Dec 09
Love0

Are you a Digital Hoarder?

By Communications

Thanks to the popular A & E television show Hoarders we’ve learned about the behavioral condition that leads people to compulsively save, well, everything. The show features

Photo: TLC

unlivable homes stacked and overflowing with stuff.

There’s another kind of hoarder, though. The person who, on the surface and by all visual accounts isn’t a hoarder at all; this person may be a digital hoarder.

One of my clients sheepishly admits to this behavior. She has emails in her inbox from 2008. (It’s currently December, 2011). To find any kind of correspondence in that archive she needs to do a virtual Cirque du Soleil move and frequently is still unable to locate the desired content.

The correspondence is layers deep, mostly disorganized and completely overwhelming to her but she’s been, thus far, unwilling to let go of those electronic files and clean out her communications storage shed.

We’re making a date in 2012 to stage an intervention and get her on a better path of managing her email communications. I’m a big believer in the “touch it once” approach. There should only be three possible actions for any message:

  1. Respond immediately and file
  2. File and flag for later response
  3. Delete

I’m also a big fan of extensive filtering and rule-creation to automatically manage a ton of incoming messages. It’s effective, efficient and makes for a much more productive method of communicating via email.

I told my client, “I’m going to improve your life,” and I mean it — she’s about to experience lots of time and peace, away from the stress of all that digital junk.

Are you a digital hoarder or do you know someone who is? 

Dec 08
Love0

5 Ways B2B Organizations Can Use Social Media

By Communications, Social Media

There are so many misconceptions about social media and its use in business — I don’t even know where to begin to address them.

Wait, no, yes I do! The assertion that there is no role for social media in business to business marketing is patently untrue. Consider the following relationships (because, in case you’re unaware, the core purpose of social media is relationship development):

  • Trade media
  • Potential employees
  • Potential investors
  • Existing team members (from employees to board members to investors and vendors)
  • Current customers

Are these individuals with whom your organization needs to communicate? Well, yes! Of course! Making it as easy as possible for all of these audiences to discover your company, to learn what makes you tick, to understand what it is you do and how you do it, to receive news and important information about your business is just good business. The way to do that is by publishing content on your website, making the information available through search and sharing it with networks you continue to build of the very people mentioned in the groups above.

That’s all B2B social media is. Seriously.

From the KoMarketing blog:

According to Accenture Global Marketing’s recent report, Embracing Social Media in a B2B Context, a mere 8 percent of B2B companies are heavily engaged in social media.

Furthermore, researchers found that 17 percent of respondents don’t feel social media will be important to them in the coming years.

However, contrary beliefs were also revealed. Despite the lack of overall involvement, 65 percent of those polled considered social media to be “very important,” while 30 percent believed it is “extremely” important and cant be ignored.”

So it is to the 65 percent (and the 30 percent) that I offer . . .

5 Ways B2B Organizations Can Use Social Media

  1. Publish your news release in a way that is searchable — and can be found by interested communities. New releases published with an option to subscribe via an RSS feed is the best practice in this area. Create a news room on your website and post your content there.
  2. Encourage leaders in the business to expand their industry network and business connections in a virtual way. It assists the whole team in relationship development when the leaders make their connections visible to others in the field. LinkedIn is a very useful tool in this area.
  3. Monitor the web for industry mentions and organization-specific references. When your brand is published about, it’s worth knowing, sometimes reacting to and often, requires a response.
  4. Blog. If you need lots of great reasons, you can start here.
  5. Be a facilitator of relationships in your industry. As business-oriented people, we appreciate the connection, the referral, the well-thought-out endorsement of another business. Connect others within your network and be remembered fondly and fortuitously for having done so. The rewards for you, and your business will come to fruition.
Dec 07
Love0

8 Ways to Be a Better Blogger

By Social Media

It’s hard to be a blogger. It’s especially difficult if you are blogging for business, and not personal reasons. Here are a few tips to help the process, re-energize you and your content and improve your life as a business blogger.

  1. Read a lot of content (blogs) outside of your industry for inspiration.
  2. Make a list of what you see on other blogs that you like. Is there a technique, a style or a format you find especially appealing?
  3. Share a link to a blog post you have published and are particularly proud of, to a select group of trusted friends and advisers. Ask for honest feedback — a review, if you will — and ideas for how you can improve.
  4. If you don’t already have this in place, work with someone to provide a “second pair of eyes” on your content, to eliminate distracting grammatical errors and typos.
  5. Brainstorm an “editorial calendar” of topics to get you through the next dozen posts. Don’t do it alone — invite a group to help you think out loud over lunch.
  6. Write a post for someone else’s blog — sometimes stepping off of your own web page can provide unexpected inspiration.
  7. Strive for consistency in publishing. It doesn’t matter when you write; it matters when you publish. Select days and times and stick to them, to meet your community’s expectations.
  8. Regularly review your analytics. Is your content trending the way it should? Are people finding your content because of appropriate search terms?  Paying attention to what’s popular and, if it’s on target, replicating that success will help you build your online community.

What other tips can you offer to business bloggers?

Dec 06
Love0

Happy Winter Holidays Season Nonspecific Non-Religious Greetings!

By Communications

In business communications, it’s standard practice to apply politically correct behavior and go with the standard Happy Holidays or Season’s Greetings — the all-encompassing, non-specific reference to the season in which many religions celebrate in their own unique ways. In addition, the non-religious also celebrate, and sometimes, we all celebrate in pretty much the same way. (Pass the nog, please.)

The Jaggers Communications holiday cards are in production and we’ve gone with a pretty neutral “winter” theme — preview on the right. (Cute, right? Thanks to Watermark Design!) We think it’s important to send greetings commemorating the end of the year and to share our appreciation for clients, referral sources and friends. We also enjoy getting cards that celebrate life in a variety of ways.

How does your business handle the greetings of the season? 

Dec 03
Love0

Five Signs You’re Not Going to Get a New Job Using Social Media

By Communications, Social Media

It seems to go in cycles, the influx of my friends seeking jobs; new, replacement or otherwise. At a peak right now, I’m spending much of my spare time forwarding job descriptions, thinking about opportunities and connections I can help facilitate, and what advice to impart (when and only when they ask and are ready to hear it). For the people who think finding a new job via social media is as easy as booting up a laptop, a few thoughts on what’s not going to do it.

Five Signs Social Media Won’t Help you Land a New Job

  1. You haven’t spent years cultivating a broad social network with deep relationships.
  2. When people search for you online, they discover incomplete profiles or less-than-professional (or even embarrassing) content.
  3. You haven’t been publishing content to position yourself as a thought leader in your industry.
  4. Your use of social platforms has only been casually, and on a personal level. Your professional experience has never gotten any online “air time”.
  5. You aren’t willing to invest the time it’s going to take to engage, connect, publish and monitor for opportunities. Patience and persistence is necessary.

Good luck. Be persistent. Be aggressive. And don’t be afraid to ask for connections.