Why do you do what you do?

I thought he was the hired photographer but…

At the end of my seminar for a trade association last September, the guy who’d been taking photos all morning came over and introduced himself as Hersch Wellman. He said he was the region’s past president and wondered if I’d be willing to come and speak for its larger Eastern Zone meeting a few months later.

Toward the conclusion of our in-depth and engaging 30-minute chat, Hersch asked me a question I’d never heard posed quite this way. He asked, “So, what do you want people to get from your talks? What’s the message you’re hoping to impart?” In other words, “Why are you doing this?”

Seeing as the talk he’d just heard was on Leveraging Social Media for Business and I speak mainly on the topics of customer service, sales and leadership, I asked him to clarify which topic he was referring to. “All of them,” he replied. “What’s your ‘message’? What do you want people to get out of what you’re doing? … Do you need some time to think about it?”

By the time he was done asking, the answer hit me like a ton of bricks. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Business Strategy, Personal Development Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
August 18, 2011 by 4 Comments

“Colleague” or “Competitor”?

To “Friend” or Not to “Friend”

A former client, now friend – we’ll call him Charlie – called me for some advice on an interesting dilemma:  Since Charlie’s recent TV interview has gained a good bit of online publicity, several people from within his industry have requested to connect with him via Facebook, Twitter and Linkedin (like many of us, he also has an active blog and YouTube channel). The thing is, Charlie works in an industry with loads of competition – in fact, in his town alone there must be 100 other companies that do what he does … and they’re all vying for the same local and regional clients. So in Charlie’s small world, “colleague” is often synonymous with “competitor.”

Here is Charlie’s concern:

  • “I’m very selective about whom I connect with on Facebook. I use it mainly for personal stuff. But what if I ‘friend’ someone who steals my business ideas?”

In this post I’ll address his concerns. I expect several of you will feel compelled to chime in. As always, I invite and value your comments.

 

Create Your World

In the social media universe, Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin and YouTube are the big four. Each has extensive privacy controls to make you highly visible to the world, completely INvisible/inaccessible, or something in between. Decide what’s right and best for you. We’ll use Facebook as an example here:

Make the choice:Join Driven to Excel on Facebook

a. my Facebook presence is strictly personal
b. my Facebook presence is strictly professional
c. my Facebook presence is rated “E” for everyone

 

If you choose to go fully public as a representative of your business, give some thought to creating a social media strategy that feels right for you and is aligned with your mission. You could post daily, weekly or monthly updates, sharing videos and articles like I do. Once you’ve made your choice, the path becomes clear and moving forward will be easier. For a live example of these easy-to-follow guidelines, CLICK HERE.

Now that we’ve covered the basics, let’s move on to Charlie’s main concern.

 

I don’t wanna give away my best stuff!

Top SecretSocial media has created an interesting dilemma for many of us, especially [Read more…]

Filed Under: Business Strategy Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
April 6, 2011 by 14 Comments

2 Compelling Reasons You Should be Using Online Video

Leveraging Online Video for Business (Part 1)

It’s not the future of the web … it’s the NOW

Internet users (that’s you) are watching an average of 186 videos per month¹ … 186! … per month!

A friend called me and said, “I was researching something today, and I just visited about 6 web sites. I’m at the point now where if I don’t see a video on someone’s home page, I’m gone!”

Is he alone? Absolutely not.

 

If a picture is worth a thousand words, then what about a video?

Recently, I was hired by a great company to present and train at their national sales meeting. Although referred to me by another client, the vice president of sales listed her primary reason for hiring me as a 93-second video she saw on YouTube.

 

T.M.I. = A.D.D.

As the hours and minutes in our days seem to lessen, the amount of available information and often distracting messaging continues to grow. How many times have you gone to your computer to do one specific, quick task only to find that 30 minutes or more have passed in a flash? It’s almost as if many of us have A.D.D. when we’re sitting at our computers – quickly losing focus and easily becoming diverted, distracted or sidetracked. There’s just too much information out there.

 

Here are 2 compelling reasons why I believe you should be using video:

1. Three Paragraphs of Text Can’t Compete with a Play Button

Given the choice, most people will watch a 90-second video rather than read 90 seconds worth of text. Did you know reading just one book a year places you in the top 20% of readers the U.S.? In other words, 80% of our population doesn’t even read one book a year². In fact, if just 15% of the people that receive this article in the form of an eNewsletter actually click through to this blog post – and then read it – experts will consider that a “good return.”

And while our society may have lost interest in reading, we’re really good at watching online videos. How good?

• 2 billion videos are viewed each day on YouTube alone
• 24 hours of video is uploaded to YouTube every single minute
• YouTube is now the 2nd most-used search engine in the world (Google is #1 … but you already knew that)
• And, as stated earlier, Internet users are watching an average of 186 videos per month¹

 

Bottom line: Given the option between 90 seconds of reading text on a screen vs. clicking Play on a 90-second video … people are much more likely to watch the video.

Facebook Newsfeed

If you’re a regular Facebook user, do you notice how much more appealing those [Read more…]

Filed Under: Business Strategy Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
March 7, 2011 by 2 Comments

Business Leadership & Social Media

Understanding, Harnessing and Leveraging the Power of Social Media for Business Leadership

If 80% of success is showing up, then how are you and your company showing up … online? Do you keep hearing about “leveraging social media for business” but see challenges in connecting the dots? And what’s your social media policy for the workplace: do you discourage it or embrace it? Does your website fall into the category of static … or is there some level of freshness and interaction?

Social Media is not the future of business leadership … it’s the now.

The Compelling Numbers

300,000 = the number of new Twitter users EACH DAY!
400,000,000+ = the number of Facebook users
60,000 = the number of people you are 2 degrees from, on Linkedin, with only 250 connections
70% = the number of Facebook users outside of the United States
2,000,000,000 = the number of YouTube Videos viewed EACH DAY
24 = Hours of Video uploaded to YouTube each MINUTE
35+ = Fastest Growing Age Group on Facebook and Twitter [Read more…]

Filed Under: Business Strategy Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , ,
May 28, 2010 by 1 Comment