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Turning Up the Volume with Relevant Questions: 5 Questions to Engage the Audience

One of the most important things about reading blogs is the extended power of opinion, especially when it differs from my own.  Most often when I read something that really gets my blood boiling or challenges my thinking, I never forget it. I often even meditate on it for days.  Sometimes it colors the mood for the rest of the week. I don't mean to give it that much power, but sometimes the power it has over me is relevant. It is a teachable moment, a moment of utmost importance in the greater shaping of my character. I like these moments because they make me double down and get a little bit more serious about my personal brand. Often times, I find myself returning to the same place for the next saga in non-conventional thinking outside of the box.
Turning up the volume with challenging and non~traditional content can be a boost to your readers, depending on how well you deliver it. I have come up with five questions that will help you develop your content in a way that will be non-confrontational, and yet very effective in delivering a message that intrigues, satisfies, and compels your readers to think.
These five questions are:

1. What influences the way you view this topic? This will be the ground work for laying a foundation that makes you reader friendly and intelligible.
2. What is single most important thing do you find about this discussion? There are moments around every subject that each of us connect with more strongly than others. What are they? Why are they so powerful? Which buttons were pushed for you and Why?
3. If you don't have enough information, how would you go about determining the best position on this?
4. Where do your values lie on this subject? Values make our work significant. Values make our ideas coherent and effective.  What are yours and where did you put them in relation to your content? Can your readers connect with them, understand them, and determine them from what you have written? If so, how? If not, how come?
5. Do you think your personal beliefs will serve you well over time? This one is a kicker! When delivering thought provoking content that creates your following audience, it is important to determine whether or not your beliefs about the subject will serve you well over time. As a thought leader, if you cannot take a position and and stand on it, you will lose credibility with your reader, and with your brand.  Figure this out, and work from within it.

Discovering hiccups in our thinking can move us further into creativity by broadening our worldview, and point of view. Here are five questions for uncovering your hiccups!
1. Who am I in relationship to this thought. Who is my reader?
2. What am I saying, and is what I am saying align with what I believe?
3. When I say this, am I willing to define myself by it?
4. Is where I stand on this topic today a place I would be comfortable to stand on tomorrow, next week, or five years from now?
5. Why am I writing this? Do I believe it, am I afraid of it, am I changed by it, is it a sensitive spot in my being?

I think content is so powerful! Don't be afraid of it! Use it wisely, use it carefully, and use it courageously and you just might develop a tight little niche that makes a great big splash....

5 Tools for Posting on Social Networks

When I first began the great big dive into Social Media, I was scared to dealth... Literally shivering in my shoes... It can be very overwhelming tweeting, posting, retweeting, favoriting, direct messaging, and so on and so forth. As I began to get more adventurous and brave, I discovered some great tools to better manage my time and help me be the most effective.  I have listed the ones I use below. Each of the tools I use helps me solve a certain struggle I had with new media marketing. I hope you can find these solutions helpful in your efforts as well!

1. Content Aggregation:  When you begin any marketing strategy, it is paramount that you begin with a content blueprint.  This is an outline of what you are posting when, where, and why. It is important to really listen to your audience, and study your industry to filter through only the best stuff to pass along to your audience.  My two favorite tools for this are

Google Alerts and Feedly. Use them everyday and they make researching my content an absolute breeze!

2. Time Management: We all start this social media thing doing the same thing over and over again. We spend hours on end trying to figure out how to listen and share, share and listen. Before long we are speaking in hashtags and dm's. This is where Bundlepost has proven to be invaluable!  I can spend half the time scheduling posts after my content is gathered, and more time listening.  I would much rather listen than speak, that's just who I am!

3. Frequency of Posts: Hootsuite is an absolute must have in the social media arena.  I never knew how awesome scheduling my posts could feel until I realized how normal my life looked after Hootsuite!  Using Hootsuite in conjunction with Bundlepost is a breeze and a true answer to Social Media overload!

4. Analytics: While Hootsuite does a terrific job with analytics, I truly enjoy SproutSocial for my account analysis. The presentation is seamless, simple to read and interpret, and just the most comfortable Social Media Portal I have experienced.

5. Twitter Conversations: TweetDeck is my go to desktop application for twitter conversations. The real live feed and alerts makes following and engaging in any discussion and event simplified and profitable.

And what would be a good social media strategy without a CRM component!  NOTHING! That's why I use NimbeCRM which has a direct integration with Hootsuite! This way I can easily qualify my social leads by importing them into my CRM for more analysis, opportunity tracking, and historical reference across all my platforms, including email!

Without a strategy and a well thought out plan, these tools are not fully utilized and effective. You can waste time and effort figuring out just what to do next with what platform. STOP!  Get some help from an expert.  They can lead you the right way and save you more time for your business. They can even manage your strategy for you!  Don't dive in without your life vest!  Be a smart marketer and invest in the right gear to keep your boat afloat and get you where you intend to go!  You can do it!  Don't wait!

What the Experts Know…

Recently I was called in to work with an IT firm who was trying to implement and troubleshoot issues with a LAN based CRM solution that I support.  When I got on-site, the flustered and frustrated technician told me through angry tears that he had exhausted all his resources: time, technique, and treasure. In the end he lost money on this deal, and he was losing his rapport with the client by the minute.
After assessing the situation, diagnosing the problem, and setting up a plan to solve it, relief immediately overcame him.  I was glad to facilitate this, but it also reminded me of 3 important lessons I learned early on in my career.
1. Always have a plan before starting any engagement with a client.  If you are not an expert in what they are asking you to do, it’s best to evaluate how much time you can spend figuring it out versus paying someone who knows how to do it, in order to prevent you from losing money. If you are not profitable, you will not stay in business.
2. Set the expectations for the client (this is why the plan is PARAMOUNT). If you can explain to the client before hand what steps need to be taken, they will trust you as you walk through the steps with them, and they will likely go with what you determine as situations progress.  People want to know that what you say will be, especially when dealing with their livelihood and business processes. Set the expectations and follow-through with them as described.
3. Develop partnerships: If you are not an expert, work with experts. Partnerships will make you a lot of profit because they save you time.  It is important to remember that time is worth more than your hourly rate! When you think about it from this perspective, can you really afford to sell it for cheap?
Being and all hands technical expert can take you very far, but it limits your ability to get really good at any one certain thing.  Assess your abilities: strengths and weaknesses, and grow your clients in light of them… This is what the experts know will bring them the greatest success all the way around.

To Drip or Not to Drip... That is the Question

In my previous post about the power of perpetual touch we talked about what is a drip marketing technique and why it is an important part of cultivating relationships for business.  To expand on the idea that perpetual touch is important, I wanted to cultivate and explain the difference between a good drip, and a bad drip.  As I explained in that article, it is not enough to simply touch someone, they have to desire your attention.  So what are some good ways to drip, and some not so good methods you ask? Here are my top five:

Top 5 good drip marketing tips:

1. Always ask them first!  This is especially important with email marketing, and does not relate as much to Social Media touching and direct mail!  Permission is key, email is private and personal to many of your recipients. The very first bad way to ruin your impression is to send them something they don't want!
2. Be authentic! If you think about business all the time, it is OK to post about business, however, you will tire your audience! They want to know that you are well rounded! Keep your posts centered around who you are. Get a little personal by sharing your values and your humor! They will connect with it.
3. Show up for every meal you are invited to! If you know what they want and need, give it to them and show up on time. There is nothing worst than getting someone to give you access to their trust, and under delivering what they expect you to know and offer them. 
4. Send cards! People love them and they go a long way, especially if they are hand written!
5. Be spontaneous!  As much as you can try to stick with a blueprint of how you want to touch your audience based on information you have gathered about them, but don't hold tight and fast to this.  Spontaneous and unprompted reach can be very compelling. Follow your promptings! If you think of them, send them a note!  This always translates into a language they receive!

Top 5 bad drip marketing tips:

1. Don't: Send them everything you got! If they don't care about this service, product, or event, don't bully them with information about it.
2. Don't: Forget their interests, important occasions, and technical aptitude! If they give you a birthday, remember it! If they don't tweet, don't invite them to connect on twitter! If they want to learn about email marketing, don't teach them about widgets!  You know longer look like a person who wants to help, but like a person who wants to sell!
3. Don't: Send them a letter you send to everyone else. Be careful of form letters! They look very impersonal and usually get trashed.
4. Don't: Show up for every meal! Don't overstate & over saturate them with your presence! People like seeing you, but if they see you too much, they will certainly get bored with your content. Listen better than you talk. You will be received much better.
5. Don't: Get too personal! People care about your kid and the cute things they do, but they easily get tired of your opinions on all hot topics!  Have opinions, just respect the opinions of others more! Stay close to places where we all see eye to eye, relate, and understand with common ground.

Drip Marketing is not rocket science, but it is an art!  Be creative, courageous, and meaningful so all will value what you have to say, and how it affects them... beyond business, into every day life.

Elevating your CRM Experience with SOCIAL!

As  a CRM advisor and an Inbound Marketing Professional, I see all kinds of cases where companies are striving to get an edge on their marketing by just being able to get a handle on listening.  Listening to their prospects and customers across all platforms in relevant ways, can be the determining factor in success or failure.  Listening is key, and here are some new ways to do it that won't have you running in every direction: #SOCIALCRM

Here are three very important ways Social CRM can enhance your CRM experience:
 ~ A 360 view of all your social platforms in one place can be a time saver, and key benefit to understanding your audience, and a way to help you offer a timely response to inquiries without being superman, or needing ESP! Many of your customers and prospects probably have a preferable mode of communication they prefer to use, and have an insight on this can be a real benefit to great customer service. Being quick to respond, and engaging in Social Circles can also build the kind of rapport you need to close that deal, or keep that client retention.
~ You can see in full what you previously only saw in part!  Let's face it, Social Media can offer us personal insight into places that mean the most to our audience.  Where previously we only saw sides to our customers that were professional and impersonal, SocialCRM allows us to hear their true voice. It allows us to follow what gives them passion, and what fills their values. At the end of the day, understanding what drives a person or a business can ultimately be the difference between helping them succeed, or missing the mark.
~ Reputation is Gold: SocialCRM can help you build it, maintain it, and develop your image among the audiences you are trying to attract.  It gives you sophistication, brand recognition, and credibility among other thought leaders.  It increases your visibility, awareness, and persona before those who need to hear your message, or use your services.  Being engaged is only ever a win.  It is what we all long for when we place every one of those cold calls to the receptionists that never relay our messages.  If you know they are listening, get in front of them!  You cannot close if you don't have an audience.

Traditional CRM's do so many things well for some many sectors, but with emerging new media technologies, it is time to get SOCIAL and lead the charge!  Only the courageous will win!

Want to get started, try NIMBLE risk free today!
http://partners.nimble.com/goldcoastadvisors/