Madison Who’s Who Blog

Getting you business featured in your local paper’s networking news section or in a trade publication is understandably perceived as a big publicity boon for the small entrepreneur. If there are no connections possible via your normal peer networking circles, what steps are noted as successful when “pitching” a journalist?

More importantly, are you prepared to answer the questions and provide the insights that will flag the reporter’s attention and give you credibility.

Marketing Sherpa does a great deal of the homework for you by regularly interviewing reporters to answer those questions and more. And no, there is no short cut or magic formulas, though there does seem to be agreement that picking the right reporter who would naturally have an interest in your product or service and giving them an angle or a story that “adds value” will save wasted efforts.
CommonSense PR offers the following summary, follow the link below for more:

* Deep knowledge of the industry your organizations is in;
* Good understanding of your organization’s business goals, and its communications and marketing goals;
* Strong understanding of the issues and trends that affect your customers;
* Knowledge of past and current coverage, biases and interests of the various journalists and bloggers covering the field (bias, meaning preferences, not necessarily prejudices);
* Awareness of any editorial schedules, deadlines, or date-specific editorial specials (check a magazine’s media kit for advertisers for tips);
* Research of any stated or widely-understood preferences for being contacted with pitches and product/service information (check the website for information on the “Contact Us” page, or refer to sources like Bacon’s database of journalists and media outlets); and
* The brevity and usefulness of the pitch.

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Having been a Realtor as well as having a son in the mortgage business, I can certainly empathize with the absolute frustration some have with “professionals” in the industry. My pet peeve was the bored housewife with the executive husband whose idea of selling real estate was attending social functions and handing out her card. God forbid that you ever have to bring her a contract at an hour that she finds inconvenient.

Incompetent or frivolous people hurt any industry.
Networking news travels pretty fast and if a Realtor, or any professional for that matter, wants to be taken seriously, you need to take the job seriously.

Describing recent experiences with Realtors who don’t deserve the name, Lani Anglin of reRevealed.com, devised a check list of all the ways a Realtor can “SUCK” at the business. And the sad thing is, her tongue and cheek advice comes down to basic B2B networking 101.

Return phone calls. Does anyone really need to say that? Even if you suspect you will not profit from the call, courtesy dictates that you return it. And e-mails - yes, they pile up, but even a quick acknowledgement with a promise to return with more details later is better than no response at all. And since no one could reach you by phone or email, you just might want to see if you have a fax once and awhile.

Business referrals are critical for anybody in sales, unless you are simply not serious about your profession, in which case, you could do your fellow professionals a favor, and get out.

As Anglin puts it to the incompetents in the industry, “you are the reason that people are skeptical of Realtors and there are more of you out there than the industry is able to hold…“

Networking news for expats often contain cautions warning of the taxing stresses that the expat family can anticipate while overseas. It may be that by their very nature, expats are subject to burn-out. Those executives who accept an international assignment are often top performers who have always set stringent standards and exacting goals for themselves. Often these executives are being groomed for key positions. But if the price of global networking is a 30% failure rate for expat assignments, some experts feel that more has to be done to circumvent the onset of burnout and dissatisfaction.

“Companies tend to blame burnout on the expat, says Rogers. But he disagrees, pointing out that organizations cultivate such behavior. From the company’s point of view “the workaholic looks good,” he explains.

But the hard-driving approach to expat assignments isn’t held in esteem by all organizations. Some companies are starting to understand the correlation between burnout and failed assignments, says Rogers.”

Especially important are assessing how varying cultural factors may affect the expat’s family. In some countries it isn’t acceptable for young teen girls to run around unaccompanied. Such restrictions imposed on an expat with young teens is a seemingly minor detail that can add to the total stress quotient.

Companies may actually have to insert relaxation and vacation stipulations into an expat’s contract, even though forcing a hard driving executive to relax can’t be enforced

“However, mandating relaxation is difficult. Expats tend to work longer hours, particularly if they’re away from family, Gerhardt says.

And even when benefits are available they might not be utilized.

“I think senior executives on the whole with a demanding and challenging role tend not to take the amount of holiday they are allocated,” Gerhardt tells Expatica.

High performers have a tendency to perform, and outperform.”
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When your peer networking circles start generating whispers and rumors about outsourcing and layoffs, it doesn’t take long for dissatisfaction and dissent to follow. As should be expected. So how should a company reveal to their employees that outsourcing is an option under consideration?

“When companies start thinking about outsourcing jobs, typically the last people they tell about it is their current employees. That approach may seem natural. After all, employees will get upset when they’re worried about losing their jobs. But that doesn’t mean it’s the smartest way to do business.
[..]
The point is, once a company starts mulling the outsourcing angle, the word is going to get out. So why not communicate directly and forthrightly with employees?”

Though it seems incongruent for a company who values their people to resort to stealth in such matters, given the contentiousness and panic such news can trigger, it can be understood where management would be reluctant to announce their outsourcing plans.Exaggerations and rumors and bad information circulate quickly, so getting the official word out through the company’s networking news channels is important.

Steve Hamm, at Businessweek.com, goes on to describe how one company handled it with candor and forthrightness, resulting in little disruption and few lost jobs.

“In fact, in the end, net employment might increase–in spite of that fact that Marsh has now moved 150 jobs to service provider WNS in India. Its staffing level in Norwich has actually increased–and now tops 1000. The reason is that Mina’s makeover of his service outfit has been so successful that it’s now doing work for other Marsh business units around the world, not just the UK operations. “We saw an opportunity to be a global service center, and we took it,” says Mina.”
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Networking news and advice is replete with how-to articles. Not surprisingly, there are hundreds and hundreds of articles advising the procrastinators of the world how to defeat that nefarious devourer of so much of our time.

If your work puts you online a great deal of your time - unless you are the epitome of self-discipline - you’ll agree that the temptation to stray from the course of your task is ever present, especially if one has their news feeds scrolling at the top of the screen.

Steve Pavlina has provided an excellent exercise in breaking down those looming projects into microtasks. No, that is not a new approach to beating back procrastination. However, Steve opted to demonstrate his methods by breaking down blog post composition into micro-tasks. Given that we touched on business blogging the last few days, it offers a practical example to apply to your current efforts - especially if you tend to put off posting until you are too tired to do a good job.

One thing to keep in mind - posting to your business blog is tantamount to making a sales call or giving a presentation. The objective of your site in to provide your customers and readers relevant, succinct info, to gain business referrals and expand the range of your peer networking. None of that can be effectively accomplished with low energy. You have to view your site as your online office, so to speak, and not be caught napping.

Networking news that focuses on the international market reflects the subtle nuances involved in B2B networking that are not a consideration in a domestic market. Cultural differences pervade all aspects of global networking,from simple interpretations of courtesy, to accepted business rituals, to, perhaps, one of the most frustrating for American businessmen - the perception of time and “future”.

Mansour Javidan, writing at Harvard Business Review, presents his observations:

“By surveying over 17,000 middle managers in 61 societies, we have been able to discern clear differences in nine key areas. One of these is what we call “future orientation,” or the extent to which a culture encourages and rewards such behavior as delaying gratification, planning, and investing in the future….
[…]
What does this mean for an executive attempting to manage or work with teams in cultures that are less future oriented than their own? First, team members will have different perceptions of the feasibility of forward thinking. Even if the indigenous workers personally value long-term planning, they may see it as futile, given prevailing practices and conditions. But second, because of those shared values, it is possible to inspire people to become more future oriented. The key is to start modestly by setting team goals for, say, a three-month horizon and then ensuring they are met. By gradually increasing time horizons, a manager can endow a team with a sense of control over outcomes that formerly may have seemed hopelessly provisional and remote.

Knowing how future orientation varies from culture to culture can help leaders shift their attitude from judgmental to understanding and focus their collaborative efforts. A true global leader doesn’t blame local teams for failing to immediately live up to their aspirations but rather helps them achieve long-term goals one step at a time.”

(H/T:Future.iftf.org)

Networking news seems to deviate very little from evangelizing the power of social media marketing and it’s developing potential for B2B networking and promotions.

“B2B folks tend to struggle with social media marketing. After repeatedly being asked the question of how b2b folks can use social media marketing, I’ve come up with a handful of rules that apply. If you’re not willing to comply, chances are you should stick to direct marketing and cold calling people.”

Given the statistics on online consumer behavior, failing to use blogging, podcasting and videos in conjunction with building your brand is tantamount to suicide. Effective global networking almost demands muscling up your online presence and brand. It’s the how-to of social media marketing that stops many from proceeding. It is a demanding undertaking to flex your brand online, but it beats the hell out of cold calling.

StuntDubl.com offers some very good advice for Web 2.0 novices that will help them test the waters. Below ia an excerpt from a comprehnsive overview that you can reach from the link below.

“Social media applies to everyone. Yes, even b2b folks. The question is how? The answer is - in speaking to your customers/clients/vendors/partners/friends on a one-to-many basis. The magic bullet is in figuring out how to do that. There is no process. There is no direct correlation to productivity or efficiency. There is no solution that will raise revenue in a quantitive fashion for next quarter. What there *IS* - is the opportunity to speak to other humans like humans, and have them appreciate you doing so.

There is not a process for social media marketing. There is only opportunities. How you approach and execute on the opportunities will determine your success…”
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Networking news usually doesn’t feature pre-teens, but a class of fifth graders are learning networking skills that will keep them in good stead their entire lives, preparing them well for whatever careers that they are destined to pursue.

“Anticipation grew as a technology specialist worked to establish an internet connection that would open the door for elementary school students, their families and friends to participate in a worldwide communication event.

Instructional technology specialist cadre Lori Roe remained calm as she endeavored to establish and maintain video and audio reception. Concern grew when audio activated and a disembodied voice was heard saying, “Portugal can’t get in.”

“It’s connecting,” Roe said moments later, inciting a round of applause. Then the image of the hostess from another country appeared on the large screen, her voice was heard and the show began.

“Hi kids in Delaware. How are you?”

Amazing educational experiments and collaborations are possible with the internet, creating a tapestry of stories and music and innovations. Peer networking usually isn’t quite as enjoyable as this, but then, I guess we can give fifth graders a break.

“Rock Our World is an annual collaborative effort among educators and their students, ages 10 to 16. It focuses on a different project each year. This year’s project involved games around the world. Throughout the project students teleconferenced and shared videos, photographs, movies and music they created using Apple computers, Garageband, Imovies, podcasting, digital video cameras and more.

“We use every technological tool available to us to assist us with our digital storytelling and musical composition,” said Roe.”
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