I am a regular contributor to the American Society of Appraiser's Business Valuation E-Letter. My latest column (Issue 15-39, September 28, 2011) originally appeared as a blog post here. For the article, I added to the original post by fleshing out the featured story and then admitting to my own guilt. Read the whole thing to find out what I'm talking about.
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Continue reading ""Professionals Rehearse. Amateurs Jump the Couch" (Part 2)" »
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Peter "Deuce" Bradshaw, a student at Stetson University College of Law, begins this presentation with "... So ... while sitting through a Trusts & Estates lecture, I started feeling annoyed. Because I was being hit in the face with information And then an analogy happened ..."
I love the ideas in this presentation and understand all too well that feeling of annoyance. If you are interested in taking your presentations to the next level, view this Slideshare and think.
I hope Mr. Bradshaw continues to bring his creativity to the practice of law.
Designing Information: Making it Immersive
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Yesterday I posted about LinkedIn's new "Improve your Profile" tool. It's a handy and easy tool to help walk you through completing your profile.
Today, I discover that they've pulled a "Facebook" on us, or as Steve Woodruff of Connection Agent puts it:
"Apparently, LinkedIn has recently done us the 'favor' for having a default setting whereby our names and photos can be used for third-party advertising."
For those of you who would NOT like to participate in this, there is a way to turn off this default setting.
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LinkedIn's blog today announced the "Improve Your Profile" tool as an "easy way to optimize your LinkedIn presence." I checked it out and it seems to be a handy and easy way to help you complete your profile.
To access, click on "Profile" / "View Profile" or "Edit Profile" from the LinkedIn menu. You should see the "Improve your Profile" button at the top right (see the screenshot of my profile below). Click that button and LinkedIn will prompt you to complete any incomplete information (and there is a checklist on the right which highlights your recommended steps). My profile was pretty complete so it prompted only one question for me, yet it will be helpful to me as a CMO as I work with our professionals to complete their profiles.
It is imperative that your LinkedIn profile be complete and up-to-date. LinkedIn is the most popular socia media network for business people. When other professionals ask me if and how to start in social media, my immediate recommendation is LinkedIn.
It doesn't take long to complete your profile (hint: always include your phone number and email address so people can easily contact you) and is a great way to highlight your experience.
If you don't have a LinkedIn profile, visit www.linkedin.com and create one. If you already have a LinkedIn profile, check out this tool to make sure your profile is complete.
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Lee W. Frederiksen, Ph.D. of Hinge Marketing posted "Why Online Branding Matters." It's an easy and insightful read. Lee begins the post with:
Online branding may be the most important marketing concept that you never think about. Granted, you may spend your brainpower thinking about online marketing and how you can generate more leads, but online branding is the Cinderella of the digital world.
He then goes on to define online branding and follows that with the question: Why Should You Care? He answers that with this piece of spot-on advice:
This one is actually pretty easy. Let's start with your professional services brand. As I have blogged about before, your firm's brand can be thought of as your reputation times your visibility. The greater these factors, the stronger your brand:
Reputation x Visibility= Brand Strength
So what is the first thing you do to check out a potential new vendor or business partner? Visit their website? Google them? Read their LinkedIn profile?
Your online presence is arguably the single most important factor shaping people's impression of your firm's reputation and boosting it's visibility. (emphasis mine)
Lee then gives you five places to start to strengthen your online brand. Every managing partner and CMO of a professional services firm should take a few minutes to read Lee's post and then review your online branding efforts. It will be worth your time.
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As a follow on to yesterday's post which discussed content marketing and gave you a few content marketing resources, see CMI's "50 Questions Answered About Content Marketing." Enjoy.
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Great article by Michael W. McLaughlin on thought leadership (Is Your Thought Leadership Strategy a Waste of Time? via RainToday).
His point is basic but glossed over by many hyping this marketing tactic - that is content marketing (i.e., being recognized as a thought leader) is hard.
Michael notes that pumping content out to the market that does not address your customer's needs, is old thinking, has no call to action, and has no support for the assertions made is not only bad marketing, it's a waste of time.
Content marketing is all the rage now. Mercer Capital (the firm I work for) has been using this marketing tactic before it had a name, as have many professional services firms. We always called it educating our clients, referral sources, and our profession.
Twenty years ago, even ten years ago (that's how long we've been marketing with content), content marketing was much more effective than it is now. There are two primary reasons:1) the marketplace wasn't so crowded and 2) the internet was not being used as the powerful content delivery tool it is today.
This means you should read Michael's article and if you are using, or considering using, content marketing as a piece of your marketing plan, focus on producing quality content. It's hard. It's very hard. It's harder than it's likely ever been. But it's worth it if done correctly.
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Other content marketing sites you might be interest in are:
Numerous other websites discuss content marketing. For a list, download my whitepaper 25 Marketing Best Practices for Professional Service Firms. In it I list the 80 or so blogs I follow. Many of them might be of interest to you.
Also check out the book, Content Rules, by Ann Handley and C.C. Chapman.
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As I posted earlier, if your firm doesn't have a LinkedIn Company Page, it should.
Visit that post and this post from Content Marketing Institute - New LinkedIn Company Pages: A Step-by-Step Guide for Content Marketers - which provide further good information.
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Interesting stats re Twitter from Hubspot.
According to this presentation, 67% of US Twitter users are more likely to buy brands they follow. I have found that tweeting as a brand, a professional service firm (rather than as an individual), is difficult because, let's face it, the tweets are often mostly promotional which makes them boring. I don't know many, say, accounting firms who are tweeting as the firm that have compelling content in their timelines. I follow several of them so I speak from that experience.
A key for professional service firms tweeting as brands is to have individual evangelists inside the firm tweeting interesting stuff and/or let the firm have a personality. Either way, it's a hurdle for many professional services firm.
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