Seattle Online Marketing, Communications, Strategy | Joe Hage
The personal site for CEO of Medical Marcom Joe Hage. Online marketing, marketing communications, and marketing strategy.
As a Marketing Communications guy, I struggle with Bad PowerPoint. I previously heralded Seth Godin’s take on the subject.
Today I found Guy Kawasaki’s take on Twitter. It’s simple, straightforward, and I’ll let Guy do the talking.
Do you have the discipline to follow his advice?
:: Joe Hage
Hey Joe,
I read some of your great info on Biznik…one of the older articles you wrote was about Six Ways to Persuade…grow business. While I have many thrilled clients that tell ME how much they love my services and products…how do you get them telling others? I am definitely a connector myself as described in The Tipping Point and I tell everyone when I am pleased and not so pleased but it seems most of my clients feel they need to be solicited for a referral instead of volunteering. Bainbridge, my location is all about word of mouth for success. I need help before my ship sinks…
Thanks in advance if you’re willing to share any ideas.
Chris
Thanks for your question, Chris.
I see you joined Biznik three days ago and you work in “spa-hair services on Bainbridge Island in Washington.” In three days you found me and were impressed enough that you asked me a question.
In a way, I think that’s the answer.
What you really want is to be found. At the New Marketing Summit in Boston last month, Todd Defren, principal for SHIFT Communications, said, “You are in the findability department. The marketing department is dead.”
You are your own marketing department. You have to find ways to have people find you.
Word of mouth is absolutely a powerful way to do that. What are some other ways?
1. Keep a blog. You found me here. Now we’re having a conversation. You could be creative with your receipts and say “check out my blog at stellarskin.com.”
2. Make sure you know what you’re selling. Read The First Three Numbers, The First Three Questions, and then try out your own positioning statement here.
3. Read books on the subject. Bob Burg’s [Read more...]
I have a rich vocabulary and I like using it. Is that so bad?
According to one of my closest Wharton buddies, yes. “As soon as you pass the SAT exam, you should get rid of those words. First, you sound arrogant. Second, when use words people don’t know, you make them uncomfortable.”
I brought a departmental meeting to a halt once when I congratulated a team member for keeping our website project on schedule. I said it was a “Herculean effort.” Years and years ago I was ridiculed for the torrid sales for Jell-O Cheesecake Snacks. And I have a detractor who hates when things are “amiss.”
Another time I used the word didactic. Truth is, I knew didactic was big when I said it. But as I began, “I’m not trying to be didactic here,” I couldn’t think of a lesser synonym.
T. Hardy challenged me. “If Joe Hage is that smart, he can think of another way to say it.” The best I could come up with was pedantic, but I don’t think that helped my case very much.
Days later, I had another didactic moment. I began, “I’m not trying to be …” and I stopped. I tried to think of an inoffensive synonym.
It seemed like a long time.
Then I gave up and said, “I’m not trying to be all teacher-y here….”
I’m pretty sure no one was offended.
Except me.
Note: Let me know if this helped you. I’m not sure if this tip is above, at, or below my readers’ level. (Thanks, Tawyna, for your comment. I almost didn’t publish this post.)
Hyperlinks allow you to reference another article or source to support your point. They also cut down on the number of words you need because the content was said elsewhere.
Hyperlinks empower the reader to decide how much depth they want to spend on a particular subject. The interested reader can click for more – or not. I’ll describe how to hyperlink in the Microsoft suite of products such as Word, Excel, and Outlook. The WordPress convention is similar.
Get the icon first [Read more...]
For credibility and distribution, depending on your industry, a name brand “Simon & Schuster Free Press” is kind of like getting into Harvard. BUT if you self-publish and it gets hot enough, a name brand may want to pick it up.
Publishing. Content. The message is coming out over and over again, in every session here at BizJam. If you aren’t generating content, it feels like a “must” to me.
Lisa recommends lulu.com. Doesn’t have to be fancy, but helps build your credibility.
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(This article originally appeared on July 1 on Biznik.com)
If you’ve never met Karrie, do. Go to her Biznik page, see where she’ll be and go. If it’s a sit down, sit next to her. If it’s a mixer, hover. She’s smart, delightful and, if you’re lucky enough to hire her, she can shower you with practical ideas to help build your business.
In her recent article, “16 Ways,” Karrie seized upon a problem and offered practical solutions that Biznik needed. In one week, the article had 500+ views and a Biznik-record-breaking 61 comments. Joe Shirley wrote,
“Now that you’ve got three articles with an average rating approaching nine points, it’s about time for you to write an article about how to write a kick-ass article.”
I suspect Karrie is too modest to reply. But in Joe-Hage-speak, she clearly understood her positioning, objective, strategy, and tactics before she began. What follows are my words, not hers.
Karrie’s positioning:
To members of the Biznik community frustrated by low attendance rates, Karrie Kohlhaas is the unorthodox (and successful) business cultivator who can help you reduce event attrition because she offers 16 practical tips she’s used to build her – and her Fortune 500 clients’ – business and because you know her from other highly-rated and popular articles on this site.
