Brad Johnson is an author and blogger who helps writers discover their niche, build successful habits, and quit their 9-5. His books include Ignite Your Beacon, Writing Clout and Tomes Of A Healing Heart. For strategic content and practical tips on how to become a full-time writer, visit: BradleyJohnsonProductions.com.
https://writetodone.com/inspired-to-write/
Editor’s note: To be inspired to write in these difficult times is hard. With so much going on in the world, it can feel impossible to carry on writing when such monumental events are unfolding before our eyes. So this week we’re re-publishing one of Mary’s most popular posts to help re-inspire you to write. […]
The post Inspired to Write: 20 Inspiring Quotes to Help You Through Difficult Times appeared first on WTD.
https://econsultancy.com/a-day-in-the-life-of-chris-george-svp-product-management-somo/
I’m the SVP of Product Management at Somo. I help to lead an extremely talented team of product managers who are focused on building great products that help a wide range of clients and partners across diverse industries realise their digital ambitions at pace and scale.
Quite significantly. Aside from the obvious physical implications determined by social distancing, there are a number of associated considerations for the team (and business) as a whole. Ensuring that they stay connected, informed, and most importantly positive, is a big part of my day at the moment. Somo has offices in London, Bristol, Washington D.C, Charleston SC and Medelliín, Colombia, so we are used to working remotely across distributed teams. We were able to transition to the entire company working remotely relatively smoothly in just a few hours.
Zoom fatigue is real! Back-to-back virtual meetings mean there is none of that extra time in-between the meetings as you walk from one meeting room to another in a physical context. We’re promoting the use of Speedy Meetings through Google Calendar that automatically builds in time between meetings, which can serve as a reminder to go take a short break, make a coffee or just walk around the house! We are also utilising Miro to run virtual workshops/whiteboard sessions which has been working really effectively.
It’s been kind of interesting to see the way that different companies and indeed industries have changed their approach (or not!). What has been amazing to see and truly impressive is the way so many small businesses have adapted and wrapped around the needs of communities at a local level, supporting those most in need.
Mainly with lots of outreach on various channels focused around doing the right thing for both customers and staff in their time of need. Our marketing team is doing a great job of finding nuggets of advice or wisdom, from various walks of life, both internally and externally and sharing them with a wider audience. Outside of connecting with the Somo brand, we are doing a lot of work internally to make sure that our staff are still connected to our mission and values, and that we are doing all we can to support them day-to-day. Our culture is a cornerstone of life at Somo and maintaining it for both teams and clients while working remotely requires more energy and forethought than ever.
At a macro level, the most obvious trend is the acceleration of digital transformation requirements across industries, which we are beginning to see the early stages of. On a more granular level, we are seeing companies accelerating their ‘move to cloud roadmaps’ and kicking-off or fine-tuning work-from-home programs for much bigger teams.
Empathy needs to be put before everything else at the moment. There is a lot of uncertainty everywhere from markets and industries to individuals and society as a whole. More than anything, I believe the message needs to be ‘How can we help you?’ before anything else.
Covid-19 has emphasised the need for companies to be able to react extremely quickly to unforeseen circumstances. Something of this scale also exposes the fallibility of both short-term and long-term planning. At Somo, we foresee an acceleration of digital transformation programs globally, led by ‘the new normal’ that is a direct result of the pandemic. The challenge is how companies respond to these opportunities with innovative products and services in a new, largely undefined global landscape.
For more on digital transformation, visit Econsultancy’s DT hub page.
The post A day in the life of… Chris George, SVP Product Management, Somo appeared first on Econsultancy.
Every good story needs a nice (or not so nice) turn or two to keep it interesting. This week, we’ll look at what happens when an antagonist levels up.
Plot twist story prompts aren’t meant for the beginning or the end of stories. Rather, they’re for forcing big and small turns in the anticipated trajectory of a story. This is to make it more interesting for the readers and writers alike.
Each week, I’ll provide a new prompt to help twist your story. Find last week’s prompt, The Unknown Fear, here.
For today’s prompt, have the antagonist of your story receive a new benefit. Maybe it’s a weapon or a superpower. Or it could be a secret that the antagonist could use as leverage over other characters. A promotion would count if your story involves the workplace.
(Letting your antagonist drive the plot.)
There are few things as boring for a reader than an antagonist who never has the upper hand, or at least the appearance of the upper hand. The reason for this is that the protagonist is never in danger of losing (whatever “losing” means in your particular story).
Also, remember that benefits come in different packages. For instance, a protagonist may escape an antagonist in a chase scene only to end up at a dead end (advantage back to antagonist). Once the antagonist receives his or her (or its) new benefit, the fun of figuring out what that means for everyone else can begin.
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If you want to learn how to write a story, but aren’t quite ready yet to hunker down and write 10,000 words or so a week, this is the course for you. Build Your Novel Scene by Scene will offer you the impetus, the guidance, the support, and the deadline you need to finally stop talking, start writing, and, ultimately, complete that novel you always said you wanted to write.
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/markgrow/~3/w4kZ4WgqjUE/
By Brooke B. Sellas, {grow} Contributing Columnist
When marketers think about the customer journey, they typically have used the well-known AIDA model:
This model seems helpful as it provides focus on each area of the customer journey.
However, I think there’s a different way of looking at the customer journey. And surprise, surprise, it involves conversations.
For now, let’s stick with AIDA. I have a few criticisms of this model.
For starters, there’s nothing that occurs after an action takes place. And as marketers, we know how important customer retention and loyalty is.
In fact, the majority of actions taken by users on social media when it comes to reaching out to a brand involve experience (aka they’ve already interacted with your brand) and for customer service issues (aka they’re already a customer).
Source: Sprout Social
That means that on social media, nearly 96 percent of people contact a brand beyond AIDA, assuming they’re already a customer.
Most would-be customers don’t reach out to brands on social media “just because.” And even when they do, brands are doing a poor job with responsiveness.
For instance, 40 percent of consumers said they expect brands to respond within the first hour of connecting through social media, while 79 percent expect a response in the first 24 hours.
The biggest thing missing when brands manage the customer journey? Conversations.
Thinking of social media and the critical conversations on those channels, let’s create a new AIDA model. You’ve probably heard the term “conversational marketing” — and that’s at the heart of this model.
Think of conversational marketing as having real-time conversations with your would-be or actual customers. It’s that simple. (you do this, right?!)
This the model we’ve developed at B Squared Media:
The model is still pretty simple. Each part of the customer journey allows for conversations between you and your would-be (or actual) customers. And if we think about customer experience, that’s what sets the superior brands apart.
Everyone knows when they’re dealing with a customer-centric brand. It shows. You can feel it.
Sure, you can go really deep and crazy with customer experience, but you can also focus on conversations. Conversations are the ignored, low-hanging fruit of almost every business.
Let’s take a deep dive into each area.
Every relationship begins with attraction.
Whether it’s content marketing on your website, on your social channels, or through advertising, this is where you’re drawing potential customers in. And trust me, if your content is good, they’re going to be leaving comments (or complaints!).
Questions to ponder …
It all starts here. Content comes first but it should be followed by conversation if it’s good.
Remember, as Mark Schaefer says, content is only valuable if it moves. You’ll know this by gauging the response you get on social and other sites.
Once you add someone to your list or they join your community, how do you keep their interest? I/Interest = C/Convert.
For starters, you should have more content that’s only for your subscribers. You can see it’s listed in the image as things like,
Think of each piece of content as the start of a conversation. And again, if the conversation is interesting, you’ll see a response.
Now, this may happen on social — like in a members-only group — or off social, like through email or maybe even a membership site. You don’t have to get all fancy.
One of the biggest success stories Mark and I have seen is through Dana Malstaff and her BossMom Facebook Group. The key is to make her customers feel truly valued through free content — CONVERSATION — in her Facebook Group.
The conversations that happen here give Dana and her team insight into creating more content that moves, ideas for development, and she’s even figured out how to monetize her Facebook Group.
That’s a truly inspiring ‘CONVERT’ example!
Just like Dana, you’re going to want to monetize your community at some point. We all have to turn leads into customers. Or maybe your sales team does that for you.
I am the entire sales team at my company. Disclaimer: I absolutely love sales! You may not.
However, sales are just like marketing in that conversations are crucial in this part of the customer journey.
My conversational workflows are very simple. I have templates for all of my sales follow-up and input everything into my CRM (Nimble CRM, which also happens to be great for social selling).
For example, I follow up three times and each template has specific conversational goals. If I don’t hear back, I move on. That’s what works for me but you’ll have to find your own sales sweet spot.
Essentially, it boils down to three things:
Some companies even have bots that do the pre-qualifying for them. They’ll even set up the pitch meeting! Check out Drift if that’s something you think you’d like a robot to do for you.
Finally, my favorite part. Truth be told, I think nearly any brand should be able to easily get through A, C & C.
D is where most people fail … and where there’s the most opportunity.
How are you delighting your customers?
If we refer back to the ‘why consumers message a brand on social media’ image, we know that 60% of social media users will be telling you how you’re doing. Are you paying attention? Are you responding to those mentions?
What we typically see is that this falls into two categories:
Obviously, “no” is bad. Very bad. Don’t be bad. In fact, my question to you is this: why are you using social media if you aren’t doing the absolute basic most 101 thing, which is responding to every mention?
Yes is better but still pretty awful. When people complain, they are giving you insight into EXACTLY what they want. They are telling you EXACTLY what is wrong with your product/service/brand.
This is the stuff that big brands pay hundreds of thousands of dollars for, and here your customers are offering it up for FREE.
Just by listening to these conversations with our social listening tool, we’ve uncovered technical bugs, website issues, and product failures. All of these were fixed fairly easily and quickly and lead to DELIGHT. We use social listening to inform our Customer Care strategies, which also inform our loyalty programs and help us work with advocates and influencers.
The conversations in this part of the customer journey are dripping with insights. Swoon-worthy, real-world, actionable insights!
I’ll let you in on a little secret. All of the marketing buzzwords (influencers! loyalty! revenue!) live inside of customer care efforts and for some reason, most brands are completely overlooking this part of the journey.
Finally, I think we all have a little homework. Where will you take the conversation after reading this?
If you’re new to this, start with A. If you’re somewhere in the middle, focus on the Cs. And if you’re doing alright, be honest with yourself about your customer care efforts. How can you improve the conversation there?
My advice would be for ALL of us to focus on D. Think about it: when you have super customer retention, it eases the front of the customer journey. You don’t have to try as hard or often. You don’t have to spend as much to attract because your loyal customers and advocates are doing it for you.
Hmmm. Maybe D should be first! Something to ponder … 😉
Brooke B. Sellas is the Founder & CEO of B Squared Media, an award-winning done-for-you social media management, advertising, and customer care agency. She’s also Mark Schaefer’s Co-host on the top-rated Marketing Companion Podcast. Brooke’s marketing mantra is “Think Conversation, Not Campaign” so be sure to give her a shout on Twitter!
The post Why “conversations” are the low-hanging fruit of any customer journey appeared first on Schaefer Marketing Solutions: We Help Businesses {grow}.
https://wordtothewise.com/2020/05/lets-talk-engagement/
I’m working on a more formal schedule for the Let’s Talk events and hope to have that out over the next few days. Meanwhile, we’re moving ahead with the next talk: Engagement!
Wednesday June 3, 5pm Dublin, noon Eastern, 9am Pacific. Send an email to laura-ddiscuss@ the obvious.
Notes, questions and comments for past talks are available.
I want to take a minute to thank everyone who has joined the calls. I get to see old colleagues and meet new ones. They’ve been great because you’ve all shown up and participated. I look forward to hosting many more.
https://wordtothewise.com/2020/05/lets-talk-engagement/
I’m working on a more formal schedule for the Let’s Talk events and hope to have that out over the next few days. Meanwhile, we’re moving ahead with the next talk: Engagement!
Wednesday June 3, 5pm Dublin, noon Eastern, 9am Pacific. Send an email to laura-ddiscuss@ the obvious.
Notes, questions and comments for past talks are available.
I want to take a minute to thank everyone who has joined the calls. I get to see old colleagues and meet new ones. They’ve been great because you’ve all shown up and participated. I look forward to hosting many more.
