6 Oct, 2020
linkedin social media
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Shel Horowitz’s Clean and Green Marketing Tip: October 2020
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Are You Making THIS Mistake in Your Social Media Outreach?
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As I went through a couple of weeks’ worth of LinkedIn connection requests, I saw several with messages:
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We haven’t met…This will come out of nowhere, but we just finished a PPC project for a well known consultant. Thought you might want to connect//start a conversation, etc…who knows…
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Hi Shel, I hope you are well! I’d be honored to connect and network on LinkedIn Looking forward to sharing value and seeing your content,
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Hi Shel, It’s good to “e-meet” you. Thought it would be good to connect here on LinkedIn given our mutual connections. Hope all is well! Thanks, [First Name]
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I’m [First Name], I own and run an amazing AR/VR Animation Studio, a Digital Marketing Agency, and two Software Development Companies! I also happen to think I’m a pretty cool connection to have 😉 haha. Lets connect!
And (from a self-proclaimed LinkedIn lead generation expert)
I hope you are well! I’d be honored to connect and network on LinkedIn Looking forward to sharing value and seeing your content, [First Name]
And
I am involved in utilizing AI in managing building management systems to maximize economic value for building infrastructure. I saw your LinkedIn profile and thought it would be great to connect.
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When you see messages like this, what does it bring up for you?
For me, it seems like someone told them it would be a good idea to personalize their LI connection requests, and they think a standard generic message, in most cases all about them, will do the trick. I did like the phrase, “I’d be honored to connect,” but the rest of her message gives me no idea where the shared value would show up.
I wrote back to the one starting “We haven’t met”, who seemed more clued in than most of them:
No need for PPC campaign but happy to connect. At the risk of giving advice you haven’t asked for, may I suggest that you might improve your results if you give some idea of the industry or your general capabilities? As a copywriter, I see your message as better than some, but still very lacking in the specificity that provides credibility.
If he responds, I now have an opening to sell him on my copywriting services. But not on the first date. Relationship building requires an actual individual point to build on. None of these people have a pre-existing relationship with me.
None took two minutes to visit my page, see what I’m about, and customize their message accordingly. The AI person would have seen that I’m a one-person consulting company and I don’t work in the building trades. The AR/VR person might have pitched me on extending those services to my marketing clients and told me what kinds of software he’s developed, instead of bragging about how amazing he is.
Compare those approaches with this one in the same batch:
Hey Shel, I’m building GoodHuman, a place to discover all things ethical and sustainable in one immersive mobile app. We’ve vetted 650 brands in apparel and beauty and users can connect with others on the same mission. Would you be interested in early access as a beta tester for the app? 😀
This is much better. In the first line, he talks about two of my touchpoints, ethics and sustainability—plus his branding resonates with me. He finishes by asking if I’d like to beta-test his cool-sounding software, but he doesn’t tell me it’s cool, letting me judge for myself. In short, he is laying that foundation for an actual business relationship and maybe even a friendship. I wrote back,
Sounds like you’re doing great work. Please tell me more about how you see the role (and time commitment) of your beta testers. There might be a fit, but I do very little purchasing in the two areas you mentioned. Also, please have a look at what I’m doing: https://goingbeyondsustainability.com
And he responded quickly that he’d be happy to send me an access code if I wanted one. I said yes. Taking the time first to write to me based on my own interests and second to build a relationship set him apart from all those others. That relationship got off to a much better start.
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Would you like to be quoted or featured in media like the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Christian Science Monitor, ABC TV News, Redbook, and Reader’s Digest? I do at least 30 interviews in a typical year, 50 or more if I’ve got a new book out.
My favorite way to get coverage is to respond to reporters who have posted that they’re actively looking for sources for a story they’re working on. It’s so much easier to get press by giving a journalist the exact information they need to write a story than to “spray and pray” by sending press releases or cold-calling.
Several services match journalists with story sources—and most of them don’t charge anything. There’s one called HARO, also known as Help A Reporter, that I’m particularly fond of. I put time aside three times every weekday to look over the queries and respond to the ones that could benefit me.
But here’s the thing: I’ve forwarded reporters’ source queries to friends many times. And when I see their responses, I often cringe. I got tired of cringing, so I wrote a 40-page quick-read ebook on how to answer those queries the right way. It includes seven actual queries (by me and four other people) that resulted in coverage in Reader’s Digest, the Toronto Globe and Mail, and elsewhere—with analysis of why they worked and how some of them could have been even better–as well as four failed queries and a look at why they didn’t work.
It also includes three bonus reports: How to Write Press Releases that Actually Get Media Coverage—and Your Prospects’ Attention (includes 10 full or partial actual “story-behind-the-story” press release examples); Ten Other Services That Get You in Front of Journalists and Show Producers; and How to Get Superstars to Endorse Your Book—discussing some of the ways I’ve gotten endorsements or guest essays from Chicken Soup for the Soul co-creator Jack Canfield, futurist Seth Godin, Cynthia Kersey (author of Unstoppable and Unstoppable Women), Frances Moore Lappe, author of Diet for a Small Planet, and the founder of the Guerrilla Marketing concept, Jay Conrad Levinson (who later co-authored two books with me).
This very useful addition to YOUR marketing toolkit is just $7.95, delivered instantly as a PDF. Get your copy at https://shelhorowitz.com/product/generate-thousands-of-dollars-in-publicity-without-spending-a-cent/
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Discover why Chicken Soup’s Jack Canfield, futurist Seth Godin, and many others recommend Shel’s 10th book, Guerrilla Marketing to Heal the World (and download a free sampler). Autographed and inscribed copies available.
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You are “The Expert” – Let the world know.
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** Press Room Search Engine select from 39 topics
** Send News Releases (including Google News) sent out 10 ways
** Print Listing in the 2021 Yearbook of Experts, Authorities & Spokespersons
Save 15% when you register at this link: http://www.expertclick.com/discount/Shel_Horowitz
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A Very Stable Genius, by Philip Rucker and Carol Leonnig
Important Note: Most of this review was written in mid-September. As I write this update, it’s October 4. A lot has happened in those seven weeks: Ruth Bader Ginsberg died and Trump nominated the ultrarightist Amy Coney Barrett, who has less than three years experience as a judge (seven months of that when the courts were closed) and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is attempting to push her nomination through in violation of his own 2016 precedent. The first debate was held, where Trump proved once again that he has no manners, no grasp of policy, and no desire to tell the truth. And Mr. and Mrs. Trump, along with at least three Republican senators, came down with Coronavirus after saying for months that it was not a big problem, even as more than 210,000 Americans have died of it —and while revelations surfaced that he knew back in February that the virus was a severe problem. Trump also openly stated that he wouldn’t abide by an election result that he lost, raising fears of a coup following the election. All of these make it clearer than ever that we need a complete repudiation of Trumpism to make this election outcome too big to steal.
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There are any number of books you can read about the unsuitability of the present occupant of the White House for his job. It really doesn’t matter if you read Mary Trump, Bob Woodward, this one written by a pair of investigative journalists at the Washington Post, or some of the others. And I know I may lose some readers over this—but I feel that for people who care about the issues I write about regularly—the environment, the business case for sustainability, ethics as a success driver, the value of competence and of science, and more—it would be immoral for me not to discuss the greatest threat to the climate and to American democracy. It would be a crime against my values not to urge a vote for Biden.
What matters is that we all recognize every American eligible to vote has a clear picture of the incompetent and corrupt liar who inhabits 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. This man is a would-be dictator who cozies up to dictators and thugs around the world, who in turn see him correctly as easily manipulated: stroke his ego, tell him what he wants to hear, and he’ll sell the country down the tube for you. Tell him a painful truth, and you get thrown under the bus. He has no sense of how to govern, no sense of constitutional limits on his power, no regard for what might actually be good for the country or this world, and only cares about how it benefits him and his cronies, and how it looks on TV. The most recent example: he put the lives of two Secret Service men and a driver at risk to take a joyride near the grounds of Walter Reed Hospital so he could wave at his adoring fans while he was still contagious.
Rucker and Leonnig paint a dismal picture of the campaign and the first few years in office, pretty much ending with the Mueller report but with an epilogue about the incident that finally got him impeached: attempting to blackmail the president of Ukraine to investigate Biden if he wanted the foreign aid that had already been authorized.
I’m not going to get very specific in this review, because all the significant outcomes have been widely reported in the news.
But I will make an exception on page 170. So much is crammed onto that page: his ignorance, his penchant for corruption, and his lack of understanding of how he was being manipulated. Here’s the corruption piece:
Trump perked up at the mention of bribes and got rather agitated. He told Tillerson he wanted to help him get rid of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.
“It’s just so unfair that American companies aren’t allowed to pay bribes to get business overseas,” Trump told the group. “We’re going to change that.”
Looking at Tillerson, Trump said, “I need you to get rid of that law…”
What I found most interesting was the clear lens on what happened behind the scenes. Rucker and Leonnig show us the back story in vivid detail: who was trying to do what, why, and how the palace politics was playing out. You find out who was fighting with whom, who was covering up for whom (hint: the beneficiary was usually the guy at the Resolute Desk). All the intrigues and negotiations. The differences between those in the administration who thought he is saving the world, and those who thought their job was to save the world FROM him (the now-departed adults in the room like Tillerson, Kelly, and Mattis).
I know that many of you have probably voted already. If you haven’t, get out there and vote. Whether you voted early or not, get your friends to vote. Volunteer with and/or financially help an election protection organization. This is a moment to step up.
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Speaker, author, and consultant Shel Horowitz of GoingBeyondSustainabiity.com helps businesses find the sweet spot at the intersections of profitability with environmental and social good — creating and marketing profitable products and services that make a direct difference on problems like hunger, poverty, war, and catastrophic climate change. His 10th book is Guerrilla Marketing to Heal the World.
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5 May, 2009
free content google linkedin marketing with freebies repurposing content
Do you offer any freebies to build your business? I sure do!
I’ve built my business on giving away vast quantities of information–but through that, selling both information and brainpower as an author and speaker, and as a consultant and copywriter. Google loves my sites because of the thousands of articles (about 2/3 written by other people). People on discussion lists hire me because of the quality of free information I provide. I get exposure for my books by strategically giving away copies here and there, and subscribers to my newsletters through participating in launch-bonus programs. I actually got a book contract with a major publisher because I contributed an essay, for free, to one of its authors’ books.
And let’s face it. Even though I do get paid for writing my books, the amount of content I include far outweighs the price, and on a per-hour basis, is not the most bean-counter-effective use of my time. But the books give me credibility in the media…inexpensive gifts of great value that I can use strategically…at least some income stream…tons of “street cred”…something to sell when I speak… and assorted other non-monetary advantages.
The point is to do it strategically. To be totally transparent, I am posting here figuring that at least a few people reading this will pop over to https://www.frugalmarketing.com to access some of the free content, sign up for the newsletter, maybe buy a book or two, and consider me when they need marketing consulting or copywriting.
Also, when I give information for free, I often mine material I’ve already created, so the labor factor is low. This article started as a response on a LinkedIn discussion group; now I’ve tweaked and repurposed it as the featured article in this month’s Monthly Frugal Marketing Tips newsletter.
Which doesn’t mean every time I do a giveaway, I’m expecting an immediate return. I think of it as a karmic thing. But it’s been the dominant factor in successfully marketing my business since 1996.
See more great advice in Shel’s award-winning marketing books. Click here to learn about them.
