Yesterday I met with IDEA2, a PAAS company that allows anyone to build an integrated app in a short time. All the elements are built into the platform including API integration with a number of software apps, like Salesforce and Slack.

Slack is one of the fast growing apps. One million users log on each day. Slack is a workflow app. There’s a story behind it. This company raised a chuck on money – about $25M – to build a game. After burning through $19M they realized it wasn’t going to happen. However, the platform that they used to communicate and collaborate (and manage workflow) is Slack.

In the market of VoIP, integrations are key. Think about a Slack integration.

There are 3 reasons I talk about marketing so much.

1) Marketing is Everything. Every touch of the marketplace is marketing. The brand is an accumulation of every interaction with your business.

2) The best tech doesn’t win. Microsoft won because they made strategic deals and marketed the heck out of their crappy operating systems. Even their server O/S. The MCSE certificate program was marketing.

3) Most tech and telecom companies suck at marketing. They don’t even tell a decent story.

So that is why I write about marketing so much.

Yesterday I was surprised by a potential client’s reaction to usage of my time. I had to take a step back to reply. It obviously means that I have not explained my value clearly enough.

When you engage RAD-INFO INC, you get my years of experience working with over 65 service providers of all sizes – from 1 person shops to multi-million dollar nationwide CLECs to billion dollar cable companies.

Successful Projects for my clients have included network design, hiring, branding, messaging, product launch, switch/vendor vetting, sales training, best practices, channel sales, social media, online marketing, direct mail, email marketing, sales, strategy, tactics, ideas, end-to-end organization evaluation and more.

Many think that it is the ideas that people want from me. No. Ideas are a commodity. Clients mainly pay for a plan and execution of those ideas.

I saw this Tom Peters slide on the Performance-Planning Grid. When you hire RAD-INFO INC, you get the upper right quadrant. Good planning, Good execution. You join the elite.

To follow up on questions from the blog last week on Gigabit Broadband projects, here is one from Massachusetts and one from NYC.

Wired West is a project in Western Massachusetts started in 2011 by 32 towns. The website is to get 40% of each town pre-signed before deployment. This is a 100 Mbps offering (to Gigabit) on a muni network. Engadget has a good read about it. This isn’t Google-esque marketing, but then not much is.

In NYC, the Economic Develeopment Corp is putting up $5M to bring broadband to business zones. “Through the Connect IBZ program, Stealth Communications* will build a fiber optic network in the Southwest Brooklyn IBZ, and will work with NYCEDC and members of the community to determine a site for an outdoor wireless network that will be free to the public.”

Another project will be handled by Xchange Telecom, which “will create a fiber core, fixed-wireless edge broadband network in the Long Island City, North Brooklyn, and Greenpoint-Williamsburg IBZs, enabling customers to receive service from network hubs wirelessly via rooftop-mounted equipment.”

*Stealth is an ISP in NYC that used to run the Voice Peering Fabric. Now running fiber all over NYC.

Lessons from Gigabit by C.Spire.

If you are rolling out your own fiber, give RAD-INFO INC a call at 813-963-5884 for a boost in sales and penetration.

One of my favorite bands is Pearl Jam. I love the music and their passion. The band expends a lot of energy on charity and fight wrongs. There is a debate over if PJ is over-rated. I think many bands can take a business lesson from PJ. And so can you.

The PJ model is similar to Grateful Dead. Dave Matthews, Phish, PJ and the Dead all had a tribe. They have a relationship with that tribe. They make products and songs for that tribe. They built community – more than a fan club. They give back. They rake in bucks. PJ makes $2.5 million per night in concert.

Not everyone is going to like your music. That’s fine. Focus on the ones that DO like your music. Move them through the funnel. They listen on the radio (or Pandora or YouTube) for free. Maybe they buy an mp3. Release live albums or singles, even different versions of the same song – and occasionally throw in a cover. Invite people to the fan club. Tickets to concerts get released into the fan club first (to cheat scalpers). Special merchandise is fan club only. A gift gets sent every year to the fan club members. They go to shows – usually more than one per year.

You should be doing the same thing. Why aren’t you? Don’t want to bother your customers?

Note: a case study of DMB.