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Archive for March, 2010

Social Media and Regulated Industries

Tuesday, March 16th, 2010

I’ve heard a number of financial advisers tell me they can’t use social media because of needing to run any content past their compliance department. That would certainly put a damper on things if you had to run every tweet past compliance.

There are also issues for attorneys and how they can be listed and who they can friend. I’m not going to cover those issues in my post, but Elizabeth Lewis has covered them in her excellent post “Social media and attorneys.”

So if your content has regulated limitations, how can financial advisers and others in similar industries participate in social media? The answer is pretty simple. Don’t post directly on your industry.

Your clients are probably interested in more than your services and industry. I was chatting with a financial planner at a recent networking event, and he mentioned that most of his clients are young accountants looking to advance in their companies and make partner. He can add value to his clients by posting information on corporate advancement or effective networking.

When I asked if he could post links to articles in publications like the Wall Street Journal, he said he could link to anything already in the public domain. Linking to published articles allows him to post industry-specific content without checking with compliance first. He can still brand himself in financial services without potentially getting in trouble.

Almost anyone can use social media to promote their business. Some of us can do it very directly. I don’t need anyone to approve my blog posts before I hit “Publish.” But others don’t have that level of freedom. They can still use social media. They just have to be more creative.

And creative is good. It sets you apart from your competition. And we all want that, right?

Anyone else have stories and ideas to share about social media use in regulated industries? Always looking for new and better ideas to share.

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Tags: communication, social media
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Find Your Networking Presence

Monday, March 15th, 2010

There’s a lot of information out there packaged as “this is what you need to do to be successful in networking.” A lot of it is even good information. But many authors seem to take a one size fits all approach to networking. We are all people. And we are different. To be successful at networking, you need to find your own voice and presence.

This same philosophy applies to social media. Most people will tell you to use the tool or channel they use. If someone is having good luck with Facebook, he’ll tell you to use Facebook too. But what works for one person may not work for everyone.

Again, what you choose needs to fit your personality, your needs and your time commitments.

Where do you start? Good question. I highly recommend you work with someone who understands networking (or social media) but who approaches clients from a coaching perspective. Coaches use a questioning approach to help people discover their own path. Consultants and other experts often tell you what to do. There are times where the consulting approach is best, but not when you are trying to find your own voice. Coaches are much better at that.

What questions should you ask yourself (or have a coach help you explore)? Here are some good ones:

1. Are you an introvert or an extrovert? It will affect how you network and interact with others?

2. How much time can you devote to networking and building relationships? Time will direct what channels you can afford to engage in. Don’t just look at total time. Look at time slots. For example, if you have a mandatory meeting every morning at 8:00 AM, morning networking events are not going to work well for you. If you have to travel two weeks out of every month, a networking group like BNI isn’t going to be for you.

3. What do you need to get out of your relationship building efforts? Do you need to deepen existing relationships or expand your brand to another part of the country? You’ll network or use social media very differently.

4. If you need clients, how many new clients do you need each year? A financial adviser who needs 10 new clients a year will network differently than a restaurant who needs hundreds.

5. Does your industry or profession impose limitations on you? Most financial services professionals have compliance departments that need to vet their messages. This puts up a barrier to social media. Can they use social media? Of course. But they will use it very differently from a retail business. (By the way, tomorrow I am going to publish a post on how businesses with compliance departments can use social media.)

Really, these questions are just the beginning. See why I recommend you work with someone to navigate the maze to becoming an effective networker/relationship builder/social media user?

Anyone else have any questions to add to the list? Discuss them in the comments.

Looking for someone to help you navigate the maze? Give me a call or shoot me an email. I’ve been helping people do this for three years. I’d love to help you too.

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Tags: communication, Networking, Relationship building, social media
Posted in Networking | 1 Comment »

Updated Evernote Review

Friday, March 12th, 2010

Several months ago, I wrote a review of Evernote, and I very much liked the program. In fact, I like it so much that I’ve discovered new ways to use it, and I wanted to share my observations.

First, if you didn’t read the earlier review, Evernote is a cross-platform program that allows you to capture and access information in multiple places and across multiple devices. Captured items can be tagged and organized into different notebooks.

When I was writing the social media proposal for my restaurant client, I did some research on how other restaurants were using social media. I organized all my research in Evernote. I clipped web pages, imported .pdf files and wrote my notes. When I finished the proposal, I imported it into Evernote. When you sign up for an Evernote account, you even get an Evernote email address. This allows you to forward or bcc your Evernote account on emails. Truly you can keep everything associated with a project in one place.

You can tag notes as To-Do items, which allows you to use it as a task manager as well. If I didn’t love Action Lists for my iPhone so much, I would use Evernote as my task manager. But imagine being able to aggregrate everything from a project: emails, notes, websites, task lists, etc in one place. No more fumbling from one folder, computer, etc to another.

Your on-line account syncs to every device using Evernote, so I can get to all my files from both computers and my iPhone. Evernote works on most smartphones, so you can have it with you all the time.

I use it to jot down blog post ideas, clip and save websites, write reminder notes and keep work-related documents. If I’d really been thinking on my last trip, I would have saved my itinerary and other electronic trip documents in Evernote. Next time!

I’ve been meaning to keep a journal for years. Everytime I start, I end up stopping because I haven’t found a good way to keep the journal up to date on my portable device and computer. Not a problem any longer. I set up a “Journal” notebook in Evernote. Now I can write at my computer or on my phone, and the same information is in both places.

Anyone else use Evernote and want to share your experiences? Any questions for me about how to use Evernote to better manage tasks and documents?

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Tags: iPhone, task management
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How To Engage In Social Media

Thursday, March 11th, 2010

Yesterday I talked about why you need to engage in social media. Today I want to talk about how you can do without driving yourself crazy and taking too much time.

I highly recommend grouping, lists and filters to keep yourself from being overwhelmed by the sheer amount of content out there. Are there particular people you want to build relationships with? Group them in Facebook or create a list in Twitter. Are there particular topics you want to keep up with? Create filters for your email lists. Only read those topics on the forums you follow. Set up Google Alerts for those topics.

When your time is limited, just pay attention to those people and topics that are most important to you. I do suggest wading into the wider information stream when you can. That’s how you find new people to follow and new information to track.

But beyond what to read and follow, what are effective ways to engage?

One of the key elements to success in social media is to share content your audience is interested in. So when your on-line forum links to a good article, post the link on your Facebook page. When you read an interesting tweet, retweet it to your contacts.

Sharing information promotes the source of the information and provides good content to your audience. It’s a way to give back and keep your name active in social media without just endlessly talking about yourself, your services and your specials.

Don’t forget to have conversations in social media. If someone linked to you on Facebook shares a triumph, offer congratulations. If a Twitter friend is having a bad day, offer condolences. Or a link to a funny cartoon to lift spirits. Ask and answer questions.

Does this take some time? Yes. But know that you’ll never keep up with everything. Dip in every day, even if only for a few minutes. Every time you touch social media, set a goal. Share one piece of content and respond to one person. Create and share one piece of your own content. That will give you a 3:1 ratio of engaging with others and promoting yourself.

If you do that every day, you’ll have a presence and be known as someone who gives back to others. And that will come back to you in return.

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Tags: communication, Giving, Relationship building, reputation, social media, time management
Posted in social media, Time and Task Management | 1 Comment »

Engagement in Social Media

Wednesday, March 10th, 2010

I’ve been frustrated with one of my clients recently. He wants to use social media to promote his business, but he doesn’t want to engage with his following. I’ve been having a tough time trying to help him understand that social media is not a broadcast media.

It’s an engagement media. Can businesses get clients by broadcasting their special offers? Sure. There are enough people with a coupon-clipping mentality that any company can get some business that way. But they are only scratching the surface of the potential of building relationships with their clients and prospects.

But engagement seems to be tough for some people to swallow. When I tell my client that he will attract more followers if he looks for people to follow back, he says “But all their useless tweets are wasting my time.”

Which seems to be a common concern for people just starting in social media.

Yesterday I posted about a business using Foursquare in an unusual way. What that business did very well is they looked to understand their clientele and what was important to them. And then they gave it to them, in a way that also brought in business. They couldn’t have done that without understanding and engaging with their clients.

So what is engagement in social media? It’s the same as engagement in any relationship. You do get to spend some time talking about yourself, but you also have to spend some time listening. So yes, you really do have to read some of the tweets from your followers. Or you need to read your friends’ Facebook updates or the messages from the forum you just joined.

Why do you have to listen? Simple. You joined social media to be listened to, right? Well so did everyone else. How long do you stay friends with someone who constantly talks about him or herself but never has time to listen to you? Not very long, I’m guessing.

The same holds true in social media. If you are only a talker and never take time to listen and engage people in conversation, your message will go unheard. Unless you are a celebrity. They can get away with talking and not listening. But the better ones both talk and listen.

Do you have to read everything? No, of course not. If your best friend babbles endlessly, do you listen attentively every minute? Probably not. By all means use lists, groups and filters to manage the conversation.

But do listen. And engage.

Tomorrow I’ll talk about some ways you can engage in social media without driving yourself crazy trying to keep up with everything that goes by.

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Tags: communication, Giving, Relationship building, reputation, social media
Posted in social media | 2 Comments »

Sizzling Elevator Speeches

Monday, March 8th, 2010

In my last post, I talked about your networking toolkit and said that a good elevator speech was an essential part of that kit.

What is an elevator speech? Simply, it’s a short statement about who you are, what you do and who you are looking to meet. Think of it as the verbal equivalent of your business card.

The following format works very well for someone looking for business referrals.

1. Name and Business
2. Brief description of your product or service
3. Profile of a client you have helped and how you helped them
4. Specific type of referral you are looking for
5. Name and Business again
6. Your “tag” or “hook” line if you have one.

Let me break this down, one element at a time.

Your name and the name of your business should be and is pretty obvious. Enough said.

The brief description of your product or service is the first point that trips people up. This is where it is very easy to go into the laundry list of everything you do. Resist that temptation! We can only keep a few things in our mind at one time. If you overload us with a long list, we will tune you out.

The other reason you can be brief in your description is that your story is another way to describe what you do. A story that moves us is more likely to be remembered than a list of services offered. A story can illustrate a number of things about you. It can describe a client in terms that might trigger other people to say to themselves, “Hey, I know someone like that!” It can show the specific benefit of working with you. It can show how wonderful you are with your clients. And it does all these things in a way people will relate to, believe and remember.

So when you are working on your elevator speech, think about your clients. What are your two or three best stories? Write them down and then work on trimming them to about 15 seconds.

So after your story, we know what you do and a little bit about how you do it. We also should have some clues about who you do it with. But it’s not enough to just passively put the word out there. You need to give us a call to action. And that’s what the specific request for a referral does.

How do you ask for a referral? There are a couple of methods. One is to ask for a specific person. You refer back to your story and say something like, “Another company that I’d like to do the same thing for is XYZ Corp. I’d appreciate an introduction to Jane Smith in their HR department.”

Supposing you don’t need to meet a specific person? That’s okay. You can still ask for a referral. A good phrase to use is “Who do you know who…” and then fill in the rest with something that ties back to your story. That is a very powerful way to ask for a referral. It is an open-ended question (one that can’t be answered by “yes” or “no.”). Many people use “Do you know someone who?” This structure is not as effective because it is closed-ended (can be answered by “yes” or “no.”).

Repeat your name and the name of your business. Why? Because the odds are good that we weren’t paying attention the first time. If you are at an event where lots of people are giving an elevator speech, we’ve probably heard several bad ones already and are bored. We’re going to assume that you are going to be just like the others we’ve heard, and we’re tuning you out. Then you surprise us with something that is actually good! Now we want to meet you. But we missed your name.

Few people are comfortable with walking up to a total stranger and admitting we can’t remember a name. So give us a second chance to catch yours. We’ll be more likely to talk to you and ask you to “Tell me more.”

Finally, do not overlook that tagline. What is a tagline? It’s an eight to ten word sentence or phrse that ties everything together and leaves something memorable in the audience’s mind. Big companies almost always have them. Some examples are:

Avis-We try harder
GE-We bring good things to life
Nike-Just do it.

See what I mean? A tagline should be catchy and memorable. It’s the last thing your audience will hear, so it is worth spending some time working on a memorable one. It will set you apart from others at a networking function and will make people want to talk to you.

The most important thing is to remember always to be clear and concise. No one likes to listen to someone drone on for several minutes and say nothing. One of the best compliments you can get is one that I received after an event. “Lots of people talk a lot and say very little. You talk a very little and say a lot.”

That’s the goal of an excellent elevator speech!

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Tags: communication, Elevator Speech
Posted in Networking | 3 Comments »

The Networking Tool Kit

Friday, March 5th, 2010

Most professions have some basic tools they use to be successful. Networking may not be your profession, but if you are using it to grow your business, it’s certainly part of your job. Do you know your tools and how to use them?

1. Business cards

You do have them, right? I can’t tell you how many times I meet someone at an event and hear, “I don’t have any cards with me.” The reasons are myriad:

* I ran out
* I just changed jobs, and my new cards aren’t in yet
* I left them in my other jacket

And on and on. The reasons don’t matter. Cards aren’t that expensive or that big. Temporary cards at Kinkos are only a few dollars. I keep three in my wallet, just in case. They are also in my briefcase, in my car and stashed in an inside pocket of my winter coat. Unless I am tied up and stripped naked by muggers, you should never be able to catch me without one. (And if you should find me tied up in that state, I should hope asking me for my card won’t be your first question.)

There is no excuse. Networking is about meeting people, exchanging ideas and contacts and following up. Without cards, you are crippled.

2. A good elevator speech

I’m going to be writing a post soon on this topic, so I won’t go into too much detail here. But you need one. It needs to contain the following:

* Who you are
* What you do
* Who you are looking to meet
* Why we should care

And it needs to be brief and evocative. Even if you never have an opportunity to stand up and deliver your speech, going through the process of writing it will help you be more effective at talking about your business.

3. A good contact management system

Note that I said “good.” I didn’t say “fancy” or “expensive.” A paper address book works. Mobile and smart phones are good. Thousand dollar CRM systems will certainly do it. But the most important part of your system is that it be one you will use. The best system in the world that’s never updated is useless

Find one you like and that you will use. When you collect cards at events, enter the information promptly. It’s no use to know a lot of people if you can’t contact them or pass their info on to others.

4. Attitude

I have an “Attitude” pin on the lapel of one of my jackets. It is a conversation starter, but it’s also a tangible reminder of the only thing we have total control over. The right attitude in networking will take you a long way. The wrong attitude will leave you hanging.

What’s the right attitude? Easy. Be open and willing to help others. Be willing to ask for what you need. Be bold to take advantage of opportunities that come your way. Be flexible to shift in unexpected directions.

These are the basic tools of a good networker. Acquire them. Hone them. Use them well. They will keep you in business for a very long time.

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Tags: Business cards, Giving, Networking, Relationship building, reputation
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Networking at a Funeral

Thursday, March 4th, 2010

You may have noticed that my blog has been quiet for almost a week. There’s a reason. Last weekend I was at a funeral and right after we got back from that, we had to put down my dog. It’s been a rough week.

But when I was out of town, I realized I had a good blog topic. I’ve always said you can network anywhere, even at a funeral, and last weekend I had an opportunity to prove it.

No, I didn’t network at the actual service, but there were lots of family gatherings that weekend, and I managed some good networking there.

One of the cousins needs to learn more about blogging and social media, and he wanted my website so he could start reading my blog.

One of the uncles just started a real estate business and had come back from a three-day workshop on branding and marketing. One of the topics had been social media, and he wanted to pick my brain. I gave him some ideas of social media outlets that hadn’t been covered at the workshop.

And finally, one of the aunts is looking for a job. She has an offer, but it’s not something she is passionate about. I asked her a couple of coaching-style questions and gave her some ideas of how to find her passion.

That’s networking! You’ll notice I didn’t “get” anything from the exchanges. But I certainly gave some things of value. And giving is the most important part of networking. I even had an opportunity to give out my card to the real estate agent. I wanted him to be able to easily contact me if he needed support or a sounding board.

As long as you remember to honor the occasion and focus on giving before receiving, you really can network anywhere. Even at a funeral!

Anyone else have any stories of oddball places you’ve successfully networked?

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Tags: communication, Giving, Networking, networking on the go, Relationship building
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Archive for March, 2010

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