The Marketing Mix | official blog of the Marketing Mentor community

Business networking: Facebook, LinkedIn or neither?

Last year I launched a solo practice as a corporate writer and communications consultant. One of the initial questions I asked myself -- right after, "Can I make an honest (or dishonest) living doing this?" -- was where I stood on the whole social networking thing.

The first hurdle was deciding whether I even wanted to connect with prospective clients via online mingling. The second, once I'd given a half-hearted yes to the first, was whether the people I happened to mingle with would want to mingle with each other. But I'm getting ahead of myself...

I'm not on Facebook, for several reasons. First, the fact that two hundred million people have jumped onboard doesn't mean much to me. Two hundred million people probably tune in each week to Dancing with the Stars of Survivor: Krakatoa. That doesn't mean I have to. In fact it increases the likelihood that I won't.

I'm virtually confused

Welcome to Week 20 of my adventure of following the Start Up Version of the Grow Your Business Marketing Plan + Calendar.  In my posts, I talk about my voyage down the road of self-employment as a virtual marketing assistant, my achievements and roadblocks along the way, and I include a weekly recap at the end.

Last week, two people said to me, “Deidre, you are a virtual marketing assistant…(one person even spelled out V-I-R-T-U-A-L)…you should be Twittering!”

And they are absolutely right.  I should be Twittering.  But that still doesn’t make me want to be Twittering. 

See the problem?

I do claim to be a virtual assistant which I take to mean that I work with you virtually.  Although, I suppose it might also imply that I am hip to the virtual world (and can help you with your virtual needs).

Have you ever tried to maintain an exercise routine doing something you hate?  If you detest running, it can be very hard to maintain a running exercise routine.  But if you love, for instance, tennis, that can more easily be incorporated into your life.  Because if you like it—you’ll stick with it.

Yes, you can force yourself to run 5miles, but even if you manage to do it regularly, your heart won’t be in it.

Does the same go for marketing efforts? 

Why you should tell Facebook “what’s on your mind”

“What’s on your mind?” “What are you working on?” To me, these questions have an innately Orwellian tone. But as anyone remotely involved in social networking knows, these questions are immediately asked of us when we open our Facebook and LinkedIn pages, respectively.

Until recently, I answered them only sporadically. “How frivolous, I thought, and what a waste of time.” Now I realize how wrong I was. 

It all started with a freak accident. A few weeks ago, a speeding bicyclist struck me as I got off a bus in Boston. Something (maybe the painkillers) made me think it would be a good idea to mention it on Facebook. That post led to a raft of well wishes (always nice when you’re feeling crappy). But one of them made me sit up and take notice – painful as that was.

Is Social Media Dangerous?

I am trying to walk the line between "Everyone needs a LinkedIn profile to be legitimate in business" and "I sincerely fear that Twitter is dangerous for my health."

I know Twitter is an effective marketing tool for some and probably would be for me, but I am seriously concerned about the effect on my brain (and yours) of shorter and shorter attention spans. I tried to explain my thought yesterday in an interview with Jim Blasingame of the Small Business Advocate. Not sure yet how clear it is but you can read Jim's summary and then link to our interview at the end of his blog post here: http://blog.smallbusinessadvocate.com/home-based-business/can-social-media-be-dangerous-to-your-small-business

Post your comments here or on his blog, if you feel moved to do so.

Can Twitter be a marketing tool?

A few months ago, after resisting it for a while, I went ahead and signed up for a Twitter account. Frankly, it was mostly out of curiosity. What is this twittering all about? How can it improve my life? I started following my immediate group of contacts and people were following me as well. It was (and still is in my opinion) mostly a time sucker. Most people write meaningless information. Do I really care who that someone just ate a sandwich or is waiting in line somewhere? Not really. It was too much. I ended that experience pretty fast. I signed off Twitter and that was the end of that.

Last weekend I presented a new workshop here in LA called “Nuts and Bolts of Winning Proposals”. 12 interesting design and marketing business owners came from all parts of Southern California including one attendee that drove from Arizona.  When I asked him how he heard about this workshop he said: “I found it via Twitter." You can imagine my surprise. Twitter? Really? Apparently someone heard about my workshop and twittered about it. And then someone else twitted about it and so on and so forth all the way to getting this guy to drive from Arizona and spend the day at my workshop.

So this changes things. Don’t get me wrong. I’m not about to start twittering but it makes me rethink about the power of twitter and how it could be used as a marketing too. I don’t have to twitter but it may be good to know people who are active twitters with big following. And that’s a marketing tool right there.

So, do you twitter? Is it affecting your business?

 

Social Networking for Professional Services

If you're avoiding social networking because you just don't get it, help is available.

RainToday.com has published a new report, "Social Networking for Professional Services: How to Add Social Media to Your Networking Plan," that gives a very comprehensive overview of how to use the latest online tools.

Included in this guide:

• 5 mini-cases of professional service firms (accounting, architecture, consulting, law, and marketing) and how they are using social media to provide you with ideas and inspiration (Full disclosure: I'm the "marketing" one!)
• Overviews of 11 social networking tools (LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, blogs, podcasts, social bookmarking, and more) and examples of how other professional services firms are using these tools
• and much more.

It's available free to RainToday.com members, but you can get it if join for a free 7-day trial membership. Check that out here.

Guest Post: Marketing Through a Slowing Economy

Colleen's note: Today's guest poster, L.A. designer Heather Parlato, seriously walks her talk. We've "known" each other online through Spencer Cross's KERNSPIRACY designer's mailing list for years, but it wasn't until this year that we met in person—and we've met now at three separate networking events! (So far—another one coming up next Wednesday, in the Marina; any of you interested Angeleno indie biz types please, check it out!)

With the slow-down in the economy, the question comes up repeatedly—how are you marketing yourself to stay afloat in leaner times? When the latest incarnation of this question surfaced in a KERNSPIRACY discussion today, I circulated a list of ideas I think work well for small businesses and sole-proprietors, and Colleen asked me to share them here.

We all know we’re supposed to keep marketing and stay visible, so I decided to get personal by investing more time & energy in existing relationships, and kicking up my networking circuit to build new ones.

Holiday Gifts – Borrowing from Marketing Mentor’s Designers Guide to Marketing and Pricing, I picked a selection of my favorite clients and sent holiday gifts. To keep them affordable, I made them myself, shopped for cute packaging, assembled personalized elements, and sent them through the mail.

Mine Existing Clients for Referrals – Pick the clients you like working with most and tell them how much you appreciate them [because it’s true] and then ask them if they know anyone else as fantastic as they are who might need your services. If appropriate and affordable for you, offer an incentive for them in the form of a discount.

Mailing Campaigns – Taking the advice I give clients all the time: map out the year and plan a campaign of evenly-timed, seasonally-relevant mailings. It can take between 6 to 12 touchpoints before a company decides to hire you, so put your name & brand in front of them regularly throughout the year.

Chambers & Industry Associations – I decided to expand on my current affiliations by looking into a larger area chamber, and other business-supported organizations that offer regular networking opportunities and referral breakfasts. I tend to target area before industry, but a quick search on the criteria that’s important to your practice can lead you to organizations where potential new business can be found.

Social Networks – Expand your social networks for maximum exposure. Cross reference everyone you know in every community. Scour any communities relevant to your business focus for meetings, mixers & seminars and meet people face-to-face as well [biznik.com, meetup.com, blankspaces.com, mediabistro.com].

Trade Clients – If you can afford to, and are approached by a client who offers a good trade in place of payment for services, consider taking it. A major touchpoint of your brand is the experience of working with you, which can lead to referrals to new business.

Marketing Mentor’s 2009 Marketing Plan – This isn’t a paid plug—the plan just happens to work really well with my style, personality and willingness to market myself. Admittedly, the smaller checkpoints allow you to make a lot of headway in small steps. I feel good when I know I’m doing everything I can to further my business, so this plan keeps me on track.

Try a selection of these strategies and see what works. The mantra in times like these is to get noticed and stay visible, so when you find what works for your business, make the commitment to keep doing it and expand on the ways in which it works best.

Heather Parlato is a freelance graphic designer in Los Angeles enabling small- to mid-sized companies to expand market presence through smart design solutions. She can be found online at www.heatherparlato.com.

Guest Post: How a copywriter uses Facebook (and gets projects!)

A recent post on the Marketing Mix suggested that Facebook is the least useful of the social networking services. I agreed when I first read it, but changed my mind a few days later when Facebook dropped a potentially lucrative prospect in my lap (more on that in a moment).

Facebook has enormous potential to be a colossal waste of time, but with a few simple strategies it can also be a valuable part of your marketing toolbox. It may lack the professional directness of sites like LinkedIn and Biznik, but its “ambient intimacy” can keep you visible to the clients you want most and put you on the path to valuable client relationships.

Here are four strategies to help your creative business get the most out of Facebook:

Biznik best practices

I have a lot to learn about social networking, especially the online kind.

But when I was in Seattle last week, I learned a little bit more at the Networking the Biznik Way workshop, led by Dan McComb and Lara Eve Feltin, founders of Biznik.

I had no idea what's possible and how much Biznik offers, mostly because I haven't taken the time to explore very deep. (Makes me wonder how much of everything else I'm not taking advantage of due to simple ignorance).

After the event, I went directly back to my hotel and made the following changes to my profile:

1. I changed "my job." Dan said that one of the most important fields to the search-engines is the "my job" field in the basic profile, which is the text/phrase that appears right under each member's name. So I changed mine to what I consider to be my most strategically keyword-friendly phrase: Self Promotion Expert.

2. I added the link to the RSS feed to my blog so that each posting from my blog also appears on my profile page. (I don't think you can do that with LinkedIn, although you can on Amazon.com, if you have books for sale up there. Check out mine here.)

3. I added my "current promotion" -- the free half hour phone consultation I offer to anyone who has burning marketing questions and/or wants a taste of what we offer through Marketing Mentor. This also gets posted on their "promotions" section.

These 3 features are just the beginning. This site is quite amazing, but not enough people are aware of it yet.

And if you haven't created your own free profile on the site, drop everything and do it right now.

Maximizing LinkedIn

One of our Marketing Mentor clients (and an enthusiastic and frequent contributor to this blog), Dani Nordin of Zen Kitchen (here's her web site and her blog), has posted a great article over on Biznik about how to make the most of LinkedIn -- and any online networking site.

Here is my favorite of her 10 tips:

Have a great summary. The summary is the first thing that appears below your basic profile information on your LinkedIn  profile, and it's often going to be the first (and perhaps only) thing that your potential contact will look at. Make sure it's complete, and focuses on the types of people you work with (your ideal client) and the great things you can do for them (what you do). This is also a good place to list awards, publications, and other "Go Me!" type of stuff.

Here's Dani's LinkedIn profile here. You can read the rest of her tips here and be sure to post your own comment.