Biznik partners with Marketing Mix to offer biz tips
One of the things I’ve wanted to have on the Biznik home page for a long time is a regular column offering business tips aimed specifically at indie professionals. We’ve had some success in the past inviting members to contribute their tips to the Biznik blog, but we found it difficult to get a steady stream of high-quality, focused business tips that were truly relevant. So I was thrilled to discover Biznik member Ilise Benum recently, when she dropped me a line asking for some help promoting a webinar, Get Rich in a Niche, that she’s teaching in partnership with HOW Magazine. Ilise has been teaching independent business owners in creative professions how to succeed in business for 20 years, has written 6 books, and is incredibly prolific in sharing her wisdom at a blog she co-authors with several partners, Marketing Mix. I took one look at that, and at her website, Marketing Mentor, and called her up. The result of that conversation is that we now have her latest posts appearing on the home page of Biznik.com, where you’ll a find fresh business tip from Marketing Mix at least three times a week.
Ilise is based in the New York area, where she hosts regular seminars. But good news: you don’t have to be in NY to attend her seminars. In partnership with HOW Magazine, she is teaching a series of webinars on subjects relevant to indie professionals in creative professions. Her first one is coming up tomorrow, Sept. 27th, at 1pm Pacific time (4pm Eastern). Here’s the scoop:
Have you done lots of small jobs for many different clients and as a result, have no particular niche?
And do you know that you could be getting better projects and earning higher fees if you did have a niche?
If so, I hope you’ll join us this Thursday, Sept. 27 at 4:00 PM Eastern (1:00 PM Pacific) for Get Rich in a Niche.
This is the first of four online live webinars in the series, Grow Your Business from Your Desktop, presented in partnership with HOW Magazine.
So what’s different about this webinar? (And why should you pay for it when there’s so much free info out there?)
This live webinar is a preview of our new book, A Designer’s Guide to Marketing and Pricing, due out in Spring 2008, but it’s even better than the book (don’t tell our publisher that!) because it’s interactive. You can submit your burning questions directly to us and we’ll answer them during the session.
Here’s what you’ll learn during this 60-minute webinar (which takes place online and in real time):
- Why focusing on a market really is the only way to succeed in business
- How to identify the ideal target market for your design business
- How to choose a target market that blends your passion and personal interests with the needs of the market
- How to make sure the target market you’ve chosen is a viable one
- How to find and reach the best prospects in your target market
All attendees get copies of the presentation materials plus easy-to-follow Marketing Mentor exercises designed to help you zero in on your target market and build your client roster. Plus, you’ll have 12-month access to the webinar, so you can watch it again and again as a refresher course.
Isn’t it about time you stopped taking the unsatisfying (and often not lucrative) work that comes along and get the work you really want?
If so, find out more here.
0 Comments Business networking works - when you actively participate
After you’ve created your Biznik profile, it’s tempting to sit back and “see what happens.” That’s what Jeff Collins did a few months ago, after he joined Biznik, but it wasn’t until he became an active member - posting in Biz Talk and initiating contact with other members online - that he begin to realize the real benefits. Jeff posted about his experience in Biz Talk recently, and his experience illustrates what happens when you go from lurking to participating. In his own words:
I wanted to take this opportunity to let you know Biznik has really worked well for my business. After Kevin Selkowitz told me about it in November 2006 I spent 6 months considering creating a profile. After I created a profile in April I left it alone for 4 months. About 1 to 3 people visited my profile every week.
Then I decided to start participating. I looked around at all of the interesting people and businesses. I read and wrote about topics in the Biz Talk pages and I met quite a few professionals with whom I exchanged Biznik messages. After one week my profile was being viewed by 50+ people a week and I began to schedule appointments to meet professionals from my local Biznik community.
Biznik has been really fun and at $0-$25/month it’s hard to beat the return on investment. I enjoy the people and the camaraderie.
If you are looking at Biznik without having created a profile, you have nothing to lose and everything to gain. Don’t waist 6 months thinking about it like I did.
Jeff Collins, Professional Haberdasher www.myhaberdasher.com
One final tip: Biznik’s social networking software is built on an ethic of participation. Members are ordered in the membership directory based on how active they are, with most active members appearing at the top. Members who aren’t active are pretty much consigned to invisibility deep in the directory. (Note that paying members always sort above non-paying members, no matter how active, because we view payment as a very important form of activity: it lets us continue to add new features and expand Biznik. Click here to upgrade your account!). So in a very real way, how active you are equates to how visible you are, and the more visible you are, the more likely you are to benefit from your membership in Biznik.
Biznik business networking participatingWord of Mouth is the Wal-Mart of Marketing Concepts
Are you able to speak? Do you know how to have a conversation? Do you consider all of your daily speaking and your conversations with friends, associates, and loved ones as marketing? Maybe some of the time? Perhaps, not?
Why do you suppose, then, that word of mouth marketing has caught on like wildfire? Is it possible that it has become so popular because it’s something that everyone already knows how to do?
The marketing buzz today is all about testimonials, but then again, testimonials have always been among the most powerful of marketing tools. I’ve been using testimonials in advertisements for 20 years, and I’m certainly not the first. David Ogilvy was using testimonials with great effectiveness over 60 years ago. No one called it word of mouth then. So why is talking now called word of mouth?
Is it perhaps because talking is free? Talk is cheap, and people like cheap. Wal-Mart has proven it. Wal-Mart takes perfectly good, quality products that already exist, and they find a way to manufacture and sell them cheaper. Like them or not, they have made a killing doing this. People like buying cheap like they enjoy sex. Sex sells, and so does cheap. Talk is cheap, hence we have word of mouth. Business owners want a cheap marketing solution, so word of mouth is popular, but therein lies the rub. Word of mouth marketing costs exactly the same as other marketing because it is the same thing!
Talking is easy, but the act of talking itself is not marketable. How, then, does one make talking marketable? Call it something else. How about Buzz? Oh yeah, I like the sound of that. “Buzz” makes talking exciting. Read these two phrases aloud, and tell me which one excites the senses more:
1. Have you heard the talk on the street?
2. Have you heard the buzz on the street?
It’s hard to say ‘buzz’ without emphasizing it just that little extra bit.
Getting Over the Buzz
Oh yeah, the buzz. I’m all over that. No, really, I am over it. And you should be too. Talking about a product, a company, a service, or anything else that you like has always been an effective marketing tool. What is the tool called? Why, it’s called a testimonial. Cavemen used it. Later, after writing became all the rage, the tool was called a review.
You tell people about your favorite massage therapist, your new car, the fact that it runs on biodiesel, the movie you just saw. You tell people how your dentist is so gentle that you fell asleep during a root canal. You talk about a great Italian restaurant or some bagels that you love, the best espresso you’ve ever had or an organic face cream that makes your skin feel baby-soft. The pub with the best grub. Yelp has made a business out of collecting reviews.
Nothing New
Word of mouth marketing’s number one goal is to get people talking. Well, blow me over! There’s a concept! Talking. Can we really do that? I’m petrified with excitement, but not so frozen that my lips won’t move. Word of mouth is nothing more than a repackaging of time-proven marketing techniques. There is nothing new about it except the name.
It’s Easier to Say
Well, there’s our answer right there. Word of mouth has just three syllables, while testimonial has five. Could it be that word of mouth is simply easier to say? We do like easy.
How do you sell something that everyone already does? The better question may be, how do you market marketing?
Marketing Marketing
In our short attention span world, people are told that they crave new things. And we believe it. We need new kinds of food, new cosmetics, new cars, new ways, new damn near everything. We must need a new way of marketing then.
Word of mouth marketing proposes that people repackage a bunch of marketing concepts that for decades have been working just fine on their own. I’ve been practicing these procedures for my entire 22 year career. Create an identity, create a brand, define a target market, define their circle of influence, create a strategy, create a marketing plan, create an advertising media plan, create high-impact promotional materials, implement the plans, listen to your customers, and follow up with return-on-investment stats to see what is working and what is not. Rinse and repeat. All of this is focused on getting people talking to influence buying decisions. It has worked extremely well for a very long time, and it is not showing any signs of slowing down.
There are some newer tools such as websites, blogs, and email used to reach people, but the methods are still the same. And really, these tools can no longer be called new. We have been employing them for ten years.
Long Live Word of Mouth
Marketing is marketing is marketing. Call it what you like, the basic tenants that make marketing an effective business tool will always be the same. Our society needs marketing. If people think they need something new, there will always be people repackaging old concepts and slapping new names on them. Marketing will put those repackaged products in front of people in compelling ways.
What businesspeople need to keep in mind is that they must market their companies, products, and services if they want to succeed. ‘If you build it, they will come’ does not apply in the business world. How many products do you know by name that are completely unnecessary? Do ‘Hot Pockets‘ come to mind?
Businesspeople must also keep in mind that marketing is not free. Just because the goal is to get people talking — something that anyone can do for free — does not mean that you can forego budgeting for your marketing. You get what you pay for, and if you budget for Wal-Mart-like rates, you will likely be paying for it again in a much shorter time than you might expect. Seasoned creative services professionals can open peoples’ minds in ways that business owners often cannot. There is tremendous value in that.
The Simple Truth
Partake of the marketing tools, and you shall reap the benefits. Forsake the tools, and you shall face the reaper.
Applying the Word of Mouth Model
How about if I market something that mixes up food? Well, that’s called a blender, but what if we called it a “food mixer upper”? Food and upper in the same phrase. There could be a buzz about that. It might get people talking. Oh, but like word of mouth, it would be a repackaging of something that already exists and works quite well.
Kelly Hobkirk is a branding revolutionist and owner of Train of Thought, a Seattle strategic branding, web and advertising firm.
buzz marketing wal mart word of mouth
1 CommentHow to use Biznik’s new “add to network” feature
“Hey! Come join my network!” reads the email from someone you’ve never met in your life. Should you accept? What if you’ve only met them once? And how does this whole network thing work, anyway… is it just some sort of a popularity contest?
Biznik now has an “add to network” feature that allows you to create and manage your own business network. (The previous referral network also remains, but with diminished significance - it simply shows who you’ve referred business to in the past, and who has referred business to you). Judging from the number of questions we’ve received about this new feature, there’s a lot of confusion about how it works. So I’d like to clarify things by explaining our thinking behind the feature, and a little bit of history about how social networking works.
When Biznik got started two years ago, everybody knew everybody else, because we were all part of the same small Seattle community. There was no need to filter members, because there weren’t that many members. But now, with more than 4,000 members in 70 countries, it’s a little more complicated. Biznik remains committed to being an open community, meaning everybody can “see” everybody else. But it’s increasingly obvious that we need filters through which to make sense of the growing number of members, events and conversations that are happening. So, how can we do that?
One way is by allowing members to create their own network within the larger network. That’s what we’ve done: By adding people to your network, you can use them as a filter to make sense of the larger community. This is not a new idea. Biznik’s business network feature is essentially the same thing that social networks like Friendster and MySpace call “friends.”
Adding someone to your friend network on MySpace allows the service to make recommendations like “4 of your friends also like this band.” A business network has many similarities: For example, on the Biznik event page, you can see a list of events that your friends are attending, which might make you more likely to attend one of them yourself. Essentially, Biznik is using your friends as a filter to show you something likely to be more relevant and interesting to you.
A business network, however, is slightly different that a friend network. Business is about how you make a living and people you do business with aren’t necessarily your friends. Remember the saying, “It’s not what you know, it’s who you know?” Your business network on Biznik is a visual representation of who you know, that anyone can see. By adding someone to your business network, you are essentially saying “I know this person, and I choose to be associated with him or her in a business context.”
It’s not, however, the same as vouching for someone. Just because you’re in my network doesn’t necessarily mean I totally trust you, or think your services are amazing. It just means you’re a connection that I’ve made, and that I think you’re at least OK.
It’s important to remember that everyone has different friendship standards, and the same is true of how people choose to build their Biznik business network. By adding someone to your business network, you are essentially saying “I know this person, and I want to be associated with him or her in a business context.” We recommend the following guidelines:
1. Don’t add strangers to your network.
2. Do add people you trust to your network.
3. Don’t accept invitations from people you’ve never met.
4. Invitations to network with people you’ve only met once (or only met online) have to be examined on an individual basis. If you met someone at a happy hour and had a long conversation and it’s obvious you share some affinity, go ahead and add them - you can easily remove them later if you change your mind.
Removing someone from your network
It’s easy to remove someone from your network - just click the big red “delete” button (we’re going to rework that soon so that you can view your network without the big buttons, but for now, that’s how it works). Deleting someone does NOT send them a message, so you can drop someone quietly from your network without a fuss. Deleting someone from your network also silently removes you from their network.
As Biznik grows, your business network will become increasingly important and useful as a tool for making sense of the larger community. But at the present moment, it’s functionality is limited. Here’s one example of how Biznik may be using your business network in the days to come:
If you’re looking to hire a web developer, a search of the directory could produce a list of members recommended by people in your network. Or you could limit results to people connected to your network (friends of friends).
Flagging inappropriate use
If someone you don’t know sends you an invitation to their network that contains a blatant commercial message such as “Check out my amazing product,” you should flag them, which will notify a system administrator. Using networking invitations to spam other members is a violation of Biznik’s terms of service.
So, in summary, take your business network seriously, but remember it’s not set it stone, and you can change it at any time. It’s a great tool for keeping track of your most valuable business asset: your relationships.
War Through The Wall
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War Through The Wall
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It’s 6:15 in the morning and while I’d *like* to be sleeping, I’ve instead got a couple of massive purple bags bunched under my eyes (convenient since I still need to pack up some clothes) and a pounding, stabbing ache running through my head and down into my toes.
Why?
Because me and my soon-to-be ex-neighbor (heretofore referred to as MSTBEN) are engaged in a hearty “WAR THROUGH THE WALL.”
Now, I’ve never met my neighbor. I don’t know his name, his age, his race. I don’t know what he likes for dinner. I don’t even know what he looks like, what he sounds like or what kind of TV shows he uses to blast away the monotony.
The only things I *do* know about MSTBEN is that his bedroom and my bedroom share a wall, and that he *starts* to crawl his way out of bed and force his way to work (I imagine that he works at some sort of cacophonous canning factory and secretly pray for a debilitating if not particularly painful accident that will allow him to sleep late) around 5:45 every morning.
Starts.
The beeping often worms its way into my dreams. There I’ll be, out cold, having another one of those nightmares about waking up the day of my calculus final and realizing I haven’t been to class all semester when, suddenly, air raid sirens blast their way across the “campus” of my mind, and my heart rate *rockets* north as I wait for the bombs to drop.
Now, if the alarm just went off briefly and MSTBEN then turned it off and got up, we wouldn’t have a problem. Not everyone’s lucky enough to have the slack schedule and alarm-free existence of a freelance word mercenary and strategic marketing wonk.
But apparently MSTBEN is a *very* deep sleeper.
Either that or he’s deaf.
Because while his alarm *starts* it’s incessant, maddening *beeping* at 5:45 AM, it usually doesn’t stop for somewhere around 1.5 hours.
*Beep* *beep* *beep* it goes, second after second, moment after moment as I lay awake, grind my teeth and imagine canning factory mishaps.
In my coming-on two years living in this apartment, I’ve tested a couple of different approaches to dealing with the problem:
Solution 1: *Ignore it.*
For a good chunk of time (especially in the winter when both our windows were closed) I just sort of ignored the problem. It was annoying, sure, but not so bad that I would actually *do* something about it. I sleep like a very sleepy log. I dealt with it no problem.
*Solution 2: *Mad, impotent rage.*
Eventually the charm of Solution 1 wore off. Like water in the Grand Canyon, the torrent of *beeps* wore away my good will (and my ability to sleep), leaving my lying in bed for hours on end with an angry storm brewing in my brain. I’ve got a pretty active imagination (oh, what will MSTBEN do when he gets to the canning factory and sees that it’s been taken over by aliens? Aliens who *beep*?) but ultimately solution 2 was less than satisfying.
Solution 3: *Action!*
Eventually the problem got so bad that I decided I had to *do* something about it. About two weeks ago, after building up my rageful gumption after suffering through the *beep* attack for a solid 45 minutes, I threw on some pants, stumbled out into the hall way and started using MSTBEN’s door as a canvas for an impromptu demonstration of the martial arts.
Eventually my *pounding* trumped MSTBEN’s *beeping.* He didn’t answer the door, but he did wake up and turn off the infernal machine.
Since then, MSTBEN and I have settled into something of a hateful, war-like rhythm. . . a “War Through The Wall” if you will.
Every morning at 5:45 his alarm goes off, *dragging* me from my slumber all angry and confused. I wait a few minutes, thinking maybe *this* will be the day he stops it himself. Then I shift around on my bed and *kick* the wall several times (I tried punching it once or twice, but it made my hand hurt and I need my fingers to make a living). Usually by the 8th or 9th kick, MSTBEN gets the point and hits *snooze.*
10 minutes later the alarm goes off again and we repeat the whole process until around 7:15 when, it seems, he finally gets up.
Solution 4: *Leave*
This is a new one that I’m going to try tomorrow. It involves spending *way* too much money to get into the Seattle real estate market and ceding the ground of my apartment to MSTBEN and whatever poor schlub ends up moving in next to him. I don’t feel like I’ve won the “War Through The Wall” but imagine once I settle into the new place and get to sleep straight through to the blessed lands of 8AM, I won’t care.
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Alright, Haddad. But what the heck does this have to do with marketing, copywriting or running a small business?
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Just this.
The problem that MSTBEN and I really have *isn’t* that he has to get up at a stupidly early hour. It’s not even that he’s, apparently, deaf (deaf or prone to sleeping as deeply as Dracula).
It’s that we’ve got this big wall between us (and that he refuses to answer his door.)
So instead of he and I being able to chat like adults, I get all angry, plot his demise at the canning factory (I’ve got this great fantasy about ex KGB sleeper agents versed in cold-war torture techniques) and, ultimately, take my big Tonka truck and go home.
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Which Is A Lot Like What I See Happen When Businesses And Their Customers Don’t Talk
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You see, my 4 “solutions” up above are a lot like the stages customers go through when they aren’t happy with your product, happy with your service or happy with your image out in the world.
* They ignore it.
* They get annoyed.
* A *select few* of them make a small effort to let you know they’re mad (the rest skip right to stage 4)
* And then they leave, and you find yourself wondering why your profits tanked and why your best customers just don’t come around no more.
So, my advice to you?
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Tear Down The Wall
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Set up a blog so you can get your side of the story out there, make it *easy* for your customers to voice complaints and realize that by the time you start hearing a *POUND POUND POUNDING* on your door a bunch of your customers are probably already gone, gone, gone.
Chris Haddad is a Freelance Word Mercenary and Strategic Marketing Consultant in Seattle, WA. Which means he sells stuff with words. You can learn more about Chris at http://www.haddadink.com
New business terms for 2007
Here’s a list of new business terms for 2007, culled from a list of new words forwarded to me by my friend Jack Lowry. Doesn’t this make you glad to be indie?
BLAMESTORMING.
Sitting round in a group, discussing why a deadline was missed or a project failed, and who was responsible.
SEAGULL MANAGER.
A manager who flies in, makes a lot of noise, craps on everything, and then leaves.
ASSMOSIS.
The process by which people seem to absorb success and advancement by sucking up to the boss rather than working hard.
SALMON DAY.
The experience of spending an entire day swimming upstream only to get screwed and die.
CUBE FARM.
An office filled with cubicles.
PRAIRIE DOGGING.
When someone yells or drops something loudly in a cube farm, and people’s heads pop up over the walls to see what’s going on. (This also applies to applause for a promotion because there may be cake.)
SITCOMs.
Single Income, Two Children, Oppressive Mortgage. What yuppies turn into when they have children and one of them stops working to stay home with the kids or start a “home business”.
ADMINISPHERE.
The rarefied organisational layers beginning just above the rank and file. Decisions that fall from the “adminisphere” are often profoundly inappropriate or irrelevant to the problems they were designed to solve. This is often affiliated with the dreaded “administrivia” - needless paperwork and processes.
404.
Someone who’s clueless. From the World Wide Web error message “404 Not Found” meaning that the requested document could not be located.
Connections are everywhere
You never know when, how, or why a connection might occur. I arrived at last Saturday’s BizJam event just in time to serve on a marketing panel called the Marketing Smackdown. I preferred to arrive just prior to my event so that I could have a clear mind going in to the session.
Walking through the hallway, I passed DL Byron, co-author of the excellent, Blogging for Your Business, who was wearing a blank Pathable name tag just like mine, with no info at all. We’ve met before, but it was the blank Presenter badge, given to presenters who arrived after the Waggle Labs Pathable booth had closed, that caught his eye and made the connection as we passed each other.
The Pathable badges are a great social networking icebreaker because they instantly reveal similarities and differences between the people wearing them. I missed the pre-BizJam questionnaire email sent for the badges, so mine was blank.
DL and I connected because we both arrived just in time for our respective events, and we both missed the questionnaire.
bizjam business connections networking pathableIs Your Business Stuck in a Pigeon Fight?
I was walking home from breakfast yesterday when I saw two burly city pigeons pecking the heck out of each other on the sidewalk in front of me. The fight was fast and brutal. I recoiled at the *fwoop, fwoop* sounds as these two (forgive me) feather-weights battered each other with their wings and stabbed at each other’s jugulars with their sharp pigeon beaks. If I were a small, pigeon-loving child I’m sure it would have made me cry.
As I watched these gray-mottled warriors lunge at each other for round 2, I wondered, what was it that could have caused such an epic pigeon prize fight? An abandoned piece of rustic artesian bread? The affections of a particularly comely female pigeon? The sad realization that these pigeons were, err, pigeons, doomed to live short and meaningless pigeon lives?
I mean, there had to be a good reason that these pigeons were suddenly going for the throat. . .didn’t there? Didn’t there?
Finally the fight broke off and both pigeons (the gray one on the left and the . . .err . . .gray one on the right) launched themselves back up into the air and settled onto the awning of the supermarket. I caught the eye of one of them as he flapped his way up and what I saw there explained everything.
*Because in the eyes of that pigeon I saw nothing but simple, frustrated confusion.*
That pigeon had *no idea* why it had just been in a fight. It had *no idea* what it had just put its life on the line for. And it had *no idea* what it was going to do to make sure it never got into a situation like that again.
*Which is sort of like what a lot of businesses do with their marketing.*
They go hard charging into a market and peck at their competitors throats, fighting to the death over a few scraps of business. Money’s spent. Blood is drawn and when all is said and done, all you’ve got is two beat up and confused pigeons struggling to stay in business.
*Which to my way of thinking, is kind of dumb.*
Over on the Biznik Manifesto (http://biznik.com/about/manifesto.html) I wrote that “Competition is an old myth made up by old men with old ideas and no imagination. There’s work out there–big gobs of it–plenty to make all of us fat and happy and (if we eat too much) probably a little tired.”
Which I really feel like extends out to business in general. I mean, sure, Coke and Pepsi go to war on the airwaves every night, spending huge gobs of money in a desperate fight for market share.
But smart business folks, agile business folks and successful business folks who don’t have million dollar ad budgets know that if you want to *win* a pigeon fight, you’ve got to find a way to avoid getting into that pigeon fight in the first place.
How?
By doing the not-so-hard work of positioning your business, finding a broad niche to explore and realizing that the next guy down the power line isn’t a *threat* to your business, he’s a potential partner who can help you get your fill of all the day old bread you can eat.
(And if that’s not a weirdly stretched metaphor, I don’t know what is.)
That’s it for now folks. You can check out the HWW archives lovingly kept on the HWW Blog (http://www.haddadink.com/blog). And if you need to know more about me, head on over to Haddadink.com.
PageRank, profile optimization, and the coolest guy in Seattle
I have the Google tool bar installed on my web browser, so every time I visit a web page, I can see immediately what its PageRank is. A quick over-simplified background for those of you unfamiliar with the term: PageRank is a number from 0-10 that Google assigns to web pages to measure their relative importance. The higher the number, the more weight Google gives that page. And even though it’s just one of many factors, it continues to provide the basis for all Google web search tools. So you can imagine how excited I was when I visited Biznik.com today and noticed that it’s now sporting a page rank of 6! (Previously, Biznik.com had a PageRank of 4).
How did Biznik jump two notches like that? Well, we have Thomas Schmitz to thank for that. Biznik’s resident SEO expert emailed me out of the blue a couple months ago, pointing out a problem with the way our URLS were formed. But more than that, he actually included the lines of code I needed to add to fix the problem in his email. How’s that for cool? (In case you’d like to know what that fix was, and how you can implement it, too, check out Thomas’s Search Marketing JamSession at BizJam on June 9th). Oh, and if you’re thinking of hiring Thomas to do SEO for you, you can’t - he just announced today that he took a full-time gig with Seattle internet marketing firm Portent Interactive. Congratulations Thomas.
But as cool as Thomas is, he isn’t the coolest guy in Seattle. At least not according to Google. That honor goes to Biznik’s newest supporting member, Erik Sjaastad. Try the search for yourself to see how truly cool he is!
How did Erik become the coolest guy in Seattle? He created a Biznik profile (and became a supporting member, which makes him very cool in my book). Then, he chose the words “coolest guy in Seattle” as his job title. Then he sat back and waited for the magic to happen.
“It was a fun prank to pull on all of my friends,” Erik says. “I sent out a text saying “Google coolest guy in seattle” and then my phone and email lit up. You’re right about the Biznik profile having a lot of weight.”
So, Biznikers, how are you using that weight to get you and your business noticed?
Google internet marketing optimization pagerank profile search seo social networkingIt’s the message, not the medium, even now
I know a guy who knows a guy whose brother is a Google AdWords expert. He has made a good bit of money with the medium, and his business has done very well since picking up this skill. He taught a few tips about AdWords to his brother, whom I know to be a very sharp guy. He has used AdWords to catapult his business to number one in his region. That says a lot for the medium.
It also says a lot – truckloads even – for the message.
This sharp guy tells me that he wants to partner up with my ad agency to put his AdWords skills to use in my clients marketing and advertising plans. “Great,” I say, “Let’s get something going. AdWords would be a great compliment to our other online and print advertising and direct mail services.” The rest of the conversation goes like this:
He says, “Direct mail is dead. You won’t need that anymore.”
“Direct mail is not dead,” I say. “Poor messaging is dead, poorly executed direct mail does not work. Strong messages sell, and direct mail with strong messages gets read and noticed.”
“No,” he says, “Direct mail is dead.”
“How do you know it’s dead?” I ask.
“Well, I get on average about seven pieces of junk mail per day, and I don’t read them,” he says.
“How do you know you get seven pieces?” I ask.
“I go through them every night,” he says.
“So, you are looking at all of this junk mail that you get every day?”
“Yes, but I don’t read any of it,” he says.
“Well, people don’t read poor advertising anymore, and most direct mail is poorly conceived, poorly written, and poorly executed.”
“Exactly,” he confirms.
“So, if the messages in your mailbox were compelling, advertising a product or service that you actually want or need, you would probably read it, wouldn’t you?”
After a long pause, he says, “Oh, yeah, I would read it then for sure, absolutely. I see your point.”
“I have always believed in an integrated approach to branding and advertising,” I say. “Companies who put all of their eggs in one basket usually find themselves disappointed as they hop from one bandwagon to the next in search of good, consistent results.”
“Yeah,” he says, “That makes a lot of sense.”
Savvy people are quick to jump on new technology and new media, but I find that many of these same people are quick to dismiss tried and true methods that are still extremely effective when done right. They often base their decisions on incorrect assumptions about the tried and true media, which is not all that difficult to do given the plethora of examples of poor branding and advertising to which we are all exposed on a daily basis.
The success of compelling messaging relies heavily on placement and timing. Many companies do their own media buys, often putting their ads in front of the wrong people in the wrong places, or mailing to people who do not fit squarely into their target market. Even people who have not yet mastered AdWords have this problem.
Are there mediums that are dead? Of course there are, but direct mail is not one of them. Direct mail can work extremely well when the company has the right goals for the medium, and when there is a realistic budget for strategy, creative, and copywriting. It’s the message, not the medium, that ultimately dictates whether a direct mail advertisement works.
Even Google AdWords success is dependent on excellent messaging. Once people click the ad, the website needs the exact same thing that direct mail needs in order to sell – a compelling message.
Kelly Hobkirk owns Train of Thought, a strategic branding, web and advertising firm, which provides clients with fully integrated branding and marketing solutions.
AdWords direct mail Google Google AdWords messagingJust Say No
Sorry, this has nothing to do with Nancy Reagan or the war on drugs.
I’m talking about saying no to a potential trouble client, and stopping client headaches before they begin.
I learned this lesson the other day after talking to some colleagues about a client that came in for a consultation. We’ll call that client “Pat.” Pat was willing to pay top dollar for our services (sweet!), but something just didn’t feel right to us (hmm…).
Pat was 20 minutes late for the meeting, and even after seeing our portfolio, s/he wanted to see more examples. We obliged, and a seemingly unimpressed Pat asked us to send a quote. Then s/he left.
We could tell Pat wasn’t too excited about our portfolio or our services (which is fine, you can’t please everyone). And by being late, s/he clearly didn’t value our time. To us, that meant working with Pat would be akin to partaking in a series of unpleasant root canals.
So instead of sending a quote, to which Pat could potentially say “yes” and both parties would unhappily sludge through the project, we decided to Just Say No. Sure, the money would have been nice, but what about the headaches?
By politely telling the client that it’s not a good fit, you can end any future problems from the start. You can even refer the client to someone who would be a better match. Chances are the client will see the mismatch too and appreciate the honesty and the referral. Furthermore, the person Pat decides to go with will appreciate the business. You can please three people just by saying no!
Nancy was right about something.
Jace Krause is a independent copywriter and in-house word guy at Design Kompany. When he’s not writing words, he writes music and plays guitar for local pop outfit, Friday Mile. He lives in Seattle, Wash.
business tips headache nancy reagan saying no taking charge trouble clientsThe Theory Of Learned Incompetence
Just after college I spent two long, brutal years slaving away in the pits of the Los Angeles entertainment industry. I discovered a lot in my time in LA. I discovered that I wasn’t cut out for 100 hour work weeks. I discovered that too much sunshine is as bad as not enough (and that while rain doesn’t cause cancer, it does cause big, messy accidents on the I-10.) I discovered that In ‘n Out Burger makes the best darned cheeseburger in the whole wide world (and that “Animal Style” is both messy and delicious.)
But the most important thing I discovered was my “Theory Of Learned Incompetence.”
You see, my last year in LA I had this boss named “Bob.” (Name changed because “Bob” was a pretty cool guy and I’d rather not make him feel bad.)
“Bob” was a smooth talking gay, Jewish guy from New York City who spent the big bulk of his work day surfing the net for porn. Not to say that “Bob” wasn’t good at his job. He could schmooze and deal like nobody’s business and taught me tons about how to deal with people.
The problem was that “Bob” couldn’t do anything *but* schmooze and deal.
* Answering the phone? Uh uh.
* Sending a fax? Better if he didn’t try. Toner is expensive, after all.
* Replying to an email, licking a stamp or figuring out how to set up the voicemail on his brand spanking new cell phone (he lost the last one on a trip to France)? Yea, uhh. Not gonna happen.
Now, what struck me about “Bob’s” utter, kindergarten-like incompetence was that at some point–on the way to landing his nice, cushy quarter-million a year gig–he *must* have learned how to do this stuff.
You see, in the entertainment industry, there’s a pretty strict ladder to climb. You start off way at the bottom as somebody’s assistant. You go through heck for a couple years fetching coffee, doing mindless admin stuff and trying to prove that you have “initiative.” And then if you’re lucky and tenacious you move your way up, get your own assistant, spend all your time chatting on the phone and surfing porn–and so the circle of Hollywood life continues.
So once upon a time, “Bob” knew how to use a copy machine.
Once upon a time, “Bob” knew how to put somebody on hold, get another call and then get back to the first person without accidentally calling the fire department.
Once upon a time, “Bob” was competent.
Until he learned that if he wanted to get ahead, he’d have to *learn* to become *incompetent.*
You see, in Hollywood (and, from what I’ve seen, in all of corporate America) if you know how to do something well, you’ll inevitably be roped into doing it again and again and again. In fact, if you’re too good at something (fixing the copy machine. Getting coffee. Preventing wars.) you tend to get tied down to that one thing while all the less competent folks around you get promoted.
So what do ambitious folks like “Bob” do?
Consciously or not, they *learn to be incompetent.*
They pour all their energy into developing a few core, useful, sellable skills and let everything else slough off and atrophy until the folks above them have absolutely no choice but to promote them.
“Bob keeps messing up the copy machine and we’re afraid if he keeps getting close to it it might explode” they say. “We’d better just get him out of there and give him that corner office.
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Nice Theory, Haddad, But What Does This Have To Do With Marketing?
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Just this. In my day to day life I run into a lot of new entrepreneurs and business owners–refugees from the corporate lifestyle–who haven’t quite woken up to the fact that while the theory of learned incompetence will help you get ahead in corporate America, it’s absolutely deadly when you’re out on your own.
When you’re stuck in the “ivory tower” you can forget how to do all sorts of stuff, knowing full well that the infrastructure of that big, fat company will take care of you.
But out in the real world, if you decide to forget how to work the copy machine, the copies don’t get made.
If you decide to forget how to answer the phone, there’s no one there to save you.
And if you decide to become incompetent at marketing . . . well, pretty soon you don’t have any sort of business at all.
Chris Haddad is a direct response copywriter and strategic marketing wonk. He has theories on everything. Visit his Hard Working Words website at http://www.haddadink.com, and his blog at http://www.haddadink.com/blog
incompetance independent business marketingWhy I don’t work hourly–and neither should you
One of the first questions potential clients ask me when I first meet them (right after “Is your head really that round?” and “Why are you smiling like that? Cut it out. It’s creepy.”) is “What’s your hourly rate?”
And they always get just a little bit stymied when I say “Err. I don’t have one.”
Because–except for in extreme cases–I don’t work hourly, and in my not-so-humble opinion, neither should you.
Why?
Because working hourly–asking clients to pay you a set amount of money based on the amount of time it takes you to complete a task:
-Turns what you do into a simple commodity.
-Is kind of demeaning.
-Encourages dishonesty and distrust.
-Is patently unfair both to you and to the people who are paying you.
-And just don’t make no sense.
Let’s take these two at a time.
Turns what you do into a simple commodity and Is Kind of Demeaning
The vast bulk of Bizniks are talented and tough-minded professionals who provide a valuable service. These are bright, eager entrepreneurs trying to make their way in the world and to shake off the shame and horror of working for “dah man.”
So it always shocks me when business folks new and old demean themselves and devalue what they do by working based on time. Why? Because if you say “I’m a designer who works for $X dollars per hour” you’re basically saying that while your effort (the time you spend on the project) is worth something, the end result of what you provide (a beautiful and powerful design that will serve your client for years) has no actual value of its own.
Basically you’re saying that your time is worth something, but your product is just another cheap and easily obtainable commodity.
Which is kind of ass backwards.
Now, personally I think this has a lot to do with the suffering mentality we Americans seem so addicted to. Work is HARD. Work is TOUGH. Work is NASTY and if I’m going to spend my TIME suffering like that, I’d better be PAID for it by gum!
And in a lot of ways, regular employees are indeed selling their suffering. The kid who slaves away at McDonalds isn’t providing anything particularly valuable that couldn’t be done by anyone with a 6th grade education level. A lot of employees (excluding executives and the like) are really just there to man the wheel.
And in that case, paying hourly makes perfect sense.
But as an entrepreneur, you aren’t manning the wheel, you’re providing a result.
Which we’ll get to in a second, but for now let’s move on.
Encourages Dishonesty and Is Patently Unfair to the people who are paying you
Ok. Disclosure time. Early on in my career, I had clients who insisted on paying me an hourly rate and I was too green to talk them out of it. Now, unfortunately I’m cursed with the ability to work really, really fast. I’m also good at what I do, so while another copywriter might take 10 hours to do this one job, I got it done in . . . err. . . 2 and did it really, really well.
And looking at the rent coming due, and looking at the fact that the client expected the job to take closer to 10 hours (and that in a lot of ways the client would value the work less if he knew it was done more quickly) I, um, lied.
Yup. I marked myself up. Or, possibly I just multiplied my hourly rate.
But either way, working at an hourly rate made it not just easy but attractive for me to be dishonest in a business dealing. I don’t like lying. It makes my head hurt. It gives me lines.
But even if you’re completely honest in your dealings, track every hour to the second and submit detailed time sheets for every gig, you’re still being unfair to your clients. Why?
Because if you’re charging hourly, you’re basically telling your clients that they’ll pay more if you @$%# it up.
If I knock a job out of the park and do it perfect the first time I’ll get hourly rate X 5 hours.
But If I mess up, do a crappy job and have to go back and do a second, third or even fourth draft I’ll get hourly rate x 10 hours (or 20 or 30.)
And suddenly my client’s budget is blown right out of the water and I’m looking around for a new beach house.
Like I said, unfair.
Which brings me to my final point. If you’re a business professional who delivers potent results, working hourly Just don’t make no sense.
Let’s try one of my wildly strange and shaky metaphors.
Imagine you just got back from the playa and your car is just CAKED in dirt. You’re driving back into the city and you see two car washes right across from each other. One car wash has a big sign that says “Get Your Car Clean: $10.”
The other car wash has a sign that says “Spend two minutes in our car wash: $10.”
Which one are you likely to go to? Which one is offering you actual value.
Now personally, I’d go to the car wash that promises a result. If I went through that car wash (whether it would take 30 seconds or 5 minutes) and I came out the other side with a clean car, I’d pay my ten bucks with a smile (and if the car wasn’t clean, I’d ask them to scrub a little harder until it was.) With this model, I’ve basically got one possible set of results:
* I pay 10 dollars, my car is now clean. I’m happy.
But what if I went through the “two minutes of scrubbing” car wash? All of a sudden I’ve got three possible sets of results:
* I pay 10 dollars, my car is scrubbed for 2 minutes. My car is now clean. I’m happy.
* I pay 10 dollars, my car is scrubbed for 2 minutes. My car is not yet clean. If I want my car to be clean, I will have to pay at least another 10 dollars, maybe more. I’m not happy.
* I pay my 10 dollars. My car is scrubbed for 2 minutes. My car is clean, but I really feel like that car wash was slacking and they could have done the job in 1 minute. I feel ripped off.
Now, obviously there’s a ton of conversation that could be had about how to price yourself, particularly if you’re in a “face to face” service profession such as massage therapy. (The only time I charge hourly is when I’m doing face to face consulting. Of course my hourly rate in that case is really high because, well, I hate meetings.)
But if you take anything away from this hourly post, it should be this: Hourly work sucks. You don’t suck. You shouldn’t have to work hourly.
Later
c
Chris Haddad is a direct response copywriter and marketing consultant in Seattle, Washington. You can learn more about him at http://haddadink.com
billing hourly rate professionalWhen was the last time someone thanked you for listening?
Here I am getting ready to turn fifty-eight and I still feel I can get better in building the kind of relationships I desire.
And while I’ve heard over the years how important listening is to the relationship building process, today, more than ever, I’ve come to learn how true that is.
I remember one day attending the National Speakers’ Association conference in Atlanta, Georgia. Think about it: 2,000 professional speakers and everyone running around speaking…but who was there to listen? Kind of makes you laugh, doesn’t it?
Then, all of a sudden, it came to me…listening with purpose, if better understood, and better utilized could help to reap more of the rewards we all look for.
Let’s take a few moments to define purposeful listening.
Purposeful listening is listening with your five senses (smell, touch, taste, hearing, and sight), and with your heart, mind, and soul.
Through purposeful listening, you make good contact with the other, and the other truly feels heard.
Through listening, you may give a person an opportunity to work through an issue he or she is struggling with, or hear an experience he or she wants to tell you about.
Or, you listen to hear how you might partner on a project together, finding a way to become more useful and resourceful to him or her.
Who would ever think that becoming a great listener is a way of being useful and resourceful to others?
Let me take you back a few years to grade school.
Remember the three R’s? Wasn’t it reading, writing, and arithmetic?
When do you last recall hearing of anybody taking a listening course in the early formative years of our education?
In fact, how many listening courses do they offer in high school or even at the college level now?
You probably won’t be able to find many.
Maybe if you’re lucky, you’ll find a course offered in a continuing educational forum at one of your local colleges.
Yet, the power of all knowledge and the power that’s available to build the relationships we desire are in our increased and dramatically improved ability to listen with purpose to what people are saying, and most of all, discover what they really mean.
Your ability to listen to the needs of others is one of the most important relationship skills.
It’s often been said that we have two ears and one mouth and that we should listen proportionally. If you agree with this basic concept, and if you are willing to take your listening efforts to the next level, listen three times as much with purpose.
When Does Failure to Listen Occur?
Failure to listen occurs whenever the receiver “tunes out” the sender of the message before receiving the entire message. One instance is when you disagree with some part of what is being said; you listen to the point of disagreement, and begin formulating your response in your head rather than continuing to listen.
This is the old habit of listening to only what you want to hear and failing to listen to the rest of the message. As a result, the message is misunderstood and not heard.
When we find ourselves not listening to others it’s often a product of being bored, tired, hurried, or a dozen of other reasons that we come up with.
Who cares what the reason is?
The fact is, we assume we hear. In any event, we are not purposeful in our listening efforts. To become a more purposeful listener, we first commit to listening, assuring that we indeed did hear the words that the person expressed.
We then ask questions and put into our own words to clarify that we understand what the other person is saying.
The light bulb pretty quickly goes on when we find that we have truly heard and truly do understand another.
This kind of listening helps reveal deeper feelings and needs.
Thinking Point for Connection forward
Is there someone you are currently experiencing a disconnect with? How might listening help you better understand and reconnect with this person?
Ron Sukenick is the Chief Relationship Officer and founder of the Relationship Strategies Institute, a training and Relationship development company that provides innovative, effective and relevant programs and systems for corporations, organizations, and associations. To learn more about the value of Relationship Development, visit their Web site at www.RelationshipStrategiesInstitute.com or e-mail him at - RS [at] RelationshipStrategiesInstitute [dot] com.
business networking listening skillsMy Cousin Lost A Finger — And Taught Me All About Web 2.0!
“WHRRRRRR CHUG CHUG WHRMMMMMMM.” The big brown door groaned out a protest as our brand-spanking-new garage door opener *yanked* it up and along its track to rest quietly above our heads.
This was winter in the 80’s–maybe 1985–and my aunt, uncle and cousins had come over on a Sunday to play trivial pursuit, get sugar-high on peanut butter bars and listen to my dad tell weird stories about his weird life and that weird time he *swears* he was abducted by mustache-wearing aliens.
My cousin Michelle and I weren’t having it though. We’d heard all the weird stories before and didn’t know enough about Reaganomics to be much use at trivia. So we scarfed down some sugary goodness and snuck downstairs to play with Mom and Dad’s new toy.
“Whoa, cool!” Michelle said when she saw it for the first time. And I had to agree, the shiny new electric garage door opener *was* cool. It was all shiny metal, blue plastic and grease.
*And it was just begging us to play with it.*
“Here, let me show you.” I said in my little eight-year-old voice. I clambered up onto a rickety chair and stretched up on my tippy toes to push the button. I had to push hard to get the bright red light to flash, but when I did the whole room rumbled.
“WHRRRRRR CHUG CHUG WHRMMMMMMM” our life-changing new technology went. It gave us a clear view of the snowy street and sent us both into ecstatic fits.
“WOW!! AWESOME! LET ME, LET ME!,” Michelle screamed amidst the giggles. For the next half hour we switched off back and forth. We opened and closed and opened and closed and opened and closed the door, balancing precariously on that wobbly little chair every time.
And then we stopped.
Michelle was stretching up and pushing hard on the button again when her foot slipped. She tumbled and gave a strangled shout.
*And then I saw the blood.*
Michelle was crying from shock than from pain. I ran upstairs to get my Uncle and wondered why I hadn’t noticed the 12-inch rotary saw blade propped up against the wall right under our new “toy.”
The finger had come off clean just under the knuckle closest to the fingernail. My dad searched around franticly for it, packed it in ice and rushed off in his big brown Lincoln Town Car to meet up with Michelle and her dad at the hospital. I stayed home with mom and stared at the bloody saw blade, wondering again how we managed to miss the dang thing.
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“Alright, Haddad. You’ve freaked us out, now what the hell does this have to do with Web 2.0?”
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Good question.
Now I *love* podcasting, blogging, web video, web audio, dynamic web pages, social networking, Pay-Per-Click and all the other symptoms of the evolving web.
But sometimes I think business folks get so caught up in the shiny new technology that they lose sight of the powerful basics.
And as Michelle and I (OK, mostly Michelle) learned way back in ‘85, getting hypnotized by “radical new technology” and ignoring the fundamental truths about your environment (like a big honking saw blade right underneath you) can be more than a little bit dangerous.
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So here’s the real message of today’s newsletter.
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If you’re in business today you *need* to a part of the web. You *need* to be aware of the radical changes that are happening online. And you *need* to make some hard choices about how you’re going to take advantage of the opportunities to start *real* conversations with your customers and sell your business like never before.
But you also *need* to realize that the medium is *not* the message and that *what* you say to your audience is always going to be more important than *how* you say it.
Which means coming up with a strong offer, developing a powerful Unique Selling Proposition and laying out in no uncertain terms the *reasons why* your customers should work with you.
Oh, and since you’re undoubtedly dying to know, the good doctors at that hospital in Massachusetts managed to put my poor cousin back together again and she has just a tiny little scar to remind her of her run in with the garage door opener and the saw blade.
Comments? Questions? Harsh Invectives? Head on over to the Hard Working Words Blog (http://www.haddadink.com/blog).
Chris Haddad is a Direct Response Copywriter and Strategic Marketing Wonk Based In Seattle Washington (which means he sells stuff with words.)
How Four Words Can Make You a Great Writer
I know you’ve been looking for it all along–the magic potion that will make your writing sparkle and pull clients from their couches. After months of study on this subject, I have the answer for you. Are you ready?
The secret to writing posts that grab clients is just this: love what you do.
I don’t mean “like it a lot,” or “be pretty good at it.” I mean LOVE it. When you are passionate about your work, all the little grammar issues and style technicalities will pale in comparision. People are drawn to those who are passionate about their work and ideas.
If you’re having a lot of trouble getting your posting or web copy off the ground, consider whether you’re really tapping into that place inside yourself where your abilities and your passions intersect. After all, why should your customers fall in love with your service if you don’t love it yourself?
Rachel Whalley is a business blogging and writing coach based in Seattle, WA. Check out her other pearls of wisdom at www.writewithmeaning.com.
blogging clients entrepreneurship indie passionThe Desire for Success & Relationships
While the basic desire for success is naturally a part of all of us, what we view as important varies.
A broad spectrum exists from improved health and fitness, greater personal development, achievement, travel, fulfilling relationships, a deeper spiritual life, a more harmonious family life, a more exciting social life, more financial freedom, education, personal growth, or more free time.
With no shortage of books, tapes or CD’s to listen and learn from, why is this most sought after desire going largely unfulfilled by many?
The desire for success hasn’t changed over time; what’s changed is our perception of the way we get there.
We always achieved success through relationship—now we understand that to better help and receive help, we must fundamentally experience this in all aspects of our lives.
Therefore, the intention to form solid relationships must be at the forefront of all our interactions.
The driving force behind this thought is that relationships are primary to everyone’s experience.
We are constantly in relationship with our self, with others, and with a greater environment, world, and source.
A continuous process of cultivating, attuning and attending to these relationships over a lifetime is part of the human experience we share with one another.
Our observation skills, our diagnostic skills, and our remembering what is most important increases the quality of interaction in relationships, and, we would add, increases the quality of life.
I’d like to leave you with one of my favorite quotes from Albert Einstein.
“Strange is our situation here upon earth. Each of us comes for a short visit, not knowing why yet seeming to divine a purpose. From the standpoint of daily life there is one thing we do know. That we are here for the sake of others… Many times a day I realize how much my own outer and inner life is built upon the labors of others, both living and dead, and how earnestly I must exert myself in order to give in return as much as I have received and am still receiving.”
Albert Einstein
business networking purpose relationships successTaking your business relationship to the NextLevel
If I’m going to lead you down this new path of what I call NetBeing, a word that was coined that captures the essence of a relationship mindset, I thought it would be important to at least take a look at how networking has traveled over the years.
Like all good things in life, we must always start at the beginning. Won’t you join me?
The 70s: It was all about how much we knew; an independent focus in creating our own success existed in the business community. We presented ourselves as experts and were less likely to share information for fear of losing our ideas, our competitive advantage, or our share in the market place.
The 80s: How much we knew and who we knew. We developed our ability to negotiate and compete, and still believed we were independently creating our own success.
The 90s: Who we could gain access to. We looked at six degrees of separation, and all the ways we could reach and develop a business network. We also began to see, with the explosion of the quality movement, information sharing, involvement, and a more global market calling for establishing solid networks of relationships. The philosophy of networking exploded within the business community.
The 2000s: NetBeing, a new intelligence of relationship building, adds to our learning from the 1990s on how well we are able to respond to the needs of individuals. When we are continuously paying attention to individuals, we can better help them. This new intelligence includes more than responding to the obvious task or project efficiently and effectively. It is also about how enjoyment is derived in the process. Most importantly, going forward is about deepening relationships and attending to a multitude of ever changing factors.
To further capture the distinction, consider the following:
- It’s a place we are coming from, as opposed to a place we are going to.
- It’s a way we are all the time and everywhere, as opposed to something we do some times and some places.
- It brings the whole person to the forefront of every interaction.
- It supports the very familiar rule of reciprocity: what goes around comes around.
- It balances and integrates autonomy and interdependence.
The following further highlights the distinction between networking and NetBeing.
Networking - A place you go to
NetBeing - A place you are coming from
Networking - Something you do sometimes and some places
NetBeing - Something you do all the time and everywhere
Networking - Meet with others to achieve individual goals
NetBeing - Meet with others to build collaborative goals
Networking - Seeks to make contacts.
NetBeing - Understands how to convert contacts to connections
Networking - Support is individually focused
NetBeing - Support is a collaborative process
Networking - How can I achieve my dream
NetBeing - How can we both achieve our dreams?
Networking - Short Term
NetBeing - Long Term
Networking - Relationship concludes. Transaction is over
NetBeing - Relationship shifts Relationship evolves to another relationship
A changing world has narrowed the boundaries of the world and opened up opportunities that two short decades ago would not have been imagined. A fast paced economy calls for interfacing with others in multifaceted ways, and our relationship web now extends throughout the world. Therefore, the 21st century provides unique opportunities and challenges in building business and personal relationships. NetBeing focuses the state of concentration on meeting challenges with greater and greater ease.
In addition to the many challenges we faced in previous decades, the following factors now face us as well:
- The information age bombards us with hundreds if not thousands of messages and bits of information every day. We must stay abreast of what is important and stay tuned in to changing trends. Now, in reaction to almost instantaneous information from all over the world, a chain reaction of change is perpetuating an ever-revolving change reaction.
- Quality of life considerations and the diversity of our times challenge us to pay attention to how we approach business relationships. Family and life balance issues have always been critical issues for most people. Now, more and more individuals are making decisions based on that which is most important to them.
- With today’s technological revolution there are virtual offices everywhere. Telecommuting, videophones, video conferencing, black board conferencing, teleconferencing, emailing, faxes and modems, cellular phones and laptops give us unprecedented access all over the world.
How we think about work is changing. There is an old joke about two manufacturing employees. The first worker asks: “Is your job in jeopardy?” The second worker responds: “No, my job is very secure. It’s me they can do without.” More and more individuals are becoming entrepreneurs, both in response to their desire to navigate their own destiny, and from reengineering, downsizing, and rightsizing that has occurred within their organizations. These new entrepreneurs are looking at each other for markets, for resources, for products, for services, and for business relationships. The new reality will continue to challenge how we think about work as mergers and acquisitions and a leaner flatter organization continues to evolve.
To keep up with the changing world, knowing how to access knowledge and information is vital. Think about that. The world is changing; yesterday’s knowledge base is not enough to carry you forward. In fact, new information and technology are advancing so rapidly that you literally cannot keep up. You must learn how to obtain the information you need. The beauty of this revolution of need matching up with technology is that just-in-time-knowledge (JIT-K) is only a fingertip away. A JIT-K perspective helps to prevent information overload and apply the knowledge as needed. Some may call this wisdom!
When we fundamentally understand that we have a multitude of considerations that impact how we are in relationship, our view of change and the importance of change is magnified. Consider Ron’s personal view of change.
Let’s take a few minutes and communicate about relationships and change. When you were a youngster, did you enjoy looking into a Kaleidoscope? Were you amazed at the infinite varieties of colors and patterns that evolved as it turned in your hand? Did you ever turn it so quickly that you did not have a chance to fully appreciate what you were watching because things were changing so quickly in the little viewer?
The world of relationship is like a Kaleidoscope. The changes in the viewer pale in comparison to the changes experienced in the last decade–and the changes we will experience in the years to come.
There was very little to think about when turning that little Kaleidoscope: just look and enjoy. If you view the world of relationship as a Kaleidoscope, you will see change. Rather than standing there mesmerized or memorizing the colors and patterns as if you can keep things the same, imagine what it might be like to be the colors. For openers, think about every second of your life, every minute, every day, being different from the preceding second, minute, or day. No two interactions or opportunities are the same, just as the patterns in the Kaleidoscope are never the same. Changes are inevitable–in behavior, in life patterns, in your knowledge base, in your habits, and in your relationships. We are not the same person we were even moments ago.
People change. Look around you. Are there new people in your life that were not there a month ago, six months ago, last year? Get to know people around you, and get involved with them. Don’t just observe the changes passively, as if you are looking into a viewer. Be a part of them. Get to know people you come into contact with, what they do, what makes them tick. Become interested in them and how you can help them. They’ll do the same for you and you’ll enjoy life more.
Technology changes. Are you still using the same equipment as one, two, five years ago? Not very likely. And the equipment you are now using will become obsolete in the near future. Further more, staying abreast of the technological changes and discussing preferred communication tools with your partner is key in developing a collaborative relationship.
Leadership techniques change. When was the last time you picked up and read a management book for insight about new management and leadership practices?
An understanding of the changing needs of today’s workforce (that’s all of us!) will help you be more progressive and able to meet and partner with others within or outside your organization.
Economic factors, urgency, people’s values, technology, and relationship management: all changing everyday, truly a Kaleidoscope. You can become a part of the Kaleidoscope–get inside the viewer–and be the one who determines the next pattern, if you make up your mind to.
Summary
You have reviewed a historical perspective of how networking has changed. A new intelligence of NetBeing has been introduced—the intelligence of moving forward and building deeper relationships while considering the Kaleidoscope of ever changing dynamics in our world. NetBeing has been distinguished from networking recognizing that opportunity, creativity, and inspiration come in many forms. NetBeing calls for staying attuned to the individual and to the world business community, exposing the many possibilities along the way.
In my next post, we will discuss the desire for success, as you define success, and how developing a relationship focus is a crucial aspect of achieving that success.
Ron Sukenick is the Chief Relationship Officer and founder of the Relationship Strategies Institute, a training and Relationship development company that provides innovative, effective and relevant programs and systems for corporations, organizations, and associations. To learn more about the value of Relationship Development, visit their Web site at www.RelationshipStrategiesInstitute.com or e-mail him at - RS@RelationshipStrategiesInstitute.com.
business networking change relationshipsWhy Are Business Blogs So Dang Hard To Write?
People ask variations on this question frequently. I have a short and simple answer that may help clear the fog: biz blogs are challenging to write (especially to write well) because they require a balanced combination of personality and professionalism.
That may not seem so difficult on the surface of things, but think about it. Most of us have our “professional” voices, the way we sound on letters to our clients, on our websites, and in our elevator speeches. We also have our regular, or “personal,” voices, the casual way that we talk to friends and family. From our early moments in the business world, most of us were trained that the two should not mix.
A little bit of my theory: our culture has evolved from a community-based marketplace of corner stores where everyone knew the shop owners, to a more isolated marketplace where the transactions were kept fairly sterile. This is where the “professional” voice came from.
In the last few years, it seems to be evolving again, back to embracing the concept of personal connection. Now huge companies like GE are writing business blogs to reconnect with their clients on a more personal level.
How is this relevant to you? Well, if you’re an independent service provider, your entire business is likely based on a strong community connection, and the goal of your biz blog should be to bolster that sense of connection with your current and prospective clients. You want to find a way to convey a sense of your personality through your blog, and yet you want people to take you seriously as a professional service provider. This is why biz blogs are so hard to write (well).
So what do you do? You learn a new way of writing–create a new voice, one that embodies the spirit of you within a business context. I’m not saying it’s easy, but it’s certainly possible. I’ve been toying with the idea of having a business blogger support group, in part to help people work on this challenge.
Rachel Whalley is a business blogging and writing coach based in Seattle, WA. Check out her other pearls of wisdom at www.writewithmeaning.com.
audience business blogs voiceWhat makes a great business name? The Name Inspector knows…
Trying to define a great business name is a little bit like the task Supreme Count Justice Potter Stewart faced when, in a 1964 attempt to define pornography, he settled for “I know it when I see it.” Coming up with a great name for your business can be an equally daunting task.
So I was delighted to discover that Biznik member Christopher Johnson has embraced this task with gusto in a new blog called The Name Inspector. In essence, his new blog is all about the secret life of business names. From his first post:
We all eat and breathe company names and brand names. They occupy an ever-expanding space in our cultural environment. As the most carefully designed additions to the popular vocabulary, they are literary miniatures: nanopoems. They influence us, annoy us, and make us laugh, but mostly for reasons that elude our conscious minds.
The Name Inspector takes a close look at names and tells you what makes them click (or clunk) from a linguistic point of view. He does not offer marketing treatises on branding strategy or analyses of corporate nomenclature systems. He is concerned with the linguistic essence of names: how they feel and sound when spoken, what they look like when written, and the meanings and moods they evoke in their contexts.
With a PhD in linguistics, Christopher brings years of experience and a sharp eye for detail to the task of understanding what’s in a name. He’s already tackled some well-recognized names like Apple, YouTube, and Zillow. And look for him to have a lot to say about smaller startup company names in the days to come. So, if you’re brainstorming a great name for your business, make your fist stop a visit to The Name Inspector.
Note from Christopher: “If any of you have such stories to share, I’d love to hear them. I’m not yet sure how I might use them–I just want to
get a sense of how people have approached the naming challenge. But if you send a story you should understand it might end up in
a post.”