The Out-Smarts Blog and Podcast

Here’s blog post 2 in the series following up on my Building Valuable Business Relationships in the Virtual World presentation.

The Internet is an ideal way to grow your business and expand your network but their are risks that you should be aware of. Here are 10 tips that will help you do it safely:

1. When networking on Facebook or other social forums always use the privacy controls to limit access to your information (usually you can find these by clicking on “account”).

2. Use Facebook, LinkedIn and other networks to make people aware of what you do or want to do.

3. Google yourself to see what’s being said about you and do the Granny test on the results - if Granny wouldn’t approve then perhaps the content isn’t appropriate to enhance your business profile.

4. Don’t put up any photos, videos or images that compromise your image.

5. Portray yourself professionally as appropriate to your industry in all forums.

6. Be true to who you are, transparency leads to trust. If you have a good reputation people are more likely to do business with you.

7. Remember that you have a valid and unique opinion. Don’t be afraid to voice it.

8. Always be respectful of others, its okay to disagree but be polite about it.

9. If you are young and looking for a job be aware that a party boy or girl image may seem cool to your peers but it won’t help you get a job or grow you professional network.

10. On-line networking is a vital tool for anyone trying to build a career but don’t get sidetracked or sucked in. Avoid this by scheduling time for on-line networking and sticking to it.

11. Don’t make friends with everyone and anyone. Be selective. It will help you manage the volume of information and will also expose you to less risk.

I had the pleasure this evening to present at an event co hosted by the Professional Women’s Network, the YWCA Mentoring Program and the Downtown Networking Association aimed at introducing mentors and mentees to professional growth strategies to help you realise career goals. My topic: “Building Valuable Business Relationships in the Virtual World”.

As promised, I am going to blog over the next few days about some of the issues I touched on at the event, the first of these being Internet networking hubs.

Internet networking hubs are great forums to expand your business network and extend your reach. Obviously those you use will depend on what it is you do. For example a photographer would likely use photo sites like Flickr to showcase their experience. Someone in the music industry is likely to benefit more from MySpace than Facebook. And a lawyer might is more likely to join a law forum than a web development forum. Its up to you which you choose but Internet networking hubs are great places to grow your on line network and in turn your business. Here the handout I gave out tonight:

Lets get something straight here first and foremost - I am female: I look like a woman and I sound like a woman but yet I have been called Mr. on two separate occasions recently.

The first was an e-mail following up on a booth I visited at CES - the e-mail actually mentioned how much they had enjoyed meeting me!.

The second was in a voice mail left from someone referred to me by a service provider. The person listened (but did not hear) my message and yet still called me Mr. To spare these people the embarrasment I won’t actually mention their names or company (although they probably deserve it for their blatant ignorance) but these occurrences served to remind me how important it is in business to know your customer.

What do you think the chances of me doing business with either of these companies are? I’d say somewhere less than zero. Not only did they offend me from the start but the first had the gall to blatantly lie in their communication (enjoyed meeting me indeed) - it did nothing for their credibility.

It takes nothing to pay a little attention to your customer, prospect or potential client and offending someone will be counteractive to your cause.

So next time you are planning an email or phone campaign or any marketing or sales activity for that matter, give a little thought to your audience:

1. Don’t dare to assume that the recipient is male when they could be female and vice versa. If you’re not sure if someone is male or female then its often best to avoid such a salutation.

2. If you’re not sure of the spelling of a contact’s name then omit it (you should see the collection of incorrect spellings I’ve collected over the years with a name like Mhairi).

3. If in doubt either don’t take the risk or take a little time to do some detective work to find out.

A little attention to detail can go a long way in helping you open the door to business so take heed and take time to know your audience. It will be worth your while.

Yesterday I read an article called the 90/10 marketing rule that talked about how businesses often focus most of their time on creating a product or service but give little time to marketing it effectively. It linked in to an article that pointed out that Internet marketing is no different - how true that is.

We regularly come across businesses that have gone about developing web sites without giving an iota of thought to who they are trying to attract or how they can go about doing so effectively and they come to us wondering why their site doesn’t get much traffic.

Marketing, in case you didn’t know is all about understanding the needs of the customer and developing offerings that meet those.

When considering your website the first thing you need to do is put yourself in the shoes of your customer, think about who they are - get inside their heads as well as their shoes! If that is a challenge then ask existing customers or people you know who fit the bill.

Once you have a feel for who the customer is, its easier to work out what makes them tick - what they like and don’t like, and why.  Ask yourself what attributes they have that make your offering compelling to them.

Finally use that information on your site to create a compelling environment that appeals to your niche. It should be clear and simple and obvious what your company does from the moment the page appears.

If you take time to do these simple marketing procedures before hiring that super duper web designer, your site will drive much more business - guaranteed!

In a world of never ending SPAM it’s a real challenge to create successful e-mail campaigns but its not impossible. Here are some pointers to bear in mind:

1. Avoid the hard sell - people get so much spam these days that if you try to sell to strangers via e, you’ll hit the junk file faster than you can say spam;
2. Better to use email to keep in touch with clients than to try to sell - newsletters are better than sales letters;
3. Use a call to action title - one that is brief, catchy, intelligent that will entice people to open the mail;
4. By adding an unsubscribe button, your mail is perceived as more professional - just remember to delete those who request it from your mailing lists - always;
5. Drive them back to your website by including a link - you can then easily track click throughs to make follow up calls more targeted;
6. Make it simple stupid - the old adage applies here too - don’t add too many fancy images or graphics - it will just clog people’s mail boxes;
7. The body of the text should include some incentive to act but don’t overdo it or you will raise reader suspicion;
8. War and Peace just isn’t appropriate in an e-mail. Keep it short and to the point if you want people to read;
9. Think outside the box- content and topic should unique and should tell them something they don’t know about your product service or offering - something that makes a difference to them;
10. Build your email list by encouraging visitors to subscribe online, and telling people about your newsletters in the real world;
11. Don’t SPAM ever, ever. Always use valid e-mails from people you have actually met or who have given you business cards at events and shows. If you don’t its the fastest way to get an unsubscribe.

Back by popular demand is our monthly reasons to be cheerful post where we share the new media discoveries we have made over the last month so that you too can feel the joy!

Process and operations have been a big focus lately - getting our shop in ship shape as it were so you’ll see a bit of a pattern in this month’s reasons - they all help us do business a little more effectively:

Toggl - allows you and your project managers to track their time effectively over the Net. Because its all done on-line it allows your managers to track their time even when they are at customer sites. Simple yet so powerful.

Ta-da Lists - our friends over at BlueLime Media tipped us off to this one. Here at Out-Smarts we are always writing lists for everything from sales targets and marketing to-do’s to lunches. Ta-da provides a great way to keep track of these on your desktop and to share them with colleagues. No excuses now for forgetting those 2008 resolutions.

BlogFuse - recently launched with their first app which makes it really easy for you to create a Facebook app based around your companies blog. In about 5 minutes (or so!) we were able to launch Out-Smarts first Facebook app using this sweet technology - thanks to the folks over in Kansas for that and also for their unparralleled support.

Reasons Archive:
Nov 2007
Oct 2007
Sept 07
Aug 07
Jul 07

According to a Gartner report, corporate spending on Web 2.0 is set to increase. Companies are catching on to the benefits of Web 2.0 and these technologies are set to gain a bigger share of the corporate budget in coming months.

Web 2.0 is the ineractive web. It gives companies the ability to go full circle in their on-line relationships with clients (it closes the feedback loop and turns it into a constant cycle of communication as well as an invaluable source of research). Web 2.0 also has applications within the organisation allowing widely dispersed teams (for example) to communicate more effectively and work better together thus positively impacting productivity rates.

When it comes to Web 2.0, collaboration is key and any area of your business that will positively benefit from enhanced collaboration and communication could potentially benefit from implementing a Web 2.0 strategy.

Almost daily people tell me they don’t see the point of blogging or that social networking is just for personal purposes. I say baloney! These are great tools to use to get your company’s name out there and publicise your expertise. Here’s just one example of why I trully believe that being active in the blogosphere and in social networks is a great tool for business development:

I had an interesting experience this week when a company got in touch with me to find out more about Out-Smarts services. “Big deal” I hear you say, “people get in touch with companies all the time”. You’re right there but what is interesting about this is not the fact that they got in touch but how it transpired. They had been referred by a colleague who knew me through comments I had made on that company’s blog. I had never met this colleague before and the only previous contact I had had with that company is through a Facebook contact who works there. I had no connection with them in the real world and yet the opprtunity came my way by virtue of my presence in the virtua world. This is a perfect example of what I like to call “Internetworking” or in other words business networking on the Internet. Every company should be putting Internetworking to good use. It is a free and effective way to publicise your offering!

Please share your “Internetworking” successes with our community too.

Its easy to get started with Google AdWords. For a small monthly fee your company could take advantage of the Google search engine to advertise to your targeted audience. Perhaps the only challenging part of the set up is deciding which flavour of Google AdWords is right for you: Starter or Standard Edition.

Starter Edition - If you are an Internet advertising neophyte, Starter is the obvious choice and the one recommended by Google itself. It is aimed at companies with a single product line operating in a single geography. The service is simplified to let users easily set up a campaign and device appropriate keywords. Starter comes with analytics and reporting capabilities that are less complex: ideal for someone just getting up to speed.

Standard Edition - is the full blown all you can eat AdWords suite. It is definetely for the more seasoned Internet advertising professional advertising multiple products across many regions. It brings advanced planning tools that lets you put complex ad campaigns into effect and complex reporting functionality that lets you monitor the results. Standard provides a hole slew of other neat add-ons to let you assess keywords and come up with more effective ones.

Both services are simple to sign up for. If you’re not sure which one is best then go with Starter and work up to Standard once you have developed an understanding of the basic functionality.

I had the pleasure yesterday to attend the CWC’s monthly network gathering of professional women in communications. This month’s presentation looked at the mistakes women tend to make when selling. Interestingly, the top sin discussed was DON’T SELL: off course you have to sell, otherwise you will never do business but the focus should never be on selling over developing rapport and listening (and responding) to the needs of your customers. The same goes for blogging: the number one rule of blogging is “DON’T SELL”. If you do, it will only serve to put off your audience and once put off, they will never come back. Use your blog to develop rapport, show you know what your talking about and most important, use it as a forum to listen to the feedback and comments of your clients.