Recruiting, Acquiring and KEEPING upper echelon employees begins with…

Most companies are striving to get the best employees and keep them as they know this is integral to their success and growth. Competition is steep as the number of “A Players” seems to be dwindling by the day. The consolation? Not many have mastered this art, so making an effort goes a long way!

As usual, let’s start at the beginning…

How do you attract “A players” in the first place?

One of the most innovative and effective ways is by creating interesting and fun videos to tempt great employees and leaders to your company. I have seen this succefully done by companies like Zappos and MindVakkey, it has the top employees coming to them to apply and vy for positions!

But how do we accomplish this for our company when it isn’t young and hip or when we don’t have a fun business because  we sell widgets!

IF your perspective is open and willing, then you can accomplish the goal of painting a picture that is appealing for prospective employees. NOW, let me preface this with this admonition, IF your company only paints the picture as being a good, fair and fun company to work for but it is riddled with a different culture totally, then even if you are successful in recruiting top employees, they will shortly find out the reality and move on to a company that better suits them. SOOOO, this is only the first step to having an employee team of  upper echelon employees.

Alright, so now back tot he video idea…

ANY subject can be fun and interesting if you have the right perspective. You may not have this perspective, so you might want to hire someone to make this or even better, delegate it to some of your employees. Ah! Here’s an idea: Have a contest for different departments to make each a video for recruiting. They can talk about how it is to work there or about events that you hold, whatever. But, then you can have a viewing party and vote for the best video. Make a day out of it!

Don’t believe ANY subject can be funny? Would you think it is possible to be funny when delivering the “speech” all airlines must give before takeoff, “There are four exits…” etc.?

Thin again. Check out this video by Virgin Airlines. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eyygn8HFTCo&NR=1

Have a recruiting video already? Post a link here, we would love to see it and learn from your example.

To your continued success,

C

 

 

How to have employees in social media for the company – How Whirlpool does it!

This is an article I thought I would pass along, great info on how to have employee tweet or use other social media for your company:

How Whirlpool creates a consistent brand voice in social media

By Andy Sernovitz

One of the greatest things about social media is that it makes it possible for lots of people behind the brand to have a voice. But that also makes for some of the biggest challenges — how do you keep all of these voices consistent? How do you make sure customers can depend on them?

In their BlogWell Chicago case study presentation, Brian Snyder and Scott Spiegel talked about how they do this at Whirlpool — a brand that also includes Maytag, Amana, KitchenAid and more. A few of their key takeaways:

• Remember that consumers want to talk to their brand. They don’t care if they’re talking to the corporate PR, marketing or consumer care department. They just want to talk to the people who made the appliance they have or that make the appliance that they want.
• Make your brand experts available. Whirlpool has a team of laundry scientists — people who are experts when it comes to stains, fabric and detergent. Through Twitter and Facebook, Whirlpool has made their “Whirlpool Institute of Fabric Science” available day and night to answer questions from fans.
• Different brands have different priorities. Brian says that social media should always start with brand priorities. At Whirlpool, knowing each brand’s core objectives and target customers help them determine everything from their overall level of engagement to which social-media platform to use.

Hope this helps you move forward in your “social” venture!

My best,

C

60 Ways to Improve your Influence Online or with your Market/Prospects/Consumers

This list was called 60 Ways to Improve your Online Marketing Influence but I think some of these are great for us all to utilize as a basis ANYwhere we market ourselves. For instance, #1 is true on or offline. #13 is definitely good on or off line. #29, 31, 32 are all stellar recommendations for the REAL world! #44, 45, 46 are great if you want to write a book! And #60? Well, that is some grand ol’ advice from before the time of internet or social marketing.

I was on a call with Michael Port a few weeks ago and we discussed social media marketing and how people tend to forget that marketing online is STILL marketing to REAL people. They want a relationship, they need to trust you, they need to believe you have a great product/service that they can’t live without.

Don’t demean everyone’s intelligence by spamming or constantly SELLing to people in these open forums and social site, it only turns us all off!

Side note: Some seem to be a blatant sales pitch for Facebook, but please just keep reading, if that doesn’t work for you. People who wrote this must have a connection to FB somehow.

So, choose one that resonates with you and put into practice. Write it on your bathroom mirror, paste it behind you computer monitor, paste it on your computer desktop, SOMEWHERE you will see it repeatedly and implement it!

It will pay off handsomely in time AND feel more rewarding until then.

1. Stop talking about your products and services and create valuable content.

2. Increase conversion rates on your landing pages by improving your buttons.

3. Build your thought leadership and digital influence through transparency.

4. Demonstrate commitment and increase your digital influence through consistency.

5. Know where you’re going, then make what you say about the people around you.

6. Follow better people.

7. Align yourself with outstanding strategic partners.

8. Make connections online, then meet the person in the real world, offline.

9. Create content that stands for something: ‘Higher purpose content marketing.’

10. Look under the hood of the shiny new technologies coming out.

11. Believe in ‘social objects’ as the way we socialize and share with others.

12. Avoid ‘incestuous blogging’ and look outside your circle.

13. Start talking to people.

14. Think about your narrative strategy because people connect with stories worth telling.

15. Find people who have your audience but not your products and co-create with them.

16. Establish influence either through complete honesty or absolute fakery – not in between.

17. Give your content roots and give it wings.

18. Try Facebook advertising.

19. Develop your online influence by getting offline and meeting people in real life.

20. Get very, very good at filtering and aggregating content.

21. Be early in the news cycles of any conversation of interest, then make context explicit.

22. Increase visibility through web video; the fastest way to get your message out there.

23. Feel passionate about your content and overcome your fears of reaching out.

24. Defy convention where it’s appropriate.

25. Share good content consistently.

26. Let your passion shine to create meaningful relationships and build deep connections.

27. Learn how to talk more about other people.

28. Get on Facebook, get on Facebook now, and use it for your business.

29. Make people around you more successful than you are, and share stories from the heart.

30. Talk about what you know because content is always king.

31. Make something worth talking about.

32. Get your self properly interviewed.

33. Repeat your tweets.

34. Get more influence online by moving offline.

35. Really understand your audience, then build things that really help them.

36. Master one niche, own that niche, then use webinar marketing to promote your brand.

37. Think about what gifts and expertise you have that you can leverage to help others.

38. Map a strategy for integrating social media with other tactics.

39. Change from thinking about my influence to our influence.

40. Get active in other people’s communities.

41. Build ‘digital dimensionality’ by showing your many different sides.

42. Listen to the conversations taking place around you, then start to engage.

43. Network with other influencers and make them aware of your consistent value.

44. Think about the authenticity, consistency, and depth of your voice and story

45. Be willing to shake up your world.

46. Learn to be a storyteller, understand the psychology of people, create quality content.

47. Share ideas liberally and get increased accountability from the digital community.

48. Establish your business model before you attempt to become influential online.

49. Be consistent, connect the practical with the profound, and listen for the silence.

50. Find a unique niche you can own, focus on it and become known for that.

51. Find out what social network your customers are using and be there for them.

52. Build a community of readers by figuring out ways to get people talking.

53. Make friends along the way by helping others achieve their goals.

54. Think about social media as strategy to enhance your existing marketing goals.

55. Be systematic in establishing relationships with those on the same business path.

56. Become an advocate for gifted up and comers as they enter social media.

57. Start the media arm of your company that educates, inspires and entertains.

58. Give more than you get and build trust and relationships over time.

59. Take a look at what you have that others can’t do and use it to get where you need to go.

60. Figure out your value, identify influential individuals and connect to them directly.

The first WRONG question to ask about your social media marketing plans: (And the better one to start asking)

“What’s the hot new trend in social media that we can bring to our clients?

Better question: How can we optimize and improve our existing social media programs?”

Thank you Jay Baer.

So, instead of being so tactical, instead of looking at what OTHERS are doing, think more about YOUR desired results. You want to make the overall impact stronger right? You want more sales… right?

Tell me how you will improve your overall plan with THIS in mind!

C

How Google got it’s name… and how that can help you name your business/product/service

The name started as a joke about the amount of information the search engine could search, or a “Googol” of information. (A googol is the number 1 followed by 100 zeros.) When founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin gave a presentation to an angel investor, they received a check made out to “Google.”

Source: How 16 Great Companies Picked Their Unique Names, OPENForum

So, if you are naming your company, a new product or program, look to seldom used words that REALLY personify what you offer. Now, does it matter that the word googol has significance, probably not in the long run as most users have NO idea where the word Google came from. It MAY have been instrumental in the startup phase in emphasizing the massive amount of information.

And so what does this teach us, friends? That quite possibly it doesn’t matter what you name a company. Who’s to say however, Google is the most successful search engine so following the example is a smart gamble.

Product names are quite a bit more important, as you only have so much time to impress upon the consumer the need to purchase, so making it something that communicates the message is ideal. Cute or catchy isn’t as important as being benefit laden. People need to know very quickly the benefit they will experience when they make their purchase.

So, how does your product measure up? When a prospect sees your product name on facebook or a website, does it make an instant impact? Does your book title intrigue them and keep them hooked?

C

Wow, what an offer! This guy will write a book proposal for me for $850. Not bad. The hitch? I have to decide and put a downpayment today.

So, I don’t have the need for another book or proposal right now, nor a ghostwriter to create one, however, I think this offer is great. I also love that he only lets you think about it for 24 hours. A great way to get an influx of cash into your business, if you would utilize an idea like this.
Here is some of the email, how could you do something similar in your business?
The keys to success with this type of offer is to make the offer VERY SIMPLE, CLEAR on how to sign up and require a very QUICK response.

( If you are interested in taking him up on this offer, comment here, I will send you his info. I don’t know this guy well, he is just a writer I considered hiring about 5 years ago from a craigslist ad and he contacts me and his list a few times a year, this is one of those times) The copy writing is VERY GOOD!

Hello, hope all is well.

Want an offer “you can’t refuse?”

How about this:

I’ll help you create your book proposal, find the best list of publishers, review each contract offer you receive, and even help you promote your book once it is published!

You only need to make a $450 payment within 24 hours; balance of $400 won’t be due until you sign the book contract and get the advance check from the publisher. (NOTE: Even if you are not ready with any info right now, you can still “lock in” the discount rate by making the payment within 24 hours.)

You can make the payment via Pay Pal, or send a check via overnight delivery.

To pay with Pay Pal, just visit www.paypal.com and click on “send money,” and make the payment to my e-mail address: (his email address was here)

To send a check via overnight delivery, here is the address:

John XXXXXX
(ADDRESS was here)

Be sure to mark the delivery “no signature required,” and e-mail the tracking number to me.

Below you will see a “letter of agreement” that spells out the terms. Just put in your name, date and the amounts from above, and send it back to me, and we can get started on your book project.

Holler if you have any questions.
Thanks!
John XXXXXX

I may use this idea in the near future, maybe offer a very limited time discount on a program or service. .. what about you?

C

How Apple evolves and develops it’s Brand!

They do as Seth Godin says, they take a cliché and do the opposite. THIS is one way we can INNOVATE, like I have been encouraging you to do. As Tony Robbins has pointed out for the duration of this “recession”, you must innovate during this time or you will suffer, because some of your competitors WILL!

To quote Seth:

The effective way to use a cliché is to point to it and then do precisely the opposite. Juxtapose the cliché with the unexpected truth of what you have to offer. Apple does this all the time. They point out the cliché of a laptop or a desktop or an MP3 player and then they turn it upside down.

Richard Branson takes the expected boredom of a CEO and turns it upside down by doing things you don’t expect.

There is power in opposites like this, very often, in that, you can turn a negative into a positive. If your product competitors are very similar to yours (or at least seems that way to prospects), with time, there is a commoditization, that will squeeze any profit out of the venture.If you don’t change the game, it will change and you will pay the consequences.

Like I talked about yesterday in my post, a negative objection from a prospect can be a positive. You can use it to create more success in the future: If competitors chose someone with more “experience”, saying you are younger than your competitors, then build a plan to show that as an advantage. This won’t help for this prospect in particular, but for future prospects, you can be ready. Brand messages for your youth could be:  “Uses the latest breakthrough technology.” “In it for the long haul” (for 30 years instead of the competitor is already 60 so he will retire soon).

What negatives do you see that could be positives?

What we believe shapes our thoughts, our thoughts shape our actions, our actions shape our experience/lives.

What do you believe that could be shaping your life into what you do not want in your future?

C

www.christiescott.com

Find your business is just another J-O-B? The ONE thing you need:

The number ONE difference between the successful business and one that is simply mediocre or failing, is the FOCUS of the leader(s)!

If the leader’s focus is mediocre, then the business will follow suit. What do I mean by mediocre? You are probably thinking, “I AM NOT mediocre, I am excited and active in my business, popping at the seams with ideas!” Ah, my friend, let start at the very beginning, a very good place to start, when you read you begin with A,B,C when your in business begin with too many things, projects, ideas, goals. With time, you either destroy the profitability of a business or learn to focus on what’s truly important.

The largest gap between the very successful person and the miserable one who has a J-O-B disguised as a business, is (da da da DUM): FOCUS!

And more importantly, FOCUS on the RIGHT things at the RIGHT time.

So, how do you know what to focus on? Well, a GREAT coach, mentor, or book can help you see what these RIGHT things are, but, truthfully, are you FOCUS – Able?

Are you able to take that direction and really gain control over your schedule, your employees, your business? OR do you ALLOW yourself to get wrapped up in REACTING to business? Do you ALLOW yourself to get emotionally connected to treating employees the way you always have? Do you ALLOW your rut to keep you sucked in to the old way of selling or marketing? Do you define yourself by how you have always done things or the services you offer?

Honestly? Do you?

Have others tried to help you focus, but you have stuck with “your gut” and in “your rut”?

“How’s that workin for ya?”

Do you LOVE your results?

Have you achieved your dream life?

If not, ask yourself again, REALLY, are you focus -able?If you haven’t proven yourself to be, then now is the best time to start! AND it’s okay, YOU CAN DO THIS!

Go back, read this again, tell me, in what ways could you be more FOCUS -able? What advice, leadership, guidance would have served you, had you been able or willing to sacrifice enough to apply it?

I WANT to hear from you!

Of course, my absolute best to you, as always,

C

P.S. This post was inspired by Scott Ginsberg’s newest book, soon-to-be-released: “-able” (Pronounced a bull) Read more about it or Buy it here! You can read about this fascinating guy here.

I wish I could LIVE in a Ballard Designs catalog! REALLY!

Yes, yes, I love their furnishings, just love them, yet that isn’t my focus for YOU!

The creators of the catalog really stepped into some brilliance with something they did this month in their catalog, bravo!
This is probably how the idea came about: A Ballard Design team was sitting in a meeting and someone says “Why does our prospect most often NOT make a purchase? What’s stopping them?”
Someone else replies “Maybe indecision?”
Everyone chimes in that this is a likely reason. Hence, they decide to create a tool for prospective buyers to use in choosing items for their homes. Ah, and here, my friend, is the result!!!

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They took a photo of a fantabulous living space and then they broke down the main components and gave you the price, description and item number. It causes you to very quickly see those items, in your mind’s eye, in your space. I would bet this has been a successful addition to what was previously beautiful catalog with an average success rate.

So, how can you use this? You are thinking, “I don’t sell furniture, have a catalog or a team of people to brainstorm like this. What does this have to do with me?”

Ok, lesson 1. Know thy customer and why they DO AND DO NOT purchase. If you are a retailer, this could be that you don’t have an attractive store front or your store is not well-known. OR it could be that your store clerks have been rude or the store isn’t merchandised well.
Lesson 2. Build a smoooooth chute for your prospects to slide through on the way to the purchase (make it very easy to go from being a prospect to a buyer/client/customer). Make it clear how to interact with you or your company, don’t allow indecision to be a factor because of your indecision in creating a package or other offer choice. Question what the sticking point is… ALWAYS. Where are your prospects getting stuck in the funnel?

It might be that your clients look into what you offer, but then stop. Ok, then figure out how to make the decision easier and faster.

OR maybe they are purchasing the first time, but not ever again (this is a problem if you make little margin on the first purchase, your customer acquisition cost is high, or the like). This has been one of my client’s problems and it has been quite an evolution to transform, ah but I regress…

So, check out how Ballard Designs has done this in these photos of the catalog pages.

Let me know if you figure out how to apply these lessons to your business. AND let me know if you don’t.

My best as always to you,

C

Seth Godin explains why YOU might not be successful with your online marketing!

Ok, so here Seth Godin explains why YOU might not be successful with your online marketing!

Read it, learn from it and APPLY it! Then, PROFIT from it!

A good preacher ought to be able to get 70% of the people who showed up on Sunday to make a donation.

A teeny bop rock group might convert 20% of concert goers to buy a shirt or souvenir.

A great street magician can get 10% of the people who watch his show to throw a dollar in the hat.

Direct marketers used to shoot for 2% conversion from a good list, but now, that’s a long shot.

A blogger might convert 2% of readers to buy a book. (I’m aghast at this).

And a twitter user with a lot of fans will be lucky to get one out of a thousand to click a link and buy something. (.1%)

Likes, friendlies and hits are all fast-growing numbers that require little commitment. And commitment is the essence of conversion. The problem with commitment is that it’s frightening (for both sides). And so it’s easy to avoid. We just click and move on.

I think there’s a transparent wall, an ever bigger one, between digital spectators and direct interaction or transaction. The faster the train is moving, the harder it is to pay attention, open the window and do business. If all you’re doing is increasing the number of digital spectators to your work, you’re unlikely to earn the conversion you deserve.