MarketingMel

I’ve always dreamed of going on safari in Kenya. What about you? If you are like me, and your constraints keep you from jumping on the next plane to Africa, may I recommend the next best thing?

A dear friend and client recently gave me a copy of Surviving Your Serengeti: 7 Skills to Master Business and Life. Stefan Swanepoel’s book is labeled as a fable of self -discovery. Reading this book and learning about the skill sets of seven wild animals was the next best thing to being there. I recommend it to any business person interested in learning more about their business survival skills and those used by the people around them. As you move quickly through this easy read you will want to know what wild animal you are most like (see link below.)

According to  Swanepoel I am a communicating elephant. The largest mammals can “receive and interpret some 70 different sounds from each other and their environment. Their communications skills even include humor, mourning, and an ability to lead others.” According to the book, “effective communications is the art of successfully delivering your message.”

Here are seven tips of the great communicators (the elephants) along with a few social networking twists from MarketingMel!

1. Be sure you hear what another person is trying to say.
2. Listen and respond to their message. (On twitter when people @ message you or RT you be sure to thank them.)
3. Advance the discussion from monologue to a true dialogue. (Perhaps this is why I enjoy social networking so much. It’s an opportunity to truly share in a dialogue with a variety of interesting people, and, in the case of twitter, people I would never otherwise have occasion to meet.)
4. Accept constructive feedback (Reading evaluations after my business presentations helps me to make the next one even better!)
5. Be sure your verbal and non verbal communication match your verbal message (Elephants are masters at intuition.)
6. When writing, be precise. “Less is best.” (Twitter’s 140 characters are often just right!)
7. Use visuals that back up your verbal and written messages. (Hope you enjoyed the video.)

There are six other animals to study in your journey through the Serengeti and life. Take the quiz to find out what animal you are and when you’re through be sure to read the book.  You will learn more about yourself. Drop me a line in the comment box below. I would enjoy hearing about your  journey on safari.

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I enjoy John Maxwell’s leadership books. A friend gave me The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership when I graduated MBA school and I’ve been hooked ever since. Imagine how thrilled I was to hear Maxwell recently on the Chick-Fil-A Leadercast. The live event was held in Atlanta May 6. I was in the Tri-Cities at the fourth largest simulcast location in the country. What resonated as Maxwell spoke about his five levels of leadership is that, “Leadership is influence. Influence people and increase your leadership.” Then he asked us to draw out five stair steps as he talked through each of the five levels of leadership. As you read, think about where you are on the levels.

1- Positions: “Rights” You’re the boss. People have to follow you. He amusingly spoke of organizations that are run by people with “positions.” They’re the kind where everyone has their running shoes on at 4:45 because they will be sprinting out the door at 5 pm.

2- Permission: “Relationships” People follow you because they want to. You’ve connected with them. He notes that you cannot influence someone that you antagonize. Keys here: listen well, observe, learn.

Have an attitude of servanthood. “Be a tour guide, not a travel agent,” says Maxwell. He adds,  ”we attract who we are, not who we want.”

3- Production: “Results” help the bottom line. You produce, lead by example and gain momentum.

4- People development: “Reproduction” Successful leaders position others well. You recruit well, position well, equip well. You can come alongside others and help to develop and train them.

5- Pinnacle: “Respect” You’ve done so well with so many, that people follow you.

Maxwell adds, “leadership is ongoing learning.”

Where are you on this chart? Where would the people you lead say that you are?

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Several of MarketingMel’s clients are new to twitter and lots of people ask me questions about the best ways to use twitter. Since I’ve been active on twitter since September 2008 and score close to a 99 on the independent Hubspot twitter grader I thought I would share some things I’ve learned in the twitterverse that may help you.

1. Fill out your profile. Be sure to describe yourself, your work and/or your passions in your profile. When others view you and decide whether or not to follow you, that is the first place they will look. If there’s nothing there they may not follow you back. Furthermore, a profile helps determine if indeed there is someone you clearly do NOT want to have following you!  Then you can block them if necessary (I’ve only had to do this a hand full of times.)
2. Use a nice photo or likeness of yourself. People relate to people as human beings and like to look at pictures of one another. It helps in relationship building as well as in building your personal brand.
3. Follow people who have similar interests to yours: For me that’s professional marketing and public relations people and social media gurus. What are your interests?  Find the people who share them.
4. Shhh, listen! As in all social media, listen first, then participate in the local conversation. It is possible to talk too much on twitter. I just recently removed someone from my local feed for “clogging up” my twitter airwaves.
5. Share, share, share. Twitter is all about being helpful and friendly to others. It’s about relationship building. Share pertinent information and links. I have found that the good twitter karma always comes around.
6. Never auto DM anyone! If you want to DM (direct message) someone be sure it is a genuine, heartfelt message. Please skip the canned spam!
7. Use search.twitter.com to follow trends. This is a really handy search that keeps me up on “the news” often before the traditional media has caught on.
8. #Use hashtags Hashtags are a great way to keep up with conferences, topics and trends or start a trend yourself. On Fridays you will see people using the hashtag #followfriday of #FF. They will post the twitter names of interesting people who they enjoy following so that you can  follow them. It’s one more part of the positive twitter karma.
9. Find twitter chat groups of interest and participate. My two favorites are #soloPR Wednesdays at 1 pm Eastern and, when I can make it, #journchat Mondays at 8 pm Eastern. Check those or others out in your field of interest.
10. Do not lock your updates. Locking is something done only by the greenest of twitter newbies
11. Use twitter tools: There are all kinds of great tools available to help you manage your time and your tweets. Tweetdeck and Hootsuite are two of my favorites.
12. Feel free to respond to someone directly with an @ message. Remember, though, everyone is listening! Twitter is a lot like cubicle walls; super thin and everything next door can and will be heard and shared by all. At least with twitter you don’t have to share colds and flu too!

Hope this helps you and happy tweeting!

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