Monday 6 February 2017

MM Tip #16 - Are you trying to do all your marketing on the FREE?

Did you eat for free today or did you pay for your food?

Did your home just suddenly appear for you with a bed and all the comforts, or did you actually have to pay for it?

Then where did the money for all these things come from?

Are you independently wealthy or do you actually have to work for and earn your money, so you can have all these comforts of life?

Today there are so many things that we can get for FREE online that we tend to forget that there is no way that FREE will make us wealthy. Somewhere "the piper needs to get paid".

For example, I see many people get started in their own business, they open their doors and wonder why customers are not coming in. Could this possibly be you?

Many times, when I have sat down with a possible client who is asking about my services and what I can do to help them, I explain that they need to use an auto-posting system like HootSuite or SproutSocial. Neither of these are free. You used to be able to use the basic HootSuite for free, but no longer. It is now $10 a month for the privilege of using their basic platform.

LinkedIn has a free platform, Facebook is free, Twitter is free, Google + is free, Blogger is free. Instagram, Yelp, SnapChat, Periscope, Blab, YouTube, & Skype are also free. And there are countless other platforms that are free to use.

For some reason, people balk when they see that they actually might have to pay for the use of a platform online. Know what that reason is?

No Marketing budget.

I know because I was there once.

Now I am on a paid platform for LinkedIn, so I can have 45 InMails a month to use for reaching out to people I am not connected with. Next to the secrets of the groups, InMail is the next best feature of this platform.

I pay for my auto-posting system as well. On the paid platform we also have the privilege of the analytics available there to show us who we are reaching and how many people have read our posts and so much more.

I pay for pictures I need to use online. If I need to find a picture not already available in my own files, I do not want to be accused of plagiarism.

When we do not pay for the use of platform features to assist us with our online marketing, we are handicapping our business and our reputation online.

In summary, if we want people to take us seriously, we need to take our business seriously.

Get on a paid platform and get the job done right.

Check out some of my coaching packages at www.marketingmentress.com.

Christine Till
The Marketing Mentress




MM Tip #17 - Time is of the Essence!

You would  never be late for an important business meeting would you?

In some cultures being on time means that you get there when you can. I have also noticed that in those types of cultures where time is not so important the poverty level of the people is high. In other words most of the population is living a bare existence.

We are told that in North America we are privileged. We are told that North Americans are wealthy. People in less privileged countries look at us either with disdain or great longing because they cannot understand why they are so destitute and we are so affluent.

Think about it.

Do you think that how we use our time makes a big difference?

Why is it that some people cannot seem to get ahead, no matter how hard they work?

Then when the people from these impoverished situations come to North America, they are met with a huge cultural shock. Suddenly, they have to be on time for everything.

If they want to catch the bus for work, they need to catch the correct one, in order to arrive on time. If they miss that certain bus, they will be late and if that happens too many times, they will find themselves  unemployed and impoverished living on the street once again...just like they were in their home country.

Personally, I like to give people the benefit of the doubt and look to build relationships with all nationalities to see if we can find ways to collaborate.

I met a fellow from Ghana, who was living here in a city close to where I live. We had connected on LinkedIn. We saw a possibility for collaboration, so arranged to meet at a designated restaurant in the city.

Now, I live a one hour drive from the meeting location and made my way there to meet up in good time. After waiting 20 minutes, I decided to phone him to see if he was coming.

Guess what I discovered!

He was at work and started asking me to come another 30 minute drive to where he was working to meet with him in a parkade, which was where he worked.

I had other appointments booked for the rest of the day and had no time to drive all the way downtown to meet with this man. He was insulted and said that I should be meeting with him at his convenience and my inconvenience. I wonder on which page of the book, and which book he was reading? He was the one who no-showed me!

Is this a cultural thing? Or did he just plan to not show up from the beginning?

I have a feeling that it was more the cultural thing, with a touch of his old thinking about the affluence of people in this country. Sometimes people who come here from more impoverished countries expect people here to cater to them, because supposedly we have more money than they do.

What do you think was behind his thinking?

What are your feelings about being on time for appointments and business meetings?

Christine Till
The Marketing Mentress


MM Tip #18 - What Does Online Respect Mean to You?

When you meet someone online, connect with, friend or follow them, how should you treat them?

All too often I see people connect with me online, and as soon as I accept their connection...bang! They send a big, shocking pitch. The pitch is no short blurb either.
How does that make you feel? All warm and fuzzy?

Personally, It makes me feel like I have been slapped in the face. I haven't even had a chance to get to know the person yet! We haven't even discovered if there might be some way we can collaborate.

To me, this way of pitching immediately after the connection, especially with social media, demonstrates one of three things.

1. The person has no idea how to build relationships with anyone online OR offline.

2. The person is not interested in building relationships online.

3. The person does not care how he/she comes across because it is just a numbers game.

This reminds me of a connection request I accepted on LinkedIn.

I call myself a Lioness on LinkedIn because I will connect with pretty much anyone, as long as they have a headshot. (L.I.O.N. - LinkedIn Open Networker...ess - means female)

I accepted a request to connect from this gentleman and sent him a personable response to thank him for linking up and joining my network. Then I asked him what inspired him to use LinkedIn.

The response I received was a 3 page pitch about his company and all the things that they have to offer and how they can help me and the specials they have this week if I purchase before Friday.

Honestly! I felt like he was slapping me upside the head AND in the face multiple times as I read his pitch.

Once I recovered from the initial slap, I gathered my composure to ask him how this type of approach was working for him and how many people he had been sending this message to before he got a sale? I was shocked to hear that he had made one sale thus far. It surprised me because I was thinking that he probably would never make a sale the way he was pitching.

Wow! It made me wonder what kind of client that was? Obviously they had no more respect for people in business than this gentleman had for his prospective clients.

How do you feel that he might have improved on his approach?

Is this the way you would approve of being approached?

Personally,  I feel that all marketing online, especially LinkedIn is about respecting those you are connecting with. It should never be about myself. I feel it is my duty to ask others what I can do to help them.

If platforms like LinkedIn are professional, then everyone on there should be a professional, don't you think?

I would love to hear how you feel on this issue.

Christine Till
The Marketing Mentress


Li Tip #82 - Did You Know that You can Control Viewers of this Profile Also Viewed?

Have you wondered why this isn't showing up on some profiles you view?

A fellow colleague drew this to my attention this morning. Thank you Wayne Breitbarth!

There are so many nuances to LinkedIn that there are some features which often get overlooked. The "People Also Viewed" feature is one of these.

When we look at someone else's profile, we can see a list of "People also viewed" members to the right hand side of the profile page. Have you wondered how LinkedIn compiles this?

When someone looks at a profile, it is usually because you have something in common or some similarities. Or the people you are checking out all have something in common. Or they could be people you know. LinkedIn's algorithms pick up on these little similarities and displays them in your "People also viewed" section of your profile. Speaking in very simple terms.

There is also a way to turn this on or off for your profile.

Click on the tiny icon in your upper right hand corner of your profile page and scroll down to the "Privacy & Settings" tab. Left click.

On the next page, left click on "Privacy".

Then scroll down to "Viewers of this profile also viewed". Left click.

Choose whether to turn it on or off.

It asks if LinkedIn should display the viewers of this profile (meaning your profile). You can choose "Yes or No". By choosing "No", you will turn off the display in your right hand column that lists the profiles of "people also viewed".

Turning this feature off can be helpful when you do not wish your competitors to show up on your "People also viewed" list of your profile.

You can still view the "People also viewed" list of other profiles...unless they have turned this feature off, of course.

With the "People also viewed" feature turned off, you can still see your "Who's Viewed My Profile" list on a daily basis and respond with the people there using your personalized messages and paid InMail.

To catch the Early Bird for my next webinar, reserve before February 10th or the second Friday of the month, The Secrets of the Groups on LinkedIn and Facebook: http://bit.ly/SecretsoftheGroups

Make it a great day!

Christine Till
The Marketing Mentress


MM Tip #19 - What are YOU Thinking?

Why is it that people tend to dwell on the negatives in life?

There was a newspaper that focused on sharing only positive news. I believe it was called the "Good News Newspaper". It only lasted six months. Why do you think that nobody wanted to purchase it?

It does not matter who gets elected, for example, there are always people who pick on the negatives of who won or lost. Why is it that so many people tend to dwell on these...especially after the fact?

Will all the negative comments make the outcome that is already past, different today?

Does all the screaming and crying really do anything other than turn people off?

How does it make you feel within yourself when you speak negatively? Do you feel better or are you getting more upset inside?

Bingo!

What do intelligent people do when life hands them a basket full of negatives? They focus on their strengths.

Don't focus on your weaknesses for you are weak in your weaknesses, focus on your strengths.

Why is it that our entire lives are fraught with negatives? When people have conversations, inevitably it turns to negative thoughts about what has happened to them and how badly they feel.

Have you noticed that when you speak about a negative, the worse you feel?

Whatever we decide to let permeate our thoughts, that is what will be fed and allowed to grow in intensity.

When I was growing up, my Mom would not allow us to come to the breakfast table with a grouchy face. If we had a grouchy face, we were calmly sent to our room to "find your smile". It did not take us long to figure out that if we wanted breakfast, we came to the table with a smile on our faces. These lessons taught me that it was up to me to change my own attitude.

I can Choose to Smile! I can Choose to be Positive! I can Choose to find the Good in Life!
Remember that what we think is what we speak and what we speak is what we get. So think and speak what you want; not what you have.

What does negativity do to your dreams and goals?

Get my drift? You get what you feed.

Christine Till
The Marketing Mentress