Professional Digital Social Networking—Where are Your Boundaries?

I invite you to share your thoughts and opinions on the topic of boundaries for professional digital social networking.

For someone who did not grow up in the age of the internet. For someone who is constantly learning and working hard to hang on within this fast moving world, I feel pretty good. I am a regular blogger, use LinkedIn as a professional tool rather than just a list of random people and am active on Facebook.

I also have a Twitter page, although I never post and currently have ten people I do not know following me. I have no idea who these ten people are, nor what they are following due to my lack of posting activity. I “get” all of the above mentioned social media platforms with the exception of Twitter—I have to confess that I am still working to get my head totally wrapped around it.

Given these new social media platforms, where do our new professional boundaries lie? We know that it is generally rude to call a professional colleague on their cell phone after a certain hour, and we know not to phone someone who works out of a home office at midnight to leave a voice mail message. We also know that it is not generally acceptable to show up on the door step of a professional colleague’s home unannounced and uninvited.

Where are the lines in cyber space? I have created my own lines, and I am interested to hear yours.

For me, LinkedIn is professional. I conduct myself as if I were in an industry member’s office or at an industry event. Not boring or stiff, just professional. My communications, for the most part, are purposeful and support a variety of professional objectives.

Facebook, on the other hand, is personal for me. I certainly conduct myself appropriately and my posting behavior is similar to the manner I would conduct myself if I were at a restaurant having dinner with friends. However, my personal communications don’t necessarily have a purpose other than to let friends know I am thinking of them.

In our professional lives we generally want to accomplish something, move toward something. Hopefully, in our personal lives we often just ARE. No agenda, no strategy.

I am rarely hesitant to share my opinions on a WIDE range of issues with people I have a personal relationship with. I consider myself respectful, but I do enjoy debating such things as politics, religion, books, Brad Pitt’s latest movie and life in general. I especially enjoy debating these topics with people I disagree with because often I learn something new.

Friends and family, even those friends and family you disagree with on big issues, still love you the day after a vigorous debate (typically conducted over a few glasses of wine). However, sometimes when we say inappropriate things in professional company, the “love” can evaporate quickly.


Some business-to-business companies have started using Facebook for professional purposes, but I have not interacted with the pages and groups companies within the pharma industry have created. Although I am a member of a number of LinkedIn pharmaceutical industry groups, I enjoy using Facebook as a combination reunion tool, social organizer, a convenient way to pop busy friends quick messages and a vehicle for sharing pictures with people I don’t see very often. In addition, I fairly frequently use Facebook as a soapbox for my political opinions and frustrations with the hope of generating some discussion.

Rumor has it that Facebook will be upgrading their platform so that you will be able to maintain separate personal and professional friend lists and profiles. This would be great as I really do love the functionality of Facebook.

Generally speaking, my life is an open book. I grew up in a bustling household where privacy was not readily available. However, even though I will share nearly anything with anyone, I do I have my boundaries.

I prefer that my pharmaceutical industry colleagues and customers see me in a professional light. Not stiff or boring, just sharp, fairly together and fun.

I don’t really need for the entire pharmaceutical industry to see pictures of me in high school (huge hair and all) or some silly picture taken one morning with my stepson before I could put on make-up or even get through the shower (that my husband thought would be funny to post)--these are some of the photos within my Facebook albums, but would never, ever see the light of day on LinkedIn.

These are my boundaries—what are yours?

Double Down on Strategic Advertising

by Susanna Hamner and John Maas, BNET

The scenario: Hard-sell or luxury-oriented ad campaigns are starting to sound tone deaf to recession-wary consumers. Some competitors are pulling back on advertising.

The tactic: Increase communication with customers to show how your product can ease the difficulties they’re going through.

Advertising budgets often become easy prey during down markets — but companies that start to slash do so at their own peril. “If there’s any time to increase communication, it’s during a recession,” says Andrew Razeghi, a marketing professor at Northwestern’s Kellogg School of Management.

During the recession that followed September 11, just 25 percent of all companies boosted their ad spending — and those that did saw their market share rise more than twice as fast as it typically rises during a normal economy, according to a 2001 Cahners Advertising research report. According to a MarketSense study, during the recession of 1989-91, Pizza Hut and Taco Bell saw sales jump by 61 percent and 40 percent, respectively, after pumping more money into advertising, while McDonald’s slashed its ad budget and saw sales drop 28 percent.

It’s not that easy, of course. Marketers need to spend smart — and tune their message to customers' shifting attitudes during a financial crisis. “The closer a brand can cozy up to a consumer with a message along the lines of ‘we’re all in this together,’ the better off a brand will be,” says John Quelch, a Harvard Business School professor and author of Greater Good: How Good Marketing Makes for Better Democracy. For instance, a credit-card company should change its message from “use our card to give memorable holiday gifts” to “our card gives you the most money back.”

Taking advantage of its “Talk to Chuck” campaign, brokerage giant Charles Schwab brought out its CEO this fall to reinforce a calming message of reassurance. “I’ve been through at least nine of these ... and I’ve learned that I have to keep my patience,” Schwab says in one commercial. What’s the logic here? “The recession is sufficiently serious that investors don’t just want to talk to Chuck, they want to see Chuck,” Quelch says. “He’s a savvy person capable of holding the hand of the younger investor.” For companies without a high-profile “Chuck,” the communications budget may be better spent on smaller hand-holding gestures. Razeghi suggests preparing white papers about the recession to send to valued customers. “It reassures folks you’re still in the game,” he says.

Caution: Now is not the time for positive, brand-focused campaigns that won’t resonate with cash-strapped customers. But don’t campaign on fear, either. “People are sufficiently panicked already,” Quelch says. “A message that exacerbated the fear would be counterproductive.”

This One Will Separate the Men From the Boys

As a professional woman, I feel quite licensed to utilize a cliché that could be viewed as sexist..."Separate the men from the boys."

I don’t know of any other clichés that better describe the current economic environment. Few would disagree that it is rough out there. Every company I know is being cautious, monitoring the environment carefully and cutting unnecessary expenses.

Although companies certainly run much leaner than they used to, nearly every company can tighten its belt a bit when necessary. However, which budgets should be trimmed, which budgets should be candidates for elimination if necessary and which budgets should stay in tact and maybe even be increased?

There are no cookie cutter rules. However, I believe that it is logical to ask ourselves the following questions as we are reviewing and adjusting our budgets:

• Will this budget cut damage my organization’s core value proposition?
• Will this budget cut give my competitors a window that might leave my organization exposed and vulnerable?
• Will this budget cut hamper my ability to keep sales opportunities moving through my sales pipeline even if my pipeline is moving slower than it does in better economic climates?
• Will this budget cut strip my organization of essential resources needed for long-term prosperity—talent, customer service, innovation, product development, manufacturing quality, etc?
• Will this budget cut damage my brand, potentially beyond repair?

Many of the cost-management tactics I see companies implementing right now are reasonable and responsible. Some of the tactics I am seeing are short-sided and just plain silly…these companies will likely be permanently damaged, probably will never catch up and will likely fold.

The weak are being separated from the strong. The untalented are being separated from the talented. Archaic organizations are being separated from forward-thinking organizations. The men are being separated from the boys.

Nearly everyone I know is on edge right now. It is rough out there. However, those of us who keep our heads on straight and think about how we can continue to advance our value propositions will make it through this. Those who cut to the bone, cut harmfully into their value propositions, cut their own legs out from under them and let their competition stroll past will in all likelihood become a memory.

Selling in Hard Times

By Geoffrey James

Last week, I featured three interviews with Howard Stevens, CEO of the sales-oriented research group HR Chally, about the challenges of selling during a recession. After I posted them, Howard contacted me to say that he'd recently interviewed sales uber-guru Neil Rackham on this very subject, and that he could get me a clip. Here's the clip, which is definitely worth watching...probably more than once.

Please click screen shot below to play the video.

Source: Sales Machine Blog, BNET Business Network, www.bnet.com

Sales and Marketing in an Economic Meltdown

In a sick sort of way, I embrace economic downturns. When the economy and our businesses are humming along, many of us have the tendency to get a little complacent. We all work hard in good times and in bad, but in better economic climates we do have the luxury of spending time on more lofty notions and we often spread our time, energies and resources too thin.

Challenging times force us to focus our energies and resources in very targeted manners. My professional experience has shown that if we keep our cool and if we are strategic, we will come out at the end stronger and leaps and bounds ahead of where we were prior to the downturn.

The reality is that in times of uncertainty, people become nervous and scared. When we are nervous we have the tendency to do really dumb things—we shut down (I will put my head in the sand and wait for the storm to blow over), we become erratic (something will work if I try enough different things) or we become too cautious (my job will be safe if I just don’t mess anything up).

Now, we are all intelligent people. For most organizations, a period that is being dubbed as “the gravest economic crisis since the Great Depression” is probably not the time to go to management requesting funds for unfocused, grandiose ideas. However, this is most definitely the time to think long and hard about what we want our organizations to look like in six months when the economy is in recovery. In six months or so when the sun is projected to begin shining on the economy again, do we want our organizations and our strategies to be gutted, or for our customers and competitors to see us as weak and without resolve?

Or, do we want to confidently stride out into the sunlight after having spent difficult months working closely with key partners, after having strategically kept our sales pipelines moving and after having given thoughtful consideration to our organizations’ futures?

The following are six thoughts for managing sales and marketing efforts in this challenging economic environment.

1. Remember Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs from Psychology 101? Maslow asserts that we cannot move up the pyramid of human desires without fulfillment of the needs underneath.

Thankfully, most of us have our basic physiological needs met. We are breathing, we have food and water, and maybe we are even getting some sleep. So, let’s move up to safety. Do most of us feel safe right now? Many of us probably do not and our customers don’t either. The times are very uncertain. So, our sales and marketing messaging should focus on making our customers and prospects feel that working with us is the safe choice. Maybe you are the leader in the market for your products or services—leaders are a safe choice. Make sure that your customer and prospects know that you are a leader.

Maybe you organization is smaller and more nimble than that of the market leaders. You offer the ability to assure your customers and prospects that you will work very hard to make certain that their needs are specifically met—also a safe choice.

2. In uncertain times you do need to make your customers and prospects feel that you are a safe choice, now is not the time to become silent. Keep communicating, let them know that you are alive, healthy and weathering the storm.

3. Tough times dictate that we should all work closely with key partners. This is not the time to spread time and energy resources around foolishly. Whether we use this approach for working with customers, vendors or both, we need to use our energies and perhaps diminished resources to their best effect.

4. To quote Warren Buffet, “Be fearful when others are greedy and be greedy when others are fearful.” In times like these, people are fearful. Your competitors become scared and make bad decisions. Although this is not the time to spend money like a drunken sailor (unless you are the government or are “too big to fail”), move forward bravely and thoughtfully. If you take this approach it will take your competitors months to catch up, if they ever do, when the economic environment improves.

Interestingly, according an Inc. magazine article, recessions are often the best times to start a business—“Starting a business in a recession is like vacationing in the off season.” Some of today’s leading businesses—Microsoft, FedEx, CNN, GE, HP—were founded in periods of recession. If HP, founded during the Great Depression or GE, founded in the wake of The Panic of 1873, survived, thrived and grew into the juggernauts that they are today, is it reasonable to say that this might be a good time for us to think about pulling the trigger on a new product or service idea?

5. When times are good many value statements in our sales and marketing messages focus on helping customers to grow their businesses. During challenging times, our messaging needs to focus on minimizing risk, saving money, providing measurable and concrete results. This does not mean that we should automatically lower our pricing, but it does mean that we need to focus on utilizing our products and services to help our customers feel secure , to reach measurable goals and to help them to stretch their resources. Do your products/services save labor costs, help to better manage assets, save time, decrease waste, save energy? If so, this is a great time for this messaging.

6. Rethink trade show and conference activities. My trade show and conference organizer friends are going to kill me. However, it has been said that marketing budgets are always the first to be slashed. I don’t think that this is true anymore. From my observations, travel budgets are now the first to be slashed. The first measure many companies now take in uncertain economic climates is to implement travel restrictions. This means trade show and conference attendance will be lighter especially in the first half of 2009.

This could mean that we should not decrease trade show exhibition and conference sponsorship participation, but rather take advantage of lighter traffic and have more involved conversations with the customers who are in attendance. On the other hand, maybe it means we should reel in our presence at trade shows and conferences and spend energies and resources communicating with our office-bound customers and colleagues. Perhaps online opportunities or other elements of the marketing mix might be more effective in reaching these customers and prospects.

Hopefully, this post sparked an idea or two. We will all get through these challenging times. I am just thankful to be working in an industry that, at its heart, is fairly recession proof. At least we are not selling products and services to housing developers—talk about indigestion. Yet another bright point, as members of an industry that treats indigestion…opportunities abound.

Reduce “Reverse Spam”

An effective landing page is a terrific way to generate specific action by your target customers via a specific message or offer. Most often, landing pages are used for some type of lead generation purpose.

A landing page should create a landing experience that portrays the value that your target customer will receive if they take action.

We always should keep in mind that lead generation is a moneyless transaction scenario. Your target customer "pays" for the information you are offering with their contact information. You are working to hit lead generation objectives by “selling” information of value to your target customer in order to receive their contact information.

If the information you are offering (white paper, demo, podcast, webinar, videocast, etc.) is not in line with, or is not perceived to be in line with the information you require to access the information, the prevalence of "reverse spamming" will be much higher. Reverse spamming is a when your prospective customer gives false contact information so that they can access your information without really "paying” for it.

There is no question that a prospective customer is less likely to "reverse spam" when they feel confident that the information being offered is of value and the information is being presented by a respected and viable solutions provider.

Four specific ways to reduce "reverse spam" in your next lead generation effort:

1. Implement well-rounded, integrated marketing programs. Prospective customers will be much more likely to give you accurate contact information if they know and respect your company. Branding efforts either offline or online increase familiarity with and respect for your company and your solutions.

2. Create compelling landing pages. Offer enough provocative information in the headline, graphics and body copy of the landing page to "sell" your target customer on the value of the information you are providing.

3. Keep the information you are asking for (required fields) in proportion to the value of the information you are offering. For example, access to a product demo is probably not as valuable as access to a research report on a pressing industry issue. Therefore, you likely should ask for a little information to access a product demo, but can ask for more to access the research report.

4. Consider a multi-page landing page in order that you can more specifically target a customer's interests and information needs. Via a multi-page landing page you can offer different information based on the customer's job function/area of responsibility, their current challenges and other factors.

For more information about creating effective landing pages, the following is a great blog that offers a lot of insight and discussion:

www.nomorelandingpages.com

Earth Friendly Trade Show Promotion Idea

I must confess that I have become somewhat of a minimalist and a quasi tree hugger. This probably would have been a more convenient and fashionable state of being in my college years. I could have participated in demonstrations, attended poetry readings and basked in youthful self-righteousness. Owning a minimal number of possessions in college is pretty common. I could have positioned myself as being liberally cool rather than just broke.

However, in my college years I was much more closely aligned with the Young Republicans crowd and concerned myself with making Phi Beta Kappa, the shine on my penny loafers and frat parties. The state of the world around me was fairly far from my mind.

This description of my youth is somewhat of an over exaggeration, but in recent years I have become progressively more concerned about environmental, ethical business, political and human rights issues.

My minimalist tendencies are probably in large part driven by the fatigue created by continually dealing with “stuff.” Constantly picking up the stuff in my house, trying to organize the stuff and spending time getting rid of the stuff I don’t use. Frankly, I am tired of stuff.

This “stuff management fatigue” does tie in nicely to my true concern about the state of our planet. We have become so obsessed by accumulating more and more possessions that it is taking a very real toll on our environment.

With this mindset I was incredibly heartened when earlier this year I met Healthcare Communications Group (HCG), a clinical trial patient recruitment company. At the Drug Information Association (DIA) Annual Meeting HCG featured their Ribbons for Research Memory Wall in their booth. In lieu of traditional trade show giveaways, HCG makes a donation to one of 16 different medical research organizations in the name of each individual who stops by their booth. In my opinion, this is a great way to engage potential customers in conversation, donate money to great causes, generate tradeshow leads and reduce the number of the petroleum-based chachkis that often hit our landfills shortly after they are acquired.

In 2007 HCG donated nearly $14,000 to the 16 different organizations included in Ribbons for Research.

More information about Ribbons for Research can be found at www.ribbonsforresearch.com. HGC encourages other companies to implement Ribbons for Research programs at various trade events and has created an easy to implement program for those who do not wish to reinvent the program already created.

I cast no judgment on the many great companies, including many of our clients, that take a more traditional approach to trade show premiums. We all need to do what we feel is most effective for our businesses. However, in past years I have taken home enough squishy balls and mouse pads to last me for the rest of my life.

While I pass no judgment, please do not be offended if I politely decline one of these items at the next trade show—my storage closets will thank you for your understanding.