January 13, 2009 at 4:36 am | Posted in Business Tips, Linkedin, Networking | 1 Comment
Tags: Economy, Linkedin, Networ, Profiles
In the current economy, it is important to be ready for change.
People want to find a clear answer, an idea to build a strategy on – they want a path. For the time being, change and uncertainty are the new normal. So when things are unpredictable, now is a good time to:
- Network: both in the workplace and externally as well; build some new connections; expand what you can see
- Update: your profiles… linkedin and similar places; increase your visibility/how you are seen
- Prioritize: list your current projects… evaluate and rank them; focus on what is under your control
Network
How well do you know your contacts? Consider a review of your connections in order to maintain a strong network. If there are people you don’t know very well, take the time to better understand them, or consider purging them entirely. It’s a good time to clean house and build out strong.
Update
Your profile represents you online so take some time to review and update it. I think it’s best to write in the first person (use “I” instead of “Carson”) when talking about yourself. Updating your profile will drive attention and increase your visibility. Have a look at what other contacts/people are doing and look to leverage tools and apps to make the most of your presence.
Prioritize
The main idea is to evaluate what you are currently doing and look for easier/better ways of getting things done. This will probably also indicate some things that just shouldn’t be a priority right now, so delegate them or put them on the shelf for now.
January 5, 2009 at 1:51 pm | Posted in Blogging, Business Tips, Google, Marketing, Sales Methodologies, Sales Tips, Social Media | Leave a comment
Tags: Delicious, Google, Linkedin, Marketing, Prospecting, Sales, Strategy, Twitter
When considering your marketing and sales strategy, ask your yourself a question – why should your market care about you?
People buy when they have a need. Outside of those who buy quickly, Sellers always seem to be concerned with 2 things:
- Follow up until they do buy
- Drive them to your website
While these are actually good ideas, most times they are not done very well. Let’s break it down…
Turn Prospecting into Sharing
Most times that a seller follows up, they are basically saying, “Are you ready to buy yet?“. Endless calls and emails are sent with very little or no results. All this does is continue to flood your market with annoying and unwanted messages. The main goal in following up with any prospect is to offer them something they value – and the most sensible thing to offer them is information.
How? Use some simple tools like Google Alerts to search for articles and information that your market can benefit from. Send them links, but don’t don’t sell to them – just share information. This strategy can work very well for individual sales people to connect with their prospects. BTW – your prospects are part of your network too… so treat them like it. Give them referrals, helpful information and things they can use.
Your Website – Why Should They Care?
For a larger, organizational approach strategy – give your market a place to go for information. Consider again – unless someone had an immediate need to buy, why else would they ever visit your website?
Your website can be a place for people to learn and share information. By building this idea at the core of what your website is, you will be positioning yourself as a thought leader, a resource, an organization of value. By using blogs (like this one on WordPress), and creating opportunities for your market (with tools like Twitter, Delicious, Groups on Linkedin…) to learn more about your industry and current topics, you are giving them something they can really use and that is what will bring them back. What you are really doing here is positioning your brand into the conversation that is already going on – and that is a very valuable way to build engagement and awareness.
December 4, 2008 at 1:41 am | Posted in Branding, Personal Brand, Social Media, Uncategorized | Leave a comment
Tags: Brand, Facebook, Google, Linkedin, Personal Brand, profile, Social Media
In a continuing effort to be everywhere at once, Google has a Profile feature… Here’s mine.
Do you have a Google profile? I’d be interested to see it and understand how people are using it differently than Facebook or Linkedin. I think it begs the question – just how many profiles does a person need? Or on the flipside, is the idea of a singular profile even important?
All these social media profiles are really a venue to demonstrate personal brand. Is it difficult to demonstrate consistency through multiple profiles? Is it an issue of redundancy? Is each profile a specifically different media and therefore merits a different “flavor” of personal brand?
I’d like your help in thinking this out… please let me know your thoughts!
December 1, 2008 at 3:33 pm | Posted in Getting Started, Social Media | Leave a comment
Tags: Andy Warhol, Facebook, Linkedin, Marshall McLuhan, Obama Girl, Social Media, The Future, Twitter, YouTube
“In the future, everyone will be famous for 15 minutes.”
Most people cite Marshall McLuhan as a visionary (me too) in the evolution of the Internet, but let’s take a closer look at Andy Warhol. I mean, have you ever tried to read McLuhan? Really? It’s pretty dense, very academic. In Warhol, here is someone who was very interested in using different media, a variety of image sources, and was much more “user friendly” – so to speak.
While Warhol was famous for many reasons, the quote above is probably the most repeated. And he was right…
Consider social media sites like YouTube. It is 100% user driven content – and it promotes, if not helps to manufacture, the 15 minute celebrity (Obama girl comes to mind). I would think that Warhol would definitely consider 2008 as the future and his prediction is completely true. The same goes for Facebook, Linkedin… and Twitter (where everyone is famous for 15 seconds at a time). If you are not famous in 2008, it’s simply because you choose not to – the tools are right here at hand, literally. And they are free.
Of course, the goal of social medial is not make everyone famous (but we are getting there). Social media allows engagement and connectivity, what we do with it is another story.
What is your story?
April 2, 2008 at 11:23 am | Posted in Linkedin, Social Media | 7 Comments
Tags: B2B, Facebook, Linkedin, Marketing, Marshall McLuhan, Networking, Sales, Social Media
Click Here to check out my guest blog post on Patrica Mayo’s ComHacker site.
In this blog, I cover issues such as dissemination and position Marshall McLuhan’s “the medium is the message” statement into B2B marketing strategies.
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