July, 2009

Social Media Marketing and Networking — Comments Off
30
Jul 09

Adding Music To Your Marketing Mix

I joined the social network blip.fm purely because I liked the idea of playing out my fantasy of being a DJ and listening to a radio station where I knew I would like every track – because I picked them!

As usual I tied blip.fm in with my other social networks in this case with ping.fm . What I had not appreciated at the time but now consciously try and do is adopt a matrix method to my social networking. There are sites such as Friendfeed, ping.fm, Plurk that can essentially update the statuses of your Twitter, Facebook, Myspace, Linkedin and other social networks from one place.

I was busily adding tunes to my playlist in blip when the odd email would drop into Gmail saying I had been given a ‘prop’ by another DJ. This is like a nod of appreciation for the tune and the comment you microblog (similar to Twitter) as you add the tune. These comments and the link to the tune suitably shortened were appearing in Twitter and Facebook and it was only later I realised I was picking up Followers and Friends based on a mutual appreciation of my music taste.

This is a clear example of the viral nature of social media marketing and the attraction marketing principle. These people were not getting to know me because I was tweeting aimlessly about some product or service, it was simply that they liked my music choice at that time.

As with any discovery it’s crucial you do not manipulate this falsely – because you will be spotted. I add to my playlist either from my own searches or going to my favorite DJ’s in blip and adding tunes I like of theirs. But I don’t do it everyday I do it when I genuinely want to add to my playlist.

However as music is a universal language do not underestimate this simple tool for increasing you social media profile – it’s a good way for people to get to Know you and the ‘holy trinity’ of social media marketing is that people buy from people they:

Know

Like and

Trust

You can now add blip.fm to Twitter as ways of getting people to Know you. My radio station? Why it’s http://blip.fm/profile/apeel09/playlist

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28
Jul 09

Is Social Media Marketing Right for You?

I have been thinking about writing a post on how to decide whether you are right for social media marketing or your product/service is the correct one for social media marketing. I run a Social Media Marketing Workshop on Facebook and it’s becoming apparent from working with that group some people ‘get’ social media marketing and some people do not. I was surfing around for ideas and came across this post from Palmer Web Marketing Blog. Rather than re-invent the wheel I present the post for you to decide whether social media marketing is right for you?

“Is Social Media Marketing Right for You?
by Justin Palmer – May 17th, 2009

Social Media Marketing

Social media can no longer be ignored, even by traditional marketing agencies and old-school business. But before you make the plunge into this powerful, but often misunderstood marketing tactic, ask yourself these 7 important questions.

1. Can you have a conversation?

I recently saw a wall comment posted to a major clothing retail chain’s Facebook page, questioning whether the company was going out of business. As of today, the comment still has not been responded to. Obviously, they are not interested in having a conversation, or managing their brand reputation for that matter. If you want to do social media, make sure you have the time to listen and respond, not just push out content.
2. Do you have the time?

Managing a Twitter or Facebook account can easily suck hours of productivity from an aimless employee charged with the task of managing it. Are you willing to invest the necessary time, but able to limit fruitless, unproductive chatter? Are you able to commit to the long-haul? Social media is more of a commitment than a campaign, if you start, expect to finish and stick with it for the long run.
3. Are you saying anything worth listening to?

If you’re thinking of using Facebook updates as another channel for press releases or pure advertising, think again. Your friends and followers will quickly see through this sham. The key is to strive for interactions. If your updates contain only push content (e.g. “Come buy our new widgets!”) your followers will quickly tire. Much can be accomplished by transforming push into pull content (e.g. “please comment with your opinion on our new widget!”)
4. Can you stomach the negative?

A certain openness is required for social media marketing to work. If the thought of an irate customer posting a negative comment on your Facebook wall scares you to tears, SMM might not be for you. In my experience though, nearly every time I’ve witnessed negative comments on a company profile page, the true fans jump in and defend the organization, sometimes before even the company does.


5. What role will customer service play?

Once customers know they can reach you through social media, you will undoubtedly need to get customer service involved. How will you handle the inevitable customer service issues that surface? In my experience, giving at least a few senior customer service representatives the ability to interact instills a sense of ownership, ensuring that customer service will view social media with the same importance as they view a phone call or email.
6. Are you joining the right conversations?

You don’t have to be everywhere. Consider first polling your customers and finding out what social media sites they use. Only join those that have a critical mass, there’s no point in talking to no one.
7. Can you accept a fuzzy ROI?

Social media ROI can’t and shouldn’t be tracked in the same way as other online marketing venues. Say goodbye to the CPMs and CPCs from typical online marketing channels. Tangible revenue can be tracked in some ways, but much like traditional offline advertising, you’ll never really see the full picture of brand awareness benefits. Make sure your company management sees some of the more subjective ROI indicators, such as positive comments and the extent of conversations.

Social media is surely worth the time and effort, as long as you understand the cost. SMM isn’t free, it takes a serious investment. Before you get into social media, make sure you truly get it.”

So there you have it the hard questions you need to ask. I personally think soon businesses with have no option to have a SMM presence because it’s so easy for customers to avoid the traditional channels; TV, Radio, Print and Google/Yahoo PPC. The future of marketing is about engaging with and attracting customers not pushing your message or product.

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27
Jul 09

Enigmatic re-discovery

I came across the following interesing post at Cronaca a very good history Blog I visit regularly

Breaking Enigma: remembering the Poles

For decades after the war the contributions of Rejewski and other Polish cipher experts to the Allied victory over Nazi Germany went unrecognised.

But Bletchley Park, the nerve centre of Britain’s wartime code breaking operations, has just held its annual Polish Day – a celebration of the Polish achievements that laid the foundations for British success in cracking German codes. . .

Polish historian Eugenia Maresch says that Alastair Denniston, the first director of Bletchley Park, was inspired by his meeting with the cryptologists at Pyry, the small Polish decoding centre in woods outside Warsaw. There the Poles divulged their methods and Enigma secrets to British and French intelligence.

The Poles were already deciphering Enigma messages in 1933, Mrs Maresch explained, whereas the British did not seriously turn their attention to Enigma until the Spanish Civil War in 1936, when the Axis powers’ aggression started threatening British interests in the Mediterranean.

Original source the BBC

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26
Jul 09

Free Lie Detection Training For Network Marketers

So you are a network marketer and you transact your business either

  • Face to face
  • Over the phone – cold calling a lot
  • Online – probably dipping your toe into Social Media Marketing

What’s the biggest problem you are going to face? The ‘tire kickers’ – the people who think they want to start a home business but have not done their home work, and will happily waste you time finding out about something they never really wanted to start.

One of my opportunities has a method for ‘weeding’ out ‘tire kickers’ and if you choose to visit it you will see it explained. Question? How do you spot the ‘tire kickers’ before they get that far, especially if you like me use social media marketing?

Well that’s where this free to all ‘lie detection’ training comes in. The best bit is there is no sign up, nor give your email address or sell your soul. Its a TV show called, Lie To Me on Fox in the USA and Sky TV in the UK.

Here’s a synopsis of the show which is based on real science and a real scientist:

“DR. CAL LIGHTMAN (Tim Roth, “The Incredible Hulk,” “Reservoir Dogs”) can detect the truth by analyzing a person’s face, body, voice and speech. When someone shrugs his shoulder, rotates his hand or raises his lower lip, Lightman knows he’s lying. By analyzing facial expressions, he can read feelings – from hidden resentment to sexual attraction to jealousy.”

I watched the first series back to back because I have a DVR and that’s how I watch all my TV series virtually now – get rid of all those annoying adverts – now you see why social media marketing is the next big thing – in fact the only sensible way to market.

It suddenly struck me after the first episode this is a ‘gold mine’ of information – it’s will help you spot liars, time wasters, people who resent what you do but say they support you. The beauty is the episodes cover facial deception – great for face to face networking, vocal deception – I have done work on this in the past for a crisis charity and it is true it is far easier to pick up someones true intent over the phone if you really tune in. How many time have you said to a friend on the phone, ‘Are you ok? You don’t sound yourself today?’. Finally they cover the way people write, the types of words they use and what constant repetition of certain words reveals about them. I have posted previously about avoiding at all costs the use of the word ‘not’, – the series backed me up. The famous Presidential quote, ” I did not have sex with….”, actually put the idea he had in the Press heads. Before that there had been no mention of actual sexual indiscretion.

So do yourself a favor – find out if your Prospects can – Lie To Me.

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21
Jul 09

My Moonlanding Memories

I was 11 years old when man first set foot on the Moon. The reason I remember where I was and what I was doing on this historic occasion was because I was flat on my back in hospital recovering from an operation.

The night Ward Sister knew I was fascinated by Space and woke me up at 3:00AM UK time I think it was and turned on the Ward’s Black and White TV set volume way down.

I lay transfixed as the messages and pictures came back from the surface of the the moon. And from that moment on I have been fascinated by Space, Astronomy, Science Fiction the lot.

Now I look back I think my fascination was that in my mind I can escape the limitations of my disability and live vicarious adventurous lives through science fiction/fantasy novels, TV shows and films.

So thank you to that Ward Sister who thought enough of me to wake me up and break the rules to watch that historical event.

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18
Jul 09

Bruce Lipton on why EFT or ‘Tapping’ works for everything

In this interview Bruce Lipton explains why EFT or ‘Tapping’ has it has become know is the approach to changing your life, health, wealth and abundance that pharmaceutical companies and conventional doctors choose to ignore despite the demonstrable evidence it works. I myself have gone down from 10 drugs a day to 3 and will be drug free in 5 months and avoided the us of a CPAP [you'll need to Google that one] machine all by using EFT or tapping. There are two sources you can visit www.emofree.com and www.tryitoneverything.com

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15
Jul 09

Interdependence – or symbiosis

Interdependence or symbiosis can either be a good Leaders greatest strength or greatest weakness. Symbiosis has been defined as, “those relationships from which both organisms benefit, in which case it would be synonymous with mutual-ism”. One thing that has struck me about many Sponsors involved in either MLM or Network Marketing is they forget the very business model this type of business is built on – a network. The very word implies it is meant to be successful because the team members are interconnected.

For the network to function then relationships must be fostered and built on mutual trust. Always remember as a Leader whilst a certain amount of trust is given the vast majority must be earned. Just because you are a CEO does not mean you can assume your employees trust you and believe you have their best interests at heart. You have to demonstrate that that you have their best interests at heart and thereby earn their trust. This is even more so for a network marketing Leader, your success is directly connected to the success of your team – you are interdependent.

Asking advice of, or support from, team members is a sign of strength not weakness. Failure to support team members for ‘personal agenda’s’ is a sign of insecurity. If you cannot support them because you cannot agree with them then say so, that is intellectual honesty. If you will not support them because ‘it will put your neck on the line’, do not be surprised if the team member returns the favor at a later date. “What we sow so shall we reap”, is very true in a networked business model.

It is key that in an interdependent business model you do not suppress individuality. This usually happens when opportunities grow past a certain point. They become the very thing the founders who set up the business wanted to avoid – a corporate bureaucratic entity with lots of rules and red tape. There is a clear signal you are now sending your team – we don’t trust you it’s my way or the highway. Very soon you will see your truly talented people taking the highway. They did not become a network marketer to have one form or corporate grind replaced by another.

Equally individuality cannot be allowed to destroy the network, and this needs to be made clear to the person exhibiting such behavior. You should share your knowledge and help them correct their behavior. However if after time it is not corrected then the only course open to you is to let the person go for the good of the team.

Some of you reading this as MLM or network leaders might be thinking, “I didn’t get into this to start babysitting people”. To that I would answer, you recruited them. In recruiting them there is an implied expectancy on the part of the recruit you will help get them to a level of competence where they can flourish. It takes a lot less effort to begin by recruiting 7 talented entrepreneurs focusing on and seeing them flourish so they can each recruit 7, than it does recruiting all and sundry. The latter way may bring quick cash, but the real wealth is in the residual income which grows with the depth of your organisation. Once you have established your first 7 then repeat the process again, in this way you are much more likely to have a competent, committed network marketing like mad on their and your behalf.

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14
Jul 09

Communication – being understood

Effective communication is one of the greatest skills a great leader can have. In fact as an MLM or network marketer communication is your ‘bread and butter’, and it is because so many involved in this market fail to see this, they themselves eventually fail. To effectively communicate you must ensure your message is understood, and the only way you can check that is to ask for feedback on your performance.

Interestingly many MLM and network marketing Leaders confuse a ‘briefing’ with effective communication. If all you do is ‘speak at’ your team and then don’t invite questions you are either a) pontificating and showing off your knowledge, b) insecure and cannot deal with feedback in case it is negative or c) engaged in a rousing exercise or information giving exercise. Both these latter two can be much more effectively done by a Newsletter type approach. There is nothing worse than spending an hour being on a teleseminar or webinar than to hear it end with, well that’s the end of today’s call unless there are any questions. The very phrase is underlain with an implied threat, i.e. I want to clear off unless someone is a nuisance enough to ask a question.

If you genuinely want to check and interact with your team in one of these weekly sessions you must engage them. Engagement requires involvement, so asking team members to say take turns at leading the call would be one approach. This helps them build up the skill of leading a team call with you there as support. Alternatively you can agree that on a rotating basis one team member will speak about something they are knowledgeable on and share this knowledge with the team. Another idea would be to ask each team member on the call what has gone well for them that week.

If you really want to check if the team has understood say your main talk, simply ending with, “are there any questions?” will not achieve this. It’s the phrase every audience dreads. Ask specific questions like, “So what do you think of this new product?”, “Does this idea strike you as one you could use if so why?”, “How many of you think you will be able to go away and use this information?” These are a; open questions that invite a response. Avoid at all costs closed questions, that is one’s that can be answered with a “yes” or “no”, of which the infamous, “Are there any questions?” is the worst culprit and best example of a closed question.

On the other hand if you are giving a briefing as opposed to an online meeting you must say this in your invite. You must also send out the same information in a different form to team members unable to attend the meeting. Not to do so is extremely discriminatory. Some poor Leaders take the view, “well if they could not make the meeting it was their fault”. There may be a million and one legitimate reasons why they could not make the call, especially if you have a global team. So make sure everyone knows where they can get information you felt was important enough to go to the trouble of calling an online briefing. Consider PowerPoint slides in PDF to download, be creative. Remember reading a long email of what happened in the call is almost guaranteed to end up in the trash. Just get the main points across succinctly. Recording the webinars or teleconferences is excellent.

Finally consider creating a Ning social network for your team, remember to make it invite only. Free social networks can be created at www.ning.com . This will allow for all kinds of interaction but you again must be a Leader and be active on the community board. If you don’t think it’s worth your time posting articles, or Blogs then it will come as little surprise if you learn that members fail to see the importance of joining. If you use it just as a way of ‘getting your message’ across then it’s not a network and you are not engaging.

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13
Jul 09

Comptetence – The Force Multiplier

I have been writing a short series on key leadership skills required by a Leader. The focus is for network marketers because many MLM and Network Marketing courses do not actually teach or explain leadership concepts. They talk about people needing to develop into Leaders and leave them pretty much to their own devices as to how to do this.

These lessons are based on the book, Leadership Lessons From Star Trek The Next Generation, Wess Roberts PD. D and Bill Ross. This lesson is about the importance of competence and how when it is fostered in your team members it becomes a ‘force multiplier’. This is more so in MLM and network marketing where the quicker you can get each team member to be competent the more money you and they make.

The mistake so many Sponsors make is to recruit, recruit, recruit without stopping to ensure each person they have brought into their opportunity is competent. Just because you picked things up quickly does not mean they will do the same. I am not saying you have to personally train them but you should know enough about them to be able to point them to a personal development resource that will develop their weaknesses.

So what are the Leadership lessons related to competence?

  • Despite the level of technical knowledge you may have on a subject it is only through illustration of that knowledge and the confirmation of experience it becomes wisdom.
  • Leaders need to broaden their knowledge through the knowledge of others. They also need to complete their experience through experience with others.
  • It is impossible to master any skill at once. Only by patiently struggling with it will you eventually master it.
  • One Leader may have the best systems and tools on the market but if they cannot use them competently then they less effective than a Leader with a far worse system.
  • It is possible to become very learned in the actual area you are operating in, but unless you can put that learning to use in your business it is of no use to the team.
  • Good Leaders do not passively experience things. They learn from each experience, reflect on it and consciously examine it for lessons it may have for them.
  • The greatest power a Leader has is the level to which they know their work.
  • Leaders who can adapt easily to varying situations and demands will be more effective than those who simply imitate.
  • One of the best ways of helping team members become competent is to spot and correct serious errors before they become that person’s habits. Habit’s are much harder to change.

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12
Jul 09

The economic downturn: looking forward

Dan Vasella, CEO and chairman of Novartis AG, leads off our video interview series McKinsey conversations with global leaders. In this video, Vasella shares his personal approach to management and leadership. He also examines subjects including health care reform, the economic downturn, and executive compensation.

http://www.mckinseyquarterly.com

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