When TNW sat down with a member of the SharePoint team in January, details about how the product was doing were hard to come by. The team is well coached to stay mum, even after being subjected to my intensive (ha) inquiries.

But today the product group opened up, revealing that Microsoft is currently adding some 20,000 users a day to the platform, surely growing what is already a cash cow for the company.

If you run the daily number out for 365 days, Microsoft is adding some 7.3 million users yearly to the popular business application.

The last time that we checked into SharePoint was when the first service pack for SharePoint 2010 was released.

What is SharePoint? In case you don’t know, and there is no shame in not knowing, SharePoint is a collection of tools that allow a businesses to collaborate, mange content, and execute a number of other server related tasks. In 2009 SharePoint was over a $1 billion dollar business, and we suspect that with its current massive growth it is rapidly nearing $2 billion in yearly revenue.

SharePoint enjoys the distinction of being a popular product with both employers and employees, with a great number of SharePoint groups and meetups in existence across the US where power users come together and exchange best-use tips. We can hardly imagine anything more nerdy.

It feels like Microsoft is taking the wraps off of SharePoint with this announcement, letting its success wave in the wind. Now, we must wait and see if any of SharePoint’s competition respond by releasing some of their own numbers. If they do, and they trump what Microsoft has released, Redmond may regret its decision to open up.

Whatever the case, it appears that SharePoint is on the path to becoming one of Microsoft’s most important products.

Posted via email from Jason Rose

Someone complimented me on my networking skills yesterday which is nice, but also misleading. See, I don’t consider myself a good networker in the traditional sense. I’m not good at small talk, too shy to just talk to strangers and don’t get the point of exchanging business cards with strangers at so called networking events. In fact, I never go to networking events.

A lot of people think that networking is the act of acquiring new contacts. And thats a laborious process involving lots of boring conversations with generally uninteresting people in uncomfortable circumstances. You see, not my thing at all.

What I do enjoy is to talk to people I like and get to know more about them. I love engaging in inspiring conversations with people. I also like doing people favors. I don’t have a lot of contacts in my address book. Really. But I do know that almost everyone who is in there knows me and when I call them they will probably say “Hey Boris, how nice of you to call, how are you!?”.

Those people are not just contacts to me. These are people I’ve built up relationships with. So when I get to a ‘networking’ event, which I usually try to avoid, I talk to people I already know. I inquire about what they are working on and what inspired, surprised or amused them. When I do that I’m seriously interested and not watching over their shoulders for the next victim to pass along my business card to.

There is an interesting story in “How to make friends and influence people” (which every entrepreneur should read at least once) about the author (Dale Carnegie) meeting with a botanist one evening. Carnegie hardly spoke but just listened to the botanist talk about his passion. He kept asking the botanist questions and encouraged him to keep telling more stories. At the end of the evening the botanist compliments and thanks the host of the evening for introducing him to Carnegie and calls him a “most interesting conversationalist.”

Carnegie explains that he didn’t tell one story but simply took genuine interest which made him decide to listen intently:

“I had him thinking of me as a good conversationalist when, in reality, I had been merely a good listener and had encouraged him to talk.”

Next time you go to a networking event feel free to leave your business cards at home and just focus on the other person. Don’t talk about yourself but only try to think about how you can help them. Ask them to tell you their stories and try to focus on only one or two people. If you want to connect with them (you didn’t bring any cards, right?) offer to email them an interesting link or article (maybe this one?) and email them as soon as you get home.

Networking shouldn’t be about the quantity but quality of the connections you make. Once you realize that networking becomes a lot easier and more rewarding.

P.S. the photo at the top of this post shows me shining shoes. I shined shoes for a while at so called ‘networking’ events as an alternative to drinking beers and standing around chitchatting. I’ll bet you that anybody who’s shoes I’ve shined still remembers me.

Posted via email from Jason Rose

A TROPICAL resort island that has hosted stars such as Elton John and Vivien Leigh has been snapped up for less than $10 million.

Posted via email from Jason Rose

Billionaire media mogul Kerry Stokes has labelled print newspapers a “sunset industry” and says the sector is likely to rely heavily on social media in the future.

Posted via email from Jason Rose

USP means ‘unique selling proposition’. Ironically, this boring-sounding term is what makes you really exciting to other people. Your USP is what makes you special.

For your marketing to be even remotely effective, it’s absolutely vital for you to know – and be able to summarise in a single line – what your unique selling proposition is. 

Why? Because if you don’t know what makes you special, why should anyone else care? 

Nailing your USP can be tricky, but can be fast-tracked by focussing on two questions. 

What makes me different from everyone else? 

How do you know what makes you different if you don’t know what the others in your market are doing? You don’t exist in a bubble – and neither do your clients. Like it or not, you’re going to be compared. 

Here’s a simple way to discover what makes you different: 

1. Define what you do as best you can (e.g. plumbing)
2. Define the people you want to do it for (e.g. people in Bondi, Australia)
3. Google those terms (i.e. plumbing, Bondi, Australia) to find out how others like you are promoting themselves
4. Take note of the key services and products they’re promoting and the messages they’re conveying
5. Take note of what’s missing from their sites that you know you offer (or could offer). 

You’re specifically looking for any gaps that are likely to be well received by your ideal client. 

It could be a particular service, product, or guarantee. Or it could be that you know everyone in Bondi is groovy-savvy and there are no plumbing websites that look remotely groovy-savvy…and you are pretty groovy-savvy yourself (yes, even plumbers can be groovy-savvy). But is being a groovy-savvy Bondi plumber enough to serve as a unique selling proposition? Maybe. This leads us to the next question… 

Why should they care?

What does your ideal client care about? 

Essentially, most people want to know that: 

• You are reliable; and/or
• You are responsive; and/or
• You are worth what you charge; and/or
• You are someone they want to be associated with (e.g. using your product/service makes them feel groovy-savvy). 

The unique selling proposition

The plumber in Bondi will need to promote that he is reliable, responsive and reasonably priced. Why? Because who wants dodgy plumbing for more than a day? And people are watching their wallets – even the groovy-savvy ones. However, most plumbers advertising in Bondi are likely to be saying they are reliable, responsive and reasonably priced. 

You need to say it too, but by having a groovy-savvy-looking website you will be also saying “AND we are one of you – we, too, are groovy-savvy”. Of course, you don’t actually print the words ‘groovy-savvy’. It is just obvious from the design of your website – and your business card, flyers, other marketing collateral and personal branding. 

Work it baby, work it

Your unique selling proposition could be a particular service, a guarantee offer, or just a style that your ideal client wants to associate with. The point is that once you know your unique selling proposition, you’ll then be able to work out the most effective way to promote it. 

Are you a groovy-savvy plumber from Bondi? If not, what’s your USP?

Posted via email from Jason Rose