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6 Reasons For Refusing LinkedIn Invitations

Sun, 07 Mar 2010 01:50:00 -0800

Have you experienced an increase in LinkedIn traffic? I’ve been hit with a spate of “join my network” invitations lately. Frankly, I don’t like it. While LinkedIn is a social media tool, it’s not designed for open networking. Mostly, I don’t know the people contacting me. Depending on my mood, I’ll just click on the “I don’t know this person” button. More often, I’ll write to the sender explaining my reasons for refusing the invitation. Last week I got a snide reply back accusing me of not understanding how to network. I think it’s time to explain my position on LinkedIn more clearly.

First of all, this is what LinkedIn advises about connecting with people:

Only accept an invitation if you know the sender and want them in your network.
Accept invitations when:

You want to stay in touch with the inviter
You know and trust their judgment and expertise
You’ve worked with them and would recommend them
They know your work and can represent your potential

Do not accept invitations when:

You don’t know the sender well (consider replying or deciding later)
If you don’t know the sender at all, click on the “I don’t know” button or “Report as spam”

Sensible advice, don’t you think? I follow it. My LinkedIn network consists of people I know personally. I’ve worked with most of them. I feel an obligation to protect the integrity of my network as much for their sake as mine. To that end, these are the reasons why I’m going to refuse an invitation:

1) LinkedIn is a professional network, not a social network. My connections span many industries and locations. It was built through hard work and a lot of sweat equity.

2) I have an obligation to the people in my network. When I add another person, it’s a tacit endorsement of his or her credentials.

3) LinkedIn is not a popularity contest involving who has the most fans or followers. It’s meant to represent a trusted group of people personal to me and my experiences.

4) The LinkedIn Groups provide an opportunity for open networking. I’m active in the groups and accept communication from other members. It doesn’t mean, however, I’m going to be comfortable including all those people into my personal network. It does happen, once in awhile, but not often.

5) If the invitation doesn’t have any specific information as to why you want to connect with me AND I don’t know you, I will refuse the connection every time. When I extend invitations, I always write at least one sentence explaining my motivation for the connection.

6) I’m not looking for a job, I’m not looking to hire anyone and I don’t want to purchase a property so Real Estate Agents, Recruiters, and H.R. people are not going to have success inviting me to join their network.

As with any list of rules, there are exceptions to accepting invitations from people I don’t know.

1) I’m always open to potential business opportunities as long as they’re qualified. I do have a couple people whom I have never worked with but it’s only because the right opportunity hasn’t presented itself yet.

2) I have met people in other social media channels and included them in my LinkedIn network even though I’ve never met them in person. If I’ve been communicating with someone in a different medium, over time I will definitely consider adding them to my LinkedIn network.

LinkedIn is my professional network, anchored by my curriculum vitae (resume). I’m not interested in helping total strangers grow their own network on the back of my hard work. If you don’t know me and we have no potential business dealings, I’m the wrong person to invite to your LinkedIn party. I'm not about to be snide to people but I'm not going to feel pressured to open my network, either.

What rules do you have about LinkedIn connections?

Media140: The Troggs, Westpac and Kanye West

Sat, 27 Feb 2010 21:22:00 -0800

I attended the Media140, exploring the future of the Real-Time Social Web conference in Perth on Thursday, 25 February. Billed as “Brands, Marketing & Communications in the Real-Time Social Web”, I booked an early-bird ticket without really knowing what to expect. I know I wasn’t the only one. I was extremely interested to hear experiences of how other people were using social media. I was also looking forward to meeting the faces behind the avatars I’ve been communicating with for over a year, mostly on Twitter. Held at the Perth Town Hall, at the end of the long day nearly all the attendees were still in their seats. The content of the conference clearly outweighed the physical discomfort created by packing over 300 people and 20 speakers into the second floor of the old building on what turned out to be a sweltering day.

The Reviews are In
By now, Media140 Perth has been reviewed, tweeted and blogged about. The consensus seems to be it was a great opportunity to network and I’m in total agreement with that. The organisers, Via Appia Networking WA, impressed everyone with their ability to manage a big event and make it fun at the same time. My hat is off to Rebecca Cole (@rebeccaco) and Bree Mitchelson (@bmitc), two dynamic young women on the brink of major success. The founder of Media140, charismatic Andrew Gregson (@andegregson), chaired the day and conveyed a slightly bewildered attitude to the international success of his conference, originally developed as a one-off event in London. The other, overriding sentiment about the conference was that nothing new was introduced and much of what was said has all been said before. That’s where I have to disagree.

Fascinating Insight
I’m not sure what people expected. As I said earlier, I wasn’t sure what I expected. In many respects, the speakers were preaching to the choir. The seats were filled with social media enthusiasts, early adopters of what business is still grappling to understand. I found the panel discussion on transforming organisations with social media to be the most fascinating. In particular, Jared Woods (@jaredw78), Communications Manager from Sinclair Knight Merz (SKM) engineering firm delivered the most insightful content of the day. I spent 18 years in a multi-national corporate environment so maybe that coloured my opinion.

Wild Thing
SKM have grappled with how to implement an employee policy on social media. While it’s easy to define expectations of your employees when they’re at work and operating under corporate resources, it’ not always easy to define a social media policy for out-of-hours activity. Jared gave some real life examples of how employees had inadvertently caused potential commercial damage to SKM with social media, prompting complaints from customers. In what I consider to be an encouragingly liberal approach, SKM have adopted a policy that states if an employee associates themselves with SKM in their social media profiles, then they must respect the rules of acceptable employee conduct when they’re using social media tools outside of working hours. Honestly, companies have been instilling the same constraints on employees for years with things like morals clauses in employee agreements.

You Make My Heart Sing
The example that really got me thinking, though, was where a potential employee filed a complaint after perceived harassment in a job interview. While the commercial value of one disgruntled interview candidate was significantly less than losing a valued customer, what was revealed was a known problem with the employee conducting the interview. With behaviour geared towards the rough-and-tumble mining environment, previous complaints had been dismissed and a rogue employee had been allowed to develop working habits not in keeping with a professional business environment. With the advent of social media, SKM had no choice but to manage the rogue employee to avoid embarrassment. My heart sings at this news.

You Make Every Thing Groovy
We’ve all worked in places where inadequate people are protected. I know of few women that haven’t been harassed in the course of a career. Old-boy networks have long shielded incompetent employees. The Peter Principle is entrenched in the global corporate world and no one benefits from it except the inept person in question. Whether it is full-blown uselessness, personality disorder, racism, sexism, ageism, homophobia or any other unsavoury trait, Jared Woods is the first person I’ve ever heard discuss how social media can truly transform the workplace. If social media is going to expose our lack of authenticity and transparency – and everyone agreed about its power to do so – than it’s also going to improve our work places and make excellence easier to achieve. Ethics in the workplace are about to change – for the better.

Wild Thing I Think I Love You
We are at the advent of a new way of doing business and corporations will figure this out just as they did voice mail, email, the internet and intranet solitaire. Social media has the ability to humanise corporations as we learned with Westpac’s “oh so very over it” tweet last week. It also has the ability to remove the spin from government as spinmeister Barack Obama learned when he honestly expressed his opinion about Kanye West’s antics at the Video Music Awards. We’re all going to take a few knocks along the way but I predict we’ll come out better because of it.

How has your work place been transformed by social media?

New Ideas for an Old Problem

Tue, 23 Feb 2010 00:47:00 -0800

You’ve heard the old saying, “The grass is always greener on the other side of the fence”, right? I was reminded today just how true it is. I attended the launch of the Aged & Community Services WA (ACSWA) Aged Care Jobs Portal. I developed the content for the website, which is the focal point for a strategic initiative to attract aged care workers to WA. Let me back up a bit.

I spent five years selling software in the international market. Most of it was call face selling in countries where I didn’t know anyone. Cold calling was a necessity and I developed a very thick skin while honing my international business skills. Using sales jargon, I was a “hunter” but always considered the grass was greener on the “farmer” side of the equation.

Guaranteed Sales
When I was offered an appointment to the board at Braemar Presbyterian Care, I was delighted to be in an industry where no one worries too much about sales. The aging population in Australia guarantees a steady stream of clients. While each organisation is acutely aware of their occupancy rates, the problems usually lean towards managing a waiting list, not finding potential clients.

Combating the Resources Boom
Arguably, the aged care industry is facing a much tougher issue – attracting staff. The resources boom at the beginning of the last decade made it extremely difficult to find anyone to work in the sector. Young people have abandoned the opportunity for satisfying careers in lieu of high-paying jobs in the mining industry. The Minister for Training and Workforce Development, the Hon. Peter Collier, eloquently expressed his concern about the trend. Mining is suited to young people but doesn’t impart lifetime skills or long-term employment prospects on their unskilled employees.

Creative Marketing
The aged care industry in Western Australia knows it is facing another resources boom. The new website is a way to encourage people to choose careers in the aged care sector. They’re effectively using video clips of aged care workers on the jobs portal to demonstrate how rewarding it is to pursue work in a diverse and expanding business. Many more initiatives are being planned. It’s an exciting time to be in aged care.

Now that I’ve had a look at the other side of the fence, it’s obvious the grass isn’t greener at all. Hunting for new clients is far easier than trying to service a sector where the benefits are not as obvious as a fat pay packet. I’m impressed with the creative and professional approach ACSWA is taking to combat this looming problem. While no one likes to consider the possibility of life touched by aged care, I certainly want it staffed with the best people when my time comes. I encourage you to broadcast the link to the jobs portal and consider how a career in aged care could help you or someone you know. Personally, I can think of no other work more important.

When did you discover the grass is not always greener?

BRIEF: Share This

Sun, 21 Feb 2010 16:03:00 -0800

How often do you pass on the details of a blog post or an online article to your network? I do it all the time. I’m particularly inclined to do it when I can click on a widget to do the work for me. Time is in short supply in my office and I don’t always stop to shorten a link and send it along. Give me a tool to construct a message and I’ll happily broadcast it.

What a great idea!
I was delighted last week to see someone use a sharing widget in a different way. A company based in Sydney called Ideas into Action have a Share This Site button on their home page. That’s right, they’re encouraging a Word of Mouth recommendation by making it easy to share the details of their website. When you select the Twitter option on the widget, you conveniently get the following tweet crafted for you:

Small Business Marketing Consultants, Services & Strategies, Sydney | Ideas into Action: http://bit.ly/d9bTQ8 via @addthis

The Take-Away
Put a sharing widget on your home page. With very little effort, customers and prospects give you a valuable Word of Mouth (WoM) recommendation. It has the potential to generate unique user traffic, improving your SEO. If you're a small business, it's a potent piece of content marketing. I’ve added it to my list of website upgrades.

What cool little marketing tricks do you use?

Is your customer service a thinly veiled sales job?

Tue, 09 Feb 2010 00:11:00 -0800

Have you ever walked away from a customer service situation and felt scammed?

In a recent Problogger post, Darren Rowse addressed a common problem. Titled What Have You Been Putting Off and What’s Holding You Back?, he goes on to list all the reasons why he hasn’t tackled an eBook he planned to write. One thing he worries about resonated with me precisely because it’s a pet peeve of mine.

Is it a gift or is it a marketing ploy?
Among his fears, Rowse includes, “fear that people would critique me for selling something and not giving it away for free”. Personally, I believe it’s irrational for people to expect something for nothing. Rowse knows it too but he worries about it. Bloggers, like everyone, expect to paid for their expertise and charge for their products. If something is free, then the tacit understanding is it will generate goodwill and, usually, contribute to a marketing database. My problem is when a business gives me a gift when, in fact, they’re trying to make a sale.

The Not Happy case study
If you follow me on Twitter, you’ll be familiar with an on-going service problem I’ve had with a new car purchase. I’ll restrain myself for your benefit. My friends, family and followers on Twitter are all sick of hearing me complain about it. I’m sick of complaining about it. Suffice it to say a resolution was reached and I’m happy with the result. What I’m not happy about, however, is what has become the final nail in the coffin of my customer relationship with the car dealer.

At the end of the service appointment that finally rectified the problem with my car, I was presented with an envelope. It didn’t have my name on it but the person from the service department said it was for me, for my trouble. The envelope had been around awhile and had been stained with water as if it had been left in the rain. Since we’ve had no rain in Perth for weeks and weeks, it’s obvious the envelope has travelled a bit. Inside was a pre-printed letter on heavy cardboard saying:

Thank You!

We just wanted to say thank you. Thank you for being a valued client of SUBURBAN CAR DEALER. (I’ve changed the name to protect the guilty, in this case.) Without you and others like yourself we wouldn’t be the success that we are.

To express our appreciation, we would like you to accept this very special gift certificate.
This certificate is valued at $200 with one of Australia’s leading studios NEVERHEARDOFTHEM PHOTOGRAPHY. This certificate will cover your photo session, an 8x12 inch portrait and you will also have some remaining credit for any further prints.

It goes on with a sales pitch for the photography studio then lists the obligations I’m bound to if I want to take advantage of this “gift” including registering my details. It’s signed “The Team @ SUBURBAN CAR DEALER”.

So what is my gripe?
The first thing that went through my mind is “Who in SUBURBAN CAR DEALER has an interest in NEVERHEARDOFTHEM PHOTOGRAPHY?” I’d have to be daft to consider this a gift. The “thank you” ploy is an obvious attempt to get me to spend money somewhere else. Nothing about the letter was personalised. There wasn’t even a name on the outside of the envelope. I have to leave my details with a company I have no interest in doing business with in an obvious effort to help build someone else’s marketing database. And, because I’ve done business with a professional photographer before, I know if I do take them up on their ludicrous gift, I’m going to be pressured to buy more than the $200 gift certificate.

What would have worked?
If SUBURBAN CAR DEALER WANTED to appease me, it would have been a simple undertaking. A personalised letter of apology, on company letterhead and signed by the manager, would have convinced me someone cared about my experience. If they felt the need to reimburse me for my trouble, a discount on future service or even the offer of a free car wash would have impressed me. My concern, as their (formerly) loyal customer, was no one cared about my problem or me. I still feel that way.

The Take-Away
Make sure your motives are true when dealing with your customers. I expected transparency and attention. Instead, I was fobbed off with a clumsy attempt to provide marketing for an unrelated company. My fury about poor service was compounded with an insulting “thank you”. I won’t be doing business with SUBURBAN CAR DEALER again. I will suffer the inconvenience of future service at CITY CAR DEALER. One thing is for sure, my next car will be from a different automotive company altogether.

Do you get upset when a vendor’s focus is on marketing and not service? How do you deal with it?

BRIEF: A News-worthy Trick for SEO

Sun, 31 Jan 2010 22:10:00 -0800

Like many small business owners, I have to prioritise my tasks with customer demands always ranking first. School holidays changes the mix a bit with family battling for the first spot. Nearly everything else languishes - including my website. Consequently, my search engine rankings take a hit because I don’t get a chance to update my site as often as usual.

Tricks of the Trade
I do have a little trick to keep Google and the rest of the pack happy. I have a “News” section on my home page. It holds three articles with the most current sitting at the top. It takes less than five minutes to add a news item. By keeping this one small area of my website up-to-date, I achieve several things:

Even when I’m busy or away, my website looks fresh
The home page is being updated 3-4 times a month which keeps the search engines interested
It’s a great way to promote events and business successes without spending a lot of time tooting your own horn
The content is being refreshed with very minimal time expenditure

The Take-Away
Consider putting a news feature on your home page. Your SEO will improve and it’s a great way to communicate with your users.

How do you keep your search engine rankings during busy periods?

Can CSR and Marketing Coexist? I Think So!

Wed, 20 Jan 2010 21:02:00 -0800

Earlier in the week I wrote about an invitation I received to contribute to an ebook. ClickPredictions: Content Marketing Trends and Predictions for 2010 launched last night. I'm really excited to be involved in this project for a couple of reasons.

I didn't know if I'd be included in the final book. When I submitted my prediction, I expected a rejection. My piece speaks to the issue of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) which isn't part of the traditional marketing bag of tricks. It was a bold move but I did it knowing I might be squandering a good opportunity to be involved in an important project. Still, CSR is something I feel passionately about. I was delighted to be accepted. It tells me that CSR is becoming a mainstream interest. Hopefully, my prediction will come true. Check out page 17 to read, exactly, what I have to say.

When I saw the draft copy of the book, I was humbled to be included. It's an amazing assembly of talent including many of the people I look to for guidance and inspiration including Mike Stelzner, Joe Pulizzi, Michele Linn and Stephanie Tilton to name just a few. I can't wait to dig into it. Have a look to see how many faces you recognize.

I'm going to keep this short today. I'd rather you spend your time reading ClickPredictions. You can also download a version of ClickPredictions. Best of all, it's free.

What bold move have you made?

Coming Soon: ClickPredictions eBook

Mon, 18 Jan 2010 20:23:00 -0800

Late last year, I was asked by Ambal Balakrishnan to contribute to a crowd-sourced eBook dealing with marketing predictions for 2010. I regularly write for her ClickDocuments site in the capacity of subject matter expert on white papers and case studies. I jumped at the chance to be part of her distinguished mob.

The ClickPredictions eBook is launching on Wednesday, 20 January 2010 at 6:00 a.m. Pacific Standard Time. In Australia, we should all be asleep when the time rolls around. I’ve seen the final copy of the eBook and I’m incredibly excited. Here’s why:

ClickPredictions eBook contains over 100 recommended resources from top marketers including 39 of the best content marketers, B2B marketers, email marketers and social media gurus. Check page 17 for my prediction.
ClickPredicitions eBook is also an Inbound Marketing project for Marketo. Each link in the eBook opens a website with a stumbleupon style toolbar promoting Marketo’s other eBooks and white papers providing even more marketing resources to every reader.
An awesome SlideShare/Twitter integration on each contributor page allows you to Tweet a specific page instead of the whole book. Did I mention page 17?
The project was designed and developed by Stresslimitdesign in Montreal, Canada. I’m impressed with the final product and have been inspired by some of their ideas. It’s a wonderful example of the effectiveness of ebooks as a content marketing tool.

It’s going to be a long week waiting for the ebook to launch. My prediction deals with content marketing and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). I’m thrilled to have the opportunity to speak about two seemingly diverse passions. I’m deeply honoured and humbled to be included in such esteemed company. The advice and insight in the ClickPredictions eBook is amazing.

I’ll post the link once the book is launched if I don’t expire from anticipation before then.

What are you anticipating this week?

How to avoid the Post and Hope Syndrome

Mon, 11 Jan 2010 14:56:00 -0800

Is it too late to talk about resolutions for 2010? I’m asking because my resolution was to get my blog more interactive. It’s been a busy start to the year for me at Global Copywriting. Being late with my first post of the year isn’t a great start to my resolution.

I know I’m not the only one to have blogging on their agenda for 2010. Most of my clients are implementing a blog feature on their websites or becoming more active on the blog they already have. I haven’t met anyone who isn’t considering a blog for their business.

Blogs come with two problems. 1) You have to keep them regularly updated. (Yes, that’s a blush creeping up my face.) 2) You have to get people to read them. Let’s face it. Most of us aren’t full time bloggers. Few blogs enjoy massive reading audiences. That’s okay with me as long as I’m reaching the people I want to.

Mike Stelzner, founder of the Social Media Examiner, addresses the second problem in his excellent book, Writing White Papers. He warns not to “Post and Hope”. It’s good advice. Just because you’ve written a post and put it on your website, doesn’t mean anyone is going to come looking for it.

What can you do to promote your blog and attract more readers?

Update your LinkedIn status telling your network you have a new post and including a link.
Send a tweet announcing your new post. Send the link 3 or 4 times throughout the day to ensure it gets to everyone in your network.
Add your post as a news article to your relevant LinkedIn groups. Better yet, start a discussion on LinkedIn using your blog post as a reference point.
Refer to your own post in comments you leave during the week. (You’re following my advice from Spin Your SEO Web, right?)
Advertise your blog in your newsletter and update the links to recent posts.
Include a link to your new blog post in the signature line of your email account.
Digg yourself.

Writing the blog isn’t enough. You also must think like a publisher and make sure people are showing up to read your content. With a little persistence, you can build a following without spending any money.

How do you promote your blog?

8 Website Compliments You'd Rather Not Hear

Wed, 30 Dec 2009 04:46:00 -0800

Have you ever looked at a business website and had “What were they thinking?” run through your mind? I look at a lot of websites. Thanks to my informal partnership with Ryan Briggs, I’ve also been writing a lot of web copy. The more I learn about website development, the more I’m surprised at some of the commercial websites out there.

To leave 2009 on a light note, I’ve compiled a list of compliments you never want to hear about your own website.

1) You did a great job cramming so much jargon onto your website. You must be really smart. Or maybe I’m just dumb.

2) I love the way you used Flash images on your homepage. It reminds me of a strobe. Add a little music and we could dance.

3) What a great idea to use a small font. Yeah it's harder to read but it gives you room for more jargon.

4) I really like the homely feel to your website. Did you do it yourself or did you get your teenaged nephew to do it?

5) Spelling errors are totally cool.

6) Is that your real dog?

7) It’s clever not to put any contact details on your website. You never know who might be trying to get in touch with you.

8) Wow, that picture on your profile page is something else. Are you in porn?

You get my point, right? Keep it smart and professional. Try to imagine how your website looks to a total stranger. We’re all trying to attract unique user traffic but your website could be letting you down.

What have you seen out there that made you scratch your head in wonder? Can you add another compliment to my list?

Happy New Year and best wishes for a busy 2010.

BRIEF - 1Thing To Review Before 2010

Wed, 23 Dec 2009 01:42:00 -0800

Have you noticed there are only 3 kinds of blog posts this week?

Top 10 lists for 2009
Top 10 Predictions for 2010 lists
3 Things to Do Before the New Year

Since this is a BRIEF post, I’m not making a list. Instead, here's one recommendation based on something I discovered in my own business this week.

1) Review your company profiles – When I launched Global Copywriting last year, I had a clear idea where I fit in the market. With a broad IT background – 15 years in software development followed by 5 years of software sales – I knew I was a natural for writing projects requiring a technical background. I developed profiles for my website, LinkedIn and various company listings reflecting this speciality. Guess what? Most of my business this year has not been related to IT.

John Lennon famously said, “Life is what happens when you’re making other plans.” I had planned to do one thing but the market has pushed my business in another direction. Instead of being tightly focused on a niche market, I’ve had work from many different industries. I’m delighted.

Guess what else? I nearly lost a WoM client because the profile for my company on LinkedIn described Global Copywriting as a company that does technical writing. My profile was out of date and no longer represented my business.

Take Away
Take a couple minutes this holiday season to review your profiles for accuracy, especially the ones stored on social media tools. If it’s been more than a year since you last updated them, you could be compromising your own business opportunities with outdated information. When was the last time your reviewed your own marketing collateral?

HAPPY HOLIDAYS

6 Practical Ways Twitter Can Help Your Business

Sun, 13 Dec 2009 20:36:00 -0800

I read an interesting article by Jason Jordan in The West Australian Newspaper titled In defence of Twitter. It’s a good article with some good Word of Mouth (WoM) references for people to follow. Jason wrote every sentence using 140 characters or less to help prove short communications can be extremely effective. I’m glad Jason wrote the story. Twitter has done so many good things for my business I can’t be bothered to get defensive any more. Here are six of my own reasons why I think business, in particular, should be using Twitter.

1) Lead Generation I’ve closed business that started with a tweet. A recent example involved a woman in Melbourne sending a tweet looking for an IT-savvy copywriter. Someone in my network sent me the tweet asking if I could help. I contacted the woman who originated the search through Twitter. The short story is she knew of national organisation needing the sort of services I offer. She gave me the contact details and I successfully pursued the business. First tweet to accepted proposal: four days!

2) Lead Nurturing While lead generation is a wonderful thing, I’ve recently come to understand the power of lead nurturing. Twitter is a wonderful tool for content marketing, the mother of all lead nurturing programs. Twitter allows you to provide links to valuable information. If you stay consistently focused, over a period of time, people make the decision to work with you before they have an actual requirement. It’s a longer sales cycle, for sure, but it’s an extremely effective one requiring no capital investment in marketing.

3) Build a Network I started Global Copywriting in Western Australia without knowing a single soul in my local market. Twitter has helped me find prospective customers, identify thought leaders and connect with other folks who may benefit from copywriting services. Within a few months, my business was beginning to see a significant impact from activity attributed to Twitter. 3a) Virtual Office Mate When you work from a home office, as I do, it’s nice to have a group of people to share triumphs and disappointments. I never know who is going to see or reply to my tweets but someone always does and it provides a welcome sense of community.

4) Listening Posts If you enjoy eaves-dropping, Twitter is a fantastic tool to discover what people are thinking, what they’re reading, where they’re going and who they’re speaking to. If your network consists of industry experts – and it should – you have access to the most current information available. The Twitter search facility allows you to research a topic, start a conversation, ask questions and find up-to-the-minute answers with a fluidity and range you can’t find anywhere else.

5) Gain Influence I wrote a blog post on public speaking contrasting a day spent critiquing oral compositions with one of my own speaking engagements. The invitation to participate in the ECU Business Edge program as an industry expert was extended over Twitter. Likewise, the opportunity to present at the Brew Small Business Expo Perth was also initiated on Twitter. I had never met the people organising these events before but my Tweets had convinced them I was a worthy candidate. I’m convinced the sphere of influence you can build on Twitter is limitless.

6) Drive Traffic to Your Website Perhaps the most obvious way you can improve your business with Twitter is to let people know you have an online presence. If you have a commercial website, Twitter is an extremely effective tool for getting unique user traffic. If you’ve built a quality network and established your authority, it can be as simple as tweeting a link to your website.

Looking back, I totally underestimated the power and reach of Twitter to affect my business. I started tweeting with the single goal of getting people to visit my website. It didn’t take long for me to realise this was, perhaps, the least important aspect of my Twitter activity. I can’t imagine what my business would look like without the contributions Twitter has made to my network, my corporate brand and my revenue flow. I’m glad Jason Jordan (@jasonjordan) is taking up the Twitter cause. My Twitter-generated business doesn’t leave much time for anything but working on projects in my pipeline.

BRIEF - FAQs Fact

Thu, 03 Dec 2009 00:38:00 -0800

My friend and fellow copywriter, Michele Linn, wrote an excellent article for the Savvy B2B Marketing blog called 5 Reasons to Include FAQs in Your Content Marketing Strategy. I wish I’d written it myself.

Throw Away Page?
The FAQ is one of the most powerful pages you can have on your website. Many people overlook it or feel like it’s wasted information. One client told me FAQs were the same for every website so there was no point including them. I suppose that’s true if your content really contains FAQs. Why not make the page do some heavy lifting for you?

Competitive Advantage
A well-written list of FAQs can knock your competition on the head. Imagine you’re educating your prospective customers. Aaron Sice from Blue Card! Industries embraced this idea and positioned his drafting services on his FAQ page. Not only did he differentiate his company from other drafting services, he also established a valid reason to hire a draftsman independent of builders and developers.

The Take-Away
Craft a list of 10-12 questions showing the strengths of your company and include it on your website. The FAQ page is a terrific place to address competitive advantage. No website should be without one.

Global Copywriting BRIEF: Spin Your SEO Web

Mon, 23 Nov 2009 19:49:00 -0800

Welcome to the first Global Copywriting BRIEF. If you’re like me, you’re inundated with information. My goal for the BRIEF is to provide a little nugget of data, quickly digestible, to supplement my longer blog posts. I give credit to Casey Hibbard from Compelling Cases who inspired me with her Tip of the Month. When I get a bit of time, I’ll send the BRIEF out in email format for anyone who has subscribed through my website. You can find the feature on my Home Page.

Spin Your SEO Web

According to Dave Morse, an internet marketing strategist, you control about 25% of your search engine rankings through your website. It’s almost entirely related to the keywords on your site and in the page titles. The other 75% is largely outside your control and has to do with what other websites are saying about you and who is linking to you. If you’re worried about SEO - and who isn’t? - these statistics can seem pretty grim.

A great way to gain SEO effectiveness for your website is to post comments. Nearly every blog post, discussion board, news article or social media tool requires you to add the URL for your website. If you’re adding comments to authoritative sites, you’re automatically spinning an SEO web for yourself. The search engines will troll through these sites, recognise your URL, and use it to establish the rankings for your website.

The Take Away:

Aim, every day, to leave at least one thoughtful comment somewhere on the internet. The bigger your web, the better chance you have to attract search engines. Additional benefits include staying in touch with industry trends and establishing yourself as an authority in your field.

3 Components of Content Marketing

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 05:12:00 -0800

Content marketing is gaining a lot of traction in the mindset of marketers and, especially, small business owners. I recently presented a seminar on the topic at the Brew Small Business Expo in Perth. While doing my research I realised much of what is being written about content marketing assumes the reader understands the basic components. I didn’t fully understand them when I started so I thought it made sense to lay the groundwork here.

First, content marketing is nothing more than an online strategy to educate your customers. The goal is to discover what your customers want then deliver the information to them in a constructive way. When done successfully, content marketing is the perfect method to establish your expertise and gain the trust of your prospects. You’re not selling to your customers – you’re educating them.
Content marketing has three components:

SEO
Content
Social Media

Each of these components is integral to a successful campaign. Working in unison, the components form a tight cycle, each enhancing the performance of the other two. If one is missing, your content marketing strategy will lose effectiveness or fail altogether.

SEO
Search engine optimisation is the part of content marketing that points people to your website when they’re searching for information. The important thing to remember for this discussion is only about 25% of SEO is in your control, driven by the keywords used on your website. The remaining influencers are outside your control and have to do with links to your website from other, reputable websites. It’s also influenced by search engine rankings. For this reason, your online strategy requires more than just good SEO techniques.

Content
The heart of content marketing is the original material created for your company, products and services. Designed to inform and educate, your content should be developed in anticipation of the information required by your prospective customers. To assist the SEO component, keywords should factor heavily into every piece of material developed. Creating several different types of collateral is the most effective strategy. White papers, case studies, website copy, videos, e-books, photos, and presentations are examples of original content you can post on your website to assist consumers in making decisions about your offering.

Social Media
The final component of content marketing is social media. Without going into a discussion about specific tools, the idea behind social media is to give your content “legs” by driving traffic directly to your website. You can do this in a variety of ways and it’s recommended you deploy more than one social media channel. The more traffic visiting your website, the more attractive it becomes to search engines which then favour your website with better rankings.

Once you’ve established an effective cycle for your website each component will boost the effectiveness of the other two. It’s not a complicated concept but implementing a successful content marketing strategy is time consuming and requires planning. The great thing about it is you can develop it piece by piece, over time, without investing a huge sum of money. I’ve done it for my own business and intend to share those experiences here.

Public Speaking: The ultimate terror or extreme lead generation?

Sun, 08 Nov 2009 02:00:00 -0800

Writers spend a lot of time sitting behind a desk in solitude with their thoughts. I enjoy working on a project, researching and revising until the copy is the way I want it. I usually deliver my work via the internet and have customers I’ve never laid eyes on. It’s a stress-free job especially when you work from a home office as I do. This week I was away from my desk and, on two occasions, remembered work can be nerve-racking.

Industry Expert
Wednesday morning, I travelled to Edith Cowan University in Joondalup. Invited as an “industry expert” to judge oral compositions, I was flattered, honoured, and extremely grateful to Sue Hickton for considering me. Sue and I have been following each other on Twitter but I had never met her in person before Wednesday morning. She is part of the Faculty of Business and Law at ECU, which incorporates the Business Edge curriculum - the first of its kind in Australia.

My role was to critique the six student finalists, competing for first place in public speaking. Joining me as industry expert was Dr. Mark Bennett from Learning Collaboration. Even though his credentials contain many terms foreign to my experience – PHD, atomic, physics, mining, etc. – we are both seasoned public speakers. Dean Roepens from ECU joined us in the judging. Also from ECU, Aaron Jackson facilitated the session and both he and Sue contributed to the judging.

Job Readiness
All six students surprised me with their preparation and professionalism. I was expecting to count the number of “ums”, warn against going over time and give pointers on posture and appearance. The goal of the Business Edge program is to prepare graduates for the reality of corporate life. It’s working very well. Despite visible nerves, every one of them pulled off a professional presentation demonstrating competence in public speaking. I was impressed. To a person, the recommendations for improvement had more to do with refining a skill than acquiring knowledge. It was a very satisfying way for me to spend my morning.

Small Business Expo
The tables turned the next day. Presenting at the Brew Small Business Expo Perth on Thursday, I had the opportunity to speak about Content Marketing to a group of small business owners. I’ve built my business using the three components of Content Marketing:

Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)
Content
Social Media

Once again, my invitation to speak at the Small Business Expo came through Twitter. This time Bambi Gordon, a Sydney-based Director of The Brew whom I had never met, opened the door based on my tweets on @globalcopywrite. I was thrilled.

Ready, or not?
Maybe it was because I had been analyzing students the previous day. Perhaps it was because I was putting my credibility and that of my company on the line with this seminar. Either way, by Thursday morning I was regretting I had ever agreed to present. I’m one of those rare creatures that enjoy public speaking so it felt extremely odd to be out of sorts. As the room filled up, I took a deep breath and reminded myself that I had worked on the presentation for 2 months, had it professionally designed and rehearsed every day for the past 3 weeks.

Sage Advice
I got a rocky start but soon found my pace. I remembered advice from my early days of public speaking, which I also shared with the students. The audience wants you to do well. They’re rooting for you. No one attends a presentation with the hopes the speaker is terrible. When you realise you have the goodwill of the entire room behind you, things get a whole lot easier.

It’s a shame none of the students I’d judged the day before were there to see me. Public speaking is a skill and an art. You never, ever leave a presentation knowing you delivered it perfectly. You rarely even give a talk the way you planned it. You just forge ahead and learn from each experience. One other thing the students would have witnessed is how powerfully a public speaking gig can affect your career. I was booted out of the room when the Q&A portion threatened to run into the next session. By the time I got back to my desk, I had emails from attendees asking for more information. I spent all of Friday replying to requests and following leads.

Is it worth 30 minutes of discomfort to supercharge your business? You bet. I would have to say standing in front of a group is the single most effective thing I do to establish authority and drive prospects to my business. With so many people terrified of speaking in public or refusing to do so, anyone that can get on their feet and deliver a credible talk is already ahead of their competition. The Business Edge curriculum at ECU is going to make it harder on all of us by ensuring their graduates have the skill and confidence to compete.

3 Things Your Home Page Must Do

Sun, 25 Oct 2009 02:48:00 -0700

I’ve been writing a lot of website copy lately. I’m consistently caught between the web designer’s instructions and the desire of the client. The client, invariably, wants more content on the front page of the website. If they can’t get more text, they will usually ask for different wording. While client satisfaction is a driving factor in my business, when it comes to the Home Page, my answer is always the same. “Your Home Page has a job to do.”

How it looks, how easy it is to use and how readily the search engines can find it are the 3 main focus areas for web designers and copywriters developing a website. I approach the Home Page like a puzzle. Getting the keywords and phrases in relevant text, making it fit in a prescribed area and ensuring it supports the brand of the client is no small feat.

Your Home Page needs to accomplish 3 things. They are:

1) Attract search engines

If your website is not ranking with search engines - specifically Google, Bing and Yahoo - your business is not going to get much traffic. Enough has been written about the importance of Search Engine Optimisation (SEO). I’m not going to flog that horse again. It’s imperative that your Home Page contains 6 to 8 key words or phrases that your prospects will be using in online searches.

My friend Kevin Walsh, a talented copywriter and owner of Copy Unlimited in the U.K. says it best:

Writing for the web is a delicate balancing act. You can easily move up the search-engine rankings by stuffing your copy full of keywords. And you end up with something like this:

Welcome to Widgetz International, the specialists in red widgets. We've been manufacturing red widgets for over half a century, and there's not much we don't know about red widgets. We eat, breathe and sleep red widgets. We spend £100,000 a year in R&D on red widgets. Red widgets are our life. We're just passionate about red widgets. If you're looking for red widgets, you've come to the right place. Click here to read more about red widgets.

It's a sure way to lose the reader. A far better way to move up the rankings is to have useful, relevant copy with keywords occurring naturally throughout.

2) Drive website usability

I had a client that insisted I tell the web designer to remove the tables at the side and bottom of her website so we could include more copy. Those “tables” happened to be navigation buttons. She didn’t understand their relevance until I related it to her business. She is a property developer so I explained that the buttons on the side of her website were like the hallways and doors in a house. If she didn’t have them, her visitors were going to have a difficult time moving from room to room. The buttons at the bottom linked directly to her Services pages. I equated them to the electricity and plumbing in her house. When she suggested we add more text, I explained that the text box was like a window in a brick wall. We could only use the space that was there unless she was prepared to pay for a redesign of her site.

What this client failed to understand is that websites undergo their own construction phase. Every graphic, colour, font and shape are picked for a specific reason. It’s critical that web design reviews are carefully considered before giving the designer instructions to build the website. While things are easily moved in the design phase, once the website is under construction, it can be costly and time consuming to make even small changes in design. To use my building analogy, you wouldn’t get to the decorating phase of a new house and decided to swap out the bricks, would you?

3) Leave a first impression

The most common complaint I hear about the Home Page is that it doesn’t say everything it needs to. Most people are confusing the Home Page with the “About Us” page. The Home Page is designed to give a brief summary of your company and that’s it. You can wax lyrical about your business philosophy on the Profile page. Your credentials and references can be included on whole pages of their own. Your Home Page is not the place for lengthy descriptions about anything. It’s just not.

If the Home Page isn’t working well, the rest of the website probably isn’t worth much. A properly designed and implemented website will represent your brand, generate leads and allow you to develop relationships with your clients. Don’t get hung up on what is missing from the Home Page and let it do the job it was designed to do.

CSR: Good Ways for Small Business to Make a Positive Impact

Thu, 01 Oct 2009 19:01:00 -0700

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is getting a lot of attention in the business world and the mainstream media. I’ve blogged about it in the past, CSR: So What?, and have been advising customers that they should be considering a CSR strategy for their business. I take my own advice and include a CSR page on my website.

Recently I read an article at MarketingProfs titled Irresponsible Corporate Responsibility: Doing Good Isn't Always Done Well. It highlighted 10 different ways a CSR program can fail a company and even harm its reputation. While there are pitfalls to a poorly implemented CSR, it also made me realise how many options there were to use CSR to make a positive impact.

Share your expertise
Ryan Briggs, started his own business in 2008 knowing that a CSR program would be part of his company strategy. A talented graphic designer, his intention is to make a positive impact working with non-profit organisations. Each year Ryan selects one project, donating his time and services to developing a fully functioning website. The lucky not-for-profit or charitable organisation he selects is left with an invaluable business asset and the ability to promote their cause on the internet. By making it part of his annual business planning, Ryan assures his CSR initiative is an important part of his company strategy and not treated as a inconvenient afterthought.

Champion your industry
Fitzgerald Photo Imaging has long been active in promoting professional and amateur photographers in Western Australia. Offering student discounts to people studying photography and providing exhibition opportunities and sponsorship, Fitzgerald Photo Imaging is supporting the next generation of photographers. Additionally, Fitzgerald Photo Imaging sponsors several different industry events including the prestigious FotoFreo and SiteUnseen photography showcases. They endorse the Western Australian AAIP awards through sponsorship of the event and individual awards within the event. With a newly established e-newsletter called The Fitz-e-news, Fitzgerald Photo Imaging is developing yet another avenue to advance the photography industry in their community and throughout Australia.

Support your favourite cause
Aaron Sice at Blue Card! Industries has a strong association with Oxfam Australia. He’s long been a supporter of their fight against poverty and donates money to them every month. His dedication extends to using Oxfam branding on his business cards. Blue Card! Industries gives the quirkiest of holiday gifts – ducks, goats and chickens to name a few – donated in the name of their customers and sent to needy communities around the world. If you ask me, it’s a nice change from the ubiquitous box of chocolate or bottle of wine.

Promote your community
Vicki Connolly’s CSR strategy is so ingrained in her neighbourhood restaurant, Victoria’s Delights, it’s impossible to separate it from her daily operations. Long before it was popular, Victoria Delights sourced a menu with locally grown meat and produce. Her insistence on using community businesses wherever possible has been instrumental in developing a rare customer loyalty in a highly competitive industry. While many people hunkered down to weather the GFC, Victoria’s Delights extended a helping hand to a non-profit agency working with troubled youth. In an ultimate display of CSR goodwill, Vicki established a partnership to teach kids how to grow healthy produce, which then supplies the agency and her restaurant. Vicki Connolly is proving good citizenship goes hand-in-hand with success.

These are just some of the way small and medium businesses are successfully implementing CSR strategies. If you know of any other SMBs that are doing it right, I’d love to hear from you.

Social Media vs. Y2K: Avoid Hype by Keeping Social Media Practical

Sun, 27 Sep 2009 21:50:00 -0700

Social media is a topic generating a huge amount of interest and an equal amount of confusion. The hype surrounding it reminds me, in a way, of the Y2K phenomena that swept the world in the late 1990s. I spent a lot of time speaking about Y2K. My writing career started with the same topic. As hysteria concerning the potential virus mounted, the message I promoted was one of calm and rational thinking. The main points delivered by the company where I was employed, Compuware, were 1) test your applications and 2) get your quality assurance processes in place. I was glad I was on that side of the Y2K debate when the looming “time bomb” turned out to be a fizzle.

The Voice of "Practical" Experience
I’ve approached social media in the same sensible way. Not long ago, I was invited by Women are I.T., WA (WITWA) to give a presentation at one of their events. I immediately agreed and volunteered to speak on the topic of social media. My one condition was I wouldn’t be portrayed as an expert but someone with practical experience in using social media tools for business. I developed a 30-minute presentation thinking it would be a one-time event. Tomorrow, I’m giving it to a third group. It’s a popular topic so if you’re willing to stand up in front of a crowd and speak about it; you’re going to be in demand.

The Hype Trap
This is where I really begin to see the similarities between social media and Y2K. They’ve both been viewed as “get rich quick” schemes. They both have spawned an immense amount of media coverage. They both seem to have taken on a life of their own. They tend to intimidate the uninitiated and cause fear and concern to the folks inexperienced with the topics. With that in mind, I called my presentation “From the Trenches: Practical Advice for Making Social Media Work for Your Business.” The highlights of the presentation are:

Consumers are changing their habits. They are now educating themselves and they’re doing it online.
Social media will not close business for you or attract a customer base if you don’t have a good product or service.
Social media will help you:
a. Promote your brand
b. Generate leads
c. Establish your authority
It’s important to remember:
a. Social media is about building relationships
b. You are representing your company so you must maintain an air of professionalism at all times
Of all the social media tools on the market, four of them are best suited for business:
a. LinkedIn
b. Twitter
c. Facebook
d. Blog
The majority of people using social media for business:
a. are in the 30-50 age range
b. are female
c. like to look at pictures/videos
It’s imperative you adopt a policy of transparency in your social media activity.
Success is achieved through sharing information, not self-promotion.
One advantage of social media activity is it improves the search engine rankings for your website.

While I was developing my presentation, I consciously made the decision not to feed into the social media propaganda. As my research advanced, it made sense to develop a special report supporting the presentation. Any of my readers interested in this report, a $75 value, is welcome to a copy. Simply email me at sarah@globalcopywriting.com requesting From the Trenches: Practical Advice for Making Social Media Work for Your Business Report and I’ll send it to you in .pdf format. I’m also happy to give the presentation, along with live demos of the recommended tools, where you work or network.

I’m using social media every day in my business. I find it an extremely useful way to support my marketing activities and to keep in touch with my customers and prospects. I recommend everyone take the plunge. In the meantime, I intend to keep providing realistic and useful advice gleaned from my own experience.