Elephants in the Room!

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His name could be Jumbo (no, not a mortgage). Is there one in the room with you and your social media efforts?


If you’re viewing social media as a “white elephant sale” and using social networks strictly as a billboard to tout products and offer discounts, then there’s definitely a pachyderm in the room with you. Time and time again, I see businesses using social media as a sales tool. Here are some examples of what I repeatedly see:

• Come in on the 25th and we’ll give you 10% off anything over $50.
• Today’s special, roast pork with mashed potatoes and includes a free cup of soup.
• Saturday only! Biggest sales event this year!
• Get my new 5 CD set on winning now and you’ll get it for half price today!

Yipes! Seriously folks, is this what YOU want to see when you’re sifting through posts on Facebook or Google+? And yes, Twitter is just as notorious, but with a heavy dose of MLM’ers peppered in. Oh, why DID you friend that person on Facebook anyway?


Try to think about the consumer or potential client that’s seeing these type of posts over and over again. What will their reaction be? Is it a turn-off if all they see are posts consistently like the examples above and nothing else?

Perhaps it’s time to open up those big ears like Dumbo does. And listen. Ask some folks you know that will give you an honest answer what THEY think of your page. Ask your fans too! As consumers, they’ll give you constructive criticism and also insight on what they’re not seeing, providing substantiation that will tell you it’s time to stop ignoring an issue that’s reached “jumbo” proportions.




Word of advice: If you choose to continue allowing the elephant to stay with you, let’s hope you won’t eventually see any pink ones.


Could it be time to acknowledge that pachyderm with the trunk? Say goodbye, Horton! 


This is part of the Blogging A to Z Challenge. Click here for D and C or scroll down. And yes, there's A and B too.

Potential Clients, Homework, and You

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You get calls from companies soliciting you, right? Yeah, you’re on the do-not-call list; however, that doesn't stop them. A carpet cleaning service calls my home phone all the time.


A few months back I was doing some business with LegalZoom and must have checked something off in an email that stated I’d be okay for businesses they partner with to contact me. So one local business did just that and started calling my business line about three months ago. 


The first time they called I answered it; listened for a moment, told him I was running out the door and could he call the following week? Of course, I completely forgot about the “appointment” and was, indeed, terribly busy. I politely begged off. 


After that, I stopped answering his calls. But then the reinforcements were called in. The owner of the business started leaving messages. And then, suddenly the avalanche of calls finally stopped.


Sigh of relief.


Little did I know it was just a tactic to catch me off-guard.


Working quietly at my desk in the late afternoon, the phone rang. Picked it up without looking at the return number and said hello. “Hi, I’m Richard Perry* and I’ve been trying to reach you for a while now. I can help you with your SEO! You just need twenty keywords…” …”Is that right?” I responded, then adding “What’s THAT going to cost me?”


Asking him a question was a BIG mistake…”blah blah blah…and you need a marketing specialist…” 


First I thought I didn’t hear him correctly. Sadly, I realized he was telling ME, someone who is well-seasoned in the marketing world that I NEED someone who likely has far less experience than me! 


Held back attacking him Jersey style. Instead, I spewed out something about my background and then gently told him outright that he had insulted me and our conversation was over. Seconds before I hit the OFF key on the phone I heard “Are you having a bad day?”

A low score on that phone call!

Wow! This pathetic phone call could have been a success for him if he had bothered to do a quick internet search and spend five minutes of his time doing a little homework. He already KNEW my name. He would have found my LinkedIn profile and within minutes a grasp at the type of work I do, my education level, and much more. From there, he could follow the link to my website, blog, or Twitter account.


Let’s say he went to my Twitter account and read my bio. He’d see that I like sushi. That would have been the perfect ice breaker to get through to me. Since he was calling from two towns away, he could have said…”Have you ever been to the Fish-o-Hama Grill? Their tuna is so fresh.” 


Or maybe go to my blog, scan the last two posts, and make a comment to me about one, thereby showing some interest in me?
It’s THAT simple. Take the time and learn who your potential client is. The info is out there and it’s free!

Do your homework and you'll get a good grade from me.

Afterwards, I summarized the event and posted on Facebook about it. Got lots of great feedback: Apparently I’m not the only one getting lame calls like this one!
The J Geils Band sang about not doing their homework. Click here, enjoy this rockin’ song and don’t take their advice! 

* Not his real name.

Let Your Blog Flow!

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It’s one of those days. You wake up with a slight headache, and groan about the tasks that need to be done. First up, you read a depressing message from a friend. Oops. Wish you could take that back and start over, right?

However, what you’re dreading most is writing that blog post. Your brain is blank. You turn on music to stimulate it. For once, it’s not working. What to do?

This situation happened to a current client of mine who just started blogging. We wrote part of the first post together. She IS a good writer, so that’s not the issue. It was typing it and making it real that was the issue.

She wrote the second one completely on her own and we went through the steps on formatting it, adding labels, photos, etc. It was interesting and I couldn’t wait to see the third one. Then I got the email. She didn’t want to do it. I called and encouraged her. And she said that the topics she wanted to discuss had changed. I explained that the first two were actually important and spoke to that, since she had set the scene. I pointed out all the directions she could venture into, based on what she had already written. And she was energized by that!

What I’m saying here is let it flow!

My client has a lot to say and has already inspired a few people by her first two posts. Is that a reason to continue? Absolutely.

Take a step back and think about why you are blogging. That may include:

• A desire to inspire others
• Furthering your reputation by displaying your knowledge
• Creating greater awareness for your product or service
• Being one of the first for getting hot topics out there quickly
• Sharing personal thoughts / reflection
• Sharing a strong opinion
• You want to practice writing often to better your skills
• You want to have an audience to bounce ideas off of
• Journaling

And so on and so on. Everyone has a combination of reasons. I didn’t mentioning make money here because that’s a separate subject in itself.

So, what to do on those days when you’re stumped? Go out of the box and let that river run downstream! Back in January, it was slow going for me. I suddenly found myself basking in the sun in the afternoon with a book and a notepad and some music playing. So, I decided to write about it, even though it’s not about my main subject. That post can be found here.  We all need to take a quick breath sometimes! So be it.

Back to blogging: When you’re going off the usual subject matter, as long as it’s written in your usual prose it will likely strike a chord with your readers. After all, they need a break too, right? And it demonstrates your abilities to think beyond the usual. So, no more constraints…let it flow!

Going outside now with a book and a notepad. Here’s a #1 song from 1976 that talks about love flowing; that includes the love of expressing your thoughts and ideas, right? Click here for that tune.

Get Creative: Use Those Twitter Lists!

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Twitter lists have been around for some time now and when I mention them to friends and clients, most say they don’t really use them. Twitter even provides a primer to introduce you to lists, click here for that.

If you are familiar with the basics, let me point out a few more uses for them that go beyond the conventional reasons:

Use lists when building up your followers. At some point everyone has experienced that 2,000 follower “hurdle”. This is when you’re suddenly prevented from following more tweeps until you’re within a 10 percent ratio of followers to follows. Yes, it’s Twitter effort to slow down the spammers; otherwise they’d just keep following and following and following regardless of how few follow back.

Sigh.

Was discussing this situation with a client yesterday. I advised that he build up some more followers and get over the 2,000 hurdle. He is working hard at doing so. However, he stated “there’s plenty of people out there on Twitter that are in my neck of the woods (he is a local business) however, I really don’t want to follow them; not so sure I like what they are tweeting.”

My suggestion was to follow them and put them in a private list so that he can easily monitor them before deciding if he wants to hang on to them. He can choose to unfollow them once he gets over the 2,000 follower hurdle or keep them and remove them from the “I’m not sure about you” list.

Which brings up another point: Not all your lists have to be public. Private ones that are for your eyes only are great for monitoring your competition (when you don’t want them to know you’re paying any attention to them) or perhaps for catching up with a celebrity that really has nothing to do with your business and you feel it’s not good for your reputation to let people know that you have an interest in them. So go ahead and follow Ozzy Osbourne via a list in private then.

And did you know that you don’t have to follow someone to include them in a list?
Need a few ideas? Lists can be:

• Your favorite people, friends
• Your favorite businesses or products
• Tweeps in a certain region or city
• Tweeps that share a common interest with you
• Potential customers for your business
• Past and current customers for your business
• Celebrities that you admire
• Tweeps that post lots of quotes (perhaps they inspire you?)
• Current events and news (make sure they’re reliable sources)
• Foodies (we all do eat at some point, no?)
• Tweeps that make you laugh (we all need some comic relief sometimes)
• Causes you are interested in.
• Politicians
• Tweeps you tweet with on a regular basis.

And the lists go on!

Remember that when your lists are public, everyone can look at them. Do think about whether you want to show the world what’s on your lists or not. Any given list can be public or private and you can also change them if your preferences change in regards to display them or not.

The lists feature is there to make Twitter work better for you. Hope you’re inspired to explore the possibilities some more now.

Not a favorite tune, but it does have the word “list” in the title, plus it is Valentine’s Day so the word “kiss” is appropriate too. Have a lovely day! Click here for the video.