You are here: Home / Archives for Marketing
January 2, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Partner Spotlight series

Partner Spotlight series

As the new year begins, I’d like to run a series of posts dedicated to my trusted business partners. By “partner” I don’t mean literal partners in my business, but rather those that I do business with and who provide me with valuable services. Some people call these “vendors” but honestly I hate that word when it is applied to personal business relationships. AT&T is a vendor. My trusted insurance agent is a partner.

For the next few weeks (or more), I will be highlighting my trusted business partners with a weekly blog post that shines a spotlight on the great people who provide me with valuable services and do so with integrity, competence, and great customer service.

Some of these partners provide me with business services, some personal, and some both. In all cases, these individuals are part of my trusted network of professionals who really “get it”. If you are in need of any of the services that my partners provide, I encourage you to contact them to learn more and tell them I said hello.

I personally endorse every professional in this Partner Spotlight series and I am honored to be working with all of them. I hope it helps others in my network get connected to professionals who can help them, as well. See you next week for the first of many Partner Spotlight posts!

Filed Under: Lifestyle, Marketing Tagged With: ,
December 28, 2011 By 3 Comments

What did I ship in 2011?

What did I ship in 2011?

A while back, Seth Godin wrote a great post listing the things he shipped in 2010. Taking some inspiration from his post, I am also listing the things I shipped this past year.

I’m not a big fan of getting all reflective, goal-hungry, and sentimental when a new year rolls over (I prefer a more constantly-flowing kaizen approach) but this my one year-end indulgence. As Seth said, it doesn’t matter whether these things were a hit or not (though thankfully they were all successful!), just that I shipped them. Here is my list.

  • Delivered two presentations at the CMS Expo in Chicago
  • Launched a highly successful and innovative QR code scavenger hunt for the Massage Therapy Foundation
  • Donated over $2,000 in money and services to worthy non-profits
  • Won the “Supplier of the Year” STAR Award from ISAE
  • Delivered presentations at national conferences from Massachusetts to California
  • Concepted, organized, and marketed a successful first-ever ROWE Bootcamp
  • Launched the ROWE Online Training Community
  • Launched the Massage Learning Network – an e-learning community for massage therapists
  • Ran a highly-successful B2B Power Team meeting for my BNI Chapter
  • Completed the Thrive Progam from Reachmore
  • Won three Addys at the 2011 Addy Awards
  • Registered SpinWeb as an an official Authorize.Net reseller
  • Became a BNI Training Ambassador and launched the BNI Central Indiana Advanced Business Training program
  • Moved SpinWeb to a great new office

Most of these things were done with help from my outstanding team at SpinWeb. A huge thank you goes out to those who contributed and assisted.

I enjoyed this exercise and it helped me see 2011 with a new perspective. It also helped me see what things I wanted to ship but didn’t, which makes for a some nice goals for 2012.

What did you ship in 2011? I would love to hear via your comments below.

Filed Under: Lifestyle, Marketing, Productivity, Technology
December 6, 2011 By 52 Comments

No, you don’t need a stupid social media policy

No, you don’t need a stupid social media policy

Social media in the workplace is (still) a popular topic of discussion. While those of us living in our marketing/tech bubbles see social media as just everyday communication, there are still many large organizations that are struggling to figure out how to use it, how to leverage it for business advantages, and how to minimize risk.

Based on what I’ve observed, there is a popular notion related to social media floating around among consultants that really bugs me. When discussing social media in the workplace and in business communication, the battle cry seems to be “you need a social media policy!”

No, you don’t.

A social media policy sounds like a good idea on paper but let’s look at the message it sends. First of all, let’s agree that social media is not some weird, magical new thing that requires it’s own set of rules. It’s not. Social media is communication. Technology has changed in ways that allows communication to become more transparent, scalable, and flexible. However, at it’s core it’s still just communication.

Next, let’s agree that our employees are not stupid. As business owners and managers, I’m going to assume that we want to hire smart people that know what they are doing.

Finally, let’s agree to trust our employees. Again, I’m going to take another leap of faith and assume that we want to hire people that we trust. Sound fair?

If all this is true, then why do we feel the need to regulate and hamstring what our employees do on social media?

I, for one, love it when my team members show their personalities on Twitter, write insightful and opinionated blogs, and talk to our clients on Facebook. I trust my employees. I hire smart people. I enjoy what they bring to our team and encourage them to be visible and active online.

“But what about regulations and stuff, Reynolds! Your company is all fluffy marketing and shiny things but I have to worry about compliance and blah blah blah!”

Ok, so what? Is this a social media problem? No. This is a company culture issue. If you hire smart people with common sense and train them adequately to understand what their outcomes are, do you really need a social media policy? Or would you rather set them free to be creative and authentic?

And if you don’t trust your employees, then why are they working for you?

Please stop over-regulating, over-policing, and over-policy-izing your employees. If you trust them, you may just be pleasantly surprised.

Filed Under: Marketing, Technology Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , ,
November 16, 2011 By 1 Comment

Tighten up your LinkedIn display name… or else!

Tighten up your LinkedIn display name… or else!

LinkedIn is great network that I’ve been using for many years. It has many useful applications in sales, networking, personal branding, and career development.

It also has some SEO benefits which I have leveraged before. One of the ways I have used LinkedIn for SEO is by customizing the “last name” field with specific keywords. By adding a descriptive phrase after your last name when editing your profile, you can cause these keywords to show up in the title tag of your profile.

Up until this week, here is what my display name looked like this:

“Michael Reynolds – Internet Marketing Speaker”

Instead of just specifying my last name as “Reynolds”, I instead made it “Reynolds – Internet Marketing Speaker” in order to add these keywords to the title tag of my profile. This was giving me some SEO benefits and I was being found for phrases that contained these keywords. However, yesterday I discovered that my LinkedIn account was locked and I could not log in. I contacted support and today I received this message:

Hi Michael,

In a recent review of your LinkedIn Profile, the name fields of your account reflect information other than your first and last name. The LinkedIn User Agreement requires use of true names rather than pseudonyms, business names, associations, groups, email addresses, or other characters when registering on our site. We believe that any information other than first and last names in the name fields undermines the professional nature of our site and services.

User Agreement:

http://www.linkedin.com/static?key=user_agreement

Please consider this communication as a courtesy notice regarding our User Agreement. We’ve internally noted that your name field is not in compliance. If we receive additional reports and/or discover that these changes have not been made, we will take the appropriate action. To avoid any interruptions in service, please use the link below to update your name fields and ensure that it only contains your first and last name:

Name and Location Settings:

https://www.linkedin.com/secure/settings?nameloc

Thanks for your cooperation in this matter.

Regards,

Amy
LinkedIn Privacy Team

Interesting! Either the terms of service changed, or I did not pay attention to them. I’m normally a stickler for following the TOS of social networks so I’m a little annoyed with myself for missing this.

I quickly corrected it and Amy from LinkedIn was kind enough to unlock my account but I’ve noticed others doing this as well so I wanted to issue a warning about this so others don’t fall prey to the same violation that I experienced.

So tighten up your LinkedIn display name… or else! :)

Filed Under: Marketing, Technology
September 1, 2011 By 7 Comments

Want more interaction online? Ditch the photo of your dog.

Want more interaction online? Ditch the photo of your dog.

Now before you start flaming me and accusing me of being a dog-hater, rest assured that I am not. I love animals and have had numerous pets, including both dogs and cats. My cat is awesome. Now, with that out of the way…

A lot of people I talk to wonder how to get more interaction online. They say things like “how do I get more Twitter followers?” and “how do I get more people to talk to me on Facebook?” and “how do I get more LinkedIn connections?”

There are lots of ways to get better results on social media but one of the most simple things you can do is to simply use a good, high-quality, real photo of yourself. It may sound obvious but I run into all sorts of people online who use photos of their dogs, babies, flowers, or cartoons as their profile photos. Then they wonder why people don’t accept their connection requests, follow them, or take them seriously.

Want some data? I did a LinkedIn poll recently that gathered some great feedback on this issue. Out of 324 people who responded, 63% said they were less likely to interact with someone who did not use a real profile photo. You can see more details on the LinkedIn poll itself which includes demographic data.

So what does this mean for business people (including job seekers)? Simple: if you value networking, marketing, and branding as key components of your business growth and you want to use social media in a business context, be sure to use a real profile photo to maximize interaction.

Filed Under: Lifestyle, Marketing, Technology
August 12, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Course correcting as a professional speaker

Course correcting as a professional speaker

Yesterday I had the pleasure of speaking at Blog Indiana. If you’re not familiar with it, Blog Indiana is a popular blogging and social media conference in Indianapolis and is very well attended and includes some great content.

So I gave a presentation called “Internet Marketing in 90 Minutes a Week” during the afternoon slot. Now normally, I am pretty confident in my speaking. I usually get great feedback, I spend hours and hours tweaking my content to be very high value, and I genuinely love connecting with the audience.

However, at Blog Indiana I did not have an outstanding experience. It started off with some technical glitches that involved me having to use a handheld microphone instead of a lapel mic (I hate handheld mics!) so that sort of bummed me out. However, the real problem was how I was targeting my presentation. Because my title was catchy, I filled the room and they had to open up the side wall in order to accomodate everyone who attended. This was awesome and as a speaker I love to see this. However, as I was giving my presentation, I started to realize that I had made a mistake.

My presentation was not about Internet marketing, it was about content marketing – which is much more specific. In my effort to create a catchy, demand-creating title, I had boxed myself into a corner of having to deliver something sensational to a crowd that included some pretty savvy marketers. To be fair, their were some beginners in the crowd, as well, who learned a lot but a lot of the attendees were already doing a many of things I was covering and were probably not all that impressed.

As I continued the presentation, I got more and more upset with myself for getting the title out of sync with the content and I felt terrible for incorrectly setting expectations. My presentation was a great overview of how to be productive with a content marketing plan but I could tell that a lot of the attendees were there to be wowed by my supposed ability to boil all of Internet marketing down to 90 minutes.

The presentation went ok and didn’t bomb or anything and I even got some decent feedback afterward, but since I’m a perfectionist I was pretty bummed. I beat myself up over it and got really upset.

I was even more upset because I was giving the same presentation the next day as a webinar. How could I repeat the same mistake? Then I realized that I didn’t have to. Two hours before the webinar, I changed the title, tweaked a few slides to get even more specific, and then presented “Content Marketing in 90 Minutes a Week.” Guess what? It went great. I could tell that my message was flowing logically, my content was accurate and relevant, and I got a ton of great questions and lots of positive feedback afterward.

What did I learn? Well, one thing I learned was that I need to be careful when creating presentation titles. I tend to come up with titles first and then create the presentation afterward which can sometimes backfire. More importantly, however, I learned that it’s ok to fail and then course correct. Not every presentation is going to be a 100% knockout. Sometimes I will make a mistake and deliver 73%. As long as I understand what went wrong and can course correct, it makes me a better speaker.

Was it a little awkward to change my title two hours before the presentation? Sure, a little. But all I had to do was explain very honestly why I did it at the beginning of the presentation and then it was on to delivery. It wasn’t awkward because I believed in my message again.

Has anyone else had experiences like this as a speaker? I would love to hear your stories in the comments below.

Filed Under: Lifestyle, Marketing, Productivity Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,
July 19, 2011 By 4 Comments

QR codes on postcards? Stop the madness!

QR codes on postcards? Stop the madness!

Ok, so I think everyone knows my take on QR codes by now. I think they have very useful applications in some contexts, but I am frustrated to see so many marketers acting like they should be used to push more marketing at people.

Just to prove that I’m not a QR-hater, here is an interesting story of how the Wall Street Journal got it right. This is an outstanding use of QR because they identified the context as appropriate for QR (someone sitting down with a newspaper) and they encouraged sharing, rather than pushing more marketing. Brilliant!

However, for every great example of QR code usage, there are a million (made-up statistic) examples of poor usage. For example, I often get postcards in the mail that feature a big shiny QR code on it. Next to the code, it usually says something like “scan this code for a special message!” Hmmm… is that really a good conversion system?

Let’s analyze this. First, where do most people receive these postcards? Yep, at their offices. Next, where do most people typically sort through the mail? Yep, at a desk (with a trash can nearby). Finally, what is usually sitting on that desk? You guessed it… a computer! Now, if I have a postcard in my hand while I’m sitting at my computer, why would I pull out my phone, open an app (that I may or may not have on my phone already), carefully scan this little box, and then look at the tiny screen on my phone while it pulls up some content? Wouldn’t it be easier to just turn to my computer and type in a website address in a full browser?

Aside from incorrectly assessing the context of the recipient, the other issue is that most of the postcards I receive simply encourage me to scan the QR code just to get more marketing. What’s my incentive? Why not offer me something of value instead and clearly explain it? What is a “special message?”

Before jumping on the shiny QR bandwagon, I think it’s important to answer two questions:

  1. Is QR the easiest way for my constituents to get this information in the context that they will be getting my message?
  2. What is their incentive to ask for it?

Sometimes the answer to the first question is yes, which means you can happily QR to your heart’s content. However, let’s stop using QR codes because we can. Let’s start using them because we should.

Filed Under: Marketing, Technology Tagged With: , , , ,
July 16, 2011 By 2 Comments

So… what do you do?

As a by-product of what I do, I am constantly in a hyper-aware state in which I notice marketing “fails” and technology issues all around me. It’s somewhat of a curse. While others are happily enjoying themselves at movies, restaurants, and events, I am looking at all the ads and calls to action around me and cataloging what is being done well and what tactics could be improved.

  • “Should they be using X call to action instead of Y call to action”?”
  • “Could the usability of this kiosk be improved?”
  • “Is that really an appropriate use of a QR code?

I usually keep these thoughts to myself but I sometimes end up amusing those I am with by sharing my peanut-gallery commentary.

Sometimes I can’t resist taking a photo to capture the “fail” because it’s just too good. For instance, I recently walked through an office building and saw this tagline printed on a big, pretty sign in the window of one of the companies in that building:

Sign that says: Customized solutions using best-in-class technologies to accelerate business results

Really? Your business does “customized solutions using best-in-class technologies to accelerate business results?” Wow… I need some of that.

It got me thinking about how easy it is to fall into “marketing-speak” and pretend that everyone can easily figure out what you do. Even if your product or service makes perfect sense to you, your customers and prospects may not understand. It’s important to be clear and direct when describing what you do and how you help people.

This company may have an awesome product or service but I have no idea what it is.

Let’s all try harder to speak plainly about what we do so our customers know how to buy from us.

Filed Under: Marketing, Technology Tagged With: ,
July 12, 2011 By 4 Comments

Prioritizing social networking with your DISC profile

Prioritizing social networking with your DISC profile

With four major social networks now competing for your attention, it can sometimes be overwhelming trying to keep up. Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Google Plus all have shiny appeal and are full of people just dying to network with you. But what if you only have so much time? How do you prioritize while still getting value out of social media, both personally and professionally?

My friend, you need to dust off your DISC profile.

If you are familiar with DISC and have taken it once or twice, you are probably already nodding and seeing a light bulb start to glow above your head. If not, be sure to do some reading on it. DISC is a personality assessment that uses four different classifications to identify how you behave and function. You can find plenty of places to take the DISC online. The types are:

  • Dominance: relating to control, power and assertiveness
  • Influence: relating to social situations and communication
  • Steadiness: relating to patience, persistence, and thoughtfulness
  • Conscientiousness: relating to structure and organization

Upon taking the assessment, you will be given a report that includes a chart explaining where you fall in the DISC personality types. For example, I am both a very high “D” and a very high “I”. My “C” is third and my “S” is last. This means I am very action-oriented, outgoing, and somewhat process-driven.

So how does this relate to your social media activity? Well, I believe that people are most successful when their activities are aligned with their energy and interests. If this is true, then why not use your DISC profile to help you decide which social network will be the most effective for you? Let’s take a look at each type and which social network is the best match.

D – Your network is Twitter.

Twitter is fast-paced, concise, and to the point. As a “D”, you have a bias toward efficiency, action, and speed. People who ramble and take forever to get to the point exasperate you. You’re in luck because those people don’t survive on Twitter. Since this network is fast-paced, limited to 140 characters per post, and full of rapid exchanges of information, you’ll feel right at home on Twitter.

I – Your network is Facebook.

As an “I”, you are the life of the party, you love to talk to people, and you like to have fun. Facebook is the place for you. Here you’ll find photos of parties, cats, and other people. Additionally, you’ll find lots of photos of you, which appeals to your slightly narcissistic (but well-meaning) desire to be noticed. People tend to be the most casual and “fun” on Facebook. Let’s face it, as an “I” you like people and you like having fun and being a little silly. Facebook encourages all of this.

S – Your network is Google Plus.

As an “S” you crave tight personal relationships and security. Google Plus offers both since it is built on a system of “circles” that allow you to easily group people into sub-networks that are private and exclusive. You can easily keep your conversations within certain circles and avoid broadcasting your messages to everyone at once. Additionally, the clean and simple user interface of Google Plus appeals to your aversion to over-stimulation and clutter. Google Plus will be a peaceful place for you.

C – Your network is LinkedIn.

As a high “C” you crave order, rules, and systems. You’re in luck because LinkedIn is built around all three. First of all, LinkedIn is all business so it appeals to your desire to keep your personal and professional lives separate and your personal life private. It is based on strict rules of conduct and communication that encourages people to only make connections based on a prior meeting or a specific reason outlined in the rules. It is designed to make networking systematic, structured, and safe. As the most process-driven and professional social network, LinkedIn will be a zen-like oasis for your high “C” desire for structure.

My favorite social network is Twitter, and as you can see it lines up very well with my high “D” personality. I like fast-paced, efficient communication so Twitter is the place for me. I like all four major networks and Facebook and LinkedIn both appeal to my “I” and “C”, but I find myself gravitating most often to Twitter when I default to my most comfortable medium.

So if you’re wondering how you might prioritize your time on social media, try comparing your activity to your DISC profile and embrace the network that appeals to your style the most. You might end up enjoying social media even more.

Now if you’ll excuse me I need to go see what I’ve missed on Twitter in the last hour.

Filed Under: Lifestyle, Marketing, Productivity, Technology Tagged With: , ,
July 3, 2011 By 1 Comment

What your business can learn from the Mormon Church

For those who may not be aware, I am a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Other less formal labels for this denomination include “LDS” and “Mormon.” My faith is a source of great happiness in my life and I am always happy to answer questions about it. However, this post is not about religion, so I would ask that if you have any religious questions about the LDS faith, please contact me directly and I will be happy to discuss.

The LDS Church is one of the largest religions in the world. It has over 14 million members and is the second-fastest growing church in the U.S., according to the National Council of Churches. Other statistics on The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints can be found in the LDS Newsroom.

All spiritual debates aside, it’s easy to see that the LDS Church is doing something right. What are the Mormons doing that has lead to such dramatic and steady growth and how can it apply to your business?

Strong systems

The Mormon church is extremely systematic about everything from building churches and temples to teaching sunday school. If you go to a Mormon church anywhere in the world, you will find that they all follow the same meeting agendas, the same processes, and even teach the same lessons. If you attend a church meeting one Sunday in Indianapolis and then attend a meeting the following Sunday in California, it will be very familiar and you will be be able to stay on the same lesson plan. If the Mormon Church wants to form a new congregation, it follows a proven system for setting up the meetinghouse and can very quickly set in motion a process to get it up and running (complete with local clergy) very quickly and with very few issues. This saves time and money.

In a similar fashion, your business can benefit from strong systems that allow you to execute tasks and projects quickly and consistently. If you have proven systems for sales, marketing, product delivery, and customer service, your business will run much more efficiently and enjoy faster growth. If you’re unfamiliar with creating business systems, check out The E-Myth (affiliate link).

Member empowerment

The LDS Church makes it a high priority to encourage members to share their faith with others. In fact, one of the three main components of the mission of the church is “to proclaim the gospel.” Church members are encouraged to talk about their faith, share information with others, and speak openly about religion. This creates a culture that empowers all members to become “marketers” for the church. They are encouraged to follow their enthusiasm for their faith and make it a part of their everyday lives and communications. As a result, almost every member of the LDS church is prepared and eager to be a polite but ardent evangelist for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Your business can also turn employees into evangelists. If you continuously encourage your employees to talk about your company with others, share your brand, and openly talk about their jobs, your company will enjoy greater name recognition and awareness. This will result in more leads and potential customers. Empower your team to use tools like social media to inform the public what your company is all about.

Training

The Mormon Church has a phenomenal training program for its 52,000+ missionaries around the world (who are volunteers, by the way). Before serving, a missionary must spend anywhere from three weeks to three months in a training program that helps them utilize systems, processes, and procedures for reaching prospective new members. Every missionary goes through the exact same proven training process. If some part of the process is improved, it is rolled out to every missionary in the world. The Mormon Church is very serious about proper training and equips its missionaries with the systems and support they need to be successful.

Does your business provide sales training? If not, it might be worth considering. Proper sales training gets all your sales people on the same page, gives them a system to follow, and provides ongoing coaching. My favorite sales system is the Sandler system. If you’re in the Indianapolis area, I recommend Trustpointe or Lushin.

Rapid embracing of technology

Technology evolves at an frenzied pace and it can sometimes be difficult to keep up. However, the Mormon Church sees almost every form of new technology as an opportunity to grow the church’s brand and message. You’ll find that the church has a presence on just about every major social network in use today and even organizes messaging among specific focus areas, including newsroom communications, and member training just to name a few. The church has an incredibly strong SEO strategy which brings lots of relevant traffic to its websites. Additionally, the Mormon Church facilitates messaging through the use of apps, blogs, video, mobile, podcasts, and email. The church even has web portals and apps that allow all members of a congregation to instantly download directories and leadership information directly to their phones in order to facilitate easy communication between members. Most church buildings also now have wireless Internet access in order to encourage members to make use of these technologies as learning aids.

Your business can also benefit by embracing new technologies. If you look at each new form of technology as an opportunity to share your message, your brand will travel faster and your business will grow. Just as the Mormon Church does, carefully study each new tool or technology that evolves, decide how it can strengthen your brand messaging, and then deliberately integrate it into your business.

Partnerships

The Mormon Church does not see other religions as competition. Instead, church leaders throughout the world work with leaders of other faiths to serve and provide humanitarian relief. Some notable examples include Indian Ocean tsunami relief efforts in which the Mormon Church partnered with Islamic leaders and the church’s partnership with the Catholic Church to bring aid to Niger. Other less-dramatic events include interfaith concerts and other social events.

In a similar fashion, your business can also grow faster by leveraging partnerships. Instead of viewing other businesses in your space as competitors, try reaching out to them and looking for ways to work together. Not every prospect will choose to work with you and some may choose your competition (just as some people will choose another religion over Mormonism). However, if you have a positive working relationship with your competitors, you can create opportunities to refer to each other and network constructively, which raises the level of respect for everyone.

Conclusion

The Mormon Church continues to grow quickly and recruits new members very rapidly. With new churches and temples being built all the time, it’s obvious that the methods in and practices of the church lead to growth and success. So what can your business learn from the Mormon Church? By creating systems, embracing new technology, utilizing sales training, creating partnerships, and empowering your employees, you can have a business that enjoys similar growth and success.

Filed Under: Marketing, Productivity, Technology Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
« Older Posts