Have You Conversed With Your Readers Lately?

By Valerie Kendrick

Do you talk to your reader in your sales letters? Are you using language that is too formal or stuffy? Worse yet, are you writing in a style that is too informal?

Formal Language
I talk to so many people that are confused about what is business appropriate in their written correspondence. Many are convinced that the company expects them to use the old formal language.

Let’s look at an example.

Pursuant to your inquiry of March 17, 2008, I am enclosing some literature regarding our XYZ products. Our organization is dedicated to providing the utmost quality and cost effectiveness. We are confident our products will meet and exceed your standards of excellence.

This is too formal and most likely will bore your reader. You should ask yourself if this is how you would speak to the customer in a face-to-face conversation.

Informal Language
Now let’s consider the opposite approach. We treat our customers as if they were one of our closest friends. We use slang, make up adjectives, and forget we have proper grammar and sentence structure to consider. We forget that email, when used for business correspondence must remain business appropriate.

Take another look at the above excerpt now written in a very informal style.

Hey, thanks for calling. I put some really cool stuff about our XYZ products in the package. Our company thinks quality is really important and our pricing is uber-low. You’ll be totally stoked by our super products.

This is too informal. It sounds like we are talking to a friend at a college party.

Business Appropriate
Let’s make our excerpt more conversational, while maintaining the appropriateness.

Thank you for your call. I have sent you some information about our XYZ products. You might have heard that our company values quality. We would like to show you how we can help you be most cost effective. Let’s talk some more about how we can help you and answer your questions. We want to be sure you feel good about your decision to buy our products.

Does the above example sound too stuffy? Is it too informal? Does it sound conversational and still maintain a business-like tone?

Try reading your sales and business letters out-loud before you send them. Make sure they are written in a conversational style that maintains a business tone. Give your customers the respect they deserve by communicating in a clear and concise manner. Choose strong, direct words to convey your message. Write in a style that encourages your reader to want to talk more with you.

Source: Valerie Kendrick is the President of Kendrick Resources LLC, specializing in communications skills training.

Lessons from Great Achievers

By Dan Coughlin

In the past 14 months I’ve given 70 presentations including keynotes, luncheon speeches, after-dinner speeches and seminars in virtually every market in the U.S. and mainly for corporate groups of CEOs, key executives, and entrepreneurs. But the most memorable group I spoke to was the May 2008 graduating class of J.E.T. (Jobs and Employment Training) at St. Patrick’s Center on May 30th in my hometown of St. Louis

St. Patrick’s Center does noble work in helping homeless people find hope and generate permanent, positive changes in their lives. However, the thing I like the best about St. Patrick’s Center is they are very practical. They don’t just talk about helping people create permanent, positive changes in their lives; they dive in and get things done. They help people find a place to stay and they provide them with training on interviewing and job skills necessary to re-enter the workforce. One of their programs is called J.E.T., which is a twelve-week program on a variety of computer skills that will help the graduate increase their chances of gaining meaningful work.

Overcoming Life’s Greatest Obstacles
There were nine people in the graduating class at J.E.T. ranging in age from approximately 25 to 45. I met each of them briefly before my speech and got to know their names. I won’t list them here, but I’ll also never forget them. I could see the excitement over their accomplishments in their eyes. I felt the passion in their dreams. I had to do everything I could to keep myself from crying in front of the audience, which included their family members and friends. It could have been the graduation ceremonies at Harvard because that’s how excited each of these individuals was that day.

To me, these nine individuals represent everything that I’ve written about and spoken about over the past 11 years. They had just completed a 12-week course to increase their capacity to gain meaningful work, and they were incredibly proud of what they had learned and accomplished. They were enthusiastic about the future. They were ready to get on with it.

Isn’t that what life is about? Going after dreams and trying to better ourselves so we can make a greater contribution to other people. Jackie Robinson, the baseball player, said something to the effect that the whole purpose of life is to make a difference in the lives of other people. Well, if that’s true and I think it is, then bettering our selves in order to add value to other people is an important part of the process, and that part should be celebrated.

These nine individuals were moving from a life of homelessness and despair to a life of hope and contribution and carving out the careers they wanted for themselves. One lady stopped me after the ceremonies and said, “St. Patrick’s Center gave me my self-esteem back and now I’m excited about the future.” I almost said to her that no one can instill self-esteem into another person. Self-esteem means the value a person sees in himself or herself. Only the individual can strengthen his or her own self-esteem. As Abraham Maslow said many years ago, “True self-esteem rests on a feeling of personal dignity, the feeling that you are in control of your own decisions and your own destiny.” No one can give you a feeling of being in control of your own decisions. Only you can develop the feeling that you are in control of your own decisions.

But I understood what the woman meant. She meant that St. Patrick’s Center provided an environment of encouragement where she could focus on her strengths and the value she can bring to other people. In doing so, this woman took the time to realize everything she had to offer to the world. That is how self-esteem is built.

I met a teacher named John that day who told me about a life course offered at St. Patrick’s Center on realizing that every super successful leader overcame odds to make a difference in the lives of other people. I totally agree. Walt Disney and Mother Theresa and Martin Luther King, Jr. and Oprah Winfrey and Mohandas Gandhi didn’t just wake up one day ready to contribute. They honed their ability to add value until one day they were so good that other people opened their eyes to all the value they had to offer. Martin Luther King, Jr. worked at writing essays and giving sermons long before he started changing the world for the better in 1955.

Graduation Day taught me or re-taught me so many lessons:

o In giving we receive. I was more touched by those 45 minutes with those nine graduates who had transformed despair into direction, homelessness into hopefulness, and frustration into focus than any work project I’ve done in the past ten years.

o We all need to take the time to recall the value we have to offer to other people. It’s wonderful to help other people see their value, but it’s just as important that we take the time to see the value we have to offer to other people. Recall your past success stories where you made a difference in the lives of other people and the strengths and passions you have to offer to other people.

o Lift your head to see the difference you’re making in the world. You can get so busy giving love to other people that you may not see the impact that your love is making in the world.

o Celebrate life’s most important transitions. That ceremony was a moment to savor like a fine meal. Climbing a mountain means resting at the plateaus. Rest, re-energize, let the success soak in, and then plot your next move up Mt. Contribution, the real-life mountain of trying to make a difference in the lives of other people that we are all trying to climb.

o Pause occasionally from helping your work team move forward and trying to move your career forward and look around you for opportunities to give to others who will never be able to repay you, at least not financially. There are so many magnificent organizations within 30 minutes of your home. What non-financial contribution can you make for them? How can you use your strengths and passions to deliver real value to people who simply can’t afford to pay you?

o Achieving a specific, measurable objective at work is important. Achievements are the basis of promotions, raises, and career growth. Hitting a number is about a goal. Living with purpose is about the soul. Ask yourself, “What is my purpose?” Write down your purpose. Then pour your efforts into both your work and your community events to fulfill your purpose.

In watching the tributes to Tim Russert, I was reminded that great business managers still take the time to give back their strengths and their passions to their communities. As many people thanked him for what he did outside of NBC as he did inside Meet the Press.

Dan Coughlin is a business keynote speaker, management consultant, and author of Accelerate: 20 Practical Lessons to Boost Business Momentum.

Using Social Networks To Support Learning And Training

My friend and co-worker wrote this great article on the use of Web 2.0 technologies and their support of training and competencies. You really need to read this!

By Rod Ford

In a previous post, I asked the question: How can social network environments be used to support competency models that include attitudes and behaviors?

With the variety of social network environments (SNEs) available in today’s Web 2.0 milieu, the possibilities for leveraging them in the support of competency models and training initiatives may be infinite. In this post, I will focus on two or three of the SNEs and may choose to write about some of the others later. That said, I would encourage you to comment to this post about your ideas for these and other SNEs.

Weblogs and Blogging
Weblogs (blogs) are easy to implement but are challenging to leverage in support of competency models and training initiatives. I say “challenging” because blogging requires an individual or small group of knowledge experts to write content and keep it up to date. I think they are a very valuable tool, but when using them to support training initiatives, it is important to:

* Identify potential authors
* Create a writing schedule
* Remind authors when its time to write
* Link relevant courses to the blog
* Encourage readers to comment
* Assign someone to identify comments that need a response from an expert

Wikis
I’ve personally worked with at least 9 different wiki tools. Some of them I’ve simply written inside of, others I’ve implemented for clients or simply for my own understanding of their usefulness. While these tools are a bit more challenging to implement than a blog, I believe they are enormously important for supporting competency models and training initiatives.

Read more…

4 Communication Styles To Reach Customers

By Valerie Kendrick

How can we use the four communication styles to connect to more potential clients? Why do we need to be aware of these styles when writing our direct mail literature?

If you haven’t asked yourselves these questions before writing your next direct mail piece, you may be missing a lot of opportunities. When we write to an unknown audience we need to make sure we capture the attention of each of the four communication styles.

1. Directors: The first line of your document must attract the “Directors.” It must be direct, to the point, and state clearly the main purpose of the document. You need to answer the question for this reader, “What’s in it for me?” The very last line of the document must tell them how to take action to buy your product because their overriding need is to finish each task.

Example: The new A500 with increased speed and reliability, doubling your productivity, can be ordered directly from our website at www.whateveryourwebsite.com.

2. Socializers: Next we can appeal to the “Socializers.” Their driving need is to be appreciated. You need to explain how your product will get them more attention from those they care about. You need to emphasize the “newness,” creativity, or flexibility of the product.

Example: You’ll be surprised when your friends and family continually ask you to show them the new and exciting ways to use the improved time-saving features of the A500.

3. Thinkers: For our “Thinkers” you need to include a chart or graph that specifically depicts the statistics that prove your product is bigger, faster, more reliable, or more efficient. They love facts and details, and those must be presented in a very eye-catching way. You cannot let the details get lost in the body of your document. Remember to leave a lot of white space around your chart of specifications so that the “Thinkers” are drawn to the information.

Example:
Specifications
Reliability: 9.99998%
Operation Hours: 2000 hrs.
Battery Life: 3 years

4. Relaters: Lastly, you must include our “Relaters.” Their focus is on being liked and belonging to the group. They want harmony and a way for everyone to avoid conflict. You need to make sure they know how your product enables them to share with others. This style really appreciates testimonials because they highly value the opinions of others. They will seek out this information by asking all their friends if they have used your product or know anyone who has used it. Don’t make them search for this information; give them the testimonials and endorsements right near the bottom of your document.

Example: “I am thrilled with the wonderful new features of the A500. It has saved me so much time and energy, and my whole family loves to use it. In fact three of my neighbors have already asked to borrow it.” Susan, Dallas,TX.

We all have a dominant communication style and it governs how we respond to information. So the next time you are putting together your direct mail document, keep the four styles in mind and appeal individually to each one.

Source: Valerie Kendrick is the President of Kendrick Resources LLC, specializing in communications skills training. She has been called the “Grammar Guru” because of her passion to help the business person communicate more effectively.

5 Effective (Though Less Obvious) Powers Of A Press Release

What is the goal of a press release? You’re probably thinking, ‘It’s obvious, isn’t it?’ The hope is that your press release gets picked up by your media of choice and you get free advertising. Marketers dream their press release will wind up as the main headline on the front page. And it’s true: The value of being on the editorial pages of the media is priceless. But what some marketers don’t consider are the hidden advantages, the less obvious but equally powerful benefits of P.R.

1. Improves Internal Communication And Messaging
Communicating effectively to employees is more than good H.R. – it’s essential to retention and relationship building. Employees don’t want to learn about their company’s accomplishments over the news or online. They should hear it first from the source: their employer’s communications department.

Making your press release accessible to employees — via a company newsletter, corporate intranet, or company website – is effective internal communication and plays a valuable role in professional development. Furthermore, when written properly, the press release is chock full of corporate messaging, and serves as a “key message” document, which employees can use when speaking with clients and prospects. It’s a great way to build consistent messaging throughout the organization.

2. Boosts Search Results
The content in press releases is by nature rich with key words, making it high-value content for Search Engine Optimization (SEO). Press releases increase the value of your website in the eyes of search engines, as well as encourage other sites to link to yours. This inbound linking is also highly valued by search engines and can lead to much higher organic SEO ranking.

To get even more back-links, submit your press releases to free PR submission websites. A live link from the press release back to the website owner’s site will be posted on most of the syndicated places that the press release shows up. The more channels you reach out to, the better chance you have of getting picked up in the search engines.

The residual online benefit for the press release publisher is the coveted fresh content that is so hard to come by on the Internet today. Your website stays relevant and up-to-date with the latest news.

3. Defines Your Company As A Leader
When journalists use your press release to write about your products, they provide an independent review that creates credibility. When consumers read press releases, it strengthens their perceptions of your brand. Included as part of a company’s integrated marketing program, the press release reinforces branding, boosts loyalty and contributes to sales results.

4. Works In Your Marketing Tool Kit
Get double duty from your press releases, by including them in collateral, or information kits. Too often, salespeople starve for tools that will support and improve their sales efforts. A well-stocked arsenal of sales materials—the marketing toolkit—is crucial to successful sales efforts. When left with prospects, along with case studies, fact sheets and other collateral, the press release is a fundamental tool for arming salespeople with materials they can use to “get in the door,” ensuring the right message is delivered and keeping your name in front of the client long after the initial sales call.

5. Broadens The Net To Prospects
A release can be distributed to a range of publications through paid news services, sent directly from your communications department to targeted members of the media, and can be posted on your company website for potentially thousands of people to view. You broaden the audience who learns about your company – and ensure that your brand is well-known in your industry.

Put together a P.R. plan that includes distributing and posting press releases on a regular basis and you will start reaping hidden benefits of a press release.

–Source: Media Brains May 2008 issue

Additional Reading
- Grow Your Network And Make Your Contacts Work For You
- SEO: The Elusive Target
- Free SEO and Blog Rank Tools
- SEO Design Tips - Part 1
- SEO Design Tips - Part 2

Weird Week In Review - May 23

In case you missed last week, here is your one stop review of all things from WeirdGuy blog. Have fun!

Twitter Is For The ADD Generation - Part 1

Prince Caspian (the Movie) Delivers!

Twitter Is For The ADD Generation - Part 2

Twitter For The ADD Generation - Response

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Share This With Others

Twitter For The ADD Generation - Response

NOTE: Robyn, from Elephant Poop, took time to respond to the Twitter article. Below is her response and how she finds Twitter useful in her life. Enjoy!

Hey, Eric!

Well, I really don’t spend a lot of time ON it; I have it open in a sidebar of Firefox and set to update every three minutes, though it may be as long as several hours before I actually open the sidebar to look at the tweets. It’s more or less like music playing very softly in the background. Every so often I turn up the volume, then turn it down again after the piece I like has finished. And if I’m on deadline or just not interested, I shut Twitter down, often without announcement. No one seems to mind.

I don’t follow a lot of people - for teenagers it may be quantity (how many can you follow and how many are following you?), but I’m kinda selective. Right now, I’m following about 14. There are some bloggers I follow and they often will tweet when they’ve uploaded a new post or if they’re attending a conference and just heard something interesting. I like when I get short updates about areas I’m interested in. For example, Jackie Peters was at the same conference as Peter Shankman, who was giving the keynote address and she mentioned that Peter’s address was on “PR and transparency on social networks,” something I think I want to know more about. I know Peter will likely put his presentation on his blog, so I now I know to be looking for it.

As for entertainment, I follow Guy Kawasaki (who is generally too busy to blog more than a couple of times a month) and he linked to some pics (using Twit Pic) of his trip to Kuala Lumpur while it was happening, including some imposing temple steps he climbed, the great seats you get on Cathay air and a fabulous dinner you can have in Indonesia while having to look at an advertisement for ear candling! It’s noodling and minutiae, but it makes the world my backyard, so to speak, while letting me feel as though I am more connected to the people I follow. I wish more of my friends and family would join and use it - most of them live hundreds of miles from me and I would like to know about some of their small victories and defeats as well as their large ones. I have one sister with a chronic disease who occasionally tweets and it’s great to be able to hear from her even if it’s only 140 words or less at a time!

Like a lot of people, I got a Twitter account a year or so ago, but didn’t use it because I couldn’t see the benefit. But there were a few people online whose ideas interested me and sparked my own ideas. So I started following them to see if their short posts were as interesting as their long ones. I do have one person I started following who blogs too much about her yard and kids, but for the most part it hasn’t been disappointing. Maybe it’s like the haiku of the online world - a way to connect without giving up your life to email or feed reading. If you stick to reading the poets whose work you find interesting, you can learn and be entertained at the same time on several levels in several idioms. It has also reminded me of learning the
value of each word you use (something I didn’t do in this reply, but I’m just getting over a bad sinus infection, so I’m still a little woozy). Okay, okay, I nearly always write too much and have to edit myself! :-) If this had been Twitter, I probably would have said it shorter and sweeter!

Thanks for the opportunity to connect with you!

Robyn

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Twitter Is For The ADD Generation - Part 2

By E. Brown

In the last article I asked, “what is Twitter really for?” Now I am wondering who is it really for?

Is it really for the average person on planet Earth? Is my life really that interesting that I feel compelled to notify others (or an online service) of everyday changes:

“I got out of bed at 6:00am .”

“I showered using a new shampoo.”

“I am meeting (insert name) at Starbucks for coffee at 8:00am.”

Okay, okay, I know that is a bit condescending. Yet, if I have to tell someone something immediately — like I just got out of an opening night Broadway play and YOU have to see it — I’ll call or text them on my mobile.

Celebrities
If I were a celebrity, I might see the value in Twitter. I know people are going to be interested in me and besides, it’s a form of marketing and PR.

Let’s face it, the average person is more apt to be interested in a celebrity figure than Joe-Schmoe down the street cutting his grass at 2:00pm.

Voyeurism
This brings up the topic of reality TV and the voyeuristic society we are becoming. We would rather watch or hear about peoples lives than help or interact with them. There is a cool detachment that can be unhealthy and disturbing at times. Does Twitter advance this trend

Use Twitter?
I am still not convinced. There are others forms of communication that are more intentional. Yet, in this seeming ADD Generation intentionality gives way to spontaneity.

What do you think?

Related Article
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Twitter Is For The ADD Generation - Part 1

By E. Brown

Do you Twitter? Do you know what Twitter is?

I’d venture to say that 2/3 of the people reading this are familiar with the Web 2.0 technology, but for you other 1/3 out there visit CommonCraft for an idealistic explanation of Twitter. Then come back and finish this article.

Okay now, why do you use Twitter?

I was out having dinner with some friends and the subject came up. The question was asked, “Who has time for Twitter and why in the heck would you do it to begin with?”

Being a technologist, my first reaction was to stand up for the online application. Isn’t it obvious? Look how popular it is. But I paused for a moment and thought.

Why do people use Twitter?

Do I really need to know what my friends and family are doing every hour? Do I really care? I mean, some of it is pretty mundane stuff. Am I wasting my time (life) watching other’s lives go by? Hmm…

I started to think of the generational differences and the monotonous chime I here from college age friends and younger — “I’m bored.” This being said as they Twitter from their cell phones, text message friends while watching movies (in the theater!), playing videos games on their laptops while IM’ing an acquaintance in Europe.

Is Twitter just another thing to keep the minds of the ADD generation busy? Is there real social value? Tell me what you think.

Related Article
- Twitter Is For The ADD Generation - Part 2
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Weird Week In Review - May 16

In case you missed last week, here is your one stop review of all things from WeirdGuy blog. Have fun!

SEO Design Tips - Part 1

SEO Design Tips - Part 2

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SEO Design Tips - Part 2

By Barry Fenning

If your visitors like your Web site, there is a very good likelihood that the search engines will, too. Here are the last 5 tips from Barry Fenning, that focus on how to develop your site with your visitors in mind, and also effectively conduct search engine optimization.

6. Descriptively label your links and images (aka, the “anchor text”)
This technique is both common sense and good practice. Saying “click here” is not enough to help visitors understand what they’re going to find once they click through. Be as descriptive as possible with every text and graphical link on your site. When writing your anchor text and alt attributes, you can almost always describe the page you’re pointing to by using its main keyword phrase. That is an important factor that search engines take into account when it comes to ranking your Web pages.

7. Make sure your site is spider-friendly
Your site may look fantastic. You and your Web designer may be talented graphic designers who can make Flash and JavaScript dazzle your visitors with a show that would put Michael Flatley and his River Dance to shame. However, if your site contains Flash and JavaScript, it’s important to know that search engine spiders have difficulty reading this code (or appreciating the effort you put into the design). The way around this is to provide navigation alternatives such as static links and a site map to allow the spiders crawl deep within your Web site and index the pages within their results. Overuse of Flash, JavaScript, and images can also lead to your Web pages’ being very slow to download. If these file types are used sparingly, your visitors and search engines will appreciate your efforts a lot more.

8. Create fresh content
When you are optimizing your site properly, you will see a trend. If you are doing something that benefits your site’s visitors, then the search engines will reward you for it. Blogs and forums are effective and easy ways of adding new information to your site on a regular basis. However, if your only purpose of setting up a blog or a forum is for better search engine rankings, then there really is no point in doing it. Only add a forum if it contributes something beneficial to your site and if you have the traffic to make it interactive enough for visitors to return to it. And, only add a blog if you have something of interest to say on a regular basis. Once you have your blog and/or forum up and running, you should optimize them with the same professionalism you do with any other page on your site.

9. Do not think that you can trick search engines
As noted before, if you are benefiting your visitors, then the search engines will reward you for it. If you try to trick the search engines by hiding keyword phrases, joining link farms, or any other sneaky practice, your sites will be removed from the search engines. (And you will also have to spend more time cleaning up your site before they will accept you back in.)

10. Offer something unique
If your Web site offers something that is unique and interesting to your target market and it is properly optimized (by applying all of the techniques listed above), you will not only rank well within the major search engines but also get the added benefit of people linking to your site in forums, blogs, and through other sites. That will send your site more visitors and create more inbound links, which will help it rank higher.

Remember, it’s human visitors that you are trying to impress, not search engine robots.

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- SEO Design Tips - Part 1

SEO Design Tips - Part 1

By Barry Fenning

If your visitors like your Web site, there is a very good likelihood that the search engines will, too. With this in mind, here are the first 5 tips from Barry Fenning, that focus on how to develop your site with your visitors in mind, and also effectively conduct search engine optimization.

1. Pick appropriate keyword phrases
This is the single most important thing to do when it comes to optimizing your site for search engines. The words and phrases that your potential customers type into the major search engines are the keywords your site should be using within the specific areas of your Web page (see points 3 and 4, below). Useful keyword research tools are available on the Web, including Wordtracker and Keyword Discovery (both offer trial versions).

However, if you want to find out accurate figures of how many people are searching for your targeted keywords per week/month/year, run a Google AdWords and/or Yahoo/Overture campaign and you will get extremely accurate figures of search engine traffic while (hopefully) generating income that will pay for your research.

2. Optimize every page on your site
Optimizing each Web page is overlooked by so many sites. It can be the difference between competing for a highly competitive keyword phrase such as “Irish Hotels” on your home page, and competing for a much less competitive keyword phrase such as “Hotels in County Galway” on another relevant landing page.

3. Optimize your page titles
All of the major search engines have hundreds of different algorithms that compute where your Web page should be listed for different keyword searches. Putting your keywords within the title description tag of your pages is one of the most important SEO techniques and will help your site climb through the rankings. It will also allow your visitors to remember exactly what your page is all about when they save it to their “favorites.”

4. Optimize your page content
It is sometimes very difficult to write content for your Web site. Not only do you need to put the information you want the visitor to see in front of them in an easy-to-read style, you also have to keep in mind the keywords that your page is targeting so that you can rank better within search engines.
One of the best pieces of advice I have come across is to write for your visitors and include the keywords as much as makes sense. Read what you have written out loud to yourself and a few others. If it sounds silly or stilted… lather, rinse, and repeat.

5. Create an inbound linking strategy
Submitting your site to Web site and article directories is a very beneficial way to drive targeted traffic to your site.

Links within these sites bring visitors to your Web site, and search engine “spiders” are easily able find your site and index your pages within their results. If your site doesn’t have a link pointing to it on the World Wide Web, the search engines will never find it and you will never see any traffic from Google or the other big ones.

- As published in Marketingprofessionals.com

CMO Guide to Brand Management Using Social Media

By Dan Schawbel

In 2005, Jeff Jarvis made every company think twice about customer service and brand management with his famous “DELL Hell” blog post. In his blog post he stated “I just got a new DELL laptop…the machine is a lemon and the service is a lie.” It is now 2008 and the conversation has been buried inside the social media playground, where citizen journalists carry a company’s reputation, more than any CMO, and customer service influences brand reputation more than ever. A recent survey by the Society for New Communications Research shows that almost 60% of participants view social media as a place to vent about customer support experiences. Although most CMOs would view this as a threat, the report also explains how 81% view blogs, online rating systems and discussion forums as places where customers gain a greater voice.

With millions of blogs and thousands of social networks, a conversation that once existed behind a locked door, now opens with social media. Thirty–seven percent of the US adult population uses social networks and there will be $1.2 billion spent on advertising on social networks this year alone (eMarketer). Even podcasting shows potential, with an audience that is projected to increase to 65 million in 2012 (eMarketer). Corporate messaging has decentralized and is made available through various channels of communication such as Twitter, blogs and Facebook. CMOs have no choice but to listen and learn.

Authenticity Matters

“Every CMO should know that not every brand is a brand people want to socialize with. You need to understand the limitations and opportunities of your brand within the audience’s mind and out in cyberspace,” says Laura Ries, President of Ries & Ries Focusing Consultants. Brands that have real values, emotions and meaning will be revered by customers and therefore will be spoken about. CMOs should strive to manage their brands so that their audience pays attention and turn customers into brand champions.

There are many new and exciting opportunities for CMOs in this web 2.0 world. John Moore, of BrandAutopsy.com fame, says, “Social Media helps small companies look bigger and helps big companies get smaller. Meaning, a small company can have a big presence online with customers through using social media. Conversely, a big company can get ‘smaller’ because social media connects companies to customers on a very personal level.” Social media places personal brands, that are tied to companies directly, in front of those who can impact their future. Some believe this is risky, but the smart CMOs will empower employees to carry forth the corporate message in an authentic manner.

Tips for CMOs:

Spend more time learning about social media before actually engaging.
This can be done by subscribing to many popular blogs in your space, which you can find through Technorati, Google Blog Search or by asking your PR agency or contacts. Learn who your new stakeholders and influencers are and identify ambassadors in your company that could interact with them to start conversations.

Become visible in the industry.
Whether it’s you or your direct reports, attendance at new media conferences will provide insight and best practices.

Take risks.
There are very few real social media success stories in corporate America because companies are in experimentation mode. Whether it’s a viral video, a blog, a wiki or a discussion forum, companies are looking to see how others react to their tools and strategies. The Blog Council was formed to help companies, such as Coca Cola, share failures and successes.

Command respect by being transparent.
Companies that connect with customers the same way they do with The New York Times or BusinessWeek will have a rude awakening. If you take anything from reality TV, you know that people care about authenticity and not acting. You need to start treating bloggers like real people and not press release submission services. The people that will succeed will tell bloggers exactly who they are and what their intentions are immediately.

Don’t be just another logo on a website.
Just because you brand yourself visually doesn’t mean people will care about you. I think podcasting is one of the key tactics to really connect with your audience these days. Make your business come to life and have your employees tell their stories. People remember faces and stories more than anything.

Realize that there is a shift in brand management control.
Brands have been swallowed by the end user. Now they have the privilege to spread the word, with or without an editor. Outside of the Web 2.0 bubble, social media is still relatively new. Enter at your own risk and always monitor your brand for feedback.

Dan Schawbel is a leading personal branding expert for gen-y. Dan publishes Personal Branding Magazine and Personal Branding Blog. He is also the first social media specialist at EMC2 and has seven years of experience in marketing.

Digital Notepads - Are They Any Good?

I attend a lot of meetings. I find that I take better notes when I write with pen on paper than trying to type with my 4-finger method. Consequently, I find myself transcribing my notes into my laptop so I can have electronic copies of them.

This takes a LONG time for me.

I have tried scanning in documents and using OCR software, but with handwritten notes it is terrible. I will not even attempt to clean up the documents. It is faster to transcribe.

I have been looking into digital notepads and wondered how well they worked. If you have used one or know someone who has, drop me a note in the comments section below. I wonder if it would be worth inversting in one….

Weird Week In Review - April 4

In case you missed last week, here is your one stop review of all things from WeirdGuy blog. Have fun!

Flock — A Bloggers Favorite Browser

Branding: Synch Your Talk With Your Walk

Interview Like A Rockstar

Related Links
- Weird Week In Review (Mar. 28)
- Weird Week In Review (Mar. 21)
- Weird Week In Review (Mar. 14)

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Flock — A Bloggers Favorite Browser

Here is a post from dAlen about Flock, the Social Web Browser. If you blog, use Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, or YouTube you will want to check this browser out.

Flock also provides tools for bloggers and other users who want to create content—and that’s where this browser really shines. If you run a blog, you have the option of inputting your log-in information for a number of common weblogging hosts and services, such as Live Journal, Movable Type, or Blogger. Once you’ve entered that information, you can click on the browser’s Blog option to launch a pop-up window that is preconfigured with your weblog’s categories and posting options, and also provides space for writing an entry.

Read more…

Download Flock 1.1 for Windows, Mac or Linux

Related Article
- MacWorld: The Browser Bunch

Quotable Quote - Plato

Those who tell the stories change society.

- Plato

Blogging, The Long Tail, And Leading vs. Following

Mark Cuban started an interesting discussion about blogging and following vs. leading in regard to content generation. The rules have changed and media as we know it is changing — vying for the ever elusive “repeat customer” and the income that they can bring [my reading between the lines]. Below is an excerpt of the article from Mark’s site. I encourage you to read it. Feel free to come back to WeirdGuy and let me know your thoughts.

If you blog, regardless of what software you use, you are a blogger and what you produce is a blog. If you want to call yourself a columnist, so be it. If you are a reporter in a 1 page internet only publication, yes you are.

From there, only one question comes up. Why. Why ? Why do you do what you do. Is it because:

You get paid to do it ?

Because you want to promote something or to promote yourself ?

Because you want to start a discussion ?

Because you want to communicate with customers, fans or ??

Because its a way to say whats on your mind ?

Because you want to make money from it ?

I’m sure there are other reasons to communicate on the web. What software you use, even whether you use video, text and/or pictures, really doesn’t matter.

What matters is why you do what you do.

For most of us, we start on the furthest reaches of the long tail of all content. To make money from whatever it is we produce is not only difficult, its near impossible. To get off the long tail is near impossible as well. Only a few will ever find their way to a point of generating enough consumers of our content to have any choice in whether we monetize or influence a material number of people. Others of us will still be in the long tail, but have influence in a small verticial segment important only to those who already know us, or come to know us. Its possible to be a big player in a small pool, and get paid for it, still reside on the long tail.

The hope by all on the longtail is that the “quality” of the publication will garner enough consumers to move them off. Like the artist whose art is better, the band or musician whose music is better, the producer, director or actor whose video is better. Everyone hopes that quality of content is the final arbiter of attraction and success.

The worst part of it all is that when you are on the long tail, it takes a lot of money or luck to get off and 99.99pct , never get off. Which is exactly the definition of the longtail.

Thats for individuals.

For corporations who publish on the web (as opposed to aggregate 3rd party content), again, regardless of what content management software they use, or what they call themselves, the longtail is death. If you are a blogger, and you work for a major media company, you are born with a silver spoon in your mouth. You are granted a platform with traffic. Thats the good news. The bad news is that you also have ratings. If you can’t hold your traffic or build upon it, you better hope you generate sufficient value in other places, or your days of publishing on the web may be numbered. For those of you who haven’t noticed, paid bloggers do come and go from media websites if they don’t produce. But wait, there is worse news.

Read more… 

Networking, Character, and Competency Still Matter

By E. Brown

How many times have you been to a networking event and felt that everyone you met wanted something from you? You leave thinking, “I thought this was a networking occasion, not a sales affair.” Maybe, you have been in the other shoes and looked at networking events as a place to dig up sales and business leads. If a person didn’t show interest in what you had to offer, you had no time for them and moved on to the next person/opportunity.

Another way to think of networking events is to think of them as relationship building events. Instead of wanting something from the people you meet – how about wanting something for the people you meet?

Does this concept seem upside-down to you? For instance, why is it we expect people to treat us with respect and show interest in us when we do not reciprocate? This tells something about our motivation, doesn’t it?

So, what are we to do? Certainly, we want networking to be worth our time and effort. We want it to profitable – right?

I suggest the relational approach. Be genuinely interested in others first. Find out what they do and how you can help them succeed. Anne Baber and Lynn Waymon offer several excellent suggestions in their book, Make Your Contacts Count, about building a relational network. Teach your contacts that you can be trusted by letting them see 1) your character, and 2) your competence.

Character
• Be unfailingly reliable
• Meet deadlines
• Go for the win/win solution
• Treat everyone you meet fairly
• Speak well of people even when they are not present
• Collaborate rather than compete
• When something goes wrong, make it right
• Compensate generously for your failure
• Go the extra mile
• Respect other people’s time and possessions

Competency
• Have earned the proper credentials
• Stay at the leading edge of your profession
• Have won praise and awards from your peers
• Take life-long learning seriously
• Are cited as an expert in the trade press or mass media
• Teach or mentor others
• Consult with others to share expertise
• Do the job right the first time
• Handle the “little stuff” with care
• Follow through to make sure you meet or exceed expectations

Next time you come away from a networking event you will be more fulfilled. You will have started numerous new relationships that will pay big dividends in the end. You will experience a good reputation – one who can be trusted, can get the job done, and is looking out for the success of others.

What else could you ask for?

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Kukuburi Online Comic ROCKS!

Have you seen Kukuburi? My friend Jeff turned me onto it and it rocks! The illustrations are wonderful. The author and illustrator, Ramón Pérez, does a masterful job of capturing energy in every frame. The attention to detail and subtleties keep readers coming back every Tuesday for another update.

Admittedly, Pérez has had a time trying to keep up. The site has recently been updated and several of the pages still need fleshing out. For instance, the Cast page is to be updated on Fridays, but it is not easy to hold down “real” work and continue with projects like this on the side. Nevertheless, he has developed quite a following and readers are patient while waiting for updated strips.

As for those who have not read Kukuburi, you have a treat in store — head over and start at the beginning. I think you will be hooked like many others.

Have fun!