Posts Tagged ‘reputation’

The Key to Success In Networking

Monday, May 21st, 2012

I recently gave a presentation on networking and social media, and one of the attendees came in very late. Afterwards, she asked me about the key to success in networking.

There are two.

1. Be willing to give before receiving.

2. Be able to communicate how we can help you.

The first one is pretty obvious, I think. The second gives people trouble. If you’ve helped us, we should want to help you. But you have to tell us how.

Don’t assume we know who you need to meet or who is a good client for you. Only you know that. If you don’t tell us, we’re likely to get it wrong. Or think we don’t know anyone and do nothing.

Take responsibility for communicating your needs. I think you’ll see a big difference in your success.

More On Giving Customers What They Want

Monday, April 23rd, 2012

I’m feeling on a rant right about now, so forgive me, but ever since I became an author, I’ve been reading articles about digital publishing, including articles about piracy. Hate to say it, but I almost always come down on the side of the pirates.

I’m old enough to remember when the only options for visual media were (broadcast) TV and the movie theater. The first commercial DVD I ever wanted to buy was Dances With Wolves, and for some reason, my parents refused to drop $100 for it. Because this was pre-Internet, mostly we didn’t know what we were missing. When I first discovered Doctor Who, I thought Tom Baker was the only Doctor. Then I went to college and discovered there were four more! My first exposure to piracy was watching video-taped Doctor Who episodes that had been recorded by setting a video camera in front of a TV. Someone went to England a couple of times a year to video stuff for some friends in the U.S. I was lucky enough to be part of a club that received one of the 10 or so copies she made each year. Imagine my surprise when I finally saw a broadcast episode of a John Pertwee Doctor and saw the real color of his coat!

Anyway, my point is that mostly we didn’t pirate because we didn’t know what was available. Fast forward to today. There are two BBC series I’d love to watch. I discovered them by reading about them on the ‘Net (and seeing a few clips on YouTube.) I’d happily buy them, but I can’t. Oh, I can buy the DVDs on Amazon, but they are Region 2, and I can’t play them on my DVD player. It’s almost enough to drive me to the Torrent sites…

Take a moment to check out this cartoon from the Onion.

See my point? Now, I’ve read many author rants about “the entitlement of readers.” Well, why shouldn’t we want to read or watch stuff we’ve heard about? What’s wrong with that? Why are we bad for wanting to read a book we’ve heard about but can’t buy in our country or in our e-version of choice? Why are we bad people for wanting to pay money to get stuff legally?

If your business sells physical goods, you might not have to worry about this. But if you offer a digital product or any type of intellectual property, think long and hard before you put barriers in front of your customers. Don’t assume we won’t use other means to get what we want. Some of your customers are too honest to pirate, but they’ll be left with a bad taste in their mouth, and believe me, you don’t want that.

Lessons from Publishers’ Mistakes

Wednesday, April 18th, 2012

Just in case you’ve been under a rock for the last week, the Department Of Justice is suing the “big 5″ book publishers and Apple for price fixing. This has been covered at length on many blogs, and I won’t go into all the details here. That’s not what this post is for.

This post is simple. The publishers are in this boat in large part because they refused to acknowledge that readers are their customers and that companies fail when they don’t give their customers what they want.

What do e-book readers want? It’s pretty simple. They want:

* decent prices
* availability
* easy purchasing
* portability

Let me break those down for a moment.

Decent prices is pretty easy. Remember that you don’t “own” an e-book, like you do a paper book. In effect, you are purchasing a license to read it. That means no selling or lending the book. Also, e-books cost less to produce and distribute than e-books, so readers feel (justifiably) that they shouldn’t cost as much as paper books.

Availability is pretty simple too. If a book is available in printed format, e-book readers would like to see it available in e-format. If it’s a new book, they’d like to see it available at the same time as the printed version.

Easy purchasing? Well, simple. Easy to purchase and download to an e-reader or e-reading app.

Portability? Now, this is where things get tricky. Maybe you own a Kindle today and you’ve bought a lot of books for it. Next year, Barnes and Noble comes out with a really neat Nook device, and you want to buy it. But, wait! All those Kindle books you bought? You can’t read them on your Nook unless you strip DRM (copy protection) and convert them to Nook format. Since DRM-stripping is illegal, maybe you don’t want to do that. So what do you do? Buy all the books again, knowing you might have to do it yet again in the future? Kind of awkward, right?

The Big 6 publishers (Random House is the 6th and isn’t included in the law suit) have consistently failed to give readers all four of those things. They wanted to protect the status quo (paper book sales and distribution), and to attempt that protection, they put all sorts of hurdles in place to slow e-book adoption. Amazon, however, recognized what their customers wanted and attempted to give them at least three of the four (minus portability). So what did the publishers do? According to the DOJ, conspired with Apple to keep Amazon in its place by requiring prices to stay artificially high.

And now they are in trouble. Big surprise. The sad thing is that all of it could have been easily avoided. There’s nothing stopping the publishers from giving readers what they want. They can set reasonable prices and release e-books in a timely fashion. They can convert back-lists so new readers can discover older books. They can release books DRM-free, which would go a long way to keeping Amazon from getting too big. (If people can buy books for their Kindles anywhere, competition will be fostered and encouraged.) And there’s nothing stopping them from selling books on their own sites and making it easy to purchase. The last time I tried to buy a book from a publisher’s site, it was a HORRIBLE experience. Never again!

Don’t let your own business make these same mistakes. Listen to your customers. Give them what they want. You’ll stay out of jail and be successful. What’s not to like about that?

Feel free to comment below on either the lawsuit or listening to your customers.

Why Would Anyone Want To Read My Tweets?

Wednesday, February 29th, 2012

Or Facebook posts. Or blog articles.

I get this question a lot from people who are new to social media. They seem to assume that their content is somehow less valuable than someone else’s.

But think about it. If we are following you on Twitter or liking your Facebook page, presumably we are doing it because on some level we like you. Maybe we like your competitor too, but we definitely like you or we wouldn’t have bothered to hit that button or subscribe to your RSS feed.

Why do we like you? Lots of possible reasons.

1. You’re a professional in your field

Even if you are new, you probably know more than your audience. And we want to see what you have to say because you’ll be able to educate us in some way. But if I’m looking for good information, why won’t I just go read a competitor’s stuff?

2. Because you have a unique perspective

Not everyone looks at things the same way. I had a client who was thinking about writing a blog on SEO, but she was resisting because there are so many other SEO blogs out there. Why would hers attract attention? We talked about it, and what we discovered was that she could write about SEO in layman’s terms (and stuff that looked like English instead of computer speak). That’s her perspective that made her blog worth following.

3. Because you share good stuff

Don’t ignore this part. It’s not all about what you write. It’s also about what you share. If you write good stuff and share good stuff, we’re going to want to pay attention to you.

So what do you think? Feeling like your tweets are worth reading now?

Don’t Worry About Who Follows You on Twitter

Monday, February 6th, 2012

I get this question a lot.

“Some porn account just followed me on Twitter. What should I do? Should I protect my tweets by locking down my account?”

Short answer. “No.”

Longer answer.

Look, those account are all over the Twitterverse, and they aren’t going away. We all know they exist, and we know they are going to follow you. Guess what? We don’t care.

Who follows you isn’t nearly as important as who you follow. You choose who you follow. You don’t choose who follows you. So if someone is going to check out your online reputation, they are going to focus on the accounts you’ve chosen to follow.

But, let’s face it. Most people who check you out online aren’t even going to look at the list of your followers. It takes too much time. We’re going to look at your content. What do you post? Who do you retweet? That says lots more about you than some random people who spam-botted your account.

Remember, Twitter isn’t like Facebook. Those folks aren’t going to show up in your main feed, and you’re probably the only person who knows they are following you. If they really bother you, report them as a spam. Then they’ll go away.

By the way, speaking of content, tune in Wednesday when I’m going to do a whole post on good social media content.

Complete That LinkedIn Profile!

Friday, January 27th, 2012

I’m always amazed at how frequently I run across incomplete or inadequate LinkedIn profiles. Your profile is one of your most important sites on the Internet. Don’t believe me? Do a Google search on some people you know. It’s highly likely that a LinkedIn profile will come up near the top, if not number 1.

Given that it’s so important and shows up so high on search engines, it’s insane that people don’t give their profile the time and attention it deserves. I’m going to talk about a few areas I usually see lacking.

1. A Good Summary

Your Summary should be the last thing you write. It’s a synopsis of you as a person, and it’s the tease that makes us interested to read more. No, it should not be the “summary” section of your resume. No “well-organized business professional” type language. That’s good for getting in the door on a job search, but it doesn’t make us want to connect to you. What’s in it for me to connect to you? Tell me that. Or why might I want to use or refer you? Tell me that. Shine. Stand out!

2. Too Much Resume Language

Lots of people cut and paste from their resume to create a profile. That’s okay for older entries, but make the newest positions in your profile snap and sparkle.

3. Incomplete Profiles

Need I say anything about this? LinkedIn prompts you on exactly what you need to complete a profile. Follow their suggestions and get it to 100%.

4. No/Few Recommendations

You need at least 3 to get your profile to 100%, but really, you need more than that. Your profile is a huge part of your reputation online. The more recommendations you have, the better. And absolutely get at least 2 (preferably more) for your most recent position. We’re going to make decisions about you based on that. Make sure we’re making a good one for you.

I could say a lot more about this, but those hit the biggest points. What are you waiting for? Go look at your profile and make it shine.

Need help? Creating/updating/fixing profiles is one of my services. Email me, and I’ll help you out.

Bestselling Author? Really?

Friday, December 16th, 2011

I recently heard an interesting story, and I thought I’d share.

Someone was telling me about an author who self-published and had to buy over a.thousand books as part of the deal. (Don’t get me started on how bad an idea that was!) Anyway, the author was listed on Amazon and proceeded to tag and categorize the book so specifically that he was able to call himself a best selling author. In that specific category. You know how many copies he’d actually sold? 67!

What the person didn’t tell me is how long it took to sell those copies, but I can guess it took a while.

For the record, my book has already outsold that number.

But that’s not the point. What’s the use of creating such an artificial definition of best seller? At best it’s silly vanity. At worst it’s deceptive. Most people hearing “best selling author” think New York Times list, which this person definitely didn’t qualify for.

I’ve seen similar.problems with claims that a company is #1. You can always manipulate data to be #1 at something, so it’s usually a meaningless accolade.

When we work with you or buy your product or service, we aren’t interested in games you’ve played to feed your ego. If your book has sold 67 copies but is exactly what we need to read, so what?

Focus on the benefit of working with you and leave gamesmanship to your competition.

Claim Your Place

Monday, November 14th, 2011

You’ve got a website, Twitter account and Facebook page. You’ve set up your LinkedIn profiles (both for yourself and your business), and you’ve created your Google+ profile and business profile.

You’ve even been an overachiever and created a YouTube channel, Flicker and Tumblr accounts.

Whew! That’s it, right?

Well, maybe not. If you are a business with an actual address, there are a few other things you’ll want to claim and monitor. I know, not what you wanted to hear, but if being a small business owner were easy, everyone would be doing it.

Don’t forget about Yelp, Google Places, Yahoo Local and perhaps Foursquare. These are other places customers can find you and talk about you. Some reviews will be good. Others maybe not so good, but you need to know about them.

Why do you care? Two reasons.

1. If you don’t claim it someone else, like your competition, might

Let’s take Yelp for an example. A Yelper can create a page for your business to review it. Also, Yelp spiders roam the web, looking for business listings and creating basic pages for them. Once a page is there, anyone can stop by and review you.

They can also stop by and “claim” the page. What does that mean? It means they have set up a user name and password to access and make changes to your business information. If that person is you, great. If not? Do I really need to spell it out for you?

If you claim your own page, no one else can claim it for you.

It works basically the same for Foursquare, Google Places and Yahoo! Local.

2. If you don’t know it exists, you don’t know what people are saying about you

If people are complimenting you, don’t you want to know about it? If they are saying you suck, you need to know that so you can fix the problem. But you have to go to where they are commenting, and the four places I’ve discussed in this post are the ones I suggest paying attention to. Yes, there are others, but until you have a large staff working for you, apply the 80/20 rule. Those four places, plus your social media channels, will hit 80% of the places people are reviewing you.

What if someone says something bad? Respond. Ask what happened. Offer to make it right. If someone on your staff received the bad review, discuss what happened. Maybe the reviewer is a jerk. Maybe your staff member was having an off day. But you, as a business owner, need to know about it so you can address any problems.

Respond publicly when you can. People notice and appreciate it. If you’ve made something right for a client, ask them to update their review. We understand that things can happen. We love it when we know mistakes will be fixed!

Speakers, Respect Your Event

Friday, October 14th, 2011

A couple of days ago, I posted about speakers and making your event a success by engaging the right person.

Yesterday something interesting and kind of sad happened, and I wanted to write about it and the lesson for speakers.

I was registered for a free seminar on LinkedIn, and I was looking forward to learning something new. Then I got a call from the organizer of the event. A week before the seminar, the speaker cancelled. My contact was being positive about it. “He had to fly down to Florida for a paying gig. I probably would have done the same thing.”

“I wouldn’t have,” I said.

Why?

Well, 38 people had already registered for the event. That’s an awful lot of people to let down. And it’s a reputation thing. His presentation, in part, was on using LinkedIn to build credibility. Where’s his credibility now?

Life is about choices. Whenever we make one choice, we close off other options. It’s okay. It’s the way it works. But you need to make a stand and stick with commitments. Can life happen? Sure. But decisions have consequences. My contact, while he was understanding, said he was hesitant to promote him as a speaker again, and that’s completely understandable.

If you’ve been asked to speak and something urgent comes up, what should you do? I think it’s obvious. Find a replacement speaker. Surely you know someone else who can present on the same topic? This allows the event to continue, you to attend to another opportunity, and you garner some good will with your replacement. Everyone wins.

This particular speaker didn’t do that, but at least this story has a happy ending. I volunteered to step in and do the presentation. Now I get to present to a good-sized group. I bet I can make that lead to some good consequences for me. :)

How Apple Forced Me To Buy A Nook Color

Wednesday, July 27th, 2011

This post is about how loyalties can change and actions can have unintended consequences.

Until a few months ago, I did all my reading on my iPhone. I had a ton of e-reader apps: Kobo, Nook, Kindle, Stanza, iBooks and Overdrive for library books. Yes, it was a pain to keep track of what books I had in which app, but I liked the freedom to get books from anywhere.

Most of my e-book money went to Amazon because they had the best selection and usually the best prices.

Then the Sony app was rejected by Apple, who decided to finally enforce their in-app purchase rules. Everyone said the sky was falling and that there would be no e-reader apps in the App Store, and on top of that, Hulu, Netflix, Dropbox and other, similar apps were probably going to vanish as well.

Did I believe the sky was falling? No, but all of a sudden, having a bunch of apps seemed to be a pain, and uncertainty made me uncomfortable enough to consider a change.

Before all this, I was likely to have entered the tablet world with an iPad. I already knew Apple and liked their products. It was kind of expensive, but I could have justified it.

Not any more! I wanted an option that didn’t involve Apple. So, there was the first unintended consequence. Apple lost money on me.

Naturally, I looked at the Kindle since I spent most of my e-book money at Amazon. But I’ve never liked the look and feel of the Kindle. I prefer a soft keyboard to a hard one on a e-reader. And I love touchscreens.

The Sony products were beautiful but too expensive.

So I looked at the Nook. I could root it and still run the Kindle app. It supported all the other bookstores, except iBooks, and I wasn’t interested in buying from them anyway.

So I bought my Nook Color. And still haven’t rooted it. I like the stock operating system. I like the way the reader functions. I like having all my books in one place!

So I still buy a few books from Amazon, but only ones that are DRM-free, and I convert them to Nook format. I can buy from Kobo, Sony and Barnes and Noble. I can get library books, and I don’t have to mess with a bunch of apps.

So where do you think I spend most of my e-book money now? Yes, at Barnes and Noble. They are the easiest. I can buy, download and be reading within minutes. All the other stores require me to hook my Nook up to my computer. Not hard, but why bother if I don’t have to?

You know what’s ironic? I had been right. The sky didn’t falling. All the e-book apps are still available, without direct links to stores, but I never cared about that. But now I have my Nook, and I’m not going back to reading on my iPhone.

So what’s the moral of this story? Well, Barnes and Noble provided a good product that meets my needs. But that’s the small part. Understand that customer loyalty is fickle. I was loyal to both Apple and Amazon. But they didn’t meet my needs, so now I’m loyal to Barnes and Noble. But that could change in the future as well.

Customers are only loyal as long as you listen to them and meet their needs. Stop doing those, and you’ll lose them. Maybe not right away, but eventually something will make them uncomfortable enough that they will look for another option.

That’s good for your competitor. But not for you.