Successful Blog

8 Tips on Using Twitter to Build a Powerful Business Network

by

From the Beginning

cooltext443809602_strategy

More than ever, building and growing a business means becoming part of the social web. A powerful network of loyal fans means your message can be visible, heard, understood and spread with the speed and reach of the Internet.

How do you get a network like that?

I often call Twitter the world’s largest networking room, but that doesn’t do it justice. Networking rooms are physical and geographically limited. They can’t expand and contract in size. The people who visit the room are limited by those who can physically get to the location where the meeting and the room exists in space and time. And not every networking event collects the people who are interested in what we do.

Unlike that networking room, Twitter let us decide who is at our “networking event.”

8 Tips on Using Twitter to Build a Powerful Business Network

  1. Have one clear business message. Define yourself clearly as a business person. Use a photo. Write a professional bio. Name the metropolitan area you’re in. Link to a business site that tells more about you. Some folks link to a special page on their blog set up just for Twitter visitors. Add a unique background to further define yourself.
  2. Have a goal. If you want Twitter to be your relationship command center, you’ll set it up differently than if you want it to be your idea lab, your outlet store, or your customer service base. Think about that.
  3. Do the research. Check out how @DellOutlet , @ComcastCares , @TwelpForce , @AlyssaMilano , @WholeFoods , @SharnQuickBooks and others use Twitter to connect. You may not be as big as they are, but you can learn from their approach.
  4. Start small and listen. Visit Listorious.com
    listoriouseducation

    and TweepML to find lists of Twitter people who share your interests. Choose to follow a limited number a day. Get to know how they talk and what they talk about. When they follow you back, use that as opportunity to say hello to them in a unique and personal way.

  5. Talk when you have something that will add value to the conversation. Be helpful, not hypeful, just as you might be in person. Use the @ sign (@lizstrauss) to make sure your comment about a person or to a person gets to the person you’re mentioning.
  6. Start a Twitter list.
    startabuzztwitter

    Lists draw attention to and from people. Each list can focus on one group of people. Check the lists that other folks make, see what their lists say about them. Have a core list strategy. Lists might include a handful of advisors, thought leaders in your industry, partners and vendors, key customers and clients, people in your home location.

  7. Decide early who you will follow – who you want at your networking event. Some folks follow only a few people and keep their followers limited to people in their business. Other folks look for input from a wider group.
  8. If you’re looking for clients, don’t just talk to the people who do what you do. It’s fun and safe to talk business with our peers, but the folks who hire us are the folks who don’t know how to do what we do.

Like any networking event, Twitter is filled with opportunities to meet people who want to do business. The difference is that some networking rooms are filled with people who have no business in common with us. On Twitter, we can reach out to folks who are interested in being at the same networking event as us.

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz on your business!!

I’m a proud affiliate of

third-tribe-marketing

30-Minute Strike Force Strategy to Increase Your Productivity

by

Move that Stuff

cooltext443809602_strategy

A colleague in publishing once told me, “I can tell your productivity level by the amount of stuff around your desk.”

I checked my team at the time, the situation was the same for them. As the action of a project went faster, the piles around their desks got higher and wider. I also noticed that those collections of stuff did more than steal space …

Piled-up stuff steals time, decreases productivity, and causes stress.

As our piles move outward and get higher, we spend time:

  • visually scanning.
  • moving farther to get what we need.
  • remembering what each pile if for.

It’s a great rule to decide on every item as it enters our command center, choosing to

  • Do it.
  • Delegate it.
  • Dump it.

I find that I sometimes need more information before I can move on any of those three. Which means that some things end up in the option called

  • It Depends …

and that’s when the piles start neatly forming. It was the same for my team. A reset strategy was called for.

A 30-Minute Strike Force Strategy to Increase Productivity

When the piles start to slow down progress try this 30-minute strategy to get back to a Command Center that works for you and your productivity.

  1. Choose your ground. Great commanders don’t try to conquer the world in one day. Pick one field that deserves your attention — your desk, your inbox, your favorites, your LinkedIn page, your blog.
  2. Have a clear strategy before you start. Know your priorities and purpose going in. Define your allies and enemies. If you’ve not used something for 3 months why is it next to your keyboard? If you don’t want design work why do you talk so much about it on your LinkedIn page.
  3. Be on a lethal mission. Set a 30 minute time in which to sort what you’ll keep and what you’ll delete or throw away. (If you make a defer / delegate pile, put it farther and make it smaller than the trash bin. If you live a week without touching anything in that pile, dump it. You’ll survive fine.)
  4. Organize what’s left and define the space. Set the things you use most often closest to you. Decide how much time you can commit to maintain this.
  5. Claim your rewards and Celebrate. Take a few minutes to survey your work with your favorite reward.
  6. Leverage this process for the future. Try it in a new space.

The sense of accomplishment that comes from taking control is possibly the best motivator I know. I just was lethal with my workspace and that’s what led this blog post

And I’m still claiming my reward – workspace that’s working for me again.

Thinking about what I’ll tackle next …

What about you? Where would a 30-minute Strike Force Strategy increase your productivity?

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz on your business!!

I’m a proud affiliate of

third-tribe-marketing

Thanks to Week 244 SOBs

by

muddy teal strip A

Successful and Outstanding Bloggers

Let me introduce the bloggers
who have earned this official badge of achievement,

and the right to call themselves
Successful Blog SOBs.

I invite them to take a badge home to display on their blogs.

muddy teal strip A

brain-pickings
emarketer
flavorwire
personal-branding-blog
web-marketing-therapy

They take the conversation to their readers,
contribute great ideas, challenge us, make us better, and make our businesses stronger.

I thank all of our SOBs for thinking what we say is worth passing on.
Good conversation shared can only improve the blogging community.

Should anyone question this SOB button’s validity, send him or her to me. Thie award carries a “Liz said so” guarantee, is endorsed by Kings of the Hemispheres, Martin and Michael, and is backed by my brothers, Angelo and Pasquale.

deep purple strip

Want to become an SOB?

If you’re an SO-Wanna-B, you can see the whole list of SOBs and learn how to be one by visiting the SOB Hall of Fame– A-Z Directory . Click the link or visit the What IS an SOB?! page in the sidebar.

–ME “Liz” Strauss

SOB Business Cafe 06-25-10

by

SB Cafe

Welcome to the SOB Cafe

We offer the best in thinking — articles, books, podcasts, and videos about business online written by the Successful and Outstanding Bloggers of Successful Blog. Click on the titles to enjoy each selection.

The Specials this Week are

Copyblogger
Are you evil enough to join us?

OK. Here are 7 dastardly, fiendish, and just plain frickin’ evil tactics to get ONE MILLION DOLLARS.

Or more customers. Whatever.

Conversation Agent
Geolocation services are not about giving us something to do, as Joe Chernov writes, although I think that’s a pretty good insight. They’re also about giving us something to talk about. That something is status, it comes with the territory.

Need a Little Advice?
If you’ve got a small business – be it brick and mortar or a home business – there’s a very real need to present yourself to the community. There’s many ways to accomplish that task – and it’s a task you will do over and over.

Jonathan Fields
I’ve invested a lot in understanding the psychology of persuasion and learning how to present facts and interactions in a manner that will be more likely to persuade somebody to my point of view.

I’m actually far more effective at this in print than I am in face-to-face conversations, which is probably why, for years, I’ve resorted to print as my prime tool for both expression and persuasion. It also is one of the things that has led me to be reasonably successful writing copy.

The Intersection of People and Process
I thought about the passion that was inspired by several groups imageseeking our Crowd Sourced advice on how they might want to move their efforts forward. We focused on Vitamin Angels.

We didn’t have much time to come up with ideas so I used a model that I have been using for a few years for capturing customer evidence. In this case I was thinking of Stephen Covey’s “Begin with the End in Mind” mantra.

Halogen Software Blog
When Sterling Cooper’s new management, personified by Lane Pryce, criticizes the ad agency’s creative department for being a bunch of lazy alcoholics, Draper defends his team with a statement I’ll never forget:

“You came here because we do this better than you, and part of that is letting our creatives be unproductive until they are.”

Related ala carte selections include

Jason Falls
But there was one subtlety that I noticed watching the U.S. vs. Algeria on Wednesday that made me almost as ill as watching my country’s team’s defense allow counter chance after counter chance from their opponent. It wasn’t probably noticed by many others, though I’m certain the director of the broadcast was likely fuming over it as well.

Sit back. Enjoy your read. Nachos and drinks will be right over. Stay as long as you like. No tips required. Comments appreciated.

–ME “Liz” Strauss

I’m a proud affiliate of

third-tribe-marketing

It’s Hard to Be Irresistible When You’re Kissing Up to Folks Who Don’t Care About You

by

Invest in the Customers You Want to Attract

cooltext443809602_strategy

Dreams are good things. Strategies to get us there are essential to making those dreams real. A key strategy in any business plan is knowing who the customers are that we want to serve.

Sometimes we think we know that, but then we make decisions worrying about what the whole world of customers will think of what we do. We want the whole world to love us, even though we know we’re not building a business for the whole lot of them.

Do you see the disconnect in that?

It’s hard to be irresistible to our ideal customers when we’re not showing them they’re the only ones we care about. Yet, sometimes we change our business because worry about the opinions of folks simply because they have opinions about us and what we do.

Before we change we really ought to consider whether the the folks having opinions are part of our ideal customer group.

The strongest businesses, the best web apps, the biggest celebrities and rock stars know that serving and celebrating their loyal fans is what builds a foundational brand. As Becky McCray and Sheila Scarborough pointed out so brilliantly at SOBCon2010 — If we narrow the niche we serve, the opportunity gets wider. If we invest hugely in the people we want to attract, the attraction factor becomes huge.

If we hedge our bets, those ideal customers can tell we’re not with them 100%.

Give your listening, your love and your best work to the ones who love what you do.

Think a minute. Have you been taking time from your ideal customers to please folks who’ll never care about you?

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz on your business!!

I’m a proud affiliate of

third-tribe-marketing

Is Your Blog An Interior Designer’s Dream?

by

cooltext455576688_blogging

By Terez Howard

When someone visits your home, what do they notice?

Will a visitor see clean hardwood floors, cozy seating decorated with fashionable pillows, artwork that matches your theme and room uncluttered by knickknacks and accessories? On the other hand, will a person see a sticky mess on the walls, a carpet that obviously hasn’t been vacuumed in ages, a couch buried by papers and no visible pathway through the room?

These are two extremes. But which spectrum would you want to lean toward? Obviously, the neater one. Sure, no home that’s lived in can look like it belongs in an Ethan Allen catalog. I’m satisfied with a neat, clean, presentable home.

Now type in your blog’s url.

What is will visitors see?

Is it overrun with affiliate links, disorganized archives, poor picture placement, harsh backgrounds and tiny fonts? Or is it simply pleasing to the eyes, a place where visitors can find everything they want?

How can you make sure your blog looks home sweet home?

The same way you make a house a home. You clean it, and you organize its contents. With your blog, you should choose a clean-looking theme, or have a professional designer make one for you. That doesn’t mean it has to just be a cold, solid color background with nothing else. It does mean that your readers will not instantly want to click away from your blog without reading your content.

Here’s how you can get a clean, organized blog:

  • Think about your audience.  Who will be frequenting your blog? Business owners, mothers, gamers, writers? What kind of graphics would your audience like to see? What type of format would they favor?
  • Are your posts and archives easily accessible? Readers come to your blog to read. They shouldn’t have to sort through junk to get to your content.
  • Categorize your information.  Arrange each of your posts according to specific categories. Then, visitors can check out all that resourceful information found conveniently in the categories they want to see.
  • Auxiliary links should be seen but not blinding. Links to your business website, friends’ blogs and other extra links should be easily available to your readers, but they should not overpower your blog. Be discreet.
  • Don’t forget that subscribe button.  Every blog should be equipped with a subscribe button, so your faithful followers can easily follow you.

Give yourself a blog makeover

Niecy Nash isn’t going to pop in and clean up your blog. But there are plenty of graphic designers that will offer their services.

If you’re more of a do-it-yourselfer, like myself, do it yourself. Check out blogs that have designs you favor. See how you can incorporate such elements in your blog. Ask your friends, graphic designers or not, for their opinions. Then get working.

When visitors pop in, you won’t be trying to kick old newspapers under the couch. You won’t be embarrassed. You won’t feel impelled to say that you’re under construction, even if you’re not.

What makes a blog an interior designer’s dream?Â

 

—
Terez Howard operates TheWriteBloggers, a professional blogging service which builds clients’ authority status and net visibility. She regularly blogs at Freelance Writing Mamas . You’ll find her on Twitter @thewriteblogger

Thanks, Terez!

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz on your business!!