Checking professional membership or accredited user status

Accreditation buttons – who are you?

Is the person why they really say they are? – protecting your IP & reputation – “accreditation buttons”

Recently I have been thinking about using of the logos of the professional bodies I belong to on this and other sites – but then many do not want their IP used as it may be seen as an endorsement. At the same time I want to be able to use this as a differentiation. How could this be a win/win?

This got me thinking about security and authenticity. Many people esp on sites like LinkedIn, facebook and on their CV claim to me members of professional bodies. To confirm this it usually means phoning the institution or organization and gaining confirmation. This has all sorts of data protection and privacy issues. If however as members we WANT people to be able to confirm that we are members or accredited users of a service or product then such a facility could be an advantage to all.

One site I am a member of provides a “badge” which links to their site, and this link confirms the site name and their status.

Earlier this week I proposed the idea to a professional body I belong to and they are looking to investigate its practicality. here is the idea. An organisation has a specialist button/ graphic like the one above, then each member or authorised user has a unique web page on the “issuing” web site. When a person clicks on the link, it confirms their status, for example look at the two links above. One is an authorised version – the other is not a current user/ member – you will need to click to find out.

In a real implementation the link address will be the same – however for demonstration purposes I have changed the link slightly. For professional bodies all they need to do is to use the membership number as the page name.

Now imagine that every professional body and provider of tools and accreditation maintained such a system – would it not be easy to check a persons status? A simple implementation of “accreditation buttons”.

Benefits:

To the organisation:

• Less phone calls to check,
• Links from other sites back to yours
• Easier to control inappropriate use of your branding
• Useful marketing strategy

To the member/ user

• Easy third party evidence that you are who you say you are
• A useful “badge” or differentiation for your site
• Demonstrates your commitment to quality/ continuous development

To potential clients/ employers

• Shows third party verification of what a supplier says
• Easy verification

Getting commercial

Taking this one stage further.. an organization could provide a simple confirmation for free 9its in their interest too), and in addition provide an enhanced service where the individual has the opportunity to add their own text and a link back to their site and other social media channels.

This whole process should be easy to set up and manage and in-fact reduce costs of providing confirmation of affiliation.

This approach could also be adopted by universities & other qualification probiders to confirm the individual studies there and the qualification actually achieved.

What do you think?

7 tops ways of promoting your website

7 key ways to promote your business & website

It is all very well having a website – but how do people know its there – and more importantly do the great modern gods (Google, Bing, Yahoo etc) know you exist? do they think your site is important?

• Relevant – Does your website CLEARLY say what you do & don’t do? – its all very well people finding your site – but you need them to contact you. Ensure your offer is obvious – ask for friends & family what they make of your site.
• Articles – write articles and put them on ezine sites – make sure they are spread across several sites & all link back to your site with key words
• Participation – let people get involved. Have a blog that allows people to comment on your views and ideas
• In – is your site LinkedIN ? Do you have both a personal profile on LinkedIn and a business page? Do these pages have links to your site?
• Directories – many will think these are a distraction – but look to see any relevant trade directories for your sector or the sectors in which your customers operate. Only use local ones – and be careful to avoid overseas directories.
• Blogs – Have 2 – one on your site and one off – use WordPress or Blogger for your offsite blog. have different content here to your site but ensure they link back to your site
• Interact – Use Twitter to make contact with potential customers – the link back is of value too

 

 

 

 

 

 

These activities are not one off’s – but an ongoing strategy.

Aim for at least one article a week – ideally two. These articles should perform at least three functions:

1. Show you know – demonstrate your knowledge or competence
2. Be of value to site visitors – given them a reason to stay even if they do not need your product yet
3. Puts your name in their mind

Aim to tweet useful material everyday – only promote a link every 10-15 tweets – you want to interact with people not sell to them – social media is best when done progressively.

How to use Twitter for great customer service

Social Media & Customer Service

Over the past few months I have been (un)fortunate enough to have experienced some very poor customer service in the context of relatively high value purchases. In each case after failing to have the problem acknowledged by the appropriate customer service channel I have put up a direct tweet or two, and the reactions have been curious.

From a direct point of view I have had everything from very quick resolution through to being completely ignored. However one thing is clear – if a company has a Twitter presence, and other channels have failed – then contacting them via twitter has some interesting results.

One factor that seemed to trump many others was the fact that twitter accounts are either run by or contracted to a marketing/ PR function, rather than operations in the way that the customer service function often is. This means that more often than not it is in the PR interests of the company to reach resolution faster than using normal customer service routes. Now while twitter should not be the first channel for communication to a supplier if you are unhappy (best to use local formal channels first), but it is one not to ignore if other channels appear to be failing.

What does this mean for suppliers?

Well the key thing is that if you are on twitter at all, you need to have a system to monitor activity or comments. this can be done in some of the client applications, Hootsuit for example or even using Google alerts for your company or product name with a hashtag attached (#) .

Please be careful here – twitter is NOT like other marketing channels and works best when fully integrated with the business. One example I can give was with a national (international) chain – the twitter account is run by a social media marketing company, and when they engaged with me they asked for my contact details - so I private messaged them (DM) and waited.. and waited… and waited. Nothing. I later found out that they had passed this information on to their local customer service/ operations teams – but no-one told me that the communication had got through. To me as the customer it looked like communication failure. Actually the opposite was true – but i did not know! This caused me to put more negative comments into the public arena – not good for them. So the bottom line is, if you are going to use these tools – make sure they are fully linked with “the way you do business”.

 

In my opening paragraph I said… “I have been (un)fortunate enough to have experienced some very poor customer service” – what diod I mean?

well from a personal point of view having the poor service led to several delays, personal cost and additional stress I did not need – on a fortunate basis, I learnt a lot about how many firms miss-manage their social media ptresence. It is clear they think they “should be doing it” but do not really understand how it is different from traditional marketing strategies – and how close it actually is to customer service team roles.

While all of this was going on I became aware of a blog post by heather Townsend on a similar issue – below I have added some “lessons” she included in the piece.

 

Some interesting lessons and ideas from - Heather Townsend

Heather is known as the Efficiency Coach and her original article can be seen here

Lesson 1:

Use searches on twitter for common keywords connected to your products and services to hear ‘real time’ what your customers are saying about you on twitter. If a provider had a permanent search for ‘<company or product name>, they could have been talking with you before you start talking openly talking about your challenges/ frustrations.

Lesson 2:

Use twitter to communicate outages to your customers. Everyone knows that sometimes stuff happens which shouldn’t happen. But we are all human, and all we really want to know is what is going on, and when your service is going to be back up. Don’t try and hide your problems – the internet has meant that it is almost impossible to try and hide now.

Lesson 3:

When communicating outages to your service, be honest with your customers about the time it will take. Don’t communicate an hour, if it is going to actually be out for two hours. Regularly update your customers, using Twitter and your website, (and apologise) if it is taking longer than planned.

Lesson 4:

If you operate a cloud computing service have a business continuity plan for stuff like scheduled server maintenance, and don’t turn off your system unless you really have to in a peak user time.

Lesson 5:

Your customers will now communicate with you via a range of different communication mediums – e.g. e-mail, Twitter, phone. Make sure you have a (CRM) system which can cope with the different methods, and train your customer service staff to properly use the system.

Lesson 6:

If your customers or potential customers mention you on twitter, either thank them or apologise immediately (depending on their tweet). Do not defend your product or service, empathise first.

Lesson 7:

Before jumping in with a solution, read the tweet stream of your customer. It may give a hint as to their current state of mind.

Lesson 8:

At the first sign of any customer service issue, use twitter to openly acknowledge the problem, and apologise. But aim to get the customer to e-mail or phone as 140 characters is too limited to properly try and solve problems. Plus this gets the negative tweets out of the public domain quickly.

 

So how to use Twitter for great customer service?

• Make sure your twitter users are linked to customer services
• Be human and not procedure bound
• Be honest
• Respond in a timely way – not days later!
• Close the communications loop
• Have real people that are passionate about your business tweet & communicate
• Twitter is an extension of customer Service – not marketing or PR
• Do your best to have some presence 7 days a week – not just 9-5 Monday-Friday!

Marketing plan for a training company

How to develop a marketing plan for your training company

What is a marketing plan?

A Marketing Plan is sometimes called a marketing strategy, in essence it is an action plan of what it is you are going to do to promote your business. Like any SMART goal  it is a written plan that states the marketing goals and the objectives to be achieved over a specified period of time.

So if you are currently in business or looking to set up a training company or starting out in freelance training, the one thing you need is a clear plan – well in fact two plans… a business plan (a simple one page plan will do) and a marketing plan.

A marketing plan looks at three factors:

1. Where is your business now?
2. Where do you want/ need your business to be? (and why)
3. How are you going to get your business there?

Jumping straight to step (2) or three is a waste of time without REALLY understanding (1) – where is your business now (are you now)? What do you do? Who do you do it with? For how much?

We need to follow some sound principles…

Knowledge -> Understanding -> Action

We need Knowledge of where we are – we need to understand or make sence of this in order to take appropriate Action

 

A  Marketing Plan Template (example)

 

Executive Summary - What is the plan about – one or two simple paragraphs

Business Overview 

- What do you do – be specific (to say you run management training courses is too vague)

Target market - who do you do it do/ with? The narrower & more specific the better

Vision – what do you want to be ?

Mission – Why are you in business? what is your purpose?

Current Analysis - where are you now ? what do you do? who to? for how much?

External Analysis – What is happening in the environment in which you are, or want to operate? 

Conduct a PEST/ PESTLE analysis

Internal Analysis

Conduct a PRIMO-F analysis

Use the PESTLE & PRIMO-F data to complete a comprehensive SWOT analysis. Use this to consider where you are, where are you going and how are you going to get there?

 

Marketing Strategies – your plan

Consider what approaches (strategies) are required to achieve your desired goals. Look at:

• Marketing Mix (4 ps – product, place, pricing, promotion)
  • Your target market
  • Service/ product strategy
  • Pricing  approach
  • Promotional strategy- how do people know you exist?
  • Customers – acquisition, maintain – also see Ansoff matrix

  

Implementation Plan

What needs to be done. What actions.. by who… by when

Resourcing requirements

• How much money/ cash you need for your business plan
• Investment from you ?
• The people involved – is this just you? associates? partners?

This template will work equally well for a coaching or consulting company.

How & why to start a business or technical blog

Starting a Business or Technical Blog

There is a lot of advice on the internet on “how to start a business blog”, less on “why to start a business blog” and even fewer on how and why.

This article was prompted by a tweet I saw asking for advice when he has been “tasked with finding out about blogs with the aim of setting up a technical one”. Many freelance or small business owners may that also considered setting one up as others in their industry have them. So why blog for business?

Why blog for business? -

“establish credibility, trust, and directly target a demographic” – Cary Snowden

Introduction – what is a blog?

WordPress (one of the most well known) define a blog as

“Blog” is an abbreviated version of “web log,” which is a term used to describe web sites that maintain an ongoing chronicle of information. A blog features diary-type commentary and links to articles on other Web sites, usually presented as a list of entries in reverse chronological order. Blogs range from the personal to the political, and can focus on one narrow subject or a whole range of subjects.”

The blog as grown and developed its uses in business. When you see the term “diary-type” – this does not mean like a diary in that you put something in every day, it refers to the structure of the way content is filed, by title, content and date. the advantage of this is that it is easy to remove outdated content.

Usually business blogs tend to have a few things in common:

• A main content area with articles listed chronologically, newest on top. Often, the articles are organized into categories
• An archive of older articles
• A way for people to leave comments about the articles
• A list of links to other related sites
• One or more “feeds” like RSS

Blogs tend to be slightly less formally written than the main copy of the site. This has a large number of advantages, one of which is speed to “print”. having a different language style can help attract people that for one reason or another were not engaged with your main copy.

Why blog for business?

Blogging for business is about content – fresh, easy to digest content. Content (on business blogs) about a narrow range of topics. or example if you specialise in sales training then the majority of your posts will be about sales techniques or processes. If your blog is about a technical product, then you may write about applications or adaptations.

The real reasons for blogging falls into one of the following:

1. Real and fresh content for your:
   1. customers
   2. potential customers
2. An effective SEO (search engine optimization technique – getting seen on the web)
3. Promoting your product or service
4. Image – blogging raises the public image of the company and individuals
5. Develop cross selling opportunities
6. Building relationships with your customers and potential customers
7. Interaction – provides an easy way to engage and interact with customers & potential customers

The best firms use it for all of the above. Unlike newsletters which only go to your customer base – blog articles are available for the world to see. so writing that article just to be seen by a few hundred people is a waste of effort, put it on a blog and it can be read by 1000′s. better – its stays there and is a valuable marketing “asset” for months if not years. I wrote a post about employee engagement some years ago then last year the Dale Carnegie groups posted a link to it in one of their news letters – this attracted 1000′s of hits over night – better than that – another region of the world repeated the link some months later. This type of exposure you cannot get from traditional marketing strategies (well not for the same budget!).

Unlike most websites, updating content on a blog is easy and quick – a responsive way to show you are listening to your customers.

The adage ”build it and they will come” is just not true for websites or blogs. However blogs can certainly help people find you and then come both to the blog and your company website too.

How to blog – or things you need to know

The first thing is knowing how to use the software you have chosen. For small business I recommend wordpress – its easy, constantly updates and best of all – its free!

When setting up your blog you need to have a list of “tags” and “categories” – you can add to these – but the fewer you have the better. There are in effect indexes for you as writers, and to help people find content they may be interested in.

Once you have set up a blog – the next thing is to generate traffic. Use of sites like blog directories can help so can tools like LinkedIn, Facebook or Twitter.

Writing articles

The more regular the better – however its best not to publish than to put out something that does not add value. Aim for one posting a week (on average).

Include pictures if they are relevant, have the piece between 400-1000 words. There is evidence to suggest that two 600 word articles are more effective than one 1200 one. people are being educated on the web to shorter and shorter pieces. So if its long make sure it adds value and is not woolly!

One of the biggest questions I get asked is what do I write about? – simple just take the last question asked of a service engineer or customer care staff and give the answer in the form of a blog. Even if you have it on a FAQ. people like to see a question posed and answered – it also gives them the opportunity to contribute

Managing Comments

You will from time to time get comments – good and bad. How you respond to these will determine the future of your blog. If you do not publish any negative ones people will get suspicious - however reply in a defensive way and you are in trouble! Moderation of comments is a difficult challenge.

Who should blog?

This is a much bigger question than you many think.  Years ago when I was a design engainner I was asked to go to an exhibition centre to fix a display demonstrator of our that failed on display, I did the repair and before I could leave the stand I was mobbed by potential purchasers – why? – because I was the only one on the stand not in a suit – these potential customers wanted to hear the “real words” about the product – not the rehursed sales pitch.

The same is true for blogs – let your front line staff write – not just the sanitised marketing and sales copy. The more “real” it seems the greater the trust built in your readership – and this can only lead to increased sales.

So who should blog? – anyone in the business who is passionate about the product, service or company

Where to blog?

Our preferred platform is WordPress, you can get your own blog for learning professionals at there is some debate whether you should have a blog as part of your own site of on one of the off-site providers. Each approach has its own advantages & disadvantages. Whatever way you chose to go, the good news is that with most you just export your old site and import it into the new one easily!

Learning Practitioners Association (LPA)- Are you making the most of your membership

Marketing Tips For Trainers & Learning Facilitators

Are you a member of the Learning Practitioners Association – LPA (formerly TrainerBase)? Are you making it work for you?

In this article Mike Morrison describes how he as made it to be number 1 listing in TrainerBase which has a significant impact on how many people look at your profile, and can enhance your ability to get hired.

Ok so you have ‘signed up’ but what is The LPA and how can you make it work for you?

Note – if you are a not yet an enhanced member you will not be getting the most from your subscription! I looked at the options and realised that the membership option for the highest ‘price’ provided by far the best value… No such thing as a free lunch… For this you get the all important “Search Engine Friendly” profile – essential if you want to be found by people Googling what you do rather than passers by on the LPA site.

Introduction

If you are expecting work and purchasers to come beating a path to your door – then you have a misunderstanding of not only LPA but the marketplace as a whole. The Learning Practitioners Association LPA is a marketplace, a marketing tool, not necessarily a selling tool. This paper sets to outline how I have used the LPA to generate activity and how you can too.

What is the difference?

• Marketing is “everything a company does to acquire customers and maintain a relationship with them”
• Sales is “income (at invoice values) received for goods and services over some given period of time”How can TrainerBase help you grow your business?

The Learning Practitioner Association and its sister site TrainerBase is primarily a marketing tool – the sale comes when you have created your place in the market.

So how can you use The LPA to better effect?

1. Raise your profile on The LPA and the The LPA search listings
2. Use yourThe LPA membership to help promote your website (increase Google position)Visit http://www.trainerbase.co.uk/edit/EditProfile_Rank.asp (view your profile position and purchase points) and look at your position. Where are you? Make a note of these figures. These will provide you with your benchmark, the ability to see the changes in position based on effort. No matter how low, do not be put off. All improvements will help you.
3. Next, search the database for your key words/ associated disciplines. You need to be on the first or second page of results. If not, there is little point in being listed. You may need to accept that you need to specialise for a while until you gain more points.

   While you may aspire to being in the top 20 (absolute position <20) Your goal is to have a relative position or to be on the first page of results for your given specialisms. Be niche, there are 1000s of Management Development people. Best to be found than lost in an ocean of others. Then a client will use you for more general needs as the relationship develops.

For example if you search for ‘coaching’ you will find over 1400 trainers with this skill – if you are not in the first couple of pages for your ‘main offer’ there is little point being in the list. There are trainers with paid profiles on page 25!! Why??The members that ‘sign up’ and do not pay anything also start on page 25!!

Be bold… be brave … only select the things that you love and you excel at – remembers this IS A COMPETITIVE market place. You need to be seen over the ‘background noise’.

Gaining points

The more points you have the higher you show in the search results. Other less known ways of increasing you position in the listings is to minimise the number of “associated disciplines” that you offer. Focus on the ones you excel at. The ones you can use as a ‘hook’ for potential customers. If you claim to do too many you risk looking desperate for work – this is not a position of strength and will undermine your perception. All the others can be listed on your enhanced listing pages.

Be careful – the more associated disciplines you have the more dilute you are seen to be by potential purchasers.

Ways of earning points:

• Visit the site – each visit earns one point – so if you have Firefox or IE7 set up 2 home pages – each time you start your browser you earn a point
• Contribute to the forums – again that earns points
• Upload and encourage clients to put testimonials
• Upload resources you have – just be careful of copyright
• Refer other trainers – make sure they quote your reference
• Mention The LPA as a reference source on forums – any forum – but make sure you do it as a hyperlink. That usually means typing http://www.trainerbase.co.uk/ – tip many forums stop this so always include at least 2 sources of info with The LPA being one. This way it looks less like direct advertising.
• Be creative – find new forums, invest time giving quality answers. Build a reputation in that arena.
• If someone wants a resource and you have it – rather than send it – upload it as a resource (earn points) and promote where to get it (more points!).
• After each posting – screen grab a copy of the posting (alt & print screen) and paste it in your email software and sent to Ed – if you don’t tell him – it doesn’t happen! By the way the forums can be ANYWHERE in the world – not just UK ones – UK ones promote the services of The LPA, world wide help keep The LPA high on the search engines – good for you… good for me

Value of points

In the current FAQ section the value of points is given as:

• 1 point per visit to the site
• 5 points per testimonial uploaded to your profile
• 10 points for a posting on the forum
• 20 points per resource uploaded to your profile
• 50 points per referred friend that signs up to The LPA (if they then subscribe you get £10)
• 50 points minimum per article published (Those deemed useful will earn more points)
• 50 points minimum for promoting The LPA on other networks
• Apply for the CLP award (even signing up for ethical standards earns some points)
• Note this may be subject to change – so look up the current ‘rewards’

Don’t try to beat the system – work with it… if you upset The Directors, they will keep an eye on you.. work with the system and promote The LPA not just yourself.

You start your The LPA membership with 1000 points, then for each day that passes and you do not contribute you lose a point – so even if you just click on the website once a day you are holding your position….

You need around 1000 additional points to be a contender – so build a short/ medium term plan:

• How many resources can you upload, how many daily visits to the site, how many ‘mentions’ on forums and other sites? – aim for a 3-6 month plan. What are your long term (sustainable) plans?
• How many website visits per week? Each visit to the site adds points
• How much time per month can you commit to entering into discussions on the forums (this earns points)
• How many resources can you upload per month?
• How many mentions on other site per month? (each time you do this email the directors)

Treat this as a long term investment, not a quick return.

Shoot for the stars?

Being in the top 5 is not necessarily a strength – people will make assumptions about you, some are advantageous, some are a hindrance. How often do you ignore the first couple of results in a Google search?? But you do need to be on the first page of any results returned. This is the goal.

If you want to you can also buy points – But earning is a much more sustainable activity. I have seen people buy points then slide as other who have a more sustainable model gain ground – sure buy points to ‘get in the game’ but sustainability is the real name of the game. Build momentum first – then top-up if needed (to get in the game). This is not a strategy I have ever done nor will I do.

Potential purchasers will read your posts on to this and other forums – you are your own press agent – so be aware of your image – it is what you want your customers to know you as? Posting and answering questions is not only valuable ‘spare time’ activity, but it helps to raise your profile, and helps other LPA members and purchasers to understand your strengths. – this is all marketing!

Your Profile

One of the best kept secrets of the LPA profiles is the enhanced listing. This is for 2 reasons:

1. Potential customers can find out about you really easily, see the course you run etc. it is a great shop window.
2. Often your LPA listing will be placed higher in Google than your own site. This is because of the changing content and number of external sites pointing to LPA (hence the reason for posting on forums).

The real power of using the LPA profile is to have links to your own site, not just one to your home page, but several links to important pages with good content. From a purchaser point of view, they do not need to see your home page – your TB page becomes that, if they want more specific information – take them straight to that page. Keep changing and managing your profile pages, the search engines love changing content, and it will encourage people to re-visit. I have several people re-visiting to see what I change. Sometimes I change a lot, other times a little.

Google appears to LOVE multiple links from The LPA (or other places) to your site. The links from Google alone could easily cost you £100-£200 pa for quality links from a related high profile site! – why do you think links and adverts from sites like TrainingZone cost £1000s !!!

Talk to other members – exchange discrete links on their TB pages too! Link with people that offer compatible services – not competitive ones.

Building your database

Do you monitor and keep a list of people that visit your site? Do you have a newsletter? Are they added? Keep adding download/ resources – as people download – you get their data, the more you have the more people will visit…

While many visitors may well be other trainers – if they see you as an expert in an area, they may well approach you to partner for pitches, and if they have the lead and see you as a strength….well enough said.

Collect the data, follow up on the data, remember marketing is about building a relationship – one email contact is not a relationship!

Are you making the most of your investment?

If you are not using your membership to best effect you are wasting money. Simple as that!

Visit http://www.trainerbase.co.uk/VIP/RapidBI to see what I do – I’m not saying I am an exemplar – but the site DOES work for me on many levels. Please note my profile is written for the search engines as much, if not more than human visirors (but that is MY strategy, yours may be different)

Does this stuff really work?

I know this stuff works… I did it this way. I had stages of growth and targets – first was to be on page one for some searches My next goal was the top 20 trainer list, then the top 10, then the top 5 then number 1. In the same time frame I have seen parts of my business site grow from a Google rank of 3 to 5 – not bad for a small training site. Unique hits have grown from 10’s to over 10,000 unique visitors per month and growing. With increasing numbers come increasing sales….

If this works why share it now?

I have considered doing this for some time – but did not want to give away what was working for me – I estimate that only 5-10 other members of The LPA actually understand how The LPA really helps them in the long term.

In time other rankings will need to come into play – including I suspect geographic ones – are you ready? Many trainers for example will ‘work anywhere’ – but if the client has green policies they will more likely hire a ‘green’ supplier, and one who says I only work within 75 miles of x may well get the work above a person prepared to travel. Values are becoming increasingly important. Will your name be higher in the listing than your competitors? Will purchasers see you first – or will you GRAB their attention?

 

I wish you well with your LPA marketing plan.

Mike Morrison – http://www.trainerbase.co.uk/VIP/RapidBI

*Note the author & RapidBI have no commercial links other than being members of the LPA

** RapidBI has noticed a change in the UK training market and is no longer active on the site

Making Twitter Work for Business – #connectingHR

Making Twitter & Networking Work for Business

At a networking event last night in London #connectingHRamonst the many discussions were several on Twitter and its use in HR and business. The event was the first independent HR based tweetup in the UK and was very successful and well attended – over 100 registered and I would estimate that approximately 60-70 people were in attendance.

One comment I heard was  “I expected it to be a room full of people on laptops and geeks, but these are real people!” – but not one (laptop) was in sight – sure occasionally people tweeted on their phone – but this was about real people building real relationships and connections. Social networking is just a gateway to real relationships – not some plastic world of not real friends. Real business was taking place but at a level of respect and trust.

So what makes twitter work for business?

Firstly we need to recognise and understand that there are several reasons why people are on twitter:

1. To market themselves/ their business
2. To market a product
3. To connect with like minded people
4. To meet with like minded people
5. To learn new things
6. To show the world they are important 
7. To try something new

And for may of us it is a blend of the above with varying priorities. As typical in the 90-9-1 “rule” some are VERY active in the environment - others are passive. All forms of interaction are valid.

What MAKES Twitter however is the ability to connect with others. At the event last night the energy in the room was palpable, a real buzz. People were networking, connecting and building relationships without the usual pressing of a hand full of business cards and “minute to win it” style sales pitches. It was meeting with people for the sake of meeting people. No real agenda. This is powerful stuff. The added advantage is that in many cases at some level we had already known each other, and knew how to make contact - an another level we were real strangers (at the beginning of the event).

Why was this better than many traditional networking events?

Traditional networking events from my experience fall in to one of two forms – the “high pressure” sell – and the “stay with the people you know” format. With those based on social networking, many of us had “met” on line, shares a tweet or two and we recognise the name. The introduction or ice breaker is done.. and real conversations can start easily. This format worked well for those that were socially confident as well as those there were less confident meeting “new” people.

Much like Twitter and other discussions, it felt right to wander around and join and leave conversations to talk with “old names” but with “new faces”..

Even if individuals were only known by reputation, it felt like meeting an old friend. (And  did that too meeting someone I have not spoken to for almost 20 years)

How to make Twitter work

The simple thing about making twitter work as a business tool is for the tweet stream to have a personality (or range of personalities). So if you are having a company based tweet stream have a personality – show you are human. Have a profile page you tweet to occasionally. Talk about your hobbies etc.

If you operate a tweet stream with several posters – encourage them to use their initial as hash tags – for example #mdm so that followers can really interact. Have a profile page for each one.

There are many many fully automated tweet streams out there and Twitter is about to change approach with its growth – and the “faceless” corporate tweet streams will slowly lose popularity and the RTs that many using twitter for marketing crave after.

Stephen shaperio on his blog has identified what he calls Twitter personalities or poker types:

• Clubs -   Methodical/ Competitive – competitive using Twitter to help them be successful
• Hearts - People – more interested in the connection with other human beings
• Spades – Analytical – those involved and interested in gathering data – more interested in topics than people/ individuals
• Diamonds - Creative – because it is new and cool

We all have a primary and secondary type.

If in business you are Diamond first and Club second – you will lose in the long run. If on the other hand you are hearts with clubs – that can be a very powerful combination.

Me… I think I am Clubs with Hearts as a secondary, I used to do a lot of Spades – but that is very much in the background now. Getting the balance of hearts and Clubs is a challenge.

So how are you going to make twitter or other social networking/ web 2.0 tools for your business now… and in the future – remember just because one web 2.0 tool works this week doesn’t mean to say it will work next week.

Addendum -

to read som more views on this event have a look at:

http://garethmjones.wordpress.com/2010/03/30/the-connectinghr-tweetup-a-real-tweet
http://strategic-hcm.blogspot.com/2010/03/connecting-hr-tweet-up.html
http://callumsaunders.blogspot.com/2010/03/connecting-hr-tweet-smell-of-success.html 
http://donaldhtaylor.wordpress.com/2010/03/30/hr-tweet-up-connectinghr/

Some of the “official” pics from the event…

Trainerbase: making the most of your membership

Are you a member of TrainerBase? Are you making it work for you?

In this article Mike Morrison describes how he as made it to be number 1 listing in TrainerBase

Ok so you have ‘signed up’ but what is TB and how can you make it work for you?

Note – if you are a not yet an enhanced member you will not be getting the most from your subscription! I looked at the options and realised that the membership option for the highest ‘price’ provided by far the best value… No such thing as a free lunch…

Introduction

If you are expecting work and purchasers to come beating a path to your door – then you have a misunderstanding of not only TB but the marketplace as a whole.TB is a marketplace, a marketing tool, not necessarily a selling tool. This paper sets to outline how I have used TB to generate activity and how you can too.

What is the difference?

• Marketing is “everything a company does to acquire customers and maintain a relationship with them”
• Sales is “income (at invoice values) received for goods and services over some given period of time”How can TrainerBase help you grow your business?

TrainerBase is primarily a marketing tool – the sale comes when you have created your place in the market.

So how can you use TB to better effect?

1) Raise your profile on TB and the TB search listings

2) Use your TB membership to help promote your website (increase Google position)Visit http://www.trainerbase.co.uk/edit/EditProfile_Rank.asp (view your profile position and purchase points) and look at your position. Where are you? Make a note of these figures. These will provide you with your benchmark, the ability to see the changes in position based on effort. No matter how low, do not be put off. All improvements will help you.

 

Next, search the database for your key words/ associated disciplines. You need to be on the first or second page of results. If not, there is little point in being listed. You may need to accept that you need to specialise for a while until you gain more points.

While you may aspire to being in the top 20 (absolute position <20)

You goal is to have a relative position

For example if you search for ‘coaching’ you will find over 1400 trainers with this skill – if you are not in the first couple of pages for your ‘main offer’ there is little point being in the list. There are trainers with paid profiles on page 25!! Why??The members that ‘sign up’ and do not pay anything also start on page 25!!

Be bold… be brave … only select the things that you love and you excel at – remembers this IS A COMPETITIVE market place. You need to be seen over the ‘background noise’.

Gaining points

The more points you have the higher you show in the search results. Other less known ways of increasing you position in the listings is to minimise the number of “associated disciplines” that you offer. Focus on the ones you excel at. The ones you can use as a ‘hook’ for potential customers. If you claim to do too many you risk looking desperate for work – this is not a position of strength and will undermine your perception. All the others can be listed on your enhanced listing pages.

Be careful – the more associated disciplines you have the more dilute you are seen to be by potential purchasers.

Ways of earning points:

• Visit the site – each visit earns one point – so if you have Firefox or IE7 set up 2 home pages – each time you start your browser you earn a point

•  Contribute to the forums – again that earns points

• Upload and encourage clients to put testimonials
• Upload resources you have – just be careful of copyright
• Refer other trainers – make sure they quote your reference
• Mention TB as a reference source on forums – any forum – but make sure you do it as a hyperlink. That usually means typing http://www.trainerbase.co.uk/ – tip many forums stop this so always include at least 2 sources of info with TB being one. This way it looks less like direct advertising.
• Be creative – find new forums, invest time giving quality answers. Build a reputation in that arena.
• If someone wants a
  resource and you have it – rather than send it – upload it as a resource (earn points) and promote where to get it (more points!).
• After each posting – screen grab a copy of the posting (alt & print screen) and paste it in your email software and sent to Ed – if you don’t tell him – it doesn’t happen! By the way the forums can be ANYWHERE in the world – not just UK ones – UK ones promote the services of TB, world wide help keep TB high on the search engines – good for you… good for me

Value of points

In the current FAQ section the value of points is given as:

• 1 point per visit to the site
• 5 points per testimonial uploaded to your profile
• 10 points for a posting on the forum20 points per resource uploaded to your profile
• 50 points per referred friend that signs up to TrainerBase (if they then subscribe you get £10)
• 50 points minimum per article published (really useful ones will attract more)
• 50 points minimum for promoting TrainerBase to other networks
• Note this may be subject to change – so look up the current ‘rewards’

Don’t try to beat the system – work with it… if you upset Ed, he will keep an eye on you.. work with the system and promote TB not just yourself.

You start your TB membership with 1000 points, then for each day that passes and you do not contribute you lose a point – so even if you just click on the website once a day you are holding your position….

You need around 1000 additional points to be a contender – so build a short/ medium term plan:

• How many resources can you upload, how many daily visits to the site, how many ‘mentions’ on forums and other sites? – aim for a 3-6 month plan. What are your long term (sustainable) plans?
• How many website visits per week? How many resources per month?, how many mentions on other site per month? Treat this as a long term investment, not a quick return.

Shoot for the stars?

Being in the top 5 is not necessarily a strength – people will make assumptions about you, some are advantageous, some are a hindrance. How often do you ignore the first couple of results in a Google search??

If you want to you can also buy points – But earning is a much more sustainable activity. I have seen people buy points then slide as other who have a more sustainable model gain ground – sure buy points to ‘get in the game’ but sustainability is the real name of the game. Build momentum first – then top-up if needed (to get in the game). This is not a strategy I have ever done nor will I do.

Potential purchasers will read your posts on to this and other forums – you are your own press agent – so be aware of your image – it is what you want your customers to know you as? Posting and answering questions is not only valuable ‘spare time’ activity, but it helps to raise your profile, and helps other TB members and purchasers to understand your strengths. – this is all marketing!

Your Profile

One of the best kept secrets of the TB profiles is the enhanced listing. This is for 2 reasons:

1. Potential customers can find out about you really easily, see the course you run etc. it is a great shop window.
2. Often your TB listing will be placed higher in Google than your own site. This is because of the changing content and number of external sites pointing to TB (hence the reason for posting on forums).

The real power of using the TB profile is to have links to your own site, not just one to your home page, but several links to important pages with good content. From a purchaser point of view, they do not need to see your home page – your TB page becomes that, if they want more specific information – take them straight to that page. Keep changing and managing your profile pages, the search engines love changing content, and it will encourage people to re-visit. I have several people re-visiting to see what I change. Sometimes I change a lot, other times a little.

Google appears to LOVE multiple links from TB (or other places) to your site. The links from Google alone could easily cost you £100-£200 pa for quality links from a related high profile site! – why do you think links and adverts from sites like TrainingZone cost £1000s !!!

Talk to other members – exchange discrete links on their TB pages too! Link with people that offer compatible services – not competitive ones.

Building your database

Do you monitor and keep a list of people that visit your site? Do you have a newsletter? Are they added? Keep adding download/ resources – as people download – you get their data, the more you have the more people will visit…

While many visitors may well be other trainers – if they see you as an expert in an area, they may well approach you to partner for pitches, and if they have the lead and see you as a strength….well enough said.

Collect the data, follow up on the data, remember marketing is about building a relationship – one email contact is not a relationship!

Are you making the most of your investment?

If you are not using your membership to best effect you are wasting money. Simple as that!

Visit http://www.trainerbase.co.uk/VIP/RapidBI to see what I do – I’m not saying I am an exemplar – but the site DOES work for me on many levels.

Does this stuff really work?

I know this stuff works… I did it this way. I had stages of growth and targets – first was to be on page one for some searches My next goal was the top 20 trainer list, then the top 10, then the top 5 then number 1. In the same time frame I have seen parts of my business site grow from a Google rank of 3 to 5 – not bad for a small training site. Unique hits have grown from 10’s to over 3500 unique visitors per month and growing. With increasing numbers come increasing sales….

If this works why share it now?

I have considered doing this for some time – but did not want to give away what was working for me – I estimate that only 5-10 other members of TB actually understand how TB really helps them in the long term. With the changes to TB, the trade association and my commitment to growing the community, it is now in the interests of the community for more people to ‘use the system’.

In time other rankings will need to come into play – including I suspect geographic ones – are you ready? Many trainers for example will ‘work anywhere’ – but if the client has green policies they will more likely hire a ‘green’ supplier, and one who says I only work within 75 miles of x may well get the work above a person prepared to travel. Values are becoming increasingly important. Will your name be higher in the listing than your competitors? Will purchasers see you first – or will you GRAB their attention?

TrainerBase will grow – will you grow with it?

I wish you well with your TB marketing plan.

Mike Morrison – http://www.trainerbase.co.uk/VIP/RapidBI

ICAEW Directors Briefings

Directors Briefings

Resources for busy professionals

Every now and again as a consultant, manager or business adviser we need to put our hands on short, accurate and trusted materials covering a wide range of topics. In a previous blog entry I highlighted some of the fact-sheets available from the CIPD most of which are open to any web site visitor. In the same way that the CIPD fact-sheets provide HR based material the The Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales  (ICAWE) provide a range of Directors briefings for their members and web site visitors. These cover a diverse range of materials including strategy, marketing, business planning etc. What is more these topics are covered in just 4 pages, and are kept up to date- so data we can trust.

The RapidBI team have used these materials with our clients and hope that you find them useful too:

Human Resources:

Consultants:
Directors Briefing on: Using a consultant

Managing your Employees:
Directors Briefing on: Employees who work from home
Directors Briefing on: Performance appraisals
Directors Briefing on: Stress management
Directors Briefing on: Managing change
Directors Briefing on: Everyday workplace policies
Directors Briefing on: Managing your time
Directors Briefing on: Motivating employees
Directors Briefing on: Assertiveness
Directors Briefing on: Team-building
Directors Briefing on: Communicating with employees
Directors Briefing on: An Internet policy for your employees
Directors Briefing on: An email policy for your employees

Employment Law: (also see CIPD fact-sheets)
Directors Briefing on: Employment contracts
Directors Briefing on: Dismissing employees
Directors Briefing on: Discipline and grievance issues
Directors Briefing on: Redundancy
Directors Briefing on: Employment tribunals
Directors Briefing on: Rights for working parents and carers
Directors Briefing on: Sickness issues and SSP
Directors Briefing on: Discrimination
Directors Briefing on: Working time regulations
Directors Briefing on: Minimum wage and statutory pay obligations
Directors Briefing on: The law on flexible working

Pensions:
Directors Briefing on: Pensions for business owners
Directors Briefing on: Pensions for employees
Directors Briefing on: Pensions for senior managers

Recruitment: (also see CIPD fact-sheets)
Directors Briefing on: Interviewing
Directors Briefing on: Graduate recruitment
Directors Briefing on: Recruitment

Remuneration: (also see CIPD fact-sheets)
Directors Briefing on: Incentive pay
Directors Briefing on: Remuneration

Training: (also see CIPD fact-sheets  & this site)
Directors Briefing on: Investors in People
Directors Briefing on: NVQs
Directors Briefing on: Using training effectively
Directors Briefing on: Personal development plans

Strategy:

Your business strategy:
Directors Briefing on: Writing a business plan
Directors Briefing on: Increasing profitability
Directors Briefing on: Creating a valuable business
Directors Briefing on: Your money and your business
Directors Briefing on: Key issues in running your business 

Management strategies:
Directors Briefing on: SWOT analysis
Directors Briefing on: Cost control
Directors Briefing on: ISO 9000
Directors Briefing on: Benchmarking
Directors Briefing on: Your business and the environment
Directors Briefing on: Key performance indicators
Directors Briefing on: New product development
Directors Briefing on: Innovation
Directors Briefing on: Filing and records management

Growth strategies:
Directors Briefing on: Strategic acquisitions 

The board of directors:
Directors Briefing on: Effective board meetings
Directors Briefing on: Directors’ responsibilities
Directors Briefing on: Role of the company secretary

Marketing:
Directors Briefing on: Design
Directors Briefing on: Building customer loyalty
Directors Briefing on: Planning your marketing
Directors Briefing on: Marketing with your database
Directors Briefing on: Pricing
Directors Briefing on: Research for your marketing
Directors Briefing on: Creating a brand 

Marketing methods:
Directors Briefing on: Exhibitions
Directors Briefing on: Direct mail
Directors Briefing on: Writing a mail-shot
Directors Briefing on: Advertising strategy
Directors Briefing on: Writing an advertisement
Directors Briefing on: Effective PR
Directors Briefing on: Marketing on the Internet
Directors Briefing on: Managing your sales team
Directors Briefing on: Your sales strategy
Directors Briefing on: Selling technique
Directors Briefing on: Negotiating a sale
Directors Briefing on: Sales presentations
Directors Briefing on: Purchasing
Directors Briefing on: Negotiating a purchase 

Finance:Finance Basics
Directors Briefing on: Finance for non-financial managers
Directors Briefing on: The euro
Directors Briefing on: Budgeting

Corporate Finance:
Directors Briefing on: Valuing a business
Directors Briefing on: Buying a business
Directors Briefing on: Selling a business
Directors Briefing on: Floating your company
Directors Briefing on: Planning your exit from your business 

Sources of finance:
Directors Briefing on: Overdrafts and bank loans
Directors Briefing on: Subsidised and guaranteed loans
Directors Briefing on: Venture capital
Directors Briefing on: Business angels
Directors Briefing on: Factoring and invoice discounting
Directors Briefing on: Car finance
Directors Briefing on: Financing equipment
Directors Briefing on: Getting a grant for your business 

Cash-flow management:
Directors Briefing on: Insolvency
Directors Briefing on: Credit control
Directors Briefing on: Interest on late payments
Directors Briefing on: Managing your cash-flow
Directors Briefing on: Managing your creditors
Directors Briefing on: Debt recovery

Please note that this is not all of the Director’s Briefing fact-sheets available – but a selection of those available. These links are out of our control and may or may not work over time. See the The Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales home page for all available Fact-sheets.

For concise, practical advice on core business issues, browse a collection of four-page briefings produced by BHP Information Solutions for the busy practitioner, director and entrepreneur. The Briefings can be downloaded free of charge.

Disclaimer: These publications are for general guidance only, for businesses in the United Kingdom governed by the laws of England. Business Hotline Publications Ltd, expert contributors, the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales and RapidBI disclaim all liability for any errors or omissions.

What is a business blog? A marketing tool?

What is a Blog?

Lets look at the background behind this technology, so we can understand where it is coming from.

Research into the history behind blogs suggests that it was Pyra Labs is the company that adopted the word Blogger, and made the service a big success (now known as Google blogger/ blogspot).

The people that were the co-founders of Pyra Labs were Evan Williams and Meg Hourihan. “Pyra” was also the name of the company’s first product. It was a web based application which combined a simple project manager, contact manager, and to-do list.

In 1999 the product, while still in beta, were re-engineered (changed) to become an in-house tool which eventually became known as Blogger. The service was launched to the public in August of 1999.

It is believed that the term is actually weblogs was originally coined by Jorn Barger in 1997.

The rapid adoption of weblogs started in 1999 when several companies & developers made easy to use blogging software and tools. Since that time, the number of blogs on the Internet has exploded.

Blogs or weblogs are usually one of two forms:.

Personal Blogs: a mixture of a personal diary, opinion posts and research links.

Business Blogs: a corporate tool for communicating with customers, potential customers or employees to share knowledge and expertise. Blogs that are internally available are increasingly being used as knowledge management ‘pots’.

For a blog to be an effective tool to small businesses we need to understand the nature of weblogs, a definition if you like. Here are almost as many definitions as there are commentators on social media. For a weblog or blog is a social media – it is used by people for people. An effective blog article encourages interactions and collaboration, even if at a basic level.

There are many features which make one blog distinctive from another (apart from the basic design)

• Personality – people write blogs – formal, informal, facts or opinion biased?– not the corporate engine
• Voice – each contributor will have their own style
• Links – what are the nature of the links – internal, external mixed?
• Conversations – are the contributions tell or engaging, do the authors encourage discussion?
• Frequency – how often there is new content, is it from the ‘personality or owner’ or is it a collection of personality-less rss feed provide data

The only real difference between an individual and business based blog is the goal. The purpose of the business blog is to support the goals , aspirations and business plan of the host organisation.

Blog at your web domain or not?
It’s a difficult one – the new and varied content is valuable to your visitors and to the search engines, but it will limit what you can say as you will need to protect the ‘brand image’.

Some business have several blogs – the main one on the site is more about “giving value”, off site blogs may be the personal views of key insiders, views on the industry. This can then link to your site. One advantage of this is that because it is not seen as “your site” you reduce the risk of people perceptions if they dislike or disagree with the content of an individual post. – It is also valuable for search engines if you point your blog at the company site every now and again!

Summary

So a blog is a less formal vehicle for communicating information – facts and opinions to your current and potential customer base, as well as being a key part in your marketing strategy and a vehicle for increasing web traffic.

This is part of a mini-series on Blogs for small business, trainers and freelancers

Why blog? Is it a Marketing tool?

Why blog?

For some time I have been promoting Twitter as a good thing for people running small businesses to do, but recently I have been asked “why blog” and what is the value to small businesses and freelance consultants and trainers.

I guess that because I have been doing this for some time that I overlooked the basics. This article is the first is a short series to show why and how to blog for business.

People and business blog for a wide range of reasons including:

• Providing a “space to think”, plan & reflect
• To read their own thoughts
• A place to experiment with technology and ideas
• A place to collaborate
• An element of danger
• To show what you know
• To help others

Indeed people blog for different reasons at a personal level. For business there are different reasons including:

• Being seen as knowledgeable/ the expert
• Providing  regular & updated content for your web site
• Customer relations
• Knowledge management
• Search engine placement (SEO – Search Engine Optimisation)

Blogs in many ways are no different from other communication channels, they all have their strengths and weaknesses, and however the key difference with blogs is speed and cost.

What is the value of a blog?

When you build a website, many people think that if you build it, they will come. Unfortunately this is not true. Like having a brochure printed that action itself is pointless without distributing it to people that want to read it. Website are exactly the same. People need to know it exists and what it provides – and that goes for the search engines too!

On the web there are literally millions of sites and unless people know the exact address it is unlikely that it will be found by anything but a few isolated individuals.

A blog is a tool that as a by-product can help you get found. Search engines line fresh and regularly changed information, and while you do not want to change the copy on your site every week, having an article or piece of information to add value and provide the search engines with the “new stuff” is a win/win solution.

By writing quality content (600-1500 words) that is both informative and useful other blogs will link back to you – raising your ‘value’ to the search engines and at the same time increasing the audience for your content

When an individual is looking for an answer to a question or for some information and find your content of value, the chance are they will remember your site and come back – then when the time is right buy your product or service.

Business websites are often cold and inhuman – a blog can add the human face. Good content from a person builds trust, this can lead to sales, or referrals from people that found your content of value.

The best bit – cost

Unlike many other marketing and customer based strategies, blogging or at least providing it is low or no cost… free! Blogging does require skill, dedication and commitment, along with a little bit of forward planning.

Blogging should be done by you the practitioner – not your web team, software developer or PR company!

Summary

• A space for new content
• “show you know”
• Add value to current and potential customers
• Tell the web you exist
• Are low cost or free to set up and run

Coming soon – what to blog – and where to blog

Twitter as a marketing tool for training courses & events

Using Twitter to market your training event

As the training market changes, increasingly more and more trainers are looking to promote their on-line and open courses events, But how do you get people to attend and how do you keep costs down?

If you are a member of TrainerBase or Training journal (TJonline), both have the ability to promote your events, however it is doubtful if either can fill a course. Some use paid for services, where a high percentage of the revenue goes to attracting participants. But how can you do this and retain the majority of the income for little cost? The real power to fill a course has traditionally been the email list – be that list self developed or a purchased list from many of the (reputable) list providers. But now times have changed. Twitter is the new key channel.

Twitter is a great way of engaging referrals from people you do not know – and we all know the power of referrals.

So  “How, exactly, can I use Twitter to promote my event?”

Some approaches to twitter just will not be appropriate for all events, you approach will also vary depending on the twitter following you have currently.

One approach that is successful for many does not require you to have an established following. That is to create a twitter account specifically for an event or course for example:

@assertivnessinlondon

@salesingrantham

@leadershipinhealthcare

@publicsectorchangemanagement

This can act to attract people to the event based on specific needs. This then enables the course to have its own life and journey.

The more specific the name and the event the more success you are likely to get. Having a name like @leadershipworkshop means very little to people.

When you set your twitter account up – remember the bio and link to your dedicated event page. Also create a background for your twitter home page which provides additional information.

What to tweet? – or gain the attention of your intended audience

Well if your name is @salesingrantham not every message you send needs to say “Attend [xxxx course] in London” as what you are is in your name so you can start to be a little more creative. On twitter people appreciate value. Give value and they will follow you and re-tweet you, then if they do not attend the programme that are at least part of your marketing ‘team’!

For example a plan of you tweets could be:

1. First write a list of 4 key words that people would search for if looking for the event
2. Write a series of top 20 tips relevant to the topic
3. Find 10 quotes relevant to the course content
4. Have a page on a website which clearly says what the course is, who for, where, when and how much – AND a way of booking

Then run all of these as tweets, using the keywords as # (hash) tags – different tags on different posts.

Give information, useful stuff, if all you do is say “come sign-up to my event” you will disengage more people than you engage. Sure you can announce the event, IF you are going to do that, have one promotion every 15-20 posts or so – content first! Otherwise people will treat it as spam and not read what you have to say.

Next build your twitter following

Start sending the messages developed above – and retweet using your own account – remember to add the “please RT” at the end to encourage people to send your message to their followers.

As your name is the event name, each time you follow people, that name alone is a promotion of the event – if they are interested they will look you up. Its like sending each person a targeted email!

Next using the twitter search facility http://search.twitter.com find others that are interested in your keywords – follow them. Engage with people that have similar interests – talk is good. DON’T DIRECTLY PROMOTE YOUR EVENT TO THEM – let you name do that for you.

For example, if your event is about gaining sales, you could find other people who are Twittering on the subject of sales, gain their attention, and by engaging with them via direct responses and getting them to follow you, you also gain the attention of all the people following them.  It works.

If you subscribe to tools like hootsuit, tweetspinner or socialoomph, you can use there follower building tools too, again use your keywords.

You need to gain momentum, so make sure that this twitter account is linked to your LinkedIn profile – so that others in your network see. If you can encourage people to tweet about that fact that they are attending (or in the case of on-line events participating) this also build momentum

Twitter is a great way to aggregate the attention of like-minded individuals.  This lends itself well to cultivating an audience towards which you can promote your events over time. 

Twitter and other ‘update’ or micro-blogging services is more effective than e-mail, timely Twittering can keep your audience connected to your messages.  In the persona of your next event, post links, share resources and call attention to any of the ideas you consider important.  Then, when you’re ready to promote your next event, you’ll have a ready audience of potential attendees right at your fingertips.

TOP TIP – offer people that retweet you a discount to attend the event!  say 5% for one RT, 10% for 10 RTs….

TOP TIP – keep the account live after the first event – use the momentum to deliver maore particimants to future events

For more information on using Twitter see our other Twitter marketing posts

Twitter as a marketing & CRM tool

Twitter: your CRM & marketing channel

Its about more than just followers…

Over the past 12 months in my twitter contributions I have often included tips to help those involved in using twitter for their business (marketing). I often get requests to publish a full set – so here is a list of my current thinking about using twitter as a tool for building relationships for future business. In no particular order (other than alphabetical)…

1. Add value – share interesting or useful info, blogs etc
2. Add good description & link for something that would be too short in a post
3. ALWAYS keep it clean & professional
4. ALWAYS professional NEVER personal unless it is praise or thanks 
5. As far as getting followers goes; I find just being friendly and helpful does wonders. And of course shared interests help to.
6. Be honest. Have fun. Don’t try to sell anything.
7. Big followers – does not mean many listeners – the RTs tell that story
8. Change your BIO regularly
9. Change your twitter habits – make sure you don’t include links in most of your tweets, some tools treat this as spam & unfollow
10. contribute positively to conversations going on inside twitter
11. Don’t follow more people than you can handle. If you’ve got too much going on, you miss a lot of the good stuff.
12. Don’t expect Twitter to deliver revenue alone, it is only ONE element of the strategy
13. Efficient is the key to Twitter. short & sweet. Basically, get right to the point.
14. Even an attentive follower won’t read all your messages
15. Follow people who are in your field or area of interest
16. Follow the advice of people that have demonstrated competence – not think they know how to…
17. Frequent Twitter updates demand desktop or server side clients
18. funny, informative and catchy: choose two.
19. Getting followers is not a right its a privilege
20. Give – don’t take
21. Have an avatar (picture) of your face or company logo
22. Help promote the dreams of other people, and they may return the favour
23. If someone RT re-Tweets a message – send them a thank you
24. If you are going to auto DM only send a welcome message
25. If you post info of any kind, leave plenty of room for retweeting
26. In marketing messages use appropriate keywords
27. Interact and communicate with others, it’s a social media tool, so be social
28. Its not the number of followers but the number of Re-Tweets you get
29. Join the conversation, there are too many blog promoters on twitter who just broadcast. Learn @ and start networking
30. Keep it short
31. Keep your Twitter updated and the followers will come. Stay up-to-date and you will reap the benefits.
32. Learn what people care about
33. Limit what you automate
34. Look beyond the obvious (traffic, sales etc.) Add value. Build relationships. Think LONG term.
35. Make sure your BIO is up to date and human
36. Make use of other Twitter tools to make the most of Twitter (and so it doesn’t suck up all your time)
37. NEVER DM a request to follow you on another social networking site ie FaceBook
38. NEVER DM or tweet a MLM program
39. NEVER DM or tweet a traffic follower program
40. NEVER sign up to any of the Twitter ad services-it undermines your position
41. NEVER tweet when drunk, angry or think you have just won the lottery!
42. NEVER tweet cat or baby anecdotes!
43. Occasionally ask people to RT a post, if you ask every time they wont
44. Only @ people you know – & only with a link if invited, otherwise its SPAM!
45. Only promote your services less than once every 10-20 tweets
46. ONLY use a DM for personal messages or if you must to welcome a follower
47. Open up a bit.ly account for short URLs
48. Please report (@spam) unfollow & Block Twitter Spammers
49. Remember what you tweet is around for ever!
50. Rerunning tweets occasionally is a good idea
51. Respect the people you follow. Be interesting. Listen first, tweet second. Never waste words
52. Set your wallpaper to promote your message
53. Share interesting resources, not just what you ate for lunch. Twitter often, and use it to test potential blog topics.
54. Share links, share ideas, ask questions, answer questions anything but what are you doing? unless it’s really interesting
55. Share links. share insights and trends, things that are new or timely/current. Be personal. Don’t link only to yourself
56. Share thoughts and links from others (RT)
57. Share thoughts more than actions: Identi.ca will kill Twitter vs. I’m going to the toilet
58. Stop thinking that twitter is pointless and just try it. It’s all about community reach out and be a part of it
59. Thank people who re-tweet you. Either DM, @ reply, or re-tweet something of theirs
60. Think before you hit send. 140 characters have the power to help, heal or be miss-understood
61. This often goes unsaid, but I would suggest not having twitter open while writing. It can become very distracting
62. This was my problem at first, I just lurked. Get active and follow others. Great tool for tossing around ideas.
63. Treat followers with respect & courtesy & every now & then thank them
64. Tweet real stuff – highs and lows
65. Tweet regularly – at least 4 times a day
66. Tweet to show you are human
67. Tweet to show you are more than a marketing machine
68. Tweet what you read on others blogs
69. Twitter about stuff that has to do with your blog, but also Twitter stuff that has nothing to do with your blog
70. Twitter is not an IM service-keep private discussions short
71. Use a # in front of #keywords
72. Use an username as short as possible so you can twit more
73. Use favourites to save and show brand/product testimonials
74. Use travel time to tweet & read tweets on smartphones
75. Use twitpic or other photo services occasionally
76. Use Twitter to meet up with your new contacts
77. Use twitterfeed. Instant feedback from readers is the best part of Twitter. Listen to others; engage them; have a conversation
78. Want more followers? Re-tweet the good stuff you find
79. When you have over 100 friends use tweetdeck or Seesmic to help you to manage
80. Work on building a relationship-not pushing message to people
81. Write each word like it matters, because it does
82. You don’t have to follow everyone, only those of interest

Remember Twitter is not a silver bullet – or the universal hammer, it is but one tool in our communication toolbox. Done well and Twitter can be a key part of your communication strategy – do it wrong and it can undermine all of your marketing and brand development activity.

Twitter is not just for marketing – it is for learning, so make sure that you learn from others and they can learn from you. For twitter to work as a training, learning or CRM tool, people need to trust you and what you put out. As a big brand it can me all about me-me-me, however as a small business, we must be part of a community, we must respect others share the ideas of others and re-tweet their messages and blogs. Its about collaboration and win/ win. Those that only tweet their own messages will soon lose readership.

Readership is not just about followers – its the people that read and act on your messages.

From my experience I have people I am not connected to RT my messages and blog entries, so they must read the streams or use the search rather than just follow. Indeed once someone has over 200 followers, especially if they are active contributers to the twitter stream, it will be impossible to look at what they put out – so we must make it interesting and engaging that they keep looking at our material.

What are you favourite tips – share them below

You reap WHAT you sow – what does this mean in marketing?

Social media marketing – tips for success in 2010

Read my 9 top tips for social media marketing  below.

As entrepreneurs and smaller businesses marketing is a vital yet difficult concept for many of us. Many of us hate it and want to find the “quick fix”.

What prompted me to write this article was receipt this morning of a ‘newsletter’ I get that goes straight to my junk mail. It is from Kenneth Yu ”the Puppet Master” (take care with his sites as they take a lot of processing power and clever pop ups). To be honest I liked the hype he created but his newsletter are for me are too frequent and contain little of depth or value. Is he a one trick pony? His latest however caught my eye. He included the message:

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“You reap what you sow…”

In other words, the more time, resources and energy you put into something, the bigger the harvest you’ll reap — be it financially, relationally or spiritually. So if you put in your elbow grease and late nights, you’re guaranteed success right? WRONG!

Or more rather, the Sowing and Reaping analogy is only a half truth.

You see, we followed this principle to the tee… We “slaved like dogs”, yet we were “rewarded” with disappointment, stress and relationship strain.

Have you ever wondered why sometimes you work so hard, and yet don’t seem to reap the bountiful harvest you deserve?

Here’s something that may come as surprise for you…

There’s a missing dimension to the concept of sowing and reaping. If you miss this, you’re potentially setting yourself back months, even years from where you’re supposed to be.

In one of the Biblical parables, Jesus talked about the parable of the sower.

The gist of it was that the farmer was scattering seed across the land. However, he was rather indiscriminate about it and the seeds fell on stony paths, thorny soil, shallow earth and fertile ground.

The seeds that fell on the former 3 types of soil ended up with stunted growth, or worse… Not growing at all.

Here’s the awesome part…

The seed that fell on fertile ground produced a magnificent harvest of tenfold, hundredfold… and even a thousand-fold!

What made the difference?

It’s about WHERE the sower threw his seed.

That’s right. WHERE you sow is probably more important then HOW MUCH you sow.

It’s a principle we call STRATEGIC SOWING. And we believe it’s the single most important trait of mega-successful entrepreneurs.

Once you master this, you’ll get a return on investment that’ll blow your socks off. Because every ounce of blood, sweat and tears is going to give you a windfall.

One of the biggest bittersweet lessons we learned is that Laura and I may be world-class marketers, but we’re still newbies in terms of building a long-term sustainable business.

The single most vital trait that separates entrepreneurs from marketers is the ability to effectively allocate one’s limited resources. Unfortunately, it’s an ability that comes from hard-worn experience rather than any $997 home study course.

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This was as a reflection to his own business performance over the last few months, Insightful – yes – accurate – no!

The saying “You reap what you sow” actually is a little different from the account given here.

Lets look at the phrase – what it is saying is you get back from WHAT you sow. Sure the location (WHERE) is important – but more so is the quality of the seeds you sow – sow seeds that are dead and nothing will grow no matter how much hard work you put in. What we agree on is the effort in terms of hours is not the key here.

Kenneth was right about the location – like any good marketing strategy we need to understand the environment in which we operate, the strengths and weaknesses of our service and marketing messages, we also need to look at the detail and quality of what we are sowing.

In social media marketing it is common for volume to rule the day (HOW we sow), but it is the content (WHAT) and location (WHERE which site/ social media vehicle) we put our messages that count.

The social media “marketing gurus”

Without exception all of these ‘marketing gurus’ talk glibly about keywords and other technical terms, yet all fail to inform the reader of HOW to go about identifying these things. Keywords and search engine optimisation is not that difficult, however what is more difficult it really identifying your niche. Many of the web based marketing sites talk about finding your niche – what they fail to tell you is YOU  & I are their niche! – people trying to sell or promote their business on the internet. They have their niche – and on the web it is one of the easiest groups to find! We all want quick fix solutions.

So the next time you work extra long hours, look at WHAT you are doing and WHERE you are doing it. If you are a regular contributer on more than 3-5 forums or communities – then it suggests that you are spreading yourself too thinly – over the holiday period cut some out…

9 Top tips to focus your social media marketing strategy:

1. Identify 5 keywords which your customers will use to find you
2. Identify 1 site where your peers are (for CPD & networking) – stay with them for up to 12 months & evaluate
3. Identify 2 (max) physical networking groups and get active – remember networking is about relationships NOT sales – stay with them for up to 12 months & evaluate
4. Identify 3 sites where your customers are (for sales) – stay with them for up to 12 months & evaluate
5. Using your 5 key words only contribute to those that use and focus on the keywords
6. On twitter identify 5 search keywords and set your twitter app to look at those – ignore your time line
7. Find up to 10 blogs that add value to you and add them to your outlook/ RSS feed reader
8. Turn Google off being your home page
9. Print a sheet of paper listing this information, put a heading on it: If I’m doing anything other than these STOP NOW and put it up in a place you can read it while working

Do we reap what we sow? – well only if we are careful with what, where and how we sow

Wishing all my readers a wonderful and successful 2010 and beyond

Mike

6 ways for social media (twitter) to work for marketing

What makes a successful social media marketing strategy?

As more and more people go freelance, marketing is increasingly important. Yet at a time when there are more freelance trainer, consultants & advisers, only a few seem to get the importance of having a serious approach to marketing.

Often I get questions in email and phone calls from people about why some people get success and some don’t get success from social media and twitter as marketing tools.

Where social marketing includes: forums, blogs, wikis, microblogs, online networks etc.

So, why do 95% of people either not see the point or fail?  Similarly, what’s the secret to success for the other 5% that make a success of it?

There are lots of answers to these questions, but here are 6 of the most common.

1. Success & Reward: We never really get after it.  To be honest, I think this is one of the biggest reasons for failure.  Some of us again say that we “want” success, that we “want” freedom, but rolling up our sleeves and getting after it is another story.  If being successful was easy, we would see a lot more people driving prestige cars.
2. Belief: We don’t believe in what we are doing.  All too often we get into this game “wanting” to be successful, yet we don’t fully believe in what we do.  Doubting the approach we have undertaken is a guaranteed route to failure.
3. Hobbies: We treat marketing like a part-time hobby.  Marketing activity is a key business activity and must be treated as such.  Just like becoming a consultant requires education and experience, so does learning to become a skilled marketer.
4. Lies: We lie to ourselves and those around us. We often kid ourselves into believing we are actually doing income generating activities, yet the reality is that many of us are simply being busy.  If we aren’t actively prospecting & exposing, we really are not doing marketing….
5. Fickle: We hop from technique to technique.  The grass often seems greener on the other side. It rarely is.  The solution to this is not in another approach.  The solution includes application of effort, working on you, your skills, and your work ethic. Stick with one approach and really work it, have evaluation measures. If the measure are not being hit (after a reasonable time) consider changing the platform. The goal is to master one before moving to another (keeping the previous one going with equal effort!)
6. Blame: We place blame everywhere else but on ourselves.  Those of us that who don’t create sales quickly point the finger at the technique, the site, the tools or any other myriad of choices.  Bottom line:  If others are making money using the same techniques and we aren’t, look in the mirror. 

If these are the things the 95% of people do – what are the top 6 things the 5% of successful people do? 

The team at RapidBI use a mix of blogs, forums and microblogging platforms (inc twitter) as an integrated part of our social media marketing strategy.

What are the secrets to success in marketing your business?

1. Secrets: There are no secrets to twitter or social media marketing Success at anything requires hard, consistent work that is concentrated on developing your skills & knowledge.  Every day requires diligent effort that is on task and relevant to your business (note business not just the delivery part!).
2. Thinking patterns/ Habits: There are many “self development gurus” that say that you have to work on your thought patterns, it is said that we are who we believe ourselves to be.  Our beliefs about ourselves, our company, our abilities… all affect how we interact with others and will either build our business or destroy it.
3. Focus: Concentrate on the business.  People who change every month or quarter to a new model or strategy are kidding themselves.  If this is your habit or pattern, it’s likely that you need to work on yourself first. 
4. Effort: Work harder & longer than you have before.  If this business is something you really want, you’ll put in the time and effort required, even when you don’t feel like it. 
5. Associate with success: It’s said that you are the average of the five closest people around you.  If the people closest to you have the same things as you have, you’re not going anywhere!  You must surround yourself with successful people.  Start making friends with people who inspire you.  Expand your thinking by taking in what they do.  It’s all about self development, so that you get a stronger belief in who you are and what you’re capable of.
6. Leadership: This type of self development allows you to build on your leadership skills.  No-one will ever consciously buy from you just because it’s such a great opportunity.  People, customers, want your leadership & guidance. The unique things that you bring to the relationship.  They are joining you and this we must get used to. 
7. Keep going: When the going gets tough the tough get going… never, ever, ever give up.  Often it may seem easier to quit, however the most successful people in any sector know that little worthwhile comes from taking the easy route.  It may be uncomfortable, even demoralising at times, but each day is a new opportunity to improve on the day before.  A missed sale/ opportunity is a missed sale.  It happens.  There will be more opportunities.

Obviously there are more details related to guaranteeing your success in marketing your business.  But this is how I see the start. Having an understanding of SEO (search engine optimisation) is also important. Its all very well doing all of the above if the content does not work!

I urge you to learn more about yourself, your sector and how you can achieve marketing success.  Find people who’s writing inspires you, network and attend workshops and seminars. On twitter follow people like @garygorman & @SharonGaskin