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Quick and free method to easily monitor your personal brand
Posted on August 17, 2017 at 12:50 PM |
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Building your personal brand requires tenacity and dedication. If you’ve been focused on developing
your personal brand you also know it takes time and money. It takes time to
engage your audience and it takes even more time to create content that will
get noticed. The last thing you feel like doing is working overtime trying to
monitor your results. Fortunately there is a quick, easy, and free method that
you can use to gauge your efforts. This is where “Twitter Lists” can
help. Get in your Wayback Machine because Twitter released this feature in November 2009! In short, Twitter Lists allow you to organize
the profiles you’re following into groups. As you can see above I’ve
created (Subscribed to) 15 lists. The
filtering aspect of this feature is helpful if you are trying to zero in on
something specific, such as Twitter users based on location, employer, or any
other relevant categories. Creating a Twitter List is a simple process. The
first thing you’ll be asked is to provide a name for your
list. That’s where this feature becomes useful as a reputation
management tool. If you’ve been listed you’ve caught someone’s
attention. Something in your bio or the content of your tweets has
made an impression. In the future, the person who listed you will be
able to find you quickly because they filed your profile under a group they
intend to monitor. In other words, your reputation or influence has
been noted. You can review the lists you’ve been placed on by
clicking “Member of.” Next you’ll
want to take a good look at how they’ve named and/or described the list. A few
examples of lists I’m a member of: Overall the Lists feature is a
quick and free way to monitor your influence and reputation. If you use
TweetDeck ( https://tweetdeck.twitter.com … also a free tool) you can also see how many
times you’ve been listed (4,883 times). In that way you can also get a feeling
for how fast your reputation is growing. Let me end with one more
suggestion. When someone lists me in a category that fits with my personal
branding strategy I make the effort to thank them for their consideration. In most cases they will hit the
Like button or reply “You’re welcome.” It’s a small gesture that pays big
dividends. After all, they’ve just added value to your brand. |
Without rapport your content will not get attention.
Posted on May 15, 2017 at 12:57 PM |
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Free white papers and eBook’s, free seminars and webinars, free
assessments, free consultations, free demonstrations, free software download, free,
free, free. It sounds great, after all,
why pay for business advice and knowledge when you can get it for free? But it’s not really free because every choice has cost. What we don’t spend in dollars, we spend it time,
attention, and effort. There is also “opportunity
cost” to consider. When you pick one
path you are losing the opportunity to explore another. That means economically speaking, nothing is
truly free. Does
that mean lead generation campaigns should be using the phrase “with our
compliments” instead? That phrase does more closely imply that
something is being given as a courtesy, but that there still may be time,
attention, an email address, or some other information required to get it. While
that phrase is a bit more transparent, it doesn’t have the catchy ring of “free”
and isn’t favored by marketers. I’m sure
you don’t see it used very often.
This topic really is
important for content producers to consider.
It takes both time and money to produce quality content for lead generation
campaigns. While most organizations
insist on tracking the ROI of every marketing campaign I’m not confident they
always include all the costs associated with the development of quality content. In some ways the production of content is now
a “sunk cost” because in today’s social media environment if you’re not
investing in a steady stream of engaging content you’ll soon be forgotten by
the influencers and targeted personas you’re trying to attract and nurture. And let’s not forget; for every individual on
this planet “attention” is a limited resource.
In fact, in most situations you’ll be lucky to snag “partial attention,”
let alone your target audience’s full-attention. If content producers charged would that change your perceived
value of the exchange? Can you really
see yourself paying? Yes, there is some
content we all pay for. But in relation to most of the thought-leadership
material produced for sales lead generation purposes that is not the case. So content has a real cost, but is difficult to charge for
it. And attention is a limited resource
meaning it’s technically not free either.
In order for some type of communication to begin you’re going to need to
start building rapport. Without rapport, you will not get what
you want.
In Genie Z. Laborde’s book “Influencing with
Integrity” she points out that when rapport is not present, it becomes top
priority in communication. In fact,
rapport is like money: it increases in importance when you do not have it, and
when you do have it, a lot of opportunities appear. You’ll know you have it when you have a sense
of shared understanding. We have more
attempts at communication today, that is, more attempts to talk to others than
is imaginable. Yet true communication
often remains elusive because the data explosion and noise levels have gone up
so fast that it feels like no one really takes time to listen any more. Does your brand really listen to the voice of
the customer? Or just broadcasting? If
you’re not listening, how do you know if you have a shared sense of
understanding? Coercion
is about getting people to do what you want them to; persuasion is about
getting them to want to do what you want them to do. Persuasion takes time. It requires rapport and understanding your
target markets needs and desires. You
need to develop trust by building rapport and credibility, and minimizing their
risk. If you’re not getting what you want
from your content it’s time to change your strategy. |
Why your lead generation program is damaging your brand
Posted on May 3, 2017 at 6:37 PM |
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“Thanks for following! Let me
know if I can help!” It appears to be a friendly welcoming, offering help to the receiver of
the message, but it’s not. In fact, if
you are using those ten words at the front end of your lead generation campaign then you are actually damaging your brand.
Here is why: 1. You delivered it through a direct message
automation application didn’t you? I
thought that was the case. Sorry, but
most people delete those messages without ever reading them. Many will even unfollow you based on your
action. Those types of messages are
viewed much like email marketing spam.
So, unless you want your personal or corporate brand associated with
that kind of activity you should turn it off. 2. Gratitude is a good thing. It’s always polite to thank people when the
situation calls for it. But this is not
one of those situations. Perhaps ten
years ago, when Twitter was new and the rules of engagement weren’t understood. But thanking someone through an automated
message (btw, that’s very impersonal) for following you, or in many cases they
were actually following you back, now comes across as a rookie move. Are you currently calling yourself a “social
media guru?” Too bad, because now they
know you really aren’t. 3. “Let me know if I can help.” We really appreciate that you are willing to
jump in and solve our problems. It’s
very generous of you. But you might as
well as said the following; “Now, please take the time to go to my website and
figure out exactly what I sell. Then,
think about your daily needs and problems and try to determine if you think my
services or products can help you. If
they can, let me know.” If you have
spent any time at all carrying a quota then you know this is another rookie
sales mistake. Do you really think your audience is going to explore your website when
you probably have less than eight seconds to make an impression and gain their
attention? I didn’t have to ask that question
because you already know the answer. Of
course your audience is not going to take time to try to figure you or your
company out. Their attention is limited and they want you to figure
them out. So, turn off your direct
message automation program and start over before it’s too late. |
Your prime prospect is not showing interest – now what?
Posted on February 14, 2017 at 9:11 AM |
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My prime prospect is showing me their child pose. That’s code speak for “I’m not paying
attention now, so don’t bother me.” The
silence is deafening. What are my
options? 1. Get busy with some loud broadcasting activity? You
know, blast them with all the channels including the phone, email, texting and social
media. Sure, I can wake them up and
force them to engage with me! 2. Hoover
over them and watch to see if their current position shifts in the slightest. At that point I could quickly swoop in and
hijack their attention before they nod off again. 3. Monitor and listen; wait for them to wake and
regain their focus. Use the downtime to reevaluate
the environment and determine what type of content would be more relevant. That
last option is really hard for a sales and marketing person like me to consider. It’s hard to wait, listen and reflect when
you are action-oriented. And what’s with
the short attention span? Prospects seem
to enter the child pose so quickly! Of
course the idea of creating more content to build interest and keep the
prospect engaged always feels childish and is exhausting. So, under the banner of satisfying unmet needs, education and
thought-leadership let the “do not call,” “unsubscribe” and “unfollow” risks be
dammed. After all, I need to pitch my
solution by getting the word out because I have a sales funnel to fill. And so the unsolicited pitches start to crank
up the noise. Except I’m not the only one pitching out there. Everyone seems to think they are unique, but all the approaches follow the same old templates. What is your Unique Selling Proposition? Contact Alan See CMO Temps, LLC at [email protected] When Ted Turner was asked for the secret to success, he said; “Early to
bed, early to rise, work like hell and advertise.” That’s not something that marketing people
can bet their careers on anymore. We
live in a relationship-based economy.
Your prospect is looking for transparency, trust, relevance and
engagement. It’s time to step-back and
listen. |
The executive you’re targeting isn’t going to tell you their “biggest challenge.” Learn why.
Posted on August 23, 2016 at 11:34 AM |
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Reputation Reviews for People on Twitter
Posted on August 12, 2016 at 11:45 AM |
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Yes, it’s true; you can monitor professional
reputations on Twitter. So, if you are
in Human Resources why bother asking for 3 references when you can quickly
access hundreds or even thousands of short reviews on the executive you are
vetting. It’s kind of like reading
customer reviews on Amazon, and just as easy. Here is what you need to know. Back in November 2009 Twitter launched an
interesting feature called Twitter Lists. In short, Twitter Lists
allow you to organize the profiles you’re following into groups. The
filtering aspect of this feature is helpful if you are trying to zero in on
something specific, such as Twitter users based on job title, industry, or any
other relevant background information.
You can create as many lists as you need, and yes, if you’ve caught
someone’s attention you can be “LISTED.”
If you’ve been LISTED something in
your bio and or the content of your tweets has made an impression. In the future, the person who listed you
will be able to find you quickly because they filed your profile under a group name
they intend to monitor. In other words,
your reputation or influence has been noted. This screen shot is taken from the
TweetDeck (https://tweetdeck.twitter.com/ ) interface.
The search on my name reveals my profile showing that I currently have
86,450 followers and have been LISTED 4,653 times (my LISTED ratio is 5% of my
followers). I like to review this number
every month to gauge how quickly it is growing.
If the growth is heavy that means my profile and content is continuing
to make an impression. Now,
drill down to look at how they’ve named and described the list that they have
placed you in. This will give you an
idea if your content or tweets is projecting the type of persona you
desire. There can be worst things in
life than to be called out for “Marketing Legends” or “Inspiring Leaders,” so in
this situation I can be assured that my social media reputation and influence
is trending in a positive direction. Alan See – List Sample In our social economy your social media
reputation is your calling card and bond.
And we all know the digital world places a high value on trust and
reputation. Good or bad, how you are
LISTED or labeled is a quick gauge of whether or not your reputation is helping
you build trust. Let’s take a quick look at our
presidential candidates. They both have
millions of followers and have been LISTED thousands of times. In a few cases how they were LISTED was
probably not in their favor. We are in
for an interesting election. |
The Most Wasted Phrase in Marketing
Posted on August 9, 2016 at 9:14 AM |
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“Feel free to visit
our website to learn more about us.” I believe
that is one of the most wasted phrases in a marketer’s persuasion
playbook. I can just imagine Don Draper pitching
that line to his client. “Feel free to buy a
jar of Ovaltine so your
child can get a Captain Midnight
Secret Decoder Ring!” As you
probably know, the AMC prime time drama “Mad Men” provided a 1960s setting
portraying advertising agencies as all-powerful influencers. In fact, much of the shows content suggested
that “consumers didn’t know what they wanted until we told them.” The 1960 American
Marketing Association’s definition of Marketing read: “The performance of business activities that direct the flow of goods
and services from producers to consumers.”
I’m a
boomer and do remember some 1960s ads that seemed to directly implant certain
brands right into my head. I begged my
mom to let me choose my cereal based on the prize inside. I’m pretty sure “feel free to buy a jar of
Ovaltine” was not used.
Today, no
matter how much I beg, my wife makes me choose my cereal based on its fiber
content and total solution fit to my dietary needs. Yes, times have changed. Marketing’s evolution has also been very
dramatic. Marketers have replaced their Mad
Men approaches with sophisticated strategies that attempt to engage the
consumer and build customer loyalty through complex analytics. Does that
mean that these new customer-centric strategies have eclipsed the need for
marketing content to be persuasive? Persuasion: An open appeal to reason or emotion in an
effort to influence someone to do or believe something. None of us
like to think that we can be persuaded because it could expose our vulnerability. Besides, in the “information age” is it even
possible to convince anyone of anything that they don’t already have an opinion
on? There are many who believe that consumers
cannot be repositioned and that creating a campaign to persuade those who start
from a different view is a lost cause. But I don’t
think so, because persuading is a universal activity, and it plays a role in
everyone’s daily life. Just because
marketers’ can get closer to customers with targeted marketing messages through
the aid of sophisticated customer analytics tools doesn’t mean the need to
persuade has gone away. In fact, it may
be more important than ever. But you
need to have great narrative in order to shift your targeted audiences beliefs
or behaviors. You need to be able to
wrap your persuasive content in a way that builds trust, presents logic, and
tugs at the emotions. Yeah, yeah,
yeah I know. Everyone is “data-driven”
these days. They’ve told you that they
make decisions based only on the numbers.
Well, that is just not how the buying process unfolds. So, you might want to invest more time on the
art of persuasion. |
Does Your Message Contain the Big Red Flag?
Posted on March 24, 2016 at 5:29 PM |
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“I thought
I’d reach out.” In the business world it’s a casual phrase
that’s tossed around all the time. · I thought I’d
reach out to tell you a little bit about our company. · I thought I’d
reach out to see if we could set up a time to chat. · I thought I’d
reach out to give you one of our new white papers. · I thought I’d
reach out to introduce myself and make sure you understand my company. And then you can buy something! OK, that last one was over-the-top. But more broadly, "to reach out"
means to initiate contact with someone, with the implied implication that the
contact will be helpful or beneficial to the person being contacted. The problem is your targeted audience doesn’t
believe you. They’ve been conditioned to
understand that it’s not going to be beneficial for them because those messages
typically result in the one-sided outcomes they’ve experienced time after time. In fact, in all the many ways I’ve been “reached
out to” I remember very few occasions where the implied purpose of a first
meeting was to listen and learn about my situation. Too bad, because shifting from “me-focused”
to “you-focused” is not that difficult, and it yields a much better first
impression. Just how might a “you-focused” message
sound? Probing statements or questions
that open people up and eventually enable you to answer the ultimate thought
that every prospect has on their mind; “what’s in this for me?” · I’d really enjoy
hearing about your company. · I’d really enjoy
learning about your career and particularly your work at XYZ Company. · I’d be interested
to see where your application fits in the various markets. · I’d be interested
in any background information you can share about the changes facing your
industry. Wait a second Alan; those aren’t typical
qualification questions. How can those statements
be helpful to my lead generation strategy?
Also, why should an executive feel compelled to bring me up-to-speed or
educate me on her career or company?
Really, I just want to immediately work through my BANT process: 1. Do they have a BUDGET for a project? 2. Does the person I’m
speaking to have the AUTHORITY to
sign the deal. 3. Do they have a NEED for my solution? 4. Have they
established a TIME FRAME for their decision? Yes, I know the example above doesn’t
necessarily reflect the order or all the questions that you might want to know for
your particular situation. But the point
is you’re currently trying to jam every encounter into your sales process and
have dismissed the thought of nurturing prospects to tease out important information
and to build a trust-based relationship over time. I hate to break the news to you, but
your prospect is just not that into you.
If you’re hoping your prospect is “struggling” with [blah blah blah] and
that they’re losing sleep and will instantly anointed you as their “trusted
advisor” … well, as they say, “hope is not a strategy.” “I thought I’d reach out” or “I just
wanted to touch base” messages are best sent once you’ve earned trust. Otherwise they are viewed as just another
gimmick to try and gain attention. |
How to do more with less, and not lose your shirt in the process
Posted on March 8, 2016 at 7:46 AM |
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Some of the smartest business people
I’ve met place their trust in fantasy-based marketing plans. They believe it’s possible to do more with
less. In truth, they know better. Because when “less” means reducing the marketing
budget, “more” marketing activity is not what you get. A decreased budget means change, because something
somewhere has to be reduced, compromised or eliminated. That means scaling back on lead generation
campaigns, lower quality PR events, fewer advertising initiatives, downgrading
your staff experience-levels (hiring less expensive/experienced talent), and or
finally a reduction in headcount. Now, I suppose one could argue that you can
do more with less if you have been inefficient with your previous marketing
spend. But I don’t know many executives
who want to be associated with an inefficiency story. Of course, if you are the new CMO being
brought in with marching orders to produce more with less you have your work
cut-out for you. Marketing budgets are historically the
first to be cut during an economic ruckus.
And economic business commotions are commonplace. That means if you intend to make marketing a
career you need to be familiar with the term “bootstrap.” Bootstrapping is a phrased used to describe
work efforts that are done with little or no assistance. You can translate that to mean; marketing on
a perpetually limited budget. Are you
ready to document some of your own bootstrapping stories? Well, here are a few ideas on how you can do
more with less, and not lose your shirt in the process: 1. Hire an
experienced marketing leader who has proven success flying solo. A marketer who has delivered results in an
environment as a “department of one” has learned how to leverage limited
resources to align the marketing strategy with the goals of the business. In addition, it’s likely this individual will
have accumulated a large amount of social capital. Meaning they are well connected and know how
to find freelancers and other help on an as needed basis. Their social capital may also mean they already
have credibility with your targeted audience and are natural rainmakers in
their own right. And let’s face it; your
sales department can always use help with introductions to new clients. 2. You’ve cut the
budget to the bone, and now have solid leadership in place. Now your marketing leader needs to get very
focused with their limited time and resources. a. Focus on
your customers buying process, not your selling process. Translation: Make sure you address competitive
weaknesses within the four stages of the consumer purchasing process, and
develop content focused on supporting the customer’s buying process, including:
· Awareness · Information
Search · Evaluation · Purchase
and After-Sale Service. In addition, you may need to think smaller by
breaking marketing initiatives into highly targeted micro-campaigns based on
continuous selection of the best (most profitable) of the best (ready-to-buy)
prospects. b. You will
not get a do-over, mulligan or practice shot. Translation: Do your P&L homework and
structure your best offer immediately.
Don’t hold back; consumers with cash and a willingness to spend it are always
in short supply. One of the major reasons small businesses
go under is because they run out of cash.
Cash flow is the lifeblood of every business and in order to keep the
business healthy, cash needs to continue flowing. This is marketing’s chance to help the
company generate quick cash flow and ride out the current economic downturn. c. Don’t
wait to nurture customer relationships, and engage your employees. Translation: Make sure your organization is monitoring
trigger events such as contract dates and service calls closely. Proactively nurture those relationships in
order to protect current revenue. And
finally, get your entire staff involved as social employee advocates. Mini Case Study A small software development company (less
than $20M revenue) increased qualified leads 7% while cutting their marketing budget
by 24%, and the decrease in spend was not the result of reducing
headcount. During the campaign time
frame the sales force set three consecutive monthly sales records as well as
three consecutive quarterly sales records. The integrated program responsible
for those results combined a social media / social employee strategy with a
content-based marketing campaign. The goal of the content-based marketing
program was to engage the targeted decision-maker by providing fact-based
research that was relevant to their unique needs and challenges. The intellectual property was developed
in-house and the follow-on corporate blogs, podcasts, webcasts and social media
activity through LinkedIn and Twitter provided low-cost forums of engagement
between all functional areas (including: sales, marketing, product management,
product development and support) of the company and the customer. In short, the organization was able to
“deliver more with less” but still retained their staff to generate relevant
content and to engage customers and prospects through the social media channels. Yes, their media partners took a hit from the
stand point of less print advertising and fewer trade shows, but overall the
new direction reduced the cost per lead and engaged both employees and
customers. Linking social media channels to content-based
marketing programs doesn’t necessarily cross over into all industries or
business environments. However, research
does show that mutual long-term commitment and engagement between employees,
companies and customers does pay off. |
Use Different Connection Strategies for Each Social Platform
Posted on February 28, 2016 at 11:13 AM |
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LinkedIn’s advice on sending connection requests reads that
you should “only invite people you know
and trust.” The number of requests I
receive from individuals I’ve never met (and therefore have no basis for trust)
leads me to believe there are a lot of people who are not following that rule
of thumb. Or, perhaps it suggests their
“trust” in certain profiles is deep enough to overcome their fear that they’ll be
rejected because they don’t personally “know” their desired connection. Research shows that social rejection
activates the same part of the brain that physical pain does. I don’t know about you, but I don’t like
pain. So, I generally don’t like taking
on a great deal of risk in those situations. LinkedIn connection strategies can vary from one extreme to
another. On one side you have the LION
(LinkedIn Open Networker) who is open to both receiving and sending connection
requests to people they don’t know. Apparently
they don’t feel pain. On the other
extreme are individuals who will only connect with people they personally know
and would professionally vouch for. Those
individuals probably tend to be risk adverse.
I’ll admit that when I first joined LinkedIn I followed the suggested
rule. I had to know and trust you, and I
followed that strategy for several years.
In the past couple of years I’ve found myself being less strict, but
still nowhere close to the LION strategy. The world is flat and we live in a 24/7 global economy. If you have a passport and a website you’re a
worldwide citizen, right? It seems like
the best practice for that mindset and environment would be open networking. The big downside with that strategy is that
you get approached by hundreds of individuals with ideas, products and solutions
that are not remotely connected to your interests, needs or desires. In short, it quickly starts feeling like endless
spam. That’s why I found it useful to leverage different networking
strategies across the various social platforms. Twitter: My approach on Twitter is the most open. Most of my Twitter content is focused on
marketing, sales and management theory and my strategy is to connect with as
many other like-minded (English speaking though – yes, I’m handicapped by only
understanding one language.) individuals as possible. Twitter is a great real-time news source and
a fantastic business platform for driving traffic to my website and LinkedIn
profile for deeper engagement. LinkedIn: As I mentioned earlier my strategy has
shifted over the years with LinkedIn. I
still don’t attempt cold connections in the LION fashion. If I’m interested in networking with an
individual I usually try to establish the relationship first through an
introduction via a common friend or try to build a solid relationship with them
through other social media platforms (Twitter, Google+, YouTube, Pinterest, etc.). And I always customize the invitation to
connect letting them know why I’m reaching out.
When approached by someone I’ve never met or interacted with on other
platforms I asked myself one question; what would connecting with this person do
for me? Yes, I know that sounds
terribly self-center and has no “pay-it-forward” vibes. But down deep it is what we are all thinking,
so we might as well get it out in the open.
Now, of course that question leads to several other questions that I
often can’t answer. Like the following: 1. What does this person think a connection with me would
mean to them? a. Do they want to sell me something? Why do they assume I
would be interested? b. Do they see mutual value in our connecting? If so, what is it? Because I can’t read their mind! That’s why connection requests that are not
customized with some amount of content that explains “why” they are reaching
out drives me crazy. You should not
assume that just because you are a LION that your motives are crystal clear. 2. Do they focus in geographic areas or solution areas that
are important to me? 3. Does their job title and current position suggest they
are a major player that I would be foolish to ignore? Facebook: I save my personal Facebook account
for family and old school chums. If you
don’t fall into one of those categories your chance for a personal connection
or a “Like” is basically zero. Yeah, I
know Facebook has a billion users or something like that. But guess what, I found out very quickly that
my family and old school friends don’t want to constantly see my business
stuff. Therefore, I separated church and
state. I have a personal Facebook
profile and a business page, and the two never meet. If you were to dig down deep I’m sure you would find that most
individuals in your target markets have different strategies for each platform
they have a presence on. They probably
can’t even verbalize why they do what they do.
But they’ve found out what works for them. And what works for them is what you need to
be mindful of because it’s not about you or your brand. It’s about your customers. |
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