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Archive for June, 2010

Networking and Social Media ROI Part 2

Monday, June 14th, 2010

Last Friday, I wrote about the importance of asking “How did you hear about us?” as an integral part of tracking Return on Investment in networking and social media efforts.

Once you’ve got a system in place to ask the question, what do you do with it?

You need a way to keep track of the results. It doesn’t need to be complicated, although the larger your business and the more clients/customers you have, the more automated the system needs to be. A simple spreadsheet or database will be sufficient for most businesses. You need to track the following:

Prospect name
Closed business (or not)
Referring Source
Date of Referral

From that basic data, you can do a lot of analysis.

Is there a particular source who refers you the most? You might want to reward that source in some way.

Is there are source which should be referring you more that isn’t? Some tweaks might be in order.

Don’t forget the chain of referrals. Let’s say you’re in a Chamber of Commerce. Chamber member Joe refers you to Bob, who then refers you to six other people. When your Chamber membership is up for renewal, you might only remember that referral from Joe and decide the Chamber isn’t worth it. But with a good tracking system in place, you remember that referral from Joe to Bob and realize that indirectly your membership has been very beneficial.

You can do the same with social media. Run a Twitter special and track the results against a slightly different Facebook special. Switch the special and see if it’s the channel or the special. With the dialogue available in social media, you can prime the pump for your promotion by asking for ideas or doing a survey (Which special do you like better? This one or that one.) Track the discussion around the idea, run the special and then track the results.

ROI in networking and social media is (relatively) simple. Have a system for tracking where your referrals come from and analyze the data to see what’s working and what isn’t. Adjust as needed.

Stay tuned for an upcoming guest post from @CadenceMarket on tracking ROI from other forms of marketing. I’m looking forward to that!

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Tags: Networking, social media
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Disconnect or Not?

Wednesday, June 9th, 2010

Yesterday, I read @ariherzog‘s post on “Why Social Media is Dangerous for Your Brain.”

I agreed with some of what he said, but not all, or even most of it.

I completely agree that we can’t multitask. We think we can, but we can’t. Can we do multiple things at once? Sure we can. But we don’t do either (any) of them as well as when we do one at a time. I used to think I could, but over time I’ve realized I was wrong. About the only multitasking I can do is listen to music while I do something else. I do write better with music in the background. But that’s it.

Where I don’t agree with him is on his minimalist approach with social media and mobile devices. If you know me even a little bit, you know I don’t go anywhere without my iPhone. But it doesn’t control my life. I control it. If I need to concentrate, I put it in Airplane Mode. Then I can use it for music and tracking my tasks, but I can’t be distracted by phone calls, email and texts.

Lots of people are writing about the dangers of technology and the over abundance of information. I don’t think they are inherently dangerous. I do think we give up control to technology. But that’s our choice.

I do choose to keep my phone with me most of the time. But I also choose when it is allowed to distract me.

I do choose to engage in social media. But I also choose when and for how long.

I love having access to information, in just about any format I could want. Again, I choose when to connect and when to disconnect. Yes, I love to surf the web. I also very much like curling up with a good book and losing myself in a page. (Okay, in my case the page is electronic too.)

Technology can be used for good. It can also be used incorrectly or in ways that are harmful. I’m not going to disagree with that. I believe it’s our responsibility as human beings to know the difference and make better choices.

Government and society can’t protect us from ourselves. And we’re fooling ourselves if we think they can.

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Tags: iPhone, social media, time management
Posted in social media | 3 Comments »

“I’m Surprised You’re Still Using Email”

Tuesday, June 8th, 2010

I was having a one to one last week, and we were talking about some information I was going to send him in email. And that’s when he said “I’m surprised you’re still using email. Don’t you do most of your communication through Twitter?”

What I told him is that I try to communicate with people in the way(s) that are most effective for the circumstance and the individual. Some people aren’t on Twitter or other forms of social media. But most people these days have email. And I don’t know anyone who doesn’t have a phone.

I personally prefer email for at least an initial communication. I’m in meetings a lot and calling me can lead to endless voice mail tag. Twitter works too, and there are a couple of people who ping me that way. It’s great for a quick message, but not much good for in-depth.

What about me communicating with other people? Again, I try to use what works for them. One of my contacts responds much more quickly to a tweet than anything else, so I use Twitter direct messages to ping him. Interestingly, one of the people I follow on Twitter tweeted about @ responses vs. email. He asked why people ignore email but almost always respond to an @ Mention on Twitter. I’ve noticed the same thing, and I’ve used Twitter as a secondary touch when emails have gone unanswered.

What about for the all-important follow up with prospects? It really depends. We often use email as a crutch. It’s quick and easy, and it allows us to pretend we are avoiding rejection. I was meeting with a client recently who was commenting that a bunch of prospects hadn’t gotten back to him. I asked how many times he had tried and what medium he had used. He said, “I sent them an email.” An email? As in one? I suggested he try another email and then perhaps follow up with a phone call.

Persistence and variety in your communication can be effective. But above all, find out how the other person likes to be communicated with. Then use the method(s) they prefer. Everyone will be happier, and the relationships will be stronger.

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Tags: communication
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Getting Things Done Update

Wednesday, June 2nd, 2010

I’ve blogged a few times on David Allen’s excellent Getting Things Done system. Recently I’ve made a few tweaks and had some successes, and I thought I’d share. Hopefully it will be a help for those of you having challenges with getting and staying organized.

Call me slow, but it took me a while to really get my head around getting my email Inbox to zero each day. I had a really bad habit of leaving actionable emails in my Inbox until I took action. Guess what? Since they didn’t hit my task management system, they never got done. Duh!

Now, at least once a day, I clear my entire Inbox. If an email needs to be filed, I file it (or send it to Evernote). If it’s something that needs to be acted on, I capture it in Action Lists, my iPhone GTD management system.

It’s nice to end my day with a clean Inbox. And things aren’t sitting, waiting for me to get to them. If you aren’t capturing emails in your task management system now, I highly recommend you start.

Now for the shameful admission. Yes, I sometimes fall off the GTD wagon. About six weeks ago, I was really off the wagon. And I wasn’t getting much done. I was making meetings, and my blog was getting updated, but lots of other things, including writing projects, just never seemed to get off the back burner.

A couple of weeks before my writing retreat, I decided enough was enough. I need to walk the talk I use with my clients, so I committed to touching Action Lists every day.

Guess what happened? Yep, I became a lot more productive and was getting more done in the same number of hours. Long-abandoned writing projects are advancing! Hmm. Work the same amount of time. Get more done. Kind of cool.

How do I stay on the wagon? Getting my emails in Action Lists was part of it. The other was tweaking how I use the GTD system. I like a daily to-do list. GTD advises against it, but it works for me. And not having it wasn’t. So every morning, I open Action Lists and see what’s in my Today screen (confusingly named Inbox-not to be confused with my email Inbox). Then I check my calendar and see how much time I have for tasks. Finally I go to my context or project lists and add things to my Inbox. At the end of the day, I make sure my Inbox is clear. If I couldn’t get to everything, I move tasks to another day.

I do check my projects throughout the day, just to be sure I’m not overlooking something. So I’m using a variant of the system, but as I tell people, it’s better to use a less-efficient system that you will use than the perfect system that is ignored. Maybe one day, I’ll be able to use it the “right” way. Until then, I’ll settle for being productive my own way.

One more “secret” to getting things done. I disconnect from phone, text, Twitter and email for at least an hour a day to give me time to really focus on certain creative tasks.

Check off “write tomorrow’s blog post.” Six more things on my list for today.

Anyone else have good tips to share for staying productive?

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Tags: GTD, task management, time management
Posted in Time and Task Management | 2 Comments »

The Psychology Behind Tag Lines

Tuesday, June 1st, 2010

I’ve done several blog posts recently on the psychology behind elevator speeches, but the one element I haven’t covered yet is the tag line.

Tag lines are a good way to wrap up your speech. We like things wrapped up, and a good ending is kind of like putting a bow on a package. Do you need a bow? No, but it completes the presentation.

A good tag line should be 5-9 words. Any longer, and it becomes cumbersome. Shorter is okay. I heard a good three word one last week.

How about some examples? Here are some good ones:

1. We take the SH out of IT (for a computer repair guy)

2. If you ignore your health, it will go away (health supplements)

3. We think outside the basket (gift baskets)

4. It’s not hard to put your name on stuff (promotional items)

Get the idea? Short and punchy. The idea is to wrap up your speech in a memorable way while also touching on what you do. A listener may have glazed over the rest, and that’s your last chance to capture attention.

A quick story about tag line number 4. One of my clients told me she remembered it but not exactly who said it. When she saw her later at another event, she put the tag line and the person together. Without a good tag line, she might not have remembered.

Like the bow on the present, it’s not strictly necessary, but it does make your speech a bit more fun and easy to remember.

Anyone else have some good tag lines to share?

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Tags: Elevator Speech
Posted in Networking | 1 Comment »

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