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Everyone knows the saying “it’s who you know.” I can personally vouch for the validity of that statement as it’s worked in my favor as well as against it.

But, there’s another “who” we sometimes forget or lose sight of as business people and that’s “who WE are.” How do we define ourselves and our business and how do we provide our contacts and prospects with the tools to describe the “who” as it applies to us?

One of the most powerful tools we have as business people is our identity – the definition of who we are as a business in a succinct and memorable fashion. And the assets at our disposal to accomplish this include the following:

1) Identity:
Make sure it’s easy to understand, well designed, exudes quality and is used consistently. Brand dilution happens when logos change across media or over time. Brand standards can go a long way in combatting this issue and can be accomplished easily.

2) Messaging:
Can people tell what you do in the fewest number of words possible? That sounds simple enough, but all too often buzz words and lofty etherial sales-speak takes the place of clear communication. In the age of tweets and short attention spans, the 500 word description and “think outside the box” verbiage no longer apply. Keep it simple and get to the point ASAP. I’m talking short – think 25 words. And if you want to be able to tweet your description, it’ll need to be less than 140 characters.

3) Brand Assets:
This includes brochures, business cards, your website and any other vehicle that transports your brand to your markets’ eyes. Keep these simple, informative and go for quality. If your collateral is cheap, that perception will transfer to your business offerings.

4) Networking:
Apply all of the above to this. Networking can literally be done anywhere – coffee shop, wedding, convention, online, etc. If you can flip someone your business card, it reflects a quality business, they can find your website and tell what you do in a matter of seconds, your efforts will be that much more effective.

Hone your “who” to be easily understood, remembered and portable. In this fashion your identity can serve as an extension of you and your sales efforts – working on it’s own and through others and preceding your business before introductions ever occur. So when the time comes to approach a new prospect, your “who” has a better chance of already being known.

AT&T has just announced it’s discontinuing unlimited data plans. For those watching the calender, it’s exactly one month and one day after 3G equipped Apple iPads went on sale, aka it’s now 24 hours past when you can return the devices.

Hike up your waders the marketing double speak is thick in this press release…

AT&T*, the U.S. smartphone leader, today introduced new wireless data plans that make it more affordable for more people to enjoy the benefits of the mobile Internet.

Yes, that’s an un-ironic asterisk on the first word of the press release. It doesn’t really matter though, the deal is AT&T is slashing the unlimited plan and now offering DataPlus, providing 200 MB of data for $15/month with additional 200 MB extensions for $15/each, and DataPro, providing 2 GB of data for $25/month, with additional 1 GB extensions for $10/each. Tethering, a feature that all iPhones have been capable of for over a year, will now be allowed by AT&T for an additional $20 per month on the DataPro plan.

The iPad was sold hard with this original unlimited data plan. It was sold by Steve Jobs standing by himself on a stage talking about how revolutionary this all is. How can this business relationship continue? How did Apple end up here? I wish calculating opportunity cost was an exact science; I’d like to see a tally of what Apple is paying for the ongoing damage to one of the most enviable brands on the planet.

As Yanowitz on Hackernews said:

I’d love to be a fly on the wall for the screaming matches between AT&T and Apple.

UPDATE: As of 2:40pm CST, June 2nd, 2010 Apple’s iPad product page does not reflect these new data plans.

Eric Karjaluoto has a great post talking about companies slashing marketing budgets during this recession. (Which many are.)

What baffles me about all of this is how people are choosing to cut their spending. I can appreciate reducing office space or negotiating a lower lease rate. I similarly understand reducing staff members or entertaining job sharing options. What I can’t quite grasp, however, is this tendency to narrow the pipe for incoming sales. When you aren’t getting dates, you don’t go home and watch re-runs of Matlock; you get out of the house and meet people.

It seems that most companies are in fact doing the opposite of this though. I talk to numerous people in key roles who look a little like they’re a moment from crapping themselves. When I ask what they are doing in terms of marketing they typically respond in the same fashion, telling me something to the effect of, “We know it’s something we should be doing, but we have to cut right now.”

A nice office space doesn’t directly drive sales. Office perks may heighten morale but they don’t necessarily bring in new clients. In times like these, all of us have to look at what keeps the machine running. As such, there’s one simple truth that I want you to embrace: your company has to accelerate its marketing and sales efforts…

…So, let’s just say you’ve taken a few moments to skim this article, and you think that I’m perhaps making a small amount of sense here. Well this then is the spot where I need to sell you on the notion that this whole “marketing” thing could actually work for you. Let me take the next few moments to push you off that cliff.  ;-)

When you’re half-way through a grueling run, feeling like you want to “puke your lungs out”, you tend to forget that you’re not the only one. Everyone else around you is likely feeling just about the same way, and it’s the one who can suck it up and push harder who wins the race. Although there are a few lucky ones who have managed to escape the pinch, I feel I can safely say that your competitors are hurting badly. So while they are retreating and licking their wounds, I want you to press the gas pedal and haul some ass. They’re vulnerable; isn’t this the perfect time to strike?

In fact, they’re running so scared that there’s less “noise” out there. When times are good, everyone’s clamoring to have their voice heard. Today, however, your marketing dollar has more bang, largely because fewer people are advertising, selling, and getting the word out. It’s ripe for you to get out there, bang your drum, and perhaps even grab a couple of your competitors’ clients in the meanwhile.

Read the rest of it: Stop Acting Like a Sissy and Market Your Company.

From Graphjam:

Everyone is waiting for Facebook or MySpace to start turning out ad revenue like Google. It is not going happen.

Around this time last year, Microsoft (in)famously valued Facebook at $15 Billion, or $323 per user. This was at a time when their annual revenue was $0.73 cents per user, placing Facebook’s presumed retention rate at 100% and their average user life span right around 400 years. (Oops)

Expectations have cooled a bit since then, but not by much. And that’s bad news for social media hopefuls. Search-engine-like ad revenues are not on the horizon for the social networks for one reason: Search engine marketing ROI cannot be beat by a social network.

Yes, these web 2.0 giants have had exponential growth. Yes they have millions of eyeballs and lots of mindshare online. But you can’t assess the value of mindshare without thinking about what state all those minds are actually in.

People visiting Facebook or MySpace are there to connect with other people. A social networking website is itself an end. It’s not a means. People on these sites have reached their destination. They’ve no momentum going that will push them to leave by clicking on an ad. This leaves the momentum problem up to the advertiser to solve. No matter how you slice it, generating momentum is HARD. (It’s fundamental physics, and in this case the metaphor keeps on delivering.)

That’s what makes search engine marketing so powerful. People visiting a search engine have come there specifically to leave and find something else. They have momentum. They just need a shove and they’re off. Add in the fact that their search terms or keywords provide marketers a context for exactly what kind of shove is needed, and you end up with a marketing environment that may be impossible to beat when it comes to value for advertisers. The money will go to search engine marketing, because in the long run it’s a matter of ROI for advertisers.

Katya’s Non-Profit Marketing Blog had a killer post the other day titled 3 questions before plunging into new media. But it was missing something…

Here are three good questions to answer before you start going crazy with technology, from Alyce Myatt of Grantmakers in Film + Electronic Media.  I’m sharing them from the session I just blogged:

1.What are you trying to do?  (As opposed to what you are trying to say.  What are you trying to get a certain audience to do?)

2.How best can you make that change occur?  How can it best be done?  (Given your audience and where they hang out online or in the world, what technology or media will engage them best)?

3.What resources do you have at hand? (This will help you determine the right scope.)

I’m not sure we’re asking these questions enough before we get started.

I’m also concerned we’re not getting started.  Ramya just noted in this session that YouTube for nonprofits is the slowest growing vertical on the site.  Not enough nonprofits are involved, and too many just slap up a video without seeking to build a community or reaching out to popular YouTube users.

This is a great list of tips, but what’s not there? It’s the item missing from most professional social media plunges. “What is the mutual benefit for us and our audience?”

So many companies diving into social media forget this important question. Professional social media marketers spend too much time on #1 and completely disregard this point I just brought up. But it’s probably the most important thing when it comes to engaging a market via social media.

So here’s the appended list of questions to ask before plunging into new media:

1. What are you trying to do? (As opposed to what you are trying to say.  What are you trying to get a certain audience to do?)
2. How best can you make that change occur? How can it best be done?  (Given your audience and where they hang out online or in the world, what technology or media will engage them best)
3. What resources do you have at hand? (This will help you determine the right scope.)
4. What is the mutual benefit? (How can you add value to the environment in which the conversation is happening? How does listening to your message directly benefit your audience? )

If you can’t answer this last question clearly, you’ll just end up amongst all the other noise your audience filters out to get to the (benefit) signal. The reason social media is social is because it’s permission-based, not push-based. With no mutual benefit for you and your audience, there will be no permission, or even worse: there will be, but it will be revoked because of backlash.

The image at the top of this post is Identically Named Places Connected(USA) by Neil Freeman and is available as a limited edition print from Next American City.