Brad Shorr from Word Sell, Inc invited me to write a guest post a while back. It took me a while, as his blog is one that I love and respect a lot and I needed to write a really good piece. Here’s a small excerpt of my piece:

Fear, lack of convincing proposals, lack of professionals, taking the “safe route”, there are hordes of reasons based on which companies, especially those in the B2B sector, choose not to take a second glance at social media. Brad has better explained the reasoning and the most common obstacles behind such decisions.

But Social Media does generate valid opportunities for companies to better reach current customers, potential ones and those who are now getting ready for corporate life and will later be eligible for the position of customers. Once the opportunity is identified, how can an employee, and external consultant or an agency convince a certain business owner, CEO, Director of Marketing or who ever makes the final decision that the promise of the social media needs to be pursued? It’s not a simple task, but it’s not rocket science either!

Head over to Word Sell for the rest of the entry!

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There hasn’t been one day in 2009 when I got bored. As my world kept changing in every aspect that could change, I kept experimenting, adjusting, learning and meeting new people. So reading along the lines I have written and published all year and trying to find the essential words for 2009 was quite an interesting experiment. It reminded  me of where I’ve been, what I have discovered and of how this particularly full year has altered my views on certain aspects, including my thoughts about who I am and what is important for me.

Joanna Young’s challenge to find the essential lines and the essential posts of 2009 wasn’t easy easy. But it was fun and I managed to find the essential lines for both me and the readers of this blog. An important lesson that I see as the most important of the year that’s about to pass. It’s not something new, it’s not at all complicated…

“Sometimes we are reminded of the big secrets in the business world by what appears to be the most unrelated situation.” Continue reading

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2009 has been a year full of changes, adjustments to new circumstances, learning new tricks, returning to the basics and learning something new almost every day. It’s been a wonderful and hard year at the same time, and frankly I have no idea when it has actually reached its finish line. It seems that only yesterday I was taking Robert Hurzek’s challenge to share what I had learned from 2008…

Now that we’re in mid-December, I am once again responding to Robert’s challenge to go through this years’ posts and pick what I believe to be the highlights of each month of this challenging yet always surprising year.
January – Investing in relationships always has excellent ROI

This very post has been a tribute to all the wonderful relationships I have built through my blog. The friends I’ve made, the new things I’ve learned, the support I’ve always counted on, it’s all worth sharing and cherishing.

February – 5 Ways to Make Sure You Never Get to the Second Meeting

In a year with a down-turning economy, everyone kept chasing new business. And some chose worse methods than others, making sure their efforts were in vain. Here was one of the worst examples of a business meeting from 2009. Read, learn and never act like this! Continue reading

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I have a confession to make… I am extremely harsh when it comes to customer support. I’ve spent quite a while being a tech support engineer, I know how much it matters in building a great relationship with customers. So when I make my decisions about certain products or services, the quality of tech support backing them up is extremely important.  Why? It is simple. Anything can crash. No one should look for guarantees they will have no problems, they should make sure they will have help solving them when they appear. And based on my fare share of customer support talks, chats, email exchanges, I thought I’d make a top of the best ways to drive customers away.

1. Don’t pick up when they call

Definitely, this is the fastest and never dethroned method to make sure your customers will switch you for any of your competitors quicker then lightning. Continue reading

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The purpose of pitching a story is to get coverage for it. That means that if someone offers to write about the topic you’ve proposed and asks for the product you mentioned or simply for more info, you need to reply to their emails. Not keeping track of who you’ve pitched to is a bad idea in such a case. Especially if instead of following up, you resend the same pitch and fail to reply to the second inquiry.

If you don’t know how to keep track, here’s a simple idea: get a list of names and emails of people to contact. As you send your message to them, mark them in a different color. If they reply and need more info, use a third color. It’s easy and a bit playful. And if you’re good at mixing colors, it looks good too.

Following up is a must. For both those who have shown interest and for those who’ve not replied. Those interested will actually publish after you give them what they need to do so and a friendly reminder with some interesting details might help others decide to publish your story in the end. Continue reading

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