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Social Media During Crisis

March 1, 2010 By Barbara Giamanco Leave a Comment
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As Chilean and international rescue forces work through the rubble cause by the massive 8.8-magnitude earthquake that hit near Concepcion, Chile’s second-largest city, users of social media the world over have undertaken their own rescue measures.Twitter, Facebook, and several of Google’s properties aren’t trivial, now. They’re life-saving, informational tools. –Dan Nosowitz, writing for Fast Company Magazine.

During the past year, a lot of people have begun to realize that social media is not only here to stay, but has significant implications for the way that business is conducted. What many fail to realize is the power that social tools have for saving lives and quickly diseminating information in crisis situations as the Chilean earthquake. I remember when it first clicked how powerful Twitter could be during the Atlanta gas crisis in ’08 that had people sharing tweets about where to find gas in gasoline starved city.

Tools like Google Person Finder, live video streams, Twitter, Facebook pages and more are being used to share information, locate missing people and send much needed financial aid to the area.

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SoCon10 Highlights

February 12, 2010 By Barbara Giamanco Leave a Comment

Last month’s social media conference aptly dubbed SoCon10 was quite a hit. It was the 2nd year that I’ve attended, and I found the presentations focused and relevant. There was much more focus on things like…you know…ROI. Check out the video to see what the fun was all about.

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Cold Calling 2.0?

February 6, 2010 By Barbara Giamanco 1 Comment
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Since the early days of John Patterson and his NCR sales playbook, “cold calling” seems to be ingrained in the collective sales consciousness as an expected part of the sales process. I still wonder why. Come on. Cold calling doesn’t work (it never has, and I don’t care what that last sales trainer told you).

This ridiculous notion of “dialing for dollars” is so yesterday. Sales people resist cold calling like the plague and with good reason. At some level, they know it doesn’t make any sense to call a stranger and expect them to buy within seconds of receiving their call no matter how charming they may be. Old school sales thinking is that you just call enough numbers and eventually somebody buys. What a waste of time and energy! Not to mention how potential buyers detest this approach. They don’t appreciate your rambling, inarticulate, blathering feature dumps and the evident randomness of the call. As a business owner, I can relate. Maybe I’ll create an audio book one of these days with the “best of the worst” phone calls that I’ve ever received. I save them. Hilarious and painfully sad at the same time. Hint: if you have to cold call then at least do some remedial homework. Make sure I’m in the market for what you sell. Everyone is NOT your customer!

Get over the notion of cold calling. Nobody likes it, it doesn’t work. Instead, what about using social media/social networks, email, Twitter, Facebook, referrals and the like to start paving the way for a great relationship? There is just NO excuse anymore for sales management to think that “dialing for dollars” has much chance at success. Instead, invest time in learning to use social media to augment and extend your sales reach. Insist that your sales people use social tools and social networks to begin conversations that will lead to finding common ground and getting to know each other. Then, when you do reach out to secure that sales appointment there will be nothing cold about it!

Filed Under: Featured, Lead Generation, Networking, Sales, Social Media, Technology Tagged With: , , , ,

Reorder Your LinkedIn Profile Elements

February 3, 2010 By Barbara Giamanco Leave a Comment

“The ability to reorder the sections on your profile is just the first of a huge number of enhancements that are coming to your LinkedIn profile in the upcoming months”, says Aaron Bronzan on the LinkedIn Blog.

I played around with the ability to move sections of my LinkedIn profile and it seemed pretty easy to customize your profile to suit your needs. That being said, I did notice that moving things around goofed up my Twitter feed, which then took me a couple of tries to get it back working again. Experiment with the changes…it definitely gives you the ability to personalize your brand.

Filed Under: Networking, Sales, Social Media, Technology Tagged With: , , ,

What’s In a Picture?

January 14, 2010 By Barbara Giamanco 1 Comment
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Yesterday, Dawn Gartin, a colleague in my LinkedIn network, posed a great question asking what people thought their profile picture did or didn’t do for them. I love the question, because it comes up in every social sales training that I deliver. Some will debate that the picture doesn’t matter or argue that it could create bias in advance. To the first point…well, yes, I feel strongly that your picture does matter, as you’ll see in my response below. As for bias…when you choose not to post a picture that can create a bias in someone’s mind also. Are you hiding something they might be asking themselves. But the way I see it, you are going to meet them at some point anyway, right? Why not let them know who you are right up front? I suspect that often the concern is that you don’t have a great photo to use. That I understand. And it’s worth having a professional take a head shot for you, if you feel unable to tackle it on your own.

Here’s my response to Dawn’s question…

I currently use the same photo to maintain consistency across LinkedIn, Plaxo, Twitter, Blog, Facebook, etc. My business focus is on executives and sales professionals, so I use a professional picture and feel strongly about the importance of doing so to support my brand message and target audience. As sales professionals, it is important to remember that your picture helps people connect with you. They feel they are getting to know you…something about pictures and voice that draws people in. That’s why using video is so compelling.

It’s About Your Brand

Combine your picture with active online participation and you gain important visibility. Crucial to success in this new social world is being seen. You have to put the effort into participating so that when you buyer is ready – they think of you! OK, so back to my colleague, Dawn…if you happen to be in Atlanta, you might be interested in the networking “meet up” she’s got going on Thursday, January 21. You can find the details here. What I think is cool is that you can get a professional headshot taken at the event that you can then use on your social profiles. Do it! The price…incredibly inexpensive at $35.00. Again, find the details here.

BTW – having a current picture on your profiles also means that when you do “meet up” with prospective buyers or partners in person…you both already know what you each look like:)

Filed Under: Marketing, Networking, Sales, Social Media Tagged With: , ,
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