Here is the April 2013 Cover Story I wrote for Insight on Business Magazine. The original appears here on page 26:

“Fast Forward is exciting because it rounds out our entrepreneurial ecosystem and brings venture dollars and a pipeline of jobs flowing into this state,” says Zielinski. He should know. As a member of the New North Small Business and Entrepreneurship subcommittee, Zielinski has been at the starting line with Fast Forward, participating in the project’s beta program.

Accelerating growth

Launched one year ago at the first Technology & Human Innovation Networking Conference – THINC! – Fast Forward is training a generation of innovative thinkers expected to grow the region’s investment base. (Insight’s THINC! 2013 event will be May 14 at UW-Fox Valley; for details see Connections, click here.) The idea is to create companies that will spawn high-paying jobs and generate innovative products and services in new markets. Their target: $12 million in revenue within five years.

“The economy is strong in Northeast Wisconsin; we want it to be vibrant. In order to have that, we need all different types, shapes, sizes and flavors of companies operating and growing and creating jobs here,” says Amy Pietsch, director of the Fox Valley Technical College Venture Center and the Fast Forward program.

Pietsch says the Fast Forward process identifies high-impact leaders and accelerates their ability to access capital. This scalable, organizational model was developed in 2011. It matches regional and community resources with fast-growth start-ups, putting the focus on matching resources to needs for firms ready to leverage those resources towards capital objectives.

The “beta” version of Fast Forward 1.0 simply means that the program’s designers see this initiative as an experiment in which to learn key discoveries – such as best practices and unexpected risks – opportunities that will perfect the program’s new and improved 2.0 version.

The risk factor

The Fast Forward model is unique in that the mentoring element can quickly identify and coach companies and surround them with technical capabilities, as well as private and public resources for fast growth. Not all of the jobs created will necessarily be in Northeast Wisconsin. For that matter, the company itself may open its doors outside of the region.

“There’s no guarantee that won’t happen. In the course of directing our energy around a program that positions those not-ready-for prime-time entrepreneurs with big potential in a high-risk program, I don’t think it’s any more risky than not doing this. If we are successful in producing these companies, the revenue and the jobs will come,” explains New North Executive Director Jerry Murphy.

For Zielinski, those jobs can’t come fast enough. His catalyst company, RightDoc, will soon connect Wisconsinites seeking health care services to online profiles of 25,000 doctors, dentists and chiropractors across the state. Eventually RightDoc will launch nationwide, with more than 1 million profiles to start. Zielinski anticipates adding up to 100 jobs to his payroll during the next five years. But before he could prepare to pitch his ideas to investors, Zielinski needed to spend a considerable amount of time learning the ropes from those who had been in the trenches. That’s where mentors come in.

Courtesy Image Studios and Insight

Tapping the experts

Fast Forward’s mentorship element prepares entrepreneurs to execute a robust business plan that will add value and vitality to the region by attracting and retaining great talent.

Last November, when the six Fast Forward candidates were chosen (one has dropped out due to health concerns) from a field of 28, they each were matched with mentors who coached, prepared and brought them up to speed on the unique challenges they’ll face in this fast-paced journey.

Mentors for Fast Forward must be successful, seasoned founders and principals who have invested in the New North region and are ready and willing to pass their wealth of knowledge to fledgling leaders. Zielinski’s two mentors, retired Outlook Group CEO Glen Yurjevich and Jack Riopelle, retired CEO of Wisconsin Film and Bag, both come with considerable experience that can help them see potential roadblocks the newcomers often can’t.

“Without the mentors it would be significantly more difficult to succeed in this challenging marketplace,” says Riopelle, who serves as mentor team leader for Fast Forward. “Every one of our candidates brought us great business plans, but there were some large ‘black holes’ that were obvious to the mentors but not to the entrepreneurs. If they had tried to pitch their plans to investors without first consulting with us, they’d have been blown out of the water and denied their chance.”

“Mistakes do teach,” echoes Fast Forward mentor Randall Lawton, the semi-retired CEO of C.A. Lawton. “I looked at it as a two-way street. I’ve had 40-plus years in executive management and can share my mistakes and lessons learned. When one goes through the process as a Fast Forward candidate, they probably feel put upon because mentors insist they practice certain old school disciplines in the correct order – but these are all necessary steps today’s leaders need more than ever before.”

Zielinski humbly and wholeheartedly agrees: “Jack and Glen are not only helping prepare my strategy, they are refining my product. I could not have gotten this far without them.”

Building RightDoc

In his 10 years of working in the health care arena as an orthopedic physical therapist, Zielinski’s niche has included some difficult physical therapy cases referred to him by other doctors. He learned from conversations with his patients that finding the right provider to fit their unique needs was often a trying, expensive ordeal.

“Patients could spend years visiting practitioners, wasting precious time, submitting to duplicate tests and spending their health care dollars in search of the solution. And if your insurance plan accepts multiple providers and clinics, how does one sort through them all? I saw an opportunity to help narrow that search, whether it be for doctors, therapists or dentists,” says Zielinski.

In 2011, Zielinski put his ideas onto paper and made connections that eventually led to the Venture Center, which helped vet some of those ideas. His new company, RightDoc, provides a robust library of physician and specialist profiles. The basic information is just the start. Individuals and clinics can edit their profiles and add as much data as they would like to help their patients make good decisions.

“We create the profiles as placeholders for all practitioners, and doctors can use our free template to add photos, videos, and basic information, including professional experience and personal statements. We also provide a premium level of service that allows providers to fully customize their profiles with a number of other enhancements to help potential patients learn more about them and practice online reputation management.”

Unlike similar models on the East and West coasts, RightDoc focuses on both patients and doctors rather than patients only.

“Health care professionals often have a negative view of similar sites, where patients can negatively rate (often unfairly) their experiences with doctors. We still allow for patient feedback but we focus on allowing patient endorsements based on a provider’s specific areas of practice. This allows us to help people assist others in finding good doctors.”

His mentors are impressed.

“Mike is a bright jewel who has done everything that we’ve suggested, and Glen and I are extremely excited for him. His business model was extraordinarily written and he had researched a lot of things that were germane to his business model. I think Mike will be among the first in this pilot program to get funding because of the work he had done up front,” says Riopelle.

A lifelong Fox Cities resident, Zielinski is looking forward to bringing more jobs to the area. “This is home for me, and I am excited to give back to my community and the New North,” says Zielinski, who will eventually hire technical and skilled professionals in IT, programming, web development and sales at his Appleton facility.

Part of giving back, he says, is someday doing for others what his Fast Forward mentors have done for him.

“Fast Forward mentorship is a phenomenal thing to do, and we’ve built a dynamic relationship that has helped me discover my blind spots. I thought I had all of my bases covered, but my mentors refined my strategies and focused my energies, giving me the connections and feedback I needed.”

Heartfelt Celebrations > a business model shifts

Tom Vandenboogart spent the past 25 years as a scientist at Kimberly-Clark. But when the economy slumped and he was offered a package to retire, he gladly took it as a challenge to launch his next adventure: Heartfelt Celebrations, Inc.

He began to develop a business model based on insights he’d learned about the baby boomer generation. As this generation enters its golden years, Vandenboogart saw a unique opportunity to tap into one particular truth:

“Boomers like to buck tradition and do things their own way. We often struggle with traditional end-of-life planning, and don’t necessarily want the predictable ceremony,” says Vandenboogart. “The question is, what do we want instead?”

The answer seemed to center around legacy and story. So he began to build his business model for Heartfelt Celebrations around customizing alternative traditions that capture and celebrate a life well lived. It was an idea with heart, and a model that won the Marquette University and Kohler Business Plan of the Year for 2010, and was a top contender for the Governor’s Business Plan competition.

But something was missing. With neither entrepreneurial experience nor funding, Vandenboogart sought the Fast Forward program and found the right mentors to help him fill both gaps.

“My mentors, Randy Lawton and Jon Wright, helped me focus on go-to-market strategies and customer alignment through networking and connections. It’s finally happening now that we’ve fine-tuned my model to be more specific to generating revenue.”

For Lawton, mentoring Vandenboogart was especially satisfying.

“The overall idea of helping people with end-of-life celebrations is a wonderful concept,” Lawton says. “But creating a sustainable business model from that is a challenge when you’ve never run a business making your own calls and spending your time and resources in startup mode.”

Vandenboogart presented his model and a video of Heartfelt Celebrations at the New North Summit in December. His story is already resonating with several potential companies, including Thrivent, which now has engaged in a pilot program with Vandenboogart.

“I am especially impressed that the Fast Forward program is approaching this for the wellbeing of the entire state instead of just the New North area,” says Vandenboogart, whose plans include creating an Appleton call center to support caregivers. The business will be headquartered in the Milwaukee area.

Snap Lab Media > prepping for prime time

Scott Francis knows the future of marketing is in the palm of our hands, as smart phones transform the next wave of retail and communications. His company, Snap Lab Media, which he co-founded with John Ernst, designs mobile phone engagement software that allows shoppers to experience products in a virtual way that extends beyond what they see on the shelves.

“Fast Forward has been a tremendous help in sharpening our go-to-market focus and fine tuning our offerings,” says Francis.

But after months of shaping their business plan, Francis and Ernst have discovered a valuable lesson: the market fit isn’t quite there yet.

“It doesn’t mean they had a bad idea; on the contrary, they have a neat technology,” explains their Fast Forward mentor, Paul Lemens, owner of enSight Consulting in Green Bay. “This is an excellent learning opportunity about the marketplace that will benefit the next Fast Forward candidate who steps up to do this, so in that respect this is a win.”

Peeps Eyewear > focusing on distribution

Kristen Ellsworth is a Fast Forward 1.0 graduate who can thank her toddler for inspiring her business idea for Peeps Eyewear, a specialty custom eyeglasses company geared toward tiny “princesses.” As her peepseyewear.com website explains, “When my daughter was 3 she was prescribed glasses but refused to wear them because ‘Princesses don’t wear glasses!’”

Ellsworth created a story about an active, brave and curious young girl who saves the day – wearing glasses. The business model came into focus from that moment forward. Today her offerings tout an alternative to commercial eyeglasses options, and can be customized to match a child’s hair coloring and name. The eyewear is packaged in an organza cinch bag and includes a book Ellsworth wrote about a princess who “gets to” wear glasses. Other offerings include a dress-up kit complete with a crown and sparkly cape.

Ellsworth went to law school, but after taking a class at the Fox Valley Technical College’s Venture Center she became enthralled with the idea of solving her daughter’s vision challenges. The fabrication lab helped her create her first prototype of the frames. But would her idea sell?

“Kristen’s challenge was to capitalize on marketing her great concept by getting distribution,” says her mentor Jon Wright, who helped Ellsworth focus on key distribution for a revenue stream.

Ellsworth founded Peeps about 18 months ago. The company took first place in the business services category for the 2010 Wisconsin Governor’s Business Plan Contest.

Basiliere Pharmaceutical > 2 steps forward, 1 step …

The critical global shortage of injectable vaccines has brought two brothers together to create a solution. Richard and James Basiliere were raised in Oshkosh, where their dad was a physician. While they’ve always gotten along wonderfully, the two have never worked together until now.

Younger brother Richard is a forensic auditor for the state of Wisconsin who investigates whether health care providers and pharmaceutical companies are in compliance with state and federal regulations. James has been in the pharmaceutical industry for more than two decades, and is general manager at a renewable energy technology company in Minnesota. Together, the two are creating Basiliere Medical Laboratories – a high-quality, cost-competitive player in the parenterals (injectables) market – through the Fast Forward initiative.

“As part of the model, we are most excited to partner with the university system to prepare students for positions in the pharmaceutical marketplace by allowing them to experience disciplines such as marketing, quality assurance, quality control, regulatory and operations within the company,” explains James Basiliere. “We hope to bring over 60 to 70 jobs to the region once we are at full capacity. We will run lean to maximize our impact, and hope to generate $90 million in net income in year seven, while contributing more than $3 million in state and federal taxes.”

Basiliere says three Fast Forward mentors, Lawton, Riopelle and Yurjevich, were instrumental in enhancing the business plan and preparing the brothers to eventually garner support from investors.

Basiliere will manufacture the pharmaceutical generics and branded sterile injectables, and then package, label and distribute them to a global market that desperately needs these. As for location, the Basilieres are looking at leasing options in either Winnebago County or in Madison.

“It would be great to relocate back to the Fox Valley, and live and work in the area where we grew up,” says James.

Fast Forward 1.0

Fast Forward 1.0 is a collaborative initiative that targets fast-growth companies in the New North region. It targets successful firms whose seasoned founders and principals have invested in Northeast Wisconsin. They have the potential to create high-paying jobs, generate innovative products, services and access new markets and are positioned to attract capital and talent to the region. The program is in search of experienced businesspeople interested in helping to serve as mentors.

Objectives:

To expand access to technical support needed to advance a fast growth firm.

Organize a regional business mentoring program specifically targeting fast-growth firms.

Provide for a scalable, organizational model in the New North region to match regional and community resources with fast-growth start-ups and companies who can maximize them.

Put the focus on matching resources to needs for firms ready to leverage those resources towards capital objectives.

Increase the number of fast-growth companies operating in the region.

For more information on the Fast Forward program:

ONLINE: Click here to see a short video describing how Fast Forward works.

I love writing about innovative and cool technology. It’s changing the way we do everything, including getting our products frmo point A to point B. I recently featured several local shipping & logistics companies using technology to innovate for their clients in an article for INSIGHT Magazine, a widely-read Business-to-Business publication. It was great publicity for those companies, including Schneider Logistics, RGL Specialty Services, Leicht Transfer & Storage Co., Checker Logistics and Kimberly-Clark. (Check out all of my INSIGHT articles here.)

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Courtesy: Insight on Business magazine

 

Next time you’re driving along Highway 41 in northeast Wisconsin, pay attention to the multitude of trucking companies on the road. All those trucks running common routes, similar distribution locations and dispatch schedules might look like a lot of traffic, but several local companies recognize that competition on the road equals opportunity to get innovative and solve its industry’s biggest challenge.

When it comes to shipping and logistics, supply chain costs are now the number one expense of doing business. Schneider Logistics, Inc., a subsidiary of Schneider National, Inc., is one of several local shipping and logistics organizations getting creative to successfully navigate its customers’ biggest roadblocks.

For example, Schneider’s Integrated Delivery Service (IDS) is a shared-channel approach where competitors who move freight in the same geographic markets are actually sharing supply chains.

Schneider launched IDS in 2010 from its nine cross-dock locations across the nation, and it was recently recognized by Supply & Demand Chain Executive magazine’s annual Pros to Know list for bringing capacity, service, speed and cost savings to new markets. Merging its freight, the company customized its routes based on multiple shippers’ cross-docking, dedicated delivery, pool distribution, reverse logistics and recurring less-than-truckload (LTL) consolidation needs.

But the innovation didn’t stop there. Earlier this year, Schneider took a hard look at boosting its capabilities in integrated deliveries, starting with its after-market auto parts model for customers such as GM, Ford and Chrysler dealerships. How could Schneider feed its customers’ increasing appetite for shipping smaller quantities, more frequently and much faster?

“We thought, ‘Well, we already have the ability to provide very effective next-day delivery for our established auto parts customers, why not leverage that capability across multiple industries?’ So we’re now expanding into retail, chemical and equipment manufacturing,” says John Vesco, vice president and general manager of Integrated Delivery Services (IDS).

Dozens of customers are already reaping the benefits of Schneider’s IDS approach, which includes state-of-the-art scanning technology that scans and tracks any item from point of pickup to outbound delivery.

“We worked with a customer who was amazed that this system was able to remove 20 hours – an entire day – out of delivery turnaround. These efficiencies allow us to pool our deliveries and offer tremendous efficiencies and cost savings,” Vesco says. “We’re building on a long-term legacy, expanding into other industries with multiple carriers, all managed under our umbrella.”

Schneider’s Integrated Delivery Service currently operates in eight networks across the United States, and markets targeted for expansion include the Midwest and Dallas/Fort Worth, Texas.

Collaborative logistics

For Neenah-based Kimberly-Clark logistics planners, the opportunity to explore innovative solutions came together through advanced technology and opportunities to improve its green sustainability. Additionally, retailers have been asking K-C to help them find solutions for congestion and inventory challenges, especially as fuel costs have skyrocketed.

Two years ago K-C had an opportunity to collaborate with and connect two customers: CVS and Colgate-Palmolive, which created a co-shipping partnership within distribution centers in Texas, Florida and Georgia. The experiment has been largely successful, with K-C taking trucks off the road and reducing costs to eliminate total transportation miles by 10 percent.

“After seeing how this solution has driven our ability to deliver smaller batches more often, reduce congestion and lower inventory costs, CVS has been very supportive,” says Scott DeGroot, director of Customer Supply Chain Strategy at Kimberly-Clark in Neenah.

Because these partnerships have become common practice throughout Europe, DeGroot would stop short of calling K-C a pioneer in co-shipping innovations, “but we are among the first in recent history to do this in a practical way in the United States. We’ve talked about doing this here for more than a decade in North America.”

In addition to CVS and Colgate-Palmolive, K-C has been working with General Mills, S. C. Johnson and grocers Kroger and Wakefern Food Corp., to name a few. The company is planning to launch a new initiative in 2013 to reach more retail partners to facilitate this kind of sharing, but DeGroot knows well that it will take more than powerhouse K-C to drive the response.

“We have been speaking about this capability to industry and academic groups to grow a big community of interested parties to develop industry standards, advance the logistics and the tools it will take for everyone to succeed,” DeGroot says.

The benefits remain tantalizing, but DeGroot is hoping these best practice examples will move the industry to new collaboration opportunities. He adds that K-C still has work to do on its capabilities development to make this kind of collaboration scalable, and points to a bold and similar corporate culture of partner companies as the key to moving forward.

“It’s a lot like entering a marriage. We need trust, transparency and a willingness to commit even through challenging times,” DeGroot says. “If one fails, we both do.”

Going high-tech for game-changing logistics

In 1903, two horses and a wagon were all that T.M. Leicht needed to serve the paper mills in northeast Wisconsin. Today, the company has taken transportation and warehousing to a new level of domestic and international transportation, warehousing, order fulfillment and more, thanks to its highly customizable and sophisticated technology.

“We are industry leaders when it comes to embracing state-of-the-art tools to manage our business,” says Steve Evans, the chief technology officer for RGL Specialty Services and Leicht Transfer & Storage Co. in Green Bay, as well as Checker Logistics in Neenah. The companies are all under the umbrella of parent company RGL Holdings, Inc.

Real-time radio frequency and an integrated system of the latest logistics software allow RGL to up its game and serve customers like Georgia-Pacific, Bemis, Exxon Mobil and others, each with multiple transportation and tracking needs and warehousing requirements.

Each pallet or unit is bar code scanned for identification. Even RGL’s ergonomic and exhaust-free “green” electronic forklifts are equipped with the latest technology to communicate immediately and in real time via antennas and access points wired into the warehouses. It’s a very fast and accurate way to answer questions, produce reports and manage inventory.

“For example, if a customer alerts us to a quality issue with a specific pallet or roll of product, we can go into our Warehouse Management System (WMS), locate the bar code, and give them a snapshot of when the product was received, its exact location in our warehouse, or if it was shipped we can identify when it was shipped and the order and truck it was shipped on,” says Evans.

The system also caters to customers with a wide variety of products that have different shelf life requirements, such as products containing alcohols like commercial hand sanitizers and lotions which have tighter requirements in terms of inventory rotation and age management.

On the transportation end, the company invested in “tier one” McLeod Freight Management Systems software to help adapt to customer needs through sophisticated data sharing with its own trucks as well as loads shipped via other carrier companies.

The program sends electronic-shared information from the customer straight to RGL. Ten years ago, if customers transferred data electronically, they typically used a Value Added Network (VAN) provider.

But now software programs like McLeod transfer data through the Internet, making it cheaper and more available to customers.

Additionally, each truck is equipped with PeopleNet on-board computers that confirm location and delivery time. It even alerts customer service staff when the delivery is within a mile of arrival at the receiving area.

Because disaster recovery protection is critical, RGL’s system and network has data server rooms in both its Green Bay and Neenah locations.

“Every 15 minutes we send a snapshot of all of our data to the other server location to ensure it is backed up,” Evans says.

Post via the Cision blog:

I recently rejoined the Twittersphere (I was on hiatus while in between jobs last fall for fear that my future employer would be asking for passwords to my social profiles). When I began tweeting again, I was quickly reminded of the reasons I don’t follow certain colleagues or companies. Similar to the Six reasons I unfriended you on Facebook, this post will attempt to expose some of the reasons you or your brand may get unfollowed on Twitter.

1. Nutrition/Fitness tweets
This one speaks for itself. I don’t want to know that you’re going to the gym to blast your glutes or that it’s “back and bicep” day. Similarly, I’m not interested in knowing what brand of protein shake you had after your workout. You are doing Crossfit, good for you; you’re the best at exercising.

I’ll even take this one step further and have this encompass all food tweets. No one cares what you had for breakfast and I don’t need to see a picture of what you’re having for dinner.  It doesn’t matter what filter you apply to your club sandwich on Instagram, it still looks like a club sandwich.

2. Live-tweeting events you are watching on TV
Live-tweeting can be informative and entertaining. When social journalists are live-tweeting onsite, they offer an inside look and can add another perspective for people following a story/event. That being said, if you are watching the basketball game at home, I really don’t need to see your commentary on every play that happened. For example: “Wow, did you see that pass?!? #crazy.” First of all, I have no idea what you are talking about. Secondly, if I did know what you were referring to, I would have seen the pass because I’d be watching on TV too. Thanks.

3. Foursquare Check-ins
If you insist on syncing your Foursquare account with Twitter, please keep the check-ins to a minimum (and try to make them noteworthy). I assume you go to work every day, you don’t have to tweet that check-in. Do you think it’s important to inform me that you’re at Starbucks getting a venti soy-chai? I don’t. Also, if you tweet a gym check-in, please refer to number one on this list.

4. Brands that only tweet press releases
Many brands still only use Twitter to repost their press releases. I’d go to your website or I’d subscribe via email if I only wanted to receive your news. Companies that use Twitter solely to share their press releases are missing the point and there isn’t any benefit in following them.

5. Brands that don’t interact or engage
Having a Twitter account for your brand simply isn’t enough to stay relevant, consumers have grown to expect a swift response. Brands that refuse to acknowledge the people that care enough to tweet about their brand/products are not only doing a poor job, they are doing the brand a disservice. Customers appreciate replies, direct messages and retweets; a little acknowledgment goes a long way.

6. You tweet too much…. Or not enough
This is applicable for both personal and corporate accounts. Generally speaking, if you tweet more than once an hour on average, you tweet too much. Variety is the spice of life and I don’t need you dominating my Twitter feed. Conversely, if I’m looking through the list of people I follow and I don’t remember ever seeing a tweet from you, consider yourself unfollowed.

7. The follow/unfollow game
For those of you unfamiliar, the follow/unfollow game is probably the most annoying thing on Twitter. Most of us still get email notifications when someone follows us and reciprocating a follow is still a common practice. Brands use this as a sneaky way to get follow-backs and/or publicity. By following someone and quickly unfollowing them, the company gets exposure when the person is notified via email and  can sometimes get people (not knowing the company has already ditched them from their list) to follow-back. To be truthful, this practice is usually only done by companies/brands that would just tweet spam and advertisements anyways, so be wary when reciprocating a follow by any company.

Just a few things to keep in mind before you hit the “tweet” button next. I hope you didn’t have trouble following me (seee what I did there?).

Graphic courtesy of topgold via flickr

 Source

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As I am putting together some of the top Pinterest user tips (and complaints), I came across this article from The Hyper House about New Ways To Use Pinterest, and thought I’d pass it along. Are you doing these? What advice would you add?

1. Stop Sharing It All on Facebook

Pinterest being linked to Facebook makes it easy to find friends but how annoying is it when you see 12 updates on your Facebook feed because someone just discovered cute puppy photos? Don’t be that friend, the one who doesn’t realize they’re annoying everyone on Facebook when all you need to do is uncheck some buttons.

Log into Pinterest and go to your Settings page. Feel free to link your Pinterest page to your Facebook page but by toggling off “Add Pinterest to Facebook timeline” you’re one step closer to making your Facebook friends happier.

Now get ready to repin something. Anything. When you see the popup, make sure neither the facebook or twitter boxes are checked. Then you’re good to go!

2. Edit Your Profile

First up, I hear so many people complaining when they get new friends because then they get lots of emails every time their pins get repinned. You probably already spend time on pinterest and can view which pins of yours get repinned by viewing your pins page – http://www.pinterest.com/YOURUSERNAME/pins (so mine is http://pinterest.com/julieannie0729/pins/ or you can see the page here) so turn those pinterest emails off!

If you linked up Facebook and Pinterest then your first and last name are right on your Pinterest page. That might be fine with you now but if you want some anonymity then you can change your first or last name right from your settings page. Change any other info you want on this page, including your photo. You can add your website, a bio, a location, link your twitter page, or even your facebook page. They all end up displayed on your main pinterest page like so. My website is represented with a globe and my twitter and facebook pages are linked as well.

3. Pin It!

When I helped my mom sign up for Pinterest, I noticed she was clicking “Add” and then “Add a Pin” every time she found something new on the web. Go to the Pinterest Goodies page and just drag that Pin It button right up to your toolbar. There’s some additional info needed for Chrome so check out the page for instructions.

4. Pin the Post (Not a Blog)

I often see a really neat pin, click it to view the webpage and discover that the original pinner pinned it from their RSS feed or the front page of the website. That means a lot of searching to find that really awesome DIY project I wanted to try. Always click the title of the post you’re on to make sure you’re pinning the right part of the website. If you see something like “http://www.thehyperhouse.com/” You haven’t gone deep enough. Make sure there’s more after the slash, like this one is “http://www.thehyperhouse.com/2012/02/7-new-ways-to-use-pinterest/” which means you can pin this page and anyone who clicks on it will be brought right to this post.

5. Keep a 5:1 ratio

It’s really fun to discover new projects on Pinterest, right? But I’m sure you have had times when you’re browsing and you see the same dang smoothie recipe for the 100th time. I think anyone on Pinterest last fall remembers the super simple pumpkin cupcake recipe that wouldn’t die. If you’re just clicking repin on pinterest, you’re missing out on half the fun. You should try making your own creations or finding ideas from your favorite websites and pinning that new idea. Try to pin 1 new idea for every 5 repins to help keep Pinterest fresh.

6. Clear out your Bookmarks

Do you have tons of items bookmarked in your browser but never go to them? As you can see, it used to be impossible for me to find any recipes. I’m a visual person so seeing all my ideas in a Pinterest board means I’m more likely to cook the recipes instead of just meaning to. I just load my bookmarked page, pin it to a board, and then delete the bookmark. Spend 5-10 minutes a day clearing out your bookmarks and you’ll have a head start on your 5:1 ratio too.

7. Clear Out Your Folders

Let’s be honest, Pinterest appeals to most of us because we’re the type of people who had inspiration folders all over our computers. I had some leftover from my wedding, ideas for home renovation, even just funny photos making fun of the first Twilight movie. It was bad. I also had no idea where most of those photos came from and I don’t want to upload ideas to Pinterest without giving credit to the original creator.

Enter Google Images. You can drag and drop images from your computer right into the search field and it hunts down the original source for you. The results are amazingly accurate.

It not only knew from my photo that the images were plates but it also knew they were 12 days of Christmas plates, made by Rosanna, where they were online to buy, and other images cropped from the same image I had uploaded. When you use it for pinterest, just drag and drop your inspiration photo and look for the original source or a page that gives credit to the original source. Giving credit on Pinterest is always a good idea.

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You know those “Promoted” accounts and tweets on your Twitter sidebar? It turns out that some brands pay for Twitter followers. Oh, they don’t pay people to have them follow, but there is a cost involved, according to an email campaign from someone in Twitter Sales to prospective advertisers.

What I didn’t know is that there is actually a Cost Per Follower (CPF) rate for those Twitter accounts that are promoted. There is also a cost-per-engagement (clicks, favorites, retweets and “@Replies.”) for Promoted Tweets.

According to the memo from Twitter, the CPF costs between $2.50 and $4, while the listed CPE rates come in from $0.75 to $2.50, and advertisers must commit to three months at a minimum spend of $15,000.

Here’s the full sales letter:

‬
Hello, ‬
Thanks for reaching out to us to inquire about Twitter’s Advertising Products. We are happy to inform you that Twitter is preparing to roll out our next phase of beta testing, and we’d like to invite you to join us.

Please review the details of the program at the bottom of this email and reply to this email by COB (close of business), Thursday, 12/8 if your company meets the following qualifications and is interested in learning more. Once I have received your reply, I will follow up with you to set up a call and discuss next steps.

In the interim. I definitely recommend that you follow the @TwitterAds account and check out Twitter’s Advertising Blog here: http://advertising.twitter.com/.

Also wanted to take a moment to highlight that for the FIRST time in the history of Twitter advertisers are able to reach highly-relevant and targeted users on Twitter who are not currently following your account, with engaging and timely messages about your brand. At this time, the product is rolled out to only 25% of users on Twitter, and we’re already seeing well over 15x the impression volume of Promoted Tweets targeted in search, with the same stellar engagement rates.

Why advertise with Twitter?

• 100+ million active users, over 250+ million tweets per day
• Strong engagement rate for all Promoted Products
• Access to Analytics Dashboards with tweet-level performance data
• Verification of your company’s Twitter accountPromoted Products:
• Promoted Accounts: (PAc)Build a critical mass of loyal followers
• Target based on keywords, interest, and country
• Cost Per Follower (CPF) Auction
• Competitive CPF = $2.50-4
• Promoted Tweets: (PTw)Amplify your message beyond your core followership
• Cost Per Engagement (CPE) Auction
• Engagement = (Clicks + Favorites + Retweets + @Replies) / Impressions
• Competitive CPE = $0.75- $2.50Qualifications:
• 3-month commitment, $15k – $25k commitment
• Established Twitter presence; at least 50 tweets per account • Previous experience running SEM, Adwords, or Facebook campaigns
• Willingness to provide lots of feedback
• Twitter’s IO, Ts&CsExpectations:
• Beta test: Please remember that this program is still in a testing phase. We are looking for partners who are tolerant, flexible, and committed to helping us perfect our offerings.
• Account Management and Support: Expect live on boarding and training at initial launch, followed by an online help center and automated support throughout the program.

How Much Does a Twitter Follower Cost?

Thoughts?

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Have you been pinning? if you are one of those folks who love collecting things (rooster figurines, baseball cards, antique gardening tools), you may have discovered how to collect and share without clogging up your attic or that guest room closet. Pinterest is one of the hottest new social platforms for collecting and sharing sharing the things you love in a very visual and engaging way. It is also extremely addicting.

Pinterest is not exactly new, having been around since 2008. But for some reason, folks are just now “discovering” it.

How popular is this new online media? Here’s how it stacks up, according to FastCompany:

Pinterest just hit 11.7 million unique monthly U.S. visitors, who spend an average of 98 minutes a month on the site, compared to 2.5 hours on Tumblr, and 7 hours on Facebook. It’s also driving more referral traffic than Google+, YouTube, Reddit, and LinkedIn–combined, according to Shareaholic.

Finding Your Happy Place and Sharing Your Ideal Self

Dr. Christopher Long, a professor at Ouachita Baptist University teaching a course in consumer psychology this semester, says some of his students expressed concern over an assignment to use Pinterest to pin their own examples of content relevant to each chapter in the textbook. “They were trying to wean themselves because they were concerned with how much time that had spent on the site last fall. One even said her New Year’s resolution was to cut down on Pinterest,” Long says.

Long believes that Pinterest, like Facebook, relies on people generating content that interests other users, so once a critical mass of people comment and re-pin, it reinforces others to generate content. The more content is generated, the more it makes sense for users to frequent the site.

It’s more than just a critical mass of users, though, that’s driving Pinterest’s growth, says Long. “Pinterest boards are like its users’ personal happiness collages. [They represent] things that I appreciate, that I desire, and that express who I am, whether the things are cupcakes, shirtless David Beckham, or an inspirational quotation,” he says.

In contrast to Facebook, Long believes Pinterest is a refuge from relationship status, check-ins at restaurants, or pictures of kids. “It’s not a place where I have to worry about being bombarded by other people’s over-sharing of un-interesting or annoying daily experiences or about accidentally revealing intimate details of my day-to-day life,” he says.

In an ironic way, Long says, this frees many people to be more public about who they really are and who they want to be, because it’s less focused on the kind of personal content that sets off privacy and security alarms. “Pinterest is a place where we can demonstrate: ‘If it weren’t for all those mundane things that I do that I post on Facebook, this is what I would be doing and consuming. Here is my real self,’” he explains.

Perfecting the Art of Collecting

Though he doesn’t have his own Pinterest account, Ken Carbone, an acclaimed graphic designer whose clients include Tiffany & Co., Herman Miller, the Museé du Louvre, and the W Hotel Group, spent half an hour dissecting the design of the platform, after which time he admitted he’s jealous of everything from the logo to the generous but restrained size of the photos.

Beginning with the logo, which Carbone pronounces, “Casual but considered. People actually crafted this and it speaks to their attention to detail, which is not too rigid.” He goes on to praise the ease with which Pinterest devotees can gather images and create lists.

Carbone says Pinterest trumps Google image search because most of the images appear to be from original sources and art-directed photography, which makes products looks terrific.

“Not only does this stuff look great in the way it is presented, it takes me to this different world. I could waste a lot of time here. It’s visually very engaging,” says Carbone.

Though many social platforms have a tendency to lean toward content-rich density, Carbone says “That translates into busy and repulsive for me.” Pinterest’s secret weapon, he says, is its simplicity. “It’s generous in the way the graphics appear. With scrolling you can have a lot of content but not in the one frame. They’ve carefully built an interface with subtle touches of gray framing that is just enough.”

The proportion of the comments is also well-designed. “It is a clear sign the images are the hero and we are going to make those look as good as possible,” Carbone says.

Secret Sauce of Sharing

Long doesn’t know why some images get shared more than others. “I assume someone at Pinterest does, and that they are staying up late figuring out how to turn that into more users and more revenue.”

He does say that users seem to respond differently to pins from brands than the same one posted by an individual. “On Facebook newsfeeds, brand communications often take the form of sponsored stories or other ads, clearly indicating that this recommendation is being placed in your newsfeed because the brand wants it there.”

Long says that because Pinterest boards are essentially collections of “Likes,” the expectation is that users curate these more carefully than they may curate their Facebook Likes. “When I pin or re-pin something related to a brand, I am saying that I care about this content enough that I want to hold onto it or that I want to show other people that it is important,” he explains. “If Pinterest can keep enough eyeballs on people’s boards, those pins can functions as a more powerful and permanent recommendation than will my Facebook newsfeed’s transient mentions of what I listened to on Spotify or what brand of coffee I liked today.”

Carbone concurs. “The whole thing is advertising, but I don’t feel like I’m being sold anything directly, even though each pin will eventually take me to the source. I feel like a service is being provided for me to totally enjoy something that I am passionate about and find images I didn’t know existed.”

Room for Improvement

That said, Carbone has one suggestion. For decades, he’s kept versions of Pinterest’s mood boards in paper journals. “My own way is analog and private. I don’t necessarily need to share all my stuff,” he says. But for design and development, private Pinterest boards would be an excellent tool for professionals. “I would buy a subscription to that.”

Are you listening, Pinterest?

(Via the IE Blog)

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• PR Boards & PR Agencies on Pinterest (umpf.co.uk)
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• 5 Ways To Gain Customers Using Pinterest (socialmediatoday.com)
• Pinterest Porn: Are Breasts and Butts Offensive or Art? [POLL] (mashable.com)
• Pinterest, follow me! (wistfullywandering.wordpress.com)
• Why Pinterest Is So Addictive ()

Sometimes we writers, bloggers and social media folk in the West don’t think about the significance of our words until we view them from another perspective. When people in nations around the world log in to your site, what do they see? Are you certain that you are effectively communicating your brand message to them? Here are some thoughts and some excellent tools to consider from Social Media Today:

There’s no doubt social media is a global phenomenon.  Like “OK” and “Coca-Cola”, the words “Twitter” and “Facebook” are understood throughout the (computer-literate) world. One in nine people on Earth now has a Facebook profile, and an estimated 190 million tweets are sent each day.
For most international companies, a social media presence is seen as an essential way of communicating with customers. Yet while they’re pouring resources into tweeting at their English-speaking audience, most still neglect speakers of other languages.  Econsultancy’s ‘2010 Social Media and Online PR’ report found only a quarter of marketers would plan social media campaigns in multiple languages.

It’s easy to assume that most people speak English. But this is far from the case – even in the digital world. In fact, the number of Spanish, Russian, Arabic and Portuguese internet users is growing much faster than English speakers. Chinese is soon set to be the dominant language of the internet. And users overwhelmingly prefer to browse in their native language.
Going multilingual in social media might seem a daunting prospect at first. As with all marketing, it’s vital to do your homework, understand the audience and get the cultural references and tone right. It’s important to tailor messages to each audience – Korean users might not care about a product launch in London. But it can also be simpler than many people think. With a little research and local knowledge, going global can have huge benefits in reaching a much wider audience.

Choose your languages

The first step is deciding which countries and markets to target. Of course, you should be targeting countries where you’ll either have an ecommerce or on-the-ground presence. There are plenty of tools, such as Google’s Global Market Finder, that can help identify possible marketing opportunities.

It’s best to have separate Facebook or Twitter accounts for each country, not each language. After all, there are huge differences between French spoken in Quebec and France. And don’t forget non-English speakers closer to home. Spanish speakers in the United States have an estimated $1 trillion spending power.

Know your networks

The “big three” of social media – Facebook, Twitter and Linkedin – don’t have the same dominance in every country. For example, Mixi is the most popular social network in Japan, and Cyworld rules in South Korea. Qzone and Renren are massively popular in China. In much of Northern Europe, Xing is popular among business users as an alternative to LinkedIn. Of course, if you’re unsure whether to go for Google+, Yandex or Facebook, the ideal answer is all three!

Different cultures use social media differently

One study found German users tend to use Twitter to share information and news, while Indonesians are more likely to have conversations with followers. Brazilians love to blog, while many Indian users access the internet from their mobile phones. Anyone marketing in China should be aware of censorship laws and lists of banned keywords.

Keep it local – and personal

Separate Twitter or Facebook accounts mean you can tailor your message to your audience. Don’t just translate hashtags – research local trends and keywords. Dropping in cultural references and commenting on local news and events will keep followers interested.  It’s worth employing a native-speaking translator or social media manager, based in the country, to give it a truly local feel. And remember, social media is meant to be interactive. Taking time to respond to comments and questions engages users and is the best way to keep them.
via Social Media Today

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Looking for employment? Recruiters want to know that they are getting top-quality people, and they will be checking your social media activity. You need to assume that everything you post, tweet, share and photograph could potentially be seen by anyone and everyone. Let’s show some good character out there.

Via ragan.com:

A Jobvite social recruiting survey reported that 89 percent of U.S. companies plan to use social media in their employee searches. You can bet that what you put online will eventually be put “on file” when you’re applying for a job or after you get it.

Social media provides an excellent opportunity for showcasing your professionalism, intelligence, and maturity, which can set you apart from the competition.
Unfortunately, it seems the allure of making a fool of yourself through social channels is greater than the need to acquire and/or retain a job. Here are 12 examples of spectacular job losses due to social media stupidity.

1. The Weiner
Former Rep. Anthony Weiner of New York tweeted a lewd photo of himself in June to a young college student in Seattle, which he later tried to justify by saying it was supposed to be in a private DM and not a public tweet. Two weeks later he called a press conference and resigned—amid cheers, jeers, and cries of “pervert.”

2. The Chrysler F-Series
In March, an official @ChryslerAutos Twitter feed dropped the F-bomb to its more than 7,500 followers with this tweet: “I find it ironic that Detroit is known as the #motorcity and yet no one here knows how to ____ drive.” The 28-year-old social media marketer Scott Bartosiewicz was responsible for the tweet. His employer, New Media Strategies, Chrysler’s then social media agency, fired him. Chrysler, meanwhile, dropped NMS. Bartosiewicz called it a “technical glitch.”

3. Premature tweeting
Connor Riley was offered a position at Cisco in 2009, but was torn about the commute. So, naturally, she tweeted about it: “Cisco just offered me a job! Now I have to weigh the utility of a fatty paycheck against the daily commute to San Jose and hating work.” Guess who didn’t get the job? (Riley claims she turned down the offer first.)

4. Did I say that out loud?
Back in 2007, David Noordewier, then an employee of Walmart, posted on Myspace that the country’s average IQ would increase if bombs were dropped on all the company’s stores. Noordewier had a pink slip bomb dropped on him. A Walmart spokesperson wouldn’t confirm whether the Myspace post was the cause.

5. The quack heard around the world
Comedian Gilbert Gottfried made jokes about the Japanese tsunami while employed as the voice of the Aflac duck. “Japan is really advanced,” he tweeted. “They don’t go to the beach. The beach comes to them.” Aflac dropped Gottfried and found his replacement online.

6. I’m ready for my close-up, Mr. Gumbel
A NBC staffer was fired in February for posting a video of “Today Show” anchor Bryant Gumbel demonstrating his incredible lack of knowledge about the Internet. At least he left a legacy.

7. Backing the wrong horse
CNN senior Middle East editor Octavia Nasr tweeted about her respect for Lebanon’s Grand Ayatollah Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah after his death in 2010. Problem was that he was linked to bombings that killed hundreds of Americans. (Amy’s insert: Wait, that’s a bad thing?)

8. A dumb tweet 
In February, veteran war correspondent and NYU fellow Nir Rosen tweeted his thoughts in the wake of the news that CBS foreign correspondent Lara Logan suffered a sexual assault. He tweeted: “I’m rolling my eyes at all the attention she’ll get” and “it would have been funny if it happened to Anderson too.” A real class act, although he wasn’t fired. Instead, he resigned from NYU, although it’s unlikely he would have done so had he not sent the tweet.

9. The six-toppings pizza special
Staffers at a Domino’s Pizza franchise posted the now-infamous video of themselves doing gross things to a pizza, which was apparently served to customers. Wonder if the former Walmart employee knew about these two.

10. Rule: Never ‘friend’ your boss on Facebook
An employee of Nationale Suisse called out sick one day, claiming her work computer would aggravate her migraine. Of course, she was later “seen” posting messages to a friend’s Facebook page. A termination notice was added to her Facebook’s wall—so her migraine wouldn’t be affected by reading it at work.

11. Crowd-sourced dismissal
Pro Bowl running back Larry Johnson sent a series of inflammatory tweets against a gay fan and his coach. More than 30,000 fans petitioned the team to fire him. He was crowd-sourced right out of a job.

12. Social doesn’t hide stupid
Texas Longhorns football player Buck Burnette shared his personal views with fans on his Facebook page after Barack Obama became the first black president of the United States: “All the hunters gather up, we have a #$%&er in the whitehouse.” What amazes me, besides the incredible display of hatred and sheer ignorance, is that what he chose to censor was “the N-word.” He’s worried about a racial slur, while publicly issuing death threats against a president. Seriously?

12 outrageous job losses due to mishandling social media | Articles

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Ever play one of those covert, under-the-boardroom-table “jargon” BINGO games with your co-workers? You know, a friendly competition to see who can get the first row of pithy phrases or words the managers say at the staff meeting?  I don’t know about you, but I’m a visual person who would rather not hear about “boiling the ocean,” or  worse (gasp!) “opening the kimono.” Forbes has a great list of what not to say the next time you feel the need to reach out, touch base, shift a paradigm, leverage a best practice or join a tiger team. What would you add?

Core Competency
This awful expression refers to a firm’s or a person’s fundamental strength—even though that’s not what the word “competent” means. “This bothers me because it is just a silly phrase when you think about it,” says Bruce Barry, professor of management at Vanderbilt’s Owen Graduate School of Business. “Do people talk about peripheral competency?  Being competent is not the standard we’re seeking.  It’s like core mediocrity.”

Buy-In
This means agreement on a course of action, if the most disingenuous kind. Notes David Logan, professor of management and organization at the University of Southern California’s Marshall School of Business: “Asking for someone’s ‘buy-in’ says, ‘I have an idea.  I didn’t involve you because I didn’t value you enough to discuss it with you.  I want you to embrace it as if you were in on it from the beginning, because that would make me feel really good.’”

S.W.A.T. Team
In law enforcement, this term refers to teams of fit men and women who put themselves in danger to keep people safe. In business, it means a group of “experts” (often fat guys in suits) assembled to solve a problem or tackle an opportunity. An apt comparison, if you’re a fat guy in a suit.

Empower
This is what someone above your pay grade does when, apparently, they would like you to do a job of some importance. It’s also called “the most condescending transitive verb ever.” Says Chatman: “It suggests that ‘You can do a little bit of this, but I’m still in charge here. I am empowering you.’”

Open the Kimono
“Some people use this instead of ‘revealing information,’” says Barry. “It’s kind of creepy.” Just keep your kimono snugly fastened.

Bleeding Edge
Someone decided that his product or service was so cutting-edge that a new term needed to be created. It did not. Unless you are inventing a revolutionary bladed weapon, leave this one alone.

Lots of Moving Parts
Pinball machines have lots of moving parts. Many of them buzz and clank and induce migraine headaches. Do you want your business to run, or even appear to run, like a pinball machine? Then do not say it involves lots of moving parts.

Corporate Values
This expression is so phony it churns the stomach. Corporations don’t have values, the people who run them do.

Make Hay
This is jargon for being productive or successful in a short period of time. The phrase ‘to make hay’ is short for ‘make hay while the sun shines’, which can be traced to John Heyward’s The Proverbs, Epigrams and Miscellanies of John Heywood (circa 1562). A handy nugget for cocktail conversation, but that’s it.

Scalable
A scalable business or activity refers to one that requires little additional effort or cost for each additional unit of output. Example: Making software is a scalable business (building it requires lots of effort up front, while distributing a million copies over the Web is relatively painless). Venture capitalists crave scalable businesses. They crave them so much that the term now has become more annoying than the media’s obsession with celebrity diets.

Best Practice
This refers to a method or technique that delivers superior results compared with other methods and techniques. It is also perhaps the single most pompous confection the consulting industry has ever dreamed up.

Think Outside the Box
This tired turn of phrase means to approach a business problem in an unconventional fashion. Kudos to a Forbes.com reader who suggested: “Forget the box, just think.”

Solution
This word has come to mean everything from the traditional way to solve a mathematical proof to a suite of efficiency-enhancing software – and it is the epitome of lingual laziness. Says Glen Turpin, a communications consultant: “It usually refers to a collection of technologies too abstract or complex to describe in a way that anyone would care about if they were explained in plain English.”

Leverage
Meet the granddaddy of nouns converted to verbs. ‘Leverage’ is mercilessly used to describe how a situation or environment can be manipulated or controlled. Leverage should remain a noun, as in “to apply leverage,” not as a pseudo-verb, as in “we are leveraging our assets.”

Vertical
This painful expression refers to a specific area of expertise. For example, if you make project-management software for the manufacturing industry (as opposed to the retail industry), you might say, “We serve the manufacturing vertical.” In so saying, you would make everyone around you flee the conversation.

Over the Wall
If you’re not wielding a grappling hook, avoid this meaningless expression. Katie Clark, an account executive at Allison & Partners, a San Francisco public relations firm, got a request from her boss to send a document “over the wall.” Did he want her to print out the document, make it into a paper airplane and send it whooshing across the office? Finally she asked for clarification. “It apparently means to send something to the client,” she says. “Absurd!”

Robust
This otherwise harmless adjective has come to suggest a product or service with a virtually endless capacity to please. A cup of good coffee is robust. A software program is not.

Learnings
Like most educated people, Michael Travis, an executive search consultant, knows how to conjugate a verb. That’s why he cringes when his colleagues use the word “learning” as a noun. As in: “I had a critical learning from that project,” or “We documented the team’s learnings.” Whatever happened to simply saying: “I learned a lesson from that project?” Says Travis: “Aspiring managers would do well to remember that if you can’t express your idea without buzzwords, there may not be an idea there at all.”

Boil the Ocean
This means to waste time. The thinking here, we suppose, is that boiling the ocean would take a long time. It would also take a long time to fly to Jupiter, but we don’t say that. Nor should we boil oceans, even the Arctic, which is the smallest. It would be a waste of time.

Reach Out
Jargon for “let’s set up a meeting” or “let’s contact this person.” Just say that—and unless you want the Human Relations department breathing down your neck, please don’t reach out unless clearly invited.

Punt
In football, to punt means to willingly (if regretfully) kick the ball to the other team to control your team’s position on the field. In business it means to give up on an idea, or to make it less of a priority at the moment. In language as in life, punt too often and you’ll never score.

Impact
This wannabe verb came to prominence, says Bryan Garner, editor in chief of Black’s Law Dictionary, because most people don’t understand the difference between the words “affect” and “effect.” Rather than risk mixing them up, they say, “We will impact our competitor’s sales with this new product.” A tip: “Affect” is most commonly a verb, “effect” a noun. For instance: When you affect my thinking, you may have an effect on my actions.

Giving 110%
The nice thing about effort, in terms of measuring it, is that the most you can give is everything—and everything equals 100%. You can’t give more than that, unless you can make two or more of yourself on the spot, in which case you have a very interesting talent indeed. To tell someone to give more than 100% is to also tell them that you failed second-grade math.

Take It to the Next Level
In theory this means to make something better. In practice, it means nothing, mainly because nobody knows what the next level actually looks like and thus whether or not they’ve reached it.

It Is What It Is
Thanks.

See the full list of the most annoying business jargon.