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A terrible loss

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Our SOBCon friend and colleague Phil Gerbyshak alerts us that we have lost one of the members of our community, Susan Quandt:

Last Tuesday one of my dear friends and mentors was taken too quickly from this world; Susan Quandt was killed in a car accident just outside the city of Milwaukee. Susan was one of those people who could connect with you immediately, with a smile, a knowing glance, and always a hug. She lived her life abundantly, always sharing whatever she had with whomever crossed her path.

I was blessed to have Susan in my life for but a short time, as I met her at last year’s 800 CEO Read Author Pow-Wow. We knew immediately we wanted to work on some big stuff together, and she invited me to dinner, and to meet her family at her homes in Chicago and in Port Washington.

Stephen Hopson Susan Quandt

Phil shares some of the things that he learned from Susan in the brief time that he knew her in 5 Lessons [Link to Phil’s article], please read the article.

Our hearts and prayers are with all of Susan’s family and friends.

The Power of the Strategic Alliance

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After reading this post from Jason Falls – about the ROI of Social Media – I have been thinking a lot about a quote from Jeffrey Gitomer:

“Most people have powerful connections. Very few people have harnessed the power of their connections.”

“Because of”- Not “With”

It occurs to me that there is a lot more to a Strategic Alliance than simply promoting yourself. In fact, Gitomer gives pages and pages of reasons to do it in his Little Black Book of Connections. I would like to suggest that the strongest reason for creating strategic alliances is that you can build your business because of your them, rather than with your strategic alliances.

Just as with all of your other promotional efforts, networking is a way to establish yourself as an authority – the “go-to-person” in your field. Establishing your credibility and creating an emotional bank account with the people that you meet are important tools for building your business, not on the backs of those that you meet, but through their own word of mouth.

Put the Strategic Alliance to Work

The real benefits of creating a network of powerful friends and an alliance of business-people are many. Here are just a few:

  • To make an impression – Meeting new people and asking them about what they do is a great way to make an impression. This is also the time to ask them about what you might be able to do to help them, not your company, you. For free.
  • To get an audience – Attending meetings, after-hours events, and lunch-and-learn events can be a great way to meet new people. You will also discover that these events are nearly always looking for speakers or presenters. Volunteer to speak or give a presentation. You will have the opportunity to put a face with your business. You can do similar things online through guest-posting and forum discussions.
  • To get to the decision-makers – As in the above example, speaking at an event will often get you noticed by the very people that make decisions about your products and services. They may have questions. Networking gives you the opportunity to answer those questions in a safe, non-selling environment. Again, the online forum is a good facsimile.
  • To build business with your existing clients – It is easier to build your business with your existing clients than to get new ones. It is easier to build your business with your existing clients if they know you and if they know other people that know you. Word of mouth is one of (if not the) the most powerful methods of advertising. Becoming known in your industry is your primary goal when networking. When you are known, you will get business.
  • To expand within your industry – There comes a time for every business when it is ready to grow and expand, into new fields or markets. The best way to do this is through networking. Your strategic partners can give you advice and direction, introducing you to new clients and markets. Then it’s time to make an impression again.

What do you use networking for? Which events or functions do you attend in order to interact with new people? Do you do more networking online or off? Why?

Leave a comment.

Enlist, Engage, Empower

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What is your answer to your Community's call?What do you do with those that you attract to your community? The short answer is “Talk to them!”

The long answer is that you treat all of them with respect and dignity, find out what it is that they are looking for, and help them to find it.

Once you begin to build a community, you will find that there are some that are more interested in getting involved than others. One of the things that this kind of community member is looking for is Engagement. These readers and “doers” will enlist in your community expressly to get involved with other people – to talk, to listen, to help. They are looking to be a part of something larger than themselves.

Your goal should be to empower them to do so

How does your blog or website deliver to this type of reader/community member? Is there a comments feature that allows people to post their own opinion? How about a forum where the members can engage each other in a much broader fashion?

There are two schools of thought on allowing comments on a blog. One holds that it allows the readers to engage the author, and each other, in a discussion – a conversation – about the topic of the post. This can be a very powerful method of getting the word out about your site, as more people talk about and comment. The downside of this is the possibility of spam – fake comments from pr0n sites – and that you need to monitor the comments for inappropriate behavior. This is the primary rationale for the second school of thought on comments – don’t allow them.

How should you manage your empowered community?

Creating and nurturing a community takes time and effort. It means that not only do you need to give of yourself to create the content that the community is looking for, you need to share part of your creation with the community. A Web forum is an excellent tool for sharing this content and the responsibility for managing it. Sometimes called a bulletin board or message board, a Web forum is an online center for ongoing, in-depth discussions of specific topics and issues.

One of the more interesting features of the Web forum membership is that users frequently self-select for monitoring what is going on. As the “leader” of the community you can enlist these active volunteers to become moderators for the various topics and keep an eye on the postings and comments.

Seek these people out, encourage them to take the next step. Share of yourself and see what happens!

Looking for Some Feedback

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SOBCon08I am looking forward to this year’s conference – it’s going to be bigger and better than ever! In fact, Liz and Terry are putting together a program for the Friday of SOBCon weekend (1-3 May, 2009!).

We have been brainstorming some ideas and now we need your help too. I originally sent out this survey as an e-mail, and received a bunch of good responses. But for those that may not have received it, here it is again:

If you could be in charge of putting together a program for an extra half-day of the conference, what would you like to include? How about having a series of short, intensive, highly practical “How to” sessions on Friday? What kind of format would you prefer for this program, say from noon until 5:00:

  • 3 tracks of 45-minute sessions, featuring content for new bloggers and for experienced bloggers
  • 2 tracks of 30-minute sessions, again with content for new and experienced bloggers

Next, within that format, what sorts of things are you dying to learn? Do you need help with things like:

  • How to strengthen the connection between your business and your blog
  • How to make it easy to comment and discuss posts
  • How to design your website or blog for sales conversion – not just copywriting but the architecture, Ad placement, Affiliate sales, etc.

Please feel free to name your own course category, the one or two things that you would really, really like to take home from this year’s conference and put to use immediately.

Many of the responses that I have already received included comments to the effect that the group/brainstorming sessions were the best part, putting what the presenter just said into practical terms. What do you think?

Finally, if you had a chance to sponsor one of these sessions, and have a spot to promote your blog/business, would you do it?

What do you think that would be worth to you?

What would you want people to know about you and how would you like to get that message across?

Leave a comment, let us know what you think.