Where oh where have your manners gone?!
The blog post below was originally written about a year ago but never published. Why publish it now you ask? This week I got more spam from this same company. It made me so angry that I dug up this post and I hope it gets wide distribution. Here’s why.
From 2008 sometime…….
The other day I got an email in my inbox. It said in part…. Read the rest of this entry »
Written by Lynda Partner
July 16th, 2009 at 8:23 am
Pushing the GO button
I’ve worked really really hard on my latest project – a crowd-sourced survey of Twitter users. I’ve sweated over it and worked it and edited it and it’s ready to go. My plan is to use Twitter to get Twitter users to join in and share their insights about themselves. Then in the true spirit of social networking, I’ll share the results.
The survey is done, and I find myself unable to push the GO button because I am afraid. There, I said it. I AM AFRAID.
I am afraid that nobody will complete the survey
I am afraid that nobody will retweet my posts
I am afraid that I’ll annoy my followers if I talk about it
I am afraid that my voice is so very tiny that nobody will even hear it, and that will hurt
Written by Lynda Partner
July 8th, 2009 at 5:10 pm
5 Signs your company isn’t ready to start using social media
These 5 signs that a company isn’t ready to start using social media tools come from my real-world conversations with company CEOs.
1. Your CEO or client says “Let’s get a blog going”. You ask who is going to blog about what. They say “Nobody has time but we can just summarize or talk about other people’s blog posts”.
2. Your CEO or client says “Let’s get on Twitter” You say OK, what will we tweet?” They say “Our press releases and product info of course, what else would we tweet?”
3. Your CEO or client says “Let’s get on Twitter” You say OK, who will tweet?” They say “Everyone in the company, but we’ll need legal to approve each tweet first.”
4. Your CEO or client says “We need to get everyone talking to each other” You say OK, what do you have in mind? They say “We just sent out a link to < latest corporate social media platform >, that ought to do it.”
5. Your CEO or client says “Let’s get on Twitter” You say “OK, are our customers and partners on twitter?” They say “Why does that matter, we just need to say we use social media”.
Here are 5 questions to ask when they say they need to get some of that social media stuff going.
Written by Lynda Partner
June 22nd, 2009 at 11:18 am
Learning Twitter – come on in, the water’s warm!
Experienced Twitter users have their own language, their own rules and they project an “in”crowd feeling which sometimes makes it difficult for a newbie to participate with confidence. On more than one occasion I have sat paralyzed with indecision, afraid to tweet the wrong thing and embarrass myself in front of my followers, or worse yet have my “oops” tweet retweeted to the larger universe. 
Twitter pros, this article is not for you but feel free to forward it to all the newbies you know.
Twitter newbies, come on in – the water’s great!
Written by Lynda Partner
June 9th, 2009 at 3:39 pm
Top 20 Small Biz Productivity Tools
Run your business in the cloud for almost nothing? You bet you can. Here are my Top 20 small business web-based productivity tools. If you are a consultant or agency or a road warrior, chances are you’ll enjoy some or even all of these great time and money savers. They are all free or less than $20/mo and they had to be dead easy to use or they didn’t make the cut cause most small business people don’t have IT teams.
- CRM - contact and lead tracking, sales and contact management, sales pipeline management and forecasting, customer service and business management. Keep yourself organized! Free version available from www.freecrm.com, from $7/mo at www.sugarcrm.com
- Market Research – Google Alerts is a “must-have” clipping service. Set up your favorite key words and www.google.com/alerts finds and delivers articles about any subject of your choosing to your inbox every day. Watch for news and mentions of your own company, your customers and your competitors. Free
- Creative Design – Want a design for a new logo, brochure, website or business card? Go to either www.crowdspring.com, or www.99designs.com, upload your requirements, run a contest and pick your favourite. You pick the purse size, I’ve seen contests get dozens of great results for only a few hundred dollars. Read the rest of this entry »
Written by Lynda Partner
June 2nd, 2009 at 11:34 am
Yes you can make B2B sales happen using Twitter
Yesterday I sat in on a webinar. Speaker was very good and the points he made was clear and interesting and relevant but I found myself unsatisfied when it was all over. It took me a few hours to figure out why – he didn’t show us any examples of “good” and “not so good” and because of that he wasn’t as effective as he could have been.
I like examples, especially simple ones that you get right away. My simple mind perhaps? Whatever the reason, because I have been researching successful B2B uses of Twitter lately I thought I would share this example of how Twitter helped at least one company make a sale. Read the rest of this entry »
Written by Lynda Partner
May 7th, 2009 at 9:23 am
Why event marketing ROI is more like dating than hooking up
I am willing to wager my reputation on the fact that Event ROI is about to become a very hot topic as marketing budgets come under greater scrutiny. So here are a few of my thoughts on the subject:
The perfect event marketing ROI presentation shows how profits realized from product or service sales as a direct result of an event-based marketing program exceed the cost of the program. It’s actually a simple formula, but there are some challenges. To explain, here’s a story to show why calculating event ROI is more like dating than hooking up and its all about getting more than one touch to be successful. Read the rest of this entry »
Written by Lynda Partner
April 17th, 2009 at 10:50 am
