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The 20th Century is over. The rules of business have changed. By the time many leaders realize this, they won't be leaders anymore. …Welcome to the new rule book.

Catalyst from Ted Coiné 

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My Twitter Follow-Back Policy

I’m going to share the policy I’ve changed to September 2011. It works well for me. I've seen a big difference in the quality of followers and following since I've changed from "exclusive" to "inclusive" Social Media.  You can adopt this policy for yourself or not, as you wish.

Ready? It’s really straightforward.

I follow everyone back on Twitter. (Just about).

There, that’s my policy. Here’s why:

1. For whatever odd reason, Twitter limits how many people a person follows. If you follow a bunch of “celebrities” and news outlets that don’t follow you back, you’ll hit a wall at 2,000 where you find you can’t follow anyone else. And even if your follow-followee ratio is close enough that Twitter lets you slip past this stupid, arbitrary wall of 2,000, you still have to stay within a close ratio to continue following more people. So any time you don’t follow someone back, you’re limiting who else they can follow. That’s not nice. Be nice by following them.

2. Ted Coine explained that automatically following back is the ethic of the medium. It’s what you do, he said. A lot of us still act that way, and so this rule has served me well in making some really cool friends and acquaintances along the way.

3. In this way, Twitter is pretty much the opposite of Facebook and LinkedIn, where everyone’s always asking, “Do I know you?” This open, “We’re all friends here” culture really works for me. I’m friendly in real life – I’m the youngest of 6, always looking for social gatherings – and Twitter lets me be gather online as well.

4. Much more importantly (to me), here’s why I follow everyone back: I’m not more important than my followers. Indeed, I’m grateful every single time a person compliments me by following me. It’s their way of saying, “Hi Dean! I want to get to know you better.” For me to snub their kindness would be ungracious – and if I were ungracious, I couldn’t look my Mother in the eye. [I'm on a lifelong crusade against arrogance and making my Mother proud.]
5. On that last point, following back is consistent with my status as an Entrepreneur, Experimentalist and Automate the Predictable, Humanize everything else. How on earth can I tell people to provide value to your Contacts, which is based entirely on manners, when I am impolite myself? So for me, it’s an easy decision.  I know some of you will find these to be strong words, especially that last part. Let me repeat: this is MY follow-back policy. These are my reasons. You may have perfectly legitimate reasons for not observing my practices, and I’m sure they work for you.  Now, it’s time for the caveats:

6. When I follow a new person, I typically give them 7 days, to follow me back. If they don’t choose to, that’s perfectly fine. But at that point I unfollow them. I literally do not follow a single human who does not follow me as well – at least not for more than a week. No one is that important to me.

7. I use a client (Tweetdeck) to manage my Twitter stream. I basically ignore my “All Friends” feed. Instead I set up columns on Tweetdeck that search for key words, hashtags I enjoy, or for lists of special people – my core friends, mentors and educators. I recommend you try something similar.
8. I regularly check in withtweeteradder.com to manage my list, and to find new people to follow who share my interests, which are mostly business, leadership, social media, IT professionals and customer service.

9. Tweeteradder.com is great. It lets me find and follow people with similar interests. You can see when they last tweeted, so you can only follow active Tweeters. You can unfollow accounts that are clearly spambots or that have become inactive. Poke around the site. There’s a lot to learn.

10. One last thing: do I follow wack-jobs, which to me includes some members of fringe political and/or religious groups that offend me? Hmn. I’m always wrestling with this, but typically yes. I figure engagement is a great way to find common ground with those whose views are different from mine. Often, even if their beliefs in one area make me squirm, in many other respects we find all sorts of common ground. If they really, truly alienate me with their tweets, then yes, they’re out. That’s pretty rare, though.
11. And I unfollow spammers with impunity. Glee, even. There seem to be more and more every week, and they all suck.

Okay, that’s my short (*ehem*) write-up of my follow-back policy for Twitter. I’m really interested in your comments. I know this one in particular is not universally agreed upon. Let me have it, if you feel so inclined. My favorite thing about Social Media in general is that I’m always learning.

I use to wonder “isn’t there an easy way to look for people’s Social Accounts? A couple years ago I found Xobni.com (inbox spelled backwards). When I check my email in Microsoft Outlook, I look to the right window pain and see if I’m connected with people on Linkedin, Twitter, Facebook.  Currently I use Linkedin and Twitter primarily for work and Facebook for personal.  Straight from my inbox I can request a “connection.”

There are a lot of other benefits like easily finding attachments from users under “Files Exchanged” tab or finding people I can remember their names, but I know who they have been in email groups with.  I find them under the “Network” tab. 

It takes a few minutes to install, and you’ll find you are connecting to people who you are already connected with via email. 

Good luck and let me know if you’ve found other ways to stay connected.

Yesterday was an interesting day.  I had two communications that were totally polar.  One was "I can't use you" and the other was "Honestly the easiest web company I have encountered."

The meeting between "I can't use you" was setup by another company.  Mix up on our part was we thought we were to present for an hour.  Found out later it should have been for 10 minutes and the rest for questions.  I didn't get clarity on the audience and purpose before starting.  It went down hill from there.  Two good things came out of this.  The first was his person was kind enough to bullet point all of the reason they couldn't work with us.  The second is most of the reasons are easy peasy to address.  Lesson reminder - know your audience, get audience participation and not everyone is going to be a fit but can provide value from your interaction.

The "I love working with you" communication.  This person has a goal, has an clear idea of what she needs to do and fit perfectly with the evolve formula.  When people and service/product are a fit everyone benefits.

Although we want to match-up with everyone, we know that isn't the case.  The sooner we find whether or not we're a fit the sooner everyone will know the next steps (keep looking or start working together).

Have you ever had one of those days where you get polar communications from prospects and customers?  Share your experience in the comment section below.

You might be wondering why someone who is involved in email broadcast services is promoting opting out and unsubscribing from email services.  Just opted out of 15 more groups on LinkedIn (groups send me email notices every time someone makes a comment. 

As a Email Broadcast Provider, I'm finding more reason everyday to be clear on communications (messages) to my contacts (relationships).  If not, our contacts will opt-out/unsubscribe as well. 

The better you know your Contacts the more value you can potentially provide them.  If there's no value, they'll just delete your email or unsubscribe from the relationship.  Make it valuable to them and they'll find you valuable.

I was speaking to a client yesterday who was frustrated that a perceived “secret” had gotten out.  She was concerned that the Customer would tell everyone about the “secret.”  Using the evolve principal of knowing your “contact type” (prospect, customer, raving fan) we discussed what Content (message) could have changed the conversation.

What was the concern?  The customer now knows something the owner doesn't want anyone else to know.

The fact now remains - the customer now knows.  No going back.  What now? 

Opportunity:  Be mad?  Be proactive?  In relationship to work they are a Customer.  In relationship to the Secret they are a prospect.

Our conversation went like this:  Since the customer now knows, why not ask “what are their feelings about the ‘secret?’”  Do they feel it would be a good idea or a bad one?  Do they feel that they would be better off because of it?  As the conversation continued I could see the powerlessness and doubt decrease while the empowerment and confidence increased.  She could see being proactive could be in her favor instead of just trying to hide the “secret.”

We ended with the Owner will call the Customer and have the above conversation with them.  Ask them if they think this “secret” should be shared among other customers or if she thinks it should stay within those that now now?  In essence, treating this person as a Raving Fan (they know something that the majority of people don’t know and they feel empowered and in the know).  Now that someone outside of the company knows, is it better to try to “prevent” the secret from spreading or is it better to gather intelligence outside of the organization?

I’ll update as the conversation unfolds.

Have an idea what the “company secret” is or want to know?  Submit your comment below.
 

Or in other words, if you routinely stop and think about your contact types (Prospect, Customer, Raving Fan) will you experience innovation where it's most valuable?  Can knowing your relationships enable innovation in your daily life? 

YES!

If you pick key topics that are reserved for only a Prospect (credibility creation for you to increase their confidence you will help them accomplish what they want to achieve), or only a Customer (educating them what others have done using the same products/services they are using and the benefits they enjoyed from it), or only for a Raving Fan (stories they were able to know/hear before anyone else) you will find increased innovation where it's most valuable - in your relationships.

Try it for one day, take notes on how shortened the conversations were, how condensed and precise the information sharing was and the sense of accomplishment felt at the end of the conversation.  The more sense of accomplishment felt, the more value the relationship had.

So remember, routines of knowing your audience before you speak enables innovation in your relationships.

I recently read in The 4-Hour Workweek "Attention as a currency and how it determines the value of time." 

Attention as a currency!  Attention as a currency.  Att

So the question quickly comes to mind, how can i get increased productivity, have more appreciation for the people and things around me and greater achievement? 

First things first - know your audience.  If you know who a Prospect, Customer and a Raving Fan is, you'll know who they are, what they are looking to get from you and what value you can provide them.  When you know who you're speaking to you can produce more value in a shorter time frame.  Prospects are looking for credibility to work with you.  Customers are looking for education, how to, what are others doing and benefiting from your product.  Ravings Fans are looking for stories they can repeat about you  and how they were able to know the story before anyone else did. 

By knowing your audience you are able to increase your productivity by only sharing what's valuable to them.  By limiting what you share with them minimizes how much information they need to process which they will appreciate.  Less time together with more value increases their confidence in you and minimizes the stress and often sense of being overwhelmed with all the talking points in theier heads. 

Can you think of a time when you were providing the wrong information and the person just got frustrated?  There's no productivity for you or them.  On the other hand, have you ever been able to share with someone an idea, product, solution and the lights went on and they said "thank you."  Everyone one in the relationship benefited.

In today's world, less is more.  Less time you as a vendor/service provider spends talking and more time you spend listening the more your Prospects and Customers get what they are looking for.

When you provide this type of value to your relationships they express greater appreciation to you for the value you provided them.  You feel productive, people express more gratitude for your efforts thus you feel more appreciated and ultimately you feel more achievement in your day.

If you know your audience (Contact type) you'll know what message they are looking for (Content) and you'll know the best way to share (Communicate) with them.  Do this and watch how you will  experience an increase in productivity, have more appreciation for the people and things around you and have a greater sense of achievement.

Had a time when you experienced this?  Please share in our comments field below.

Welcome to the home of the Napa Downtown Association Webinar on 3 Essentials Steps to Grow Existing Business While Cultivating New Contacts.  Click on the "Show" link below to view the video.

The e-volve Formula is a Winning Strategy for Communications for 3 simple reasons.

1. You know your relationships by classification
   Prospect, Customer, Raving Fan

If your customers are experiencing any of these items they are probably thinking about leaving you:

1. Lack of response
2. Problems constantly crop up
3. Vendors talk over customers head (geek speak)
4. Poor customer service overall (things fall through the cracks, they don’t follow up on our request, on’t return calls, etc.)
5. Invoices are higher than expected. 

Some Reasons People fail at growing their existing business and new contacts:

1. There marketing strategy is based on two methods:
1. the “roundtuit” method
2. Spray and Pray
2. They have no reliable way to generate leads.
3. They have no reliable method to capture and follow up on leads.
4. They can’t articulate their value proposition to a client.
5. They can’t articulate why a prospect should hire them over all the other options available.
6. They completely wing the sales process.
7. They try to sell everything to everyone.
8. They expect everyone they talk to buy today.  Everything is a “hunt and kill” vs “farming and harvesting” where the law of the harvest is based on planting seeds, nurturing the seed, weeding the seedling, watering and fertilizing the seedling/plant and than harvesting the plan.  ”I am content to be the one who just plants the seed and not necessarily the one who will reap the harvest.” 
 

Just did an experiment this morning.  I was creating an email broadcast to invite people to our webinar and thought "I wonder if this will work with my iphone?"  I opened up Safari, logged into the backroom, clicked on the email broadcast, clicked on ""Test Broadcast" and it worked. 

I'm going to be away from my computer when I want the Communication to go out.  I could use the "set time and date" feature to deliver it, but I wanted to experiment with "what if ?"  It's great to know there are lots of options, if needed, to be able to Communicate with our Contacts (relationships) quickly and easily with out having to be in front of a computer.

Although we don't have an iphone app specifically, we can use Safari to login and manage your or our Contacts, Content and Communications.  How cool is that?  

Are you a startup or growth oriented company?  Are you looking to communicate easier and faster with your contacts with better results?  Are you looking to know and increase the value of your business relationships?

If so, attend the 3 Essential Steps to Grow Existing Business While Cultivating New Contacts

Here's a few of the benefits of attending:

• 5 step process to ensure success for client and e-volve relationships
• success formula for increasing sells via existing contacts while cultivating new contacts
• increasing value by speaking the right language to the right contact
• short educational and value based communications
• increased personalized communication with contacts
• increased capabilities for managing and sharing content and messages
• increased value of contacts (the more communication without opt-outs = the more targeted/valuable the list)
• increased ranking and indexing on search engines
• increased Social Media exposure and networking
• increased marketing with decreased time to do it

Can you send information or an update with your contacts in 10 minutes or less?  For example, if you have a new product offering or promotion, can you reach your Prospects (future Customers), Customers (currently doing business with you) or Raving Fans (those that know you, like you, tell your story to those they come in contact with and refer you business).

If not, in the modern method of marketing world we live in today, you have the ability to do so quickly and easily. 

Have you been thinking you need to better communicate with your contacts but are frustrated with how your contact relationships are organized (or more likely not organized)?

Work with a trusted adviser that will help you get your relationships organized so you can communicate (email broadcast, post card, social media, newsletter, website, etc.) the right message (content) to the right relationship (contact classification).  Being able to communicate the right content to the right contacts should take 10 minutes or less if you have the right system, the right tools and the right training. 

For small businesses to be successful in today’s market place, they must transition from traditional marketing to modern marketing. 

There is “traditional marketing” and what we call “modern method of marketing”.  What is happening is in traditional marketing people do print media; they do postcards, print advertising and these types of marketing.  They are always speaking to what we call a "Prospect" - always directing themselves at a new client.  This is only communicating with future business.  It does not address your current business nor your referral business.  Traditional marketing is based on new business, it is not based on renewed and sustainable businesses.  Modern Method of Marketing is based on renewing existing business (Customers), nurturing future business (Prospects) and educating your referral sources (Raving Fans).

With the right system, the right tools and the right support you can implement or improve your marketing through testimonials, blogs, social media, news letters, email broadcasts and webinars/seminars.

If you're interested in learning how to get started or leverage what you are currently doing please contact us.
 

One reason this is so difficult is most small business owners who do not have a full time marketing department to manage all of this for them.  They are constantly wondering Who designs the web sites?  Who implements the web sites?  Who builds the web sites? How do I maintain the web site?  Who does the writing for the site? 

Another reason for the small business own frustration is working with several different venders to support their e-marketing efforts.  Small business owners are limited in time and they find all of the "requirements" to be confusing...so they don’t do it. 

Time is money.  Time to find out who the vendors are, the cost to hire the vendors, and then wondering if their system is the right system to help them succeed. 

If this sounds like your or you have felt these same frustrations, know that you are not alone.  Over the years we have heard and seen these frustrations.  To illementate this frustration and to reduce the time to make this all happen, We have taken the need to work with all the various vendors and created one product.  It's a starting point, not the finish line.  It is all done under one shop, one product and one stop set up. It's easy, it is a fraction of the cost to get started, and it is all done under one roof. 

They system, the tools and the people are in place to help you evolve into a successful modern method of marketing.
 

Have you ever been told to grow your existing business while cultivating new contacts?  Most business owners feel they should do better at this, but most don't know how or don't have the time.

The solution for the small business is to tap into existing clients.  Start by classifying contacts by Prospect, Customer and Raving Fan.  Once you have your contacts by classification (what type of relationship do they have with you) then work on educating each of these classifications.

When you know your contacts by classification, it's easy to reach your existing customers and raving fans in a more personal and relationship way.  Most prospects are looking to "learn" or "get something from you."  Some customers and all of your Raving Fans are willing to respond to your inquiries for feedback or for names.

Power truly is knowledge when you have quick and easy access to contacts that are classified. 

Do you feel like you can use help in managing your contacts so you can communicate the right content (message) to the right relationship (contact classification)?  Let us help you in 30 days or less pick your master database, merge your existing contact lists, scrub your master list and then classify them based on achievable timeliness and an affordable budget.

For those that are short on time, chunk your time into working on only one of the following at a time:

1. Focus on your existing contacts (Prospect, Customer, Raving Fan) and build a plan and policy to manage and organize current and future contacts.  This can be done by your or someone you assign in your organization.
2. Think about what you want to say to the various types of relationships you have (Prospects, Customers, Raving Fans).  Think about what you want them to learn or to know.  Start with breaking these down into 1 - 3 paragraph communications.  It's easy for you to write and quick and easy for them to understand.
3. Communicate these messages to your relationships based on the type of relationship you have with them.  Communicate based on relationship or value they are looking from you.

You might be able to do this in a few hours, a few days or a few months.  But your ROTI (return on time investment) will grow existing business and nurture future business. 

Know you need to do better at managing your contacts, providing the right content for the right contact and want to communicate better but just don't seem to get around to it?  Contact us to see how you can evolve in 90 days or less.

Service is essential to your existing Customers (Business Relationship).  However, with the increased amount of information, businesses must be both Service driven AND marketing driven.

The modern method of marketing is to integrate service oriented business and help them integrate better and more relevant communication while being a market drivenxe2x80x9d business. 

Finding a solution provider that can take you from a xe2x80x9cno marketingxe2x80x9d or xe2x80x9dtraditional marketingxe2x80x9d company to a xe2x80x9cmodern marketing method" is essential in today's business circle.

If you are interested in learning more, please contact us for more information.

For those short on time, start with tapping into your existing contacts.  Take all of your "lists" (you'll find them in your email in-box, Outlook Contacts, Excel Spreadsheets, in your financial software, your social media community, note books, fish bowls, etc.) and put them into ONE master database. 

Once you have them in one master database, organize them into three classifications:
- Prospects
- Customers
- Raving Fans

Once you do this, managing your contacts will be a fraction of the cost in time and money.  Once you do this, communicating the right content to the right contact is a snap.
 
Everyone is clear that the pain to manage contacts is out there.  Business Owners feel the pain every day.  They just don't always know who to turn to or the time to do the research for the best solution to manage their contacts. 

Need help deciding on what would be the best master database for you today based on your current needs and budget?  Contact us to see how in less than 30 days you can have a master database that is organized by classification so you can quickly and easily communicate with your contacts. 

Sounds like a silly concept, but working with close to a thousand people we found people have on an average 5 - 7 locations way were they store their contacts.  The most frustrating part is that not only do they have 5 - 7 locations, but many of these locations have duplicate records.  And to make things worse, not one of these 5 - 7 locations are up-to-date.  Depending on the use of the 5 - 7 lists, one list may only have addresses that are up-to-date.  Another list that was used for email has up-to-date email addresses. 

Having these different lists is a waste of time and energy.  Stop playing hide and seek with your contacts by creating a master database.  In this master database merge all of your contact records.  Scrub this database for duplicates.  Merge the duplicate records to have one record for each contact. When you're ready to send a postcard, send an email or call to say thank you you'll have one place to look and one place to update.

Keep in mind, you don't have to do this by yourself.  You can have someone help you or you can delegate it to someone who has follow through.

Don't have someone that can help pick the best master database for you based on your needs, time available to manage your contacts and based on your budget?  Call, click or visit us on how you can quit the "hide and seek" for "find and communicate" with your contacts. 

Enjoy our instructional video on organizing, importing and managing your Contacts.  This tutorial is based on Microsoft Outlook but will be very similar to any address book that allows exporting contacts. 

Managing Contacts is a way of thinking and organization.  Think of your Contacts in three simple classifications:

1. Prospect
2. Customer
3. Raving Fan

In order for you to know who is a Prospect, Customer or Raving Fan commit to the following:

1. Locate where you keep all of your Contacts (on an average before people start with the e-volve formula people have at least 4 locations/databases where they store their Contacts).
2. Pick a "Master Database" that you will always add, edit or delete Contact information.  Once you've done that, import all of your lists into the Master Database.
3. Keep you Mater Database classifications up-to-date.  When a Prospect becomes a Customer, update you records.  When a Contact becomes a Raving Fan Update your Master Database.

That's it.  If you keep your Contacts Classified by Prospect, Customer and Raving Fan you will be able to know how your business is growing, you will know who you can cultivate and best of all you can Communicate with one or all Classifications in less than 5 minutes.