Here’s a way to really stand out with your clients: send them a wedding anniversary card. It might not always be appropriate, for all businesses or professions, but a great idea if your business has reason to work with both members of couple, for example, financial planners, decorators, travel agents, home or car repair businesses, insurance sales folks, and real estate brokers.
You needn’t make a big deal about a client or prospect’s wedding anniversary, a simple card will be enough. I suggest that you don’t get too funny, cute, or clever, but rather just send a card wishing them a happy anniversary and a closing. You can make it more personal if you’re close with the couple but otherwise just keep it simple – remember a wedding anniversary is a shared holiday and what one partner might find amusing the other might find offensive, so beware.
One big reason you don’t need to put too much into writing a message in an anniversary card for clients is because this is a time when the mere act of observance may be way more than anyone else does (possibly one or both of the couple, too). So just keep it simple, but do it.
You might ask, “Who sends anniversary cards?” And my answer is, “You do, if you want an easy way to get your clients’ attention.”
Showing posts with label business tips. Show all posts
Showing posts with label business tips. Show all posts
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
Greeting Card Marketing Tip #13 - Un-Birthday Cards
Okay, so you get the importance of sending birthday cards to your clients, prospects, referral sources and all that but you don’t have anyone’s actual birthday in your database. You’d love to get started but you feel stymied. Well, here’s a way to solve that problem so you can start right now, retrieve a lot of the birthdays of your existing contact database, give the card recipients a laugh and perhaps have them think you’re a pretty clever marketer.
Send an un-birthday card. Send cards to anyone in your contact list for whom you don’t have a birth date and say something like, “Well, I’d really like to send you a birthday card, but I don’t know when it is. So here’s the deal. If today really is your birthday, then woohoo, PAR-TEE! If your birthday was some time in the last six months, I’m sorry I missed it but I won’t miss it again if you send the month and day of your birthday – that way I can be sure to send a card next year. And, if your birthday is coming up in the next six months, well, you get an extra card – or you could just consider this one somewhat to really early. But please send me your birth day and month, too, so I can be more timely next year.”
Now, you probably don’t want to use those exact words, but you could if you’d like. The idea is to make it personal, make it perhaps a bit humorous and keep the focus on getting their birthday date.
And in the meantime, you’ve sent a card that touches on a personal matter, revealed some of your own personality to them, and overall made the point that you intend to continue valuing them and working on the relationship.
You could send these cards to everyone on your list at once, or divide list into twelve equal groups and send 1/12th of the cards each month, or send one a day. The point is you can start sending birthday cards even when you don’t know people’s birthdays.
Send an un-birthday card. Send cards to anyone in your contact list for whom you don’t have a birth date and say something like, “Well, I’d really like to send you a birthday card, but I don’t know when it is. So here’s the deal. If today really is your birthday, then woohoo, PAR-TEE! If your birthday was some time in the last six months, I’m sorry I missed it but I won’t miss it again if you send the month and day of your birthday – that way I can be sure to send a card next year. And, if your birthday is coming up in the next six months, well, you get an extra card – or you could just consider this one somewhat to really early. But please send me your birth day and month, too, so I can be more timely next year.”
Now, you probably don’t want to use those exact words, but you could if you’d like. The idea is to make it personal, make it perhaps a bit humorous and keep the focus on getting their birthday date.
And in the meantime, you’ve sent a card that touches on a personal matter, revealed some of your own personality to them, and overall made the point that you intend to continue valuing them and working on the relationship.
You could send these cards to everyone on your list at once, or divide list into twelve equal groups and send 1/12th of the cards each month, or send one a day. The point is you can start sending birthday cards even when you don’t know people’s birthdays.
Sunday, November 22, 2009
Greeting Card Marketing Tip #12 - Birthday Greetings with a Big Extra!
Ordinarily I do not suggest stressing or even mentioning your business when you send a birthday card to a client or prospect, but there is a way you can combine a birthday greeting with a special mention of your business. That method is a strictly limited time offer that is linked to the recipient’s birthday.
If you run a restaurant or ice cream shop, I mentioned in the previous tip the idea of making the birthday card essentially a coupon that can be shown to receive free ice cream or a free appetizer. That approach is used fairly commonly and it certainly works, but this tip goes way beyond the coupon-level gift.
The strategy I’m suggesting is more appropriate for businesses with medium to large ticket items. The idea is to give the birthday card recipient a huge deal, one that goes far above typical coupon gifts that may be available from many outlets. For example, if you typically give 10% off coupons in ads or other promotions, using this once-a-year per person event I would suggest 30% or more off your pricing. If you’re a carpet company for example, where you’ll often include installation or pads for your cost or deeply discounted, with this strategy, you’d include either, or maybe both, for free – and not jack up the price of the carpet.
The goal of this type of campaign, which you might only run one every two or three years – and publicize it that way, too – is to cause genuine excitement over the very high value available in association with a birthday card from your business. If you do implement the program but want to limit the years it’s offered, combine it with your product and customer knowledge – for example, if you know that people replace carpet once every 6 years, then why not over the over-the-top dea on their birthday during the 5th year after purchase.
The concept of giving outrageous deals, even irregularly, combined with a birthday card can be powerful if implemented well, but you do have to balance the discount with business costs – in the end you should at least break even on any deal.
If you run a restaurant or ice cream shop, I mentioned in the previous tip the idea of making the birthday card essentially a coupon that can be shown to receive free ice cream or a free appetizer. That approach is used fairly commonly and it certainly works, but this tip goes way beyond the coupon-level gift.
The strategy I’m suggesting is more appropriate for businesses with medium to large ticket items. The idea is to give the birthday card recipient a huge deal, one that goes far above typical coupon gifts that may be available from many outlets. For example, if you typically give 10% off coupons in ads or other promotions, using this once-a-year per person event I would suggest 30% or more off your pricing. If you’re a carpet company for example, where you’ll often include installation or pads for your cost or deeply discounted, with this strategy, you’d include either, or maybe both, for free – and not jack up the price of the carpet.
The goal of this type of campaign, which you might only run one every two or three years – and publicize it that way, too – is to cause genuine excitement over the very high value available in association with a birthday card from your business. If you do implement the program but want to limit the years it’s offered, combine it with your product and customer knowledge – for example, if you know that people replace carpet once every 6 years, then why not over the over-the-top dea on their birthday during the 5th year after purchase.
The concept of giving outrageous deals, even irregularly, combined with a birthday card can be powerful if implemented well, but you do have to balance the discount with business costs – in the end you should at least break even on any deal.
Saturday, November 21, 2009
Greeting Card Marketing Tip #11 - Birthday Cards - A Must Do
If you do nothing else with greeting cards, send birthday days. I’ll go so far as to say you should consider sending a birthday card to everyone you meet but for some that will be impractical and the argument is much stronger to send birthday cards to select people and around your market niche.
Certainly you should send birthday cards to your best customers, to your hottest prospects, and to your most frequent referral sources. If you go that far, though, why not send birthday greetings to all your customers, all your prospects, and all of your referral sources.
There is no question that birthday cards are appreciated, even if you just send a standard card off the shelf. Of course, as with all contacts or “touches” in relationship marketing the more personal the content the more effective it will be, but birthday cards are suitable for everyone and even someone who doesn’t get it that birthday cards mean good marketing can catch on that this gesture is important.
You can read the literature, and the books, about the car sales people, insurance brokers, real estate agents and others who have risen to and stayed at the top of their fields, nationally, by establishing and consistently maintaining birthday card programs. This concept isn’t something only I espouse, or that card companies tout, the track records are clear for all to see that birthday cards can build and keep a business.
Stores, restaurants and retail shops often have birthday clubs and while one function is to offer something (a free ice cream cone, free appetizer or dinner, a special gift or service) when the card is presented during the recipient’s birth month, the greater win is the recognition by the customer that her or his birthday was noted and acknowledged.
When we implemented a birthday card program in one of our businesses and subsequently e-mailed a long list of past clients and contacts asking for their birthdays (we usually only ask for and get the month and day), we were elated by the massive positive response. A totally unexpected positive result was the number of people who thanked us even for asking and a few who wrote that they were looking forward to receiving cards from us.
So it’s pretty clear that if you don’t include sending birthday cards in your business marketing program you are missing a huge opportunity.
Certainly you should send birthday cards to your best customers, to your hottest prospects, and to your most frequent referral sources. If you go that far, though, why not send birthday greetings to all your customers, all your prospects, and all of your referral sources.
There is no question that birthday cards are appreciated, even if you just send a standard card off the shelf. Of course, as with all contacts or “touches” in relationship marketing the more personal the content the more effective it will be, but birthday cards are suitable for everyone and even someone who doesn’t get it that birthday cards mean good marketing can catch on that this gesture is important.
You can read the literature, and the books, about the car sales people, insurance brokers, real estate agents and others who have risen to and stayed at the top of their fields, nationally, by establishing and consistently maintaining birthday card programs. This concept isn’t something only I espouse, or that card companies tout, the track records are clear for all to see that birthday cards can build and keep a business.
Stores, restaurants and retail shops often have birthday clubs and while one function is to offer something (a free ice cream cone, free appetizer or dinner, a special gift or service) when the card is presented during the recipient’s birth month, the greater win is the recognition by the customer that her or his birthday was noted and acknowledged.
When we implemented a birthday card program in one of our businesses and subsequently e-mailed a long list of past clients and contacts asking for their birthdays (we usually only ask for and get the month and day), we were elated by the massive positive response. A totally unexpected positive result was the number of people who thanked us even for asking and a few who wrote that they were looking forward to receiving cards from us.
So it’s pretty clear that if you don’t include sending birthday cards in your business marketing program you are missing a huge opportunity.
Friday, November 20, 2009
Greeting Card Marketing Tip #10 - Six Powerful Words
“It was nice to meet you.”
Clearly those six words aren’t very difficult to write. They’re also easy to understand. They don’t imply anything. They aren’t asking for anything. In spite of its simplicity, that short sentence can be one of your more powerful marketing statements – when you write it in a greeting card.
If you send a greeting card to someone within a day or two (at most) of meeting them and include just those six words plus the recipient’s name and your name, here’s what you’ve accomplished:
• You’ve acknowledged someone’s existence.
• You’ve made a positive statement about them, to them, without going overboard.
• You’ve demonstrated courtesy.
• You’ve demonstrated their professionalism by virtue of their providing you with their address.
• You’ve demonstrated your own professionalism by getting, keeping, and using their address to make contact.
• You’ve shown that you take positive action and don’t just float by meeting people.
• You’ve revealed that you may have a systematic method for contacting people and that you implement it – both gives positive impressions about your professionalism.
• While you’ve not commited to or asked anything, you’ve opened the door for more contact, whether it’s a response from the other person or more follow up on your part.
• You’ve also shown that even though you’re in business, you aren’t just about making sales, which can be a relief to others and allow them to feel better about continued contact, including the likely much more welcomed sales opportunity
Pretty cool, huh? You’ve done a lot with that simple card. If the card itself is personalized (like with their photo, or something personal (but still apppropriate) about you), then the effect can be even greater, but by sending a simple card you have laid good groundwork for building a new business relationship.
It’s interesting that the same exact words, “It was nice to meet you,” when spoke on leaving are almost social throw-aways and don’t really have much weight (though they are important enough that you shouldn’t neglect them). If you want to be in the top few percent who will actually follow up after meeting someone, and do it in a professional, none sales-y way, those same six words take on much more power.
Clearly those six words aren’t very difficult to write. They’re also easy to understand. They don’t imply anything. They aren’t asking for anything. In spite of its simplicity, that short sentence can be one of your more powerful marketing statements – when you write it in a greeting card.
If you send a greeting card to someone within a day or two (at most) of meeting them and include just those six words plus the recipient’s name and your name, here’s what you’ve accomplished:
• You’ve acknowledged someone’s existence.
• You’ve made a positive statement about them, to them, without going overboard.
• You’ve demonstrated courtesy.
• You’ve demonstrated their professionalism by virtue of their providing you with their address.
• You’ve demonstrated your own professionalism by getting, keeping, and using their address to make contact.
• You’ve shown that you take positive action and don’t just float by meeting people.
• You’ve revealed that you may have a systematic method for contacting people and that you implement it – both gives positive impressions about your professionalism.
• While you’ve not commited to or asked anything, you’ve opened the door for more contact, whether it’s a response from the other person or more follow up on your part.
• You’ve also shown that even though you’re in business, you aren’t just about making sales, which can be a relief to others and allow them to feel better about continued contact, including the likely much more welcomed sales opportunity
Pretty cool, huh? You’ve done a lot with that simple card. If the card itself is personalized (like with their photo, or something personal (but still apppropriate) about you), then the effect can be even greater, but by sending a simple card you have laid good groundwork for building a new business relationship.
It’s interesting that the same exact words, “It was nice to meet you,” when spoke on leaving are almost social throw-aways and don’t really have much weight (though they are important enough that you shouldn’t neglect them). If you want to be in the top few percent who will actually follow up after meeting someone, and do it in a professional, none sales-y way, those same six words take on much more power.
Thursday, November 19, 2009
Greeting Card Marketing Tip #9 - Portrait Is Better Than Landscape
If you only send standard greeting cards in your business marketing program, this tip won’t matter too much, because standard business greeting cards are typically thrown in a basket, taped or tacked to the wall, or thrown out. However, if you create custom greeting cards, especially with compelling photos of the recipient, or of you, or either’s business, there’s a better chance the person who gets the card may want to display it. And in that case, I strongly suggest you created portrait mode cards – they stand up better.
Horizontal cards are certainly attractive and if you use full bleed images odds are the cards will be in landscape mode. However, horizontally oriented cards don’t usually stand up very well.
Your goal is to either show up at a client’s home or office and see your card proudly displayed on a desk, counter, mantle, table or some other horizontal surface. Likely your client won’t put it there just so you can see it, but so others can see it, too – so here’s an easy, almost automatic way to help your clients and customers market and advertise for you.
Greeting Card Marketing Tip #8 - Keep It Short
When you send a greeting card to a business contact, don't write a lot. A short message is sufficient and if you write a long message you take a chance of diluting the impact of the card.
The way this works is actually sort of funny, but try this as a rule of thumb:
- Standard card: Medium length message, no more than two paragraphs.
- Custom card: Short message no more than two sentences.
The closer the photos and graphics are to the heart, the less you want the reader's head to get involved, so don't write much.
The way this works is actually sort of funny, but try this as a rule of thumb:
- Standard card: Medium length message, no more than two paragraphs.
- Custom card: Short message no more than two sentences.
The closer the photos and graphics are to the heart, the less you want the reader's head to get involved, so don't write much.
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
Greeting Card Marketing Tip #7 - Make It a Campaign
When you send greeting cards one at a time for special occasions, to express your appreciation, to give notice to a recipient’s personal event or accomplishment or just to send a heartfelt message, those cards are likely the most powerful at building and strenghtening relationships. If you have a large clientele or customer, however, you obviously can’t spend all day every day designing and composing cards. So what’s the answer: campaign cards.
Campaign cards make use of several features of a strong card sending program (obviously I’m biased to SendOutCards because that’s what we use and we’re also SendOutCards distributors).
Campaign cards let you do the following:
• Use your contact management program or database for names and address so you don’t have to re-enter them.
• Use Groups or key field selection in the contact manager to filter and select the desired contacts for any compaign.
• Create meaningful text once, to be used for multiple cards (obviously this makes the card focus on your personal message, not on something personal about the recipient)
• Use the program’s merge feature so the first name(s) of the recipients are printed inside the card as well as on the envelope.
• Some programs (SendOutCards allows this) will let you add a more personal message for select individuals in a campaign mailing after you’ve set up the campaign.
• Campaigns can consist of one or more cards, with fixed or interval timing between the card sending dates.
When are campaigns useful? The applications go on and on, but you can effectively set up campaigns for:
• Holiday cards (and possibly accompanying gifts)
• Birthdays and anniversaries
• Seasonal cards
• Special announcements (don’t overdo this one) about your business.
The greatest savings in using campaign cards is time. By conserving your time but still sending personalized messages, you can make the most of greeting card relationship building and maintenance.
Campaign cards make use of several features of a strong card sending program (obviously I’m biased to SendOutCards because that’s what we use and we’re also SendOutCards distributors).
Campaign cards let you do the following:
• Use your contact management program or database for names and address so you don’t have to re-enter them.
• Use Groups or key field selection in the contact manager to filter and select the desired contacts for any compaign.
• Create meaningful text once, to be used for multiple cards (obviously this makes the card focus on your personal message, not on something personal about the recipient)
• Use the program’s merge feature so the first name(s) of the recipients are printed inside the card as well as on the envelope.
• Some programs (SendOutCards allows this) will let you add a more personal message for select individuals in a campaign mailing after you’ve set up the campaign.
• Campaigns can consist of one or more cards, with fixed or interval timing between the card sending dates.
When are campaigns useful? The applications go on and on, but you can effectively set up campaigns for:
• Holiday cards (and possibly accompanying gifts)
• Birthdays and anniversaries
• Seasonal cards
• Special announcements (don’t overdo this one) about your business.
The greatest savings in using campaign cards is time. By conserving your time but still sending personalized messages, you can make the most of greeting card relationship building and maintenance.
Greeting Card Marketing Tip #6 - Send Cards to People You Know
Greeting cards are powerful but they’re also very personal. For that reason, for the most cost effective use of greeting cards in your marketing program and for the overall greatest effectiveness, it’s best to send cards only to people you know.
Confusing greeting card marketing with mass mailing misses the point and the power of greeting cards and can also be extremely expensive. Mass mailings are by definition sent to large numbers of people – the recipients may be grouped by address, interest, location or some other demographic, but mass mailings aren’t personal. Mass mailings can be effective but they’re really not about relationship building. Greeting cards are used in their highest purpose when sent to people with whom you already have a relationship.
If you don’t already buy into the concept of relationship marketing, if you’re not convinced that most of your business comes from existing clients, friends, family, people you meet or network with, and other referral sources, first off I’d suggest you check that very carefully, either by analyzing your own business or finding out what others in your field think. But if you truly don’t think relationships matter more than anything else in growing and maintaining your business, greeting cards likely won’t help. Imagine, for example, if the Department of Transportation in a state with toll roads decided to send personalized greeting cards to everyone who went through a toll – that would be silly. If you can count your clients (or potential clientele) in the 100’s or 1,000’s then greeting card marketing by sending cards to people you know can replace direct mailing and possibly some of your other advertising and marketing campaigns with a more time, cost, and results effective technique.
Don’t let a low number of existing clients be a stumbling block here. If you’re just starting out and have few (or no) clients, you can send cards to vendors, colleagues (yes, even competitors – you might be surprised how powerful that can be in getting business), strong prospects, and good referral sources.
The point is that when you send a card you send a powerful, personal message – it’s most effective when received by someone you already know.
Confusing greeting card marketing with mass mailing misses the point and the power of greeting cards and can also be extremely expensive. Mass mailings are by definition sent to large numbers of people – the recipients may be grouped by address, interest, location or some other demographic, but mass mailings aren’t personal. Mass mailings can be effective but they’re really not about relationship building. Greeting cards are used in their highest purpose when sent to people with whom you already have a relationship.
If you don’t already buy into the concept of relationship marketing, if you’re not convinced that most of your business comes from existing clients, friends, family, people you meet or network with, and other referral sources, first off I’d suggest you check that very carefully, either by analyzing your own business or finding out what others in your field think. But if you truly don’t think relationships matter more than anything else in growing and maintaining your business, greeting cards likely won’t help. Imagine, for example, if the Department of Transportation in a state with toll roads decided to send personalized greeting cards to everyone who went through a toll – that would be silly. If you can count your clients (or potential clientele) in the 100’s or 1,000’s then greeting card marketing by sending cards to people you know can replace direct mailing and possibly some of your other advertising and marketing campaigns with a more time, cost, and results effective technique.
Don’t let a low number of existing clients be a stumbling block here. If you’re just starting out and have few (or no) clients, you can send cards to vendors, colleagues (yes, even competitors – you might be surprised how powerful that can be in getting business), strong prospects, and good referral sources.
The point is that when you send a card you send a powerful, personal message – it’s most effective when received by someone you already know.
Sunday, November 15, 2009
Greeting Card Marketing Tip #5 - In Your Own Handwriting
Have you ever wondered why some print ads include a signature? Has it struck you odd that advertisers or business owners would want their signatures in such a public place? The simple answer is trust. When most people see someone’s handwritten signature on a document, they infer that the person who wrote it stands behind the document – the print equivalent of saying, “I give my word.”
Another trust-building technique in print ads is to include a straight-on face shot of the company spokesperson, preferably close enough that readers can see the whites of the spokesperson’s eyes. Looking someone in the eyes conveys trust. When a faceshot it combined with a signature the effect is multiplied.
Not all greeting cards lend themselves to including a good-sized headshot of the sender, and in fact that focus on the send can detract from the recipient focus that greeting cards for marketing should have. However, you should always make the effort to have your real signature included in the card. Company cards sent out with the company name printed at the bottom instead of a signature are overly formal and do not convey any sense of personal relationship with the recipient.
It’s also effective, though less important, to have the text of the greeting card printed using the sender’s handwriting. Actually, only very close friends and family are likely to recognize handwriting, compared to signatures, which are much more recognizable. Therefore it’s perfectly acceptable to use someone else’s handwriting for the card message if it looks somewhat similar to the senders. Of course if you’re hand writing the card then the same person should write and sign it, but if you’re using a computer generated handwriting font, choosing one that is fairly neutral without being obviously computer-created (meaning not too perfect), and is also legible is a good idea.
Using your handwriting in a greeting card increases the “human-ness” of the card. Using your own signature, whether hand signed or with a digital image of your signature, strengthens the relationship and can add the element of trust.
Another trust-building technique in print ads is to include a straight-on face shot of the company spokesperson, preferably close enough that readers can see the whites of the spokesperson’s eyes. Looking someone in the eyes conveys trust. When a faceshot it combined with a signature the effect is multiplied.
Not all greeting cards lend themselves to including a good-sized headshot of the sender, and in fact that focus on the send can detract from the recipient focus that greeting cards for marketing should have. However, you should always make the effort to have your real signature included in the card. Company cards sent out with the company name printed at the bottom instead of a signature are overly formal and do not convey any sense of personal relationship with the recipient.
It’s also effective, though less important, to have the text of the greeting card printed using the sender’s handwriting. Actually, only very close friends and family are likely to recognize handwriting, compared to signatures, which are much more recognizable. Therefore it’s perfectly acceptable to use someone else’s handwriting for the card message if it looks somewhat similar to the senders. Of course if you’re hand writing the card then the same person should write and sign it, but if you’re using a computer generated handwriting font, choosing one that is fairly neutral without being obviously computer-created (meaning not too perfect), and is also legible is a good idea.
Using your handwriting in a greeting card increases the “human-ness” of the card. Using your own signature, whether hand signed or with a digital image of your signature, strengthens the relationship and can add the element of trust.
Greeting Card Marketing Tip #4 - Customize, Don't Standardize
Whether or not you use photos with your busines greeting cards, it’s highly desirable that you customize your cards. The greater the level of customization, the more personalized it becomes for both the sender and the recipient. If the purpose of sending a greeting card in the first place is to enhance a relationship, clearly a more personalized the card the better chance it has to fulfill its purpose.
Sending any card is better than no card, so if you’re in a rush of course it’s better to grab a card off the rack or from a standard collection than to ignore the chance to send a card. If you do use a totally standard card, look for one that conveys the desired emotion or expression and then add your own heartfelt words.
Very plain, formal corporate-style greeting cards do not convey emotion and are clearly company-focused. It’s doubtful corporate cards do much for building relationships other than expressing the most formal communications.
Sales and marketing departments of medium to large companies, even if required to use standardized, approved greeting cards, should press to adopt cards that, via graphics, photos, and/or printed messages, do the best possible job of addressing the target market’s needs and the company’s purpose. For example, if a business differentiates itself by depth of resources, or creativity, or environmental awareness, the most effective standardized cards to clients or prospects should do what they can to underscore those messages.
In addition to the greeting card’s content and design, special factors in the materials can also help a card to stand out. For example, using high qualilty paper, preferably from recycled materials that are so noted, is helpful. Another way to convey specialness is to use real, first class stamps instead of bulk mail or metered postage.
Anything you can do to customize your greeting cards that will help the recipient feel special will strengthen the relationship-building effectiveness of the cards.
Sending any card is better than no card, so if you’re in a rush of course it’s better to grab a card off the rack or from a standard collection than to ignore the chance to send a card. If you do use a totally standard card, look for one that conveys the desired emotion or expression and then add your own heartfelt words.
Very plain, formal corporate-style greeting cards do not convey emotion and are clearly company-focused. It’s doubtful corporate cards do much for building relationships other than expressing the most formal communications.
Sales and marketing departments of medium to large companies, even if required to use standardized, approved greeting cards, should press to adopt cards that, via graphics, photos, and/or printed messages, do the best possible job of addressing the target market’s needs and the company’s purpose. For example, if a business differentiates itself by depth of resources, or creativity, or environmental awareness, the most effective standardized cards to clients or prospects should do what they can to underscore those messages.
In addition to the greeting card’s content and design, special factors in the materials can also help a card to stand out. For example, using high qualilty paper, preferably from recycled materials that are so noted, is helpful. Another way to convey specialness is to use real, first class stamps instead of bulk mail or metered postage.
Anything you can do to customize your greeting cards that will help the recipient feel special will strengthen the relationship-building effectiveness of the cards.
Greeting Card Marketing Tip #3 - Picture This!
Words are okay, graphics and standard photos are better, and your own photos are best. When you take the effort to capture the image (you do always carry a digital camera, right?), transfer it to your computer, crop and maybe enhance it a bit, and then upload it so you can use it creatively and effectively in a greeting card, you send a clear message of care and importance to the recipient. Standard cards with stock photos aren’t very likely to be put on someone’s refrigerator door, no matter how clever, but even a relatively poor photo of someone’s child has a high door-ability potential.
What photos should you use in greeting cards? The last thing you should do is send cards with photos of your products or your business. The best are photos of your clients, your friends, their families, their pets, their homes, cars, boats, or whatever - the focus (oops, an inadvertant camera joke snuck in) should be on them. If you don’t have and can’t easily get digital images of your clients, the next best idea is to use personal photos of yourself, your pets, or even your children. The point here is that the card is being sent to a friend, so why wouldn’t you include personal photos.
Remember to use fairly high resolution photos in your cards so when they’re printed the images will be clear. It’s also a good idea to crop the original images to remove extraneous background content (why have a card front with 2/3 blue sky for example). Other simple photo editing to consider is red eye repair and being sure the photo is bright enough – even most rudimentary photo editing programs can easily fix either problem. You don’t need to be fancy with your photographs in cards, but the better quality the photo the better impression the card will make.
Photo cards are much more likely to be saved, to be mentioned and even to be shown to others – so make the most of your greeting card marketing by utilizing personal photos whenever you can.
What photos should you use in greeting cards? The last thing you should do is send cards with photos of your products or your business. The best are photos of your clients, your friends, their families, their pets, their homes, cars, boats, or whatever - the focus (oops, an inadvertant camera joke snuck in) should be on them. If you don’t have and can’t easily get digital images of your clients, the next best idea is to use personal photos of yourself, your pets, or even your children. The point here is that the card is being sent to a friend, so why wouldn’t you include personal photos.
Remember to use fairly high resolution photos in your cards so when they’re printed the images will be clear. It’s also a good idea to crop the original images to remove extraneous background content (why have a card front with 2/3 blue sky for example). Other simple photo editing to consider is red eye repair and being sure the photo is bright enough – even most rudimentary photo editing programs can easily fix either problem. You don’t need to be fancy with your photographs in cards, but the better quality the photo the better impression the card will make.
Photo cards are much more likely to be saved, to be mentioned and even to be shown to others – so make the most of your greeting card marketing by utilizing personal photos whenever you can.
Greeting Card Marketing Tip #2 - It's Not About You
Let’s assume you want your business marketing to be as effective as possible, right? If it’s not the case that your marketing must matter, if you’re happy with just any mention of your business or any contact with your markets, most of what I suggest won’t really matter. But if your goal is effective, meaningful, impactful marketing, than do whatever you can to make your market feel special, and appreciated. This is a guiding principle in greeting card marketing: It’s not about you, it’s about the card recipient.
How would you like to hear, or see when you visit, that your business marketing greeting cards are kept right on the kitchen counter, refrigerator door, desk, display case, or some other prominent place at the recipient’s home or place of business? If your cards are about you, it’s not likely to happen. If you have photos of the recipient, his or her family, home, pets, or business chances are pretty good (frankly we have it happen all the time) that your marketing piece will be in full display to visitors to the car recipient’s home or business.
The purest way to keep cards about your customers, clients, colleagues, referral sources or prospects is to not mention yourself or your business at all, other than signing your name, or maybe mentioning a shared social or fun experience. As soon as you mention your company name, the card becomes a sales piece, and that’s exactly what you do not want.
When we first started using greeting cards in our marketing I almost always included a scanned image of my business card on one of the inside panels. Now I only rarely include my business card image. The cards are special, to me, and I hope they’re special to the recipients as well. So I keep myself out of them as much as possible.
Greeting card marketing is to build relationships, not to sell and not to convey other messages about your business. The more consistently you are able to focus card content on the recipient and not on yourself and your business, the more effective the powerful marketing company will be for you.
How would you like to hear, or see when you visit, that your business marketing greeting cards are kept right on the kitchen counter, refrigerator door, desk, display case, or some other prominent place at the recipient’s home or place of business? If your cards are about you, it’s not likely to happen. If you have photos of the recipient, his or her family, home, pets, or business chances are pretty good (frankly we have it happen all the time) that your marketing piece will be in full display to visitors to the car recipient’s home or business.
The purest way to keep cards about your customers, clients, colleagues, referral sources or prospects is to not mention yourself or your business at all, other than signing your name, or maybe mentioning a shared social or fun experience. As soon as you mention your company name, the card becomes a sales piece, and that’s exactly what you do not want.
When we first started using greeting cards in our marketing I almost always included a scanned image of my business card on one of the inside panels. Now I only rarely include my business card image. The cards are special, to me, and I hope they’re special to the recipients as well. So I keep myself out of them as much as possible.
Greeting card marketing is to build relationships, not to sell and not to convey other messages about your business. The more consistently you are able to focus card content on the recipient and not on yourself and your business, the more effective the powerful marketing company will be for you.
Greeting Card Marketing Tip #1 - It's Personal, Not Business
Effective marketing speaks to the market. That principal is valid with all marketing but never more so than in greeting card marketing. Greeting cards are effective and powerful to the extent they are personal. Cards about your business, cards that event hint at sales or advertising lose most if not all their effectiveness.
If you are going to use greeting cards as a marketing tool, continuously look for ways to make the cards you send personal. On very rare occaisions cards can mention your business, but even then it should be related personally to the recipient – for example, thanking a customer for a major purchase or contract. The majority if not all of the cards you send to clients, customers, and prospects should be focused on relationship building – the relationship between people, not between a person and a business.
Don’t let yourself fall prey to a common mistake of using the power of greeting cards to send clever messages about your business. If the message is about you personally and your business, for example your excitement about a new office, thats’s fine, but the focus must be on the people involved.
As you use greeting cards as a relationship buiding tool in your business marketing you’ll gain experience and stories about how the cards made your customers feel and those experiences will guide you going forward.
As long as you don’t confuse greeting card marketing with advertising or even traditional public relations, you’re on the right track. Just remember, with greeting card marketing, keep it about the people, not about the business.
If you are going to use greeting cards as a marketing tool, continuously look for ways to make the cards you send personal. On very rare occaisions cards can mention your business, but even then it should be related personally to the recipient – for example, thanking a customer for a major purchase or contract. The majority if not all of the cards you send to clients, customers, and prospects should be focused on relationship building – the relationship between people, not between a person and a business.
Don’t let yourself fall prey to a common mistake of using the power of greeting cards to send clever messages about your business. If the message is about you personally and your business, for example your excitement about a new office, thats’s fine, but the focus must be on the people involved.
As you use greeting cards as a relationship buiding tool in your business marketing you’ll gain experience and stories about how the cards made your customers feel and those experiences will guide you going forward.
As long as you don’t confuse greeting card marketing with advertising or even traditional public relations, you’re on the right track. Just remember, with greeting card marketing, keep it about the people, not about the business.
Monday, November 9, 2009
Business Social Media Tip #31 - Anticipate Change
Social media use in business is increasing and changing in form and applications. These trends will continue. Don't deny or ignore change or, if you do so, ignore the transformations at least knowing that you will be missing out on opportunities - which may be just fine for some enterprises (I'm frankly at a loss to think of one, for even religions, art, and poetry have found great use of computer technologies, so I expect the same from social media).
The business healthy strategy is to expect change in technology including social media and make the best of it as soon as it's practical (please note, 'practical' does not mean the same as 'economical' or 'when we have time'). Practical in this sense means you should utilize relevant technologies as soon as they are stable and proved to be valuable in your business.
Even better than expecting and adopting technological change is anticipating change. If you can predict, for example, which way social media is heading, you can be among the first to enjoy the advantages of change. How does that sound? Pretty cool, huh? Well it is, but be aware that being an 'early adopter', while often exciting and sure to provide cocktail chatter, often comes with a price - newest technologies often sputter when they first hit the market and take a while to become stable. The cost to you can be money and time - two important resources indeed. If you can anticipate and get ready for social media change without over-committing time and money until the technology is stable and at least beginning to deliver, you'll be in the best position.
It's also important, when attempting to understand and predict change, to keep the subject in context. In the case of social media context includes personal computing and personal communications technologies, Internet access and speed, technology adoption and acceptance, and a growing world market.
Looking forward right now, left-brain trends to consider as you attempt to anticipate social media change include the increasing adoption of mobile communications devices (especially but not only phones), cloud computing (where applications and data reside on the Internet, not on physical devices one owns), the continued explosion of personal video, collaboration or collaborative utilities for various social and personal media sites, location technologies, and personal identification and tracking technologies. On the ever more influential right-brain side of development design, play, empathy, social reach, personal touch, and story-telling are all significant. So throw all those factors in a hat, pick any two or three and make your best attempt at anticipating the next big social media business application.
The business healthy strategy is to expect change in technology including social media and make the best of it as soon as it's practical (please note, 'practical' does not mean the same as 'economical' or 'when we have time'). Practical in this sense means you should utilize relevant technologies as soon as they are stable and proved to be valuable in your business.
Even better than expecting and adopting technological change is anticipating change. If you can predict, for example, which way social media is heading, you can be among the first to enjoy the advantages of change. How does that sound? Pretty cool, huh? Well it is, but be aware that being an 'early adopter', while often exciting and sure to provide cocktail chatter, often comes with a price - newest technologies often sputter when they first hit the market and take a while to become stable. The cost to you can be money and time - two important resources indeed. If you can anticipate and get ready for social media change without over-committing time and money until the technology is stable and at least beginning to deliver, you'll be in the best position.
It's also important, when attempting to understand and predict change, to keep the subject in context. In the case of social media context includes personal computing and personal communications technologies, Internet access and speed, technology adoption and acceptance, and a growing world market.
Looking forward right now, left-brain trends to consider as you attempt to anticipate social media change include the increasing adoption of mobile communications devices (especially but not only phones), cloud computing (where applications and data reside on the Internet, not on physical devices one owns), the continued explosion of personal video, collaboration or collaborative utilities for various social and personal media sites, location technologies, and personal identification and tracking technologies. On the ever more influential right-brain side of development design, play, empathy, social reach, personal touch, and story-telling are all significant. So throw all those factors in a hat, pick any two or three and make your best attempt at anticipating the next big social media business application.
Sunday, November 8, 2009
Business Social Media Tip #29 - Use Utilities
Third party utilities are programs that are created to help you get the most from other programs. Used judiciously with social media, third party utilities can save you time posting and even creating content, increase your presence by posting data in multiple places, and give you a higher level of control and extra features than you'll often get from using standard social media sites.
Many of the earlier business social media tips and strategies I've written about can be completely controlled by, assisted, or even augmented by third party utilities.
Presently there are utilities to help you set up sub-groups, create separate windows or columns to track search terms such as your company name, your personal name, or anything you desire, and there are also signaling devices that will alert you with visual and audio indicators when specified activity occurs.
You can take it too far with third party utilities and spend inordinate time trying to know about every utility available and also seek the very best ones. I suggest you find a reasonably strong utility suite and stick with that until you hear others bragging so much about another suite that you can't resist. Why waste time searching for the perfect utility suite when "good" will be good enough.
The trend now is for utilities to bridge multiple social media sites - for example a utility suite called TweetDeck works with both Twitter, Facebook, and MySpace. The concept of a utility "deck" is similar to a console or a dashboard that has indicators, readouts, or alerts for a variety of content or tracking data.
Unless you have a lot of time on your hands (and that likely leaves out most of us), I wouldn't advise switching social media third party utility suites more often than every 6 months - that's probably sufficient time to allow the fast changing list of utilities and menu of services and features to make significant leaps.
Another word of advice on the subject of utilities is it's best to let others work with the very first versions of any new program while the bugs are being worked out. Also, when new version of a program or utility is announced or launched, hold off for a month or two before switching or upgrading - it's not uncommon at all to hear people speak of new versions causing problems with old data, at least at first. So let others be pioneers so you can stick with your primary business, but still be on the lookout for the third party utilities for your social media management and creation.
Many of the earlier business social media tips and strategies I've written about can be completely controlled by, assisted, or even augmented by third party utilities.
Presently there are utilities to help you set up sub-groups, create separate windows or columns to track search terms such as your company name, your personal name, or anything you desire, and there are also signaling devices that will alert you with visual and audio indicators when specified activity occurs.
You can take it too far with third party utilities and spend inordinate time trying to know about every utility available and also seek the very best ones. I suggest you find a reasonably strong utility suite and stick with that until you hear others bragging so much about another suite that you can't resist. Why waste time searching for the perfect utility suite when "good" will be good enough.
The trend now is for utilities to bridge multiple social media sites - for example a utility suite called TweetDeck works with both Twitter, Facebook, and MySpace. The concept of a utility "deck" is similar to a console or a dashboard that has indicators, readouts, or alerts for a variety of content or tracking data.
Unless you have a lot of time on your hands (and that likely leaves out most of us), I wouldn't advise switching social media third party utility suites more often than every 6 months - that's probably sufficient time to allow the fast changing list of utilities and menu of services and features to make significant leaps.
Another word of advice on the subject of utilities is it's best to let others work with the very first versions of any new program while the bugs are being worked out. Also, when new version of a program or utility is announced or launched, hold off for a month or two before switching or upgrading - it's not uncommon at all to hear people speak of new versions causing problems with old data, at least at first. So let others be pioneers so you can stick with your primary business, but still be on the lookout for the third party utilities for your social media management and creation.
Business Social Media Tip #28 - Make It Easy on Yourself with Auto-Posting
A growing number of people use social media personally and for business, some just a little bit and others seemingly all the time. Others have no use for social media at all.
Do you know what these three categories of social media users and non-users have in common? They think maintaining an active social media presence takes too much time.
While non-users may also question the value or use of social media, even avid proponents of social media's increasing marketing force are concerned about the time it takes to plan, create, and post content.
The good news is you can significantly cut or at least control the time it takes to post a lot of content on multiple social media sites.
There are three primary methods you can use to multiply your social media impact:
1. Schedule your postings -- You don't always have to post content immediately. With many sites such as blogs your can schedule postings in the future. In some cases when the social media site doesn't have post scheduling you can use third party utilities for the same purpose. At first controlling the posting schedule may not seem to be a great time savings because you still have to create each post, but if you can create a batch of content at one time for posting over a later period of time, the efficient time management can be a great benefit.
2. Use multi-site posting utilities -- There are a growing number of third party utilities that enable you to create a single post that is then simultaneously posted to multiple social media sites and on blogs and web sites. For example, I currently use Ping.fm to simultaneously post anywhere from four to six entries on Facebook, Twitter, LinkIn, Plaxo, and MySpace every morning. Ping.fm also supports other social media sites but those are the ones to which I currently post.
3. Use RSS feeds -- With RSS feeding, the full definition and use of is beyond this tip guide, you can set up your blog content to automatically post on other sites, including web sites and social media. When I post on my personal blog all or part of the headline and a link to that blog are automatically picked up by Facebook and Twitter - a setting I made within my blogging program. If you have multiple blogs or websites you can also set them to feed content from one to the other.
You could spend most of your time keeping info on your web site, blog, and all your social media sites current - though it would be hard to stay in business. You could also spend money on third parties who will post on sites for you (using your content or content they create). Alternately, the three techniques in this tip can save you lots of time, increase your social media presence, and give you greater control of your schedule.
Do you know what these three categories of social media users and non-users have in common? They think maintaining an active social media presence takes too much time.
While non-users may also question the value or use of social media, even avid proponents of social media's increasing marketing force are concerned about the time it takes to plan, create, and post content.
The good news is you can significantly cut or at least control the time it takes to post a lot of content on multiple social media sites.
There are three primary methods you can use to multiply your social media impact:
1. Schedule your postings -- You don't always have to post content immediately. With many sites such as blogs your can schedule postings in the future. In some cases when the social media site doesn't have post scheduling you can use third party utilities for the same purpose. At first controlling the posting schedule may not seem to be a great time savings because you still have to create each post, but if you can create a batch of content at one time for posting over a later period of time, the efficient time management can be a great benefit.
2. Use multi-site posting utilities -- There are a growing number of third party utilities that enable you to create a single post that is then simultaneously posted to multiple social media sites and on blogs and web sites. For example, I currently use Ping.fm to simultaneously post anywhere from four to six entries on Facebook, Twitter, LinkIn, Plaxo, and MySpace every morning. Ping.fm also supports other social media sites but those are the ones to which I currently post.
3. Use RSS feeds -- With RSS feeding, the full definition and use of is beyond this tip guide, you can set up your blog content to automatically post on other sites, including web sites and social media. When I post on my personal blog all or part of the headline and a link to that blog are automatically picked up by Facebook and Twitter - a setting I made within my blogging program. If you have multiple blogs or websites you can also set them to feed content from one to the other.
You could spend most of your time keeping info on your web site, blog, and all your social media sites current - though it would be hard to stay in business. You could also spend money on third parties who will post on sites for you (using your content or content they create). Alternately, the three techniques in this tip can save you lots of time, increase your social media presence, and give you greater control of your schedule.
Business Social Media Tip #27 - Tag, You're There!
It's a wonderful world when others do your advertising, marketing and public relations for you. In social media it happens often that people will mention businesses or other people and in many cases they also include photographs. If you're out and about often in your community the odds are that you'll be at least noted on various social media sites. If you watch the sites of people who often post photos, especially on Facebook, make a point of checking for photos of yourself, your co-workers, your alliances, and your business. When you see yourself or someone you know in a photo, take the time (it shouldn't take more than 30 seconds) to 'tag' the personal or business in the photo.
Exactly how tagging works and how notice of the tagging is spread varies with different social media, but it's a good idea at least to search for instances when others have tagged you. One way to look for tagging is to search your personal or business name on Internet search engines, looking specifically for images. Also, if you were at an event it's pretty easy to search for that event, again using search engines, to see if you show up in any photographs.
Be aware that not all images that show up may be complimentary or to your liking. Forgetting unfortunate photos you and your friends might have posted during high school or college days, even contemporary photos where you look silly or awkward can be irritating. If you do find there are photos you don't like of you or your business, take a two pronged approach to remedy them:
1. Contact whoever posted the photos and ask that they be taken down (which may nor may not happen); and
2. Actively post and tag complimentary photos so that the earlier ones will be pushed further down on Internet search result. Obviously if you're a celebrity caught in a compromising or unfortunate photo, the photo itself may quickly spread to a wide audience with lots of hits and stay higher on search results, but for most people and businesses, it shouldn't take long to push down undesirable photos if you actively substitute better images for a week or two.
The bottom line with this tip is to take advantage of the opportunity to have images of you and your business play marketing and public relations roles for your business, and also be on the lookout for uncomplimentary images that you can attempt to remedy in the two ways mentioned above.
Exactly how tagging works and how notice of the tagging is spread varies with different social media, but it's a good idea at least to search for instances when others have tagged you. One way to look for tagging is to search your personal or business name on Internet search engines, looking specifically for images. Also, if you were at an event it's pretty easy to search for that event, again using search engines, to see if you show up in any photographs.
Be aware that not all images that show up may be complimentary or to your liking. Forgetting unfortunate photos you and your friends might have posted during high school or college days, even contemporary photos where you look silly or awkward can be irritating. If you do find there are photos you don't like of you or your business, take a two pronged approach to remedy them:
1. Contact whoever posted the photos and ask that they be taken down (which may nor may not happen); and
2. Actively post and tag complimentary photos so that the earlier ones will be pushed further down on Internet search result. Obviously if you're a celebrity caught in a compromising or unfortunate photo, the photo itself may quickly spread to a wide audience with lots of hits and stay higher on search results, but for most people and businesses, it shouldn't take long to push down undesirable photos if you actively substitute better images for a week or two.
The bottom line with this tip is to take advantage of the opportunity to have images of you and your business play marketing and public relations roles for your business, and also be on the lookout for uncomplimentary images that you can attempt to remedy in the two ways mentioned above.
Business Social Media Tip #26 - Be a Selective Fan
In social media, as in real life, it's prudent to be selective in one's relationships. As much as it's desirable to establish a great number of connections and relationships for your business, have a care about indiscriminate fan relationships. The closer the alignment your business has with your personal passions, strengths, interests and beliefs the easier it should be to select individuals, groups, other businesses and causes to be fans of.
There are two primary purposes to be a fan of relatively narrow list:
1. Your market niche and specific target -- If you start with the assumption, which I taken as a given truth, that the path to business success and prosperity lies in defining a specific target market, with a narrow, definable and easily conveyed appeal, then you want to attend to your alliances, whether they are real or just perceived. For example, if your target market is New York Yankees baseball fans, it probably wouldn't be a good idea to publicly become a fan of the Boston Red Sox. You could logically be a fan of overall Major League baseball sites, or the Baseball Hall of Fame, but to give the impression of allegiance to a competitive team confuses the issue and die-hard Yankees fans be less likely to have great loyalty to your business presence. You'll also want to avoid having too many alliances - that, too weakens your core message. The more you dilute your business's social message presence with contradictory alliances or large numbers of unrelated alliances, the less effective it will be.
2. The Piling On Effect - Another reason to be a selective fan is the very real chance that if you happen to become a fan of an entity that has a strong stance on one side of a controversial issue (whether or not you're aware of that stance) is that people who hold the other side will ignore you or and have negative thoughts about your business. You also may find yourself flooded with fan requests from groups aligned with the side of the original entity. The point here is you can find yourself on a side of an issue whether you wish to or not, and your primary business message and presence can be lost or even hurt.
The more clarity you have about your business social media presence purpose and goals, the easier it is to choose alliances. Just because someone asks or suggests that you become a fan, a friend or a follower doesn't mean that you have to agree.
There are two primary purposes to be a fan of relatively narrow list:
1. Your market niche and specific target -- If you start with the assumption, which I taken as a given truth, that the path to business success and prosperity lies in defining a specific target market, with a narrow, definable and easily conveyed appeal, then you want to attend to your alliances, whether they are real or just perceived. For example, if your target market is New York Yankees baseball fans, it probably wouldn't be a good idea to publicly become a fan of the Boston Red Sox. You could logically be a fan of overall Major League baseball sites, or the Baseball Hall of Fame, but to give the impression of allegiance to a competitive team confuses the issue and die-hard Yankees fans be less likely to have great loyalty to your business presence. You'll also want to avoid having too many alliances - that, too weakens your core message. The more you dilute your business's social message presence with contradictory alliances or large numbers of unrelated alliances, the less effective it will be.
2. The Piling On Effect - Another reason to be a selective fan is the very real chance that if you happen to become a fan of an entity that has a strong stance on one side of a controversial issue (whether or not you're aware of that stance) is that people who hold the other side will ignore you or and have negative thoughts about your business. You also may find yourself flooded with fan requests from groups aligned with the side of the original entity. The point here is you can find yourself on a side of an issue whether you wish to or not, and your primary business message and presence can be lost or even hurt.
The more clarity you have about your business social media presence purpose and goals, the easier it is to choose alliances. Just because someone asks or suggests that you become a fan, a friend or a follower doesn't mean that you have to agree.
Thursday, November 5, 2009
Business Social Media Tip #25 - No religion or politics
Unless your business is involved with religion or politics, be wary, or at least careful with both topics in your business social media presence.
This may be one of those way-too-obvious seeming tips, but I'm not only talking about bringing up religion or politics yourself. It's quite possible, in real life of course as well, to find yourself in a religious or political discussion that was originally presented as a seemingly unrelated question or request. I don't want to spend a lot of space on this area, because I dislike focusing on negative anything, however, I do strongly suggest that before you take a side on any issue being discussed in social media that you do at least a modicum or research about the person, business, or organization asking the question.
I speak from experience on this one. I was asked by a friend if I was in favor of something that certainly sounded good for all. Before I responded, however, I looked a bit further at the website where my response would go and it turned out to be run by an organization with very strong political opinions, some of which I agree with personally, and others which I do not. Rather than pursue my research or the issue further, I just didn't respond to the request for my opinion. In my private life I do not hold back on opinions, but I do my best to keep my business communications focused on business issues and my target markets.
One of the first rules of social media success is engagement with other people and certainly that means conversation and of course that can include answering questions and stating opinion. In no way do I suggest you not communicate with others on social media - that would defeat the whole purpose of your business being there. I do, however, suggest that you exercise some prudence in your conversation - first because it's the case that once something is on the internet it's pretty much there forever and also because you can't practically control how someone else might use the information.
One other quick note on this topic. If you are a business owners and have employees or contractors produce your social media content, have and communicate a policy that addresses the types of content or subject matter, including conversational topics, with which you do not wish your business to be associated.
This may be one of those way-too-obvious seeming tips, but I'm not only talking about bringing up religion or politics yourself. It's quite possible, in real life of course as well, to find yourself in a religious or political discussion that was originally presented as a seemingly unrelated question or request. I don't want to spend a lot of space on this area, because I dislike focusing on negative anything, however, I do strongly suggest that before you take a side on any issue being discussed in social media that you do at least a modicum or research about the person, business, or organization asking the question.
I speak from experience on this one. I was asked by a friend if I was in favor of something that certainly sounded good for all. Before I responded, however, I looked a bit further at the website where my response would go and it turned out to be run by an organization with very strong political opinions, some of which I agree with personally, and others which I do not. Rather than pursue my research or the issue further, I just didn't respond to the request for my opinion. In my private life I do not hold back on opinions, but I do my best to keep my business communications focused on business issues and my target markets.
One of the first rules of social media success is engagement with other people and certainly that means conversation and of course that can include answering questions and stating opinion. In no way do I suggest you not communicate with others on social media - that would defeat the whole purpose of your business being there. I do, however, suggest that you exercise some prudence in your conversation - first because it's the case that once something is on the internet it's pretty much there forever and also because you can't practically control how someone else might use the information.
One other quick note on this topic. If you are a business owners and have employees or contractors produce your social media content, have and communicate a policy that addresses the types of content or subject matter, including conversational topics, with which you do not wish your business to be associated.
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