your value-added participation. As a result, once scattered customer-bases are now unifying online as concentrated contextual markets, enabling the establishment of bridges and highways between businesses and prospects and ultimately creating new opportunities in the process.

Small Business is Anything But Small

When combined, small business and social media marketing is anything but small. As eMarketer recently noted, small business is doubling adoption of social networks and there’s very good reason for that. Need proof?

The University of Maryland’s Smith School of Business along with Network Solutions recently published its third wave of the Small Business Success Index (SBSI), a study that reveals the extent to which small businesses are embracing social media. The results are staggering and serve as a harbinger of new business dynamics.

Social media adoption among U.S. small businesses doubled in the past year from 12% to 24%. And that’s just the beginning.

61% of small business owners use social media to identify and attract new customers.

75% surveyed have a company page on a social networking site.

45% expect social media to be profitable in the next 12 months.

As part of the study, 500 small business owners shared their experience and expectations of social media. As we can see, creating a presence in social networks ranks at the top of the list, but that’s only the surface. We reveal more insight with each layer we peel back. Of those, 69% are posting updates within their network of choice, with just over half of all business owners focusing on the development of dedicated online communities and also listening to customer feedback.

- 75% reported having a company page on a social network, including LinkedIn or Facebook

- 69% actively post updates on social networks

- 57% are proactively building networks within sites such as LinkedIn or Facebook

-54% monitor customer feedback within social networks

- 39% host a blog to demonstrate expertise

- 26% Tweet about areas of expertise

- 16% use Twitter as a customer service channel

Source: Mashable

Social Media serves as a platform to identify, learn, and connect with customers and prospects along with those who influence their decisions. As in anything, you get out of it what you put into it. The study also examined how small business owners rated the performance of social media tactics against expectations.

At the top of the list, 73% of business owners anticipated that social networks would improve the ability to identify and attract new customers with 61% realizing success today. Of course, visibility is instrumental in earning a position within any cycle of evaluation and decision making and as such, 56% expected to increase awareness within target markets with 52% stating that their objective was met. Engagement is the key to everything and thus, I was surprised to see the numbers for both expectation and accomplishments at only 46% for customer engagement within social networks.

Identify and attract new customers
Expectations: 73%
Accomplishments: 61%

Develop a higher awareness of your organization within your target market
Expectations: 56%
Accomplishments: 52%

Stay engaged with current customers
Expectations: 46%
Accomplishments: 46%

Collaborate more effective externally, such as with suppliers, partners, and colleagues
Expectations: 34%
Accomplishments: 35%

Collaborate more effectively internally
Expectations: 26%
Accomplishments: 21%

Other
Expectations: 12%
Accomplishments: 9%

Monetization of social media is of course, at the top of the list for all business owners. They want to know that their efforts will pay off, sometimes trumping patience and strategy. Nearly 1/2 believe that social media will make money within the next 12 months and another 53% suggest that their investment in social is already breaking even.  Surprisingly, only 9% stated that social will lose money, but 22% reported that their engagement within social networks is already paying off.

Overall, 58% believe that social media has met their expectations. And, herein lies the true opportunity. As we all think about what we know in terms of social networks, we realize that possibilities and success are practically infinite and that learning and experience are practically equalized for everyone. Those who experiment and practice become the veterans in a new medium abundant with students and starved of teachers. That’s why this is such an incredible time.

This is your time to engage and become the expert you seek. By answering our own questions, we can participate in social networks in ways that boost visibility, attract customers, and empower a team of advocates to create new business opportunities, improved customer service, and also a more valuable service offering as tuned by our stakeholders.

By Brian Solis: www.briansolis.com

Image Credit: Shutterstock

LinkedIn is the de facto online social network for business types. The thing is, lots of people are “on there” but aren’t necessarily using it to the fullest. There are books out there about it, like I’m on LinkedIn–Now What??? (amazon affiliate link) and LinkedWorking: Generating Success on LinkedIn the Worlds Largest Professional Networking Website (amazon affiliate link). Some of what I’m about to say complements these books’ advice. Some of what I say is counter to the books, and/or might be against LinkedIn’s requested best practices. But here are the ways I’m using LinkedIn right now, and why I think it’s effective.

Status Update

I had no idea that people still used the status update in LinkedIn. Here’s what NOT to do: link Twitter to it. People don’t really want to read “@dogguy – Lol me too” on LinkedIn. Instead, craft business updates for business people over there. I’ve actually received two leads from status updates alone, so that’s already paid for itself as a tactic.

Link in Your Blog and Slideshare

At the very least, import your blog and your SlideShare accounts in there. And for extra bonus material, make one of the slideshare decks that you share something that’s both useful content and a lead generator for your business. I’ve found lots of value in that (six leads so far from a slide deck I uploaded a month ago or so).

Join Some Groups

Don’t immediately make a group. Join a few. There are some great groups in there. I’ve enjoyed them because it means I can connect with people in a forum area before linking to them. I also find myself hearing what’s on people’s minds so that I can adjust my own offerings and strategies accordingly. Finally, I can always offer some help. I’m spending maybe an hour in groups every three days. If I added more time to it, I might get more from it.

Answer Questions

We all kind of know this one, right? If you sit around inside questions and answer ones that relate to your business, you can get some business. You might also ask questions in such a way that your company/product/whatever is the answer to the question. I mean, people see through that quite often, but you’re always welcome to try.

Connect Frequently

This is where LinkedIn wishes I’d shut up. I have a different view than they do on connecting. I’ll connect with anyone. I don’t see much in the way of negativity to connecting via the service. I think that by my connecting with people, I’m opening up potential networks so that people can see and reach out to more like-minded people. I do sometimes turn down connection forwarding requests, because I have some very high profile connections who might not feel the way I do, but for the most part, I can’t see anything wrong with making the offer.

But Recommend Only People You Can Vouch For

Here’s the gold of LinkedIn. The reputation engine inside the referral system is where I think LinkedIn’s biggest untapped value hides. I only write recommendations for people that I can vouch for in a professional way. Sometimes, I’ve given recommendations for the perceived character of someone, but I don’t do that any more. Why? Because if I recommend someone and they’re not really worth it, then MY reputation drags down a bit, too, and I sure don’t need help doing that.

Here’s a great post with a LinkedIn Tip from my friend Mike Damphousse from GreenLeads.

Schedule Some Time

Go in there and look around for about 20-30 minutes every week to start. See what you see. Are there opportunities in there? Download your contacts as a spreadsheet and pore through them every now and again. See someone you should connect with? See someone you haven’t talked with in a while? Drop them a line. That’s the real meat of this. You can do lots once you get into a few really simple habits. But it requires you to schedule the time and go through with it.

Invite People

If you want to risk it a bit, invite people to join you on LinkedIn. Here, I’ll invite you to Connect with Me (use: linkedin @ chrisbrogan . com for my email). So far, that really hasn’t hurt me. I hope you have the same results.

And once you’re in THERE, is there somewhere you want to invite people that’s off-site? Now you’re thinking.

A Few Other Resources

See also Write Your LinkedIn Profile for the Future and Make Your LinkedIn Profile Work for You.

Chris Brogan: Use LinkedIn Effectively.

May 23, 2010 by Pete Cashmore

Zuckerberg has been criticized from some corners for a lack of communication on Facebook users’ privacy concerns, and a public comment from the CEO hasn’t been forthcoming. Today’s concession isn’t a public apology as such: Rather, Zuckerberg replied to a private email from tech enthusiast Robert Scoble, who then requested permission to reprint his response on his blog.

Zuckerberg’s reply has some merit to it: Facebook wants to respond to the dustup with a product fix. Rather than simply telling users what he intends to change, he’d rather go ahead and make that change.

Here’s Zuckerberg’s reply in full:

Hey,

We’ve been listening to all the feedback and have been trying to distill it down to the key things we need to improve. I’d like to show an improved product rather than just talk about things we might do.

We’re going to be ready to start talking about some of the new things we’ve built this week. I want to make sure we get this stuff right this time.

I know we’ve made a bunch of mistakes, but my hope at the end of this is that the service ends up in a better place and that people understand that our intentions are in the right place and we respond to the feedback from the people we serve.

I hope we’ll get a chance to catch up in person sometime this week. Let me know if you have any thoughts for me before then.

Mark

Except that this isn’t a model that typically fairs well in the PR and media worlds: To Facebook’s audience, it has seemed that Facebook either doesn’t know or doesn’t care about user concerns around privacy. If Facebook does indeed share user concerns and will soon make changes (as Mark explains), a very early mea culpa and increased communication with the press may have saved Facebook from a great deal of criticism.

In short: It’s great that Facebook is looking to improve its privacy settings, but explaining these moves earlier and more publicly may have been preferable.

We’ll have to wait and see whether Facebook’s updates calm tensions around the company’s privacy stance. My take: As important as the issue may seem right now, the privacy dustup will eventually blow over and Facebook will continue its relentless march to win the web.

Dallas Lawrence is Managing Director of Burson-Marsteller’s Proof Integrated Communications. He is a Mashable contributor on emerging media trends, online reputation management and digital issue advocacy. You can connect with him on Twitter @dallaslawrence.

The recent firestorm over Facebook’s approach to securing the privacy of its more than 450 million users continues to reverberate around the globe this week as thousands of news outlets cover the unfolding drama with almost breathless zeitgeist. And while traditional outlets are grappling with what it all means for the future of Facebook, online denizens have trumpeted their angst about the company’s most recent changes with more than 25 million blog posts.

The current crisis of confidence leveled against Facebook once again centers on the core issue of how the social networking platform manages access to its users’ information. PC World columnist JP Raphael noted earlier this month that with the significant new changes announced by the Palo Alto-based social giant, “achieving maximum privacy on Facebook now requires you to click through 50 settings and more than 170 options — and even that won’t completely safeguard your info.” According to news reports this week, the company may finally be reversing course (again) and returning to a streamlined security process.

To be sure, Facebook is no novice when it comes to navigating the controversies of privacy in the online marketplace, and it will very likely emerge from the current crisis singed, but not terribly worse for the wear. What is surprising however, and perhaps most troubling for a company that nearly all watchers agree must prove its mettle with a public offering in the next 18 months, is the voraciousness of the global opposition the recent controversy has sparked, and the apparent lack of corporate agility at Facebook to respond effectively to even the most basic crises inherent to an organization so intertwined in the daily lives of half a billion users.

The Lessons Facebook Can Learn from Google

The $200 billion search behemoth learned these same painful lessons of accountability earlier in the past decade as they became the public whipping boy for privacy issues. Regular Congressional hearings, editorial columns and tech-savvy thought leaders all lampooned Google for their approach to user information. Many began questioning its very core mantra of “don’t be evil” that had mightily bound Googlers for more than a decade. Google’s response was to aggressively educate global regulators and privacy experts while dramatically expanding their Washington, DC footprint. They further ramped up public policy and communications outreach efforts to ensure they were accessible and accountable to those most concerned about their industry and how they as a company approached the prickly issue of online privacy.

Transparency is Key to Facebook’s Maturation

For a brand built on the ideals of transparency (sharing your life updates with your friends and family), Facebook must begin to embrace the mantra of a transparent and accountable organization while remaining free from the constraints of life as a publicly traded, heavily regulated, investor-driven company.

Facebook’s chief policy guru Elliot Schrage appeared at least to grasp the challenges that lie ahead for the company during a question and answer session with The New York Times last week. “Another painful element comes from professional frustration,” Schrage wrote. “It’s clear that despite our efforts, we are not doing a good enough job communicating the changes that we’re making … We may not always agree about the speed and comprehensiveness of our response but I’m here because I’m confident Facebook’s future success depends on our ability to respond.”

Tough words and sound perspective from a smart, well-respected industry insider. If heeded, they may finally drive the internal changes necessary for Facebook to complete its startup evolution and graduate into the world’s most dominant — and profitable — communications platform.

Two articles from the Harvard Business Review caught my attention because they were back to back in my RSS feed: What the U.S. Can Learn From Europe About Gender Equality in the Workplace, and also Can She Lead? In both cases, they are mostly positive articles, or rather, they aim for positive outcomes for women, but it also shows one frame for the challenge.

New data from the Center for Work-Life Policy demonstrate that while 47% of college-educated entry-level corporate professionals are female, women comprise a mere 21% of senior executives, 17% of Congress (PDF link) and 15% of board directors.

But in my recent effort to learn what women want, I found that not all women want to lead. Let me be really clear: some do, and we should be very clear and helpful in making sure that women have the chance/choice to lead, when they are qualified and capable (quick side note: lots of male leaders are neither qualified nor capable, so maybe that’s not even a consideration we should have).

We should, however, accept that maybe there are other ways that women are contributing to the business landscape, both inside of corporations (Thank you Meg Whitman, Carly Fiorina, Carol Bartz, et al), but also outside ( Pam Slim, Tara Hunt, Becky McCray). Meaning, let’s be really clear that maybe those numbers point to a need for improvement, but maybe they point to the fact that it’s not always the position some women seek to attain.

I could interview 100 women and I’d get 70-80 different answers on one’s career aspirations. This is a beautiful thing. Again, after reading Maddy Dychtwald’s book, I think we’re at a renaissance point of opening up women to the choice to have more leadership opportunities. And yet, it should always be a choice.

I don’t know. What’s your take? For you, not the stats. And men, what do you see around you as this environment supposedly shifts?

You’ve already forked out plenty for your iPhone or iPod touch, so why tax your wallet further by buying an expensive stand?

Whether you want to save money, keep your personal drain on the planet’s resources to a minimum, or are looking for a quick-fix solution at your desk, we’ve found five fantastic iPhone stand designs that require no more than everyday objects — and some MacGyver-style skills.

Have a look-see below at our homemade docks, then have a go at making your own and let us know the results in the comments box below!

1. The Paper Clip Stand

Overview:

This solution utilizes a large paper clip, cunningly straightened and then twisted to make an impromptu stand for your iDevice. Depending on how strong you are, you might need pliers to help manipulate the clip, but the principle is pretty darn simple — and pretty darn effective. Mods include wrapping a rubber band around the “legs” to aid stability.

In the immortal words of MacGyver himself: “A paperclip can be a wondrous thing. More times than I can remember, one of these has gotten me out of a tight spot.”

MacGyver Rating: 5/5

2. The Cassette Case Stand

Overview:

We love that this takes (almost) obsolete tech and upcycles it into a useful object. You can use either a cassette case from an old camcorder tape, or an old audio tape (which, if you’re of a certain age, you’ve almost certainly got lying around at home).

Put the tape and the cardboard sleeve to one side, open the case, flip it around, and — presto! — a minimalist desk stand. To make it a super-stable solution in landscape, you might want to use a file to make a nice neat groove for the iPhone to better sit in.

This really works for us as an easy way to keep our iPhone out of calamity’s way on a desk surface.

MacGyver Rating: 4/5

3. The Pencil Stand

Overview:

This easel-esque stand can be created from five pencils and several rubber bands. It will require some dexterity to get the pencils in the right place, as you use the bands to hold it all together, and then a little more to get it to stand up straight. However, it is a strikingly simple design once made, and can be collapsed down to nothing again, should the occasion require.

Although this requires the most stuff to actually make, the Boy Scout-style binding process keeps it firmly in MacGyver territory.

MacGyver Rating: 4/5

4. The Sticky Tape Stand

Overview:

Perfect for those “I just want to catch ten minutes of [insert favorite show] while I eat lunch at my desk” moments, this devilishly simple solution requires only a roll of sticky tape to work. Simply stick a bit of tape to the back of your iPhone or iPod touch — and voila! — your iBuddy is propped up at a nice angle while you consume both your lunch and choice of video-based media.

It’s not quite duct tape, but damn!

MacGyver Rating: 5/5

5. The Paper Stand

Overview:

The instructions call for the use of at least a 270 gsm paper or card stock, so assuming you have that, simply print out the template (available for both A4 and U.S. letter size paper), cut, fold, and faster than you can say “origami,” you’ve got yourself a new dock.

And this one really is a dock (rather than just stand), as it includes space for the iPhone’s cord underneath. We would suggest that anyone not old enough to have a FacebookFacebook account should find a responsible adult to take care of the craft knife elements.

MacGyver Rating: 3/5

Jessica Miller has written for Jewcy.com, The Jew and the Carrot, and is an avid digital music explorer. She holds a B.A. in religion from Barnard College, and blogs regularly on her own site, The Boomerang Blog.

Most music enthusiasts will agree that there is a big difference between hearing a band on a CD and seeing them perform live. While it might have been the recording that got you to the show, it’s often the live concert experience that transforms an artist you like into your favorite band.

But since many of us don’t always have the time or ticket funds to see as many concerts as we’d like, here are seven sites that will bring all the intimacy of a live show to your desktop. Their combination of rare live recordings, unusual video locations, and behind-the-scenes snapshots are sure to please any music fan. So get ready to fall in love with your favorite bands all over again, and to discover some new ones along the way.

1. La Blogotheque

If you’re in the market for charming, offbeat music videos, La Blogotheque is a must-see nexus of musicianship and cinematography. The French website produces weekly podcasts of unconventional music videos called “Take Away Shows.” These to-go cups of music video goodness feature well-known artists playing in unusual surroundings.

For instance, Take Away Show director, Vincent Moon, put the band Arcade Fire, instruments and all, into a freight elevator, and had them play their single, “Neon Bible” — no small feat, considering there are about nine people in the group. Other Take Away Show highlights include unsuspecting café goers chanting “Blake’s got a new face!” along with Vampire Weekend, Jason Mraz jamming with an elderly Bulgarian street busker, and Andrew Bird acting as the veritable pied piper of Montmartre.

2. The Black Cab Sessions

The Black Cab Sessions takes all the fun and eccentricity of La Blogotheque and puts it on wheels. Similar to the Take Away Shows’ “In a Van Sessions” series, this website transforms the taxicab into a moving recording studio for our audiovisual pleasure.

While Jens Lekman’s kalimba rendition of his song “Black Cab” is certainly the most pertinent video on the site, there are loads of musical goodies here, with performances from the likes of Jamie Lidell, Death Cab for Cutie, Badly Drawn Boy, and many more.

3. Daytrotter

Daytrotter is a delicious little website run out of a recording studio in Illinois. It aims to capture unreleased songs, alternate versions of tracks, and the little spontaneous moments that occur in the recording process.

Thanks to the many working artists who pass through the studio while on tour, Daytrotter has racked up a truly impressive vault of live audio recordings (all available for free download, by the way) with artists ranging from The Swell Season, to Raphael Saadiq, to Grizzly Bear, to Carly Simon — and the list grows longer almost by the day. Each unique post is supplemented with gorgeous written descriptions, and colorful, hand-drawn artist portraits that make you feel like you’re witnessing something precious. Daytrotter is definitely a great site to get lost in.

4. NPR’s All Songs Considered Tiny Desk Concerts

With all those musicians traipsing through the NPR offices, you have to imagine what it would be like to be a fly on a wall there. Luckily, All Songs Considered Host/Creator Bob Boilen is now making it possible with his “Tiny Desk Concerts.” These “concerts” are literally songs performed at, on, behind, and in front of Boilen’s tiny office desk.

Although the settings are not romantic in the traditional sense, many special moments have been created there by the likes of Moby, Rodrigo y Gabriela, Thao Nguyen, and Jakob Dylan.

5. They Shoot Music – Don’t They

Another Blogotheque-inspired website, They Shoot Music – Don’t They is a video blog powered by Viennese cinematographers and music enthusiasts who aim to turn their favorite urban locations into great performance stages. In this way, TSMDT is able to not only create beautiful musical moments, but also bring attention to sites of cultural importance within their city.

For instance, the brains behind TSMDT try to bring attention to the Viennese region of Erdberg (one of the oldest settlements in Vienna, but now an underappreciated industrial center) by letting I’m From Barcelona frontman Emanual Lundgren roam about it on film. What ensues is the cutest musician-canine interaction you have ever seen.

6. Live From Daryl’s House

Most of us know Daryl Hall as half of the 70s and 80s pop duo Hall & Oates. But what you might not know is that Daryl Hall is also the brains behind a web show sensation called Live From Daryl’s House.

Hall first got the idea to post videos online of himself jamming at home with his friends three years ago. Of course, when you’re Daryl Hall, your friends include Toots and the Maytals, Smokey Robinson, KT Tunstall, and The Bacon Brothers. My personal favorite installment is the set he did with Chromeo that ended up going viral. It helps if you’re already a Hall & Oates fan, but it’s not required to enjoy this site.

7. From the Basement

From the Basement is the work of producer and Radiohead collaborator Nigel Godrich. This site started as just a mere collection of audience-free music performances, but was soon picked up by television networks both in the U.S. and Great Britain. The original website can still stand alone on the moments and music it helped to foster, by recording artists such as Gnarls Barkley, Beck, Damien Rice, and The Dead Weather.

Okay, I get it. LinkedIn wanted to link Twitter into LinkedIn so that we’d see a glimpse into a human’s day to day life. The mindset would be, “We know that Chris runs New Marketing Labs, and we read his blog, so seeing a tweet or two go by in his status will show us that he’s human and how he’s doing.” The thing is, Twitter is our scratch pad, our watercooler, our telephone. Look at this:

None of it is particularly “wrong.” But nearly none of it is business useful. If you’re doing it (linking your Twitter to your LinkedIn, please consider going here to change that.

I just figured out what LinkedIn could/should consider doing with this kind of info, the Twitter stream, that is.

Move it into my Profile.

Here’s why: if someone decides to come and spend time with my profile, it might be useful to see what’s on my mind at any given time. I tweet upwards of 50-70 times a day, though, so that’s quite a sprawl. Just the same, they’ll get a taste for how I communicate.

But by linking it into my LinkedIn status stream, it’s a big mess. It’s just a blurt of stuff that rarely relates to business.

See the difference?

On Monday, I’m going to post two more posts about LinkedIn and how you can get more out of it. If you’re not already subscribed to my blog, consider getting it sent to you by email (we respect your privacy):