Do You See What I See?

Branded Email

For those of us with eyesight we live in a visual world.  Our sense of sight is probably the biggest reason we have for much of what we do yet many of us take it for granted.

When you return from your vacation the first thing people normally ask is, “What did you see?” Can you imagine taking a trip and not going to see the local sights or meeting people? Why take the trip in the first place?

Sight is a vital part of our being in work and play. Sight even makes hearing take a back seat when we go to a concert. If sight wasn’t a priority to hearing we could have just bought the latest CD and listened to the same tunes.

Before the invention of the television people listened to the radio as a form of family entertainment. As they listened they would envision in their mind’s eye the drama being played out over the airwaves.

We think in pictures too. When the word “horse” is read or spoken you think of a picture of a horse.  As for myself I “see” a brown mare. What color was your steed?

Many people have a problem remembering other people’s names. However they don’t have a problem recalling peoples’ faces.  That’s because we think in pictures.

The Wax Museum

Years ago I was at a friend’s house for a Super Bowl party. I met a man there whose family owned two wax museums, one in San Francisco and the other in Buena Park. I’ve been to wax museums and could never understand why people were so drawn to them so I asked him why that was.

His response made a lot of sense when he explained that many of the foreign tourists that come to the Los Angeles area have a preconceived idea of what to expect based on the American movies they have seen.  They also expect to see movie stars and when they don’t they look for other avenues to satisfy that expectation. Thus the wax museum is a popular destination.

Emails

Rather than dull, boring, black on white emails, imagine email with a visual explosion of color and imagery.  An email that would display your logo and company colors, your image and your contact info. An email that info would include links to your social media sites and your company web site. That would be a powerful business tool.

That’s exactly what Ace of Sales offers.  I tell people that Ace of Sales is the best $20 per month investment in my business because it is.  With Ace of Sales my emails “work” for me, they connect me to the people I want to reach.  Ace of Sales emails “draw” a picture of what I want to convey.

Talk is cheap and since you’re a visual person you really need to see the possibilities that this tool offers. So here’s my offer. Try Ace of Sales for 30 days FREE. Simply use my promo code PRUSA. You’ll get 30 days to test drive it and I’ll throw in one FREE greeting card and one FREE post card. I suggest you send them to yourself so you can see first-hand what your clients will be getting.

Send me an Ace of Sales email after you’ve signed up for the 30 day FREE test drive and I’ll enter you name in the hat to win a $50 gift card. Entries must be submitted before Christmas Day 2011.

That’s my Christmas gift to you:

- 30 days of Ace of Sales ($20)

- FREE greeting card ($3)

- FREE postcard ($1)

- Chance to win $50 gift card

If Gmail, Yahoo, Hotmail or AOL can top that offer let me know I want in on that deal.

Seeing is Believing

Wednesday I am sending you a “branded email” from my Ace of Sales account. Then on Thursday you’ll get an “email greeting” from my AOS account. Friday you’ll get a holiday “email greeting”.

 

Post With Value Intent

Remember that buzz word I mentioned a few months ago? Social media, well I’m getting into it. You might say I’m in the deep end of the pool but I know there’s so much more for me to learn and do.

I’ve read the book, Social Boom! By Jeffrey Gitomer twice now. That book was written to help the novice get a working knowledge of what’s available for FREE.

Between my Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter accounts I have connected with potential business. For example, by sending this message to an Executive VP of a local company I sat down with him at a Starbucks over coffee.

“Jeff we have 28 connections in common. We should sit down over a cup of coffee and compare notes.”

I’m Tweeting for business and I’ve learned to deliver value messages and not to deliver dribble about nonsense.  Serious business people read Twitter and the tweets you post.

I’ve got my LinkedIn account set up so that when I post a value message on it of less than 140 characters that message also gets Tweeted.  I’ve got my Twitter account set so that my tweets are also posted on my Facebook page. One post and three audiences, the more connections, friends and followers you have the more you get recognized as a person of value.

I read a tweet from a person I follow that caught my eye because she stated she was looking for an Executive Director position in Assisted Living.  A good portion of my network works in the senior care industry so I tried to remember if there were any openings I had heard of.  You see I’m always trying to connect (help) people with resources I’m aware of.

I took a look at her Twitter profile to see what value messages she may have tweeted in the past. What kind of person would I be helping?

There were several deficiencies on her profile. Her picture looked something like the one at the beginning of this story. Remember last week’s story about the sunglasses?  Only her first name was on her profile.  Her last name was hidden within her Twitter username.

These are the tweets she posted in the last year:

  • Put a real photo up!! Get a job or a hobby! You wish you had an inch of what Beth has. Get a life loser
  •  @AmazingBobP You are a mean and jealous fool with too much time on your hands.
  •  @SkipDoggy I love your tweets my husband is obsessed.
  • I hate pageant parents!! Fake teeth and nail. Feeding kids pixie sticks and calling it pageant crack to keep little babies awake!
  • Windy night in LA whacky weather here lately
  • My husband really has a handsome face. What a doll!!
  • I hate when I have a good hair day the only day of the week I never live the house
  • Can’t wait for my play date with Jenny. The kind of friend who asks where do we bury the body after you admit to murder.
  • TV is so addicting!!
  • Can’t sleep!! Thank God I can listen to Howard Stern on my I-phone
  • @Robertsucks You are terrible!
  • Kobe steak house
  • perez hilton
  • LEAVING WORK AND HEADING HOME AFTER A LONG WORK DAY

I don’t know about you but I’m not feeling any value in those messages.  What she doesn’t realize is that recruiters are now researching social media to find the best candidate for positions. If this person was applying for a job at your company, would you hire her?  I wouldn’t.

The real value with Twitter is not what you tweet but what gets retweeted. When you deliver a value message that people feel compelled to send it on again to their followers you get greater exposure. It’s like WOM (Word of Mouth) advertising.

The last retweeted tweet I posted was: When you are an example of good works credibility is poured upon you.@johnprusa

It’s not who you know but who knows you. What are people telling their friends that you said?

 

 

 

 

 

New and Seldom Used

The word tweet was just added to Websters Dictionary. With the onslaught of social media (there’s that buzz word again) and the Internet new words, idioms and phrases are added to our language faster than Hollywood gossip.  Blog, just saying that word makes my stomach wheezy.

On the other end of the spectrum are words, idioms and phrases seldom used or exercised in this changing world.  One phrase that specifically comes to mind is “Thank you”. Because I haven’t forgotten how to express it my “Thank you” has ever increasing value and yours can too.

Surprisingly you can now tweet your “Thank you” which I did just the other day.  On Wednesday I attended a regional trade show for my industry. The show floor opened at 10 AM and I finally left just after 5 PM, closing. I love going to events like this because

  • I get to meet my suppliers face to face
  • Inspect new product offering
  • Meet with peers
  • Attend educational sessions

I had collected 15 business cards and when I returned to my PC that evening I sent an Ace of Sales branded email out to those 15 people. Yes, that’s a plug for Ace of Sales. It’s vital that I mention Ace of Sales because that branded email (like the one you got from me yesterday) reminds people what you look like and of your business card.  It’s what they saw at the trade show. I also sent a tweet out.  My email read:

Dear (First Name),
How special do you feel? You're one of fifteen that I met today. I wonder how many people I would have met had I been an extrovert?
It's still too early to tell why our paths crossed today but I'm already reaping the rewards. 
Meeting you today gave me a great "tweet" to send out tonight:
If I can give you back 10% of what you've given me today you'll feel overwhelmed with gratitude.
Let's make a difference,
John Prusa, CAS

Within an hour an email was sent back to me from the president of a company that supplies product. He had come from New Jersey for four days and his email said this:

Hi John,
It was very nice receiving your email.  Rarely do people write to tell you when you have made a positive impact in their outlook.  I hope we can help each other be successful.  I do appreciate your note to me, very nice.
Thanks, T.R.H.

Most of you know me well enough that I shared that story not to say that I am great but to drive home this point: Take a few minutes to say thank you and you’ll be dropping sunshine into the lives of the people you meet. Not everyone will write back but everyone that reads your words will feel the gratitude.

Social Media Presenter Checklist

I attended a meeting of chamber of commerce people and towards the end an announcement was made that a speaker from out of town would be presenting for one-hour on Social Media the following week. This was not a chamber sponsored event but an event sponsored by two members.

Social media seems to be a buzz word these days.  Most everybody has heard of the phrase but few have a good grasp of what it is or better yet how to apply it to business.

I attended that free one-hour Social Media presentation and discovered I knew more than the presenter.  I fired off a few questions that I knew the answers to just to test the speaker.  Afterwards one of the three presenters told me he was worried about me merely because I had so much knowledge on the subject.

Their whole presentation was a farce because they were not trying to teach anything about Social Media but rather they were trying to get you to plunk down $150 for their 6-hour seminar on how to use Facebook and You Tube.

Last week I got an email via a group I belong to on LinkedIn to attend a presentation on Saturday morning. One of the four speakers would be presenting on Social Media.  She was a bit of a letdown as she only spoke with authority on Facebook and had limited LinkedIn knowledge.

That free presentation cost 5 hours of my time and $20 in gas.  So I’ve created a personal checklist to verify the validity of a Social Media presenter.

  1. Do they have a Facebook account?
  2. Do they have a business page on Facebook?
  3. Do they have an active LinkedIn account?
  4. Do they have an active Twitter account?
  5. Have they posted any videos on You Tube?
  6. Do they have a blog post?

If they have at least 4 of the 6 then I will consider listening to what they have to say. Along the way I have learned to listen to people with fruit on the tree. In other words, people that walk the talk.

Is Facebook for Your Business?

I’m constantly asking people “Are you on Facebook?” The response most often is a resounding “Yes!”  But there are still a few holdouts amongst by business friends. They want to use it for business but they don’t want their business contacts to know about their private lives.

Well here’s a 7-minute You Tube clip all about ways to incorporate Facebook into your business and how you can use Facebook to your business advantage.

Watch this.