ATDC Seeks Marketing Intern

ATDC is seeking an online marketing summer intern. The candidate should be willing to demonstrate a high level of resourcefulness and a willingness to learn online marketing skills. This 12-week position is designed to offer an individual a range of practical experience in online marketing including social media.  ATDC is aggressive in its use of social media and is looking for a young talent who can work within our culture as an integral part of our organization. The candidate should feel comfortable working in an open and unstructured environment.  

ATDC was recently recognized by Forbes as one of the top technology incubators changing the world.  It is located at Technology Square in Midtown, the heart of the Atlanta startup community. This position includes a $500 monthly stipend.  You will be expected to work in the office from 8am-12pm Monday through Friday with some flexibility.

Over Foursquare

I day or two ago John Mayer infamously quit Twitter.  Today I am doing the same thing not so infamously with Foursquare. 

I was one of the half dozen or so users in Atlanta and made my first check in last August. Since then I have assembled a host of badges and mayorships. But beyond that I am not getting anything out of it.

Perhaps it is just me.   My circle of travel is quite small.  The game is not complex enough to remain interesting.  It's not as fun as it used to be and the newest release of the application actually requires more clicks and time to check in. Personally I am not getting enough reward out of the app for the amount of effort it requires to remain active.

I hope that Dennis and the rest of the Foursquare team will continue to lovingly improve the service in New York City, but for the moment I am taking my ball and going home.  Perhaps I will be back to play again some day.

Atlanta Facebook Dev Meetup

So Dave Williams of BLiNQ went out to the f8 show in San Francisco and realized that Atlanta needs a group to share best practices related to anything Facebook.  So, he pinged me about ATDC sponsoring such a group and low and behold it is so.  Should be a great group for developers working on the Facebook platform and companies looking toward Facebook for marketing purposes.  Meetings will be held held the 1st Tuesday of every month at 6:30pm.  Free pizza and beverages, will be served compliments of BLiNQ. You can join the meetup group here.

Lessons for Aspiring Entrepreneurs, Part 1: "Purpose = Power"

by David Eckoff, special to Force of Good

Everyone knows someone who has come up with a good idea and who has not acted upon that idea. Or started working on the idea… and not finished.

Perhaps you can even personally relate to that.

People come up with good ideas for new businesses all of the time. Unfortunately, many of those ideas are never acted upon and most are never brought to market.

This is tragic, because it’s not a matter or whether or not we can. In 2010, an average person of average intelligence can come up with a good idea and bring it to market - thanks to a democratization of the tools of production, distribution and sales.

But not everyone will.

Why do you suppose that is?

Lessons Learned

I’ve made it my focus over the past 20 years to turn ideas into products and businesses. Most recently launching Spitter.com, and working with other companies such as Rivals.com, RealNetworks, Turner Broadcasting, Ustream.tv, and Zazzle to bring their revolutionary ideas to market.

What have I learned that can shed some light on what makes the difference in going to market with your ideas?

There will be obstacles along the way. Distractions. Problems. Frustrations. Doubters. Skeptics.

The single greatest way to overcome those obstacles is something often overlooked in execution: having a big enough reason why.

Big Enough Reasons Why

Chris Klaus, founder and CEO of Atlanta-based Kaneva explains why this is so important.

"Part of the secret sauce of a successful startup, is finding a vision and mission that you and your team are passionate about,” Klaus told me. “Every startup has incredible challenges. The teams that are passionate about their mission will be determined to learn from their mistakes. They have the desire and energy to overcome these obstacles."

Reasons why are the fuel that will get you to follow through.

Big enough reasons why can help get you through anything.

Pamela Slim, business coach and author of ‘Escape from Cubicle Nation: From Corporate Employee to Thriving Entrepreneur’ explains:

"Knowing why you are starting your business -- how you will impact others, or even change the world -- will fuel you through the inevitable periods of struggle as a first-stage entrepreneur,” Slim told me. “Your customers will feel the meaning and purpose behind your business, and your marketing position will be much stronger."

What Do Most People Do Instead?

As entrepreneurs, we love our ideas - often to the point of irrational exuberance. And being excited about our ideas, we often focus so much on “what” we are doing (the product) that we don’t define - or we lose sight of - “why” we are doing it.

And without big enough reasons why to motivate us through the hard times, we’re more likely to get stalled - when we really need to be putting in the extra effort.

"The difference between success and failure might be the difference between calling it a day at 7 pm or midnight,” David Payne, founder of Atlanta-based Scoutmob, told me. “Only a strong mission will cause you to feel good about working those hard extra few hours."

A Powerful Approach to Getting Important Things Done

Start by answering these time-tested four questions:

1) What is your desired outcome?

Most people answer: "I don't know". Perhaps that explains why so many ideas are never acted on.

Think about what your desired outcome is, what do you really want? And write it down. Be as specific as possible. Set a specific date for that outcome.

2) Why do you want that outcome?

The power is in why. When you get enough reasons you can do just about anything, you can find the way.

A big enough reason why is where you get your drive to follow through.

A useful way to frame this question is to think about why you must do it (as opposed to why you should do it).  Think about what matters most to you, what do you most value?

For example: so you want to make a million dollars? Why? Dig deeper. Ultimately, what do you value most?

3) How am I going to make it happen?

Think about - and write down - the most important actions you need to take to accomplish your desired outcome.

Bonus: take it one step further. You are more than your to-do list. Think about and write down the answer to these questions. What kind of person would you need to become to accomplish your outcome? What skills would you need? And become that kind of person. Develop those skills.

4) How will I know when I’m getting my outcome?

Sometimes we can be winning - and feel like we’re losing - because we’re not keeping score. How will you measure it? How will you know?

Not All Reasons Why Are Created Equal

I’m not here to tell you which reasons are the right reasons for you. The “big enough reason why” is unique to each person. (Although some reasons that are often cited by aspiring entrepreneurs are misguided at best - and really bad reasons at worst - and I’ve written about them here.)

But the reasons that drive you could make the difference between success and failure.

What Have You Learned?

So, what do you want to remember from this article?

Before you get started with your to-do list, be clear about what it is you really want and why you want it.

You’ve got to be clear about your outcome and your purpose. The “why” is what will get you to follow through on your decision.

And as you’re bringing your idea to market, remember that Purpose = Power.

What do YOU think? What gives you your drive to follow through and launch new businesses and products? I'd love to hear about your experiences, in the comment section here.

Like the article? Please retweet it! Thanks @Gearheadgal @pslovin @thewordpainter

Coming Next Week: Lessons for Aspiring Entrepreneurs, Part 2: “Goals Alone Are Not Enough”

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DAVID ECKOFF is co-founder of Spitter.com, advisor to media & technology companies and business educator. He has worked with Rivals.com, RealNetworks, Turner Broadcasting, UStream.tv, Zazzle and more, to bring revolutionary ideas to market.

You can read more about David Eckoff on his blog at www.DavidEckoff.com and follow him on Twitter at @davideckoff and @IdeaToMarket

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Editor’s note: David will be among a group of 9 business leaders teaching at Idea to Market, a one-day business bootcamp, May 8 in Atlanta. Readers of Force of Good can redeem Discount Code “LANCE40” for a special discount on a regular ticket to the event.

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BAM Baby! BLiNQ Raises $750k

A little bit later today at ad:tech and F8 BLiNQ Media is going to announce the beta launch of BAM (BLiNQ Ad Manager) and an investment of $750,000 in the company by advisors, employees, and management. 

BAM is a RoR application built by the expert team of Hashrocket.  It is integrated with the Facebook Ads API and offers marketers the ability to hyper-target message and engage Facebook users via rich profile data thus driving Facebook advertising performance in new and innovative ways. 

Founded by Dave Williams, who previously founded 360i, BLiNQ is operating in a large and rapidly growing market, has revenue traction via an advertising model, and with the launch of BAM has a solid product in the market. 

Like all startups this one has a long way to go but it could turn into a rocket.

Download BLiNQ BAM and Capital Investment Press Release

Scientific Advertising – Time Tested Methods to Building a Solid Business Plan

This is a guest post by Charles Lumpkin, the principal of Charles Lumpkin + Partners.  Charles and his firm have been entrusted with million dollar budgets by companies who demand disciplined and measurable Internet marketing. He and his team provide Internet marketing strategy and services, usually on a pay-for-performance basis to companies of all sizes.  Charles is a sponsor of FoG.

Let me offer some advice. If you want your business to survive – know these two things; how much a customer is worth to you and how much you can afford to get one.  As you go about your marketing efforts, measurement is key.

Find out your CPA (Cost Per Acquisition)

Without a doubt the most important questions that you must answer are the rate and cost of customer acquisition for your business. You get this wrong, and you are toast.  I know of no more efficient way to fold up shop.  As a startup you’ve got to figure out (and quickly) how much it will cost you to bring on new customers.

So, fearless leader, you’ve got to put your marketing plan to a test as soon as you possibly can; driving toward measuring and reducing that all important CPA.  If you need help with this calculation contact me and we can walk through it for your company.  Regardless, take the time to determine your CPA as soon as you can.

Start ratcheting that thing down 

Now that you know the number your job is to apply some good ole marketing elbow grease, how does one  do this?  Let me introduce you to Scientific Advertising.  This book is 87 years old and its messages are as important today as they were when it was written.  Scientific Advertising, by Claude Hopkins, a relentless ad man from early last century, is considered a classic and a must read by advertising leaders. David Ogilvy, often called the “father of advertising”, said about Claude’s little book: "Nobody, at any level, should be allowed to have anything to do with advertising until he has read this book seven times.  It changed the course of my life"

So science, really?  No, seriously, every time you run an ad you should be running a controlled experiment.  Take your best effort to date and create at least one variation of it.  Test them head to head, and then retest them.  The winner becomes your new “Control”. And you never stop.  That’s right, as long as you are running your business; there is no rest for the weary. Innovate or perish!

Different Media – Same Methods

The wisdom put forth in this old tome, is applied to the media that were popular in the day, primarily print.  Believe it or not, these are the same principals the best and the brightest follow to this day in online marketing.  Follow Claude’s advice and you will find that your will soon be getting way more bang for your online advertising buck.

There’s no school like old school

In the old days they tracked advertising with printed source codes on coupons, in mailers and catalogs.  When you ordered your item, advertisers knew which ad drove the sale.  Pretty neat stuff right?  Now this is akin to running a Google ad and watching what conversion activity happens in your analytics package.  You might vary the copy and determine which ad pulls more and you are running an experiment.

The Split Test

The simplest form of a scientific test is the split test.  Split your audience using a random or controlled sampling method, serve up variations of your ad to the samples and compare your results.

From Scientific Advertising:

One ad is compared with another, one method with another. Headlines, settings, sizes, arguments and pictures are compared.  To reduce the cost of results even one percent means much ….. So no guesswork is permitted.  One must know what is best.  Thus mail order advertising first established many of our basic laws.

Here’s a sample of variations of two versions of landing page split test:

Which wins?  Test it and find out!

The More Things Change the More they Stay the Same

The media may change, measurement tools may change, but the benefit of applying solid methodology and disciple to testing, recording and sharing results is a concept that can’t be emphasized enough.  Although Hopkins suggests that his contemporaries had started to get it right.  I can’t help but see ourselves in these words:

The lack of those fundamentals has been the main trouble with advertising of the past.  Each worker was a law to himself.  All previous knowledge, all progress in the line, was a closed book to him.  It was like a man trying to build a modern locomotive without first ascertaining what others had done.  It was like a Columbus starting out to find an undiscovered land.

Does this sound a little like some forays into banner advertising and social media?  As we rush to keep up with the technology and be everywhere at once, how well are we measuring the impact of our efforts?

A/B testing, hold-out panels, test markets are not new ideas, they are simply under utilized.  A good refresher course can be found in this 87 year old book.  Apply the concepts to new media, drive your CPA down and watch your profits grow.

Wrap Up

Yes we spend time updating dashboards and reviewing reports, but are we really analyzing their implications and re-crafting our communications based on them?  Are we testing one ad against another? From my exposure to many companies we are not.  The simple truth is that as we work to build our businesses, whether well established or still on the drawing board, the principles espoused in this book can help us minimize risk, read and leverage successes and build business plans that have a high likelihood of becoming reality.

We don’t need to set a marketing budget and guess at results.  Small tests can provide the data to predict the out-come off strategies that can then be rolled out.  So why not adopt the methods that will help you sleep better at night, methods that mean your business investments will carry “so little risk”.  Per Claude:

Advertising, once a gamble, has thus become, under able direction, one of the safest business ventures.  Certainly no other enterprise with comparable possibilities need involve so little risk.

So get crackin’.  Find out your CPA and start hammering it down.  Apply the principals you learn in Scientific Advertising and go kick some ass.

You can read and download Scientific Advertising in its entirety below.

Ten Tech Incubators Changing The World

Forbes published an article on Friday how technology incubators are an efficient way to spur entrepreneurship and economic growth.  Using data from CB Insights they created a list of 10 technology incubators that are changing the world.  ATDC, where I am honored to work, was among them. Here is the list:

• Y Combinator
• Massachusetts Biomedical Initiatives
• Houston Technology Center
• Palo Atlo Research Center
• The Technology Innovation Center
• The Icehouse
• The Research Park at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
• The Advanced Technology Development Center at Georgia Tech
• University Research Park and MGE Innovation Center at the University of Wisconsin
• The Environmental Business Cluster

The Icehouse in New Zealand has the coolest name and thank goodness for our friends in the midwest for not only developing startups but having the down to earth sensibilities to come up with longer more convoluted names.

Here is the in-depth Forbes slideshow.

Nokia Venture Challenge

Nokia's Calling All Innovators competition is trying to find the best big ideas for mobile applications.  And this year they are taking the contest to a new level by offering up a $1 million venture investment to the winning proposal that could change the way people use Nokia devices.

The winning proposal will meet the following criteria:

• It must include a clear mission statement; and provide a product or service plan that will undeniably raise the standard of living, and/or enhance the lives of people living in emerging market countries today.
• The initial target market must be located in a region with per capita income significantly lower than what is found in industrialized nations today (e.g., sub-$5 per day).
• It must include a viable business model that has a high likelihood of providing a strong return on investment for the venture funding provided.

In addition to the Venture Challenge Nokia is offering over $350,000 in cash prizes across a host of categories.  The Nokia competition is open to all mobile and web application developers worldwide.  Submissions are due 12:00 am EDT on June 10, 2010.

IgniteATL is Back

The 2.0 version of IgniteATL is taking place Monday April 19th at 6:30. The event has been taken over by Patrick Nickles who has moved the locale to the Georgia Aquarium. The vid does a nice job of explaining Ignite.

Patrick is looking for speakers, sponsors, and volunteers.  And if you are going to go, you need to register.  Ignite is a great format.  If it is anything like the last event it will be mind expanding and fun!

Cypress Street Scoutmob Hit

As announced back in February, tonight at Cypress Street (817 West Peachtree Street) we are having a little gathering to take advantage of a Scoutmob 50% off deal and a beautiful spring evening.  The Cypress Street Pale Ale (house beer by Flying Dog Brewery) which is normally $3 will be a steal at $1.50 per pint with the Scoutmob deal.  I'm heading over to an open house of Damballa's new digs and then to Cypress around 6:30.  I'll see you there.