High Tech Connect

I received two thank you notes this week. One was from Smog King thanking me for my business and offering a discount for a friend, and the other was from Tiny Prints thanking me for my patience while they corrected my holiday card order.

Hand-written notes are one helluva way to surprise and delight a customer! It makes a HUGE difference with employers, recruiters and other professional contacts. Here’s one example of a thank you note resulting in a job, told by Seattlepi.com’s Get to Work blog:

Having a good attitude goes a long way in a job search,” a hiring decision-maker recently told me. We were talking about what makes a job candidate stand out from the crowd. In a close race between two job candidates, a gracious attitude does make a difference.

As job seekers prepare for their job search, developing personal branding statements and introductions, one of the most over- looked pieces of the puzzle is a genuine attitude of goodwill.

Here’s an example of how an attitude of goodwill can work for you: Several months ago, a candidate had an interview, then was asked back three times to meet with the staff he would be managing as well as the senior management team. Everything appeared to be moving ahead. Then the company representative called to tell the candidate someone else had gotten the job. They told him they would keep his resume on file for future openings.

It was a difficult conversation. Naturally, the candidate was disappointed, but he decided to write a thank-you letter conveying his gratitude for their time and consideration. This was not a form letter but rather an expression of genuine interest and desire to keep in touch with them in case they needed help in the future.

Two months passed. This candidate found a couple more good leads and was planning to broaden his search to other cities when he received a call from the hiring decision-maker, who informed him the position was open again and asked if he would still be interested. As you can imagine, the job candidate was interested, and within a week he received an offer, accepted it and had a start date.

Even though he was very disappointed at not being chosen initially, this job candidate’s attitude got the employer’s attention. It got him remembered. When the search for a replacement took place, they called him immediately. He had never left their minds, and his thank-you letter was part of the reason they called him again.

Being memorable starts with being genuine and having a good attitude, even when decisions don’t go your way.

Having a thankful spirit is contagious and will help you stand out. Take the time to follow up with people who have helped you and express your appreciation.

This is a great time of year to reach out and thank recruiters, networking contacts, colleagues and employers who have shown interest in your background.

You never know when a thank-you letter will turn into an opportunity.

Remember Howard Beale in the movie Network?  The year was 1976 and Faye Dunaway and William Holden were the big, sexy stars of the day. (Just to put this into a chronological perspective, Kate Hudson was minus three-years-old at the time.) Anyway, even though I was in diapers at the time, the movie made a deep impression on me and I recently read something that made me think about the famous “mad as hell” scene.

I was reading Erika Nepolotano’s blog. You might remember Erika if you used to shop at T.J. Maxx in Denver. She was the redhead. Erika made a successful career transition from gadget store clerk and waitress at TGIFriday to a copywriter. Really.

While I don’t always agree with her opinions (and don’t approve of some of her language), Erika has a sense of style and level of energy that’s hard to match. Essentially, Erika can get mad. Really mad. Redheaded mad and she shows no mercy and asks for none in return. Sometimes I wish I could be so ballsy. Recently, Erika attended DEMO in Denver and totally lost her cool about the buzzwords bandied about and here’s a sanitized snippet from her blog. Communicators, take note:

You and your buzzwords. They’re meaningless. They’re the uncooked spaghetti of marketing-speak: you throw them out there and they don’t stick, they just fall to the floor with a pathetic splat. And it’s because they no longer have meaning.

…Here’s an idea: if you’re going to tell me about your product or service, tell me how it solves my problems. I don’t care HOW it does it. I want the hook. The reason I’d push over a pregnant woman standing in line in front of me to be the first one to taste what you’re cooking. I could give three fine frog hairs if it’s an innovative software that integrates my content to provide an overarching, game-changing perspective.

…Why do we even bother with buzzwords? Do they make us feel smart? If anything, they make us look pretty dumb for using the same nonsensical speech as everyone else. To make yourself stand out from the crowd, why not do yourself a solid and actually talk about solving problems instead of playing a zero-sum game of monkey see, monkey do?

…I’m never afraid to be the a@(#**@e. My gig as a writer is words. Which is why when companies and potential clients inevitably ask me what I do, it’s easy.

Here’s a link to her entire post and you’ve been warned about the language, right? And let me know if you think Erika is channeling Howard Beale.

Case studies are extremely powerful marketing tools. But how do you choose the right customers to profile for case studies to make the most of limited marketing dollars?

Cheryl Goldberg, one of our expert writing consultants, offers some of the criteria companies use to identify the most strategic case studies. You can read more on Cheryl’s blog here.

Star Power

If the customers you’re going after Fortune 500 companies, you’ll certainly want the legitimacy that having case studies from big name customers will provide. Certainly, I have plenty of clients chasing after these big names.

However, beware that these are the most difficult to line up and can result in wasted resources. Many large companies have policies that prohibit them from endorsing other vendors’ products—thus be prepared to expend much more time and effort finding big companies willing to do a case study. Even if a company says they do case studies, approvals may be withheld at the last minute, often with no explanation. This can result in wasted money for stories that are never approved. You can minimize (but never completely eliminate) this risk by determining in advance the company’s policy on case studies, who’s in charge of the project, and ask their permission before beginning the process.

Target Industries

Often, customers are concerned about whether you understand their specific industry—whether that’s manufacturing, retail, or life sciences. Creating case studies about customers in all of the industries that constitute your target markets will ensure you have the right materials on hand to alleviate those concerns.

Product Line

Clearly, you’ll want case studies for each product in your product line so you can demonstrate your success in delivering promised benefits for each product.

Geographic Area

Some companies target case studies geographically. For example, one client that markets to physicians highlights customers practicing in each region of the country.

ROI

ROI can be extremely difficult to quantify. In many cases, companies that want a lot of case studies will produce some that highlight qualitative benefits. Still, make sure that some of your case studies demonstrate strong quantifiable ROI.

Momentum

In many cases, quality will be more important than quantity. If resources are an issue, you don’t really need dozens of case studies that illustrate the same point. It’s better to make sure you have at least one case study for each key product, target market, or other initiative. At the same time, some companies find it very important to demonstrate momentum and adoption in their marketplace. One way to meet these requirements is to create customer press releases; short and sweet descriptions about your new customers and why they’re choosing your products and release them on an ongoing basis over the wire services.

Miscellaneous

Every once in awhile, I’ll come across a unique reason to create a case study or customer press release. For example, one company produced customer press releases and case studies specifically about customers who had come to them after defecting from their main competitor. This was an interesting exercise because no customer will allow you to directly say that they dumped a previous vendor in your favor. What you can do is produce a standard case study or press release about these customers. And presumably, the sales rep can fill in the missing details in one-on-one conversations.

Another customer had come from a business that had evolved over time from a document printing company to one that automated document processes. A prize case study for them was one that covered the entire automated process, rather than individual automated capabilities.

Companies produce case studies for many reasons. When you’re looking for customers to profile, chose the ones that are most strategic for your business.

How does your organization select customers to profile with case studies?

You’re an expert … in marketing, communications, or marketing communications. Not accounting. Accounting is one of those areas best left to a specialist, like performing an appendectomy or defending yourself against a felony charge.

- Can you write off your workspace in your home?
- Is your mileage deductible? Under what circumstances?
- Should you have a separate bank account for your consulting practice?
- Should you incorporate? What are the advantages?
- Can you use your SSN or should you open an EIN? What’s an EIN anyway?

These are important questions because one little slip and you might end up spending more time working with the IRS than with your paying clients. Why bother? Why take the risk?

But how do you pick an accountant short of turning to the person you sit next to in church? One of our favorite blogs, American Express’ Open Forum, has an excellent post about how to chose an accountant and here are some of my favorite tips from the post:

1. Look for a Good Personal Connection
2. They Need to be Reliable
3. They Should be Proactive

Fortunately, we were referred to our accountant Tammy by a mutual friend, and she’s been absolutely priceless to our business. Tammy delivers all three of these qualities: she’s become a dear friend and team member, she’s discreet and protective of our data, and she’s more like a strategic CFO than a number-cruncher. Tammy is a trusted adviser and we are extremely lucky to have her on the High Tech Connect team!

Here’s a link to the entire post.  Let me know what you think.

How to fail fast Sew ewe red threw awl for peaces of male? What’s wrong with the preceding sentence? Everything. How many of those words would have been caught by a spell checker? None. But these obvious errors are the problem. We still receive resumes from “principles” of agencies. If you are in the communications business, make sure your grammar and punctuation are right/write/rite, all right?

On or off the learning curve? New communications media: Fad or fact? It doesn’t matter. As a communication professional, you are obligated to learn new channels. Facebook? Twitter? LinkedIn? Blogs? YouTube? Are you still in denial about social media or did you jump in, learn from smart friends and suggest new ideas for your employer or client? Where are you on the adoption curve? Stay relevant. Don’t be a dinosaur. Just do it.

You are not your résumé. Your résumé is not a stone tablet documenting your career. Do you customize it every time to show the prospect you have exactly what she wants? Do you include links for your Facebook page, blog, Twitter account and LinkedIn profile? If you do not have a complete profile and recommendations on LinkedIn today, you do NOT exist to prospective employers and recruiters. Do you have a portfolio? Is it online and accessible 24/7?

Be responsive. How long did it take you to return my call or acknowledge my email? Is that how responsive you are to someone trying to give you a job? We are all competing in a global market and there are other candidates who are at least as smart as you, willing to do your job at a fraction of the rate and a lot more eager about getting the job done. Extra points awarded for responding quickly and providing valuable information. Instant disqualification for responding two weeks later with “I’m interested” and expecting someone to be impressed.

Listen more. Typically, your clients aren’t communicators. That’s your role and great communicating starts with great listening which leads to deep understanding which, best case, sets the stage for great thinking. So, listen. Probe with questions. Repeat back what you think you understand. You have two ears and one mouth. Use them proportionately.

“But I’m so experienced.” Your experience might be perceived as a price tag that puts you out of the competition. It can also be a great big “sell by” date indicating you need to be left on the shelf. Your experience might imply you don’t know about the latest, greatest marketing media (see above). Your experience might intimidate someone who graduated college 10 years after you did. And it might create the impression you’re too good for the job and will get bored and split at the first opportunity. Don’t assume it’s a good thing. Focus on results and value.

No whining. Life can be hard. Work can be hard. And a lot of things are unfair. But complaining about it doesn’t change anything except the perception that you can’t hack it. As Jerry Maguire says, “That’s not what inspires people.” People don’t pay a premium for someone who sees only half-empty glasses. Find a solution instead of finding someone to blame.

Think ahead. If you can’t play chess, at least play a good game of checkers and figure out what your client or manager wants next. I don’t know about you, but I get Big Points when I can anticipate what my spouse wants. Your client is the same way. If you earned a good result for the client, did you write it up so all your client has to do is forward it to her management? (And she might not do as good a job as you will.) Think ahead. Just one or two moves.

It’s not about you. There’s a very fine ego balance consultants need to strike with their clients. On the one hand, you are the Star Who Does Great Things. On the other hand, you’re equally attentive to the Little Things: you get the rental car, order the meal that’s just a little bit less expensive and listen with Total Fascination when she’s telling you about her cat (mom, ex, garden, shoes, etc.). You’ll hand your client breath mints and make eye contact to let him know he needs to take the mints. Your entire Reason for Being is to make your client successful and as a service provider you go to great lengths to make that happen. And you will be rewarded and your ego stoked when the client trusts you completely with their career and future.

A handwritten note: the gem of personal marketing. Who writes Thank You notes? People who know that the recipient might just tack it to the wall of her office and look at it every day as a constant reminder you are One Classy Pro. Anyone who refers a job lead or grants you an interview is worthy of personalized multi-media gratitude: email, voicemail, thank you note, Facebook wall post, etc. But when you write it, stamp it and mail it you always leave an infinitely indelible impression.

Keep your promises, keep everyone on track. Take notes. Flag action items. Send the action items to the people involved. Resolve any misunderstandings. Act on the action items. Report on the status of the action items. Reconvene and repeat. Simple? Yes. Effective? Absolutely. Common? Not at all. When was the last time you received timely minutes from a meeting? Or any recap at all from a meeting? Some one ought to be doing this and you have an opportunity to be the hero in this story. You are a communicator. Get it done.

Be interesting. Being an interesting person doesn’t compensate for you being unresponsive, not smart, or having out-of-date skills, but combined with great performance, being interesting makes you The Complete Package. Be involved in your community. Coach soccer. Play an instrument. Dance. Practice yoga. Volunteer. Sky dive. Write a book. Do a triathlon. If you are someone who is admirable, then you increase your chance of being admired.

Dress to impress. You can’t judge a book by its cover, but you can judge the cover by the cover. Are you dressed appropriately and with a sense of style? Are your shoes shined? Are your nails neat? Breath fresh? Glasses clean? Don’t make me be your mother.

Don’t touch the third rail. Politics. Religion. Sex. Do we really need to elaborate?

Pay it forward. Give and you shall receive. Leave an unsolicited Recommendation on LinkedIn. Share your contacts and resources with new colleagues or students. Send small, thoughtful news articles they might enjoy, or send something that made you think of them. Don’t be a stalker, and don’t expect anything in return. It will come back to you, tenfold, over the course of your career. Guaranteed.

Do you feel our pain? Are these tips a no-brainer for you? If so, you’re one of a few rare GEMS (Go-to Expert Marketing Superheroes) and we’d love to know you.

Need help and want us to send over somebody who “gets” it? www.htconnect.com

I’ve been one of the longest, most vocal advocates of people creating, nurturing, promoting their individual brand in the workplace. What I haven’t thought about as much is how employers manage employees who are actively building their personal brands.

Recently, the American Express blog, Open Forum, posted on that topic and it makes for some interesting reading:

It’s not unreasonable for employees to expect policies that allow them to continue to build their careers. In all likelihood, your employees will be looking for other jobs in a few years. Telling them that personal branding is not an option is just a way to speed up their decision to go job hunting. If you can make it a win-win situation, you may just wind up known as the small business owner who has snagged some excellent (and well-known) employees. [more]

It’s been my experience that great managers want their reports to be famous. In fact, excellent managers are actively helping members of their team become famous throughout their company and beyond.  –What’s your experience?

If it seems that your teenager is texting all the time, that’s because they’re texting all the time.

Nielsen.  You remember Nielsen.  That was the company that sent out the little books we would fill out with our TV viewing habits.  Now, the company is all up-to-date and is measuring interesting things like how we use the internet and how we use our cell phones. This week, Nielsen announced that one of its studies has yielded this interesting bit of data:

Female teenagers are sending and receiving about 4,000 text messages per month.  [Here's a link to the press release announcing this finding.]

Let’s do some math.

Let’s make a guess that the average text takes about five seconds to key or read.  (This is based on direct observation of a domesticated teenage girl. That’s 5 x 4,000 = 20,000 seconds.  That works out to 333 minutes and that works out to about 5.5 hours per month. This does not include the time it takes to think up the content of a text or react / process a received text. Riding the emotional rollercoaster of these texts takes a toll too.  I mean what if your BFF sez L8R but you find out she’s ROTFL behind your back about how your BF broke up with you in a Tweet. I don’t think the homework is going to get done that night.

Five hours a month of five second bursts of disjointed sub-textual communications.  The mind reels.

I didn’t learn how to code HTML in college. I didn’t learn how to put together an animated PowerPoint. And I didn’t learn how to edit video. But I did learn how to learn and that has served me well.

Wired magazine just published a list of what they call “Seven Essential Skills You Didn’t Learn in College” and I think you ought to take a look at it. Take a look at this excerpt from Wired’s course catalog:

Post-State Diplomacy

Why take this course? As the world becomes evermore atomized, understanding the new leaders and constituencies becomes increasingly important.

What you’ll learn: How to practice statecraft without states.
From tribal insurgents to multinational corporations, private charities to pirate gangs, religious movements to armies for hire, a range of organizations now compete with (and sometimes eclipse) the nation-states in which they reside. Without capitals or traditional constituencies, they can’t be persuaded or deterred by traditional tactics.

But that doesn’t mean diplomacy is dead; quite the opposite. Negotiating with these parties requires the same skills as dealing with belligerent nations—understanding the shareholders and alliances they must answer to, the cultures that inform how they behave, and the religious, economic, and political interests they must address.  [more]

Take a read and let me know what you think.

Peter Shankman is one of the most important nodes on the Public Relations network. Shankman is the founder and proprietor of an email newsletter, HARO (Help A Reporter Out), a twice daily update about stories reporters are working on and helps public relations people connect the dots between what a reporter needs and their clients. And, by the way, this is a free service that displaced one costing hundreds of dollars every month.

Recently, Shankman made a post I think deserves your attention. Ever since the first issue of Fast Company back in 1995, and before that, in everything Tom Peters ever tried to teach us, we’ve been aware that we — you, me, him, her — are the brand.  In my case, my company and my personality are almost synonymous. What I’ve learned is that many marketing consultants don’t manage their own personal brand with the same energy and diligence as they’ve applied to their clients. And that’s the problem.

During the past 20 years the “company man” has become a fossil.  Today, every one needs to be a star — a super star — every day.  And no one else is going to manage your brand for you.

Here’s an excerpt from Shankman’s post:

It is no one else’s fault if your personal brand isn’t how you want it to be. It’s not Facebook’s fault. It’s not Twitter’s fault. It’s not LinkedIn’s fault. It’s not the fault of someone who wrote on your wall, or tagged you in a photo. [more]

Shankman’s post is scarcely more than what I excerpt, but I encourage you to follow him because whatever he has to say is important.

Never having worked on Madison Avenue I don’t know if Mad Men is an accurate portrayal of the big life in advertising or just great, trashy entertainment.  Either way, the show has some great insights into advertising, marketing and … social media?

Adam Vincenzini, the senior communications consultant at Paratus Communications in London, has written a great post about the lessons Don Draper can teach us about social networking.  Here’s a great sample:

You are the product

People don’t buy things, they buy feelings. Feelings come from people. Therefore (drum roll) people must be at the centre of your social media marketing efforts. [more]

It’s a fun post and I learned a couple of things too.  So take a read and let me know what you think.