Resources by Topic:

Why Blogging is An Important Part of Social Media Strategy [Video]

Integrating Social Media Into Your Sales and Marketing Process [Podcast/Blog]

Making Social Media Part of What You Do [Video]

Developing a Social Media Calendar and Implementation Plan [Podcast/Blog]

Sample Social Media Policy [Blog]

What is Social Media Etiquette [Video]

5 Ways to Build a Twitter Following Organically [Blog]

Twitter for Sales and Marketing [Video] Part 1 and Part 2

Social Media ROI [Podcast]

The Future of Sales and Marketing Social CRM [Podcast]

Slides from Today’s Presentation:

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Great conversations in the offline world are about listening, providing insight, empathy, and at times the right measure of humor. The same goes for online tools. In using a tool like Twitter here are some tips on being engaging:

• Fill out your profile completely with a current photo, link to your personal blog or site, and use the entire 140 characters provided for your bio. Hiding who you are or not providing your company information can create a barrier to trust or engagement.

• Update regularly, for most active Twitter users that’s 8 to 15 times per day. Key principle: don’t update unless it adds value, solves a problem, inspires or entertains your target market.

• Share useful links to sites other than yours. Also pass on and share (know as retweeting on Twitter) useful information from other Twitter users. This will strengthen your relationship with them and increase the chances of them sharing your messages.

• Use social search to monitor what people are saying about your company or your industry. http://search.twitter.com can give you by-the-minute opportunities to engage people who are talking about your brand. You can instantly solve a problem or correct a situation as it happens.

• Vary your message and the frequency so that you appear human and not robotic. Your updates should be a combination of personal messages, corporate updates, answering questions, commenting on other people’s great tweets, and links to valuable information.

• If you sound like everyone else you’re not a brand or a leader. Create engaging content and unique conversations. This is vital to building a brand and solidifying client relationships.

Great use of Twitter and other social mediums and networks is 90% listening and contribution and 10% marketing and messaging. While that seems like a bad marketing ratio we can go back to what John C. Maxwell said about leadership “It’s 90% connection and 10% content.”

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Social Media Speaker Shane Gibson on Social Media Etiquette

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Blogathon 2009 for Vancouver Food Bank

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It is not uncommon for salespeople and/or sales managers to get caught in the throes of everyday problems and miss seeing the trees because of the forest.
In most cases there is much more support and help around us than we can see. If most of us could really appreciate what we do have, and be grateful, most of the time we would never have a motivation problem.

There is power in gratitude. For example; Have you ever been forced into giving a kiss and a hug to a relative or a friend of a friend you couldn’t stand? It’s not an inspiring experience. As a matter of fact, it can be downright de-motivating. But if you have ever been asked to hug and kiss someone you secretly admired, I bet you found it to be a very pleasant experience. What’s the difference between the two?
Having to embrace someone you can’t stand, can be de-motivating; embracing someone you admire is motivating.

The same rule applies to situations. Most of us spend time living for tomorrow; living for when we will get that raise, that job, that relationship, or that home. In other words, that’s when we will be happy. We don’t like where we are now, so let us dream about tomorrow. What this means is we are not living in the now. It also means we often set our objectives or goals from a time, place, or state of mind that we do not like, which means we don’t embrace it. Therefore it is de-motivating.
What if you could appreciate the moment and embrace it? It would be inspiring, just like embracing that person you admired.

Gratitude is a powerful motivation. To embrace or appreciate the moment you are in, gives you a deep settled strength, and alleviates anxiety. With this strength you are able to tap into your intuition and be directed into paths that are more meaningful and in tune with who you are. This makes it much easier for you to become enthusiastic and move forward and feel good about the present as well as where you want to go. Having gratitude for where you are now can get you started.

Think about the situation you are in right now that frustrates or even immobilizes you. Now come up with a list of some really positive things that you have going for you right at this moment. Think of things you may be grateful for. A few examples could be good health, living in the country you are in, experience in your field, great relationship with your wife, husband or significant other, certain belongings, past experiences, just to name a few.

Once you finish the list, go back through and mentally say “thank you” to all the circumstances and people you could thank for each one of these. For example; in reference to your health, mentally thank someone who showed you how to eat properly, or who got you involved in some form of physical exercise. Maybe a previous employer believed in balanced living and not just work, work, work. Be sure to thank that person mentally. Thank your government for the facilities that are available and your creator for being so kind to you. As Plato once said; “Happiness is not being in a good state, but rather knowing you are in a good state.”

Once you have completed this exercise, you will have experienced the power of appreciation. You will feel much better about the moment. To see the positive in your present circumstances and to feel gratitude about the moment will get you started and keep you going.

Unfortunately, our egos work very hard at stopping us from experiencing gratitude. Very few of us can openly display gratitude on a daily basis to all those people and situations around us. It is much easier to fill our minds and bodies with self-importance, dissatisfaction, criticism, and victim-style thinking, than it is to put these feeling aside and say thank you. Monitor yourself and see how often you resist or justify not having gratitude. Being aware of your anti-gratitude stance alone, can start you on the road to being more grateful and more productive.

As the manager you may want to share this process with your people. Gratitude is one of the greatest internal motivators of all.

(An excerpt from our “Complete Sales Action System”)

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Simply put, it’s just not their calling.  You have to be 100 percent congruent with what it is you are promoting, selling and marketing.  Whether you are an athlete promoting your talent or a marketer promoting your product you need to be excited enough to get up early and stay up late.  Your chosen profession must be in harmony with your calling in life.  Your success will be your destiny.

@FredShadian

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Thanks Trevor!

Trevor Wallace with his food donation

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#1) Treat every action as if it will be recorded for eternity.

Almost everything we say online is recorded, logged and backed up somewhere. In every restaurant, bar or conference room there’s dozens of people with mobile video, photo, and blogging apps that capture our behavior in an instant and broadcast it to the world instantly and permanently. You really can’t delete a bad blog post, a rude response. Be careful what you say, blog, tweet and do, because the impact can be permanent.

#2) Talk about what you know.

Being Sociable! is about being a thought leader, and contributor to community and being authentic and transparent. People rely on us for advice and guidance. Stating opinion as fact can hurt our reputation and it may even harm the person taking our advice. If we’re wrong, or inaccurate we can expect to be called out on it and even embarrassed in the social media space by other bloggers or community members. Always be learning, studying and fact checking in the area which you aspire to lead in, and don’t exaggerate or fabricate your knowledge or the facts.

#3) Get Engaged.

Don’t broadcast, connect. Being Sociable! is about listening, connecting, contributing. Engagement is how we make other people feel, it’s also about the lasting impact that we have on them and their success. To be Sociable! you must monitor, listen to and actively answer and communicate with the individuals in the community in a personable customized and relevant way.

#4) Give credit where credit is due

If you hear a great quote from someone, an interesting hypothesis or learn a new business process make sure you give him or her the credit. Just because something is not protected under copyright does not mean we can re-purpose it without giving credit. A quick link back to their site, a mention of them at your seminar or in your video only takes seconds. What it does though is build the trust of everyone watching, they know you’re in this for more than just personal gain and will be Sociable! with you as well.

#5) No Spam

Never send generic messages to people who have given you permission to connect. If they have added you as a connection in a social network, realize that this is not to be taken lightly. Only send information or communicate in a way that is adding value, every time. Avoid auto messages, auto blog links, or auto anything that makes people feel like a number and not a valued contact.

#6) Know when to Zip it

Be conscious of private or confidential information that has been trusted to you. This means don’t post it anywhere on the web. It also means don’t talk about it in public, someone else could hear or record you and post it online for the world to see. Know the difference between fact, opinion and slander and always err on the side of being legally diligent. In other words don’t post anything that could result in an unwanted court appearance.

#7) This is not a video game

Some people see social media as a video game. A game where you collect names and followers like a some sort of digital trophy case. This game is getting old fast. The real measure of someone who is legitimately Sociable! is impact and action. Focus on quality or relationships with people you are connected with. Focus on people doing something when they get to your blog, not how many people visit it. Think in the term of profits made, impact created or actions caused by your Sociable! activity.

#8) Be open to all feedback

The days of corporate white washing are over, so is having a dual life, everyone now knows what your up to in this digital world that lacks privacy. People are going to go after you online on your personal blog, our corporate blog or blast you with a video or a comment on a social network. When this happens, don’t hide and don’t delete their comments or the errors you have made. Engage instead. Customer complaints are branding opportunities and sometimes our critics are actually bold allies trying to set us straight. With criticism it’s important to respond strategically not emotionally and to set the record straight with a correction, the facts, or good old fashion customer service and apologies.

#9) Digital rights

We make our living from the great ideas, content and creative works we create, market and produce. Being Sociable! means our brand is one of integrity, authenticity and transparency. We need to respect others copyright and creative works just like we would want them to do for us. Always ask permission or give attribution to other people’s creations that you use, cite, or include in your work. Every photo, video, quote or audio clip we use must be posted by us and distributed in a way that respects others’ work and it’s digital integrity.

#10) Be Sociable!

Being Sociable! also means not taking our self or our brand too seriously. In order to be a true Sociable! thought leader you must have fun, be passionate and contribute to the success of your clients, peers, family and community as a whole. Most importantly we continually strive to “get real” by taking our online connections and meet them individually or as a community through events like Meetups, Tweetups, and community functions. We do this to deepen and expand relationships. Without strong Sociable! relationships we’re just another marketer or sales person pitching something.

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Register for book tour and early release information on the the book here:

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Momentum is a progression of movements that are created just like an ocean wave. You can become part of the flow of momentum and be caught by the wave and ride it to create the momentum that you desire in any aspect of your life.

The key to creating momentum, in reality, is to recognize the extraordinary movement in your life or in your organization and to take small steps each and every day towards your desired outcome. Determine where you are at and where you are going and stay focused, using your time and talent, until you feel totally congruent with your desire.

My martial arts instructor, Sensei David Harris, would always share with me the importance of daily activities towards a desired goal.  If, for any reason, you feel that you are at a plateau you can continue your level of progression by reading a book on the subject that you are pursuing, or you can watch a video on the related subject, maybe you can attend a seminar or you could mentally rehearse your desired outcome for your success.

It is important is to do something, regardless of how small or how large. By taking action daily you create the motion towards your desired achievement.

Stay focused on the end result, be realistic in your approach, and take a step-by-step progression that leads you to your ultimate goal.

There is a Hawaiian saying: “When the surf is high, go surfing and when the water is calm, wax your board.”

Timing is of the essence when riding the wave of momentum. If you hop on too early, you might crash. If you hop on too late, you miss the wave. By timing the wave correctly, you enjoy the ride all the way to the beach.

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Blogathon 2009 for Vancouver Food Bank

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This is an important question.

It’s the most important question.

Why?

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The topic Ronald chose was: What It Takes and/or How to Become a Thought Leader?

This is a great question, have a listen to this podcast to hear about becoming and influencing thought leaders.

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This podcast is about becoming a community building and marketing maven.  How long have you invested in yourself and your people?

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Can a fictional character blog?

This was a huge question in the early days of blogging. Blogging stalwarts felt that only “real” people should be blogging, especially for a company. There were a couple notable character blogs that were pretty controversial at the time: the Denali Flavors Moose blog and T. Alexander from the Gourmet Station blog.

For a number of months this was an all-consuming tempest in a teacup, with all sorts of name-calling and unpleasantness, however when it all blew over…
Sure, characters can blog. It became clear that whether it was fan fiction or a company mascot assuming the role of “spokesperson”, it wasn’t who the “author” was pro-ported to be, but rather what and how things were said.
Businesses find it helpful to have one “person” be the voice for the entire company, but have several folks write behind the scenes because there aren’t enough people in the company to dedicate one person to blog. The hardest part of having multiple authors blogging is keeping the “voice” of the writing the same. One easy fix is to divide the tasks up. Maybe only one person writes longer posts, but others do things like a weekly post of interesting links or another do the photo of the week. Mix up the type of posts and the people writing them and you’ll have a dynamic blog with a lot less effort!

This is an excerpt from Tris Hussey’s upcoming book on blogging “6 Easy Blogging Projects” published by Pearson. Follow Tris on twitter.

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#1) Raul in his happy place (He’s blogging for charity tonight too)

#2) This guy I met in Yaletown, his daughter neglected to brush the cat until it’s hair was in knots, the poodle groomer was cheaper. He should be arrested… and shaved.

#3) Doolins Irish Pub at Lunch time. You should see dinner.

#4) This was a joke gift but he chose to wear it in public.

#5) I can’t really top #4 so this post is done.

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In our book Sociable! Stephen Jagger and I talk about some of the do’s and don’t’s of social media. One thing we talk about is wherever you are, there’s a camera, and at 2:00 am that funny twitpic might not be so funny when your boss or your best client sees them.

Steve and I have not learned this by standing at the pulpit looking down at people making silly errors or posting things they shouldn’t have. We learned this by doing it ourselves (okay actually most of the dumb things that have been documented were done by me).

I also believe in not deleting, people will catch you and make things worse. So I leave these errors in judgment up, why you might ask? Mostly because they weren’t really errors, it was me, my real personality doing these things. Blame it on my Celtic East Coast sense of humor. So in the spirit of full transparency and for charity (please donate) here’s some pictures from the last few years that probably should not made it on the internet (better me than someone else posting these!):

#1) Kyle MacDonald (The guy who traded up “One Red Paper Clip” for a house) and I after we left a conference we were speaking at. This is is us at 3:00 am after we emptied a Keg. Kyle is really Superman because he did a fantastic radio interview 4 hours later. (Seriously itemized beer bill).

#2) Everyone who left the Mother of all Meetups at Christmas time left their tags with me (so to speak)

#3) I sorta crashed a womens’ only conference for social media after party/tweetup (invited by Colleen), this is what ended up on Twitpic. I look so sincere.

#4) This was just a bad mistake, I wanted a pic of the hat on me but the preview didn’t show the bloke in the background (nice personal branding).

#5) No man should ever walk a dog dressed like this. Yes that’s my dog.

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Encouraging comments and discussion

Comments are what keep blogging going. The dialogue and feedback that helps you not only grow as a writer, but also ensures that you stay on track. Through comments you learn, interact, and gain inspiration. I’ve written entire follow-up posts based a comment from a post. I’ve also received cease-and-desist letters because of comments as well. Part of getting comments is writing to encourage comments. First step is to make sure comments are enabled (aka turned on) for all your posts. Nine times out of ten the default setting for blog engines is to have comments on, but sometimes they get turned off so just double check. Whether or not anyone can post a comment or if there is some kind of moderation in place is up to you, and I’ll get to that shortly.
With comments turned on, the next part is subtler: getting people to leave comments. There isn’t a “magic formula” for you to get lots of comments. Sometimes I pull it off, sometimes I don’t. In any case here are simple things you can do to help encourage comments:

• Leave examples out on purpose. People love to feel that they are contributing by adding to your post.
• Ask open-ended questions
• Ask for comments directly
• Take a contrary or controversial stance to the status quo

Even with these tips, including out-right asking for comments, sometimes a great post just doesn’t get any comments. Don’t worry, this happens with even the best posts. Sometimes it’s the posts that you don’t expect to receive any comments to be the one that gets the most. Sometimes you just never know.
Once you do get comments, to keep the flow going you have to respond to the comments you receive. Be open and willing to be proved wrong or challenged. Engaging in a healthy dialogue makes your blog a place where people will go for ideas and inspiration—which means that you will also gain inspiration as well. Every blog, no matter what the topic is, is made better with comments.

This is an excerpt from Tris Hussey’s upcoming book on blogging “6 Easy Blogging Projects” published by Pearson. Follow Tris on twitter.

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#1) They need to master the art of Rapport Building

#2) They need to get good at Needs Analysis Selling

#3) They need to understand how to sell what people buy, and it’s not features, price or technology

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Twitter For Sales Part 1

Twitter For Sales Part 2

What the Heck is a Tweetup?

Social Media is Turning Sales and Marketing Upside Down

How Hard is it to Video Blog?

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I first met Chris Breikss and John Blown founders of 6s Marketing when I was working as a sales manager for an online advertising company during the first dotcom boom of the late 90’s early 2000’s.  They were running their business on a shoe string budget and had just launched 6s Marketing.  They were innovative, entrepreneurial and they really understood internet marketing.  Today they have grown into what is arguably Canada’s leading internet marketing company that even major agencies turn to for their expertise.

Here’s what their site has to say:

About 6s Marketing

6S Marketing Inc. is a leading Internet Marketing Company based in Vancouver, BC Canada that provides search engine marketing services including paid search marketing campaign management, organic optimization, analytics solutions, email marketing, social media marketing, and usability analysis.

Since 2000, 6S has successfully increased revenue for hundreds of clients of all sizes in a wide variety of industries across the United States, Canada and internationally. 6S is a Google Analytics Authorized Consultant, Authorized AdWords Company and a Yahoo Ambassador.

Chris Breikss of 6s Marketing, I took this photo of him at the Massive Tech Show in Toronto this year.

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DOUG MORNEAU – Chief Rhino

As founder and chief executive of Rhino Marketing Inc Doug has been providing his clients innovative solution-oriented direct marketing, database marketing, loyalty marketing and consultative services since 1985.

Doug´s extensive client list includes such well-known names as Shell Oil, Uniglobe Travel, Guthy-Renker subsidiary ProActiv Solutions, and Rotary International. His broad background in marketing, advertising, and business development provide Doug the vision and know-how required to lead a highly effective client-focused marketing organization. In recent years Doug has acquired particular expertise in the emergent practice of e-Marketing providing clients enhanced levels of success using online media, pay per click advertising, assured email deliverability, search, web analytics, and other leading edge technologies.

“Our success is based on listening to our customers, advanced competence, innovation, and leadership.”

Doug enjoys finding opportunity where others see none – for example, at the DMA last year Sir Richard Branson concluded a presentation to several thousand marketers by asking if anyone had any questions… Doug wondered if he´d like to get his picture taken.

About Rhino Marketing Inc.

Founded by Doug Morneau in 1986, and with a current employee and contractor count of 28, Rhino Marketing Inc. operates at the intersection of the rapidly evolving digital world of e-marketing and the world of traditional strategy-based marketing.

RMI understands that business fundamentals have not changed despite profound changes in the tactics and mechanisms of market communication. Marketing is still about identifying, engaging, acquiring, retaining and growing high-value customers. We always remember that when new, exciting, highly effective digital tools and techniques come along; they are still just tactics, not strategy and never lose sight of the fact that whatever technique is used, the objective remains the same: driving profitable sales.

To operate effectively in any medium, businesses need to address fundamental questions about who they want to speak to, what they want to say, and what action they expect prospective customers to take as a result. More than in any other media, customers online choose whether to listen and to whom. In the online world, understanding your audience has never been more important. Relevance is everything!

RMI has developed the expertise to understand, conduct, and manage transactions with these e-enabled customers, and assembled a suite of tools that provide us unique insight into the dynamics of how these interactions take place. It’s how we know which half of your advertising spend is being wasted, and which half works.

The significant difference between RMI and other online practitioners is the real-world business and marketing management experience we bring to each client engagement. We ensure that desired offline results and online marketing efforts are clearly aligned and then, set to work implementing tactics. It’s an accountable, end-to-end service we call The Rhino Process.

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Have a listen to this podcast to hear my thoughts on the subject.

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Linkedin Groups by Richard McLaughlin (@_McLaughlin )

There are many social media groups out there and I have come to the decision that LinkedIn has the best possibility for connecting with people of your niche. There are over 340,000 groups so everyone can be reasonably sure to find at least one group that find your niche. For example, there are over 1000 groups related to social media.

When you when you go to join LinkedIn groups make sure you choose a combination of small niche groups and larger groups. Don’t join a group on firefighting, with the intention of writing about knitting. That may seem like something that goes without saying but there are a lot of people that will join the groups with the most members and post garbage. MLM posts in a technical group. Maybe they are right to try, the numbers are more in their favor. The problem is that many group members ask to have people that make posts like this banned from groups, which can lead you to a site-wide ban.

On the front page of linked in there is a section where you can have questions posted for you to answer. Take advantage of this by answering the questions and remember to include a link back to your site. I have IT questions posted on my LI home page, I answer those there are really related to me. I avoid answering the open questions that do pop up (”what’s better black or white…”) because opinion questions in a forum can be too time consuming.

Once in a group, write a post specifically about the niche that the group covers. I mentioned MLM people posting in inappropriate groups and this example holds true for any group. Do ask questions. If you find a site that has not been listed in the group, then list it. Groups have job openings listed in one section and I have even found a way to get traffic by making useful posts for job hunters based by region.

With over 340,000 groups, the opportunities are close to limitless. By the time you have run through all the existing groups for your niche, you can be pretty sure that someone else will have made another group. And if no one has made a group, then you should consider making one yourself.

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Jay Levinson has sold over 20 million books on Guerrilla Marketing making him the top selling marketing author in history.

Jay Levinson shared with audience the 19 secrets of Guerrilla Marketing. In essence a formula for effectively executing this brilliant grass-roots type marketing. Guerrilla marketers measure success based upon profit, not sales volume, web traffic or how well a name is recognized. With my experience in Social Media and sales I thought I would share with you how you can use this formula to effectively execute a Guerrilla Social Media Marketing Campaign. I have shared these tips three at a time on my blog as series. Today I’m putting them all in one place.

According to Jay if you memorize these secrets, you will exceed your most optimistic expectations in business. All of these secrets end in “ent”:

1. Commitment – Mediocre will win over brilliant. The key lesson here is stay the course. Your social media efforts, whether it is blogging, video podcasts, twitter or a combination of these tools must be executed with a one to two year commitment. Stick with it, it will pay big.
2. Investment – Guerrilla marketing is a recession proof investment. It will pay better than any traditional financial investment. The key thing is you will need to invest in Social Media. This will come not in dollars but time, energy, ability, money, reputation
3. Consistent – Don’t change your identity. Brands, relationships, trust, and technology all take time for adoption and acceptance. Be consistent with your message and on-line social media identity.
4. Confident – You must be confident and instill confidence in the customer. Use social media to listen to your customers. Jay says, “Service is anything the customer wants it to be.” Listen! He goes on to say, “Quality is what customers get out of your product. “ This is great information that can help you provide specific, on topic, brilliant solutions to your target market’s pains.
5. Patient – Be patient. Be patient with yourself, it will take you time to master the Guerrilla Marketing “Weapons of Social Media.” Be patient as you build a community online, build roots and a foundation that will be un-shakable. Be patient with your target market, they will rush in to use and engage in social media, but they will do it in their time-frame.
6. Assortment of Weapons – Use a diversity of tools. Start with a blog or highly socially enabled site. Then use and master all of the major tools. You will identify over time which ones you have a talent for using, and which ones your market responds to best. Today these tools may include:
   • Blogging
   • Video Podcasting (YouTube, Viddler etc.)
   • FaceBook
   • Linkedin
   • Flickr
   • Twitter
   • Forums
   • Ning.com
   • Digg
   • StumbleUpon
   • FriendFeed
   • Google Profiles
   • Tumblr
   • Ubertor (for Realtors)
   • Meetup.com
7. Convenient – “Time is money is a lie. Time is life, don’t waste their time.” – Jay Levinson. This is critical, don’t make people work hard to find your information or consume the great content you create. Also don’t waste their time with 10 minute videos when you could say it in 3 minutes or even better, 3 Twitter tweets. Brevity is key in Guerrilla Social Media Marketing
8. Subsequent – Always know what’s next, don’t write an e-book, write a series of e-books. Don’t just solve one customer pain, be in search of the next big thing that can help those who are connected with you.
9. Amazement – “Tell stories because stories are not boring.” – People love stories, that’s why they follow you on Twitter, they are following the story of your personal brand at 140 characters at a time. Stories spark passion, get good at using social media to tell stories.
10. Measurement – Measure your success, use tools like Google Analytics to track the traffic and behavior of those arrive at your site as a result of your social media activities. Don’t just measure profits either. Look at happiness, education, network growth, and positive community impact these are all other forms of profit.
11. Involvement – Listen and engage, or even better give them platforms to communicate and share. Then jump into the conversation and let them know that you hear them. This could be building a Ning.com social network for people who are in your industry. It may be starting a new LinkedIn or FaceBook group. You can also use a tool like Meetup.com to get your online community to meet offline and cement relationships.
12. Dependent – “The guerrilla’s job is not to compete but to cooperate with other businesses. Market them in return for them marketing you. Set up tie-ins with others. Become dependent to market more and invest less.” Begin to blog, do interviews and profile your cooperative competitors online and many will reciprocate and help you grow your following and client base.
13. Armament – Arm yourself with all of the social media tools that your customer consumes or uses. Also find new markets through arming yourself with new social networks and mediums.
14. Consent – Permission is number one if you are going to be a Guerrilla Social Media marketer. Take time to build trust and relationships and never overstate or overstep your relationships online with pitches and unsolicited messaging.
15. Content – “Substance wins over style” Give real value, unique content and do it often with multiple social media weapons. If you want to dominate your marketplace using social media give more, and give more often. Your community and Google’s robots will reward you!
16. Augment – Augment your attack; audit yourself and your strategy constantly. The world of social media is growing by the millions of members every month. You have to stay up on the tools and on the demographics of each medium. NHL Superstar Wayne Gretzky attributes his success on the ice to always knowing where the hockey puck was going to be versus where it was in the moment. He was always ahead of the game. You need to be the same way in the social media space. Ask: “What’s next?”
17. Congruent – Make sure that all of your tools and messages work together. You should be layering each blog entry, twitter update, or FaceBook post like bricks in a building. They all are valuable but contribute to a greater masterpiece, your brand and reputation.
18. Experiment – You will have little failures before you have one big success. Constantly test and be curious about the psychology behind what motivates and engages your customers, prospects and the online communities you participate. Remember that penicillin and gun powder were both invented by accident. Have fun, be engaging and bold and most importantly observe everything.
19. Implement – The world belongs to those who are willing to implement. Put a solid marketing calendar together that includes core social media disciplines. Blog at least 3 times per week, update your Twitter status five or more times per day, spend at least 30 minutes a day pro-actively listening to your audience. Constantly devour information on how to hone your skills as a Guerrilla Social Media Marketer.

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Authors Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff of Forrester Research have put together a no non-sense practical guide to winning in a world transformed by social technologies.  Published by Harvard Business press this book is packed with comprehensive proof that social media is here to stay, and it has transformed how people need to market, lead, and interact with their clients, customers, and community.

A groundswell is “A social trend in which people use technologies to get the things they need from each other, rather than from traditional institutions like corporations.”  This trend can be seen on e-Bay, Facebook, blog networks, Twitter, and Craigslist.  Some businesses according to Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff aren’t eroding away because of this trend, in fact they are winning by using these tools to engage the customer like never before.

The comprehensive Forrester Research around consumer and corporate behavior in the social media space makes it hard to argue with their hypothesis. In fact it gives business leaders real data and motivation to jump in to this space and profit. There are several topics covered on how to listen, talk, energize, and embrace the groundswell as a force in business. Packed with case studies and practical tribal stories of business success and failure within the groundswell, this book should be a requirement for all executives’ libraries.

The core message is “Within a few years a company that doesn’t engage in this sort of activity will look dated.”  As a business leader embracing the groundswell is a key “must-do” if you want to further leverage your network and fully engage your staff, clients and community. The groundswell blog and community can be found at http://groundswell.forrester.com

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What I want to be when I grow up.

I used to want to be a video game programmer, but I think that’s too much work.

And now I want to work at  Apple, the company that makes Mac computers and iPods.

I think selling them is fun and will give me a good life and also will help people.

Technology can help you do work faster, talk to your friends more and even play games.

I love technology.

See Kristian’s Blog Here

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About Tom Everitt:

To is a Medallion Club member of Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver for 2004-2008, and active with Big Brothers of Greater Vancouver he is the owner of ThinkTom.com Realty, a husband and father of two great kids. In addition to this Tom can often be found hanging out at the Vancouver Sales Performance meetup networking with the rest of us sales and social media folks from Vancouver. Here’s Tom’s video:

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Blogger and Supported Charity:

1. Raul Pacheco The BC Cancer Foundation
2. Rebecca Bollwitt – Miss604 the Union Gospel Mission
3. Duane Storey The Union Gospel Mission
4. Tiny Bites (team effort) The Vancouver Food Bank
5. 604 Foodtography The Vancouver Food Bank
6. Shane Gibson (That’s me and I’m Blogging for The Vancouver Food Bank as well!)
7. Barbara Doduk The Richmond Animal Protection Society
8. Mehnaz Thawer the Tumaini Children’s Project
9. Fraser Valley Pulse the Langley Animal Protection Society
10. WorldwideWaterCooler The BC SPCA
11. Developmental Disability Association for their own cause (I believe)
12. Justin Yang BC Children’s Hospital Foundation
13. Liberation BC for Liberation BC
14. Bluefur Team Diabetes
15. Shane’s World Theatre Terrific
16. Think Referrals Burn’s Bog Conservation Society
17. Brady V BC Children’s Hospital Foundation
18. Langley Politics The United Way
19. Beth Snow Options For Sexual Health
20. Karen Fung Vancouver Public Space Network
21. April Smith Community Education Resource Society
22. Ganga Narayanan Canadian Hard of Hearing Association
23. Matthew Naylor Canadian Mental Health Association
24. Aidan BC Children’s Hospital
25. Iris Dias MS Society of Canada
26. Mitch Baldwin – The Salvation Army, Camp Sunrise
27. Catherine Winters – Canadian Cancer Society
28. Neil Parker – Weekend to End Breast Cancer

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Here it is:

Can You Use Social Media To Get International Sales For Your Business?

As a small business owner based in France targeting North American clients, social media makes good sense for me. And it works my business. Why? Because there are no significant barriers created by cultural differences between the social media I use and the people I connect with.

If you want use social media to develop your international business, there are two things you need to remember.

Sales Techniques

You will need to develop strong international sales negotiation techniques.

This comes with practice. But you must be willing to put in the personal effort needed to develop these skills.

Adapt Your Business

Have a look at the 5 different cultural scales outlined by Geert Hofstede:

· High versus Low Power Distance

· Individualism versus Collectivism

· Masculinity versus Femininity

· High versus Low Uncertainty Avoidance

· Long versus Short Term Orientation

What are these scales? They are an attempt to categorize and explain cultural differences.

I will not go into them here, but click through the link above. It is a very interesting table. You will see scores for a long list of countries for all 5 of these scales. And you can choose your country and another one to see how the two sets of cultural differences compare.

Although these 5 scales seem complex and they have their limitations, it is easy to understand why you need to approach people from different cultures differently.

And International Social Media?

Read the news and open your ears. Social media has hit the world everywhere. Here are a few points to remember:

· There are different social medial platforms in different countries

· What is popular in one country may not be popular in another one

· People use social media differently

It is not easy to get international social media statistics. And I am not sure I would even begin trying to get a comprehensive world vision of social media.

I suggest another approach…

Instead of taking on the whole planet, simply because social media is “free’:

· Keep your business in mind.

· Choose one country and jump into their social media environment.

Do not start with social media marketing. Instead:

· Start with social media networking

Get to know how people use social media in their country and then work on finding out how to adapt marketing your business in this new country.

There are some international social media networking scenarios where it is easy to create business relationships from a distance.

If you have any international social media stories to share, I would love to hear them. Please leave a comment below and tell me how you have used social media within part of your sales process.

Cindy King is a Cross-Cultural Marketer & International Sales Strategist based in France.  She uses her dual background in sales & marketing to help businesses improve their international sales conversion and develop country-specific international sales guides. Connect with her on Twitter @CindyKing

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Blogathon 2009 for Vancouver Food Bank

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1.     Use http://www.backtype.com/ to search blog comments about you, your blog or a topic.

2.     Social media is too new for Gurus. We’re all amateurs! That’s what makes it fun and open.

3.     Social Media Phases: Adoption, Population, Pollination, Aggregation, Splintering, Commercializing, and Globalizing.

4.     Social media is here to stay and has more relevance and power everyday.

5.     Embracing and understanding how to use social media is a core life skill, leadership skill and career building skill.

6.     Social media is social. It’s about helping people connect to people using technology, it embodies truly what the internet was intended for.

7.     Social media is not just about technology, it’s a new way of leading, thinking, and connecting with other people.

8.     Social media belongs to all of us. An ordinary consumer, a front line employee, a political activist in Iran all have access and a voice.

9.     You need different messaging for client retention than you do for attraction.

10. Statistics tend to be a history lesson. Growth and human behavior are rarely linear. Listen to customers and staff.

11. Use social listening tools: http://www.collecta.com/ http://www.twitority.com/ http://socialmention.com/ http://www.twazzup.com/

12. Develop a social media policy and set of guidelines to keep your team on track and on message.

13. You can force someone to be social, you can only give them the tools and training.

14. Worry less about selling and more about connecting and rapport.

15. Read Free the Future of a Radical Price before launching your next marketing campaign.

16. Read “Ignore Everybody” by Hugh Macleod if you want to tap into your social media creativity.

17. Spend time each day promoting and contributing to another blogger’s success.

18. What works for you now will only keep working until it is no longer unique. Keep innovating.

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This is so basic, you would think everyone would be doing it. Not so.

I was sitting across the desk from the operations manager of the company for which I had worked a number of years earlier. We were reminiscing, and he told me this story.

In the time after I had left this company, it had been swallowed up by a large national company. Now, at number two in the nation, it was again being merged with number three. The government got involved, and mandated that every salesperson fill out a form for every account doing over $100,000 in annual business.

The operations manager described how he looked over the forms as he assembled them to send back to the government. As he did so, he got a sick feeling in his stomach. It seems that on many of the forms, the names listed were nicknames, and there was no title indicated.

He told me that he realized that his salespeople didn’t know the full name and correct title of the key contact people in their largest accounts!

While that may sound like an exception to you, I have since discovered that it is the rule, not the exception. The sad truth is that few salespeople have systematically collected and stored the full names and accurate titles of their key contact people. As a result, their proposals and correspondence are amateurish and they look unprofessional to their customers.

Such a simple little thing!

Yet, over and over again, it’s not the big things that separate the Top Gun performers from the pack. It’s the methodical, disciplined adherence to excellence in the little things.

I know there are thousands of salespeople who are reading this right now, thinking “I already know that.” Yet, most of them aren’t methodical and systematic in their execution of this practice. It’s not what you know that makes you into a Top Gun performer, it is what you do.

That’s why the best practices are called “practices.”

About the author: Dave Kahle is one of the world’s leading sales training educators. Since 1988, Dave has worked with over 400 companies, helping them to increase their sales and develop their sales people. He’s been published over 1,000 times, writes a weekly Ezine (subscribe for free at http://www.davekahle.com/mailinglist.htm), and has authored seven books. Dave’s website is available at http://www.davekahle.com, and you can follow his sales blog at http://www.davekahle.com/salesblog.

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Blogathon 2009 for Vancouver Food Bank

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To Donate the the Vancouver Food Bank Click here or the image below. Every bit helps!

Blogathon 2009 for Vancouver Food Bank

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It came from, @ganga_narayanan. Here was his suggestion: @shanegibson how “about seven habits of highly defective leaders”?

So here it is:

Seven Habits of Highly Defective Leaders:

#1) They Enable not Equip
#2) They’re inconsistent
#3) They hire moons
#4) They delegate vision to the crowd
#5) They practice duplicity
#6) They favor the wrong people
#7) They stop being students

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Sales Best Practices: Asking questions as a means of facilitating every step in the sales process.

The single most powerful tool that a salesperson has is a well-phrased, appropriately asked question. Nothing else compares to the impact that a good question can have on the customer and the sales process.

That’s because a good question directs and influences the customer’s thinking. When you ask a question, they think of the answer. That simple statement neatly packages the latent power of a good question.

Yet, few salespeople understand that, and fewer still implement it.

A number of years ago, a study was done on this very issue. Here are the results:

“Out of 300 salespeople studied, 87 percent realize the importance of asking questions. However, only 27 percent displayed the ability to ask a well thought out, stimulating series of questions.”

In other words, thirteen percent of the salespeople in the world don’t even recognize the power of asking a good question. And only about 1 out of 4 could actually do it. That means that 3 out of every 4 salespeople, or 75 percent, don’t ask good questions.

There are two issues here: First, realizing the importance of using good questions effectively, and second, actually doing so.

This is such a big issue that my book, Question Your Way to Sales Success, is devoted entirely to this.

Everyone can ask a question. I have a three year old grandson. He can do it. This issue isn’t asking questions; the issue is asking better sales questions. While I can’t condense the book to a few hundred words here, I can point out a couple of things that the best do with this most powerful tool.

1. They prepare their major questions before the sales call. This gives them the time to select the best language and sequence.

2. They are mindful, at every stage of the sales process, of using better sales questions. They understand that there are questions, there are good questions, and there are better sales questions. So, they constantly focus on creating and using better sales questions. Whether it’s a cold call on a prospect, or following up after the sale, at every stage of the sales process, a more effective use of questions will produce dramatically better results. And they know that.

3. They collect good questions over time, and use them over and over again.

A master salesperson is a master at the use of better sales questions. That’s why it is a best practice of the best.

About the author: Dave Kahle is one of the world’s leading sales training educators. Since 1988, Dave has worked with over 400 companies, helping them to increase their sales and develop their sales people. He’s been published over 1,000 times, writes a weekly Ezine (subscribe for free at http://www.davekahle.com/mailinglist.htm), and has authored seven books.  Dave’s website is available at http://www.davekahle.com, and you can follow his sales blog at http://www.davekahle.com/salesblog.

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It’s an honour to guest-post on closingbigger.net during the 2009 Edition of Blogathon – best of luck to everyone raising money for their respective causes.

Over the past several months, Shane Gibson and I have exchanged a few thoughts on the idea of ROI for simply being a good company. It’s somewhat part of the 360º of ROI that Shane’s discussed at length right here and in his talks. As someone who’s spent a fair bit of time in the world of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), I’ve developed a perspective that goes beyond ROI, but is fundamentally tied to our companies’ existence.

For most of humankind’s existence, we were a nomadic people. When we ran out of resources, whether those resources were plants, prey or water, we would simply move to a new place. Inevitably, the resources we had depleted would return by the time another group returned.

After a time, we began to take more command of our resources and moved around less. We would have structured villages or cities and import resources as required and gradually our importing became the focus, not on the sustainability of our resources nor the good of our general environment. Early on, this was fine – the earth’s a big place that will take care of itself and we were only making little dents in its natural infrastructure.

Alas, by 2009, the dents have gotten bigger. We are constantly taking more than we did the day before and our distance from resources through complex supply chains keeps many of us free from worry. CSR, then, is a leadership role in replenishing our communities to some extent – either through sustainability or volunteerism. If you believe that our resources are waning, CSR is as essential as replanting a deforested mountainside. In essence, it’s not about ROI – it’s about giving back that which we take out of respect for our command of our resources.

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Blogathon 2009 for Vancouver Food Bank

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22 Types of Updates You Can Post on Twitter:

1. Where you are physically located at that moment.
2. A link to a picture of an event you are at (using Twitpic.com)
3. A question about a business challenge
4. A question about a popular topic in the news
5. Share a link to your most recent blog entry
6. Share a tip on your area of expertise
7. Share a link to a breaking news story
8. Retweet someone’s update that your followers would find useful
9. Answer someone’s question
10. A link to a picture of a social outing (using Twitpic)
11. A link to an image of a diagram that would explain a business process or ideas
12. A link to an event that you are promoting or that is happening in the community
13. A link to a community event of value
14. A link to a sale or business promotion that will save people money
15. Promote a person who just joined Twitter
16. Promote and thank some of your favorite people on twitter
17. Thank someone who has linked to your blog or retweeted your updates
18. Upload a photo of a sunset or your natural surroundings
19. Praise someone for great content they have created.
20. Review a restaurant, movie or business in 140 characters or less.
21. Share some of you favorite quotes from authors and famous people
22. Share a link to a whitepaper or press release

This is blogathon entry #4.

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Ignore Everybody by Hugh Macleod is a fantastic book on tapping into your creative potential and stepping out from the crowd. Following is a video book review of “Ignore Everybody and 39 Other Keys to Creativity” by Hugh MacLeod:

Here’s one of my favorite cartoons the Hugh put together (From Gapingvoid.com):

Dumb Cat

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Here are a collection of Leadership Tips that I have posted on Twitter over the past week. Enjoy!

20 Leadership tips Under 140 Characters:

1.     When giving feedback, focus on problem solving not blame.

2.     To flatten your hierarchy try getting out of your office and connecting with the frontline.

3.     Use wikis, blogs, yammer, and chat rooms to break down silos and get collaboration happening.

4.     Your organization and it’s people are a projection of the leaders’ subconscious.

5.     Consistency is the best teacher for your people. Be a consistent leader.

6.     In business self-direct teams are a myth, the buck must stop somewhere.

7.     Look happy, celebrate the journey and people will want to follow.

8.     Anger is a poison that will cloud your vision and kill the heart of your business.

9.     Be approachable or expect to be the last one to know about a problem.

10. Use a team approach to hiring to mitigate the risks of bias or blind-spots.

11. Organizational change is only welcomed openly if it’s change people want.

12. When hiring Gen Y do it efficiently and provide and ask for feedback.

13.  Invest in your people more and longer than others think is practical.

14. Believe in people and they will often even surprise themselves.

15. Be willing to be wrong, admit fault, and let others lead. It builds trust and people.

16. Changing strategy often and autocratically is a good way to demotivate your team.

17. It takes years to develop leaders. Make sure you invest in the right ones and stick with it.

18. You will feel lost and disorientated at times, this is part of innovation.

19. If you’re not afraid or uncomfortable you probably need to try something new.

20. Book time for you to recharge your battery each week. Take “me time.”

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Blogathon 2009 for Vancouver Food Bank

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Blogathon 2009 for Vancouver Food Bank

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Presently there are over 140 bloggers already registered to blog for 24 hours (one blog post every 30 minutes) to raise money for the charity of their choice. We will be blogging from 6 am July 25th 2009 until 6:00 am July 26th 2009.

This year I have decided to blog for something more local. The Greater Vancouver Food bank Society.

With belts tightening due to the economic down turn globally even within affluent regions like Vancouver, BC organizations like the Food Bank are receiving significantly lower cash and food donations this year. With increased unemployment and underemployment there is actually an increased need for their services.

Here’s how you can help:

#1 A donation of any amount would be great and can be made through CanadaHelps.org

#2 A donation of $100 or more to sponsor a blog post simply donate the amount and then send me a quick e-mail or comment on my blog. I will either answer a question about social media, sales or leadership that you have, or I can write a 150 word profile of your company. In both instances there will be links back to your site or blog and your photo or logo included. (See Vancouver Board of Trade example from last year here)

#3 Drop off non-perishable goods directly at the Greater Vancouver Food Bank [map] and let me know what was dropped off.

You can see a recent article about the Blogathon here.

Thanks in advance for all of your help and support!

Shane Gibson (Follow my updates on Twitter)

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