Continuing the series from here. Beginning here.

The Rhythm and Process of Network Management

There’s no way around it. It’s going to take work on your part.

Building your network is easy.

Cultivation is difficult.

And, frankly, this is where most people fall down. Because it is hard work.

Whether you have a Networking Event Follow-Up SOP after an in-person event or you check Facebook every day and write a personal note on the walls of birthday celebrants, you just need to do it.

Day in and day out.

This is where you will differentiate yourself.

By executing….consistently….over time.

So, spend some time thinking about what you could do.

1. think about 3 people in your network who you think would enjoy meeting each other and broker the introduction
2. send a monthly email of super high-value links to your contacts that will make them better at what they do (remember: relevance is credibility!)
3. find five status updates that pique your curiosity and comment on them

These are just ideas. It doesn’t matter so much (ok, it does), but what really matters is that you have a plan…and execute it.

While you want to automate and operationalize, you want to do that while keeping it personal.

I am completely FIRED UP to announce that the world’s leading software vendor is my newest client.

The project involves working with a specific set of Microsoft partners to help them develop a Word-of-Mouth and Social Media Marketing strategy (using the 6 step process).

Our goal, of course, is to generate services revenue for the partners and net new software sales for Microsoft.

Having spent almost 6 years working within MSFT, I am excited to combine my passion for marketing and technology with the understanding I have of Microsoft’s business and operations.

Continuing the series begun here

 

Your Network’s WIIFM

A definition-WIIFM: What’s In It For Me

It may be crass, but everyone in your network needs to feel that they benefit by having an association with you.

Do you know what that benefit is?

If not, it's time to think about it. And how you put it into action.

What’s In It For Me is the prime motivating factor for most of the things that each of us do. Yes, there are occasionally the purely altruistic, but let’s be honest, most of the time, when we do something, it is designed to improve something about our own lives.

It may be financial, emotional, or psychological, but usually (and maybe I am too Adam Smith here), it is a selfish reason. That’s not to say others don’t benefit, of course.

There are two ways you can improve the WIIFM for your network

1. make them look good by introducing you to other members of their network
2. make yourself an increasingly valued member of their network.

Let’s look at how you make others look good first.

When you look to your network to help extend the brand that you have created online, you need to ask yourself this question:

Will a member of my network’s value increase to the members of his/her network if I am introduced into that network?

So, if I introduce you to my friend, Bob, will Bob think more highly of me after having met you?

The answer had better be yes or else Bob’s perception of me will suffer.

So, what does this mean?

This means that “hygiene is important.” The way you represent yourself online is a key determinant in how people make an assessment about you (and in what they think about me…if I introduce you.)

That means, if you have a webpage that looks like this:

My value will decrease to my network. They will not think I am serious. They will think I don’t have good judgment and that I associated with sloppy people.

You lose. I lose.

Now, if you have a page that looks like this:

It’s obviously a different story.

Now, I am not just talking about your corporate page, that’s easy. I am talking about your LinkedIn page, Facebook profile, etc.

• Does the page look like you put some effort into it?
• Does it provide details that are interesting?
• Is your personality coming through?
• Is there actionable/clickable information that brings me deeper into your story?

Simply put, does it present you in the way you want to be presented?

That’s the first part of the WIIFM for your network. Make it look like my network is a valuable one to other members of my network.

The second part is to make yourself indispensable.

How do you do this?

Well, the trite answer is “add value.”

The execution for this is “be the connector.”

If you can identify situations where two people in your network would benefit by getting an introduction to each other, you are going to win.

1. someone is looking for an employee and you know someone who could fill it
2. a good friend is moving to a new town and shares a passion for jazz with a friend who lives there
3. a volunteer is looking for an organization and your friend is the exec. director

You probably get a ton of these requests already.

My suggestion. Instead of reading and deleting, spend an extra 5 seconds and think, “hmmm, I may not know someone who can do this job, but I bet so and so would…and pass that along via cc.”

Once your network sees that you are trying to add value by being a connector, they will decide that it is worth their time to stay in touch with you.

Now, that is where you want to be.

Next: the Rhythm and Process of Network Management

I don’t know if it’s a new wave of blogging interest or a new part of the Adoption Curve, but recently I’ve been approached by a higher-than-usual number of people who are starting a blog.

I am far from the godfather of blogging, but with these folks in mind, I’ll offer my 2 cents worth on what makes a good blog.

1. Please Don’t Tell Anyone You Are Blogging…until you have at least 10 or 15 posts up.
   No one is going to be impressed by the mere fact that you’ve set up a blog or posted once or twice. People probably won’t even comment. What we want to see is that you are making blogging a habit.  I don’t care if it is every day, every other day, or 2 times a week. It doesn’t matter.
   
   What matters is consistency over time. Starting a blog is like starting a diet or exercise. That’s easy. Doing it every day. That’s difficult.  Once you have committed to blogging and you’ve started to get a groove on, then, by all means share it with everyone.
   
   Nothing’s worse (ok, slight exaggeration) than a person who starts a blog and then promptly gives up. Big hit to the micro-brand.
   
2. You Want People To Leave
   It may sound counter-intuitive, but the more relevant and valuable links you have in a post, the more likely I am to appreciate you. Yes, in the short-term, I may click away to another site to read whatever you have linked to, but if you become my de facto expert on a topic by being a “front page” for that topic and serving as a channel that filters the most relevant info, then I’ll come back. I promise. 
   
   A post that offers me no additional depth or context to explore a subject is like an Internet cul-de-sac. It’s nice, but doesn’t really lead me anywhere. So, show me you know what you are talking about. Show me that you have domain expertise.
   
3. Think About the Entire Blog Experience
   When I visit your blog for the first time, I will read your post, but I am also subconsciously looking at the whole page and whether you are giving me additional opportunities to build a relationship with you. 
• Are you showing me a link to your LinkedIn profile?
• maybe your Delicious tags?
• or Twitter, so I can follow you?
  
  or perhaps it is just a link to some papers you’ve written or presentations you’ve delivered?
  
  Just something to invite me to explore you further. I may do nothing with it, but it shows me you’ve thought about it.
  
  When you go to a restaurant, you want the food to be good (the content), but you also look at decor (your site). Keep that in mind.
4. Be Yourself
   This may seem obvious, but I am reading your blog because I want to hear you. Pure you. Authentic you. Not some sanitized version of you. So, say what you have to say, get it out there and move on. Don’t spend hours polishing one blog post. The ROI isn’t there and over time, you will find your true blog voice. Better to get in the habit and evolve that way, but don’t try to be another blogger or a journalist. Blogs are conversations. I am looking to start an interesting one. 
   
5. Read Other Blogs
   While you should write in your own voice, you should read as many other blogs as you can. You’ll find stylistic approaches that resonate with you. Short, long. Bullet points, pictures. Whatever…don’t force it. Read a bunch and the cream will rise to the top. The more you read other blogs (and heck, post your own take on their posts), the better a blogger you will become.

By no means exhaustive, but some things to think about.

Other bloggers out there…what would you recommend?

Since we’re in the middle of a series on how to build your personal brand via social media (here are the intro, part 1, and part 2), I’ll point you in the direction of a highly relevant and solid article that touches on many of the same topics.

My friend, “Coach Nick” calls it “choosing a cabinet” of potential career advisors, or what I have deemed ‘raving fans.’

Either way, great grist for the mill as you build out your network and your micro-brand.

 

Next segment in our series which begins here.

It’s Who You Know, Right?

Undemocratic and unmeritocratic (is that a word?) thought it may be, the harsh reality is that, in large part, it comes down to who you know.

But you know that already.

The good news is that you probably know more people than you think. And, if you get their attention and permission, you may be able to differentiate yourself in their mind so that when they hear of X (a problem/opportunity that relates to YOUR story), they think of you.

Find Your Network

It's fairly difficult to have a conversation with people if you don't know where they are.

Fortunately, pretty much every social network of consequence makes it simple for you to reach out to those with whom you have had an interaction in the past.

Now, for some of you, it may seem strange to reach out via LinkedIn or Facebook to people with whom you have only had a brief interaction.

My answer: if you don't ask, you never get!

Besides, you will be surprised by how often some people will give you the benefit of the doubt and say, 'yeah, I'd like to keep in touch with her.'

Now, remember, your online appearance needs to be strong (more on that later) so that the person who may remember you has a positive impression of you when they see your invite, but assuming that, what's the worst that could happen?

They say no. And no one else knows about it.

On the positive side, what if they say yes?

They've given you permission to extend the relationship. Accept that permission and seek to earn a deeper relationship by showing them that you are unique.

Listen to the Conversation

Now, the flip side of having a large network is the responsibility of listening to what they are saying. It's not a broadcast, it's a dialogue.

Once the members of your network have given you permission to begin a dialogue with them, you will want to show them that you are out there, by responding to what is important to them.

If someone puts out an interesting status update, or blog post, or neat picture, or link to a cool site, comment on it. Offer a word of thanks and a different take on it.

People want to be heard and you can easily stand out by devoting a (small) portion of your day/week to cultivating your network by recognizing the topics that interest them.

This applies doubly so to people who aren't in your network, but you'd like them to be!

Let's call them the "influentials." These are the industry thought leaders, the super-connected individuals. The folks who can broker top-level introductions for you in your career search or business development efforts.

While you may not yet have the right to earn their permission to dialogue, you can still listen to them.

Read their blogs.

Comment on them.

Follow them on Twitter.

Join their Facebook group.

Once you understand what these influentials care about, you are a step ahead. You can (and should) use that knowledge (over time) to seek to begin a dialogue.

They are regular people. They want to be heard. But they also know their status in the industry food chain. They are quick to dismiss noise, but appreciate (and will advocate on behalf of) those who really "get" them.

Participation is Differentiation

Just to reiterate. When you participate in someone else's conversation, it is NOT about advancing your own agenda or 'message.' It is about genuinely listening and offering up suggestions based on the topic that is important TO THEM.

Let's say you are at a party. You walk into a room full of people chatting about politics.

You wouldn't start throwing out comments about sports or movies, would you?

Of course not. You'd listen and try to offer a relevant insight.

Social Media is no different.

Your credibility comes from your relevance, not from your decibel level.

Next: The Network WIIFM (What's In It For Me)

Talking politics on a marketing blog may not be the smartest thing, but this isn't about politics.

It's about politics as a marketing case study.

From a marketing perspective, McCain's choice of Sarah Palin is pure genius. (Note, I said marketing perspective).

• Story
  McCain labels himself as the "original maverick." In making a pick that defies all conventional wisdom, he reinforces that image.
   
• Story Part 2
  In every politician's life there are things that are less than perfect, but Palin's high level 'elevator pitch' of mother of 5 (the last one with Down Syndrome and born while she was governor) plus one in the Army quickly says "I get working mom's" more than anyone else could.
   
• Differentiation
  By selecting a true Washington outsider, McCain directly attacks one of Obama's core tenets of "Change." Obama, McCain, and Biden can all talk about how they want to change Washington, but that rings hollow, since they are part of the institution. Palin says, "remember the bridge to nowhere? I rejected it."  She's got more credibility than the other 3 combined with that one sentence.
   
• Timing
  Much of marketing is about timing. Riding on the heels of Obama's historic and monumental performance and coming out with something HUGE and indeed, Remarkable, is definitely impressive.
   
• Calculated Risk for Market Share
  Yes, taking the Governor of Alaska who has limited experience is a gamble. May be a big gamble, actually, but given his market position (current polls aside) he needed to do something to say "we're not the same old, same old" of two white men. By picking a woman, McCain is matching Obama on the "historic impact of the election" card.
  
• Play Off Your Competitor's Efforts in Market Creation
  In this case, the competitor is Sen. Clinton. She started the ball rolling with the "18 million cracks" and laid the foundation for the idea that a woman could be chief executive.  With her out of the race, McCain could swoop in and say "yes, Clinton was right.. A woman could be the chief executive and in 4 years [probably], here's who it will be."

Again, this post is not a political endorsement.

"You can't control the message," is one phrase you've heard from me a lot. Even blogged on the challenges associated with it.

Instead, how do you join the conversation to influence the message?

A big hat-tip to John Porcaro who highlights how EA just did that.

Instead of a potentially embarrassing gaffe where there's a flaw in the video game, EA says, 'we get the joke and we'll one up you.'

End result: a company that has personality and generates some seriously positive WOM.

Define Your Personal Brand
Continuing the series of posts on building your brand via Social Media. Here’s the intro.

What is your brand? It’s the sum of the experiences that people have with you.

And these experiences happen whether you are there or not.

When they view your LinkedIn profile or Facebook page or blog or even your email signature. Each of these makes an impression, for the better…or not.

In dissecting your brand, I’ll offer up three components for you to think about.

1. What is your story?
2. Are you remarkable?
3. Do you talk in 3 dimensions?

Your Story

People remember stories. From childhood, this is how we learn about concepts of importance. We remember stories that intrigue and fascinate us because they are a narrative that makes sense to us.

When you are presenting yourself anywhere, but particularly online where attention spans are even more limited, the story becomes even more critical.

So, what is your story?

When someone asks you what you do, what do you say?

“I’m a lawyer.”

“I’m a consultant.”

Or, “I make the software that Madonna’s DJ uses.”

No need for the superfluous question of which one is better right?

This is the core of your personal brand. A simple story that resonates and is memorable.

So much so that …

It is Remarkable

Look, there are a gajillion channels on the Internet and about half that on TV. A person has any number of diversions and things to discuss. Why in the heck should they talk about you?

Well, how about because you do things that are worth talking about?

Not outrageous, mind you, but things that reinforce your story. Things that make people smile or say, ‘wow, I am better off for having done that.”

I had to take my son to the ER for some stitches. We were in the waiting room (truth is, he was fine, laughing, etc.), but I put up a note on Facebook “in the ER w/my 3 year old. Looks like he will need stitches.”

About 8 people commented to me saying “only you would update Facebook from the ER!”

MY story is about a guy who loves technology, communicating, and being/staying connected.

Take Andy Sernovitz’s out-of-office messages. His story is about a guy who does things to generate Word-of-Mouth.

I will be out of the office at WOMMA's Word of Mouth Marketing Summit and Research Symposium until Thursday. I will have limited access to email.

1. Reporters and emergencies: Please call my cell at xxx-xxx-xxxx.
2. Wife and parents: You may also call my cell.
3. Charlie (my 3-year-old): No, you cannot pee in the sink. Yes, a dinosaur could eat a monkey.
4. Telemarketers: Please take me off your list.
5. Spammers: Please call my stock broker.

Do You Talk in 3 Dimensions?

You can have a standard resume or you can have a Social Media Bio.

One is perfect for the analog age. Paper-based, no hyperlinks. All text.

The other gives you the opportunity to demonstrate your depth and breadth of knowledge.

Present yourself in a short bio, then link, link, and link (but only if it adds value.)

Hey, Mr. Employer, here are:

• my blog posts on the topics of your field.
• the slides I gave at my MBA class.
• the video where I presented to group XYZ
• my delicious tags related to investment banking
• my favorite bloggers
• the Facebook groups in which I am an active participant
• the papers I’ve written on the subject
• the interview I conducted of such-and-such expert

Which one would you hire?

Next: It’s Who You Know, Right? Building Your Network.

So, you ask, is there a way to use social media so that job offers and other opportunities make their way to you?

Or perhaps more strategically put:

“how can I use Social Media to build my personal micro-brand?”

Due to popular demand from a number of blog readers, we are going to be tackling this topic over the next few posts.

But before we begin…

First off, it is worth repeating some of the fundamental assumptions of social media. If you can’t accept these, your micro-brand will not grow. (Or it might, but that’s in spite of you, not because of you!)

These are:

1. The single most important asset you can have from a customer, client, or member of your network is their attention
2. Once you have their attention, you must earn (and continue to re-earn their permission)
3. Branding is a compilation of activities. It takes time, patience, and cultivation. There are no one-hit wonders in branding.

Now, let’s dig down into each of these briefly so we’re all on the same page.

Attention

One of the most influential social scientists of the 20th century, Herbert Simon, remarked that “a wealth of information creates a poverty of attention.”

What does that mean for you?

Well, it means that anyone with whom you are trying to communicate is bombarded by a bevy of alternatives that are, most likely, more interesting, more exciting, or just different.

So, if you can’t grab and keep my attention, you are going to have a really, really, (did I say really?) difficult time getting me into your network or getting me to become a valued member of your network.

Now, you can grab my attention with cheap tricks and gimmicks or you can earn my attention by delivering something remarkable; Something that is high value, interesting and entertaining!! (death to bad presentations!).

You can show me that you are someone worth paying attention to. You are someone who “gets” whatever it is you “get” and you aren’t going to clutter up my life with a ton of noise and not a lot of signal. That’s a buzzword way of saying too much BS and not a whole lot of substance.

Earn my attention because you deserve it, not because you are outrageous.

Permission

Diana “friended” me on Facebook, which was fine. I accept requests all the time from people I don’t know. But, soon thereafter, I started to receive a TON of invites from her to group events in which I had no interest.

I gave her the benefit of the doubt, maybe she was a newbie.

But the invites continued.

I was peeved. She didn’t ask me what I was interested in. She didn’t know me. I felt like I was getting spammed. She certainly didn’t have my permission to send all of this stuff to me.

Just like the telemarketer who calls you unsolicited (even though you are on the FCC Do-Not-Call list), you are interrupted and annoyed.

My bank has permission to email me when a deposit hits my account. Diana didn’t have that right, until she asked for it (which she didn’t).

And neither do you.

Just because you have my email address, doesn’t mean you can send me a message that I don’t want.

Well, you can, but it won’t help you.

Marketers (sorry, good marketers) have a saying “don’t confuse activity with results.” You can email me, but I will ignore it. I will add you to my junk mail filter. I will consciously never talk to your firm. Or, worse, I’ll blog about how annoying you are.

In building relationships, the same rule applies.

Ask your contacts what type of relationship they want.

For example, I have a quarterly email update that I send, but when I add someone to my contacts list, I say, “hey, here’s what you can expect from me. You can opt-out any time, of course. Is it ok if I include you in my updates?”

I ask for permission first. That’s the only way I can stay relevant.

As for Diana? I de-friended her. No permission, no relevancy, no opportunity to converse for her. She’s not a member of my network.

Personal Branding

If you are just starting out, you’re not going to like this part.

Building your brand online (and offline) just takes time.

It also takes rhythm and process.

You need to prepare to invest in your brand and your relationships for a long-haul pay-off.

Many people go to networking events and expect that something magical will happen there.

Some don’t even bring business cards (I’ve never understood that one).

It doesn’t.

You get a card. You follow up. You go out for coffee. You forward emails of interest. You cultivate.

Just like a garden.

Then, somewhere down the road, the email comes back, “hey, I’ve got an opportunity for you.”

Two books to read here. Love Is the Killer App: How to Win Business and Influence Friends and Never Eat Alone

 

What’s Next?

Now that we have the baseline assumptions, let’s talk about what you need to do to really build out your brand.

On to Step 1: Define Your Personal Brand