I’ve written on this subject some before, but I believe it deserves another touch because it represents a major shift in the mindset of consumers.  When I first started getting involved with social media, one of the most prevalent questions was, “How much should I share about my personal life?”  This question still lingers nearly two years later.  Different people will share different perspectives and you hear all kinds of theories of ratio: 50% Business to 50% Personal, 80% Business to 20% Personal, etc, etc.  I suggest that we step back from all of the analysis and mathematical formulas for a  moment and consider the human element.

Often this question comes down to what we feel comfortable with being squared against what we think that we should be doing/advice that we trust.  We have to build our networking strategy based on what we feel comfortable with, all else be damned.  I know I started this post with a social media example, but lets look to face to face networking events for inspiration.  Anyone who’s spent some level of time in these environments knows that the same questions that exist online exist in real life.  Different people take different approaches to networking events.  Some folks are like walking encyclopedias of their product/service/brand.  They rattle off statistics, details, solutions and examples in an impressive display of knowledge that can build trust.  Others rarely talk business, preferring to strike up conversations around subjects that have common interest.  These people may skirt around their area of expertise, or tease their fellow conversationalist with interesting little tid-bits of their business life, heightening interest and curiosity.  Still others may try to straddle the fence, demonstrating an expertise in their field, while also mixing in details of their personal life to build relationships.

If you stop and think about it, which one of these three types do you gravitate towards?  Chances are, this is the type of networking that you’re “comfortable with”.  Take a little time to reflect on what you like to see and hear.  It’s worth the time to discover your personal networking style.  Knowing and owning your networking style is crucial, because you will never have a strong appeal with every single person in the room.  The best use of your networking time is finding and connecting with those who you will have a strong appeal with.

But as I mentioned at the outset, we are witnessing a major shift in the mindset of consumers which cannot be ignored no matter what your personal networking style is.  Simply put, people want more out of their business relationships.  In business to business circles there’s always been a high standard to facilitate the exchange of business, but I would argue that as consumer demands have increased, so have the standards that businesses hold their referral partners to.

The truth is, people are no longer satisfied with being talked at.  They want to talk with those who provide the solutions to their problems.  Being accessible, approachable, and exchanging information are top priorities of those with the power to help our business.  These facts shouldn’t change the way your style of networking however.  There’s just some caveats to keep in mind.

If your networking type is “Walking Encyclopedia” make sure that you’re also responding to what others have to say.  Find ways to demonstrate the value of your knowledge by assisting others.  It won’t take long before your expertise and helpful reputation start reaping financial rewards.

If you prefer to focus on “Social Networking” as a gateway to business relationships, or if you’re the style is “Straddling the Fence” you’ll have to work hard to stand out from the other social butterflies.  You can achieve this by delivering more value through either directly assisting your peers, or by building deeper relationships with your contacts.  Turning contacts into friends is always good for business.

So what’s your networking style? I’d love to read your thoughts in the comment section below!

Jason Sanders @ValuePagesGroup
Business Networking Specialist

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Wow! So I just checked in and it seems that it’s been a little over a month since my last blog post here. Ouch! Tsk Tsk…. My goal has been to be much more consistent with my posts than I have been. I promise I’ll be doing better.

If you only follow me here on IdeaBox as my personal blog, you may have just thought I took a little vacation. Sadly that is not the case. (A vacation sounds really good right now!) Instead of relaxing I’ve been super busy in another little corner of my network, over at TVPG Radio.

I participate in a weekly radio show, called the Get More Business Show on BlogTalkRadio. Up until September of 09 I was hosting the show solo and featuring one guest per week. But then I got really busy and the show ended up on the back burner. Now that things are getting more manageable, the show is back and I’ve changed up the format to include several other co-hosts and a more diverse and fun format based around the same theme. Needless to say, these changes involved a lot of adjustments and planning to make the website just so and ensure that we give our audience really helpful and entertaining content.

This week marked our second show with the new format and I’m really thrilled with how the show is turning out. We have lots of ideas to make it better that we will be experimenting with as time goes on, but the group of people that I work with on the show are amazing and very talented and a blast to work with.

Now that the heavy lifting has mostly been sorted out over at TVPG Radio, expect to see more blog posts here at the IdeaBox. I’ve been brewing up a host of great post ideas and I’m excited about unleashing them here. There’s still no time for me to relax though. I’m going to be ramping up the Measured Impact project here in the next few weeks and I’ll also be hitting the pavement locally here in South Jersey to share The Value Pages Group with the local business community and recruit some fresh members. Who knows, some of the local businesses that I talk to may even be interested in the Promotional and Design Work we do over at TVPG Labs. As things develop, you can rely on me keeping you updated with our progress.

To everyone who follows my progress and all my regular readers – You guys are awesome!  Thanks for your continued interest as I work through all these projects, bootstrap these goals, and dream outside my comfort zone.  I really appreciate all the support, feedback and good advice I get from you guys…and girls, of course.

Jason Sanders @ValuePagesGroup
Business Networking Specialist

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Now that I have your attention, let me ask you… Have you ever got the feeling that you talked a potential client OUT of doing business with you?  Sure sometimes it doesn’t make sense to do business with someone, but sometimes…

You can make a mistake and completely alienate your potential customer.  Let’s face it, today’s customer has completely evolved from the customer of only five years ago.  Today’s customer is online searching for information and sometimes finding solutions (that might be why they called you).  You’re smart, you’ve been consistently publishing helpful and informative content on your blog.  You’re not afraid to be passionate about what you care about and write about what you feel.  In fact, your writing gives your readers a glimpse of your personality.  And you must be likable because sometimes people call you after they read what you’ve written.  Never forget: The people who call and say they found you online have read what you’ve written.  So why are you talking their ear off on the phone?

You’ve already spoken to them through your written words.  You’ve already convinced them to give you a call.  Shut up and listen!

Realize this:  If someone calls you after reading your blog, they’ve already made the decision to work with you.  They are your customer to lose.  You don’t need to pitch them.  They already picked you!

If you then go into a long winded sales pitch and rehash half of what you’ve written (and they’ve read) on your blog, they might (rightly) get the idea that you’re more interested in hearing yourself talk than helping them with their problem.

Now is the time to ask questions.  Instead of talking you need to focus on asking the right questions to draw them out so that you can understand exactly what they’re looking for and evaluate the best way for you to help them.

Can you relate to this?  What are your thoughts?  I can’t wait to read them in the comment section!

Jason Sanders @ValuePagesGroup
Business Networking Specialist

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Ever since I got my iPhone a few months back, I’ve been regularly scouring the App Store looking for an application that would translate my spoken voice, or a recording into typed text.  There have been some out there that provided partial solutions, such as converting spoken word to a text message.  The trade off was that the recording was hosted on the developers server.  And after doing some research I discovered that the actual translation was done by human translators in foreign countries.  This just didn’t sit well with me.  Neither did the fact that the message was delivered with an advertisement for the application embedded in it, and that you couldn’t change the title of the message.

So I waited, figuring eventually a true technology solution would be released along the lines of Dragon Naturally Speaking software.  Last week, my dream was realized when the Dragon Dictation app was released!  I was more than excited, because finally there was a tool to speed up my blogging and it was at an incredible savings (the App is totally FREE).  I had figured out that if I had bought the Dragon Naturally Speaking software package that supported translation from a voice recorder, and a compliant voice recorder, I would have probably spent over $300.00.  That kind of savings really puts a smile on my face !

The interface of the application is extremely simple and intuitive.  You push a single button to start recording.  As your speaking the application is recording, but not immediately translating.  If you give a long pause, or if you hit the “Done” button, it will then process the recording into text.  At that point you can review it’s work for accuracy.  They’ve done a pretty good job with the user interface. If the application has made a mistake, you can tap on the word that is wrong and it will give you some likely replacements (hopefully this feature will get better), or you can just delete the word easily and use the keyboard feature to type in the correct word.

Using the editing screen you can move the cursor around and then record again.  This makes it easy to go back and expand on a thought that you’ve already put down.

If this is your first exposure to this technology, you may not realize that you have to speak your punctuation.  If you want it to type “,” you have to say “comma”.  The same goes for periods, exclamation marks, question marks, and new paragraphs.  It takes some getting used to, but, once you’ve got it, it’s no big deal.

Once you’ve finished you just hit the export button on the right side of the button bar to send your words off to their destination.  You have the option to: Send to Mail, Send to Txt Msg, or Send to Clipboard.  This is where the app breaks down a bit.  The Send to Mail option doesn’t always work for me.  I had the best success with using Send to Clipboard, and then going to my mailbox and pasting it in.

I’m not an owner of the Naturally Speaking software, so I can’t compare the performance of the two, but I can say that it is pretty accurate, though not always perfect.  From documentation that I’ve read, if you have any kind of strong accent, you may have a lot more trouble with accuracy.

Things I would like to see improve:

1. The word suggestions provided to remedy “mistranslated” words were never even close.  There seems to be room for improvement there.
2. There’s also no way to save your work.  If you have to pop out of the app for some reason, everything you’ve done gets erased. (Perhaps this will be remedied in a premium paid version).
3. The ability to translate a voice recording stored on the iPhone.
4. It would be great they made it so it was translating live as you spoke…so you could see the words as they were typed.  This would allow you to spot mistakes easier and I think make the flow better.  As it is now, the stopping, reviewing and any editing that needs to happen tends to break up my rhythm and thought pattern.

My Take:

I’m really glad I got a chance to play with this application before I went and dropped $300.00 on a separate solution of software and a voice recorder.  The Dragon Naturally Speaking software does a lot more than this app, essentially letting you control all functions of your computer with your voice, but the reality is that I only wanted it for this single specific use.  The even harder reality is that in using the application, I’ve discovered that I’m not very good at speaking my thoughts.  Believe it or not, it actually felt stifling, and much slower than typing.

I want to emphasize that it felt that way to me.  You may have a totally different take.

Upon some self examination, I was surprised to realize that my personal writing style seems to consist of a cloud of thoughts and then sentences that fly from my fingers like lighting.  The same thoughts don’t have such an easy time flying out of my mouth.  I also type really fast, so maybe that’s why I didn’t notice any improvement in speed with the Dictation App.

I think playing with this app has in a small way made me a better writer, in the sense of understanding my own pen.  I’m in no way giving up on the technology.  I plan on working with it more to see if I can develop the skill that would allow me write while on the go.  If I’m successful, I’m sure you’ll hear about it in an upcoming blog post!

Jason Sanders @ValuePagesGroup
Business Networking Specialist

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It is amazing to me that as a society we’re always looking for the easy way out of our problems/challenges.  I’m not sure if this behavior is actually human nature, or just the result of living during a time of rapid technological advancement.  Actually this issue goes beyond just looking for an easier way.  Many of us live under the assumption that there is a EASIER, FASTER, and BETTER way to do almost everything and all we have to do is wait for technology to present it to us.

We can see this belief in action in how we embrace new and innovative products.  Society often embraces new products and trends as problem solving innovation without really evaluating the true benefit.  For instance, how is a George Foreman Grill any better than a grill pan?  It’s not.  But that didn’t stop George from selling millions of them. Wait, the George Foreman Grill does cook both sides of the hamburger at the same time… And George really likes hamburgers… And George really likes his new grill… And I really like George, he’s such a nice guy… As it turns out George Foreman gave us just enough push to cross over into a value proposition and we bought those George Foreman Grills like crazy.

Would the same product have been as effective if it was an Amy Winehouse Grill?

The point that I’m trying to convey is that no matter how far we progress with technology, we will never be able to avoid basic fundamentals.

So if social media/publishing isn’t accomplishing what you would like it to, ask yourself if you’re neglecting the fundamentals of marketing and relationship building.  Remember, no one is going to care what you say unless you give them a reason to.

What are you doing to give people a reason to care about you and your business/cause?

Jason Sanders @ValuePagesGroup
Business Networking Specialist

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This blog post is a very late response to Brandon Mendelson’s decision to eliminate commenting from his blog. I was going to leave a response via a comment when he announced his decision on September 28 (Yeah, I know I’m really really tardy, but I’ve been overloaded with building a new business networking and marketing platform.) , but since he decided to get rid of comments, it seems like a blog post is the best way to get my point across.

I think Brandon’s post started out with the very valid statement that you can’t measure you blog’s success solely on the amount of comments that you receive. But then he very quickly makes the dangerous leap in assumption that if someone really likes you, they will go out of their way to find a way to interact with you. This thought may be true sometimes, but it isn’t an absolute fact.

I tend to believe that “Social Media isn’t about directing someone to one particular venue or site – if anything it’s about engaging others on the platform of their choice-not yours.”, as Mike Mueller said so well. For anyone selling a product or service, projecting approachability (even on the internet) is crucial. It would be presumptuous of me to try and guess why Brandon decided that this drastic change was necessary, but I think it makes sense to ask yourself if you’re doing all you can to make yourself available to potential clients. Another thing that I think about is the assurance that comments give to a blogger who is just starting out. An intimidating process can be made so much easier by comments from readers that show that someone is interested in your perspective and what you have to say. Think hard before you cut off this supportive lifeline. Take it from me, a blog without comments can feel like a black hole. A lot of people quit blogging prematurely because they don’t get the support they need.

Ask yourself: Could a decision that you’re making be interpreted by a potential client as putting up fences, closing off conversation or limiting interaction? If the answer is yes, the next logical question is: “Does this give you an advantage over your competition?” Put on your consumer hat. Do you want to deal with someone aloof or someone approachable?

Update: Brandon initially planned on having readers of his blog email him their comments as opposed to just commenting on the blog. I guess that didn’t work out to well, because now his facebook fanpage is acting as his comment section. (Hate to say I told you so, but I told you so. (I know I sound like a dick, but I have to get my shots in early because I know Brandon’s going to have something to say about the Yankees beating the Phillies the next time I talk to him.))

I actually think this is a pretty good idea for how to use a facebook fan page (as I still haven’t figured out a good way to make mine stand out from my other portions of social media). I should say it’s a pretty good idea if you are established (like having close to a million twitter followers) and if you want to limit interactions to only people who are interested enough to jump through a hoop.

Coincidentally, I’ve been so busy with my own projects over the last month and a half that I haven’t been on facebook much and therefore haven’t commented at all on Brandon’s blog posts. Usually I check his blog as one of the last things I do before logging off the computer for the night, and the extra step of signing into facebook is just more than I feel like doing. I still email Brandon occasionally, but never to comment on a blog post (just call me a rebel). I’m hoping he’ll come to his senses and bring the comments back to his blog. I miss the interaction.

I would be remiss if I didn’t invite you to join The Value Pages Group’s blogging community. You will enjoy a the most versatile blogging platform (WordPress) as well as a theme to give you the best exposure (Thesis) along with a unique platform that maximizes your exposure and targets consumers in your own backyard (and don’t forget about the great network of business owners you’ll be rubbing virtual shoulders with). The invitation’s always open!

Jason Sanders @ValuePagesGroup
Business Networking Specialist

Help spread the word!