Things I like and don't like about Twitter

Things I don’t like about Twitter:

1. An overwhelming majority of my connections are people I don’t know.

2. It seems like everyone on Twitter is a guru of some sort; there are SEO, Social Media, Business Coaches and Consultant galore.  This is like attending a networking event and finding that everyone there does the same thing. (and maybe even the same thing as you do!)

3. Once you have a significant number of followers, the feed becomes very hard to handle, even if you use third party software such as Tweetdeck or Hootsuite.  

4. So much garbage  and clutter – so many people with 50,000 or more followers who are just collecting followers and have nothing to say.

5. I’m not a yenta, in other words, I don’t feel the need to say something for the sake of it.  It seems to me that Twitter is for yentas and types that compulsively need to tweet every thought that comes to mind, but of course that’s an overgeneralization.

Things I like about Twitter:

1. Aesthetically, it’s pretty cool and has an appealing “feel.”

2. It can be a good source of information and opinions on any topic.

3. It is a good place to connect with people you don’t know.

4. It can be a good place to say things I wouldn’t say on other sites since most of my contacts are people I don’t know personally.

Watt Media Telephone On-Hold Messages vs. Other Companies

There are some differences between the way we do things at Watt Media and the way other telephone on-hold companies do it.  I am often asked about this when we receive calls from prospects who’ve found us online and are shopping around.  Here are some simple differences:

1. We sell our digital player, which means you own it.  Many on-hold companies lease the player, which means you will end up paying two or three times what the unit is actually worth in the long run.  Others will provide you with the player, supposedly at no charge, but will charge you an upfront fee and call it something else.  There are some on-hold companies that will actually provide it at no charge, but this is because you don’t own the equipment, which means that if you ever cancel the service, you will need to return it and stop using the recordings in your possession.  I realize that getting a free player is attractive at first, as compared to paying a few hundreds of dollars for it, but our clients love the fact that they own their equipment, and will always be able to use it.

2. We sell our recordings on a buyout basis.  Many on-hold companies allow you to use the recordings only while you’re paying for the service.  If you ever choose to discontinue, you are not allowed to use the recordings and must return them.  While this is a legitimate way to offer this service, I have always felt that this system was not fair to the client.  At Watt Media, we hope you continue to update the messages and keep using our service, but if for some reason you choose to cancel, you may still keep the old on-hold recordings we’ve made for you.  Want to use the same old recordings for 10 years?  Be our guest!  I don’t think this will be very effective for you, but we won’t charge you to do so.  We only charge clients for the ability to update their recordings, which is how they should really be utilized.

3. We sell one digital unit, and that’s it.  Instead of complicating things and confusing you with lots of options when it comes to buying a digital player, we’ve done the homework for you and picked a great player that is extremely user friendly and does everything it needs to.  Our unit comes with a USB drive which means we can e-mail you the recordings, and you simply copy them onto the USB drive and insert it into the player.

4. We are sensible.  There are lots of good companies out there.  What I do know is that the way WE do things is sensible, and makes sense.  We do things that are in your best interest, and for this reason we’ve had so many clients as satisfied long-term customers.

5. We do it all in-house.  We don’t farm out our productions – we do them right in our studio.  You can rest assured that your recording was made in our office, from start to finish.

Voice-Mail No-Nos

Voice-mail is an important part of every business.  Whether you have just one phone line, hundreds of lines, or just a cell phone, it’s essential for your company’s voice-mail greeting(s) to communicate in an effective and professional manner.  As in most cases, how you say it is as important as what you say, and here are some important things NOT to do with your voice-mail greeting:

1.    Don’t have music in the background.  Yeah, it was cool in high school.  Even I admit using Depeche Mode in the background of my outgoing answering machine message, but for your business, keep the music off!  Music is effective for promotional telephone on-hold promotions, but not for voice-mail messages.  (Did I just admit to liking Depeche Mode?)

2.    Don’t use an answering machine.  People can tell when it’s an answering machine – the white noise, the poor sound quality.  An answering machine is unprofessional, and c’mon, it’s not that expensive – for about $15 a month you can get a simple voice-mail service from your local phone company.

3.    Don’t record a new message every day announcing the date.  We’ve all heard this one before, “Hi, this is Kate.  Today is Monday, May 3rd and I will be in the office most of the day, so if you’ve reached this message I’m assisting other clients…”  I still don’t get the deal with people changing their outgoing message daily.  The biggest issue I have is that in most cases, I hear the wrong date on there, which means the person forgot to change their greeting. 

I have heard people say that the reason they do this is that it gives the caller the impression that they are on top of things.  Well, I can see that point, but I think that this small benefit does not outweigh the pain of having to change your greeting every day.  And if you forget, which obviously happens a lot, now you’ve accomplished the exact opposite by looking like a clueless schmo who forgot to change his/her greeting. 

Keep it simple - one greeting done professionally is enough.  (An exception is if you’re out of the office for several days.  A helpful “I will be out from March 3rd through the 10th, if you need assistance please contact Brenda at extension 110” is appropriate and shows that you care.)

4.    Don’t make it difficult to connect with a live person.  For the more complex auto attendants, make it easy for callers to connect with a live person.  Getting stuck in an endless maze of greetings is extremely frustrating – you don’t want your callers experiencing that.

5.    Don’t let your mailbox get full.  The worst thing your callers can hear is, “I’m sorry, but this mailbox is full” just as he/she is about to leave a message.  This really says that you are extremely unorganized and now also unreachable.  Do everything in your power not to let this happen!

Voice-mail is a great tool that has allowed us to be there to greet our callers when we can’t be there in person.  Use it effectively, and it can enhance your business!

Observations from a Twitter Newbie – and My New Twitter Commandments

After creating my Twitter account about a year ago, I gave up rather quickly, feeling frustrated that I couldn’t get lots of followers quickly and that I needed to be on it for hours a day in order for it to work.  I now know that I was wrong, and have recently started really getting back into Twitter.  Now I think I get it much better than previously, and have vowed to give it another shot.

I have noticed a few things, though – there is a lot of clutter on Twitter.  It seems like everyone there is a social media or SEO expert, giving advice on how to succeed on Twitter.   Those who aren’t are selling programs for getting tens of thousands of followers.  I like to think that I’m smart enough not to fall for that.  How can there be any quality from buying your way to followers?

I’ve also noticed that getting followers is the end-all-be-all for many people, so everything they do has the sole purpose of getting more followers.  I fell for it myself for a while – retweeting something I really didn’t care about just to get noticed.  Complimenting someone when I didn’t really mean it in the hopes they’d follow me, and following people I had no interest in just so they would hopefully follow me back.  All that has left me feeling shallow and phony – if that’s what Twitter’s about, I want no part of it.

But I don’t feel that that’s what Twitter’s about.  I think that if you find your way through the fluff, you can find some quality people.  So here are my own commandments for proceeding with Twitter, my way:

1.       I will not follow anyone unless I am genuinely interested in them.  This may mean I will have less followers, but at least they will be genuine.
2.       I will not retweet something unless I really like it.
3.       I will not compliment someone unless I really mean it.
4.       Everything I do on Twitter will be real, not just in order to get followers.
5.       I will give to the Twitter community: quality posts, discussions, questions, answers.

So obviously these things apply to real life also – funny that it took Twitter to remind me to be real, to give, and hopefully I will get back.  Be a resource, and people will respond.  Only time will tell if this will work for me on Twitter.  Wish me luck!

Too Much Self-Promoting on Social Sites

One of our clients recently started a jewelry business and created a fan page on Facebook, so to support him, I became a fan.  Within minutes, I received the first status update: “I’m excited to announce my new jewelry business!  We offer a wide variety of gold necklaces, rings, and bracelets for any occasion.”  An hour later, I received another update which was very similar.  A few hours later: “Hi everyone!  One of our items would make a perfect gift for your loved one’s birthday!”  And so on for a few days, with much of the same on Twitter and LinkedIn.

He called me a few days later, extremely frustrated.  “I don’t understand why people aren’t placing orders!  My products are great! I’m trying so hard – you saw my updates.  Not one person responded!  I don’t know what else to do!”

Should he be surprised?  I’d be impressed if he managed to keep any of his connections from being totally annoyed.  I tried to offer him some advice, and here’s what I said, “Imagine going to a chamber or some other networking group, and being in a room with about 100 other people, all getting to know each other, passing business cards, and doing the typical networking. 

Imagine that in the beginning of the meeting, you walk up to the microphone and say, “Hi, I’m Larry, and I own a jewelry business.”  Then 5 minutes later you walk up to the mic and say, “Hi, it’s Larry again…remember, I have some great rings and necklaces for any occasion.”  Then a half hour later, “Hi, Larry here again…for the next 15 minutes I will offer 50% off of any items.”  And the same types of announcements every 10 minutes.  What would you expect people to think of you?  His eyes opened as he realized the point I was making.

I believe that the same networking principles from real life apply to social networking sites, except that with social networking everything is much more powerful since EVERYONE sees it IMMEDIATELY, so you need to be all the more careful .  Just as personal networking does not yield immediate results, the same is true of social media.  Remember, you’re planting seeds for the future, not prospecting for immediate sales - hunting vs. farming. 

Continual promotional messages are annoying, and no one likes someone who’s all about themselves all the time.  Just like networking in real life, the idea should be: get to know people, make sure they know what you do, keep in contact with them, and then when they have a need for your product or service, they will think of you and call you.  Annoy them now, and they never will.

So on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn, offer some value to those you are connected with.  Give them a reason to stay in touch.  Engage them in conversations that are not about you.  Ask questions, ask for help when you need it, and offer help when others need it.  You can promote yourself once in a while, but keep this to a minimum.  Have fun contests and giveaways.  Do this and people will like you and keep you “top of mind,” which is what it’s all about.  Then when the need for your service or product comes up, they will think of you.