Personal Brand

Dec 06 2012

Sharpening Your Focus in the Final Month

NOW WHAT? It’s December…in addition to shopping and sending cards and all that…you have goals and you need to achieve them.

2013: Art? Travel? Something else? What’s on the list?

Less than a few weeks left in 2012 and, no matter what your goals are, staying focused is of the utmost importance.

How can you do that – especially in the wild, crazy social media world we’re in? Good question – and here are a few ways to stay sharp.

1. Visit the Right Kinds of Sites

Yeah, it’s easy to get pulled into discussions about things like the Fiscal Cliff. And then you start looking at the news coverage and believing that things are heading to heck in a handbasket…making it tough to, as CNBC says, “Rise Above.”

No matter your goals – new clients, a new job, or just finishing the year on a positive note – it’s important to avoid the time suck that can be the wrong kinds of websites.

We love using a 10-minute rule on surfing. Set a timer, surf with specific reading in mind, then move on.

Sites we recommend for this sort of thing:

Danny Brown is one of our favorites, and he has launched something cool called “Help Me Be Inspired.”

If you are studying the Social Media and Digital space, check out V3IM and the inimitable Shelly Kramer.

Communications and PR professionals just starting out can learn from industry veterans like the team at SpinSucks or Culpwrit (where they have a great post on your Personal Brand).

There’s a theme to these: they’re all tremendously positive sites – they’re not starting fights, rather helping to lift everyone up through real-world advice.

2. Don’t Be Afraid of Something New…

This isn’t about signing up for clients that will drive you crazy, or taking the job that you HAVE to take because, well, you HAVE to take it.

It IS about broadening your horizons just a bit.

Is there a project you can sign up for – even if that means you have to spend an extra hour a day learning Excel, or Photoshop?

Is there a side gig you should consider – because your downtime isn’t productive?

And, should you learn a new language – not because you have to, but because…you want to see if you can?

NOTE TO SELF: You have that Pimsleur Russian thing sitting over there. Fire it up.

3. 2013 Planning AND 2012 Finishing

Time to level-set, too. Some things won’t happen this year – but that doesn’t mean that they cannot happen next year.

Maybe the plan was to write a book – but there’s no way you can finish it now. That’s okay…just get it slotted in for 2013. BUT make sure you revisit the plan for this book-writing.

If the plan was to focus on money, you can visit sites like New Frugality and get tips.

Whatever you’ll miss the goal on for this year, do ask yourself if it’s important for next year. If it is, plan it.

Stay positive and sharpen your focus for the balance of the year. You’ll be glad you did!

By the Way…

If you’re up to learning something new – and that something is Digital Marketing – take a look at this top-notch class from 312 Digital. Use the code “Area224” and you’ll save $100.

Mar 08 2012

If You’re Gonna Hand Out A Business Card…

New Here? Why not download a free book. Social Media for First Graders.

Yes, I did it. I was at a lunch meeting and, at the tail end, I gave the other party a business card. A card that looked something like this one:

We sorta instagrammed it, for effect

Now, with the advancement of technology, with mobile phones and iPads and apps and the like, you’d think that the business card would be dead. But it’s not.

In fact, the business card exchange takes very little time – and there isn’t that dance macabre of whether or not you know the person (LinkedIn request?), whether or not you have met the person ever (Facebook request?), or whether or not you’re about to get spammed (the opt-in email address confirmation thing – more on that in a few).

So, since you asked, here are official tips that you can put to use with those most trusty of networking tools: business cards.

1. Don’t Scrimp on Paper

I’m going to assume for a half-second that your business cards are under your control – if you work for a mid-sized company or a big brand, standards are decided on by an Ivory Tower somewhere. Let’s hope those folks aren’t stingy with the paper stock.

Your business card’s paper stock is one of the most important decisions you can make.

Go thick. Go glossy. 14 point is the minimum. Mine are 16. The extra couple points (or millimeters of thickness) plus the glossy finish make a serious impact.

2. Design is Important as Heck

Hire a professional. Heck, go to fiverr.com and get someone to design one. I don’t care how you get it done; but, unless you are someone with a knack for graphic design, outsource this key function.

The back of the card is important to use, too. Go with one of a couple approaches:

Logo with links on a color background
Your logo – but again with color
OR space to write on.

BUT – don’t go with just white space. Here’s the approach we took:

You can write on the back

3. While You’re at it: No Dumb Titles

Thankfully, the bulk of the business cards sitting on my desk do not use dumb titles.

But there are a couple. “Chief Awesomeness Officer,” “Marketing Guru,” and “Master of Innovation and Vision” are some examples of what you want to avoid.

My card does not have a title on it – which is a great way to avoid having to reprint when you (a) promote yourself, (b) demote yourself or (c) get direct feedback from someone telling you that your title is dumb. (Consider this a warning: I have witnessed people delivering this news to someone. I have more tact than that: I use a blog.)

4. Handing You My Card Does Not Give You Permission to Spam Me

Start with a direct email, please. “Hey, Dave, great meeting you last night. We do a newsletter from time to time, and I’d love to put you on the list. Is that okay?”

You can even ask while you’re getting my card from me; if I give you permission, write that on the back of the card, along with the date.

Hey, it’s a Marketing and Networking Jungle out there. Try these tips with your business card. Trust me, you’ll make a positive impact. OR avoid a negative impact.

Dec 19 2011

Social Media Strategy is So Simple

We write today with some uber-easy advice for Social Media Marketers.

It’s a dog-eat-dog social media world out there. One company’s desire for a viral video is another company’s IT nightmare. One personal brand’s quest for world domination is another’s boxes upon boxes of books in the remainder bin.

Social Media Strategy Can Be Simple. Just Think It Through.

Ah, THINKING! Critical thinking, or scenario planning, or mindmapping. Something using your head can get you there. Right?

Which brings us to GOP Candidate for President Michele Bachmann.

This isn’t going to be a rebuke of her politics, or a discussion of whether or not we agree with her stand on the issues. Plenty of places can let you do that. Instead, we just want to discuss whether or not Michele Bachmann HAS a Social Media Strategy.

99 Counties

Bachmann launched something over the weekend called “The 99 County Tour.” You can see evidence over there on the right hand side that she’s tweeting about it. Actually, her “Team” is tweeting about it. (On Twitter, her campaign’s account is TeamBachmann.)

Problem? In this reporter’s humble opinion, this was not thought through very well. Ignore poll numbers, ignore issue stance, ignore everything for a second…and focus on the name of this tour.

“I got 99 counties…”

Are there 99 Counties in Iowa? Do you care? Do Iowans care? Does it matter because we just put an earworm in your head?

Here’s a BRANDING PROBLEM waiting to happen. The most important thing that Rep. Bachmann (R-MN) has to do is this:

Build a Personal Brand around Michele Bachmann to increase the chance of winning early states, then winning the GOP nomination, then the Presidency.

People of Earth, you can say this about any candidate for any office anywhere in the USA. Breaking the larger OBJECTIVE down into these three steps gives you three smaller OBJECTIVES, but, in turn, gives you something to actually build towards.

Social Media Strategy for Michele Bachmann Made Simple

Why do we talk about this? Well, take a look at Exhibit 2.

Exhibit Two - MB Main Twitter Account

What you have here, in Twitter lingo, is a “Verified Account.” That’s what the Blue Checkmark Starburst tells us. Built In Audience. 35,000 followers.

(We won’t even get started on the Facebook page for the Representative – a recipe for brand-building disaster, what with its free-flowing commentary on everything and apparent lack of monitoring or engagement.)

Yet, no real Twitter Strategy is apparent. A Tweet here, a video posting there – “Michele’s Path to Victory” is today’s video – an occasional “RT” (Retweet) and maybe a Foursquare Check-in.

The Social Media Strategy is NOT Holistic. You’ve got a couple Twitter accounts competing with each other, and, if you were to sniff around on other sites, you’d be left to your own devices to find out what the Congresswoman stands for.

Advice: Break This Down Into Steps…

…And use the tools and audience at your disposal to start turning those steps into actionable strategies.

Step One: Tweet with the Entire State of Iowa.

Wait, that sounds counter-intuitive, doesn’t it? No, you have the reach with your 35,000+ followers, start actually saying hello to people.

Step Two: Outline Your Plan for Your Presidency as it pertains to Iowans.

You can do this for any industry you’re in. That’s right, you have a plan for the Widgetmaster 3000 and you are launching it to Lawyers in Kentucky. Go! Speak to them and share how they will Benefit from your Widgetmaster.

Step Three: If it Doesn’t Impact Iowans and you Cannot Spend Time on it – Don’t Do It.

This means that there’s no real reason to share all of your daily activities on Facebook if you can’t support that platform and you can’t speak to Iowans there. Don’t waste your time there.

(Again, any industry can benefit from this advice. Why check-in on Foursquare if you’re a B2B concern? Etc., etc. – don’t waste your time with marketing that isn’t Objective-Oriented.)

Notice how we didn’t talk about policy? Didn’t talk about issues? We broke this down into the actionable steps, and the most actionable step RIGHT NOW is the one that increases chances of winning Key Early States. Rest of it? Doesn’t matter.

There’s your strategy. Repeat for your product, your service, your business. And you’re welcome.

Mar 18 2011

Always Be

Photo Credit: Scott Beale, Laughing Squid
The line from “Glengarry Glen Ross” is “Always Be Closing.”

It’s an awesome movie. Alec Baldwin’s performance is amazing. Watch this clip, pulled from YouTube, if you haven’t seen it a million times before. (NSFW – that means “Not Suitable For Work.”)

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y-AXTx4PcKI

A wonderful spend of 7 minutes. Baldwin’s character spells out a couple acronyms in his NSFW diatribe, including AIDA (Attention, Interest, Desire, Action, part of the sales funnel that we think is dead) and the most famous, or infamous, ABC. Always. Be. Closing.

ABC should be replaced, though. As this very 80s clip from a very non-PC workplace will show you…this stuff doesn’t work anymore. Some alternative suggestions:

ABR. “Always Be Recruiting.”

Tech Entrepreneur and Venture Capitalist Mark Suster pulled out a can of awesome yesterday in his TechCrunch advice to startups. And that was his point: if you as an A-List Tech Exec are not out searching for more like-minded people at all times, your business will stagnate, you’ll be relegated to the B-List, and you’ll recruit C-List players.

We have seen this time and again – and not just in technology and startups, but in all types of businesses.

The “Turf Warriors” are, IMHO, the worst – their mission is to protect their own empire, and you can see it in the type of people they hire. You may have worked for one before, you may be working for one now. Most of the time, the people they hire are lacking gravitas, or might not have top-notch skills.

Don’t go there with your own business, your own department. If you’re not hiring somebody who is, to borrow Suster’s term, “punching above their weight class,” you need to take another look at your own hiring practices.

Always. Be. Recruiting.

ABL: “Always Be Launching.”

I have been accused of having ADHD – not because I’m all over the map, but because I seem to be working on the next thing all the time.

I don’t have ADHD – I’ve been checked out for that – but I do have an addiction (of sorts) to product launches.

This is borne out of two things. One is necessity – I need to make a living, and having something new to offer clients and prospects helps me do that. Two is constant improvement – I want to see people in my circle (clients, friends, associates, whomever) make more meaningful connections that improve their business.

As a result, I am always launching.

Your next question is “what about failure?”

The beauty of having multiple product lines, service lines, things to offer clients and prospects, is this: some of them will not work. Not all of them are for everyone. But being in constant launch mode leads to more (gasp) innovation – because this thing may not be what they need, but the next thing very well may be.

Always. Be. Launching.

ABY: “Always Be Yourself.”

I have seen some awesome things happen to online friends of late – things that could never happen to me. There’s Erika Napoletano, Redhead Writing, who will be penning for Entrepreneur Magazine. There’s Paige Worthy, whose “Hire Me” page led to a gig with YouSwoop.

These particular things could never happen to me – because, well, I’m not the kind of person who writes in Erika’s style, and my story and Paige’s story are pretty different.

But other things could happen to me. And to you.

You have a voice – read this awesome post from Danny Brown – and your mission is to find that voice. You could be like the woman who digs gaming so much that you do your own web show. (Not the famous one, but a different one. One that’s more, well, you.) You could be the guy whose food truck rocks, or the gal whose jewelry rocks or the rock band that actually does rock.

But you can’t get there if your aspiration is to be somebody else.

We just went through this exercise as part of our launch (natch) of 12 Minute Marketing. We revisited our own mission statement – which keeps evolving, but it’s pretty true to the “voice” that we’ve developed over the past six months of daily blogging, and over the past 4 years of being in business.

To provide training and consulting in new media, digital media and social media that helps business owners and managers to better connect with people and sell more stuff.

Which, I think, is pretty much what we are good at doing over here at HQ.

Always. Be. Yourself.

Mar 01 2011

March 1, 1944

Today would have been my Dad’s 67th birthday; I think I learned a good chunk about business from him.

Missing my Dad, Tom, lots lately; he left this earth on June 1, 2009. He was – fittingly – born on March First: he had leadership qualities and was one of the guys you wanted on your team.

He never took the time to write a book – but what I learned about business from him would take up more than a few cocktail napkins. Here are a few highlights.

1. Don’t be afraid to reinvent yourself.

It was bound to happen: Northern Indiana’s economy was not doing so well, and the factory that had been the family’s lifeblood decides it want to relocate to Georgia. Not being much of a Dawg, not wanting to uproot everyone with three kids in high school, Dad did what everyone should do at least once in their life.

He reinvented himself.

Always Smiling

Turns out, as is the case, “Quality Control Director” was not as fitting for him as the new life he invented: “Real Estate Agent.”

You may want to (if that industry you picked in college isn’t what it’s cracked up to be in the real world), you may have to (in walks the boss, pink slip in tow). But, at some time in your life, you NEED to. Reinvent. Yourself.

2. Play to your strengths.

We joked that Dad grew up on 7th Street, got married and moved to 8th Street, then, when the kids were grown up, moved to 13th Street.

This was true: the Belgian-American enclave of the West End of Mishawaka, Indiana was his home and, even when he and Mom moved for the last few years to a street without a number, he was still in the same 2 mile radius for his entire 65 years.

Hey, guess where he sold the bulk of his houses as a real estate agent?

Dad would do one deal a year that was outside of his normal zone, but his business was pretty much The Guy on The West End.

While he reinvented himself rather easily, he sure didn’t reinvent himself as something he wasn’t.

3. Show up.

Wish I had a dollar for every time Dad called me from a boring open house. Of course, he would never say that out loud; it was always something like “well, we’re waiting for the crowd to show up.”

He couldn’t just hang up a shingle and expect the business to start coming to him – he had to actually put in the work. That meant a lot of events – not just open houses but rubber chicken dinners and local sporting events – that were probably not ideal places to spend your time then…

But those events paid dividends down the road.

4. Give.

There’s something that is important to you. A charity. An organization. Your church. A club. A cause.

It doesn’t have to be financial – heck, Dad wasn’t rolling in dough – but he sure did give of his time.

I still remember him getting the frequent donor club card from the Blood Bank. As a kid, I thought it was nuts – I mean, who in their right mind would let you take their blood?

It’s not about “my cause is better than your cause.” He found the causes that were important to him. And he gave.

5. Please have fun.

I am 100% certain that my Dad did not take himself all that seriously.

I’m guessing, if Dad were around today, he’d probably chide all the “Social Media Gurus” for being “Guru” first, “Media” second. And “Social” third.

Dad would talk to anyone, and listen to anyone. And drink a beer with anyone.

His last birthday, March 1, 2009, found him at the casino, having gotten his faculties back and being good to go after his first stroke. He had a nice payday at some exotic sounding game – Mississippi Stud or some such – and was thrilled to tell me all about it.

I’m sure my Dad picked up quite a few lessons in business, and life, from his Dad.

So I always wondered, not totally “getting it,” why my Dad made a big deal out of his own father’s birthday, years after his father had passed away.

I get it now.

Notes: since it was a stroke that marked the beginning of Dad’s last days, consider this an invitation to understand the warning signs of a stroke:

Directly from the American Heart Association’s web page, be on the lookout for these signs:

Sudden numbness or weakness of the face, arm, or leg, especially on one side of the body
Sudden confusion, trouble speaking or understanding
Sudden trouble seeing in one or both eyes
Sudden trouble walking, dizziness, or loss of balance or coordination
Sudden, severe headache with no known cause

If any of these things are happening, don’t mess around: Call 9-1-1.

Here’s a link to the American Heart Association’s web page. You can learn all sorts of things there and, even though February 28 was the last day of “Heart Month,” well, you can learn tons there. Please do.

Thanks, folks.