Urgent telephone test – 5 tips for a better brand connection
By Karen Post, on March 18, 2012
Have you called yourself recently? On all of your phones? If not, it’s a fast find and fix to improving your brand impression.
How do I know this? Because I was grossly guilty of phone message neglect.
Fortunately, I have good friends who tell me the truth. Here’s a recent call I received.
“Hey Karen, Ms. Branding Diva your phone message stinks. It’s too long, you sound like you are in a tunnel under ground and teetering on having a bad day.”
She was right. This was a big disconnect from who I am and what my brand stands for. Here’s the really sad part, it’s been like that for a year, YIKES!
Five simple tips to a better telephone branded signal.
1) Be clear – Always state your full name.
2) Be brief – In our fast paced and busy world, short and to the point are best.
2) Have tone – Include some branded attitude, for me it’s energy and confidence.
3) Be current and relevant – Keep things fresh, consider changing your message with the seasons, the months or for no reason at all.
4) Provide a clear call to action – What do you want the caller to do? Leave their name and what they need? Or even better their American Express number? 
5) Manage expectations – If you can’t check messages for along period of time, provide a timely route to you, request a text message or email from the caller.
Don’t ever, ever use the default, computer message. That clearly communicates nothing except you are unprofessional or so unorganized you can’t find the time to set up.
Bottom line, your phone message is often the first impression a new contact has with you. Make it a great one. And it does not hurt to make sure your visible phone and accessories are on board with your brand too. It’s all part of the personal branding package.
Still don’t have a smart phone? It’s 2012. Plus, being a tech dinosaur is no marketing edge.
And if bold styling is part of your image, consider a retro hand set (like pictured above) to plug into your iPad, iPhone or other smart phones and a cool, matching phone protector. I’ve usually sport the Branding Diva® red set —phone case, handset and fire engine hot lipstick. It’s an excellent conversation starter at coffee shops and airport lounges, after all that’s where new business often starts.
Got to go catch a call! Talk soon! Brand on!
3 Free Twitter account management tools
By Karen Post, on November 24, 2010
Save time. Get more followers. Earn more impact.
For those of you who are always tweeting, the following management tools may make your life seem easier and will aid in growing your community and channel significance:
1. TweetDeck is a free desktop widget that allows a business to tweet with the ability to sort tweets into direct messages, topics and keywords. TweetDeck is an Adobe Air desktop application that lets users send and receive tweets and view account profiles. You can also set up a specific column to view mentions of your company or industry, and another column for all of your competitors. This application is also capable of integrating your Facebook, Linkedin, Google Buzz, Foursquare and Myspace accounts.
2. Hootsuite is a free fast-growing web service and is designed for businesses needing to manage more than one Twitter profile with multiple users. It allows a business to easily schedule tweets and easily switch back and forth between different accounts. Hootsuite also includes a URL-shortening service that lets you see how many times your links are clicked.
3. CoTweet is a free tool that allows multiple individuals from the same company communicate through a single Twitter account. People maintain their own profile and the account activity is recorded as the program focuses on a two-way communication that engages other accounts.
The next blog post will discuss different contact management tools.
3 free ways to help connect buyers to your business
By Karen Post, on November 8, 2010
If your business is having a hard time getting customers through the door, check out Google Places, Yahoo Listings and, if you are in Florida, WOMbeat. These may be the answers you need to help grow your business.
Previously known as the Local Business Center, Google Places is a way to better connect Internet search users to local businesses and to give them more informed decisions about where to go and what business or product they should be using. Google Place Pages allows people to connect to information from the best sources across the Internet, giving reviews and essential facts, as well as real-time updates and offers from business owners. These Places also allow businesses to share their information such as hours of operation, phone number, links, description, tag line and much more. This provides business owners with effective, yet easy to use, tools.
Yahoo! Local Listings is an online Advertising tool for business owners. It gives owners the ability to provide details about their business to potential and existing customers. Yahoo! Local allows owners to upload any information about their business from their computer and is very easy to manage. When setting up your listing, you won’t have to worry about using specific key words for your business nor will you have to manage bids.
WOMbeat! is a simple way to collect all of your biggest customers in one place online. WOMbeat! uses word of month effectively and efficiently by using customer incentives and metrics. It is an easy way for your customers to recommend you to their friends and allows you to build more customer loyalty. Click here to get started with your free business listing.
Download my PDF outline for step-by-step instructions on how to set up your Google Places and Yahoo Listings.
Need more ways to grow your business? Visit the Oddpodz book store and see our SEO and social media Ta-Do lists. These under $10.00 ebooks provide proven and valuable insight on two hot marketing topics.
Five free tools to monitor your brand's reputation
By Karen Post, on July 26, 2010
Today the Miami Herald ran an article on free tools and quoted me on how you can monitor your brand online and in social media. See full article here
Some of these tools are still in beta testing.
I’ve signed up for all them and will post updates after some history with them. Let us know if there are others you use.
Brands are Dead. Again?
By Karen Post, on February 25, 2008
While consumers may have asked questions like that, did they actually act on it? With electronics sales being one of the only strong growth areas in the retail market (especially over the holidays; Best Buy posted 11% revenue increase in Dec. 2007 alone), is the thought of “brand abstinence” little more than just that, a thought? Or will consumers actually look around them and say, “You know what, I don’t need this crap.”
One interesting angle is the financial incentive package that means to put spending cash in consumers’ (held out) hands. While the economic theoretical side of this “jump start” are debatable, the fact that, as they wait, consumers are continually getting blasted with the message that this money is meant to be spent. And consumers, as has already been noted, need little nudging when it comes to coming up with “reasons” to spend. The idea that “I’m supposed to spend this $600″ is probably a nudge enough to see consumers putting off that brand abstinence for another year.
What do you think?
