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Connecting with Customers: More Talk with Mack Collier

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A SERIES in the quest to know more about the offline world

Part 2 in A 2-Part Interview with Mack Collier

Monday, I shared the beginning of a conversation with Mack Collier about connecting with new customers. This is part two of that interview with Mack.

What do you do when your potential client needs to sell him or her company on the idea of social media?

Make sure they understand how social media can improve their businesses. Many cos/organizations want the ‘monetization’ part built from the start. Social media is often viewed as a potential monetization channel, instead of being a communication channel. What I try to do is make sure the potential client understands that money can be made with social media, but that it comes as a byproduct of using the tools to facilitate connections with current and potential customers, and build those connections into relationships.

It’s very counterintuitive at first because many cos don’t want to enter into a space unless they can see direct monetary benefits. It takes time and much hand-holding in some cases to help businesses realize that successful social media initiatives are based on creating value for others. As you create more value, an INDIRECT benefit is that you can see sales increase, positive equity/awareness grow, etc.

What do most new clients ask for your help with? What misconceptions do they bring?

When the questions start to shift from ‘what do I get out of this?’ to ‘what do my readers/friends/customers get out of this?’ And I think that’s a normal progression for anyone that’s using social media, I was the same way with my blogging and Twittering at first. But after a while I began to understand that the more value I created for others, the more value came back to me. We need to remember that companies need time to learn these same lessons.

. . . It seems that we — you and I — have more questions, and I’ve confirmed that Mack has more answers. So Mack and I have agreed to extend the interview. Watch for parts three and four next week!

Thanks, Mack!

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz!!

Listening to Crowds — Gathering Wisdom One at a Time

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The Wisdom of Crowds

relationships button

It’s only human nature to want to name things. Names are the first step to a definition. A definition is the first step to knowledge. Knowledge leads to understanding.

Yet the names we choose can limit our thinking as much as they shape it.

Writers, Readers, Teachers, Sales Reps, Users, Customers, Marketer, Bloggers, Vendors, Workers, Managers, Employees . . .

All of those words refer to people. Individuals grouped together as a crowd.

The wisdom crowds is the aggregate of independent decisions by the individuals who form the crowds. To get the whole story when we listen, we need to the group, but we also need to listen one at a time.

Gathering Wisdom One at a Time

To get the rich context and detail, we have to listen to individuals talking — not a whole group shouting. Every person has a different story. In those stories are the reasons people care; why tell their friends about us or move on by. Individual views and experiences put the heart in the data.

People share wisdom one at time.

To listen actively, picture the person and the experience, and consider questions like these . . .

  • What’s the message of this person’s story?
  • What’s surprising about what this person is saying?
  • In what ways, is this person like me? In what ways, is this person unique?
  • What might this person want or need that I never expected?
  • What might this person want or need that everyone wants?
  • What can I learn from this person’s story that I didn’t know or always knew but forgot?

You get the idea. If we hear — really hear — individual stories, we can sort to find the universal truths we share.

Would you tell me a listening story that you’re thinking of right now?

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz!!
Buy the ebook. Be sure the message you send is the one received.

Answers that Bore Me and So Much Sky

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I've been thinking . . .

about answers.

When I try to listen too closely, hold too tightly, control things,
I find too much work, too many shiny new things.

I piece together meaningless details into huge twisty ideas. I spend useless time pondering questions . . . wondering . . . observing, . . . sorting messages . . .

reading words . . .
reading pictures . . .
reading every person’s actions . . .
As each moment wears on, it wears on me.
Irrelevant details and made up futures pass by in streams and reels.

The questions get thinner until the answers bore me.
Information and expectations crowd and steal my clear thinking.

Then the upward view rewinds and reminds me . . .

chicago-sky-060708.JPG

I run laughing all the way home . . .
all this and so much more is mine . . .
I hear a bell ringing . . .
I see a plane fly by . . .
I see the moon rise . . .

Today’s okay, but I really like tomorrow.
A question filled with possibility
I’ve had enough of answers bore me when there’s so much sky
— Julia Macklin, So Much Sky

How much sky will you give yourself today?

Liz's Signature

Image: LizStrauss

SOB Business Cafe 06-20-08

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SB Cafe

Welcome to the SOB Cafe

We offer the best in thinking–articles on the business of blogging written by the Successful and Outstanding Bloggers of Successful Blog. Click on the titles to enjoy each selection.

The Specials this Week are

I’ll Do It Myself Blog lays out some staggering marketing missed opportunities.
This under tapped market has $175 billion in discretionary spending power. That figure is more than twice the spending power of American teenagers and almost 18 times the spending power of the American “tweens” market.

Remarkablogger lays out the real strengths of the blogging platform.
The blog format is extraordinarily flexible. It can adapt itself into all kinds of uses. This flexibility is applicable to business blogs in a variety of ways–especially if your audience isn’t even sure what a blog is.

Social Media Explorer lays out a problem with the vocabulary of social networking.
This Google Blog Search result of a Friend Feed post of mine, which incidentally had nothing to do with Robert, but was a question I posed on the Social Media Club’s Friend Feed room, seems to indicate, however, that I am Robert’s friend.

Confident Writing lays out another set of questions in a great series.
You need to pay as much (if not more) attention to the framework for your question as you do the question itself.

Here are 7 things to think about before you add your questions to the bottom of the page . . .

Christine Kane lays out some learning from a unexpected source.
Let’s hearken back to the early days of email.

You dial up. You listen to the squeaky scratchy noises. You wait for the AOL man to say “Welcome!” You wait to see if he’s finished his greeting, or if he’s simply pausing before telling you the exciting news: “You’ve got mail!”

Related ala carte selections include

It’s NOT about Your Stuff has great news!

Sit back. Enjoy your read. Nachos and drinks will be right over. Stay as long as you like. No tips required. Comments appreciated.

–ME “Liz” Strauss

Social Networking in Another Culture that Speaks a New Language

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Ask Someone

The Living Web

Most folks find meeting new people and learning new situation stressful in some way. Yet, to keep moving forward, we have to be the “new kid who doesn’t know anything.”

And it’s not always timely or convenient. Just as we seem to know everyone, we turn a corner — online or offline — that takes us where it seems like we’re social networking in another culture that speaks a new language.

Are you like me? I become the proverbial “lurker.”

I find meeting new people in groups overwhelming. I stand on the sidelines hoping that folks’ll meet me instead. I take up observing rather than taking part. Observation is a start, but it’s not a great place to settle in. If everyone is doing the same thing, the middle of the “room” can be awfully empty.

I know better. I know situations are easier when I ask someone how things work.

If only I could remember that I don’t need to learn EVERYTHING by doing it wrong first.

Where do we find that networked, traveling, bilingual, cultural expert to help us hit the ground running on whatever new terrain we’re embarking? He’s everywhere. So is she.

The world is filled with smart people who answer questions. The trick is not to make the situation overwhelming and to learn little bits not tackling huge things. If we only ask each person one question, we can get a little education with out stressing any one of them. We’ll also get lots of tricks, techniques, and points of view to help us through the new situation. In no time we’ll be socially adept, culturally comfortable, and fluent in the new language, and someone will be asking us the questions we now have.

Whatever it is you’re trying to learn or conquer, don’t just watch. Wonder. T
Then ask a question.

Will you learn something small this weekend?

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz!!
The first eBook is coming . . .

Part 2: More Time with Matt Rissell of TSheets

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A SERIES in the quest to know more about the offline world

Part 2 in a 4-Part Interview with Matt Rissell

TSHEETS logo

Yesterday, I started a conversation with Matt Rissell, CEO of TSheets to find out more about his business that serves folks who work offline, mobile, and on the web. When we ended Matt and I exchanged two questions.

Matt said: Would you be interested in knowing how TSheets can track time from a cell phone?

I answered: Sure, how do you do it and why would I want to?

Liz, fasten your seatbelt and keep arms and legs inside at all times and prepare yourself, because I’m about to change your life. The how: we are the first company in history to create a voice activated time tracking software. For example, you can simply dial a phone number and say, “Hi TSheets, clock me under job code “Bridge Project” and add notes – I’m meeting with the owner to discuss design plans.” At that moment, you are “clocked in” under a job code and notes have been attached to that timesheet. You can also clock in/out from the iPhone Web app., or regular mobile Web app. too.

The “why” is blatantly sexy! You see, tracking time isn’t sexy, that is, until you can turn your time into money. Now, Attorneys, Freelance Consultants, Web Designers, Realtors etc… can accurately track the time that they invest into clients and projects. And now they don’t have to try and remember what they did or talked about, as it can all be captured right there on their timesheet.

Hmmm. I like turning time into money. Most folks do.
Thanks, Matt! More next week about mobile time.

What do YOU think. Would track your time on your cell phone?

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz!!
Blogging well takes less time. Buy the ebook and find out the secret.

Related:
Part 1: A Timely Interview with Matt Rissell of TSheets
Part 2: More Time with Matt Rissell of TSheets
Part 3: Time Out with Matt Rissell of TSheets
Part 4: The Last Time with Matt Rissell of TSheets