Archive for April, 2010

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3 Basic Tweet Tips

Friday, April 30th, 2010

For some of you, these will be very basic. You might want to move on right now. For the rest of you, these tips will make it easier to be retweeted, promoted and appreciated.

1. Use a URL shortener

This one was so basic to me that I didn’t even think about it when I started on Twitter. Tweetdeck will auto-shorten URLs, so it was never an issue.

But I have a client who is new to Twitter. I had to remind her. I have a friend who has been on Twitter for a couple of years. He annoys me by using the long URL for his blog posts.

Why shorten? Remember, you only have 140 characters. Retweeting adds the Twitter handle of the original tweeter to the post. If a post was already at or near 140 characters, retweeting takes it over the top.

Content is one thing. Some things are hard to say in a few words. But URLs are easy to shorten. If someone has to think twice before retweeting you because your post is too long, shame on you. That’s a mention you lost for no good reason.

2. Keep posts as short as possible

Remember, 140 characters. If your goal on Twitter is to be retweeted (and it should be), then you need to give us room. Posts you’d like to be retweeted should come in under 90 characters. That gives room for someone to retweet with a comment, which is what you really want. A mention with a RT in your stream is cool. A mention with “Great idea” on a retweet is even better.

Remember the experienced Twitter user who doesn’t shorten his URLs? Well, he uses up almost every one of his 140 characters. I’d like to retweet him more often, but it’s too hard to edit his posts down. So I don’t. Too bad for him.

(Side note. Can someone tell WordPress that “retweet” is a real word and spelled correctly? The amount of red in the edit screen makes it look like I murdered someone. Messily.)

3. Use Twitter handles to tell people they are great

A very nice, well meaning person recently thanked me on Twitter. She used my name and a (non-shortened) link to my Twitter profile. There were a couple of problems with this. First, that long URL. Second, my name isn’t my Twitter handle. My name isn’t how I’m known and recognized on Twitter. My handle is. (Oh, yeah. And it didn’t show up in my Mention stream, so I almost missed it. Sucks to miss nice stuff about you.)

I edited the post to do a RT “thank you.” I replaced my name with my handle and deleted the link. Saved about 20 characters!

There are my three. Anyone else want to add some more?

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Posted in social media | 3 Comments »

Sometimes Dreams Do Come True

Thursday, April 29th, 2010

This is a little off-topic, but what’s the fun in having a blog if you can’t occasionally share cool stuff?

30 odd years ago I had the dream of becoming a fiction writer. I wrote short stories and then a couple of novels between junior high and college. One of the novels sucked mightily. Everyone who read the other one loved it.

So I tried to get it published. And after about a year gave up in frustration. The feedback was that it wasn’t bad. It just didn’t fit. I didn’t want to rewrite it to make it fit, so I got a “real” job and kind of forgot about the dream.

A couple of years later I had a vivid dream that was the inspiration for another novel, which I wrote. I joined a writers group, wanting feedback. Some of the feedback was spot on. I do tend to “info dump,” and I was okay with fixing that. But the message was pretty much the same. Not a bad book, but no agent will pick it up.

I wanted to write the stories I wanted to tell. I didn’t want to write stories for agents and publishers. So I fed my need to write by writing fanfiction. Everyone who read my stories loved them. I still get comments on some of my stories more than a decade later.

I told myself that the real test of being a writer was writing stuff people liked to read, not getting paid for it.

Now, I’m a blogger, so writing is part of my job. I told myself that I am a writer now. I’m living my dream. But it’s never been quite the same. I wanted to get paid for fiction.

I’ve been following a writer/blogger for a while now. He’s J.A. Konrath, and his blog is A Newbie’s Guide to Publishing. His story and information have inspired me. He talks about how to make it as an self-published author. I’ve been paying attention to what he’s done, and I’m ready to start trying it myself.

Having a large volume of work is key, so I’m starting on a series of short stories. When I have five or six written, I’m going to self-publish them as e-books. I know how to market through social media and networking, so I’m confident I can make money at it.

Will I quite coaching to become a full-time fiction writer? Nope. I love coaching too much to quit. Besides, I get too many great ideas from my clients. I’d be a poorer writer without them.

But I will write enough and publish enough that I can finally achieve a decades-old dream I thought was dead. And if that isn’t something to get up for in the morning, I don’t know what is.

Stay tuned. You all will be among the first to know when there’s something available.

And if you have a dream you thought was dead, pull it out of the drawer and see if you can’t breathe some life into it. Dreams should live. Not gather dust.

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Posted in General | 3 Comments »

Video Email–I’m Not a Fan

Wednesday, April 28th, 2010

Last week, I received a video email. I’ve gotten a few of them in the last year or so, and I don’t like them.

Yes, they are very personal. You can see expressions and context completely lacking in the written word. And I admit they do have a “geeky cool” factor to them which really should appeal to my inner tech nerd.

But I had to spend several minutes to come up with two (pretty weak) things to like about them. Which I guess says it all.

Why do I not like them? Keep in mind that some of what I will say dates me. I am in my forties, after all.

The biggest thing I didn’t like was that I couldn’t view it on my phone. The service used by the sender converted the video into Flash. I can’t view Flash video on my iPhone. The email was an RSVP for an event, and that day was the deadline to respond. I received the email in the morning, and I couldn’t “read” it until I got home in the evening. That was annoying. And not a minor annoyance considering the popularity of the iPhone.

The other thing I didn’t like was that it was video. I read very fast. In the time it took me to watch the video, I could have read and responded to the email.

Maybe this is just me, but it’s why I don’t like video blogs or video news. I like to skim a paragraph or two and decide if the rest is worth reading. I might have the patience for a 2-minute video. Any longer than that, and I probably won’t watch it.

After watching the video email, I thought about what it would be like to get most of my email that way. A very terrifying thought. Email would take 2-3 times as long if it were primarily video.

So I guess my position is pretty clear. Not a fan. It probably won’t come as a surprise that I haven’t embraced the video phone concept either.

Anyone else want to share an alternate view?

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Posted in General | 3 Comments »

Make Time for Networking: How Much Time?

Tuesday, April 27th, 2010

One of the questions I get all the time is “How much time should I spend networking?”

It’s a good question, and unfortunately the real answer is “it depends.” It depends on where you are in your business. If you are new to business or networking, you’re going to spend more time at it than when you are established. But even established business owners need to spend some time networking.

My rule of thumb is one to two events a week and the same number of one on one meetings. You also need to allocate some time for follow up. I recommend 30 minutes per two hours of meetings.

Let me break those down a bit.

1. One to two networking meetings a week

That sounds like a lot of time, but you can control your time by attending morning and evening events. That way you retain most of your daytime hours for clients. I am not a fan of lunch meetings. With travel time, a typical lunch meeting can take 2 1/2 to 3 hours out of your day. Morning and evening meetings are more time effective. If you are going to attend a lunch meeting, make certain it’s advancing your goals.

2. One to two one on one meetings a week

These don’t always have to be in person. Meeting with new contacts in person is ideal, but once you have a relationship, you can maintain the relationship with phone meetings. I had a good one yesterday. A contact called me to work out if someone was a good referral for me. Turns out it wasn’t, but it was a good phone meeting and will make him more able to refer me in the future.

One on one meetings will dictate the number of networking meetings you need to attend. If your calendar is filled up with one on one meetings, then you can back off your networking meetings for a week or two. No use meeting more new people until you can schedule time to sit down with them.

3. Follow up time

I recommend 30 minutes of follow up time for every two hours of meetings. After networking events, that follow up time is for scheduling one on one meetings or perhaps making connections between people. After one on one meetings, that follow up time is almost always going to be for making or following up on referrals.

This 30 minutes is vital to your success. I know people who attend lots of meetings, sit down for lots of one on one meetings and the fall apart here. If you’re not following up, you are missing out on potential business and not meeting commitments. Both of those affect your reputation and your bottom line.

Does this help? Yes, it’s a lot of time. But good networking is an investment. If you spend the time to build and maintain a good network, you’ll spend less time overall prospecting and wasting time on sales calls with people who aren’t really interested in your products or services.

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Posted in Time and Task Management | 1 Comment »

Make Time For Networking: Know Your Tasks

Monday, April 26th, 2010

Having a good task and project management system in place is essential for being an effective networker and making time to network and get work done.

In my post on setting boundaries, I talk about having a system for your tasks will make it easier to say no. If you know what you’ve committed to, how much time it will take and your priorities, you’ll be less likely to take on more than you can handle.

So what does a good task management system look like? I use David Allen’s GTD system (and I reviewed Getting Things Done last year). You don’t have to use his system, but he has some excellent points.

One of the biggest is organizing tasks into projects. Many people write down general things on their to-do list (like Create an Estate Plan). That’s not a task, it’s a project made up of sub-tasks. Something that vague will never get done. It’s too big and intimidating. But breaking it down into sub-tasks (like “find an attorney” and “schedule an appointment”) are less-threatening. They are clear and obvious and more likely to get done.

But more important than organizing your tasks is having them with you at all times. I highly recommend that your task management system be portable. Task managers on your computer are fine, but unless you carry your computer with you everywhere, there will be times you don’t have it with you. You need to be able to capture ideas and tasks immediately. Little pieces of paper are one way to do it, but then you have to enter them later in your system. And little pieces of paper tend to get get lost. Using a service like Jott can work well. You can speak your ideas, have them transcribed and then emailed. When you’re back to your computer, you can enter them into your computer system.

It won’t come as a surprise, though, that I recommend using your smart phone as a way to capture tasks. My phone is always with me, so I can enter things as soon as I think of them.

I could write an entire post on handling email, but right now I’ll just say that a number of your tasks probably come in through email. Your Inbox is not a task management system. Capture tasks from email and then file the email as a reference.

Once you’ve got your tasks written down, don’t overbook yourself on a particular day. If you think you have 4 hours to work, schedule yourself 2 1/2 hours worth of tasks. That gives you extra time in case you are interrupted or something takes longer than you anticipated.

Looking at your tasks this way will keep you focused. You won’t get stuck scrambling at the last minute to do something you forgot until something reminded you. If you are in control of your tasks, you’ll know how much time and when you can network.

Finally, use your tasks as the reason to keep your boundaries firm. Now that you know everything you need to do and how long it will take, when someone calls to ask you to do something, don’t automatically say “yes.” Look at your tasks. Look at your time. Make a reasonable decision about taking on one more task.

And use any extra time to go out and meet more people!

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Posted in Time and Task Management | 1 Comment »

LinkedIn and One on One Meetings

Friday, April 23rd, 2010

I had a fantastic meeting this morning with someone who just might be a better networker than I am. And a joy that was to experience!

He taught me a use of LinkedIn that should have been obvious, but I just hadn’t thought of yet.

We had the usual “get to know each other” conversation and then got to the “how can we help each other” part. That’s when he pulled out a sheet of paper with several names on it. All of them are connected to me on LinkedIn, and we went through the list. There are three people I can definitely introduce him to.

Then we talked strategy. Interestingly, he doesn’t use the “Forward a Connection Request” feature of LinkedIn. He says it takes too long. Instead, he has a pre-written email he sends me. I just cut and paste it into my own email introduction, and he takes it from there. I will, of course, take it one level further and contact the people in advance and warm them up. But I can use the text from his email as a starting point for my conversation.

He says sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t. But networking and sales are a numbers game. If you know who you need to meet and you ask for enough introductions, some of them will come through.

Here’s what was interesting. Both of our methods worked. He brought the list. I told him the category of people I need to meet. He has two names in mind for me, and I have three for him. So we both have introductions to work on for each other.

But I can go look at his LinkedIn profile and see if I can pull up a few more names for him to work on for me. So I’m happy. My way generated a few names, and I have the potential for more.

I think both methods have value. Everyone I know isn’t connected to me on LinkedIn. So I need to know his criteria so I can mine my entire contact list for him. And he doesn’t know my LinkedIn connections as well as I do. I think there is a fourth on my list that he overlooked.

He now knows my criteria, which might shakes loose another name or two. So combining a list of names and specific triggers is more effective than either alone.

Try it the next time you meet with someone who is on LinkedIn. It’s certainly a very good way to be extremely specific, and I think you’ll walk out of the meeting with more introduction possibilities than if you hadn’t.

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Posted in Referrals | 3 Comments »

Make Time for Networking: Setting Boundaries

Thursday, April 22nd, 2010

The good part of networking is that you meet a lot of new people.

The bad part of networking is that you meet a lot of new people.

The more people you know, the more people you have to contact you, interrupt you, ask for favors, etc. And it’s quite possible to spend your entire day dealing with people and getting nothing done for your own business.

While giving is a vital part of networking, being able to say “no” is an excellent skill to learn. Obviously, there is a balance here. Many people fall too far on one side or another, either too giving or not giving enough.

So how do you decide on a balance and set reasonable boundaries? Having clear ideas of what you need to accomplish is a first step. I’ll talk in another post about creating a good project and task management system. When you know you have tasks and solid commitments, it’s a lot easier to say “no” or “yes, but not now” when someone calls or emails you.

Decide on your preferred method of contact and communicate it to everyone in your network. I set the expectation with someone at the beginning of a relationship by saying email is the best way to get in contact with me. Will I take phone calls? Of course, but most people try email (or a quick text) first. That allows me to look at what I’m doing now and decide if I can respond right away or need to set a future time.

Some people can turn a simple request/question into an hour long conversation. With those people, set the expectation up front. “I have only a few minutes right now” or “I can meet you for 45 minutes, but then I’ll have to leave.” Most people will respect those boundaries and get to the point a lot quicker. If someone regularly tramples those requests, you might want to consider easing that person out of your life or business.

Don’t be too easy to get in contact with. That may sound counter to everything I teach about networking, but I say it for a reason. Busy people are usually busy for a reason, often because they are successful. And they are often a bit hard to get in contact with. Act like a busy person, even if you aren’t yet. Set the pattern now so your network isn’t surprised and offended when you really do make it.

What do I mean by being a bit hard to get?

Turn off your phone for an hour or so each day. It will give you an uninterrupted period of time to be productive. (My phone is off right now, as I write this.) If you don’t pick up the phone every time it rings, people won’t expect you to be available 24/7.

Mobile email is a great productivity tool. And a fantastic way to get in trouble. I have a client who is looking forward to getting his first smart phone. He told me he wanted to be able to impress his clients by how fast he could respond to emails. I cautioned him to think about the expectation he’ll be setting. If he’s not careful, he’ll become a slave to his email. So don’t always respond immediately.

Those are just a few examples of boundaries. They are a vital time management tool. Develop them and enforce them. Ease away from people who routinely trample them.

You’ll have more time for networking and your business. And you’ll have more time and energy to help if you aren’t burned out by constant interruptions.

Anyone else have a good boundary you’ve set and how it worked for you?

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Posted in Time and Task Management | 3 Comments »

Sometimes You Can Do-Over a First Impression

Wednesday, April 21st, 2010

Mea culpa time for me. I misjudged someone, and there’s a moral to the story.

Remember my post on the Top 10 Networking Mistakes and the guy who made three of them at one event? Well, I’ve subsequently met with him several times, and I think he’s all right.

So what did he do to change my mind?

First, he did email me like he said he would. It took almost a week, but he did finally follow up.

Our first meeting was very positive. We clicked on a particular project, and he set up a good three-way meeting with a potential client for me.

We met at another event, and he was far more low-key in the conversations I overheard. Maybe he was having a bad day when I first met him.

He gets sales and marketing. We’ve had a couple of conversations on the topic, and he understands how it works.

He’s demonstrated that he genuinely wants to help people, me included. How can I not like that?

So it is possible to change a first impression. But it’s hard. I was very wary going into our first meeting. And I was still wary walking out of it. Setting up the three-way meeting and letting me see him in action with a struggling business owner increased my confidence in him.

It’s been a slow process, but I’m starting to think he’s okay. I’m still not ready to refer him (partially because I’m still a bit unclear on who is a good client for him), but I think this relationship has potential.

The moral of this story? A bad first impression doesn’t have to be a death sentence. But you’ve got to work very hard to overcome it. And sometimes, you shouldn’t rush to judgment on someone you just meet. You might be wrong and miss a potentially good contact.

Anyone else have a story to share of a changed first impression?

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Posted in Networking | 1 Comment »

Review: Opera Mini for iPhone

Tuesday, April 20th, 2010

Last week, Opera Mini for iPhone was finally approved by the App Store. It was a long-awaited app, and many had been concerned it wouldn’t be approved by Apple.

The response to the new browser was so overwhelming that it was downloaded over one million times on its first day of release. Clearly there was significant pent-up need and a general dissatisfaction with Safari, the native iPhone browser.

I was one of those one million folks who downloaded, and I wanted to write up a quick review of the app after using it for a little less than a week.

In a word. Wow!

It is an improvement in almost every way over Safari. Its biggest selling point is speed. I was never particularly unhappy with Safari’s speed. I would even sometimes wait patiently for a web page to download over Edge. I took it as the price of mobile browsing.

I’m delighted to say that patience is not a price we have to pay any longer. Last Wednesday, when the app was released, I had a meeting with a client who also has a iPhone. At the end of our session, we did a speed test.

Full disclosure. The test was not completely fair. One of us was running an iPhone 3GS and the other was running a 3G. The 3GS is a slightly faster phone, even over Edge, which was the network setting we used. Figured the best test was to use the slowest of all the options. It also minimized the 3GS’ slight advantage.

We both opened our browsers and did a Google search on my website. Once we both had it in our search screens, we started the clock and tapped the links.

The results? 12 seconds to completely load the page in Opera Mini. 35 seconds in Safari!

Remember the 3G vs. 3GS difference? The phone running Safari was the 3GS, the slightly faster machine.

So yeah, Opera Mini is fast.

But is speed really everything? What about other features? Opera Mini wins hands down on those as well.

When you load the program, you get a very nice splash screen grid with slots for quick bookmarks. Some are pre-loaded (weather, etc), but you can customize. Saves tapping for the bookmark menu for the sites you use the most.

Opera Mini prompts to remember user names and passwords. Safari does not. Even when there is a box “Remember me,” and I click it, Safari never remembers. Obviously, I don’t use this for really sensitive stuff like financial information. But if someone steals my phone and can hack my Google Reader account, I’m not going to lose too much sleep.

The only drawback I’ve seen so far is that I don’t like the way Google Reader looks in Opera. I like the look a screen layout better in Safari. Not sure why it’s different, but it is.

And of course there’s no way to set Opera Mini as the default browser, so you’re stuck with Safari if you click on email links or links from your Twitter or Facebook client.

But I can live with those. Opera Mini is now on my first screen. Safari has to live with being on the second one, and it may eventually move farther back.

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Posted in iPhone | 1 Comment »

How to Ask for a Referral And Actually Get One!

Friday, April 16th, 2010

I’ve done several posts this week on elevator speeches and the psychology behind them. I want to wrap up this series with specifically how to ask for a referral and get what you want.

If you’ve been following my suggested elevator speech structure, by now you’ve told a story about how you helped a client, and you’ve triggered an emotional response in your audience that should leave them inclined to help you.

Now you need to follow that emotional reaction with a specific request for a referral that gets our brains working.

You can do this one of two ways.

1. You can ask for an introduction to a specific person

I mean that exactly the way it sounds. Ask for a specific person, by name, company and title. “I’d really like an introduction to John Smith, CEO of Virginia Colony Corp.” This will get your everyone’s brains in gear while they try to think if they know John.

You’d be surprised how often this works. I’ve seen people raise their hands in meetings and say “I know him.”

And what if they don’t know him? That’s okay. Our brains will make connections. Maybe I don’t know John Smith or anyone else at Virginia Colony Corp. But I might know Cecil Calvert at Maryland Colony Corp. If I do, then I have to ask you if Cecil would be a good referral for you.

Either way, you’ve been successful at getting me to say “tell me more,” which is your ultimate goal in an elevator speech.

What if you don’t know of a particular person to ask for? Not a problem. You can…

2. Ask “Who do you know who?”

This method works if you are looking for a class of people. Examples:

“Who do you know who is paying too much for car insurance?”

“Who do you know who is unhappy with their web traffic from search engines?”

“Who do you know needs to network and doesn’t know how?”

“Who do you know who is a Keller Williams realtor?”

“Who do you know who” is powerful because it can’t be answered with “yes” or “no,” so we can’t default to no action.

I watched this in action with one of my clients at a networking event. After every conversation, he would ask for a referral. Sometimes he said, “Do you know someone who?” and sometimes he would ask “Who do you know who?” He’d been working the event the right way, so people were motivated to try to help him. Everyone he asked thought about it. But when he asked “who do you know who,” they thought longer. Noticeably longer.

Either method will work. If you’ve engaged our emotions with a solid story and then follow it up with a good referral request, you are working comfortably in our buy cycle, and with our inclinations and psychology. You won’t get a referral every time. But you’ll get one often enough to keep you in business. And a lot more often than your competitors, who probably don’t use these strategies.

Anyone want to try to put it all together? Go ahead and post your elevator speech in the comments. I’ll give you constructive (and supportive) feedback.

And maybe another reader will have a referral for you.

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Posted in Referrals | 3 Comments »

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