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How to Attract and Influence Real Fans, Friends, and Followers

June 13, 2012 by Guest Author 5 Comments

by
Buddy Hodges

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Friendship and Influence

The inestimable value of friendship and influence is taken as a given here. This post assumes that you already know the “why.” It addresses the “how” in terms of timeless psychological principles which are fundamental to building personal relationships. Of course, commerce and business alliances are also based on personal relationships. We are talking about how to get people to know, like and trust you.

You may have heard these principles in some form before, but they are so important, in my opinion as a social psychologist, that they are worth repeating until we remember to act on them.

Attract Others Like You

Meeting the people you want to connect with involves exposure. If you want to be in the right place at the right time, be in a lot of places. However, it is wise to choose which places are most likely to put you in front of the kind of people you want to know. “Stack the deck” to improve the odds that synchronicity and serendipity will work in your favor. In addition to finding the “right” people, you will be seen in the right context. The mere fact that you belong to a group or a specific social network causes you to be perceived as “one of us.”

Friendship begins with being seen and being noticed. Psychologists know that the old myth, “familiarity breeds contempt,” is false. In fact just the opposite is true. Why do you think politicians invest so much on yard signs? On the internet your personal brand is enhanced by repeated exposure. Post, comment, tweet, like, link, etc. Get your name out there for starters.

Attract and Influence by Investing Attention

To win friends it is more effective to be interested than to be interesting. The best way to motivate people is to find out what they already want and give it to them. Among the things people want most (and don’t already have) is attention. They crave recognition and respect. I suggest that you consider paying, or rather investing, attention.

In a free market economy good listeners are in big demand and short supply. Listening is a technique that is more easily said than done, because we also want to be heard. On social media we “listen” by reading with comprehension and commenting appropriately to show our understanding and interest. We invest attention by re-tweeting and linking.

Recommending or endorsing people (or their content) makes them like you. Sincere compliments are always appreciated, and your recommendation is valuable to them as well. Be authentic. Sincerity is one of the most likeable traits.

Influence Starts with Trust in Them and in You

Trust
BigStock: Trust

Stephen M.R. Covey wrote a book called, The Speed of Trust: The One Thing that Changes Everything in which he calls trust the very basis of the new global economy and the essential ingredient for any high–performance, successful organization.

Greg Ferenstein wrote a post on the Mashable.com blog called, The Science of Building Trust with Social Media. Ferenstein quotes Professor Judith Olson of U.C. Irvine, who conducted research on internet trust. Professor Olson notes that “lacking traditional markers of trust, such as voice intonation and body language, when only text is available, participants judge trustworthiness based on how quickly others respond.”

Consider how you feel when someone fails to reply to your email or return your phone call after you leave a voicemail message. You build trust when you reply quickly to comments on your Facebook posts or on your blog. Commentators get frustrated when their comment is “awaiting moderation” for too long. It is risky to leave a “Drive-by” comment on another blog without waiting for a reply to engage in conversation. Although it is essential to be authentic, showing respect for another’s point of view in an online dialog helps create trust.

—-

Author’s Bio:
Buddy Hodges writes about Social Media Relationships and Social Media for Business at RelatingOnline.com and SocialMediaForBusiness.US Buddy’s Social Media Management business website is at: ProActionTeam You can find him on Twitter as @internetworker

Thank you, Buddy! Great insights on how fuels attraction and influence.

— ME “Liz” Strauss

Buy the Insider’s Guide to Online Conversation.

Filed Under: Community, Successful Blog Tagged With: attracting fans, bc, influence, LinkedIn, Marketing /Sales / Social Media, small business, trust

Be Weird

May 17, 2012 by Rosemary 1 Comment

by
Rosemary O’Neill

cooltext443809558_authenticity

When I was in fifth grade, my mom sent me to school with my lunch in one of those silver ice cream bags from the grocery store. I was already “the new kid,” so this cemented me as “Silver Bag.” It started as a put-down, but grew into a term of endearment. I was weird, but weird-good.

As a new person encounters you and your business, do they think you’re weird? Do you allow them to see your weirdness?

It can be a secret weapon that throws people off-guard, especially in a purchasing situation. When people approach a new company, or new business contact, they try to put it in a bucket they’re familiar with. If you refuse to be categorized easily, their brains will keep processing you, trying to put a button in you.

Seth Godin’s book “We Are All Weird,” seems almost contradictory…if everyone’s weird, how does weirdness get recognized? And yet we are in a time now where off-beat is celebrated. How else to explain the rise of Nyan Cat?

One of the defining characteristics of Instagram is that you can do odd things to your photographs. They are also weird because they don’t have a web component—it is strictly a mobile application (we’ll see if Facebook removes some of that weirdness, I hope not).

Most businesses actively try to suppress their weirdness; I say “let it out!” Your target audience will have a much easier time finding you if they can see and relate to your particular brand of strange.

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Author’s Bio: Rosemary O’Neill is an insightful spirit who works for social strata — a top ten company to work for on the Internet . Check out the Social Strata blog. You can find Rosemary on Google+ and on Twitter as @rhogroupee

_____

Thank you, Rosemary!

You’re irresistible!

ME “Liz” Strauss

Buy the Insider’s Guide to Online Conversation.

Filed Under: Successful Blog Tagged With: bc, differentiation, LinkedIn, Marketing /Sales / Social Media, small business, Strategy/Analysis

Give Your Content Marketing An Emotional Storytelling Touch

April 18, 2012 by Guest Author 1 Comment

Guest Post by Stacey Acevero

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Stories Stay With Us

Remember as a kid when you listened to stories around the campfire? The ones that gripped you and stayed with you long into the night were the ones that played upon your emotions. They scared you or made you cry or made you laugh. In other words, they moved you.

Do the same for your online audiences. Use storytelling to make your content marketing stick in their heads. When you do, you’ll give your content more mileage because not only will people respond to your message, they’ll remember it longer, too.

You may wonder where storytelling fits into your content marketing. After all, you’re just trying to get the word out on your brand, right? Wrong. Just getting the word out isn’t enough to create a following. You’ve got to make a connection with people and there’s no better way than drawing them in with stories that tap into their emotions.

To give your content marketing an emotional touch, follow these 3 storytelling tips:

1. Find The Stories Around You

When we meet new people, we establish connection through sharing stories — where we went to school and why, what kind of work we do, what things in our lives define us. Imagine your reader is a new acquaintance. What kind of story can you tell to get them engaged quickly?

Think about the things that set your company apart – those details that you’d share first to give people a sense of you and your brand. For example, at the heart of every company is the story of the person who had a big idea. Think about your company, what is the inspiration behind its inception? You’ve got a story right there.

2. Build Your Story Around A Character

A strong story has a character audiences can connect with and a plot that keeps them engaged. Find the human factor in your brand and make it your central character. Introduce employees who are making a difference in their communities or share compelling profiles of the people who have benefitted from your products.

Then offer readers a glimpse into how these people changed, i.e., through the volunteer work for an important cause or because of the positive impact your products made in their lives. The journey of a character through circumstances carries more clout when readers see how those events shaped that character.

3. Use Emotion To Make An Impact

People are drawn to emotional images and language, so use those powerful tools in your content marketing.

Photographs and video can immediately boost your content curb appeal. They can also provide inspiration to your content creation. For example, a humorous video can not only grab audience interest, it may just have the emotional impact to go viral.

Give your written content more life and emotional connection, as well. Use active language and sentence structures to make reading easier and more interesting.

Try this simple way to start – change all your verb forms of “to be” into active words. For example, instead of “Our company was looking for a way to be a better supplier for our customers”, try “XYZ felt our customers needed better service. These new changes do just that”.

The best way to keep your content marketing fresh is to play with it. Experiment with new perspectives and integrate the things you find interesting.

Keep in mind that your message should always compel your audiences to act. Use your story to motivate people to visit your website, check out your product or download your latest whitepaper.

Have you had success integrating emotional storytelling into your content marketing? We’d like to hear your best campfire story here.

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Author’s Bio:
Stacy Acevero writes about PR and social media at PRWeb.com. You can find her on Twitter as @sacevero.

Stacey, you and your stories are irresistible! 🙂

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

Buy the Insider’s Guide to Online Conversation.

Filed Under: Marketing /Sales / Social Media, Successful Blog, Writing Tagged With: bc, communication, LinkedIn, Marketing /Sales / Social Media

What if Your Salespeople Stop Selling?

April 17, 2012 by Liz 2 Comments

Meet Larry Bailin

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A few weeks ago I had the pleasure of sitting down with Larry Bailin to talk shop. Larry is a talented internet marketer and a nationally sought keynote. Larry’s in his second edition of his book, “Mommy, Where Do Customers From” and enjoys continued success at his firm Single Throw located in Wall New Jersey.

The two of us sat across from one another and covered all the requisite mainstays like what portion of your mix should comprise PPC, how much of your social footprint should be automated (Larry says none and incidentally, I think he’s right) and the two of us agreed that Seth Godin is a keeper. But the typical talking points of our conversation, while enlightening and entertaining in general, didn’t move the needle.

Don’t get me wrong; it’s fun to talk to other internet marketers – particularly those that the industry leans on as much as it does Larry. But no. The conversation was cool, but the majority of the time largely academic. The majority that is. You see, something fascinating DID happen. Something was unearthed. A fortuitously excavated idea emerged from an otherwise casually enjoyable dialogue between two passionate internet marketers.

The Fortuitous Idea

So what was so gripping about our talk? What topic emerged that did, in this marketer’s opinion, move the proverbial needle?

It was this: salesmanship. Specifically, how to disarm buyers when engaging them.

Nothing special right? I mean who among us doesn’t understand that disarming buyers is critical to earning a customer’s confidence? None that I know. But Larry helped me stumble upon a model for appealing to buyers that, for me, called upon marketers and product makers to sell as much, if not more, than is expected of the sales team.

It’s an uphill climb … Salespeople are gods of optimism. Salespeople have a tough job. We all know it.

Selling well takes a scientific understanding of the human condition. Being great at it requires all that, plus the grace of a ballerina, the poise of a Super Bowl quarterback, and the precision of a brain surgeon. This is why selling is often perceived as Herculean. Just ask any seasoned seller. They’ll tell yah: sales is not a vocation for the weak. And it’s because the nuance and complexities of the sales dance, that establishes trust with buyers is a salesperson’s toughest obstacle — they face built-in quantities of both skepticism and doubt.

To their credit, the ever-hopeful salespeople press on, despite a century of data that tells them every day that 95 percent of their effort, or better, is a waste of time.

Wow. Nearly 100%? Just wow!

It’s Time Salespeople Get a Hand

What if your salespeople weren’t the only ones selling? What if she wasn’t the only one attending the all those breakfast briefings, tradeshows and mixers? Not so novel you’re thinking, right?

Scott, our salespeople do travel to these events with product specialists and marketers.

I know, I know. But let’s dig a bit deeper into the potential role that supporting cast could play in securing that sale for our valiant sales peeps. We’re bringing them, but are they helping?

Ok so, what if – just what if – the salesperson wasn’t the salesperson?

What if the product makers were also marketers … what if marketers were also salespeople? What if every person on the team was all three?

I told Larry that I never seem to come off appearing like the salesman toward buyers, although I’m always selling my stuff.

Says Larry, “It’s because you’re not the salesman, Scott. Someone else is the salesman. You’re just Scott. A nice guy with great ideas.”

And the church choir erupted in sonic ecstasy! And birds softly propped on slate roofs everywhere, all at once, scattered in a flurry into the dewy fog of an early May sunrise! And there it was.

“But Larry, my brother, I am selling!”

I am the salesman, the marketer and the product expert all at once. And I should be all these things if I want to help my sales folks make the sale. And because I am not actually the salesman after all, I get to say, “Hey buyer, I’m not the salesperson.” When I bring the salesperson to meet the buyer, I get to say, “This is Jane. Jane handles sales. I’m Scott. I just help.”

This tag-team method of prospect engagement builds relationships in these ways.

  • It disarms the buyer.
  • It tells the buyer that they’re not dealing with a pushy, pressure-fraught situation.
  • It likewise tells buyers they’re dealing with a person who helps with problems and isn’t driven by thinly veiled sales agendas.

It’s been my experience that the buyer ultimately ends up saying to me,” Hi Scott. What’s your story?” And the sales process has begun.

So before your sales team gears up for the next event, get your product people, your marketing people, and your salespeople in the same room to talk about how to evolve your sales process.

How might your team captivate buyers with a disarming and helpful approach?

Kudos Larry. Great talk.

—-
Author’s Bio:
Scott P. Dailey is a Web designer, copywriter and internet marketer. Scott’s blog, ( scottpdailey.com ) makes connections between social networking etiquette and the prevailing human social habits that drive on and offline business engagement patterns. You can connect with Scott via Twitter at @scottpdailey.

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

Buy the Insider’s Guide to Online Conversation.

Filed Under: management, Marketing /Sales / Social Media, Successful Blog Tagged With: bc, customer acquisition, LinkedIn, Marketing /Sales / Social Media, sales

Offline marketing strategies: Back to the basics

April 13, 2012 by Liz 4 Comments

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In the pre-Internet era, business establishments did not have the options to resort to online marketing strategies. Conventional offline marketing strategies such as print advertising, discounts, special promotions, direct mails etc ruled the roost. Like the online marketing strategies, the aim of offline marketing strategies was same – to boost your small business. Anyways, despite the rapid surge of online marketing strategies, the importance of offline marketing strategies can not be denied even in the modern times. Basic offline marketing strategies still play crucial role in expanding your business. Here we discuss about some typical offline marketing strategies which are indeed helpful to boost your small business.

Print marketing

Advertising products and services in print media such as newspaper and magazine is a popular offline marketing strategy. Through advertising your products and services in the newspaper you can reach out to varied classes of people. Again, magazine advertisements aim at targeting a particular sector of the customers such as teens, women or the car lovers.

Broadcast

Radio and television are popular marketing platforms which are still being used very widely. The main advantage of broadcast marketing is that it reaches a large audience at a very quick time. In television advertisements, people can actually see how the products work. However, it is to be noted that advertising through radio and television is comparatively expensive than other forms of offline marketing.

Direct mail

Direct mails are used by many small businesses to augment customer base. This aims at raising the awareness of a product through letters, postcards, brochures and fliers. In direct mail method, a particular type of target market is aimed at. Moreover, this type of marketing strategy is costly too as it involves designing and printing costs.

Referral marketing

If a particular customer is satisfied with the product or the services that you offer, he or she may refer it to other customers. This way your client base increases through word of mouth or referral marketing. However, referral marketing is not any strategic marketing plan but it is useful to build up a loyal customer base. This type of marketing however does not require any cost. You, as the owner of a small business, should not entirely rely on referral marketing. Referral marketing should combine with other forms of marketing so as to reach to a wider section of the market.

Co-branding strategies

Co-branding is a smart offline business marketing strategy. Co-branding implies mutually beneficial marketing agreement between two business units. Two parties that embrace co-branding strategies do not compete with each other, instead the products offered by the two parties complement each other. Through this strategy you can attract those clients which you can not attract through other offline marketing strategies.

Loyalty programs

Even small business units can use these programs to expand customer base. Incentives are given to the customers to purchase more products. For instance, a movie theater owner may offer free movies to the customers on their fifth visit. This way, encouragement is given to the customers to purchase more units of a good.

Discount pricing

This is a very popular marketing strategy to augment your sales. Advertisements of discounts are given in radio, television or in newspapers. Giving bulk discount is a very popular practice. The aim of giving discount is to increase the sale of the product. However, while giving discount you should not compromise on product quality.

These are some offline marketing strategies which are still very much relevant. Even in this online era where increasing thrust is being given on online marketing, basic and traditional offline marketing strategies are very much required to keep your business in good stead. In fact, an ideal marketing strategy should be a judicious mix of both the offline and online marketing strategies.

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Author’s Bio:
Alex Brown: Alex is a prolific writer with specialization on various aspects of financial finance. His articles on debt, mortgage industry and personal finance are offer valuable guidelines to the readers.

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

Buy the Insider’s Guide to Online Conversation.

Filed Under: Marketing /Sales / Social Media, Successful Blog Tagged With: bc, LinkedIn, Marketing /Sales / Social Media, offline marketing

How Do You Look in High Definition?

March 29, 2012 by Rosemary Leave a Comment

cooltext443809558_authenticityOne of my favorite contemporary artists is Chuck Close. He is famous for photo-realist portraits that will blow your mind. When you’re standing at the right distance, you’d swear it was a photograph, but if you come closer, you can see that the pixels are all made up of tiny blobs with a dot in the center.

Your business must be accessible and recognizable from a distance and from close up, so you also need to pay attention to the details.

If your audience is viewing you from far away (e.g., via your social outpost on Twitter), do they clearly see the same message as close up (on your own website)? The tools and trappings may be different, but the impression should be the same.

Here’s a low-tech exercise that gives you a quick look at your brand consistency:

Go to each online location where your brand lives (Facebook page, Twitter accounts, LinkedIn corporate page, main website, etc.), and literally print out the pages. Tape them to a wall.

Grab a cup of coffee, and stand back. Does it look focused, or does it look like fingerpainting?

Assess which pages don’t contribute to the impression you want to build, and tweak them until they fit. Remember that cohesiveness doesn’t mean sameness!

Consider your messaging from several perspectives, and the audience will recognize your artistry regardless of the medium.

_____

Author’s Bio: Rosemary O” Neill is an insightful spirit who works for social strata — a top ten company to work for on the Internet . Check out their blog. You can find her on Google+ and on Twitter as @rhogroupee
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Filed Under: Marketing /Sales / Social Media, Successful Blog Tagged With: bc, focus, LinkedIn, Marketing /Sales / Social Media, Rosemary O'Neill

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