I haven’t written anything on the blog for a month or so. In the blogging world, that’s centuries.

But I have an excuse, really. I had a whole load of personal stuff that needed to get sorted. It’s all behind me now so it’s time to move on.

We all know that if you go quiet in social media, people will forget you, whatever the value of your insights, whatever your brand value and all that tosh.

I’ll make up for the loss, fill in the gaps and move on to better and greater things.

So what’s your excuse?

Post Footer automatically generated by Add Post Footer Plugin for wordpress.

I wasn’t really sure where I stood in the automatic tweet/real tweet debate. There may have been a productivity argument for tweeting automatically sometimes. But one of Chris Brogan’s tips in 50 Power Twitter tips put it nicely:

“Robot tweets are less sexy than human tweets”.

Tweet automatically if you want to, but don’t expect it to make you sound any better.

Post Footer automatically generated by Add Post Footer Plugin for wordpress.

Like a lot of blogs and sites, this is a one contributor affair. I come up with the ideas for the content, I write and maintain it and I do the Wordpess and Thesis customisation.

Whilst doing that, I give it my tone and personality. I like to write in what I think us a relaxed but intelligent style because that’s how I perceive myself. I write about things I like again because they reflect my business and to some extent my personal life. I am however discreet because it would be easy to put off potential clients and buyers by being too touchy-feely or by moaning too much.

Really putting personality into a web site

I came across Be Awesome Online today whilst reading Copyblogger. It’s not often I click through to a particular contribtor’s web site, but this time I did and I’m glad because it got me asking questions of myself.

At first look, Catherine Caine’s site is a well-designed sales engine. That’s not a criticism, on the contrary, it shouts load and proud what it is and does it in a pretty engaging way.

When you dig a bit deeper though into the blog pages, she reveals far more. She’s (probably) not yet a six-figure blogger and has trouble getting to the end of the month sometimes. She also suffers from energy sapping depression in the winter months with Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD).

She is refreshing because a real person shines out from under all that writing that she says she loves doing.

Honesty as a sales tool

Now I’m no advocate for Catherine. I’ve never met her and in fact until a few hours ago, I’d never even heard of her. What I like about her is that sales blurb is saying, “Come on guys, we all feel the same way about this. We’re all a bit scared sometimes, we all doubt our abilities, lets just be honest about it”.

There’s arguments for an against calling one or two-man bands a “brand”. It doesn’t matter whether you call it a brand, an identity or a personality, if it isn’t distinct and doesn’t show up, something’s wrong.

Have I been doing it wrong?

This site reflects was I am and when you call me, email me or just make a comment (because you will, won’t you?), you’ll know exactly what or who to expect. The picture at the top is really me, in my office in front of my Jackson Pollock, staring into the webcam on my iMac.

I have fears and there are times when I don’t think I’m going to make it. I have days when everything goes wrong and I just want to give up. Freelancers don’t have an awful lot of support networks and it would be good that sometimes we could use these “social” media to be a little more ourselves than what we would like to pretend to be.

Like Catherine, we just might come over as more personable, more approachable and in the final analysis, more fun.

Post Footer automatically generated by Add Post Footer Plugin for wordpress.

Finding new clients is really hard. Especially when you already work with a bunch of good ones that enable you to pay the bills and make a reasonable living.

One thing freelancers are bad at doing (this one included) is marketing and promotion. It’s easy to sit in our little box rooms watching YouTube waiting for the phone to ring rather than doing something about it.

Sometimes it’s good though to shake things up and see how they are done on the other side. Here’s just a few of the possible actions.

Get a CRM (Customer Relationship Management) system

Do you have a box of business cards gathering dust? At least list them all into an Excel sheet and add columns on where you met the people, remarkable features, notes about conversations you may have had. Then use that information to send out a newsletter. It doesn’t have to be complicated, just some news and a few useful tips about your area of business. It’s called keeping in touch.

There are more sophisticated ways of dealing with the problem of course. Most fully-blown CRM systems are overkill for workalone freelancers but many of the online, hosted solutions provide mini-packages that allow you to start small and are fully-scalable ip to entreprise level.

Keep networking

That means doing it all the time, you never know who’ll you’ll meet. You don’t just have to do it on formal situations, keep your eyes and ears open in informal situations as well. You never know who you’ll get talking to so always have some business cardsto hand. My wife makes cakes as a sideline (pretty good ones too). We were in a bar the other day and she made a sale just on the back of an idle conversation and because she had a business card in her bag.

Spread yourself as far as possible

There are many opportunities out there for freelancers to pick up work. One if them is directories. I’m not talking abut The Elances or Craig’s Lists of this world, unless you’re prepared to make poverty rates for impossible clients. More reputable services exist. I spoke to someone the other day in Geneva who found me on Freelance Switch (bonjour Christophe!). And I was just going to stop that subscription.

The thing is that you never know what tomorrow will bring in this game and as long as your name’s out there, it can come out of someone’s hat. But it has to be in that hat in the first place.

Follow up

This is really a no brainer. You meet someone at a lunch for example, you have a great conversation and you discover you have a ton of things in common. You come a way with a business card and a load of ideas but then….nothing. The card goes into the box and collects dust with the others. What’s the point of that? Follow up and keep In contact with people then someone will happen.

Be nice and be helpful – and not just in forums and on Twitter

Any old wannabe social media “guru” will tell you to be helpful online and the “karma will come and get you”. You hear that so often, from me as well, that it’s really becoming a platitude. But it’s a real mindset to have that goes well beyond the cyber world. You know the old marketing mantra – meet, like, know, trust – be dependable, be an expert and help people EVERY day. It sounds really crass but it does work.

A lot of blogs, especially writing and content marketing ones will have “oh so simple” instructions and tips about how easy it is to make money and get work. it’s bullshit. Whilst the tips may be sound advice, it’s hard work and don’t let anyone tell you otherwise. But that’s what we’re here for isn’t it?

Post Footer automatically generated by Add Post Footer Plugin for wordpress.

I was sceptical about Twitter. I’d had a couple of false starts because I didn’t really understood it. I followed something on the Guardian newspaper and Brian Clark on Copyblogger. I didn’t engage with it so it didn’t engage with me.

In October 2009 I met Claire Sloane. She probably can’t remember the conversation we had about Twitter, she’d just started and she doesn’t know to this day that she was the catalyst to me getting involved. The rest, as they say, is history. I was involved and I learnt things. I was converted. Far from being the plaything of kids, used properly, Twitter can be a powerful (and free) tool for promoting a business.

Engage with people and they’ll engage with you

Imagine walking into a party where you know no-one. If you’re anything like me you’ll be a little intimidated because there’s all these people getting on really well and you have to break into a conversation.

You’d be surprised how many people you already know on Twitter. Using the “Find People” function on the home page, go through your address book to find your first people to follow. Then take a look at their followers and the people they are following, there’s a good chance either you’ll know them or they’ll be useful for you to know. I’d be surprised if you don’t find your first 50 followers that way.

It’s not all about followers

At the recent LikeMinds conference in Exeter, Chris Brogan pointed out that influence on Twitter and social media in general is not about how many “followers” or “friends” you have but how you interact with them, how much value you provide and how they view you. It’s better therefore to have 100 followers that are relevant to you and your business and with whom you have strong relationships than 10,000 with whom you have no real relationship

Twitter is about people, not about selling

One thing’s a dead cert, if you start sending sales pitches to all your followers, they’ll unfollow you straight away. Be helpful, be nice, tell people what you’re doing. Don’t tell people what you had for beakfast, tell them about interesting things. I can hear a chorus of “I haven’t got anything interesting to say”. Of course you have! Just like at that party, listen and learn about what people are saying and you’ll find you’ll be able to chip in.

Who are you?

Don’t be surprised if random people start following you either. The Twitter search facility and other directories enable you to find people based on what people are “tweeting” (hate that word!) about. Follow them too. It’s all good for your profile and you never know, they may proove to be useful or interesting contacts. If they start spamming you, hit the unfollow button.

Twitter is a community

Social media is above all networking. I’m not trying to kid you that it can replace all the things you do offline, cyberspace friends are less tangible than real ones and you should interact with them first and foremost. Twitter though is a great way of building credibility and trust. Use it as a platform for getting real life prospects and clients. It’s (almost) free to use, it’s certainly cost effective and you’d be mad not to have a go.

Post Footer automatically generated by Add Post Footer Plugin for wordpress.

I meet a lot of social media virgins. Some are slightly interested but not enough to get involved, some are very interested but don’t know how to get involved and others who are outwardly hostile and think it’s a load of old bunkum and a passing fad. A constant refrain though is “I don’t have time for social media”.

Well, I’ve got news for you guys. The business relationships are changing and whilst, unlike what many “gurus” might think, social media hasn’t yet taken over the world, it sure ain’t going away.

Social media is networking on a large scale

I do a lot of offline networking, mainly breakfasts but other events as well. It involves me (slowly) building relationships with people who sometimes become clients, sometimes they become friends and sometimes they’re just people to pass the time of day with. I build trust in people by being natural and letting my personality shine through.

Does that sound familiar? Social media is online networking, no more, no less. Twitter, Facebook and all other networking sites are all about building relationships, making friends and (for us businesses) getting customers. You have time to network at breakfast lunch and dinner but not online then do you?

Social media helps other people sell you

Content marketing, where you use informative and authoritive content to build trust in what you do helps you leverage other people to do your selling for you. By contributing on social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook, making comments on selected blogs and writing your own blog posts, you’re slowly but surely building up your own fan base. Those advocates you gain will in turn become your own free sales force as they recommend you. Where else can you get a loyal band of followers that sell your product or services for nothing?

Social media is part of your overall marketing strategy

Too many, especially very small, businesses see social media as a new-fangled thing that they have to find extra time for. They continue printing thousands of brochures or sending direct mail on a wing and a prayer and they wonder why it doesn’t work.

The advantage (and the scary bit) of email marketing and social media is that you can measure the effect it’s having. You can know exactly who is interested in you and what you do, you can know exactly who has opened and read your email and what they’ve done with it.

So why should it be something extra to have to deal with? Integrate it into your current marketing plan and start building trust, you won’t look back.

And if you want a hand, contact me.

Post Footer automatically generated by Add Post Footer Plugin for wordpress.

Once Christmas Day is over, my thoughts turn to the New Year. What’s going to happen? What are my plans? This year, I’m taking what has worked best over the previous 12 months and using that to develop things next year. So any bankers or benefactors out there with deep pockets, here’s my business plan!

twitter

- I’ve only been on Twitter for about three months. In that time, I’ve made contact with influential people in my business, been asked to write guest posts on other people’s blogs and won a contract to write a blog for a travel insurance company. There’s loads of advice out there about how to make a success of Twitter, but when it comes down to it there’s only a couple of things to remember. Be helpful, be interesting (no descriptions of breakfast) and engage with people.

bilingual marketing

- Developing markets across the world don’t just mean developing markets in English. Google may be forecasting a mainly Chinese-speaking Internet for the near(ish) future, but products are still marketed in hundreds of different languages.  I’ll be Tweeting and blogging in French to help the English-challenged French get their message across in our language.

video

- YouTube and live television channels have shown businesses and consumers that video streaming and downloading is a viable proposition. I have partnerships in place that will take off next year writing scripts for an making films to promote and help businesses on line.

personal branding

- Twitter, Facebook, blogs. So many places to go, so many opprtunities to develop an image. Brand myself or my blog, or both?  All those questions will be answered.

blogs

- New blogs will appear in 2010, particularly on music, watch this space.

Of course, there are plenty of other things to be considering. What about Twitter business accounts? Will it still be around? Will News Corp finally succeed in reducing the once-promising My Space to a niche where only bands wanting to promote themselves go? e-books, online courses, offline media. As someone once said, the future’s bright.

Post Footer automatically generated by Add Post Footer Plugin for wordpress.

Everyone, in the social media world at least, is getting in a state about Google Wave. Although the invitations are a little more forthcoming now, the programme is still in preview, not even beta, but listening to people, it’s the future of computing.

I’m old enough to remember a whole load of next best things come and go. A few years ago Second Life was going to take over the Internet. major corporations such as IBM were setting up on it and it was creating its first millionaires. We were all waiting for take off, and…well nothing happened. Early trailblazers LiveJournal started as early as 1999 and possibly contributed to the early reputation of bloggers as being spotty thirteen-year olds wondering why they didn’t have a boyfriend. The site went from strength to strength, failed to set the world on fire. After going through a variety of owners, it has recently been bought by a Russian company that had been licensing it in its local market.

I’ve been on Twitter for three months and had some really good results including a pretty good and interesting job. The founders will be adding premium business accounts soon and it is starting to be indexed in search engines. The odds are that it won’t be a flash in the pan, but who knows?

Google is currently sweeping all before it, starting as a search engine with a goal of “indexing the world’s information” and Google Docs is making an attempt to take over shared working, but isn’t the Google love-in going a little far here?

Google Wave is currently a marketing phenomenon. By limiting the number of “invites” it sends out it is creating a desire, a buzz, a want. But lets face it, those lucky enough to be invited are nothing more than glorified beta-testers for a product that isn’t even in beta! I’ve spoken to a number of IT pros in recent weeks who are enthusiastic about it, they tell me that it’s going to change the way we work (or collaborate, to use Googlespeak), but no-one can tell me how. The main reason for this is that so few people are using it that they haven’t got anyone to share or “collaborate” with. An application waiting for a purpose? Methinks so.

Post Footer automatically generated by Add Post Footer Plugin for wordpress.

I just generated my #TweetCloudout of 3 months of my tweets. Top three words: morning, french, time - http://w33.us/ufh

morning

I’m probably a morning person. That includes 2 in the morning! I’ve never been able to sleep late. My mother never had too much truck with this teenage growing hormones that make you sleep late thing, may be that’s why. I love working summer mornings when it gets too hot to concentrate in the afternoon. But I also love the late night radio calm of 1 in the morning. When do I sleep?

french

Well, yes. I lived in France for 20 years. Half my life at the time. I blog about a few French subjects and there’s a lot more to come. I think sometimes about my French culture. I don’t often have the opportunity to express it. I think @eddieizzard‘s got it right on his Twitter profile, “I’m a British European”. I can live with that.

time

Now there’s an interesting one. Strangely enough, this one doesn’t actually appear in the cloud.  A student of History, I’m acutely aware of the passage of time., it’s the only thing we can spend and not save (OK, pedants, what I mean is we can’t get it back once it’s gone).

Doing this was an interesting exercise because it told me something about the way I use Twitter. My TweetCloud is a pretty good reflection of what is going on in my head at the moment, work wise at least. You should do it, just for fun though.

Post Footer automatically generated by Add Post Footer Plugin for wordpress.

So it’s all people with too much time on their hands talking about sex and what they had for breakfast is it?

I’ve been on Twitter for almost two months now. I have encountered little, if any, spam save one porn message today which was easy to eliminate and report. I’ve seen no breakfast reports, no boyfriend angst and only a few trite messages about how wonderful life could be if we all woke up and “smelt the coffee” (sic). I must be following the wrong people.

So what has Twitter done for me?

• I’ve got into some great conversations with people I probably wouldn’t have met otherwise. I haven’t always agreed with them. Sorry @carolinebosher, I love your site and everything you say on it, but a Ferrari branded laptop is just wrong!
• I’ve read people that can be extremely erudite in 140 characters and not just @stephenfry.
• I’ve learnt stuff about the way in which I do my business through people posting articles.
• Indirectly, I think I may have a new client from it. I have a meeting next week. Watch this space.

The reality is that a majority of people on Twitter are not kids (sorry kids, no offence). They are there for good business reasons. They want to increase their notoriety, build their brand or even do business directly. Should you be there? Can you afford not to be?

Post Footer automatically generated by Add Post Footer Plugin for wordpress.