How to Stay Top-O-Mind and Not Wear Out Your Welcome!

From experience I’m learning just because I feel what I say is important and some people agree with me; doesn’t mean everyone feels that way. You must be careful you do not wear out your welcome and tick off your audience!

So how do you stay Top-O-Mind? That’s what this post is all about!

It’s Easy to Wear Out Your Welcome Regardless of Your Intent

My son frequently tells my wife and I how humble he is. He’s very diligent in the process and talks about how he defines humility. Of course he is kidding – or at least I hope he is – if he’s not kidding he has no idea what the word means!

However, in his attempts to convince his mother and I; it gets old quick! He is wearing out his welcome on this issue.

Over Communicating Can Have Its Risks Too

When we are communicating with our audience we run the same risk. Again regardless of intent we can simply wear out our welcome. We need to be concerned with how and how often we reach out with our messages. We also must be concerned about the content of our messages; regardless of how relevant they may seem to us; our audience may not feel the same way. In fact, our audience may feel we are over doing it.

I sent the link to my post about “Neglect Is Your Ally” to several people and I had one individual respond by asking me to take him off my distribution list. However, it made me realize maybe my tactic wasn’t so good and maybe some people don’t like my posts. I need a lesson in humility from my son.

So How Do We Maintain Contact While Respecting People’s Privacy

Fortunately LinkedIn provides a way. Daily we receive updates from LinkedIn telling us what is happening with our connections: birthdays, promotions, new connections, their posts, job changes, new volunteer activities, etc. If you are astute you realize each of these is your opportunity to reach out to your connections and acknowledge their activity, accomplishment or special day.

You cannot let these opportunities go to waste! Even if you don’t know the person a congratulations, a like, a happy birthday, etc. will be meaningful. You need to take every chance you get on every Social Media platform to reach out and stay Top-O-Mind.

One complaint or request to be removed from the mailing list isn’t disaster, but it is a wake up call. Don’t wear out your welcome, you are hoping you can call on your network in the future and upsetting them doesn’t put them in a helpful frame of mind.

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My name is Tom Staskiewicz and my goal is to help everyone do a little better, get a little further and reach the success they are destined to achieve!

Do you need help with your message? Are you struggling for people to know you and what you have to offer? If so, I can help. My contact information is below or Email  Me Now! and lets get started.

Whatever I can do to help you or anyone to move forward in reaching your goals; I’m all for it. Connect with me on LinkedIn, Like me on Facebook or follow me on Twitter.

Check out the UP^PROACH site and sign up for our newsletter of career tips and ideas for job seekers, small and medium business owners, self-employed individuals, contractors, consultants or whatever; anyone wanting to move their career forward!

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Top-O-Mind Fatal Mistake

For years professional firms (lawyers, CPAs, doctors, engineers, etc.) have subscribed to newsletter services where they simply change the header on the document and then send it to their clients as their own information.

Today this is a FATAL MISTAKE because these newsletters are published on the firms blog; not sent in the mail! There may be hundreds or even thousands of other blogs with the identical information.

Your Blog Must Be Your Information

If you are going to blog and present the information as your own; then make it your own! If you subscribe to a newsletter service for content; it’s not your content! It is someone else’s content and whether you paid for it or not; it is not your original work!

Instead of taking their own time to create something relevant to their client base; they simply take information from the service, slap their header on the document, post it on their blog and send their clients links to the information under the premise of providing a unique service.

Creating Your Information Takes Time and Effort, but It Is Your Own!

Creating your own information absolutely takes time and effort. It’s not something you can just slap together; but don’t your clients deserve better? Don’t they deserve something you took the time to create? If you are using a service are you differentiating yourself from the competition? Not at all! You are simply confirming your practice is a commodity.

Personal Survey Results

I just saw a posting on LinkedIn from one of my professional connections. I knew they had been using a service and thought I would see if they are still using a service. To do this I copied a couple of sentences from their message and pasted it into Google. I enclosed the text in quotation marks and hit search. This is the text:

“If you also have an IRA, you probably named a beneficiary of that account on the custodian’s beneficiary form. The IRA beneficiary form”

The result was 38 identical hits on the search string. Was this a coincidence? I’m sure it’s no coincidence; all of these firms are using the same service.

How Does this Look to Your Audience?

Do your clients and prospects see this as a differentiator for your firm; obviously not. In fact, if they were searching for a new provider and received the same identical information from both organizations they could have a lot of different thoughts going through their mind.

For example: Did one of these firms plagiarize the information from the other? Is it really two different firms or just one firm working under two names? Did these firms collaborate on the article; why didn’t they acknowledge both authors?

If they found 38 identical results they may not know how to feel.

If You Are Going to Use a Service; at Least Add Your Perspective!

I have counseled professional firms on the issue and told them I didn’t see it as a very good marketing tool. As part of my recommendation I said, if you are going to use a service, at a minimum add your own perspective. Tell them your audience why they should read the article or what you find particularly relevant. At least make some part of the process your own!

Have Newsletter Services Outlived Their Usefulness?

If you are using a newsletter service; this is the question you must ask: has the service outlived its usefulness?
When the newsletters were mailed the chance any of your audience members seeing the identical information from multiple sources was remote. Today with the Internet it’s no longer the case; the chances are high they will see you are not an original thinker. Maybe it is time to create your own material!

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My name is Tom Staskiewicz and my goal is to help everyone do a little better, get a little further and reach the success they are destined to achieve!

Do you need help with your message? Are you struggling for people to know you and what you have to offer? If so, I can help. My contact information is below or Email  Me Now! and lets get started.

Whatever I can do to help you or anyone to move forward in reaching your goals; I’m all for it. Connect with me on LinkedIn, Like me on Facebook or follow me on Twitter.

Check out our career site and sign up for our newsletter of career tips and ideas for job seekers, small and medium business owners, self-employed individuals, contractors, consultants or whatever; anyone wanting to move their career forward!

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Your Message Content and How it Makes Top-O-Mind Work

What is the purpose of your messaging? What are you trying to accomplish?

Many believe the purpose of their messaging is to “sell their products and/or services” and, although this is the ultimate goal, it cannot be the purpose of the majority of your messages. Customers, clients, prospects, et al will see through this immediately and instead of accomplishing the intended goal; your message will fail.

Note: When I say messages I mean Social Media and Blog posts, comments, likes, etc. Any form of communication to your audience.

The Two Purposes of Your Messages

There are two purposes behind good messaging campaigns:

• Let your audience know a little about you; and
• Inform and/or educate your audience on a topic.

You may look at the first purpose and say to yourself he just said it cannot be all about me or my products and services but now I’m being told the messages are to tell my audience a little about me. I don’t understand.

If you bare with me I’ll explain.

A Little About You

When I say a little about you; I’m not talking about what you are selling. What you must do is build your brand. What you want to convey in the brand building process are your personal characteristics, such as:

• Credibility;
• Honesty;
• Integrity;
• Reliability;
• Dependability;
• Trust;
• Sincerity;
• Concern for your audience;
• Consistency; and
• Value

Inform and/or Educate

The next piece is you want to inform and/or educate your audience. You want them leaving the message saying; “that was time well spent.” You want them feeling good about the message and recognizing the value you just provided.

If you can accomplish those objectives your readers will return and, as long as you continue meeting those objectives, they will keep coming back for more. You want loyal readers because many will ultimately become loyal customers and they will share your content with their connections.

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My name is Tom Staskiewicz and my goal is to help everyone do a little better, get a little further and reach the success they are destined to achieve!

Do you need help with your message? Are you struggling for people to know you and what you have to offer? If so, I can help. My contact information is below or Email  Me Now! and lets get started.

Whatever I can do to help you or anyone to move forward in reaching your goals; I’m all for it. Connect with me on LinkedIn, Like me on Facebook or follow me on Twitter.

Check out our career site and sign up for our newsletter of career tips and ideas for job seekers, small and medium business owners, self-employed individuals, contractors, consultants or whatever; anyone wanting to move their career forward!

Name(required)

Email(required)

Website

Comment(required)

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Does Your Social Networking Answer the WIIFM Question?

What’s In It For Me?

The reality is that people are always looking to understand how they will benefit from any activity or action undertaken. They may be totally supportive of an idea or a plan, but their own interests will eventually come into play. With that in mind do you have the WIIFM answer for your customers and prospects?

Does Your Offer Answer Your Customer’s WIIFM Question?

If you can answer that question for them and answer it repeatedly with a benefit that they perceive has value and is of interest; you will get their attention. We are all bombarded with information constantly and one of the easiest ways to weed through the information is by looking for those messages that quickly tell them what is in it for them and make if very clear what they have to gain.

They will take that information and then weigh it against their cost. If the benefit out weighs the cost, they will be interested and act. If the perceived benefit does not outweigh the cost, they will move on to the next offer.

Do You Struggle with the WIIFM Question for Yourself?

So whether you are promoting yourself, your business, your service, or your product; you must be able to provide your reader with an answer to the WIIFM question. If you can’t or you don’t it is wasted effort on your part and you then need to look at the WIIFM question for yourself.

If you don’t want to put the work into your own activities then YOU must be failing your own WIIFM question. For whatever reason you do not feel that putting the effort into your own activities is worth the benefit you will receive.

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Tom Staskiewicz creates networking strategies that help you build your individual and business brands. Ask him how! Check out the UP^PROACH website.

Begging for Facebook Fans

Are You Looking to Build a Following for Your Facebook Fan Page?

There are lots of fan pages out there and many, if not most, go begging for fans. Interestingly I see many posts of people saying “Be my Fan”, “Follow My Page”, “Click on This”, etc. That may work with some people, but you will never gain a quality following using that process. That is unless you are a celebrity and people are ready to jump at anything you say or do.

To Be Successful Facebook Fan Pages Need Fans

Without a doubt your page will be far more successful when you have 100s or 1000s of fans; but you will never reach that goal by begging. You must be providing value to generate fans. There are many different ways to provide value or otherwise encourage people to follow you; but you must be providing something in exchange for their clicking “Like” and becoming a fan.

What Do You Have to Offer?

Obviously one of the first things that you can be offering is valuable information. For instance if you are reading this article; you obviously believe that there is value in the information. Providing information that is helpful and can add value to your readers can be the enticement necessary to get them to become your fan.

Some pages gather fans by offering specials, using coupons or other pricing incentives, running promotions, and other activities to encourage participation. All of these actions can help in building your following. Along with those activities you need to be regular in your postings and activities. People are not interested in Pages that stop and start.

On my page UP^PROACH I offer Fan Page tips. This is gaining me a following and therefore people must believe that there is value in what I am saying. If I can do it, so can you.

Make your Fan Page appeal to readers by giving them quality!

Why Businesses Must Blog

If You Are Not Blogging You Are Missing One of Your Best Marketing Tools

I frequently hear people say that they do not have the time or inclination to Blog. That is a mistake! Blogging can be one of your most effective marketing tools you have in your arsenal. It is your opportunity to get you message out to a lot of people.

If You Think You Don’t Have Time You Are Missing the Point of Blogging

Many business people say the do not like to or do not have time to write Blog articles. While I can understand where they are coming from; the reality is that they are missing the point; they do not understand the power that is at their fingertips. Blogging is your opportunity to get your information out to as large an audience as possible. Blogging is the lead in to syndication and syndication is when you really get the viral nature of things rolling.

The Power of Blogging Lies in Syndication

Whether you like Larry King, Rush Limbaugh, Bill Handel, Ellen DeGeneres, Oprah, or anyone else you have to admit the power of their message is in the size of the listening audience and the quality of their message. Without a large audience they would still be a relative unknown. How did these individuals build their audiences? I can assure you it was not by knocking on doors or calling their friends to tell them to watch or listen. Although some of that most likely happened at first, it is not the way that they became as popular as they are.

They have succeeded through the power of “word of mouth”; Friend telling Friend telling Friend. When you start getting the word out things slowly start to roll. It doesn’t happen overnight normally, but it can. The speed depends on who you start with and what you have to say.

Using Celebrities

Businesses use celebrities to speak on behalf of their companies and products; there is no reason you cannot do the same thing with your Blog. Using a celebrity can be a jump start to your viral efforts.

What if you were able to get a Larry King or a Michael Jordan to comment on your Blog? It would be incredible because these individuals are followed by millions and where the celebrity goes; so go their minions. Now take that a step further. When you advertise on television or radio your viewer or listener may be impressed by the celebrity, but they must take action at some later point in time. If you advertise on the Internet with a powerful message, endorsed by a celebrity, all the viewer must do is click a link to get to your site or product. How much more simple can it get.

Don’t miss the opportunities; get with the program and get BLOGGING!