Did you see Meet the Press on Sunday morning?

Posted on August 7, 2017 by Carol Naff

Gov. John Hickenlooper (D-Colo.) and Gov. John Kasich (R-Ohio) participated in a bipartisan news conference to discuss the Senate health care bill in Washington on Sunday.

However, that wasn’t the most interesting part of the scene. The background for our Colorado Governor’s interview was a shot of a ski run in the Rocky Mountains taken this summer. Not only did that show how beautiful our mountains are for recreation in the summer, it also suggested that those ski runs are just as beautiful with snow and skiing in winter.

Using this photo of the Black Canyon isn’t nearly as appealing as the ski run in the summer.

The backdrop for Governor Kasich was the blue, Meet the Press background. What a missed opportunity for Ohio to showcase their state. AND brilliant use of the National stage to showcase Colorado.

You don’t need to be on television to use this media feature. These backdrops can be used in photographs, video (i.e., You Tube and Face Book videos), and during interviews. If you were to have media exposure, what would you want in the background to showcase your expertise? I would feature my Emmy. This represents my involvement in television and representation on the Regional and National Television Academy Boards. Right next to that would be my book.

Are you invisible on LinkedIn?

Posted on May 24, 2017 by Carol Naff

BREAKING NEWS!

LinkedIn is the largest professional online network

LinkedIn just turned 14 years old

AND

LinkedIn has more than half a billion members!

That’s 500,000,000 professionals just waiting to learn about you! (Well, at least a nice percentage want to know you)

And it’s a powerful group. The household income of LinkedIn users averages more than $88,000 per year, which outpaces the average income for the readers of the Wall Street Journal, Forbes, and Business Week! Impressive!

You will find most people are more than willing to engage with you, which generates more inbound leads for your business. Just this week, Marcia received four invitations to be a guest on radio talk shows on the subjects featured in her books. Yes, she will bring great value to the audience of the show AND have an opportunity to sell her books. Marcia is visible on LinkedIn and you can be visible, too. She has more than 10,000 connections that reward her with opportunities for inbound marketing.

If you are a professional or business owner, you simply can’t afford to miss out on the massive opportunity to build relationships with potential customers, clients, partners, and peers on LinkedIn. It’s a powerful audience ready to engage, interact, and influence.

How do Carol and Marcia make these powerful connections? Here’s how…

Be Visible

With more than 500,000,000 members, now it’s more important than ever to have a presence that stands out from the crowd.

Did you know that Viewers of your profile form an opinion of you in JUST 3 SECONDS, according to LinkedIn’s own research? Make sure you’re offering your best impression by having a decent head shot photo. No Selfies!! Remember this is the largest professional network on the Internet and you have 3 seconds to be memorable.

Too many profiles on LinkedIn do not include a photo. It is like sticking a bag over your head and going out to network with your peers. Often we meet someone at an event in person and want to invite them to connect on LinkedIn. If their photo is not there, we cannot be sure that is the right person. An incomplete LinkedIn profile says more about you and your work ethic than might first meet the eye. It just occurred to me that if I repeatedly do not connect with people with no photo, then they will not see this article. LOL, They will continue to be invisible unless you share this post and make it more visible.

Start with a professional profile picture that represents you and your industry. This is critical for your LinkedIn success! Adding a profile photo could result in 14 times more profile views. Having the same professional photo on all your social sites begins to build your personal brand. That fact alone makes it worthwhile to have a professional photo taken. Include no photos you might regret next month or next year. Any photo that damages your personal brand defeats the whole purpose of being on LinkedIn.

Follow Up

Follow up with people you meet by inviting them to link or connect with you. When we stay in touch with people we meet, we can remember each other. Carol has developed this skill to a fine art. Often when she first meets someone, they may not yet be ready to become her client. AND her thoughtful and helpful touches keeps her top of mind when they are ready.

Respond to people who link to you and actually endorse them for a few skills. Be sure to respond to all inquiries and notes. Connect to people you believe can benefit from knowing each other and then follow up. So many people never update us on the results of our introduction. Was it a good referral? Did you connect? Did you do business? Many times, we do not even receive a thank you for the introduction. We really appreciate referrals and reward people for giving them to us. Would you like a discount for our services or a cash reward or something that seems to be a great way of saying thanks? What will make you give us a referral?

Who do you know who wants more clients? Who do you know that has a product almost ready to take to market? Both Marcia and Carol will reward you for your referrals that work.

We love seeing your activity on LinkedIn! Keep creating engaging content and share updates of value. And remember to always pay it forward! Yes, that means sharing posts and endorsing your contacts for skills. Help everyone reach 99+ endorsements.

#speaker #coach #No1BestSellingAuthor #relationshipmarketing #LinkedIn #MarciaReece #CarolNaff #WaysToBeFound #Marketing #LeadGeneration #LinkedInTips #WOWFactor #LinkedInProfile #InboundMarketing

Carol Naff is a Professional Coach, a Certified Email Marketing Strategist, and expert in creative marketing and business development. She founded Mariner Company in 2000, a coaching and consulting business with more than 15 years prior experience in developing marketing strategies for creative business owners to get more clients and how to come in #1 in your job search. MarinerCo.com. Follow her blog at CarolNaff.me Complete the business and job search assessment to help you identify what you need to succeed at Marinerco.com

Marcia Reece, the inventor of Sidewalk Chalk, is the #1 Bestselling author of Secrets of the Marriage Mouse and The Ultimate Online Media Director also was the inventor of Gel-eez, the very first gel-filled wrist rest for keyboard and mouse users. She founded Aspen Support Group in 1998 and uses her creative energies to help many dozen entrepreneurs and authors take their ideas to products and their products to the shelves of American Retailers. Her books are available on Amazon.com. Follow her blog at https://marciaok.wordpress.com

How to have the WOW factor with your LinkedIn Profile

Posted on May 12, 2017 by Carol Naff

By Marcia Reece and Carol Naff

Does your LinkedIn Profile need a WOW factor?

Picture this: What would it be like to walk into a room to find only your ideal prospects? Yes, absolutely everyone there needs your service or product. LinkedIn is the only business-dedicated social media to provide this opportunity for you. You can search for specific people, find groups that meet your parameters and request introductions to people you want to meet.

Recently, Carol had a request for an introduction to someone in her connections. Three people in her network were connected to this person. She sent a request for introductions to them. Two of the three responded that they would be happy to make the introduction. Yes, we are on LinkedIn to be helpful and go-givers.

LinkedIn is the perfect place for you to practice Inbound Marketing. (See Inbound Marketing Strategies article below) Online networking has opened the floodgates for professional online profiles — the kind you place on LinkedIn needs to put you heads and shoulders over your competitors and make sure you stand out as the “go to” expert to build your brand, your business, and your bank account.

Here are several ways to gain a competitive edge:

Establish your expertise: Focus the content on your professional expertise, benefits, and accomplishments. Be sure to include your current and past employment, education, and industry. Scatter relevant keywords throughout your profile to build your SEO optimization.
Captivate your audience: Create an opening summary that sells. Size up what’s important to your audience. Use enticing words and captivating phrases.
Write outside the box: Avoid clichés and work hard to paint fresh word pictures that help readers understand your specialness. Use specifics. Be authentic. And within the bounds of business communication, write like you talk.
Rightsized, not supersize: Set your sights on making your profile neither too long nor too short. There’s no rule about exact profile length. Make every word sell you, your business, and your specialties.
Write must-read robust headlines: Another secret to successful profile writing is the power headline! It’s the headline that pulls readers into your profile.
Don’t oversell your versatility: Often people make the mistake of cobbling together their qualifications and come off looking like jacks of all trades (and masters of none). Folks are seeking to work with specialists, not generalists.
Don’t overdo self-praise: Hold back on empty adjectives like superior, exclusive, outstanding, and so forth when you describe your skills or qualities. Without backing up your claims, no one believes them anyway. Factually explain how you made or saved money, how you delivered on a goal, how you received top marks for performance.

You’re more likely to be believed when you get strong recommendations. Don’t be shy about asking for them and be sure to reciprocate and write for your contacts.

Don’t regurgitate your resume: Include data in your profile that will help you get your desired outcome; business, clients, or an interview. A cultural fit with the reader is key; add such information as your participation in amateur sports (competitiveness), five favorite books (thinking quality); and civic service organizations (community-orientation), for instance. Politics? No, unless you’re applying to a political party. Religious affiliation? No, unless you’re applying to a church or ministry.
Don’t be a victim to perilous posting: Don’t post anything you don’t want the entire world to see. Treat your LinkedIn page with the utmost care and professional respect you bring to your clients, customers, and coworkers. This is not the place to be smarty pants.

Treat all personal identity information like a classified document to keep the identity thieves away. Don’t put your home address, social security number, driver’s or professional license numbers, or family information in your profile. Restrict contact information to your phone number and e-mail, and, if you have one, a post office box address.

Because her profile lists her #1 best-selling author status, Marcia has been contacted by a number of first-time authors to help them maximize their author revenues. Marcia enjoys helping authors look outside the traditional “box” and find multiple revenue channels, as well as helping authors to become #1 Bestsellers.

Marcia and Carol both invite you to look at their profiles. We have taken the time to fully maximize our LinkedIn profiles and they are powerfully effective. We do get asked why LinkedIn is valuable and why put the effort into your profile. And we get inquiries about our services. So should you have a great LinkedIn profile that gets results with Inbound Marketing? Yes, these are a few reasons:

It has millions of members
It shows up at the top of Google searches when people are researching you
It’s the ultimate personal branding platform

With the right profile powerfully written and positioned, LinkedIn is a revenue-generating, social media money maker!

Just like we have helped so many professionals turn their profile into a powerhouse pillar of their brand, we would like to help you, too. In order to work with us privately, email us to inquire if we would be a good match to help you. Since we want to develop a better profile to help you get the results you want, we are offering to revise your LinkedIn profile summary. In addition, you will receive tips for making the rest of your profile effective. Be sure to take advantage of this special offer by June 10 during our Spring Sale. Mention this post to receive our special price. Don’t delay; your LinkedIn brand has never been more valuable to achieve the results of your dreams. #speaker #coach #No1BestSellingAuthor #relationshipmarketing #LinkedIn #MarciaReece #CarolNaff #WaysToBeFound #Marketing #LeadGeneration #LinkedInTips #WOWFactor #LinkedInProfile #SpecialOffer #InboundMarketing

marciaok@yahoo.com

carolnaff@comcast.net

Carol Naff is a Professional Coach, a Certified Email Marketing Strategist, and expert in creative marketing and business development. She founded Mariner Company in 2000, a coaching and consulting business with more than 15 years prior experience in developing marketing strategies for creative business owners to get more clients and how to come in #1 in your job search. MarinerCo.com. Follow my blog at CarolNaff.me Complete the business and job search assessment to help you identify what you need to succeed at Marinerco.com

Use content marketing for guaranteed results with proven easy strategies

Posted on December 1, 2014 by Carol Naff

Success with Content Marketing

Thanks! Thank you for your participation in Marcia Reece and my Power of the Media seminar last month. If you were unable to be there, you were missed.

Headline Analyzer – If you were at the seminar, you now know the top 12 power words to use in your headlines and subject lines. We were able to analyze many of your power statements and improve your ratings. Now, based on what you know, write your top three sentences you would use if you were asked to describe what you do or what your business does. Pretend you are writing a subject line for an email, business social media post, or a headline for a media release. I will analyze them based on empathetic, intellectual, and spiritual marketing value. I will share the results with you, and brainstorm with you to make them powerful. Contact CarolNaff@comcast.net for a special low-priced package to exponentially improve your headlines.

You will receive:
* Tips on writing copy that sells
* Learn how to write for your niche
* Analysis of your content
* How to obtain more favorable responses
* Website address so you can analyze your copy

As a bonus, visit CarolNaff.me for tips on how to get extra mileage on your media coverage after you receive it. Learn where and how to post links and videos of your media articles.

Remember, let me know if you’d like to send your three sentences to me to receive this valuable package. Contact me at CarolNaff@comcast.net.

Marcia and I had a blast spending our afternoon with many of you at our Power of the Media seminar. Please be sure to let us know of your successes. We are happy to promote your businesses as we can. Thank you so very much for giving us your time.

Have a wonderful holiday season.

Marketing Pinterest: A Life of Its Own

Posted on July 16, 2014 by Carol Naff

Pinterest at 1000 followers

Now that my Pinterest account has more than 1K followers, it has taken on a life of its own. More people are repinning my content. More traffic to my website and blog is being generated. More people continue to follow my boards. These are more reasons to continue to round out your social media presence with Pinterest.

Social media generates almost double the marketing leads of trade shows, telemarketing, daily mail, or PPC (pay per click). And perhaps even galleries.

Around 46% of web users turn to social media for making a purchase.
More than 60% of consumers say the integration of social media makes them more likely to share products and services.
Pinterest users are nearly twice as likely to purchase as Facebook users.
Pinterest sends more traffic to websites than YouTube, google+. AND LinkedIn combined.

So, now we know that Pinterest is valuable to drive traffic to our websites and blogs. These tips will help you stay on the right track and eliminate your learning curve.

When you first create a board, keep your boards secret until you have added pins. Switch later to make them visible. This gives you time to work on adding images. When you do decide to make it public, it will have loads of pins and looks good rather than looking like an inactive board.

Always check the source of your pin. Before you repin, be sure to check the source. Does it take you to a website that you are willing to promote? Sometimes, Pinterest informs me that this is going to a porn site and do I really want to direct others to go there? Or sometimes, the pin is interested in only selling items. Determine if that is what you want. Some go to questionable sites that you may not want on your boards. Try to pin from your blog or website to easily drive traffic to that link. Or add the link if you are posting a photo from your computer.

Are you ready to optimize your Pinterest and LinkedIn? Take a few minutes each day to build your Pinterest boards. Let me know how I can help you.

Marketing: Pinterest trends for promoting your business

Posted on June 3, 2014 by Carol Naff

Reach future clients across the globe

You might not believe it, but Lowe’s has the #1 board on Pinterest, Build It, with 3.4 million followers. While not a top pinned site, its followers are interested and engaged building Lowe’s. Before you say, “This doesn’t matter to me since I’m a B2B marketer,” appreciate that your customers, influencers, or end-users have personal lives filled with dreams and some portion of them are active on Pinterest. So, even if you’re NOT a B2C marketer, Pinterest maters!

Women Rock Pinterest

92% of Pins are made by women
80% of Pinterest users are female

And – Women and their interests are critical to your business whether you’re a B2C or B2B company. Media Post noted:

Women account for $7 trillion in US consumer and business spending.
Women make or influence 85% of all purchasing decisions.
Women purchase more than 50% of traditional male products including cars, home improvement products, and consumer electronics.
More than 75% of US women gather product information online before making a purchase.
Women account for 58% of all total online spending.

At a minimum, you need to monitor Pinterest marketing trends to better understand your target audience from an aspirational perspective. Better yet, build your brand and promote your articles, blogs, Facebook, and LinkedIn sites on Pinterest. Add videos from Vimeo and YouTube. See my video on my Marketing Board.

Just last month my Pinterest account reached more than 1,000 followers. Get on the band wagon and follow my boards on Pinterest, repin items of interest to you, and comment on pins to drive more traffic to my business social media and websites. I’ll do the same for you. Invite me to follow you and send me your Pinterest address.

I also help businesses optimize their Pinterest and LinkedIn accounts. Let me know how I can help you. See my other blog at SoloBizMarketing.com

Eleven signs your small business social media strategy isn’t working

Posted on March 8, 2014 by Carol Naff

When Social Digital Media isn’t working to drive traffic to your website

Today, business owners are busier than ever trying to run their companies while handling marketing and sales, too. An important part of marketing today is social media. For many business owners, the world of social media is still foreign territory, and finding the perfect strategy that actually works can often be difficult.

So how do you know if what you’re doing is really hitting the mark? Here are 11 signs that your small business strategy isn’t working. If you’re doing…

Marketing Coach: Eliminate forgettable content in your blog

Posted on April 11, 2013 by Carol Naff

Be memorable

Take notice of what you remember and what sticks. Walt Disney didn’t just create another amusement park. He created an experience. What books stand out in your mind and you didn’t want the end to come? Watership Down was one of those books. Just recently I attended Creative Connections and someone told me that he hadn’t seen my enews around recently. That it is terrific. Hmm, just what I needed for motivation to get back in the swing with regular contributions. My intent in my blogs, carolnaff.me and solobizmarketing.com, and my enews is to help professionals. I hope it is memorable. Register at MarinerCo.com for your free copy.

Mark Hermann in Content marketing, Motivation, Standing out wrote sage advice on how to become memorable. In his blog, boostblogtraffic.com, he gives several (as a matter of fact, many) useful tips on becoming memorable. Become original and authentic. Create your own voice and art. Read the full article on Content marketing, Motivation, Standing out

In Mark’s studio, a framed poster on his desk fuels his imagination and speaks directly to this question. It’s from acclaimed filmmaker, Jim Jarmusch.

“Nothing is original. Steal from anywhere that resonates with inspiration or fuels your imagination. Devour old films, new films, music, books, paintings, photographs, poems, dreams, random conversations, architecture, bridges, street signs, trees, clouds, bodies of water, light and shadows. Select only things to steal from that speak directly to your soul. If you do this, your work (and theft) will be authentic. Authenticity is invaluable; originality is non-existent. And don’t bother concealing your thievery – celebrate it if you feel like it. In any case, always remember what Jean-Luc Godard said: “It’s not where you take things from – it’s where you take them to.”

Then, take action. Nothing will happen until you take just one step forward. Keep writing your blogs, articles, enewsletters, tweets, and/or FB posts. You’d be surprised at who is following you and just waiting for the perfect time to buy your service.

7 Reasons Why Your Blog Post is Not Ready to Publish

Posted on March 14, 2013 by Carol Naff

Blog for marketing

Wait, wait. Don’t click yet. Your blog post may not be ready for the world to see. A good check list is posted in this article at BizNik. Just a few of the ideas in the article:

Double check your links
Check on the size of your photos
Be sure to add an alt title to your image

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