On Words and Business

Here’s a great post from iMedia Connection about why creating a social media policy can help you keep your focus. Especially for small businesses and entrepreneurs who have to divide their time between so many tasks.

My favorite hint: Avoid bandwagon-jumping. I’ve heard all sorts of fabulous stories about people who’ve made good contacts and gotten work through Twitter. That’s great. For my business right now, though, it’s not in the cards. That doesn’t mean I’ll never consider it. It’s just that given my bandwidth and other current strategic considerations, it’s not part of my plan.

My second favorite:  Keep an eye on consolidation. I’m looking forward to more of this. Especially with LinkedIn, since the social media policy for my business does not involve Facebook (my social media policy for my personal life does, but that’s a different story).

Happy strategizing…

As discussed on MarketingProfs:

1. LinkedIn
2. Facebook
3. Twitter

Hmm. I only use one of these for business (I keep Facebook for personal connections).

Although…I like the ancient proverb the author quotes: a “cord of three strands is not easily broken.”

If we were riding in an elevator, I could tell you what I do in 30 seconds or less. If I kept it really brief, I could tell you in about 3 seconds, in three words (one of them a contraction).

But it probably wouldn’t include a sentence along the lines of: “I help businesses solve problems,” or “I help businesses become more efficient through the use of technology.”

Maybe I am way off base here, but I don’t like to hear those kinds of vague answers to the question: “What do you do?”

There is a school of thought that believes the so-called elevator pitch should start along those lines. It’s supposed to draw the listener in, to ask more questions and become engaged. Personally, I’ll ask another question when I get that answer for three reasons, none of them being that I’m intrigued or truly interested.

1) The responder didn’t really answer my question, 2) It bothers me that they were so vague, and 3) It’s pretty rude to ask a question and walk away after hearing a one-line, five-second answer. Politeness alone dictates at a least minute or two of chit-chat before moving on.

Yes, that actually may be what they do in their job. That may actually be the end result of their work day, and the value they bring to their clients. But what is wrong with saying, “I’m a butcher.” “I’m a baker.” “I’m a candlestick maker.” Or even “I’m a management consultant.” As a listener, that will engage me or it won’t. And if I’m truly engaged and asking a lot of questions, it will be for the right reasons–because I care about that person or what they do.

What do you think?

As a small business owner, I encounter hundreds of prospects each month. And I need to keep track of things like when I communicated or last did business with them and details about each encounter. My current method of managing contacts is almost unmanageable–an Excel workbook that I started when I had only a few contacts.

My quest for a usable contact management system has been unsuccessful. But I see I’m not the only one afflicted. Like Ms. Bram, I need more than a glorified address book. If I only need a list of names and contact information, it wouldn’t be hard to find something easy and inexpensive. But I need something flexible, searchable, and easy to use.

For example, I need to be able to find all the contacts who received a certain mailing or email, or all the contacts I’ve haven’t been in touch with over the past month. Or all the banks. Or everyone with a fiscal year end of December 31.

So far, I haven’t found a prepackaged product that can do any of this. And I’m not thrilled about the idea of having to design my own database from scratch.

Any suggestions?

BTW…I’m a Mac user, but I’d also consider an online solution. Thanks!

When I write, I think I’m fairly adept at writing examples of whatever it is that needs to be illustrated. But when I’m speaking, for some reason, all bets are off.

Last night at a networking event, I proved, yet again, that I just can’t give examples extemporaneously in a conversation. Or, more accurately, I can’t give good, clear, enlightening examples. I saw that look that my conversation partner’s face; and I knew I’d just confused the heck out of him. I hate that feeling.

When talking about my business, I’ve got examples in my back pocket, ready to go. Just so I don’t have to worry about coming up with one of my wonderfully obscure and perplexing examples. But other kinds of conversations can trap me.

Have you found some sort of challenge, or something that makes you cringe, in your networking or conversations? It’s not possible that I’m the only one who’s got a bugbear like this!

Online business networking at it’s finest. If you haven’t checked out LinkedIn yet, and you’re serious about networking with professionals and business owners, this is the place to be.

It’s a networking tool, so the most benefit comes when users share their connections. You never know who the people you know know.

I use LinkedIn to identify and connect with people in organizations I’m trying to target. I just took a class in how to best use LinkedIn as a networking tool (this probably gives you a hint about which generation I am not part of!). It really opened my eyes to how online networking can be successful, and how it supplements networking in person.

See if we are connected: