Tag Archives: Job

The Beast and I

The Beast and I

 

Keeping track of each of the 20,200 or so people who follow me on Twitter would be a 24/7 job if I had a couple of assistants. I don’t, so, naturally, the ones who stand out tend to get the most attention.

Drew Williams up in Toronto stands out.

Maybe it’s his “avatar”. It looks like this:

I vaguely wondered what it represented and I didn’t find out until just recently. It’s his Beast.

I found out the usual way – accidentally.

One day, I was ranting about problems with my so-far-unwritten new book. My agent had retired and everyone at my last publishing company was brand new. Help!

Drew, whose Twitter bio says “Happy to help you any way I can”, actually did help. He and his writing partner, Jonathan Verney, are nursing their new book through the publishing process. He told me they were working with McGraw-Hill; after some emailing back and forth, he sent me his editor’s name.

How nice is that?

I asked him about his book and he sent me a Preview, and I’m looking forward to getting a real copy when it comes out in July. The title is Feed the Start-Up Beast. A 7-Step Guide to Big Hairy Outrageous Sales Growth.

Drew and Jonathan write about patience, persistence and a Plan, all of which entrepreneurs (like me) need. Even better, though, is that the book provides a roadmap to success.

Feed the Beast isn’t theory. It’s real business through and through. But this is about how the Social Media world, especially Twitter, is a great place to meet new friends, like Drew Williams. And if you’re not involved yet, on a personal level, you probably should consider it.

Being your own Wizard of Oz.

Being your own Wizard of Oz.

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Twitter’s site went down for a few hours the other day and within 15 minutes I started feeling the pangs of withdrawal. Why? My goodness, it’s just a web site for short messages, isn’t it?
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As I thought about it last night – why am I so attracted to Twitter? – it occurred to me that the reason might lie in Twitter’s competitive value to small companies like mine. In an important way, it gives us a leg up on big companies.

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A lot of corporations worry about Twitter. Many of them don’t want to tweet on their own because they can’t control the process tightly; maybe employees will give people a bad impression of their brand. So they turn to their large agencies for help in testing social media. The large agency gives the job to junior creative people who do the best they can. The problem is that they can’t come up with revenue projections for Twitter results.

But small companies can really go to town with Twitter marketing. They can be themselves. If they’re looking for local customers, they can find them on Search. So if, for example, I have a store that specializes in interesting kites, I can talk about all the people who fly kites, I can give ideas for parties, have kite flying contests and sell discount kites, Twitter invite only, say once a month.

After several months, I can track ROI on Twitter much more easily than a large company ever could. This means that small businesses can:

• Build a great big wonderful Brand and voice that sound like they come from a real person;

• Connect with thousands of people and get known in their areas;

• For the first time, have access to anyone they want to reach;

• Talk about happenings, contests, prizes, awards, special offers any time an idea occurs to them;

• Begin to develop really solid friendships.

I’ve been doing this for a while now and I’m seeing real value. And I actually do feel a lot like the man behind the curtain, the Wizard of Twitter, pulling all the right levers.
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If you’re interested in a Twitter or Social Media Program, feel free to call: 646-723-3231 or to visit me, on Twitter, of course, at twitter.com/loisgeller

40 Creative Ideas That Work – Part 1

40 Creative Ideas That Work – Part 1

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Here’s 40 ideas that work! How do we know? We’ve tested them many times and every one of these ideas will help you boost response.

1. Know who you are! A unique brand personality makes you stand out, makes people like you, makes them want to do business with you.

2. Include some kind of letter. Even a fake “on-page” letter in a self-mailer or catalog. Packages with letters outperform letter-less mail 99% of the time. Even a boring, self-serving letter can be better than no letter. A well-written, 1 to 1 letter with some personality in it is better than anything. Get a pro to help you. It’s important.

3. Letter layout is almost as important as copy. Make it look inviting, easy to read. Use short sentences, short paragraphs, indents, double space between paragraphs, cross-heads, Johnson boxes, and a signature that looks like a human being wrote it. Not something like this: Marilyn Monroe

4. Make the signature any color you want, as long as it’s blue. It makes the letter look like it was signed by a real human being.

5. A lot of people read the P.S. before they get into the letter. It’s a great place for your single best point.

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