Wednesday 26 July 2017

The Truth About Headshots

Are you someone who is afraid of putting your headshot up on your social media platforms?

If you are afraid to put your headshot on your online platforms, here's the low-down.

When I first got started using LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and the like, I was more than a little hesitant to put my personal headshot up on them for the public to see. I had read intel that cautioned against doing this because I could get my "identity stolen." What I discovered was that these people were misinformed.

I had an opportunity to do some workshops with the most informed person on Identity Theft in the world! That was George Greenwood. He has published many books on the subject.

We had pre-arranged our presentation where I would speak for a few minutes on LinkedIn and what we could do with it. Then George would step in and tell us how to do all the LinkedIn work and be 'safe'.

It was most enlightening!

What I discovered through George was that all someone needs to steal our identity is our name and birth date. The perpetrators don't want our picture, because they will put their own headshot on the fake identity.

So, are you putting your birth date up on your platforms so all your friends and connections can wish you a happy birthday? Probably not a good idea.

Take your birthday off all your platforms, and if you cannot take it down, put a fake one up there, and keep track of it in a notebook, so when you have to use your birth date to verify your identity with the platform itself, you can do so.

Yes, it gets complicated.

I have walked into networking meetings where everyone stood and sang "Happy Birthday" to me...and brought a cake! I joined in the singing, thinking that it was someone else's birthday. Then was informed that they were singing to me!!! I asked them which social media platform they got that from? We all had a good laugh!

One time I received a birthday card because someone got my birthday from Facebook!
So, yes, do not send me birthday greetings on any of my platforms, because they all have the wrong birthday, and none of them are the same. If you do, I will acknowledge you and thank you, but will never tell what the real date is.

As I meet new people and they inquire about how to get started with LinkedIn or other social media platforms, they often share with me their feelings of hesitancy at the prospect of putting their headshot on their profiles.

Here's the thing.

If you put a picture of your kids or your pets, or your new car, etc up on your profiles, no matter which platform, your connections and friends can tell right away that it is now you, and it discredits you at first glance. Subconsciously people wonder what you are trying to hide from them?

Remember that it isn't your picture that identity thieves really want.

Catch my next webinar where you can learn how to create a uniform brand online through all your platforms, and how to manage them on 15-30 minutes a day.

August 24th is the day. Register before August 4th and catch the Early Bird rate.

Christine Till

The Marketing Mentress



Thursday 20 July 2017

What's with all these Platforms Inviting us to get Referrals?

Have you been invited to connect on different platforms in hopes of receiving new leads for your business?

Why are we online anyway? Humbly speaking from my standpoint, I am online for business purposes only. Of course in doing so, I also realize that I need to be somewhat social at the same time.

A few years ago, I joined Referral Key to check it out, because I was receiving many invitations to join it. And I am still receiving requests to connect with people. I have yet to receive any real tangible business from it.

Recently, I have been inundated with invitations to join Alignable. For quite a while, I just deleted all the invitations, because I thought it was just like the first one. Then I learned from a fellow online marketing expert that it was connected with LinkedIn in some way. So I joined and set up my profile.

What happened next was beyond my wildest imagination!

Suddenly my email was crammed with messages from people accepting my request to join Alignable. Many were positive, but a lot were not.

After one of these precious connections of mine stood up in a networking meeting this week telling everyone that he was very upset with me for inviting him to join Alignable, I suddenly realized that this was not what I expected to happen.

So I changed my passwords for Google and LinkedIn and deleted my Alignable profile.

There are many different programs being developed to help us get "more and better leads than we could with LinkedIn or Facebook."  In my humble experience, they are just a nuisance.

In my humble opinion, anyway.

Please accept my sincere apology for dragging you into this platform. If you receive any invitations to join, be careful...you will be inundated with emails and many of your connections that are automatically invited will be very upset with you.

Christine Till


The Marketing Mentress



Wednesday 12 July 2017

What makes someone an "overnight success?"

Have you been watching people in your network become successful over night?

Exactly what have you noticed about these people? Are they better looking than you? Are they smarter than you? Are they more experienced than you?

Does it sting when you see someone become successful faster than you...and they started their business long after you did?

Why is it that this can happen? You have been working hard in your business and you feel that you deserve to be successful too. Does this make you feel like a failure?

Look at what you are doing. You have no idea about them!

You are comparing yourself to someone that you know nothing about.

You need to stretch yourself to grow.

There is a famous quote by an unknown author, "You can never cross the ocean unless you have the courage to lose sight of the shore." Have you been keeping your eyes on the shore?

Perhaps you are trying to be a lone wolf and do it all by yourself. Know what, I discovered that when I first got started with LinkedIn and other social media platforms, I needed a coach.

When my last boss and I agreed to disagree, I found that I had no decent job offers. What was I going to do? So any red-blooded Canadian woman, I started my own business.

I had no business plan, no idea of how I was going to get clients, no idea of what to do first, second, third, etc. What I am trying to say is that I was trying to do it all by myself. Because I was starting out with no budget, I felt that I had to do it all on my own.

It took time for me to find the right people in my life that could help me with different aspects of my business. I met them all through LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter.

Imagine that!

I met Jonathan Christian through Twitter, and then I checked his profile on LinkedIn and contacted him to be a guest on my show. Since then we have built a relationship of friendship and trust that will last through the ages. Jonathan helped me through his workshops to understand Facebook and Twitter. I in turn helped him with Linkedin training for his workshops and clients.

I met Richard Earl through Facebook. Then I looked him up on LinkedIn. Richard travelled across the water from Vancouver Island to meet with me in Vancouver. He showed me how to use HootSuite for my auto-posting platform to help save me time with all the posting I was doing on my social media platforms.

I met my Life Coach, Monika Becker, on LinkedIn and invited her to be my guest on my show. She ended up being my coach helping me through the grief and loss of my job.

These are a few of the wonderful people who have shown up in my life to help me move myself and my business on to the next level. I am so very thankful for them. They have help shape me into what I am today. I will love and respect them all for their help and support forever!

Back to that person who seemed like an overnight success. We do not know what kinds of challenges they have had to overcome in their lives before they were able to achieve success. We do not know how many tears they have shed or how frustrated they were at times wondering what to do next.

Trying to be a lone wolf can be discouraging at times. Let people help you. Invite people to help you.

I would have taken a lot longer to get where I am with my business if I did not get some help along the way.

What do you need help with when it comes to your business? I can probably help you through my networks.

Make it a great day!

You can check out some of my coaching packages at www.marketingmentress.com.

Christine Till

The Marketing Mentress



How I Became a Womanition Gal.

After living in BC for 30 years, I am happy to be back in Alberta!

Born and raised on a ranch in Southern Alberta, my heart will always be here! Yup! I'm a cowgirl through and through.

Who'd have ever thought in a million years that I would end up being a social media geek!

My husband and I moved back here because he had found work. I was excited to be back home again!

Still am excited!.

However, it takes time to kindle those relationships of trust again. So I started attending some networking meetings. Through that, I was starting to get clients to help with their LinkedIn.

Then one day we stopped at the 109th street Save-On-Foods store in Edmonton. As we left the store, we stopped to look at the "Free" magazines and newspapers stacked in the foyer of the store. Suddenly I spotted these fabulous magazines! I picked one up and started thumbing through it. Wow! "This must cost at least $10," I thought! But I could not find a price anywhere on the magazine, so I shoved it in my coat and headed to the car, where I promptly opened the magazine and started reading.

As I looked at all the beautiful women in that magazine, I was so jealous of them! I wanted to be in that magazine too. But how was I going to get in that magazine?

I put the magazine in my briefcase and was carrying it around with me. One day as I was working with a client in her office, she asked me if I had heard of Womanition? Well, I pulled out the magazine and said, "You mean this Womanition?"

She nodded her head in agreement.

Then I asked her, "How I can get into this magazine?" So she invited me to the next Edmonton Womanition meeting. That was November 2014.

The very first meeting, I was impressed and felt like I belonged in this group. Since then I have attended all 5 of the Womanition meetups in the province each month.

Soon after I met Dorothy, I was able to start a group in Leduc and I still run this group today. In fact our meeting is the second Thursday of the month in Leduc, AB. It is free to sign up and join the group. There are no membership fees. All we pay for is lunch. It is an opportunity to network and find ways we can support each other.

Come join us. We have a special topic each month, 20 minute speaker, a chance to win a 5 minute pitch for your business when you bring an instant gratification type door prize...and we always have chocolate!

You need to register by Wednesday, the day before the second Thursday.

Love to see you there!

Christine Till

The Marketing Mentress




Monday 3 July 2017

LinkedIn Tip #98: Two LinkedIn Questions regarding InMail and Gmail.

1. Can I erase multiple emails from LinkedIn on my Gmail?
2. Can I create one reply and send it to multiple contacts on my Gmail through LinkedIn?
Great questions!

I am sure that there will be others who also have wondered about these questions.
First let me define some terms.

1. InMail is your messaging system on your LinkedIn platform.
2. Email is your personal email account messaging system.

When I first started using LinkedIn, I wondered about all the emails from LinkedIn messages that I was receiving in my MarketingMentress inbox. I hesitated to delete them for fear that I would be deleting them from my LinkedIn as well.

So I deleted one or two and then checked my LinkedIn InMail box. Voila! They were still there!

So, short answer to question number one is that you can delete all your LinkedIn emails that come into your personal email inbox without losing them on your LinkedIn platform.

This is still the case today.

The reason you are receiving these emails, is so that you are reminded that there are people responding to you on your LinkedIn platform.

It is up to you whether you want to click on these emails and go into your LinkedIn account to respond that way, or just delete the message in your email inbox and go directly to LinkedIn and respond to any messages there through InMail.

The Second question is about creating a response to a message and sending that response to multiple contacts in your Gmail.

If you want to send a response to a message on your LinkedIn platform, you can copy multiple people from your LinkedIn connections, but they need to be connected to you on LinkedIn.

What you can do regarding sending out a response to a message on your LinkedIn InMail, is copy the discussion sequence and paste it into your message box on a new message in your Gmail. Then you can send that message to multiple people on your Gmail list.

Hope that makes sense to you.

I look forward to answering your LinkedIn questions.

Christine Till

The Marketing Mentress


© Copywrite by The Marketing Mentress & Christine Till July 3, 2017