Lost in Translation

One of my favorite movies was "Lost in Translation," starring Scarlett Johansson and Bill Murray. The story works on many different levels as it explores multiple levels of lost translations between a man and a woman from two different generations as they explore the foreign landscape of Tokyo together. 

In the highly regulated financial services world where I work, there are also multiple levels of lost translations that take place between clients and financial advisors as well as financial advisors and the firms they work for. Throw in a basket of complex financial instruments and you create numerous opportunities for misunderstanding and miscommunication. 

What remedy can solve many of these challenges? In a nutshell, it's simplicity. Albert Einstein once said, "Everything should be made as simple as possible but not simpler." During one of my regular visits to the public library, I found an intriguing book entitled, Simple: Conquering the Crisis of Complexity by Alan Siegel and Irene Etzkorn. In our modern information age, most of us complain about information overload, but I think the real culprit is not just the volume of information we face every day, but the complexity of the information that bombards us. Here are some examples from Siegel and Etzkorn that you might find shocking:

• In 1980, the typical credit card contract was about a page and a half long. Today it is thirty-one pages." 

• If you're a homeowner, how well do you understand your homeowners' insurance policy? A 2007 National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) survey revealed that one-third to one-half of insurance policyholders were misinformed about what perils are covered and how much they might receive if they made a claim.

• Marquis Dunson died in 2002 after his parents gave the one-year-old Infants' Tylenol for three days to treat his cold symptoms. In the subsequent lawsuit, which resulted in a $5 million award, the plaintiffs argued that the warning labels and directions on the Infants' Tylenol label did not make clear that an overdose of acetaminophen, Tylenol's active ingredient, could lead to liver failure.

• The United States was founded and governed for over two centuries on the basis of a document that is six pages long. That is 0.1 percent of the length of the current income tax code, which currently runs fourteen thousand pages. 

According to Siegel and Etzkorn, "complexity is costing us money, undermining government and business, and putting our health and even our lives at risk." As a consumer, I think it's time for us to fight complexity instead of complacently accepting it as a fact of life. And the best way to defeat complexity is by demanding simplicity from the companies that serve us. For example, I own a Samsung smartphone. I understand the icons that appear in color on my home screen. But the icon on the bottom left of my phone is not intuitive. It looks like part of a document because it's rectangular in shape with two horizontal lines embedded inside it. When I press on this icon, it pulls up six different options: Add, Wallpaper, Search, Notification, Edit page, and Settings. For a brand new Smartphone user, I would recommend using a different icon instead of the rectangular one. Why not just use the word, "options" or OPT for short? 

On my MacBook Air, on the bottom left-hand corner of my keyboard, are four keys that appear to be similar to each other in terms of function: fn, control, option, and command.  Instead of using descriptive words to describe these keys, I think a pictorial icon would be more understandable. How can a new Apple user remember which key to use in order to perform certain commands such as copying and pasting? The problem with many technology applications and devices is that these instruments are designed by geeks for other geeks to use. That is why I think it's important for design teams to introduce prototype products to real consumers before the initial product launch. A consumer might buy something he doesn't understand, but if you want to turn this consumer into a raving fan, create a product that is so simple that even his ninety-year-old grandmother can understand how to use it. 

Simplicity also plays an important role in how well we communicate. Technology has created greater attention deficit among children and adults. In today's information-saturated world, if you want to get your message across, say more using fewer words. Ernest Hemingway is famous for his brevity. Here is his most famous six-word story: "For sale: Baby shoes, never worn." Using only six words, the story's message is clear. Nothing more needs to be said. 

Being Better is Overrated

Explaining your differences as ‘better’ than others seems logical. However, it’s not always effective. For instance, if someone asks you why s/he should do business with you as opposed to the firm across the street – you begin to give them the ‘betters.’ You may not say it by using the word ‘better,’ but it sounds like you will have:

• Better communication

• Better customer service

• Better products

The problem with inferring ‘better’ is that the consumer doesn’t believe it. We don’t believe that something will actually be better! Imagine going to the grocery store and heading down the laundry detergent aisle. If you see a jug of Tide detergent with a big “NEW AND IMPROVED” on it – do you immediately buy it because you are sure that now, finally, your clothes will get cleaner? No, of course not! We don’t actually believe it will be that much better. And, it’s risky buying a different laundry detergent (certainly not as risky as switching financial advisors).

What we need is to be different. If we can, we need to share what is truly unique about what we do – not compare ourselves to others. So, what is unique about you? I would say there is one thing unique about your firm and it’s the people inside. These people can’t be found somewhere else. And, 80 percent of the reason someone chooses your firm is because of you – not your products. In fact, they may not even know specifically which products they want until long after they say yes to doing business with you. Are you talking about what’s most unique about your firm?

Beware of Time Wasters!

An important facet of social intelligence is having good awareness of time, which is related to, but not the same thing as time management skills. It's easy to spot someone with poor awareness of time. My ex-husband's cousin owns a modern art gallery and can talk for hours about modern art -- whether you want to learn about it or not. Before the Do Not Call list was implemented, I used to receive dozens of phone calls from robotic telemarketers who felt compelled to recite their entire sales pitch verbatim even though I was ready to hang up the phone after the first five minutes. I know a few people who think it's important to give you a very detailed prologue to the issue they're discussing instead of getting straight to the point. These people are time wasters. Of course, we all become time wasters every once in a while, but in order to improve your social intelligence, you need to develop better awareness of time. Good awareness of time requires focus, concern for others, and an activated internal clock. 

Earlier this year, I hosted a 401(k) breakfast seminar with three other speakers. The day before the seminar, I instructed each speaker to talk for no more than 30 minutes in order to allow 20 minutes for Q & A. Unfortunately, the first two speakers ran long on their allotted time. I approached the third speaker and asked him if there was any way he could get the meeting back on time. Much to my surprise, he did his 30 minute presentation in 15 minutes without ever looking at his watch. It was, by the way, the highest rated presentation of the day. How is that possible? 

Whether in a meeting, on the phone, or in delivery of a presentation, there are some key points to not only stay on time, but deliver compelling information.

• Determine what is the most important information. Then get to the point quickly.

• Be prepared. Know how long it should take you to describe certain elements of your business, products, or services. Practice, practice, practice.

• Time yourself. If you find yourself "going long" in meetings -- and even if you think you are always right on time -- check your watch. When you start talking during a business meeting, look at the time. Then check back when you're done. How much of the meeting did your conversation occupy? Was your percentage of the meeting justified with what you talked about?

In the business world, time is critical. It is one of our most precious commodities. Our business and lives could be different if we simply had more time. So, don't let time wasters get away with stealing your time!

How to Increase Your Prospecting Performance

Yesterday, I arrived in New York for Morgan Stanley's week-long Performance Session 2 (PS 2) training. In order to qualify for PS 2, Financial Advisors must be in the top first, second or third tier in terms of production during their first six months. I knew I would qualify for the training because I'm ranked in the first tier (top 20%) of my training class. One of my friends at Morgan Stanley completed her PS 2 training last month, and she shared with me the agenda from the program. While I wish there was more emphasis given to product knowledge and capital markets, I plan to view this week's training as a valuable learning opportunity, and I hope to come away from the experience with some new ideas about the business and myself. 

I know that a great deal of the training this week will be spent on prospecting. I believe prospecting is important even if you're not in sales. As with everything else, a successful prospecting campaign requires developing a strategy or plan of attack. Whether you're prospecting for new clients, a new job, or even a future spouse, you need to ask yourself the following questions:

1. What kind of person (or company) do you prefer to interact with?
2. What do you bring to the table? What is your competitive advantage or key differentiator? In other words, why should a person (or company) want to interact or do business with you? What makes you so special and unique? 
3. Evaluate people or companies you have had successful interactions with in the past. What were some of the key qualities of this person or company? It's also important to analyze your past failures when it comes to prospecting. How can you change or tweak your approach in order to achieve a more successful outcome?  
4. How many prospects do you need to have in your pipeline in order to achieve a successful outcome? If you don't have enough prospects in your pipeline, your odds of success are very low. Conversely, if you have too many prospects in your pipeline, you will have a hard time following up with each one of them in a meaningful way. However, it's far better to have too many prospects in your pipeline than too few.
5. Are there people you know who could introduce you to the type of person or company you want to meet? Spread the word among everyone you know. Use social media to your advantage. For example, LinkedIn is a great way to build your network of professional connections. 
6. What is your plan of action? What will you do first, second, third, etc. in order to execute your prospecting plan? Be as specific as possible by including "dates to be completed by" in your plan.
7. Ask a friend to help you role play an initial meeting with a potential prospect. 
8. Consult with an expert who has been successful at reaching the type of prospects you're targeting. 
9. Create a list of questions to ask your prospect in order to find out if there's a good fit between the two of you. Not all prospects are a good fit for who you are and what you're looking for.
10. Figure out a way to successfully overcome objections. You might meet the perfect prospect, but chances are, you will need to convince that person why s/he should develop a relationship with you. Prepare yourself to receive some resistance and learn how to overcome it. 

After I complete my PS 2 training, I'll share with you any new ideas I pick up on prospecting in a future blog posting. Stay tuned!

99U Conference

At the 2013 99U Conference in New York City, Heidi Grant Halvorson, Associate Director, Columbia University Motivation Science Center, spoke about motivation. Here are some excerpts from her talk:

Upon reading story after story about geniuses, prodigies, and other successful people, Heidi Halvorson found herself noticing that people in the U.S. tend to attribute failure and success not to controllable factors such as work ethic, but rather to innate ability or talent.

• Do you have a "Be Good" mentality or a "Get Better" mentality? First, there is the "Be Good" mindset: trying to prove yourself and validate your skills to look better (or smarter) than those around you. Alternatively, a person with a "Get Better" mindset focuses on constant improvement -- instead of focusing on perfection they focus on performing better than previous efforts, which gives them room to fail, learn, and grow. In study after study, Halvorson found that a Get Better mentality improved chances of success and happiness.
• Don't visualize success. Visualize the steps you will take to make success happen. When you encounter challenges with a Be Good mindset, anxiety and depression set in and start to affect performance. Your skills and your intelligence can feel compromised and/or threatened. When faced with similar challenges, a Get Better allows you to focus on improving or refining your efforts -- as well as the external processes -- rather than feeling like your intrinsic skills or intelligence are at stake.

Back in 2000, I came across the concept of "kaizen," which is an approach to one’s personal or social life that focuses on continuous improvement. It's so easy to sit back and tell yourself, "I'll never be as successful as Steve Jobs because I'm not as talented as he is." But the truth is, Steve Jobs worked incredibly hard in order to become successful and he also had some failures along the way -- the Apple Lisa, Macintosh TV, the Apple III, the Powermac g4 cube. It took Jack Dorsey years of experimentation before he finally launched the Web site which ultimately became Twitter. And Howard Schultz failed at his first attempt at creating a communal coffee experience. In 1986, when his first store opened in Seattle, there was non-stop opera music, menus in Italian, and no chairs. Schultz admits he had to make many mistakes to discover what would become the Starbucks we know today. 

Currently, I work as a Financial Advisor for Morgan Stanley. Of course, there are people in my office who seem to be "natural born" salespeople, but not every successful advisor falls into that category. There are plenty of advisors in my firm who have managed to succeed simply by working harder than everyone else. Hard work doesn't necessarily mean you will become successful in financial sales, but it will greatly increase your chances of achieving success. 

All through my life, I have focused on getting better and better no matter what endeavor I pursue. Whether it's trying to earn good grades in school or a promotion at work, I have noticed that the harder I work, the more successful I become. For example, when I was in high school, I tried out for the tennis team and was placed in the #18 slot, the last slot on the team. I felt really embarrassed about being the lowest girl on the totem pole, so I spent the next several months practicing tennis. I practiced so much I developed calluses on my right hand. But all my hard work paid off. After a few weeks, I moved my way up from the #18 position to #9. A few months later, I eventually landed in the #4 position on the varsity tennis team, which is where I remained until I graduated from high school. I didn't set out with the goal of becoming the #1 person on the team. My goal was simply to work as hard as I could so I could become a better player and see where that took me. If I had set a goal of becoming the #1 player on the team, I would have felt really discouraged by failing to reach that goal. And discouragement is the enemy of motivation. 

Another trap that many of us fall into is visualizing success instead of visualizing the steps it takes to succeed. Let's face it. It's much more fun to fantasize about what it feels like to be successful -- the fancy mansion, the luxury sports car, the five-star vacations, etc. But fantasizing about the desired end result before you have achieved it doesn't give you the roadmap you need to succeed. I believe that is why so many people play the lottery. They fantasize about what they will do with all the money they might win because visualizing other things you can do to end up with a lot of money isn't as much fun. 

In addition to Halvorson's recommendations, I think it's also important to remain true to your personal brand if your goal is long-term success. Let's take searching for a job as an example. Most of us have some idea of what our dream job is. But then when we discover our dream job, we feel discouraged when we realize we don't meet the minimum qualifications. But think about the person who eventually wins your dream job offer. That person was not born with all those qualifications. He or she had to work at a number of different jobs in order to acquire those skills. You can do the same thing. Once you have your dream job in mind, write down all the skills your dream job requires. Identify skills or experiences you don't have yet. Then try to find jobs that will help you fill in those gaps. 

Think of your career trajectory as a series of horizontal or vertical steps. Ideally, each subsequent job you land should give you new skills you can add to your resume and increase your chances of landing your dream job. Sometimes, it's important to make a lateral shift in your career path in order to add a new suite of skills to your resume. But whatever you do, don't accept any job out of desperation. Every job you accept should build on your existing set of skills. Think of yourself as a personal brand. For example, if you were a five-star restaurant, you wouldn't add fast food to your menu just because it seems profitable. The jobs on your resume need to fit your personal brand.

Motivation and success are important values in the American culture. What we need to recognize is that lasting success can only be achieved through proper motivation. If you adopt a Get Better mindset, visualize the steps you need to take in order to succeed, and remain true to your personal brand, chances are you will achieve the success you desire. 

Ozymandias

My 17-year-old son's favorite TV show is "Breaking Bad." By accident, I found this Breaking Bad promo on the Internet, and I was completely mesmerized by Bryan Cranston's reading of the poem, "Ozymandias" by Percy Bysshe Shelley. Here are the words:

Ozymandias
By Percy Bysshe Shelley

I met a traveller from an antique land,
Who said--"Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. . . . Near them, on the sand,
Half sunk a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed;
And on the pedestal, these words appear:
My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings;
Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal Wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away.

Source: Shelley's Poetry and Prose (1977)

Here is a creative exercise you can try. Continue the story of Shelley's "traveller" by describing other sights he or she might have seen in the "antique land." Here is what I came up with: 

And in the distance, there stands a crown
Clinging to a fragment of bone
The mighty voice that once invoked fear
Died alone without a moan
No threads remain of the royal gown
And yet his spirit is lurking here
In the silence that feels like death
I can almost hear his ghostly breath:
"Where are my people, where is my Queen?
What is this place, what is this scene?"
His words haunt me and fill me with dread
As I walk upon the bones of the dead
The thousands of men he slayed in his life
In order to steal another king's wife. 

Social Media: The Basics Part 6 (Instagram and Pinterest)

Instagram is a photo sharing app with more than 27 million users. You can use Instagram for capturing event and office culture photos. You can also leverage the application to run contests and scavenger hunts. Before you begin snapping photos and engaging viewers, create a plan to help you create fans. Ask yourself the following questions:

• What does my target audience want to see? 
• How can I get them to engage with my photos?
• What will get them talking about me or my company? 

As you create your visual content, consider the following objectives:

• Make it exclusive. Post images that can only be seen on Instagram.
• Make it visually engaging. Instagram users are savvy, creative, and know a lackluster photo when they see one. Don't post a photo unless it has aesthetic appeal.
• Make it personal. Viewers want to feel like they are part of something so provide an inside glimpse.

The Instagram hashtag is a powerful feature to engage your viewers. Hashtags act as keywords providing a way for people to find photos through a simple search. Hashtages are especially useful as you seek to establish your brand as an industry leader and get more followers. Implement hashtags that are unique to your brand and industry, as well as hashtags that are popular keywords. And remember to use hashtags on all of your posts. 

Pinterest is a virtual scrapbook or pinboard that allows users to share and organize visual imagery. A user can pin anything from around the web and other users can re-pin their images. Users organize their Pinterest pages by categorizing content on boards. 

For businesses, Pinterest can be a way to curate visual content like infographics, videos, company culture, and even blog posts. Pinterest can help promote creativity, but always make sure that your content is relative to your audience. Pinterest pages can also be used for a landing page for an email campaign, event, or presentation. The boards provide a unique way of organizing content to be visually appealing to your prospect. Make sure you are including a good content mix in your Pinterest boards. Followers will want to see a combination of business and culture content. When pinning, pin the most visually interesting aspect of what you are sharing, like a special banner, slide, or cover page to get the most engagement and to make your brand look like it belongs. Pinterest's search is mainly how people find you and your pins, and it is all about keywords. Load up relevant, popular keywords in the description of your pins. Just like any other social media platform,  Pinterest rewards those that bring fresh content. So while it's very easy to fill a board with re-pins, ultimately the fastest way to increase your followership is by pinning new and interesting items. 

So that wraps up my six-part Social Media series. I hope you found these tips useful. See you on the Net! 

Social Media: The Basics Part 5 (Twitter)

Twitter is one of the 10 most popular sites on the Internet, and it is one of my favorite social media sites. You can think of Twitter as a microblogging site because you are limited to sending and receiving extremely short (no more than 140 characters long) text messages (called "tweets") to a pre-defined network of "followers." Twitter is not designed to facilitate an ongoing back-and-forth conversation. Being followed on Twitter is an incredibly strong signal of online affinity for you and your business. Your followers are indicating an active interest in your brand and are asking to hear more from you. On Twitter, it is easy to quickly compose Tweets and messages aimed at those interested in you or your company. Twitter is a useful tool for gathering high-level, up-to-the-minute updates on key news developments from experts who use the medium to share observations and perspectives. It is the fastest and most immediate social platform. 

Becoming someone's follower on Twitter accomplishes several goals:

• You identify Twitter accounts that are relevant and interesting to you, your organization and your industry.
• Receive the latest insights and updates. 
• Increase your visibility on search engines. You let people know that you're on Twitter, and encourage them to follow you back.
• Provide positive PR for you and your business. You associate yourself with a specific group of industry experts and thought leaders, and demonstrate your interest in the space.
• Deepen relationships. Twitter is a great platform for engagement, so once you follow someone on Twitter you can work on starting a conversation.

Here are some tips for following:

• Find people to follow by importing your contact databases using tools that Twitter provides. Then, broaden this action by following those that your followers are following.
• Do a search for experts in the field who are tweeting. You can find people to follow on sites like Wefollow.com or Twibes.com. Twitter offers an integrated search function on each user's homepage that allows you to search all Tweets based on keywords, usernames or subject. Searches can also be performed at search.Twitter.com. 
• The "Who to Follow" feature offered by Twitter can be a useful way to identify Twitter accounts that you wish to follow. 
• Try to make sure to follow back relevant people and companies that are following you.
• Twitter provides easy search functionality so that you can find people that are talking about your company and your industry. 
• Read the tweets of those you follow and search for tweets on keywords relevant to your product or service. Twitter client applications such as TweetDeck, Hootsuite, and Seesmic are useful for organizing your Twitter feeds, managing multiple microblogging accounts, and post or scheduling posting from multiple users.
• Create lists. By creating a list you can easily segment people who you are following. Users may look to organize those users they follow into lists based on background or interest, so that when they click to view a list, they will only see a stream of "tweets" from the users included in that list. For example, on my Twitter page, I have the following lists: social media, blogging, freelancing, finance, careers, behavioral economics, psychology, copywriting, neuroscience, and marketing. Anyone can subscribe to my Twitter lists and follow the same people I do. 

A Twitter chat is a public conversation on Twitter based around a unique hashtag. The # symbol, called a hashtag, is used to mark keywords or topics in tweets. It was created by Twitter as a way to categorize messages. The hashtag allows you to follow the discussion and easily participate in it. Most Twitter chats are usually recurring and on specific topics but some are also based around special events. Hosting a Twitter chat is an amazing way to engage with your fans and followers. In addition, this is a great way to better understand and grow your community and to promote your brand and business. Twitter users also have the ability to call out other users in their own tweets by using the @ symbol. When a username is proceeded by the @ symbol, it becomes a link to that Twitter profile. Including the @ symbol directly followed by a username is also called a "mention." 

Twitter is a fantastic platform to learn who your influencers are. Because Twitter is designed for quick exchanges of information and shares, you can start to keep track of who is re-tweeting your content and engaging in conversations. Remember to reach out to your top sharers to create relationships. They may be interested in doing a guest blog or allowing you to do a guest blog on their site. The more you engage directly with your top influencers, the more they will continue to promote your content. 

Do not use Twitter to only promote your company. If you never contribute to the conversations taking place, if you never offer something personal, fun or funny, you are missing the prime opportunity unique to Twitter. Twitter is about building relationships; it is about reciprocity. Engage and be engaged. Be a part of the flow of information. It's in your best interests to pay attention to what your customers and prospective customers are tweeting about and to respond accordingly.

Remember, your content should create value and ultimately, be helpful to your network. Retweeting material that will be helpful to your network is good, but writing your own informational material is even better. If your network benefits from something you tweet about, they will remember you and your business. According to Joe Pulizzi, founder of Junta41 and the Content Marketing Institute, follow the 4-1-1 rule: For every one self-serving tweet, you should re-tweet one relevant tweet and most importantly share four pieces of relevant content written by others. What's great about this approach is that it lets you engage in the conversation, build awareness, and keep in touch with your followers without coming across as pushy or too "me" focused. 

Next week, I'll cover Pinterest and Instagram. Stay tuned!

Social Media: The Basics Part 4 (LinkedIn)

LinkedIn is designed specifically to help business people network. It is the leading social network site for professionals because it is an excellent platform to make connections and to showcase your business. People automatically check LinkedIn to see if you have a "valid" presence. In other words, if you're not in the "Who's Who" (LinkedIn), potential subscribers will question your credibility and trustworthiness. While there is a wide range of professional social media sites out there -- some very general and some industry-specific -- the best-known and most popular is LinkedIn, with over 150 million members worldwide. A new member joins LinkedIn approximately every second, and executives from all Fortune 500 companies are LinkedIn members. In a 2011 study conducted by Performics, a research company, nearly 60% of respondents say LinkedIn is their most important social network account. LinkedIn is an excellent source of background information on people and companies, and it provides opportunities to create new relationships. 

LinkedIn is used to:

• Stay in touch/network with industry associates and former co-workers
• Identify potential employers/employees
• Promote your professional services to potential clients
• Use Groups - industry, interests to share and hear ideas related to your profession
• Gain access to a large network by drawing on the connections of other users

One of the primary capabilities of LinkedIn is its ability to connect you to a larger network of people through your own connections. LinkedIn shows you the degrees of separation between you and other LinkedIn users, and lets you connect with those outside of your direct network through introductions. 

Join LinkedIn Groups. This is a fast way to let LinkedIn know your areas of special interest and become part of your desired community. The Groups feature is a great way to demonstrate thought leadership around a specific area. Simply make a list of keywords that relate to your interests and core competencies, and run a search for any LinkedIn Groups related to your keywords. Once you find the right groups, participate in discussion, ask questions and make connections. You can create a higher interaction rate by making sure you join groups aligned to your business mission and interests. For example, on my LinkedIn page, I belong to 25 Groups. You can view my LinkedIn page at: www.linkedin.com/in/valeriealee.

Use LinkedIn Answers to ask thought-provoking questions or become an "expert" by providing valuable answers and demonstrating thought leadership. LinkedIn Answers are a great way for you to showcase your interests, expertise and problem-solving capabilities to entire networks of people. You and others can Search Answers. You can ask a question. You can see a list of the latest questions requesting answers. And you can view a list of your own questions and answers (something that can come in handy, if you want to jog your memory for post ideas). You can also see which questions and categorie generate a high rate of interaction and response as well as which ones fall flat and remain ignored. Going to Answers and viewing the featured Questions in its feed can provide you wtih valuable clues about where to focus your energy. If a particular category is highly active, explore that category. Build your expert status by thinking up strong questions or answering them for that particular category. If nothing else, the answers others give can offer valuable tips and clues in increasing your own business effectiveness. In short, you can use LinkedIn Answers as both a valuable resource in itself and to help you boost your own "expert" authority status. 

Next week, I'll cover one of my favorite social media sites -- Twitter.

Social Media: The Basics Part 3 (Google+)

Google+ is the second largest social network (as of January 2013), and it's the perfect tool for a highly-focused audience that dislikes "wasting time" wading through "sentimental" posts that end with 'if you love your [son, daughter, cat], please repost.' Google+ also pleases those who think visually thanks to Google+ Circles. This functionality allows you to segment your followers. Unlike other social networks, through Circles, you can develop separate personas and communicate highly segmented messaging to each audience. Not only will it help you quickly share highly-customized content with each group, but it will help you organize them in your mind. You'll create the habit of catering to each segment automatically. With Circles, "you can choose who gets to know what," as Google+ puts it. You can include or exclude personal information separately for each circle. For example, you probably wouldn't include your relationship information in your "Work" circle, but you might want to detail your work history. On the other hand, it would be entirely appropriate to include your relationship details, birthday, etc. in your "Close Family and Friends" circle, but you might want to leave out your employment history. In short, Circles is Google's method of organizing connections into groups for more targeted sharing and better privacy.

Another useful tool is the +1 button. It's similar to Facebook's "Like" button, but it carries weight in Google's Search results as well as on the entire World Wide Web. Using the +1 button to favorite others' content will show your photo and link in search results for that item. Think of the +1 button as your recommendation. If part of your services includes sending your subscribers and followers to powerful resources, the +1 button is a natural tool to use, when sharing the content of others. You can share your +1 recommendations in your Circles to get the ball rolling on conversations, share high value resources and links, and to put your personal seal of endorsement on other web content or posts. 

Unlike Twitter which limits postings to 140 characters, Google+ allows up to 1000 words! While shorter often gets the point across more efficiently, there are times when a longer post will demonstrate more knowledge or be more helpful and interesting to the reader. And the more time people spend reading your post, the more they psychologically engage with you. Remember to include photos, graphics, videos and links within your post. Use your tagline and keywords in your profile. This is a "must" for anyone looking to network for business.   

Google recently announced the Events features which allows Google+ users to send out customized invitations to anyone regardless of whether or not they are Google+ users. It syncs with Google Calendar and shows up automatically when a user sends an event confirmation. In addition to sending out invitations to webinars, work functions, parties, etc., Google Events can also send out invitations for Google+ Hangouts. Google+ Hangouts is a platform for group video chatting and collaboration that is used by Google+ members, with a maximum participation allowance of 10 users. Hangouts can also be broadcasted live to public audience and automatically recorded to YouTube. 

Google Authorship is a "must have" feature of Google+ if you're trying to market your business. Think of Authorship as a way to make Google search results reflect not only your blog's actual text, but you, the author and marketer. Authorship links your name and byline on your blog to your Google+ personal profile. When this feature is enabled in your Google+ account, search results relevant to your blog posts will append your profile photo and name. 

I prefer using Google+ versus Facebook, but because so many of my friends are on Facebook instead of Google+, I'm not ready to give up my Facebook account. Here is my Google+ page. Next week, I'll cover LinkedIn. Stay tuned! 

Social Media: The Basics Part 2 (Facebook)

Facebook provides an opportunity for people to see who you really are as you interact with friends, family members and colleagues. This sets the stage for you to build stronger, more immediate relationships with them. Currently, Facebook is the undisputed leader of social media, but that could change over time. It was originally created as a tool to let college students share personal information about themselves. The emphasis remains on self-expression and personal interaction. Each member has a profile that includes:

• Cover photo
• About (contact number, email, birthday, location, activities, interests, etc.)
• Timeline (posts made by the user and by Facebook friends)

Facebook also gives you the ability to send messages, play online games, and use other applications. Facebook is used to:

• Communicate with friends and family members
• Share opinions
• Provide updates on friends and family members
• Share photos and videos
• Plan meetings and events
• Send birthday and holiday wishes
• Recommend restaurants, travel destinations
• Promote charitable causes and events

Here are some helpful Facebook tips.

Use Facebook lists to customize your audience. Lists allow you to organize your friends on Facebook so you can determine who gets to see the information you post or that is posted to your Facebook timeline. For example, I have four Facebook lists -- relatives, close friends, coworkers and acquaintances. 

Posting for the sake of posting can hurt your chances of being seen. Let's face it. Nobody really cares about what you had for breakfast unless you had something really unusual. Make sure your posts are tuned in to the psychology of your followers. Your posts should naturally prompt your followers to share your content. 

Try not to use the word "I" too much. Too many "I" statements can come across as egotistical. Keep the focus on your viewers rather than on yourself. The second you post something that is not engaging or relevant, EdgeRank will stop amplifying your posts and placing them in your friends' newsfeeds. What is EdgeRank? EdgeRank is Facebook's algorithm that personalizes users' newsfeeds and inserts posts it thinks will interest them. In other words, if users or their friends are interacting with you on a fairly frequent basis, you show up; if not, you get dropped. Facebook's EdgeRank algorithm rewards pages in the newsfeed based on the number of interactions a page receives. An interaction can be a summary of "Likes," posts, or comments about the page. 

To show up in as many users' top newsfeeds as possible, your content must be fresh, engaging, current and compelling. Visual content is critical to sharing and maintaining EdgeRank. On Facebook, people love sharing visual content, so make sure that you are leveraging something that is visually stimulating.

How do you increase interaction and sharing? To boost interaction, you need to post compelling content more often and try to engage people in a two-way dialogue. More than 70% of interactions occur during the first hour after a post is made. Keep your interactions up by posting more often and by being online and available right after you post. In other words, don't post and go to bed. A post posed as a "question" tends to drive more interaction than one written as a statement.  

It's important to never lose sight of the image you want to present so be careful about what you choose to post. People have lost job opportunities after employers viewed their social media content. As a general rule, if you think your content would make your parents feel uncomfortable, don't post it! 

Facebook plans to launch a new feature called Graph Search. Graph Search lets you search your Facebook social graph for people, places, photos and interests. With the new search engine, users will be able to ask specific questions, such as "which of my friends attended Indiana University?" I plan to use this new application to find out if any of my Facebook friends (or their friends) attended any of the colleges is interested in exploring. Graph Search is also integrated with Microsoft's Bing, meaning it will offer web search results if it can't find anything useful in your graph.