Author: Jim Ewel

How are you doing on those New Year’s Resolutions? If you’re anything like me, you either didn’t make New Year’s Resolutions this year because they haven’t worked in the past, or today, a week into 2012, you’re struggling with those resolutions.

Dr. BJ Fogg, the founder of the Persuasive Technology Lab at Stanford University, wants to change how we approach resolutions, specifically, how we form new habits.

At a Holiday party the other day, a friend who is also a reader of my blog asked me, “How do you do it? I know I should blog, and I’ve started a couple of blogs, but I always seem to fizzle out.”

I get it. I’ve been there too. I started two other blogs before this one, both of which I neglected after a month or two.

So what’s the answer? Here’s what has worked for me.

You already spend an hour a day on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn; do you really need another social network? Here are 9 facts about Google+ that may help convince you that you need to add Google+ to your social media marketing in 2012.

1. Google+ affects search results on Google – If someone is in your Google+ Circles, their content will have a higher page rank in your searches than someone who is not in your circles. The reverse holds true as well (your content will rank higher in the searches done by people in your Google+ Circles). If you want higher page ranks, you should build up your circles, particularly among people influential in your field. This is subtle so far and just one factor in Google’s algorithm, but I’ve seen it move content up several places in searches.

The Super-Angel or VC you’ve been hoping to meet is approaching your booth at TechCrunch Disrupt’s Startup Alley.  You have 5-7 seconds to get his attention. What do you say?

This is not the time to trot out the classic Unique Value Proposition (UVP). If you’re not familiar with how to write a UVP, stop right now and go read Positioning: The Battle for your Mind by Al Ries and Jack Trout.

William James once said “First a new theory is attacked as absurd; then it is admitted to be true, but obvious and insignificant; finally it is seen to be so important that its adversaries claim that they themselves discovered it.” The ideas contained in The Lean Startup by Eric Ries seem to have advanced to the third stage, with people claiming that the ideas are not new. While there’s a little truth to this, as Ries admits his debt to Toyota’s lean manufacturing philosophy and to Steve Blank’s Customer Development methodology, the larger truth is that Ries has introduced a revolutionary, counter-intuitive approach to building startups, which if followed, should greatly improve the odds of success.