I just hosted the inaugural LinkedIn Blackbelt Master workshop this morning and there are now 8 more intelligently armed soon-to-be LinkedIn experts out there.
This is a 3 hour workshop with very limited seating so everyone attending gets some one-on-one coaching along the way.
Without a doubt, LinkedIn has become the premier social network for business professionals. With nearly 140 million business professionals and over 2 million individual company profiles, LinkedIn is the place to be found for business professionals, and to find and connect with influencers in your market niche.
However it is estimated that fewer than 25% of those registered to use LinkedIn do so effectively, and less than 10% maximize the value this powerful tool can bring to you and your company.
Unlike some other social networks, LinkedIn is all business all the time. If you are not maximizing this extraordinary tool, you are losing mindshare.
I currently host this session monthly near BWI, but should be hosting a Virginia monthly session in the near term - hopefully no later than March.
The next BWI session is Wednesday, February 29 from 8:30-11:30 AM.
Drop me a line for details on upcoming sessions.
mark@federaldirect.net
Showing posts with label web 2.0. Show all posts
Showing posts with label web 2.0. Show all posts
Tuesday, January 24, 2012
Thursday, November 3, 2011
The Chicken or the Egg: The Art, Science and Benefits of Being Different (The Waldo Factor, part 4)
The "chicken or the egg" conundrum has reared its confusing head yet again.
I have made several of presentations over the past 3 years on maximizing the power of LinkedIn: leveraging this great platform for differentiating your company; attracting partners and prospects; positioning your company as a subject matter expert in a niche so agencies and primes will better understand what you do and where you fit; strategically growing your network; then staying in touch with your ever-expanding network by sharing good information. This is the process that leads to more visibility and differentiates you from most, if not all, of your competitors.
The audiences always seem receptive to what I am saying, paying serious lip service to their desire to employ social media to differentiate, then reach out to the market. "We're gonna do it....real soon...."
Then comes the caveat: "We really need some sales first."
Differentiation, how and why you are different from your competitors, is one of the major keys that will lead to your ability to sell more products or services. Social media, when used properly, helps you display the attributes that legitimately differentiate your company from others. Until you differentiate yourself and become visible to your target audience, the likelihood of more sales is minimal.
"But we really need some sales first...do you have an email list of (fill in the job title here: procurement officers, facilities managers, CIOs, etc)"....
Chapter 8 of Selling to the Government is devoted to differentiating, and Chapter 11 (near the end of the book) deals with the deployment of web 2.0 tools, especially LinkedIn. I devote a fair amount of space in this book to these because they are critical to your success.
There is a reason that 25%+ of GSA Schedule holders make $0:
- little or no differentiation
- little or no targeted marketing
- and little or no use of social media.
Being on the GSA Schedule is not a guarantee of sales and being on GSA Advantage is a requirement, it is not a differentiator and it offers no real advantage (no pun intended) to the contractor.
If you are not trying differentiate, to legitimately stand out in a crowded field by clearly enunciating what makes your company different, you are already on a downward spiral.
So what comes first, the chicken or the egg?
Market Connections study stats on how contractors use social media:
1) Marketing/promotion - 85%
2) Thought leadership promotion - 84%
3) Increased collaboration - 75%
4) Improved customer access to company information - 74%
SOURCE: www.MarketConnectionsInc.com
And btw, Amtower & Company offers coaching for companies and individual coaching on leveraging the power of LinkedIn and we also offer a half-day workshop to get companies started on LinkedIn.
I have made several of presentations over the past 3 years on maximizing the power of LinkedIn: leveraging this great platform for differentiating your company; attracting partners and prospects; positioning your company as a subject matter expert in a niche so agencies and primes will better understand what you do and where you fit; strategically growing your network; then staying in touch with your ever-expanding network by sharing good information. This is the process that leads to more visibility and differentiates you from most, if not all, of your competitors.
The audiences always seem receptive to what I am saying, paying serious lip service to their desire to employ social media to differentiate, then reach out to the market. "We're gonna do it....real soon...."
Then comes the caveat: "We really need some sales first."
Differentiation, how and why you are different from your competitors, is one of the major keys that will lead to your ability to sell more products or services. Social media, when used properly, helps you display the attributes that legitimately differentiate your company from others. Until you differentiate yourself and become visible to your target audience, the likelihood of more sales is minimal.
"But we really need some sales first...do you have an email list of (fill in the job title here: procurement officers, facilities managers, CIOs, etc)"....
Chapter 8 of Selling to the Government is devoted to differentiating, and Chapter 11 (near the end of the book) deals with the deployment of web 2.0 tools, especially LinkedIn. I devote a fair amount of space in this book to these because they are critical to your success.
There is a reason that 25%+ of GSA Schedule holders make $0:
- little or no differentiation
- little or no targeted marketing
- and little or no use of social media.
Being on the GSA Schedule is not a guarantee of sales and being on GSA Advantage is a requirement, it is not a differentiator and it offers no real advantage (no pun intended) to the contractor.
If you are not trying differentiate, to legitimately stand out in a crowded field by clearly enunciating what makes your company different, you are already on a downward spiral.
So what comes first, the chicken or the egg?
Market Connections study stats on how contractors use social media:
1) Marketing/promotion - 85%
2) Thought leadership promotion - 84%
3) Increased collaboration - 75%
4) Improved customer access to company information - 74%
SOURCE: www.MarketConnectionsInc.com
And btw, Amtower & Company offers coaching for companies and individual coaching on leveraging the power of LinkedIn and we also offer a half-day workshop to get companies started on LinkedIn.
Friday, October 21, 2011
Stop whining and start working smarter: get active and get found! (The Waldo Factor, part 3)
"I have been on LinkedIn for six months and it hasn't done a thing for me...."
This was a comment from the audience where I spoke recently. When I returned to my office later that day, I took a look at the profile of the person who made the comment, and here's what I found:
- no recent activity- none. No new connections, no new groups, no information posts. Nothing.
- profile- bare bones. No decent job description or company description, the "Experience" section only had the most recent position (read: no history).
In short, they might be a "member" of LinkedIn, but they are doing absolutely nothing to participate and become noticed.
This is like joining the key trade association for your niche and not attending meetings or networking functions.
Think of it as a "drive by" membership, where you can drive by the networking event, honk and wave when you are in the general vicinity of the venue, and hope someone notices you.
"I have been on LinkedIn for six months and it hasn't done a thing for me...." is the swan song of the couch potato, the person who always has something impeding the "thought meets action" process. LinkedIn doesn't work unless you do.
In this case, the impediment is the assumption that simply by being on LinkedIn will lead to results, when what it will really take is to stop whining and start working smarter: get active and get found!
10/24/11 Update:
On October 18 Market Connections released the 2nd annual "2011 Social Media in the Public Sector" study. Among many other findings, the study showed a dramatic rise in the use of social media year over year, with more than 90% of government employees using some form of social media- an increase of 41%.
Another finding was that 70% of government employees used LinkedIn and 93% of contractors were using LinkedIn, both big gains over the previous year.
The top uses for using social media for contractors were
1) Marketing/promotion - 85%
2) Thought leadership promotion - 84%
3) Increased collaboration - 75%
4) Improved customer access to company information - 74%
SOURCE: www.MarketConnectionsInc.com
This was a comment from the audience where I spoke recently. When I returned to my office later that day, I took a look at the profile of the person who made the comment, and here's what I found:
- no recent activity- none. No new connections, no new groups, no information posts. Nothing.
- profile- bare bones. No decent job description or company description, the "Experience" section only had the most recent position (read: no history).
In short, they might be a "member" of LinkedIn, but they are doing absolutely nothing to participate and become noticed.
This is like joining the key trade association for your niche and not attending meetings or networking functions.
Think of it as a "drive by" membership, where you can drive by the networking event, honk and wave when you are in the general vicinity of the venue, and hope someone notices you.
"I have been on LinkedIn for six months and it hasn't done a thing for me...." is the swan song of the couch potato, the person who always has something impeding the "thought meets action" process. LinkedIn doesn't work unless you do.
In this case, the impediment is the assumption that simply by being on LinkedIn will lead to results, when what it will really take is to stop whining and start working smarter: get active and get found!
10/24/11 Update:
On October 18 Market Connections released the 2nd annual "2011 Social Media in the Public Sector" study. Among many other findings, the study showed a dramatic rise in the use of social media year over year, with more than 90% of government employees using some form of social media- an increase of 41%.
Another finding was that 70% of government employees used LinkedIn and 93% of contractors were using LinkedIn, both big gains over the previous year.
The top uses for using social media for contractors were
1) Marketing/promotion - 85%
2) Thought leadership promotion - 84%
3) Increased collaboration - 75%
4) Improved customer access to company information - 74%
SOURCE: www.MarketConnectionsInc.com
Tuesday, July 19, 2011
Creating Visibility for You & Your Company
We have all read articles written by people who may not be the most qualified experts, and we certainly have all seen speakers who would be better off taking copious notes from the audience rather than dispensing advice from the podium. There are even some business book authors out there who have one or more books out that really offer little value, yet they seem to find an audience.
How did they get the speaking gig, article assignment or book deal, and how do they develop an audience?
Each of them has defined a niche and studied it at least enough to get the attention of a trade magazine or book editor or a conference director. Then they have designed a way to get on the radar, to generate some attention.
Becoming visible to your business community, your niche, is not an easy or quick process. It can be simple, but it is not easy, but we all need the attention only our niche can provide if we are to survive and thrive in these tough times. It does not matter if you have a small, medium or large company (although some will argue it is easier for large companies to get PR), or even if you are a solo-preneur like me - each of us needs enough attention to generate new business, to find the right job, to get the book deal or to move to the next level.
There are many tools available, and more becoming available every day, but the process of selecting and deploying the right tools for your niche. There are hundreds of web 2.0 tools out there, but let's just look at one for right now: LinkedIn.
LinkedIn has well over 100 million register business professionals, 990,634 groups (as of 11:22 AM EST, 7/19/ 11), many useful apps to use with your profile, and a ton of ways to help you stand out in a crowd and connect with key epople throughout your market.
But how many people on LinkedIn are really using it to stand out in their respective niches? My estimate is less than 2%. But key decision makers are using LinkedIn to identify the "experts" in various fields, and these include people who hire speakers, give writing assignments, and offer book deals.
So what does it take to truly stand out?
Knowing your subject well is always job #1.
Defining your area of expertise in terms that will resonate with your niche is job #2.
Getting the word out is job #3.
I use LinkedIn as the "hub" for my web activity. When I write an article, I post the link for it in pertienet groups on LinkedIn. The result this week is one of the most read and most emailed articles at www.WashingtonTechnology.com . It makes the editor happy to have fresh traffic coming into the site, it keeps my name active in the market niche, and it could generate some business. I write an article for Washington Technology's web site once a month, and each time my promotional activity helps make it a well-read article. And it doesn't take me long to do this.
I will also "tweet' the article link, which will put it on all the social networks I use and maybe generate some re-tweets as well.
How are you leveraging the available tools to generate some targeted viisibility in your niche for you and your company?
If you need some fresh ideas on how to stand out in a crowded market, drop me a line - markamtower@gmail.com
Best of luck with your efforts!
Mark
How did they get the speaking gig, article assignment or book deal, and how do they develop an audience?
Each of them has defined a niche and studied it at least enough to get the attention of a trade magazine or book editor or a conference director. Then they have designed a way to get on the radar, to generate some attention.
Becoming visible to your business community, your niche, is not an easy or quick process. It can be simple, but it is not easy, but we all need the attention only our niche can provide if we are to survive and thrive in these tough times. It does not matter if you have a small, medium or large company (although some will argue it is easier for large companies to get PR), or even if you are a solo-preneur like me - each of us needs enough attention to generate new business, to find the right job, to get the book deal or to move to the next level.
There are many tools available, and more becoming available every day, but the process of selecting and deploying the right tools for your niche. There are hundreds of web 2.0 tools out there, but let's just look at one for right now: LinkedIn.
LinkedIn has well over 100 million register business professionals, 990,634 groups (as of 11:22 AM EST, 7/19/ 11), many useful apps to use with your profile, and a ton of ways to help you stand out in a crowd and connect with key epople throughout your market.
But how many people on LinkedIn are really using it to stand out in their respective niches? My estimate is less than 2%. But key decision makers are using LinkedIn to identify the "experts" in various fields, and these include people who hire speakers, give writing assignments, and offer book deals.
So what does it take to truly stand out?
Knowing your subject well is always job #1.
Defining your area of expertise in terms that will resonate with your niche is job #2.
Getting the word out is job #3.
I use LinkedIn as the "hub" for my web activity. When I write an article, I post the link for it in pertienet groups on LinkedIn. The result this week is one of the most read and most emailed articles at www.WashingtonTechnology.com . It makes the editor happy to have fresh traffic coming into the site, it keeps my name active in the market niche, and it could generate some business. I write an article for Washington Technology's web site once a month, and each time my promotional activity helps make it a well-read article. And it doesn't take me long to do this.
I will also "tweet' the article link, which will put it on all the social networks I use and maybe generate some re-tweets as well.
How are you leveraging the available tools to generate some targeted viisibility in your niche for you and your company?
If you need some fresh ideas on how to stand out in a crowded market, drop me a line - markamtower@gmail.com
Best of luck with your efforts!
Mark
Wednesday, February 16, 2011
Five “Must Do’s” for B2G Marketers in 2011
In bad economic times, marketing budgets suffer. So what do B2G marketers need to focus on to stay ahead of the curve, to be able to defend your marketing budget and program, and make solid contributions yo your organization?
Visibility for your company, product or service does not happen by itself. Here are five areas you must focus on to ensure your marketing program remains a big corporate contributor.
1) Aligning marketing programs with sales and business development (BD) goals. While this may seem like a 'no brainer', it is surprising how many marketing programs are not aligned aligned with sales or BD goals, While the use of all the new, cool web 2.0 tools is fun and exciting, if they are not supporting specific sales or BD efforts, they may not be contributing to the bottom line. Marketing must attend all sales meetings to better understand the needs and requirements of both inbound and field sales. input from sales on things like event participation is a major key to success.
2) Speaking of web 2.o tools, they can be both cool and useful, if deployed properly. For example, much has been written about the use of webinars as a sales support tool, and webinars can be a great lead generator, if they are done properly. Often in the excitement of deploying a new technology, the technology is not always used to its best advantage. Selecting the right web 2.0 tools is step one, using them to effectively support specific corporate goals is job two. In order to maximize the value of each tool, you have to understand all the nuances of the tool. One example is blogs. Anyone can deploy a blog literally in a matter of minutes. But writing a good blog is not simple and driving traffic to your blog does not happen by itself. Thee other web 2.0 tools require the same care in selection and deployment, including podcasts, videos, social networks and more.
3) Content is extremely valuable, and it can be deployed using the web 2.0 tool just discussed, as well as by more traditional methods, including your web site, white papers, collateral material, speaking at live events and more. Content is a great support tool for both sales and BD, and it lays the groundwork for developing a thought leadership platform within the market.
4) Networking, both face-to-face and virtual, is the best way to develop the relationships critical to success in the government market. but there are hundreds of venues where you can network, so deciding where to network and then learning how to network are crucial. What are the venues best suited to your sales and BD personnel, and how can you support them once the venues are identified.
5) PR remains a key component of the overall marketing program, but the venues here are shifting and morphing as well, seemingly on a daily basis. But the fact remains that being interviewed or cited in the right publication, blog or radio show (traditional radio or web) bestows on you a mantle of authority: if you are the one interviewed or quoted, you are obviously the expert. Good PR gives you a credibility that advertising cannot buy. So again, selecting the right venues and getting noticed by them is a big key to the success of your marketing program.
Need more?
Attend Government Marketing Best Practices 2011 at the Mason Inn on the campus of George Mason University. There are two sessions: March 9 and March 22, both from 7:30 AM- 4:30 PM.
Government Marketing Best Practices is now part of the Government Market Master certificate program at the School of Management at George Mason University.
Register today and use this code for a $50 discount: AYGMM
March 9:
https://crm.orionondemand.com/crm/forms/Kzx75pN6700kx6700qM2
March 22
https://crm.orionondemand.com/crm/forms/zC670waN67020x6702aM2
Visibility for your company, product or service does not happen by itself. Here are five areas you must focus on to ensure your marketing program remains a big corporate contributor.
1) Aligning marketing programs with sales and business development (BD) goals. While this may seem like a 'no brainer', it is surprising how many marketing programs are not aligned aligned with sales or BD goals, While the use of all the new, cool web 2.0 tools is fun and exciting, if they are not supporting specific sales or BD efforts, they may not be contributing to the bottom line. Marketing must attend all sales meetings to better understand the needs and requirements of both inbound and field sales. input from sales on things like event participation is a major key to success.
2) Speaking of web 2.o tools, they can be both cool and useful, if deployed properly. For example, much has been written about the use of webinars as a sales support tool, and webinars can be a great lead generator, if they are done properly. Often in the excitement of deploying a new technology, the technology is not always used to its best advantage. Selecting the right web 2.0 tools is step one, using them to effectively support specific corporate goals is job two. In order to maximize the value of each tool, you have to understand all the nuances of the tool. One example is blogs. Anyone can deploy a blog literally in a matter of minutes. But writing a good blog is not simple and driving traffic to your blog does not happen by itself. Thee other web 2.0 tools require the same care in selection and deployment, including podcasts, videos, social networks and more.
3) Content is extremely valuable, and it can be deployed using the web 2.0 tool just discussed, as well as by more traditional methods, including your web site, white papers, collateral material, speaking at live events and more. Content is a great support tool for both sales and BD, and it lays the groundwork for developing a thought leadership platform within the market.
4) Networking, both face-to-face and virtual, is the best way to develop the relationships critical to success in the government market. but there are hundreds of venues where you can network, so deciding where to network and then learning how to network are crucial. What are the venues best suited to your sales and BD personnel, and how can you support them once the venues are identified.
5) PR remains a key component of the overall marketing program, but the venues here are shifting and morphing as well, seemingly on a daily basis. But the fact remains that being interviewed or cited in the right publication, blog or radio show (traditional radio or web) bestows on you a mantle of authority: if you are the one interviewed or quoted, you are obviously the expert. Good PR gives you a credibility that advertising cannot buy. So again, selecting the right venues and getting noticed by them is a big key to the success of your marketing program.
Need more?
Attend Government Marketing Best Practices 2011 at the Mason Inn on the campus of George Mason University. There are two sessions: March 9 and March 22, both from 7:30 AM- 4:30 PM.
Government Marketing Best Practices is now part of the Government Market Master certificate program at the School of Management at George Mason University.
Register today and use this code for a $50 discount: AYGMM
March 9:
https://crm.orionondemand.com/crm/forms/Kzx75pN6700kx6700qM2
March 22
https://crm.orionondemand.com/crm/forms/zC670waN67020x6702aM2
Sunday, June 20, 2010
Why LinkedIn, Why Now
Are you leveraging social media, or are you still on the sidelines?
If you listen to my radio show or have heard me speak in the last three years, you will know that a significant part of my message has been the growing use of social media and web 2.0 tools for B2G marketers. Among the tools I have been advocating are webinars, podcasts, video, and various social networking tools, especially LinkedIn.
Last year Market Connections (http://www.marketconnectionsinc.com/) released the 2009-2010 Federal Media and Marketing Study which touched on the use of 14 social media tools. According to the now year old study, the top five social media tools were Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn, My Space and Twitter.
Fast forward to the just released Market Connections 2010 Social Media Study. This study (available for purchase at the above mentioned web site) indicates a rapidly growing acceptance and use of social media tools by both industry and government. Government is lagging behind, but they have more restrictions for everything. However the study indicates use of social media by 29% of Feds and 55% of contractors.
The main uses of social networking by contractors are marketing and sales (60%), event information (59%), press releases (51%), job postings (44%), white papers/case studies (38%), presentations/speeches (35%), videos/pictures (28%), and product demos (23%). There are more findings, but these are the major ones.
The finding in this study that shows the biggest change from the 2009 study is that LinkedIn has emerged as the most popular social networking site with 36% of the responders using it. Facebook was at 26%. It my interview with John Kagia of Market Connections (http://www.federalnewsradio.com/) he indicated that the use of these networks continues to grow.
So why is this important to you?
LinkedIn has over 70,000,000 users worldwide, with the majority are in the U.S. - and it continues to grow. My research indicates the Washington Technology Top 100 are all here, in significant numbers. Rarely do I find a significant government contractor that is not on LinkedIn.
If you put "government" in the search box and search on "groups" you will find (as of 6/20/10) 4,197 groups having something to do with government. In the top 100 of the government groups there are 20-25 that focus on some aspect of government contracting, including one of my groups, Government Market Master (with almost 1,400 members).
So again, why is this important to you?
According to the Market Connection study, only 19% of the companies using social media have a strategy or social media policy in place. With no strategy or policy, there will be little or no way to measure the effectiveness of what you are doing, what messages are going out, and what image of your company is being presented.
If you devise a proactive social media strategy (with an intelligent policy behind it), you will be able to use some measurement tools, set some goals, and start measuring the effectiveness of various platforms.
Nowhere in the Market Connections study did it mention one of the major uses for LinkedIn for small businesses: differentiation. All businesses need to differentiate themselves, but for small government contractors, it is closer to a 'life and death' situation- differentiate or die a slow death.
For any small business not currently using social media, or using it only in a limited way, you are missing the major low-cost marketing tool that can truly help you stand out in the crowd.
Here's what you can do right now:
Over the next six months I will be hosting a coaching group for companies seeking to grow their businesses by the intelligent, proactive use of social media, focusing largely on LinkedIn.
During the six months of the program, we will host 2-3 teleseminars each month (all will be recorded and be available for replay) and there will be monthly one-on-one coaching with each company. Each company will also get an initial tele-planning session with me to create an action plan that suits your needs.
By the end of the program, you will end up with an audio library of 15+ hours of training you can use again and again. And you will be light years ahead of where you are on LinkedIn now.
Each tele-session will focus on one topic:
- social media policies
- developing benchmarks
- differentiation
- building personal profiles that attract customers and partners
- finding and managing your company profile
- finding and joining groups that can help you grow
- how to reach out to potential partners and customers and build your network
- selecting LinkedIn applications that will work for your company
- publicizing your company and events
-using Q&A, recommendations, defining your area of expertise and much more.
After each session you can do Q&A with me via email, and use your monthly session to tie this into your custom program.
And all participants will get my 3-CD set, The Ultimate Jumpstart Program for Social Networking – Maximizing LinkedIn.
If you are interested in seeing the details, email me at mark (at) FederalDirect.net or call me at 301 924 0058.
Why me, why Mark Amtower?
I have been on LinkedIn since February 11, 2004. My "membership" number is around 225,000 - out of 70,000,000. Currently I have nearly 2,700 connections (primarily in the government market), belong to 50 groups (primarily B2G in focus), and have gained national recognition for my use in social media (one of the top 7 LinkedIn profiles in the 2009 Rock the World with Your Online presence contest) and being profiled for using LinkedIn as a thought leadership tool at MarketingProfs. I have also done about 25 media (radio and print) interviews on using LinkedIn. The FedTech Bisnow newsletter called me "the Lord of LinkedIn" (11/10/09, http://www.bisnow.com/washington_dc_tech_news_story.php?p=6007 ).
Everywhere I go in the arena of doing business with the government, people know me because of my use of LinkedIn. Take a look at my profile and see why.
Then call me and sign up so you can get the same results.
If you listen to my radio show or have heard me speak in the last three years, you will know that a significant part of my message has been the growing use of social media and web 2.0 tools for B2G marketers. Among the tools I have been advocating are webinars, podcasts, video, and various social networking tools, especially LinkedIn.
Last year Market Connections (http://www.marketconnectionsinc.com/) released the 2009-2010 Federal Media and Marketing Study which touched on the use of 14 social media tools. According to the now year old study, the top five social media tools were Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn, My Space and Twitter.
Fast forward to the just released Market Connections 2010 Social Media Study. This study (available for purchase at the above mentioned web site) indicates a rapidly growing acceptance and use of social media tools by both industry and government. Government is lagging behind, but they have more restrictions for everything. However the study indicates use of social media by 29% of Feds and 55% of contractors.
The main uses of social networking by contractors are marketing and sales (60%), event information (59%), press releases (51%), job postings (44%), white papers/case studies (38%), presentations/speeches (35%), videos/pictures (28%), and product demos (23%). There are more findings, but these are the major ones.
The finding in this study that shows the biggest change from the 2009 study is that LinkedIn has emerged as the most popular social networking site with 36% of the responders using it. Facebook was at 26%. It my interview with John Kagia of Market Connections (http://www.federalnewsradio.com/) he indicated that the use of these networks continues to grow.
So why is this important to you?
LinkedIn has over 70,000,000 users worldwide, with the majority are in the U.S. - and it continues to grow. My research indicates the Washington Technology Top 100 are all here, in significant numbers. Rarely do I find a significant government contractor that is not on LinkedIn.
If you put "government" in the search box and search on "groups" you will find (as of 6/20/10) 4,197 groups having something to do with government. In the top 100 of the government groups there are 20-25 that focus on some aspect of government contracting, including one of my groups, Government Market Master (with almost 1,400 members).
So again, why is this important to you?
According to the Market Connection study, only 19% of the companies using social media have a strategy or social media policy in place. With no strategy or policy, there will be little or no way to measure the effectiveness of what you are doing, what messages are going out, and what image of your company is being presented.
If you devise a proactive social media strategy (with an intelligent policy behind it), you will be able to use some measurement tools, set some goals, and start measuring the effectiveness of various platforms.
Nowhere in the Market Connections study did it mention one of the major uses for LinkedIn for small businesses: differentiation. All businesses need to differentiate themselves, but for small government contractors, it is closer to a 'life and death' situation- differentiate or die a slow death.
For any small business not currently using social media, or using it only in a limited way, you are missing the major low-cost marketing tool that can truly help you stand out in the crowd.
Here's what you can do right now:
Over the next six months I will be hosting a coaching group for companies seeking to grow their businesses by the intelligent, proactive use of social media, focusing largely on LinkedIn.
During the six months of the program, we will host 2-3 teleseminars each month (all will be recorded and be available for replay) and there will be monthly one-on-one coaching with each company. Each company will also get an initial tele-planning session with me to create an action plan that suits your needs.
By the end of the program, you will end up with an audio library of 15+ hours of training you can use again and again. And you will be light years ahead of where you are on LinkedIn now.
Each tele-session will focus on one topic:
- social media policies
- developing benchmarks
- differentiation
- building personal profiles that attract customers and partners
- finding and managing your company profile
- finding and joining groups that can help you grow
- how to reach out to potential partners and customers and build your network
- selecting LinkedIn applications that will work for your company
- publicizing your company and events
-using Q&A, recommendations, defining your area of expertise and much more.
After each session you can do Q&A with me via email, and use your monthly session to tie this into your custom program.
And all participants will get my 3-CD set, The Ultimate Jumpstart Program for Social Networking – Maximizing LinkedIn.
If you are interested in seeing the details, email me at mark (at) FederalDirect.net or call me at 301 924 0058.
Why me, why Mark Amtower?
I have been on LinkedIn since February 11, 2004. My "membership" number is around 225,000 - out of 70,000,000. Currently I have nearly 2,700 connections (primarily in the government market), belong to 50 groups (primarily B2G in focus), and have gained national recognition for my use in social media (one of the top 7 LinkedIn profiles in the 2009 Rock the World with Your Online presence contest) and being profiled for using LinkedIn as a thought leadership tool at MarketingProfs. I have also done about 25 media (radio and print) interviews on using LinkedIn. The FedTech Bisnow newsletter called me "the Lord of LinkedIn" (11/10/09, http://www.bisnow.com/washington_dc_tech_news_story.php?p=6007 ).
Everywhere I go in the arena of doing business with the government, people know me because of my use of LinkedIn. Take a look at my profile and see why.
Then call me and sign up so you can get the same results.
Friday, November 27, 2009
Twitter, and Blogging and LinkedIn – Oh My! Why to leverage social networking tools for smarter, faster and cheaper B2G marketing.
The basic goal of marketing is to get attention from a targeted audience, then to influence that audience in some positive (positive for you) way. If your job includes growing your pipeline and growing your business, gaining and retaining customers, growing your overall influence in your niche, and do so in a cost effective way – you need to read on.
If your job is to make sure you keep pace with your competitors or set the pace for your niche, you need to read this.
If you could reach key people in your niche, at least in part, with readily available tools that you can use yourself, would you seriously consider using the tools?
Oh, and did I mention they have a minimal cost?
LinkedIn, blogging and Twitter each represent low-cost and no-cost tools that allow you to reach and interact with targeted audiences.
While there is no doubt that social media has changed the marketing landscape, there are still many doubters and very slow adopters. And even for many of those who have adopted one or more of the social networking tools do not use them to anywhere near the full capacity.
In fact, many sign up and then sit and wait for something to happen.
I still have conversations with people who still maintain that LinkedIn is only for those seeking work, that blogging is for those who have way too much extra time on the hands and that Twitter is for Twits. These people, and their companies, are way too busy for peripheral activities like LinkedIn, blogging and Twitter.
As other media venues stagnate or shrinking, each of us still needs to reach key audiences. The information gathering habits of many in our market have changed and we must change with them.
I am only highlighting 3 tools here but there are many others in use and some just coming along. Webinars, podcasting, web radio and video, FaceBook, GovLoop, TFCN and many others are out there offer good-to-great value for those who leverage them properly.
Being on LinkedIn is no longer simply a ‘nice to have’ activity. If you are not there, you are in a rapidly shrinking minority. LinkedIn is a great venue for identifying key government influencers and those trying to sell to them- resellers, SIs, manufacturers and others. The entire roster of the top 100 contractors (the Washington Technology list) is represented on LinkedIn, as are most of the top GSA Schedule contractors. Overall there are over 50,000,000 professionals on LinkedIn. While not all are overly active, there is enough activity to merit your active participation.
In order to begin to use LinkedIn properly, your profile needs to be filled with enough information to get the attention of those who view it. I will address this at my December 7 B2G Social media event – see the link at the end of this post.
As of today (11/27/09) there are exactly 3,100 groups that have something to do with ‘government’ on LinkedIn. Aside from those, there are niche groups covering all manner of subject matter from various technologies, products and services. When you identify the right groups to join, you can share your thoughts, do research and otherwise participate in the discussions germane to your niche. Participation here raises your overall visibility in your niche and display an area of expertise.
Cost of participating on LinkedIn? $0. While there are paid levels for those wishing to use more tools, basic participation is free.
According to blogging diva Debbie Weil, blogging is different from conventional web sites because blogs are interactive, conversational in nature, created via an instant publishing platform (no IT staff required), offer an involvement factor that web sites lack, and can create a thought leadership position for the blogger. Web 2.0 thought leaders David Meerman Scott and Chris Brogan lead with their blogs. They post regularly (and intelligently) and both have developed massive followings as a result.
Blogs also allow you to truly position yourself as a niche master or thought leader in a specific niche. This occurs not by regurgitating information from other sources but by evolving your own thoughts on the niche and commenting on the positions of others as necessary.
Cost for blogging? There are both free and paid blogging tools, but even the paid ones are not expensive. Select the one that best suits your needs.
The one I personally have the hardest time with – Twitter is becoming clearer to me all the time. Chris Brogan’s blog on Twitter is a great place to start: http://www.chrisbrogan.com/50-ideas-on-using-twitter-for-business/ .
The first issue with Twitter for B2G is ‘are there really enough people in the government market using Twitter to make a difference?’ While open for debate, perhaps the best answer is the number continues to grow. The publications, service providers, many thought leaders and government contractors are officially tweeting on a regular basis, as are many government agencies.
Following some of the publications (WashTech and others) on Twitter allows you to get instant news updates, calendar reminders and more.
Twitter is becoming more and more widespread in B2G marketing and it can no longer be ignored.
Cost for tweeting? Twitter is free.
So why should you bother to engage in using these social networking tools? If your job includes growing your pipeline and growing your business, gaining and retaining customers, growing your overall influence in your niche, and do so in a cost effective way – you need to start using these tools on behalf of your company.
If your job is to make sure you keep pace with your competitors or set the pace for your niche, you need to be here.
If you need to know more, please consider attending our upcoming event on December 7 in Tysons Corner, Virginia:
http://www.governmentmarketmaster.com/events.html
If your job is to make sure you keep pace with your competitors or set the pace for your niche, you need to read this.
If you could reach key people in your niche, at least in part, with readily available tools that you can use yourself, would you seriously consider using the tools?
Oh, and did I mention they have a minimal cost?
LinkedIn, blogging and Twitter each represent low-cost and no-cost tools that allow you to reach and interact with targeted audiences.
While there is no doubt that social media has changed the marketing landscape, there are still many doubters and very slow adopters. And even for many of those who have adopted one or more of the social networking tools do not use them to anywhere near the full capacity.
In fact, many sign up and then sit and wait for something to happen.
I still have conversations with people who still maintain that LinkedIn is only for those seeking work, that blogging is for those who have way too much extra time on the hands and that Twitter is for Twits. These people, and their companies, are way too busy for peripheral activities like LinkedIn, blogging and Twitter.
As other media venues stagnate or shrinking, each of us still needs to reach key audiences. The information gathering habits of many in our market have changed and we must change with them.
I am only highlighting 3 tools here but there are many others in use and some just coming along. Webinars, podcasting, web radio and video, FaceBook, GovLoop, TFCN and many others are out there offer good-to-great value for those who leverage them properly.
Being on LinkedIn is no longer simply a ‘nice to have’ activity. If you are not there, you are in a rapidly shrinking minority. LinkedIn is a great venue for identifying key government influencers and those trying to sell to them- resellers, SIs, manufacturers and others. The entire roster of the top 100 contractors (the Washington Technology list) is represented on LinkedIn, as are most of the top GSA Schedule contractors. Overall there are over 50,000,000 professionals on LinkedIn. While not all are overly active, there is enough activity to merit your active participation.
In order to begin to use LinkedIn properly, your profile needs to be filled with enough information to get the attention of those who view it. I will address this at my December 7 B2G Social media event – see the link at the end of this post.
As of today (11/27/09) there are exactly 3,100 groups that have something to do with ‘government’ on LinkedIn. Aside from those, there are niche groups covering all manner of subject matter from various technologies, products and services. When you identify the right groups to join, you can share your thoughts, do research and otherwise participate in the discussions germane to your niche. Participation here raises your overall visibility in your niche and display an area of expertise.
Cost of participating on LinkedIn? $0. While there are paid levels for those wishing to use more tools, basic participation is free.
According to blogging diva Debbie Weil, blogging is different from conventional web sites because blogs are interactive, conversational in nature, created via an instant publishing platform (no IT staff required), offer an involvement factor that web sites lack, and can create a thought leadership position for the blogger. Web 2.0 thought leaders David Meerman Scott and Chris Brogan lead with their blogs. They post regularly (and intelligently) and both have developed massive followings as a result.
Blogs also allow you to truly position yourself as a niche master or thought leader in a specific niche. This occurs not by regurgitating information from other sources but by evolving your own thoughts on the niche and commenting on the positions of others as necessary.
Cost for blogging? There are both free and paid blogging tools, but even the paid ones are not expensive. Select the one that best suits your needs.
The one I personally have the hardest time with – Twitter is becoming clearer to me all the time. Chris Brogan’s blog on Twitter is a great place to start: http://www.chrisbrogan.com/50-ideas-on-using-twitter-for-business/ .
The first issue with Twitter for B2G is ‘are there really enough people in the government market using Twitter to make a difference?’ While open for debate, perhaps the best answer is the number continues to grow. The publications, service providers, many thought leaders and government contractors are officially tweeting on a regular basis, as are many government agencies.
Following some of the publications (WashTech and others) on Twitter allows you to get instant news updates, calendar reminders and more.
Twitter is becoming more and more widespread in B2G marketing and it can no longer be ignored.
Cost for tweeting? Twitter is free.
So why should you bother to engage in using these social networking tools? If your job includes growing your pipeline and growing your business, gaining and retaining customers, growing your overall influence in your niche, and do so in a cost effective way – you need to start using these tools on behalf of your company.
If your job is to make sure you keep pace with your competitors or set the pace for your niche, you need to be here.
If you need to know more, please consider attending our upcoming event on December 7 in Tysons Corner, Virginia:
http://www.governmentmarketmaster.com/events.html
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
WSJ - Why Email No Longer Rules
WSJ reporter Jessica Vascellaro wrote on Oct 12: Email has had a good run as king of communications. But its reign is over.In its place, a new generation of services is starting to take hold—services like Twitter and Facebook and countless others vying for a piece of the new world. And just as email did more than a decade ago, this shift promises to profoundly rewrite the way we communicate—in ways we can only begin to imagine.
This is not news to many, but apparently it still is with a variety of companies, even those in the government market. It should not be news here as the way President Obama was elected was heavily influenced by social media, and many new administration policies are designed to increase the use of social media by and for federal agencies.
While the article focuses on the growth of Twitter and the response by traditional email suppliers (Google, Microsoft, Yahoo, AOL, etc), it does reeference other social media. Many government agencies (NASA and others) use Twitter to keep people abreast of what the agency is doing. While this is not used to transact business, it does illustrate the ability of an agency to create interest and even excitement regarding governmetnal actions - like the NASA satellite that was intentionally crashed into the moon.
There are a myriad of social media platforms attracting niche markets - including government contractors, aka B2G. For example, on LinkedIn when you search "groups" using "government" as the search term, there are 2,856 results as of 12:29 PM today (10/14/09). Now these groups cover all facets of government: federal, state and local, lobbying, compliance issues, grass roots movements as well as contractors. When I ran this same search earlier this year there were just over 2,000 groups.
There is a considerable presence of contractors and government officials (federal, state and local) on LinkedIn. I am directly connected to 1,900 professionals via LinkedIn and I have a 2nd degree network of about 555,000. Within 3 degrees I have over 12,103,600 registered people in my network. LinkedIn has over 45,000,000 business users at this time and it is growing.
I use LinkedIn to build a broader, deeper network, then stay in touch with that network. If you need to learn more about how i use LinkedIn and how it may benefit you, go to
http://www.governmentmarketmaster.com/webinars.html
We also have specialized groups like TFCN and GovLoop. And even on Facebook I am connected to some very senior federal and industry people.
I don't see a significant Federal community (feds or contractors) using Twitter....yet. But it is coming, and we have to be prepared.
The way we communicate is changing rapidly and it is critical to stay current with those changes to maintain ANY competitive advantage.
This is not news to many, but apparently it still is with a variety of companies, even those in the government market. It should not be news here as the way President Obama was elected was heavily influenced by social media, and many new administration policies are designed to increase the use of social media by and for federal agencies.
While the article focuses on the growth of Twitter and the response by traditional email suppliers (Google, Microsoft, Yahoo, AOL, etc), it does reeference other social media. Many government agencies (NASA and others) use Twitter to keep people abreast of what the agency is doing. While this is not used to transact business, it does illustrate the ability of an agency to create interest and even excitement regarding governmetnal actions - like the NASA satellite that was intentionally crashed into the moon.
There are a myriad of social media platforms attracting niche markets - including government contractors, aka B2G. For example, on LinkedIn when you search "groups" using "government" as the search term, there are 2,856 results as of 12:29 PM today (10/14/09). Now these groups cover all facets of government: federal, state and local, lobbying, compliance issues, grass roots movements as well as contractors. When I ran this same search earlier this year there were just over 2,000 groups.
There is a considerable presence of contractors and government officials (federal, state and local) on LinkedIn. I am directly connected to 1,900 professionals via LinkedIn and I have a 2nd degree network of about 555,000. Within 3 degrees I have over 12,103,600 registered people in my network. LinkedIn has over 45,000,000 business users at this time and it is growing.
I use LinkedIn to build a broader, deeper network, then stay in touch with that network. If you need to learn more about how i use LinkedIn and how it may benefit you, go to
http://www.governmentmarketmaster.com/webinars.html
We also have specialized groups like TFCN and GovLoop. And even on Facebook I am connected to some very senior federal and industry people.
I don't see a significant Federal community (feds or contractors) using Twitter....yet. But it is coming, and we have to be prepared.
The way we communicate is changing rapidly and it is critical to stay current with those changes to maintain ANY competitive advantage.
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