Hate Selling? Build Profile Instead
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A 90 minute workshop on how to build a stronger professional profile that will help you get more business. This presentation was customized for a group of independent qualitative research professionals, but can be customized for your group. There is an accompanying worksheet that goes with the presentation, which attendees use to create an individual ONE PAGE plan of action. This has been our most requested material, and audiences find it entertaining and inspiring!
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Hate Selling? Build Profile Instead
- 1. Build Profile - Susan Abbott 2012
- 2. Build Profile - Susan Abbott 2012 Hate Selling? Build Profile Instead Presented to: QRCA Philadelphia/Delware Chapter May, 2012 By Susan Abbott
- 3. Build Profile - Susan Abbott 2012 Overview
- 4. Build Profile - Susan Abbott 2012 What is profile?
- 5. You have profile when • People you do not know have heard of you • You have a large internet “web wake” • You get calls/e-mails out of the blue Prospective clients Prospective associates People who want something from you • There are many sources supporting your reputation and credibility
- 6. Build Profile - Susan Abbott 2012 Your Golden Chain of Profile
- 7. Build Profile - Susan Abbott 2012 List your top 5 clients How did you get them?
- 8. Build Profile - Susan Abbott 2012 Was a co- Called up “out Heard presenter at a of the blue” presentations conference at conference Encountered at previous company Referred by supplier
- 9. Build Profile - Susan Abbott 2012 Why did the top 5 people hire you?
- 10. Build Profile - Susan Abbott 2012 Customer Future trends Online experience qualitative Innovation B2B “Speaks Executive”
- 11. Build Profile - Susan Abbott 2012 Be clear what type of birds clients you want to attract
- 12. Build Profile - Susan Abbott 2012 All possible clients, People I can reach with including the difficult, the profile building boring, and the broke Ideal clients – great projects, great people, lots of money Clients who might want what I’m offering
- 13. Build Profile - Susan Abbott 2012 Who is your target client today?
- 14. Build Profile - Susan Abbott 2012
- 15. Build Profile - Susan Abbott 2012 Once someone becomes a client, they are no longer in prospect territory
- 16. Build Profile - Susan Abbott 2012 Building Your Golden Chain Tools and Tactics
- 17. Build Profile - Susan Abbott 2012 www.theideastudio.com
- 18. Build Profile - Susan Abbott 2012 Make referrals Web site LinkedIn Real people networks / associations Public Profiles Publish a Book Facebook Write an e-book Golden Chain Directory Listings Multi-media creator Blog of Profile Expert Networks Publish a newsletter Twitter Publish articles SlideShare channel Advertising Speaking Sponsorship
- 19. Build Profile - Susan Abbott 2012 Make referrals Web site LinkedIn Real people networks / associations Public Profiles Publish a Book Facebook — Not doing this at all Write an e-book Do it but others do it better Do it as well as others Directory Listings Multi-media creator Do it consistently Doing it better than others Expert Networks Blog Pillar of my personal brand Publish a newsletter Twitter Publish articles SlideShare channel Advertising Speaking Sponsorship Acknowledgement to Stuart Morley for the idea
- 20. Build Profile - Susan Abbott 2012 Make referrals Web site LinkedIn Real people networks / associations Public Profiles Publish a Book Write an e-book Basic essential Facebook foundations Directory Listings Multi-media creator you need to Expert Networks Blog have Publish a newsletter Twitter Publish articles SlideShare channel Advertising Speaking Sponsorship
- 21. Website Content is current? Client focused? Looks professionally designed? Has basic keyword optimization? Links to your other online content? Website Grader from HubSpot marketing – Tip free tool that assesses your website.
- 22. Build Profile - Susan Abbott 2012 websitegrader.com
- 23. Directory Listings • QRCA, GreenBook, Quirk’s, etc. • Provide credibility • High quality links Compare cost of a listing to Tip the value of one hour of cold- calling time
- 24. Online Resume • For the business you want • Many articles talk about how to use effectively • Post status updates via TweetDeck, HootSuite • Research clients and stakeholders Tip • Make recommendations first
- 25. Build Profile - Susan Abbott 2012 LinkedIn isn’t a place to dump a snapshot of where you’ve been. It’s an opportunity to stay connected to people and to demonstrate where you are now and where you plan to go next. Chris Brogan, entrepreneur, author + blogger
- 26. Brogan’s tips • Headline is important • Summary • What you do most • Type of business you want to do • Refresh every two weeks • Write from the client’s perspective • Recommendations are powerful • He has written 146 178
- 27. Build Profile - Susan Abbott 2012 • Look at other high-profile people to see Tip how others present themselves
- 28. Build Profile - Susan Abbott 2012 Extra Credit Answer questions, join Have your own groups, lead groups company page
- 29. Build Profile - Susan Abbott 2012
- 30. Build Profile - Susan Abbott 2012 Do not use the standard LinkedIn invitation. Take the time to write a genuine thought.
- 31. Build Profile - Susan Abbott 2012 35 people who have my name!!! Yikes!
- 32. Public Profiles • Spoke • Naymz (was Visible Me) • 123People • Search your name on a regular basis. Claim your profile. Correct the information. Tip • Caution - contact information may lead to more squirrels
- 33. Build Profile - Susan Abbott 2012 “LinkedIn is for your professional network; Facebook is for your personal network; Twitter is where you find kindred spirits” CB Whittemore, blogger, speaker, social media + marketing consultant
- 34. Build Profile - Susan Abbott 2012 You need to decide about Facebook
- 35. Build Profile - Susan Abbott 2012
- 36. Build Profile - Susan Abbott 2012 You can use different types of Social Media to facilitate Social Networking. You can network using different forms of Social Media. Susan Sweeney and Randall Craig, Authors of Social Media for Business
- 37. Build Profile - Susan Abbott 2012 Expert Networks
- 38. Build Profile - Susan Abbott 2012 The whole Internet is going to be social media: shopping will be social, your resume will be social, your whole career will be built on social media, and your kids’ education will be built on social media. Penelope Trunk
- 39. Build Profile - Susan Abbott 2012 Make referrals Web site LinkedIn Real people networks / associations Public Profiles Publish a Book Facebook Write an e-book A good next Directory Listings Multi-media creator step without Blog a huge time Expert Networks commitment Publish a newsletter Twitter Publish articles SlideShare channel Advertising Speaking Sponsorship
- 40. Build Profile - Susan Abbott 2012 Don't let the fear of the time it will take to accomplish something stand in the way of your doing it. The time will pass anyway; we might just as well put that passing time to the best possible use. Earl Nightingale Author, motivational speaker
- 41. Build Profile - Susan Abbott 2012 Publish a newsletter • Tools make it easier Templates Anti-spam avoidance List maintenance • Some have Automated follow-up E-commerce support Tip • Use professional tools – it’s easier
- 42. Build Profile - Susan Abbott 2012
- 43. Write articles • Be interesting • Be insightful • Push yourself • Do a little research • No long term commitment Tip • Creates high quality links • Give you “expert” credentials
- 44. Write white papers • Provocative Take a point of view • Informative • Compelling
- 45. Build Profile - Susan Abbott 2012 Conduct some new research • Global Village Teen and Technology project 2007
- 46. Build Profile - Susan Abbott 2012 Advertising NewQualitative Directory Views magazine • Consider the reader target Tip • Why not an industry publication? • Online advertising another option e.g. LinkedIn
- 47. Build Profile - Susan Abbott 2012 Sponsorship • Makes you look successful Tip • No time commitment
- 48. Build Profile - Susan Abbott 2012 Make referrals Web site LinkedIn Real people networks / associations Public Profiles Publish a Book Facebook Write an e-book A bigger Multi-media creator commitment Directory Listings with bigger Expert Networks Blog payoffs Publish a newsletter Twitter Publish articles SlideShare channel Advertising Speaking Sponsorship
- 49. Build Profile - Susan Abbott 2012 If people knew how hard I have had to work to gain my mastery, it wouldn’t seem so wonderful. Michelangelo (1475-1564) Renaissance painter and sculptor
- 50. Build Profile - Susan Abbott 2012 Speaking • Major time commitment • BUT not ongoing • Expert who speaks • Leverage the content Tip • Leverage the content • Leverage the content
- 51. Build Profile - Susan Abbott 2012 SlideShare • Share your PowerPoints • Link with LinkedIn your website blog Newsletter
- 52. Build Profile - Susan Abbott 2012 Twitter • Not that difficult Tip • Requires consistent effort • Reciprocity is important
- 53. Build Profile - Susan Abbott 2012 Writing a blog • Major time commitment • Must be promoted to get traffic
- 54. Build Profile - Susan Abbott 2012 700 600 Page Views 500 400 300 200 100 0 12/30/2000 12/30/2001 12/30/2002 12/30/2003 12/30/2004 12/30/2005 12/30/2006 • Traffic is slow to build, takes patience and Tip persistence • Consistency is important, or traffic falls off
- 55. Build Profile - Susan Abbott 2012 A (reasonably) successful promotion effort: the Bathroom Blogfest
- 56. Build Profile - Susan Abbott 2012 Make referrals Web site LinkedIn Real people networks / associations Public Profiles Publish a Book Highly visible Facebook Write an e-book activities that Directory Listings Multi-media creator require serious commitment Expert Networks Blog and their own Publish a newsletter Twitter promotion Publish articles SlideShare channel Advertising Speaking Sponsorship
- 57. Build Profile - Susan Abbott 2012 Write an e-book • Leverage the content Tip • Leverage the content • Leverage the content
- 58. Build Profile - Susan Abbott 2012 Multi-media content • Podcasts • Video blogging or YouTube channel • Internet radio • REAL radio • Webinars
- 59. Build Profile - Susan Abbott 2012 David Van Nuys podcasting setup • http://www.shrinkrapradio.com/about/my- Tip podcasting-setup/
- 60. Write a real book • Write a real book Martha Guidry Siri Lynn, Jean Bystedt, Deborah Potts Judy Langer Others!
- 61. Build Profile - Susan Abbott 2012 Make referrals Web site LinkedIn Real people networks / associations Public Profiles Publish a Book Facebook Write an e-book Don’t forget about these basic human Directory Listings Multi-media creator interactions that still Expert Networks Blog drive a lot of business Publish a newsletter Twitter Publish articles SlideShare channel Advertising Speaking Sponsorship
- 62. Real people networks • Elevator introduction • Reciprocity principle
- 63. Build Profile - Susan Abbott 2012 Making referrals • Nothing better • Must be qualified For both sides! • Real network or social referral?
- 64. Build Profile - Susan Abbott 2012 Keys to success
- 65. Build Profile - Susan Abbott 2012 Profile building is about impression management and reputation management
- 66. Build Profile - Susan Abbott 2012 Do the things you enjoy doing* *Don’t swap one thing you don’t like (cold calling) for another thing you don’t like (e.g. public speaking)
- 67. Build Profile - Susan Abbott 2012 Consider the audience you want to reach, and how you want to interact with that audience
- 68. Build Profile - Susan Abbott 2012 Leverage your efforts
- 69. Build Profile - Susan Abbott 2012 Don’t advertise what you can’t deliver * * “Get better, get busier” – Warren Evans
- 70. Build Profile - Susan Abbott 2012
Notes de l'éditeur
- I know a lot about sales. I started my career by selling people credit as a commercial banker. At one point, I led a national sales force of two dozen people, all on commission. So I do get it. However, I have found selling oneself to be a uniquely challenging experience.Not only that, it takes a lot of time. When you work for a major corporation, people take your calls. When you work for a micro-enterprise, no one knows who the heck you are.That’s where profile comes in.It won’t solve all your problems. But it will help you create awareness and credibility.This session is interactive, but it will be also be fast paced and cover a lot of ground. My objective is that you get a fresh perspective on this topic, and build a road-map you can take back to the office.
- Take a couple of shout outs
- Here’s my definitionI don’t think people buy my services based on my profile. I think they might shortlist me, or decide to include me in a set of people to get an RFPI think if I meet them somewhere, they may have heard of me, and be more prepared to take a next step with me
- Let’s get down to tactics.
- Here’s the first interactive piece. Grab the handout, and jot down some notes.Don’t overthink this.
- While you do that, I’m going to tell you where some of mine came from. One was initially referred by a marketing research supplier. In2010, my largest client, who gave me two projects, called me up because he recalled a conference presentation I did about 5 years before.Another good client for several years called me up seemingly out of the blue. He mentioned my web site on the phone call, but he actually meant my blog.Another client was a co-presenter at a conference. Finally, the most recent major client had seen me speak at a creativity seminar, and someone on her innovation team had met me on the supplier side. I also get calls from people because of my directory listings.And I get calls that I’m not really sure how they originated.Drop anchors here to pick up later in talk: referral pathways, directory listings
- This is a bit trickier isn’t it?What I mean is, what were they looking for?Because the best clients, in my experience, have lots of choice in suppliers. For some of you, you are sole practitioners, or are the main brand of the business. So your job is to build your own profile.Others have a different challenge, to build the profile of a company brand, with potentially multiple participants
- What’s important about this is that all of these areas are areas I have worked at building profile in.I speak on these topics.I write on these topics.I build expertise in these topics.Profile can help you.It is the strategy I chose to use when I was building my business, and it is still my strategy. However, I think we need to be realistic about what you can reasonably expect to achieve for your business.
- This is obvious, but often overlooked.You need the right kind of bird seed. You will never attract a robin to your bird feeder with sunflower seeds – because robins eat worms!We know there is no such thing as “a customer” from our work. But we act like there might be when it comes to ourselves.
- Here’s how I look at the targeting aspect of profile building.Multiple pathways – clients not necessarily easy to reach directly, so important to reach people who can refer you as well. As a small company, your need for large clients is quite small – you can do very well with a handful of repeat clients.
- We’re going to do a quick persona exercise here. Because you have to build profile against a specific target, or your efforts are wasted.
- What industry? What type of problems? How large? Where located? What level in the organization? Are they new in their job, or have they been there a long time? Who are you competing with? What type of problem do you want to solve for them? Is there a personality type? The things about this is, if you don’t know who you are trying to reach, you will waste time building profile with the wrong people.
- Relationship management strategy is for clients. Profile building strategy is for attracting clients. Not at all the same thing. Important not to confuse. Profile building is for people you are not engaging with directly, for the most part
- Let’s get down to tactics.
- Many of the resources I am discussing are listed here on my blog, along with a number of links that you might find useful. If you go there, you will see that I am doing a number of the things we will discuss today.This topic is huge, and there is no way we will cover it all. The idea is to help you think about your own profile-building roadmap
- Acknowledgement to Stuart Morley for the idea
- This is a foundational basic.I have rebuilt my website three times since I started business, and it needs done again.Lack of client focus is the biggest mistake of most websitesHubSpot free toolIf you don’t have a website, you are here to listen.If you are using a hotmail address without your own domain, you are here to listen.Those two things are so basic, you absolutely must have them.
- Excellent free tool to run on your site that will give you a lot of good tips about what you need to improve.You can compare your site to others.
- This is so obvious I hesitated to put it in. Free or paid, directory listings are a good idea because… SEO benefits, people use directories. The links generated from sites like these are very good for your SEO, because they are high quality sources and not easily manipulableI avoid directories that will attract the wrong kind of traffic e.g. Yellow Pages (can I be in your focus groups?). Use directories that your target might conceivably use.
- LinkedIn, of course. How to use itProfile for the business you want, not necessarily what you have today. How I found out why my client’s client was such a jerk – looked up his employment history on linked in.I also use this as prep for executive interviews.Tips and tricks. You can use the groups and answers functions… this is an expertise-building strategy.Provide recommendations without being asked. Learn how to make a good recommendation.
- Ricardo Lopez is the moderator of the QRCA linked In group, which is very active. Barbara Egel’s company, Primary Insights, has their own company page on LinkedIn. This is one of the things personally on my to-do list.
- I might forgive this if it came from an actual friend. Someone who just realized, hey, susan isn’t in my network!
- You don’t want to spend a lot of time on this, but you do need to claim your own profile anywhere you see it, such as on Spoke. This ensures that anyone looking for you actually finds YOU – with links to your site, an accurate picture, and so forth. It’s not time consuming.There are more of these all the time, and this is probably less important than it used to be, if your LinkedIn content is current. I still think it is worth removing old/wrong information if you are bored some day and wandering around.
- I have started restricting FB to people I actually know in the real world, or would have a coffee with.But… people are using FB groups to build profile – Ben Smithee has a marketing research discussion group.Companies are building Facebook pages, there is no reason you can’t have one of these.This is what mine looks like – not too impressive.Here’s CB’s page…
- Christine Whittemore, who I mentioned earlier, has a facebook page that has attracted a nice small following.So you can do this, and it can work for you.You need to be clear what kind of content you are going to put there, or it is unlikely to get you very far.You also need to consider, if your target is large corporate, that they likely cannot use Facebook in their office.Pinterest is in this category I think. Possibly useful for business, but I’m not sure about it for businesses like us.
- Full quote reads: “There is a lot of confusion regarding Social Media, Social networks, and Social Networking. They all have the word “social” in them, but are different. They are distinct, but related. You can use different types of Social Media to facilitate Social Networking. You can network using different forms of Social Media”
- Some people report getting business from this source – those that do are focusing their time on this source, writing very high quality answers, following up with individuals. There are only so many things you can spend time on.I wrote about these on the blog, and linked to an article about how to use them.LinkedIn group – Ricardo Lopez moderates, and it is very active, with 3926 members.Focus network is probably the most promising location for people like us. Other than LinkedIn, of course.I am an expert there. It’s not something I spend a lot of time on. I think I should, because I think it could be more useful than other things I do. However, you cannot do it all unless it is your full time job.What I actually like better, in some ways, are industry focused networks. For me, Finextra is one of these, it’s about financial services. If I was going to expand the time I spend on these, that would be a good place.My key suggestion here is this: participate narrowly but deeply – when you are involved, write really great content, really great answers. Otherwise don’t bother.
- You may be thinking you don’t need to learn all this.You do.
- Challenges of a newsletterSaying something that is useful so people do not unsubscribeKeeping it going – probably need to issue at least quarterlyBuilding a list – you need a way for people to subscribe (such as on your web site, in your e-mail address, on your blog)You need to keep adding names from your own permission lists, such as business cardsRisk of unsubscribes from your clients - -yikes!
- Rick Weitzer has a newsletter. Jay Zaltzman has a newsletter. There are many others among our members that you could subscribe to as a way to study what others are doing.I have a newsletter (in theory anyway… been a while since I published it)Foster Winter’s – Sigma Research – is called The Flying Pig News.Martha Guidry has a newsletter that is very good looking.Susan Saurage-Altenloh publishes a newsletter called Reality Spikes. Content must be compelling or it will not be read. Consider how many newsletters you receive that you delete or ignore.Look at professionally designed newsletters and compare them to your own.
- You are in a very good place if you want to write about qualitative research topics, especially if you are a QRCA member.We have a very high quality magazine that goes out to a large mailing list of clients.You can add your own clients to that mailing list very easily. Then you can be published in the magazine. And your clients will see your article and be impressed.You can link to the article from your web site.You can feature the article link in your newsletter.You can mail hardcopies to prospective clients.And it is not just Views.Other places are actively seeking content.If you are a QRCA member, you can write articles that our PR group tries to place in other publications.There are also research blogs that are actively seeking writers.Kristin Schweitzer is editor of the NewQual blog, and several members write for that.The Greenbook blog, written by Lenny Murphy, is always looking for guest authors.Advantages: no long term commitment; creates high quality links
- When I first launched my business, I could see that the wealth management market was heating up a lot. All sorts of organizations were trying to sell investments to people. And there was this term rumbling around about the mass affluent. And even more, I was hearing about High Net Worth.So I did a little paper looking at census data and tax data to try to figure out how many of these people were really out there. And how many people there were trying to manage the money of this group.It was very interesting, and for years, it was the most popular thing on my web site.I sent printed copies to a fairly large group of people that I wanted to build profile with.The difficulty here is coming up with a topic and really taking a position. It’s a bit like doing a project with no client, so there is fairly significant time involved.There are sites online where you can publish your white paper if you want. However I would recommend a much more targeted approach.QRCA is relaunching white papers as a way for members to promote their expertise. (update people on this)
- Example: global village. This was a piece of research that IlkaKuhagen and CoretteHaf cooked up, and invited a dozen other people worldwide to get involved in.They did this research so that they would have a real project and real data to show clients. It was created as a profile building effort.Out of this came a number of things.There were presentations at the conference. There was a Q-Cast. Betsy Leichliter and I spoke at the ARF conference. I spoke at the MRIA conference in Winnipeg in 2008, and a client I had in 2010 called me because he remembered it, as well as a previous presentation I had done about online research.There is a major time commitment to this. In addition, there is a cost. Personally, I paid for the recruiting and incentives for my part of the project. But there are lots of other examples. QRCA member Paul Rubenstein of Accelerant conducted a study comparing the cost and findings of various forms of qualitative research, online, focus group and ethnographic. And was able to write about and is currently speaking at conferences about it.
- Almost no commitment required.Most publications will prepare an ad for you at no costJust takes money.Consider the target readership of the publication. Frequency counts.
- I have sponsored conferences of the MRIA – the Canadian marketing research society. I had spiral notebooks printed with my logo on them, which were included in the attendees bags.These have been extremely popular.There are usually a few leftovers, and I take these with me when I speak at university classes or similar occasions.I have also given them to clients as project notebooks.
- We are entering the area where you can gain a LOT of profile, but it takes a lot more work.So don’t tell me it’s a lot of work. I know that. I have done a lot of work. And so have all the others who have a high profile in our industry.
- Speak where and on what topic? Are you going for direct influence? Or are you going for indirect influence – e.g. QRCAChallenge of speaking at major conferences – you don’t have enough profile to speak there!!This is an area of my business I want to build, so I have taken training, and I am involved in CAPS, the Canadian Association of Professional Speakers, which is a sister organization to NSA, national speakers association in USA. Ideally, you speak on the topic area you want to profile -- I am breaking that rule here.Why do that? First, takes less time to prepare. Second, the whole idea is to build profile in your area of expertise, to target the ideal client.In the past, I have printed out conference presentations and sent them to current and prospective clients. I also put them on slideshare, although not usually right away. And you can put something in your blog that says you are speaking, where you are speaking, and a link to the presentation.I put a line in my e-mail signature that says where I am speaking next.
- You upload your slides, and now you have your own slideshare channel.A lot easier than video creation.There is a ton of great information there – you can subscribe to other people’s channels. You decide whether or not people can download your slides. Mostly I don’t permit this, but I’ve been rethinking that option more recently.Very easy way to get leverage from a presentation you create for an industry speaking event.I have a widget for this that profiles these presentations on my blog as well. It is not currently working, so I need to figure that out.As you can see, you do need to develop some technical knowledge. Not like a programmer, but it does take time. OR, you have to hire someone to do this work for you. OR, find an executive assistant that can do this work.
- If you are going to be active in Twitter, you need to get some tools. I personally like TweetDeck, but Hootsuite is also popular.Marketing people seem to be active in this space, according to CB.You need to provide things of value to people – it’s not about what you had for breakfast (although it did start that way)If you are going to do this, you should leverage as much of your content as possible. i.e. retweet your blog posts.
- Frequency and duration. Pros and cons of blogging. How to get traffic to your blog. Who is reading your blog? Story of client that called because of blog.I currently write twice a week, and most of the articles take me at least an hour, sometimes twice that.To promote your blog, you can comment on other blogs, link to it in your newsletter, and promote it on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter.But, I find most of my traffic comes from keyword search.My own blog has higher standing than my web site, and lots of people think it IS my website. After I started giving this presentation, i realized i was really no longer happy with the look, and have now relaunched it.
- The spike – I wrote about Jason Oke, a very high profile person in his own right. It got picked up on his blog, and gathered a lot of traffic. As you see, I did not easily capture that again.Measuring a blog is not straightforward. There are page-views, which this chart shows. In the last month, I had about 2600 page views, averaging 145 per day.There are also subscribers – that used to be a very important measure, but I think may be less important now. Lots of people subscribe to things in readers that they do not read.Some tools attempt to measure actual REACH. Most of my traffic now comes from search, and is not necessarily related to the current content of the blog. Some older posts consistently draw traffic.
- In 2006, I knew a few other bloggers. A handful. I called up one of them, Stephanie Weaver, and proposed to her that we create an outrageous topic for a blogfest, which is where a bunch of people write on the same topic.I pushed for the bathroom, as a customer experience topic sufficiently “out there” that it was likely to gather some attention.She agreed.These are the logos for the 6 years of the Bathroom Blogfest. It has been run by Christine Whittemore for several years, who has taken it to a new level. At it’s pinnacle, one of the Fast Company bloggers participated and provided us with links from their blog.This is very much about creating “link love” – one condition of participating is that you have to write at least one post on the topic during the week it is on, which is always Hallowe’en week. Since so many public bathrooms are a horror show.You also have to include links to the other bloggers in the group. This kind of thing is done less now, the blogging environmentPeople are now doing similar things with Twitter called TweetUPs.If you are building online content, and you want a higher profile for it, one way to do that is to create your own event – run a contest, for example.
- I wanted to find a way to get certain clients to do a little planning so I did not have to do it for them.So I created this e-book.I have also posted a slide-share on how to create an e-book. And my e-book is available on slide-share, as well as on my web site. If you subscribe to my newsletter, you should receive a copy of my e-book automatically (one more thing I need to check into, because I’m not sure it is happening)An e-book is a pretty easy thing to do. The reason for putting it in the “difficult” section, is that it won’t get you much profile if you don’t or can’t promote it.Unfortunately, the way I have posted this online means that I do not even know how many people have downloaded the content. This is something I will try to fix in any future iterations of my web site.
- QRCA member David Van Nuys has been running an internet radio program for a number of years. His full set up is available online – he explains exactly how he does what he does.Other people run webinars. You can put your own videos up online. You can interview other people, which is typically what David does.The challenge here is that you need to make a bigger commitment than to a blog. You need to develop greater technical skills, invest in equipment and software.There is simply no point in doing this unless you really love doing it.A bonus – you learn a lot. You can meet a lot of cool people this way. But you will need to invest significant time in developing traffic. And high profile individuals will not give you interviews unless you have traffic.
- David’s web site answers a lot of questions about how he does his show. This is a good place to start.
- Quite apart from the writing process, you will need to figure out how to get your book published. You can self-publish – there are lots of courses and seminars to help you do that. You can find a publisher. That is not easy, because they want to know you will be able to promote and sell a book.However, books have been called “the world’s largest business card”, and there is nothing like a book to establish you as an expert. If you are very good, and work very hard at promotion, and you happen to have the right topic, you may make some money from your book.
- Personal network is important profile building tool. Does everyone who you know also know what kind of client you are looking for? What kind of client you are not looking for? Do you know people who could refer you? Do you ever refer other people?I think it was Brian Tracy who said “some people say to the fireplace, give me some flames and I’ll give you some wood. But the wise person knows that the wood must go in first.”
- When I was first starting high school, I was worried about making new friends. My big brother Bill told me a very good thing. He said, “to have a friend, you need to be a friend.”The same thing is true in business.If you want referrals, you need to give referrals.There is an association called BNI – business networking international. Their slogan is – Givers Gain. Givers Gain.You want referrals? Then you should make referrals. You should make high quality referrals that people want to get. You should ask permission, generally, to make a referral, unless you are sure it will be welcome.There are referral networks now. For our business, I question the value of these. They make sense to me when speaking of B2C services, like local florist services, wedding planners, insurance brokers. I have joined a few of these because I want to understand them. But I don’t see myself getting qualified referrals from these sources.
- Let’s get down to tactics.
- What do people think of when they think of you
- You won’t keep it going consistently unless it’s something you find engaging
- You will inevitably reach a great many people who are not in the target. But if you are not trying to reach your target, you are wasting your time, or you are building a different career path.
- None of us has time to waste. Each piece of content you produce must be leveraged as much as possible.Cross-link content as much as possible.Write article – link from your blog. Tweet the article. Repost the article on your website.
- If you want to be busier, you need to get better. The better you are, the less you need any of this. But the better you are, the more all of these tools will work for you.