Category Archives for "Social Networking"

In Emails, Should You Greet or Not Greet?

By John Aberle | Sales and Marketing , Social Networking

I’ve heard one of the foremost people in Internet marketing state that he doesn’t respect emails that come with a greeting. He wants to get right to the point. I find this ironic because the whole issue with social networking is to be social and to be personal. So the social networking question becomes, to greet or not to greet.

Ever since the advent of the computer, people have complained about being treated like numbers. I realize we are in the age of Twitter and the microwave mindset; nevertheless, in my experience, people still want to be treated like individuals. They want to count, not to be lost due to false efficiency.

Is dropping the greeting a false efficiency?

I will admit that I have changed my standard greeting, especially for e-mails, to “Hi, (person’s first name).” I find it much more warm and friendly than just blurting out the message and signing off. Eliminating a quick greeting, like “Hi, Joe,” just doesn’t seem like that much efficiency to me. What did it take to type that? Two, three seconds? That means Continue reading

Social Networking Tip – How to Comment on Other Sites

By John Aberle | Social Networking

Have you noticed how people resist change? Change involves risks. We never know when we make a change if we’re going to be better off or worse off. So what can a heart centered salesperson or marketer do to encourage prospects to change to his or her products and services? The answer is to find ways to reduce the risk. One of those ways is to use social networking to develop relationships. This social networking tip describes how to comment on other sites.

Commenting on other sites is a form of social networking as attraction marketing

With the emphasis today on attraction marketing, Continue reading

Social Networking Tip: If you’re going to write me, write to me

By John Aberle | heart-centered , Social Networking

Social networking can be a blessing or just another annoyance. Used properly, it’s a wonderful tool for heart-centered, soft sell salespeople and marketers because it shows you as a person. Prospects and customers want to come to know, like and trust you. When they discover you’re a person too, it can help you to connect with them. Done wrong it merely shows you lack good sense and manners so it will hurt your ability to connect in a positive way. Remember, social networking is about being social and interacting with people. Which brings us to today’s social networking tip: If you’re writing “me” (anyone you want to join your network) to become my friend or make a connection, then write to “me.”

LinkedIn and Facebook as well as most other social networking sites have marvelous tools for inviting everyone in your different mailing lists to join you on their sites. If I know you personally, especially in the non-virtual or physical world of daily living, then you can get away with an impersonal automated request – and I will probably join you because you are my friend out here.

Even then, however, taking a moment to write a little bit extra about why you want me, or everyone else in your database, to join you on this latest social networking site would be nice. For example, “I find that LinkedIn is really popular with business people and has lots of useful forum or groups that I think you might find as useful as I do” would help me to understand it’s value to me.

To connect, make it personal

If, on the other hand, we’ve never met, then I would appreciate knowing why you want to be friends. What do we have in common? Are you a Continue reading

Social networking without looking like a spammer

By John Aberle | Internet Marketing , Social Networking

It seems everything in life is a two-edged sword. On the one hand, it’s called social networking because people want to be social and interact. They want to become part of a community. On the other hand, the Internet marketing is full of spammers, people who only care about their own profit and have no sincere desire to engage with you beyond getting your money. In this case, the spammers aren’t filling email boxes but rather cluttering blogs with meaningless comments. So how do you become part of the Internet community while avoiding looking like a spammer?

How to spot spam comments

Interestingly, it’s easy. First, look at what spammers who put comments on blogs do. While some are obvious, the challenging calls about whether or not it’s spam come from the spammers who play to our egos by telling us how great we are and how much they love our posts.

Typical tactics are to say something like, Continue reading

Social Networking Gets Slater’s 50/50 off to a Strong Start

By John Aberle | Internet Marketing , Sales and Marketing , Social Networking

The first time I heard about the concept of viral marketing was in Malcolm Gladwell’s fascinating book, The Tipping Point. He described the elements necessary for a product to take off and catch the public’s imagination like a virus. The impression I got was that while you can know what elements are necessary, you can’t guarantee that you can get the mix right when you deliberately try to make a product go viral.

The marketer’s dream is to have a product go viral.

This remains true about social networking. Some things are so well done that they capture the imagination of a few people who are influencers, and those people spread the word. If they’re respected and their followers or audience agrees, they too tell their friends. Suddenly your product or service goes viral. At least that is every marketer’s dream.
Continue reading

A Year of Gifts

By John Aberle | Gratitude , Holidays , Sales and Marketing , Social Networking

Think Back on the Blessings of this Past Year
As we are about to start another calendar year, this is a great time to reflect on the blessings of this past year. For me, it has been a time of fantastic education. I have conducted a self-directed course of study at the University of Hard Knocks as I have upgraded my sales and marketing skills for the 21st Century by diving into Internet marketing and social networking. It’s been fun though often frustrating. It seems every time I think I am about to finish my major projects so as to start on something new, I find another aspect I need to tackle first if I am to lead by example.

Developing New Friendships
In the process of all this learning, I have been developing some wonderful new friends – people I really admire. At the Master Trainer Camp, I made quite a few contacts with people I want to get to know better. A couple, I have already started to build a tighter relationship with. One in particular, DeBorah Beatty, has been a Godsend as she understands the technical aspects of websites and blogs so she’s given me excellent assistance when I needed a coach. To read about the highlights of the fabulous trainers’ presentations at the Master Trainer Camp, check out my website, http://www.johnaberle.com for a page on that experience.

Additionally, I’ve found mentors, gurus, and experts on Internet marketing and social networking whom I really like and respect. Some of them are already friends. Others I hope to earn the right to their friendship. One, especially, Cathy Perkins, the WordPress Wizard, has taught me so much about the technical aspects of running a blog – all at the level of a knowledgeable user, not a programmer.

Build a Community with Social Networking
I have also added dozens of friends on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Plaxo, and Home Based Business Network. I’ve shared pictures on Flickr, Facebook, and now Tweetpic. All of this is in an effort to develop a personal community.

During the last month of 2008, the idea of community has become increasingly important to me. I’ll be writing more on it because of realizations I’ve had regarding the importance of community to business. But for right now, I’m going to make it more personal.

Writers’ Group Provides Support in Improving Skills
A year and a half ago, my wife, Dorothy, found a writers’ group for me at the Glendale Barnes and Noble. Since I joined them, we have relocated to the Burbank Barnes and Noble. This group has been an incredible find. The members are amazingly talented writers who give skillful and frank feedback – while remaining kind and constructive. We genuinely care about each other and support each other. <Read the Rest of this Article>

Thanksgiving Greeting with Reasons for Thanks despite the News

By John Aberle | Gratitude , Internet Marketing , Sales and Marketing , Social Networking

Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday of the year so it seems fitting that I use this event to launch my blog.

I have four reasons for loving Thanksgiving so:
* I love turkey and in my family I usually get it only on Thanksgiving and Christmas.
* Our family gathers together to share time and food and to celebrate our blessings.
* The pressure of getting the right gifts or enough gifts is still a month off.
* Most of all, I love putting my attention on the good things, the blessings of the year. It helps me feel
upbeat.

Particularly this year when the media is filled with scary news from the financial industry and government topped by news of natural disasters affecting so many people, it may seem especially hard to be grateful. The interesting thing is that life is filled with both good and bad, always.

When I was dating Dorothy almost 20 years ago, I was fired from a job where I thought I had at least six months more to go to get results in. I learned the hard way that, for sales people, employment contracts don’t mean much if your numbers aren’t there.

Dorothy taught me about reframing my experience, which means she showed me how to change the way I looked at something. For the first time in my life, we celebrated my getting fired. As she said, this made space for me to find a better opportunity. And it did, though the new experience wasn’t always an obvious gift. One thing that came out of that event is it gave me empathy with my employees when, in future jobs, I found it necessary to let them go. Not everybody makes a good fit on your team.

So as I reflect back on an exciting and challenging year, I find I have many lessons and blessings to be grateful for.

Most of all, I am grateful for a loving family. Even though many of them are spread out around the United States, the bond of love still connects us.

I’ve come to terms with having Type 2 Diabetes. This has encouraged me to make changes in diet and activity that will result in a healthier lifestyle, like my hour walks four times a week – when I get to listen to podcasts from some really great individuals.

But the blessings go beyond family and my health to friends and business associates. In particular, I want to thank Bob Williams and his team of consultants at CMTC (Dennis Trusty, Paula Bahamón, Jon Trusty, and Ron Wilsbach) for the jobs they subcontracted to me this past year. This work has enabled me to pursue research and product development, especially on Internet marketing and social networking.

I also want to thank the CMTC clients I had the pleasure of helping with sales and marketing. Their challenges enabled me to grow and expand my knowledge as well as to define my thinking on how to train sales people to sell in a way that “Helps Customers Buy.”

I had a great learning experience and made many new friends who share a love for transformational training and coaching at the Master Trainer Camp in May. It’s not often that a business conference becomes truly life changing. As a result of what I learned there, I have made many changes including replacing my primary business name John Aberle Consulting with HelpCustomersBuy.com so to put emphasis on my approach to sales and marketing. Following the camp, DeBorah Beatty helped me refine my “elevator speech.” We also enjoyed several discussions about social networking and Internet marketing. There are so many people that I have special memories of, from speakers to participants. I don’t have room here to thank them all.

As you celebrate Thanksgiving, assuming you are American, focus on your reasons to be thankful. I think you will find that your heart opens, and you feel happier.

So, regardless of what country you live in, Happy Thanksgiving!

John