Jan Scott - the web stuff woman

Marketing and manners - mainly about Twitter

Bit of an oxymoron, that title? Let me say at the outset that I think most of us are very good mannered, or certainly have that intention, as we set about marketing our services as coaches, therapists, consultants etc.

Recently I observed an online discussion around ethics and marketing. There was a fair bit of 'of course we're ethical' going on, and I'm sure that most of us are, but the debate fed into a line of thinking I have been following for a while.

I had noticed that, in certain parts of the marketplace, Twitter is being used as a tool with which to bombard all one’s ‘followers’ with marketing messages. When I expressed my discomfort with this on a forum I received a series of emails in which 'how to use Twitter to market yourself' was painstakingly explained to me. In truth, I 'got' that already, but didn't like it at all, either as a receiver, or as a potential Twit.

Recently I started to spend less time on my @webstuffwoman twitter dashboard and more on @groovy_granny - using it to build relationships and to specifically NOT follow anyone who did the 'in your face' marketing thing. What has happened has been quite life changing, and I choose that expression deliberately.

Firstly it has been validating - yes, there is a buzzing Twitter community who are not of the 'I'm having a ham sandwich for lunch' brigade, neither are they ... (see above)!

Most importantly, though, I've found is an authentic community which uses a polite, modest approach. Two of my new Twitter friends have posted in ways which underline this:

Kicking it analog old school in this new digital world

Rules of the playground

Their subject matter is different but the basic premise is old fashioned good manners and let's hear it for modesty and humility.

Humility - a very attractive quality

Last weekend we went to see a band at a local venue. They are world class and were doing this gig for pocket money on their way home from a major performance in the north of England. They are a trio, piano, double bass and drums, each musician at the top of his game. The pianist is the band’s leader and he did the talking. He created an immediate connection with the audience. This wasn’t through clever repartee or polished, over-rehearsed humour, it was purely and simply through unaffected humility, juxtaposed with excellence. It’s an unusual quality, and old-fashioned one in some ways, but one that is in resurgence. Thank goodness.

It felt serendipitous. Only recently I had touched on it in a blog posting (link). Then I saw John Law’s Art of Sound ensemble at the weekend and knew it was time I shared my excitement at this validation of a way of thinking that so many of us hold dear, and which has (in my interpretation) been missing from so much of how we’re told to let the world know about ourselves.

Maybe it’s the Obama effect. Whatever the cause I see it as something which will have a massive and positive influence on all our lives.

And what do I mean by humility? For me it’s a cocktail comprising, modesty, lack of bumptiousness, warmth, confidence, security, acknowledgement of others’ contribution, gentleness, clarity, assertion, courtesy, unpretentiousness and grace, with honesty and integrity bunged in for good measure. It is NOT obsequious, if it is ever false, it fails, and it is free from arrogance. Oh, and it works best when up close and personal with a high level of skill.

Just for the record I am not trying to suggest that I embody humility! What I am advocating is simply that we look at our marketing effort through its filter.

humility - now there's a thought

 http://bit.ly/14yh4t - this is an article about leadership, but it fits in nicely with the way my thinking's developing

way back when

My fascination with the possibilities of the internet date back to the year I did my MA at Bradford Uni - so that's 1993/4. We could access research documents that were in different Universities. It seemed amazing - in fact it was awkward, cumbersome and frustrating. But it got me hooked. In 1997 I was managing a small arts organisation and we got funding to buy a computer which had a potential internet connection. It was a dial-up connection (think paperclips and lengths of string), unbearably slow, but nevertheless, the potential was there. Of course at that time getting online was an aural experience equivalent to swimming underwater. If you remember that, you'll know what I mean.

who wants to be a millionaire? not me as it happens

Interesting, isn't it? I think if someone had asked me, even a few years ago, if Id like a lavish lifestyle, celebrity and vast pots of money in the bank, I'd have said, 'bring it on'! Of course, I still want to be comfortable, able to have nice holidays and to make my house comfortable, to be able to eat out in excellent restauants etc etc, but truth is, I don't have anything remotely like a 'get rich quick attitude', abundant, yes, but that's something else.

So many marketing gurus come from the, 'you too can be a millionaire' school of thought. So many of my web design (and coaching) clients share my discomfort at this. Yet we are passionate about what we do and are eager to make good money from doing it, utterly believe in our own worth. I'm struggling to articulate this collection of thoughts which is gathering in my poor old head. But I'm going to keep trying.

marketing and showing off

I keep popping over to Survey Monkey, who are hosting my survey about internet marketing. There is such a broad spectrum of feedback, and aside from some really clear pointers to me as I develop this site, some comments have given me great food for thought.

One of my questions is about how we are perceived through our marketing and our comfort or lack of it as we set about telling people what it is we do and how we can help them ("what's in it for them"). The question is intentionally slightly vague, and there is a box in which respondents can add their own thoughts. I also provide a range of ways one might feel about marketing, including linking it with "showing off".

One respondent has made valid points along the lines of "so what if it is'"and pointed out that there is a hidden negative in the statement. S/he is right of course. Perhaps I should have written "in a bad way" in brackets after the statement because, it's true, I do see showing off as a negative. And what's more, from the responses I've had, so do many of the survey's participants. But that response has really got me thinking, and validates where I'm coming from on this, I think. I have in my head my mum's definition of "showing off" which involved loud children, performing at all times, rather than being. But she also saw performance in general as "showing off", which is ludicrous. Now, I personally don't see marketing in a negative way - I DO see the way in which we are sometimes expected to display ourselves (see earlier posting re Sales Letter websites) as out of step with my values, but that is something else.

As you can probably tell, my thinking on this is evolving. But all the feedback, including this very valuable comment that I've picked up on here, is reinforcing my belief that many people are looking for a different way to present themselves and their work, with pride.

sales letter sites

The other day a colleague sent me a link to one of those sales pages, you know the ones, if you're anything like me you scroll right to the end, ignoring the endless text, to find out what it costs. But this one was HUGE. She'd sent it to me as an example of what not to do, so I thought I'd read it.

I kid you not, I glazed over after a few minutes, then when I looked to see how far I scrolled I realised I was scarcely a tenth of the way down the page. Oh dear! Now, I've been told again and again that these things work. In much the same way as, presumably, cold calling about new double-glazing 'works'. But it's not a way I espouse.

It would be dishonest of me not to admit to having written one, a year or two ago. I used the sales letter idea as my model, having accepted that if those I admire and trust think it's a good idea who am I to argue. But rather than bang on about how wonderful I am - doesn't everyone know that already! ;) I focused on the need I am meeting with the thing I am selling (it's a book for new life coaches - you can see the sales page by clicking here). Has it worked? Well, to an extent yes, it has. I've sold maybe 70 or so copies of the book. But as I look at it again now, I'm thinking, is there another way?

image optimizer

I caught the tail-end of the BBC's Click show yesterday and heard about this great resource. It's called 'Dynamic Drive' and it allows you to optimise images and choose from a range of possbilites. This is what it says bout itself: 'Image Optimizer lets you easily optimize your gifs, animated gifs, jpgs, and pngs, so they load as fast as possible on your site. Furthermore, you can easily convert from one image type to another.'

Friendly internet marketing

I come at my marketing from a 'friendly' perspective. Its a bit of a harsh world out there - and so rather than join in the cut and trust (which works very well, but is not the way I want to be) I am developing a friendly approach to internet marketing. There are lots of us doing it in fact. So come and join in! :)

One harsh fact is that the internet is HUGE and it is very very easy to languish in the double figure pages of the search engines. I've learned, over the past few years, to use the internet simply and effectively to gain a constant stream of perfect clients.

I love elegant, simple solutions and hate brash self-promotion. I concede that the latter gets results but it is something I am uncomfortable with. For my businesses - coaching, coach mentoring and web design, my approach works well.

Networking on the internet can be a bit like the kind of gentle room surfing you might do at a party. You meet lots of people and ask them about themselves. You are warm and friendly.

*It strikes me that other marketeers out there may have an issue with my use of the term "friendly" in relation to internet marketing. I'm not suggesting that what others do is in any way UNfriendly. Simply that overt warmth and friendliness is something which some of us, with our own specific value set, have to have in terms of the way we present ourselves and our work. It has an edge of, dare I say it, humility, to it. e.g. there is the possbility that we are one of several practitioners who may be just right.

Also, just because a marketing technique is out there doesn't mean we have to use it.

We attempt to get across our uniqueness in a way which reflects that uniqueness. Bear with me, I'm working up my ideas on his - they are by no means fully formed as yet! :)