It still surprises me to see how many people have never heard of The Goal by Eli Goldratt. This book is an all-time business classic, and it’s an enjoyable read. I especially like that it’s presented in fiction form, rather than as a lecture.

This uncommon novel is set in a manufacturing plant. The protagonist of the story is given an ultimatum: turn things around in 90 days, or the plant will be closed permanently. He has no idea what to do, and he calls on his old physics professor for help. The first thing he learns is that he’s lost sight of the overall goal of the business: to make money.

This might sound like something so absurd that it would never happen in a real business, but bear with me here. Goldratt depicts a particular phenomenon in the story – specifically, making decisions based on “local optima.” Translation: measuring progress in terms of one isolated variable, rather than the performance of the business as a whole.

You might also call this failing to see the forest for the trees!

The example in the story: the plant manager boasts that his plant saw a “36% improvement in one area.” However, when the professor asks a couple of critical questions, the dialog reveals that the “36% improvement” didn’t actually result in the plant making any more money.

Where do we see this in the online world? Just about everywhere. Have you ever seen an overnight entrepreneur publicly measuring his or her “success” by number of Twitter followers amassed? Spending money to drive traffic to a web page with a low (or unknown) conversion rate?

Unfortunately, The Goal does not say much on the subject of how to generate sales when you aren’t getting enough orders. However, there are plenty of parallels that you can extrapolate to the problem of generating online sales. If you haven’t read this book, put it on your list.

I particularly recommend the audio version, because it’s read by a cast of actors. They even add nice finishing touches, such as adding factory noise during the scenes that take place on the shop floor. I found that it helped my memory retention.

Most of what you think you know about the internet is probably wrong.

In 2011, posting quality content isn’t going to cut it. The challenge: make that quality obvious and compelling to readers in 3 seconds (and dropping). Just when you thought attention spans couldn’t get any shorter, 2010 shortened them even more.

The Information Age is dead. In case you haven’t noticed, we don’t need any more information. The challenge here is to help people find what they don’t know they’re looking for.

Google isn’t particularly good at solving these problems. Nor is anything else, yet. What’s a small business owner to do about this? Here’s where it gets simple.

Shift your communication strategy from talking-based to listening-based. This may not sound like rocket science, but there’s more to it than you might think.

For example, you might think it’s a given that collecting e-mail addresses and sending out a monthly newsletter will “keep you in front of your audience.” But what if you spend the same amount of time and energy reading other newsletters instead, making a point of responding to the good ones?

Instead of thinking of more ways to add noise to the already-cluttered information stream, think of ways to make full use of the best information that’s already out there. That doesn’t mean to stop creating content – it’s just about shifting some of your resources.

I assert that the businesses who make a priority of sharpening their listening skills will make the most money in 2011.???? ?? ???????Православни икони

1. Qwitter- This is a great Twitter tool to use (and one that I personally adore). Signing up is free, and once you’re Twitter account is linked, Qwitter sends you an email notification when someone stops following you
2. TwitBlocker- This is a nifty little tool that helps you manage the tweets of those folks you follow who are a little “chatty” (to put it nicely). You don’t want to delete them from your Twitter list, but you also don’t want to be receiving updates from them every two seconds. TwitBlocker to the rescue.
3. My Tweeple-This tool allows you to check stats on the people who you follow and/or who follow you. You can review other peoples latest tweets as well as see the date of their last tweet (which may help you decide whether or not they are follow worthy).
4. Twitterholic (aka: Twitaholic)- As the name may suggest, this tool allows you to search the most popular Twitter users out there. You can also obtain stats about your own Twitter account.
5. Friend or Follow- A clever play on words, this tool allows you to find out who is not following you back on Twitter. You can also find out who you share friends with.
6. MrTweet- A great tool that helps you find relevant followers by offering up recommendations. You can also check stats on your account as well as see who else is out there that might be worth following.

Check out the screen shots for each below: