Why do Professors LOVE Busywork?

I think it’s about time I bitch about how much I hate busywork. Actually, this seems to be a recurring, talking about things that I hate but… such is life. So, you’re paying $10-20 thousand a year to “learn” at your average university, only to discover that this learning wasn’t really learning at all – the professors were handing you piles of busywork with no real goal other than to make it seem like you’re actually doing something. Sometimes I feel like I’ve learned more by reading Wikipedia articles and watching the History Channel… and those are free.

Whatever happened to learning things that are worthwhile that you can take outside of the class? You’re forced to sit through 4 years of school to gain a degree that only serves as a mechanism to get your foot in the door and in actuality teaches you little to none about your chosen profession. I’ve learned a hundred times more outside of the classroom than in it… maybe it’s time to bring learning back into the classroom? Step it up, profs. Stop the busywork. After all, I am helping pay your salary…

This is not to say ALL professors operate like this, but I feel a vast majority do. Hell, most professors = epic fail. What do you think?

Do Your Comments Add Value?

One of my biggest pet peeves is when people comment just for the sake of commenting. I hate it. It’s like when you try to stimulate conversation with someone and they add no value to it by saying “haha” or “k”. Responses to blogs that bring no new perspective to the table really irk me, though. You have people that tend to comment just to comment – that’s fine and all, but at least bring some new argument, perspective, or something worthwhile to the table. Don’t spew out something long and convoluted that only serves to confuse potential readers. I understand the need to get your name out there but… add some value, start a conversation.

value
–noun
1. relative worth, merit, or importance

Before you comment on a blog, Facebook, or Twitter, ask yourself a few things:

1) Why?
2) Why should others read it or respond to it?
Is my comment interesting enough to spur conversation further?
3) Where’s the value?
Is it funny, informative, etc?

3 Ways the World Cup is like the Business World (via ScheySalesCentre’s Blog)

I was given the honor of guest blogging on The Sales Centre @ OU’s blog last week. I’ve re-posted it here for convenience.

I apologize for not updating this blog as frequently as I have in the past, I’ve been trying to figure out exactly what I want to accomplish with this blog. More to come very soon!

—–

1. Poor Planning = Poor Results I’ve mentioned this in a prior blog post of mine, but it really rings true in the World Cup and business as a whole. If you don’t plan effectively, you’ll find yourself lost, confused, and showing little to no results for whatever effort you’ve put in. When pitching an idea to OU and TSC alum Bob Fenner, he reacted… not as favorably as I thought he might. He only had one question for me: what are your goals with th … Read More

via ScheySalesCentre's Blog

Do spam and buzzwords equal success?

<rant>

With the ever increasing usage of social media websites like Twitter and Facebook, does the use of buzzwords in your blog posts and the spam of said blog posts via Twitter actually enhance your success, or hinder it? Let me answer that for you in simple, 3rd grade picture form:

The biggest pitfall in this whole “web 2.0″ (buzzword!) business is that marketers think they will achieve instant success because they’ve 1) conformed to the new “social marketing strategies” and 2) abused the living hell out of them. You know, it’s fine is people are going to be conforming/adapting to these social media websites and it’s understandable that marketers are going to chase after that audience as a way to circumvent advertisement costs and generate greater traffic on their websites/for their product.

However, what’s not fine is the fact that I see businesses (large or small) repeatedly posting the same article you wrote 15 days ago on your Facebook and Twitter pages like it’s something new. Everyone stop the presses, they’re re-posting the same article from March… again. It’s another text book example of taking traditional marketing techniques (e.g., beating the hell out of us with TV advertising campaigns) and trying to apply them to marketing via social media. And make no mistake, in this case, “text book” doesn’t denote anything good… it’s something everyone should avoid like the plague. Spam didn’t work in e-mail and I’ll be damned if it’s going to work on Twitter and Facebook. Learn your lesson, please, before I have to make a personal visit to your offices.

The rapid re-posting of these articles on Twitter and Facebook does nothing but get me, the potential consumer, annoyed as hell. However, some people might feel differently. How do you feel? Do you feel it (the spam on social media sites) has a negative or positive effect on their ability to do business? Most of all…

What’s the solution?

Oh, and just for the record, just because you use buzzwords doesn’t mean you know what the f*** you’re talking about.

</rant>

TSC Social Media… and why you (as a SCC) should care!

This is a Call to Action

Okay, so this is something that’s been bothering me for a couple weeks. With change, comes those that are going to resist (those that aren’t proponents of change), those that are proponents of change, and those that simply don’t care.

If you don’t care at the moment (as a SCC), that’s okay. I’m going to explain why you should.

The Problem

I know we’ve been attempting to move to more of a social media perspective, to spread the influence and brand image of The Schey Sales Centre @ OU. But, I’m going to explain why I think a few people have it wrong.

It’s okay to start a blog. It’s okay to start a Twitter for TSC. It’s okay to start a Facebook fan page. Not to sound like a total dick, who cares? What’s not okay is the fact that it’s done just as an obligation (because they felt they should because someone told them to), and not as a duty. I know the Human Business Team (HBT) feels that it’s an obligation to keep up with it, but it’s a problem of finding a target audience (if you don’t have one, you risk being vague and having no feedback) and SCCs knowing its their duty to better their educations and their career opportunities. This is not to say that I don’t feel like the HBT has done a fantastic job already, I just think it can be vastly improved upon.

Let me refer to a graph I drew up in the last day:

EDIT 6/3/2010: A few people reached out and asked about the arrow, so I updated it to show how the change moves along the organization. Updated graphic to make more sense and be more visually appealing.
(the black area represents all outside TSC)

The Solution

It’s fine if you try to begin change from the top down, because that’s how traditional media and marketing works. But, that’s not how new media works. It has to start bottom up, outside to inside. If the people at the bottom/outside aren’t regularly using Twitter/Facebook to be agents of change for TSC, then what do you have? Nothing. What needs to happen is that people need to get involved on Twitter/Facebook. If you don’t have participants, then what real use is there in having those in the first place, except saying “We have a Twitter. We have a Facebook. Follow/fan us.”

We need to get as many SCCs as we can to truly care about and contribute to the pages as much as we can. If we can’t, then what use is there having these pages? All they will do without that support is stagnate (15 people caring about it is not enough).

We desperately need more people to get involved in social media. Therefore, the solution is to begin a crusade to get people involved in social media. I feel as if the Sales Symposium didn’t affect people in the way we wanted it to and needed it to, as they didn’t take it to heart.

If we can’t, then it’s simply a waste of time. Tell your friends. Tell SCCs. Tell the directors. Tell the cabinet. Tell the alumni. Tell the corporate partners. Tell them we have a presence online and that they should contribute. Tell them without their presence on these pages, then the creation of these pages is simply in vain. And, most of all we need to PRODUCE MEANINGFUL CONTENT TO A TARGET AUDIENCE.

This is your career. This is your education. Produce content. Go out and get it.

First!

Since a few of my friends/peers are using blogs as a way to convey musings/intellectual thoughts, I figured I’d join them. Gonna post more later.