Phyllis Zimbler Miller's Blog: Phyllis Zimbler Miller Author, page 43

Digging in the Past for Marketing Wisdom for the Future

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I have been going through some old papers and have discovered information I wrote that predates social media and maybe even predates email. Yet this information still holds true for marketing in 2012.



Here is what I wrote under the title "Marketing Is Everything You Do (Or Do Not Do) to Sell Your Product or Service":

It is as simple as having products or services available and as difficult as convincing people they really need them — now. The key to successful marketing is …

Perception.

Offering the best product or service is not enough until it is perceived as fulfilling the needs of the people for whom it is targeted.

Even with a "luxury" the appropriate people can be convinced that they "need" it — today. But to do this, it is necessary to …

1. Determine what is really being sold, whether it is the "best value" available, or a "unique" item, or an "upscale" version of a widely available product or service. To what "needs" does this appeal?

2. Identify and locate those people most likely to buy the product or service. These are the people who most strongly have these "needs."

3. Decide what perceptions will attract these targeted consumers to the product or service.

4. Then create those perceptions by an action program that will make the target group buy.

I could have easily written these words today, the only difference being the tools a marketer could use today instead of the tools a marketer had back in the Stone Age when I wrote this.

I concluded this document with saying that my company would:

Work with you to accomplish this. Together, we shall develop creative opportunities that will enable your target markets to understand what your product or service will do for them. We motivate these individuals to buy now. Marketing is not a luxury for your business. It is a necessity.

And if you'd like help with reviewing your marketing plans for 2012, take advantage of our special $97 offer for one hour of a marketing consultation phone call — http://budurl.com/2012marketing (I'll email you to set up a convenient time for our consult.)

The offer is good through December 31, and I already have several slots filled in the coming week. Act now if you are serious about planning your marketing for 2012.

Or contact us now to find out how we can help you in other areas:

[contact-form-7]

© 2011 Miller Mosaic, LLC

Phyllis Zimbler Miller (@ZimblerMiller on Twitter) has an M.B.A. from The Wharton School and is the co-founder of the marketing consulting company www.MillerMosaicLLC.com, which helps clients effectively use social media and other online marketing strategies.

Visit Phyllis' Google Plus profile.

Check out Phyllis' books and other projects at www.PhyllisZimblerMiller.com

Review Your Marketing Plans for 2012

Marketing. Almost all businesses need to do it and yet, for many small businesses, there just is not enough time in the day to do this.

Why then is reviewing your marketing plans for 2012 important?

Because you may be spending your limited marketing time on less rather than more productive activities.



1. Review the audiences you are targeting on social media

Imagine you are a psychotherapist and you spend your marketing time engaged in social media with other psychotherapists.

While this may get you a referral from a psychotherapist unable to work with a specific patient, you yourself are not engaged with your target audiences.

A review of your current social media activities may bring the realization that you would be better off shifting your social media activities in the coming year to activities that put you "in front of" your target audiences.



2. Review the way in which you describe what you do

What about when you tell someone (in person or online) what you do? Do your target audiences truly understand all the knowledge and talent needed for what you do? If not, how might you better provide this information?

3. Review the exploitation of your brand

In this case exploitation is a good thing. If you have a brand that sets you apart from others who offer similar products or services, make the most of that brand. Do NOT put off exploitation of your brand until you "get around to it."

In conclusion, spend time now reviewing your marketing plans for 2012 and making adjustments where indicated.

After all, you do want to get the most bang for your buck, don't you?

And if you'd like help with reviewing your marketing plans for 2012, take advantage of our special $97 offer for one hour of a marketing consultation phone call — http://budurl.com/2012marketing (I'll email you to set up a convenient time for our consult.)

Or contact us now to find out how we can help you:

[contact-form-7]

© 2011 Miller Mosaic, LLC

Phyllis Zimbler Miller (@ZimblerMiller on Twitter) has an M.B.A. from The Wharton School and is the co-founder of the marketing consulting company www.MillerMosaicLLC.com, which helps clients effectively use social media and other online marketing strategies.

Visit Phyllis' Google Plus profile.

Check out Phyllis' books and other projects at www.PhyllisZimblerMiller.com

What I Learned From Little Marble Statues of Composers

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Here is the lineup in the photo from left to right: Mendelssohn, Brahms, Chopin, Beethoven, Handel, Bach, Handel (again), and Liszt.

As an elementary school student in the small town of Elgin, Illinois, I got to pick one of these statues each time I completed a certain number of piano pieces reasonably well. (I say reasonably well because I was certainly no virtuoso.)

I have kept these statues all these years as a reminder that persistence and perseverance help even when a person is not naturally good at a task.

And now, at over the age of 60, I am giving these to the Discovery Shop in Beverly Hills so that the proceeds can help fight cancer. This is a fitting use of motivational rewards.

What does this have to do with effectively using social media to promote your business, book, brand or cause?

To effectively use social media for promotion, you have to be willing to be persistent and persevere when things change (e.g., Facebook changes can make the heads of even the experts spin) or when you still cannot get something to work after six tries (e.g., the Amazon support staff is "still working" on the issue).

You also must be willing to learn new things, assess whether these new actions work for you, and then move on to repeating the cycle of trying new things and accessing the value.

Looking ahead for 2012, are you clear on the marketing goals you hope to achieve in the coming year?

If not, consider a one-hour marketing brainstorming session with us to help you get out of the gate quickly in the new year.

Because we are committed to helping people succeed with effectively using social media for marketing, we have a special New Year's offer of just $97 for this intensive one-hour marketing brainstorming session. (That's less than half the fee of our one-hour branding session.)

This $97 offer is good through December 31 — we really do want you to be ready for the New Year.

To find out if this one-hour marketing brainstorming session is for you, put your main marketing goal in the message box of this contact form along with your website URL (if you have one).

And let's see if Miller Mosaic can help you get started on a successful 2012!

[contact-form-7]

© 2011 Miller Mosaic, LLC

Phyllis Zimbler Miller (@ZimblerMiller on Twitter) has an M.B.A. from The Wharton School and is the co-founder of the marketing consulting company www.MillerMosaicLLC.com that helps clients effectively use social media and other online marketing strategies.

Check out Phyllis' books and other projects at www.PhyllisZimblerMiller.com

More Changes on Amazon for Authors — and More Confusion

While on my Amazon Author Page backend I noticed in the top right-hand corner an announcement that I could now get a customized Amazon Author Page URL. I immediately did this and shared this new opportunity on various social media sites.

(If you have an Amazon Author Page already, go to http://authorcentral.amazon.com — sign in to your Amazon account — under "Update your profile and bibliography" you'll see "Add a photo and biography to an Author Central Profile" and click on "Author Central Profile." Then in the top right-hand corner of your screen you are offered this option.)

The sticky issue here, though, is that you must first have an Amazon Author Page. And someone in an ebook LinkedIn group to which I belong reported:

Amazon won't let you complete the process until they can find a book you've written. Smashwords books don't count (until they're accepted in the premium catalog, presumably), but anything published through their Kindle publishing services does.

Then I got this email from Amazon, which is surprising because Amazon Author Central has not, in my experience, been the easiest support staff with whom to work:

Hi Phyllis Zimbler Miller,

Your Author Page URL is live on Amazon.com. Your Author Page can now be found at: https://www.amazon.com/author/phylliszimblermiller

Because a short link is clean and simple, it's an easy way to increase traffic to the place readers are learning about you and shopping for your books.

You can promote your link on Twitter, make it your e-mail signature, include it in the template of your blog or website, and use it any other place your readers are active.

Thanks,

The Author Central Team

https://authorcentral.amazon.com

It is clear from this email that Amazon sees this new URL opportunity as an opportunity for Amazon to sell more books (especially in relation to its online book-selling rivals.)

At the same time that I got this email from Amazon, I got an email from a friend asking about an email her friend got from Amazon after writing a book review. The email began:

Your latest review has just gone live on Amazon. We and millions of shoppers on Amazon appreciate the time you took to write about your experience with this item.

My friend asked if the email her friend got was "normal." I scrolled down on this email and found what I think is the main point: "Share this review with friends" followed by the Facebook and Twitter icons.

Obviously Facebook is encouraging more book sales by having someone who wrote a book review send the review to his/her friends.

And now for another interesting quirk about Amazon:

I changed the URL on my Amazon public profile (this public profile is available to everyone who has an Amazon account — this is NOT only for authors) to that of my new website www.PhyllisZimblerMiller.com

I then went to amazon.co.uk to check how this URL change affected my public profile on the U.K. Amazon site. The new link was there instead of the old link, but I had no photo on my profile as I did on my U.S. Amazon public profile.

I had to upload the photo separately on the U.K., French and German sites even though the link was automatically changed on all these sites. (I knew just enough words in French and German to figure out, based on the U.S. site, where to find the option to upload my photo on the French and German sites.)

Book reviews now on some other Amazon sites:

In the past the only way to get reviews of your books from, say the U.S. site, is to have the reviewer re-post on each individual other Amazon site.

News: As a result of sharing info about Amazon on the LinkedIn Group I manage — "Book Marketing" — I learned that the Amazon Canadian site (amazon.ca) is now carrying some book reviews from the U.S. site. (But this site doesn't have Kindle; only an author's physical books have reviews.)

I then checked the U.K. site (amazon.co.uk), which does carry Kindle, and found that some of the reviews were there for both the physical and Kindle versions of my novel MRS. LIEUTENANT and for the Kindle version of my ebook technothriller MOLLIE SANDERS.

To be more specific, there are three reviews of MRS. LIEUTENANT on the Canadian site, under the heading "Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon U.S." with the word "beta" next to the heading. At the end of the three reviews appears the link "Go to Amazon U.S. to see all [number] reviews" followed by the overall star rating.

(I also checked the French and German Amazon sites and so far this opportunity for U.S. reviews to appear is not available. But hang on, the situation could change before you finish reading this post.)

Announcing a new service for books authors: Your Amazon Assistant

Contact us now to find out how we can help you — be sure to include your book title(s) and website URL in the contact form below:

[contact-form-7]

© 2011 Miller Mosaic, LLC

Phyllis Zimbler Miller (@ZimblerMiller on Twitter) has an M.B.A. from The Wharton School and is the co-founder of the marketing consulting company www.MillerMosaicLLC.com that helps clients effectively use social media and other online marketing strategies.

Check out Phyllis' books and other projects at www.PhyllisZimblerMiller.com

What I Learned From the Movie "The Social Network"

I finally got around to seeing the movie "The Social Network" – the one about Mark Zuckerberg starting Facebook from his room at Harvard.

Aaron Sorkin wrote the screenplay based on the book "The Accidental Billionaires" by Ben Mezrich (which I have not read).

As I watched the movie, which is a fictionalized account rather than a factual telling of the start of Facebook, I was more conscious of director David Fincher's visual shots than I should have been.

Leaving this aside, I do think there are major lessons based on the movie's plot points:

1. Do NOT sign any contracts without having a lawyer review what you are about to sign.

When co-founder Eduardo Saverin later explains that he thought the Facebook lawyers were his lawyers, he reveals the major error that led to his drastically reduced share of the company. Those lawyers represented the company and Mark Zuckerberg. Eduardo Saverin needed his own legal representation.

2. The song "When I'm Not Near the Girl I Love" from the musical "Finian's Rainbow" has the cautionary refrain:

When I'm not near the girl I love,

I love the girl I'm near.

When Eduardo Saverin let Mark Zuckerberg go off to California for three months by himself, this was another major error. This error allowed other people to exert influence on the direction of Facebook without Saverin being there as counterbalance

3. And for all of us who now use social media to connect with others and promote our business, good ideas are only that until they are acted upon.

In conclusion, I could have probably spent my time more productively than watching the movie, except for one tiny detail I noticed. That detail has given me an idea in connection with a three-ebook series on which I am currently working. And learning from the lessons of the movie, I plan to act on this idea.

This brings me to my final words of wisdom for this blog post:

Ideas can be found everywhere around us. We just need to keep our minds open to the possibilities.

© 2011 Miller Mosaic, LLC

Phyllis Zimbler Miller (@ZimblerMiller on Twitter) has an M.B.A. from The Wharton School and is the co-founder of the marketing consulting company www.MillerMosaicLLC.com that helps clients effectively use social media and other online marketing strategies.

Check out Phyllis' books and other projects at www.PhyllisZimblerMiller.com

Social Media: The Dilemma of Free Speech

As the founder and manager of the open group Book Marketing on LinkedIn, I have certain privileges. One of these is removing someone from the group.

LinkedIn Help Center states:

Removing Spam from Your Group

Can I remove all of the spam someone has posted if I'm a group moderator or manager?



As a moderator or manager, if you identify spam in your group, you can block and delete the person's contributions.

Note: once you block someone, all of their contributions will be deleted and they can't contribute in the future.

1. On your group's Discussions page, click the spammer's picture to see all their activity.

2. Click the Change Permissions button on the right.

3. Click Block & Delete.

Yet for me this is not an easy decision. I am uneasy with kicking someone out of the group. I would much prefer that the person mend his/her ways to conform to the group rules.

Here is the group message I sent about this issue:

Thanksgiving Day Message to LinkedIn Book Marketing Group Members



In the spirit of the day, I am writing all group members to ask for their cooperation in keeping this group a valuable source of shared information and NOT a place where people feel attacked or uncomfortable.

I do know that what may seem an attack to some people may not have been intended as an attack. BUT — let us all make sure that we do NOT write anything that can be perceived as an attack on specific people, countries, religions, races, etc.

When you are commenting — please read over what you have written BEFORE posting and REMOVE anything that may be perceived as an attack.

In addition, please FLAG any comments that seem to include attacks.

And you may also email me privately if you see discussion comments that are not appropriate.

If you have any doubts as to whether a comment is appropriate, do NOT post it.

This group welcomes each person sharing information to help others. It is NOT a forum to insist that one's own opinion is the correct one — nor is it the place to disparage others.

Again, please read (and follow!) the group rules at the top right-hand side of your screen when you are on the group.

Wishing all of you and your families a day of gratitude and appreciation,

Phyllis

If you have any opinions about this dilemma, please leave your (polite) comments below.

And if interested, join the LinkedIn Book Marketing group (please read and follow the group rules).

© 2011 Miller Mosaic, LLC

Phyllis Zimbler Miller (@ZimblerMiller on Twitter) has an M.B.A. from The Wharton School and is the co-founder of the marketing consulting company www.MillerMosaicLLC.com that helps clients effectively use social media and other online marketing strategies.

Read about Phyllis' fiction and nonfiction books and ebooks.

Online Marketing Can Be Very Effective for Local Businesses

Yes, at first this statement may seem like a contradiction. Why use the Internet to market your local business?

The reason:

More and more people go online to check out businesses before getting in their car and driving to those businesses. And these people also go online to sites such as Yelp to check out what other clients or customers have to say about a specific business or service professional.

Plus, if your competitors are online, but you are not, what do you think people looking for your type of local business think about you? They may not think anything because they may not know you exist.

If you are still spending a great deal of advertising money on the Yellow Pages, now is definitely the time to rethink your promotional expenditures.

And here's the best part about using online marketing strategies to promote your local business:

In many if not most cases, you can directly target your ideal customers or clients.

In other words, instead of spending on an expensive TV ad – or even on a radio ad – and you do not know if your target audiences are seeing or hearing that ad, you can participate on social media sites in ways that get you in front of your target audiences.

Now remember, I am NOT talking about "selling" on social media sites. Instead I am talking about creating connections with prospective customers or clients by sharing information of interest.

Let's take a specific example:



Imagine you are a hairdresser in Beverly Hills. You establish a Twitter account in your salon's name. And you start tweeting daily.

You do NOT tweet about how fantastic your salon is. Instead you:

• Tweet about tips for healthy hair

• Link to articles about new trends in hair styles (but not articles written by other Beverly Hills hairdressers)

• Retweet interesting tweets by other Beverly Hills businesses (but not those in competition with you)

• Retweet interesting tweets by some of your clientele

In general, you demonstrate that you are a committed Twitter community member who shares information of interest to your ideal audiences. And in many cases your ideal audiences will check out your Twitter bio and then click through to your website.

You do have an effective website for your business, don't you?

Now I talked about Twitter in the above example because in many ways Twitter is the easiest popular social media site on which to start.

On the other hand, because it appears relatively easy, many business people start on Twitter without knowing what they are doing. This can be detrimental if these business people do not understand how to correctly harness the power of Twitter without "selling."

Effective online marketing is NOT an overnight miracle. It takes a commitment over a long time period to establish worthwhile online relationships that can often transform social media connections into customers or clients.

Yet, while social media is a long-term commitment, it does NOT have to be a time-draining daily commitment if your business has an effective social media strategy.

At Miller Mosaic we work with clients to help them effectively utilize social media marketing without their getting stuck spinning their wheels in a time-sink rut. If you would like help, email us at marketing@millermosaicllc.com to learn how we can help you.

© 2011 Miller Mosaic, LLC

Phyllis Zimbler Miller (@ZimblerMiller on Twitter) has an M.B.A. from The Wharton School and is the co-founder of the marketing consulting company www.MillerMosaicLLC.com that helps clients effectively use social media and other online marketing strategies.

You can learn about Phyllis' fiction and nonfiction books – including her ebooks – at http://budurl.com/PZMbooks

Social Media: Are You Trusting Your Company Reputation to Your Most Low-Level Employees?

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Many years ago I was the communication officer for a home health care company. All our patient referrals came to a centralized call center or to the receptionist at our corporate headquarters.

This meant that the people answering the phones were the most important employees. If they messed up, we lost patients.

But unfortunately senior management did not realize this potentially weak link in the company's reputation – the weak line of low-paid employees with little invested in doing a good job at encouraging patient referrals.

My answer to this dilemma was to conduct phone training sessions for these employees. We worked together on effective ways to answer the incoming calls and to recognize outstanding employees.

Why bring this up now in the era of the Internet?



Because I just read several articles in the November 14th Wall Street Journal's special supplement "The Journal Report: Small Business." And a recurring point in these articles is that many companies are allowing their least-trained and least-invested (in the company's well-being) employees to participate on social media sites for the companies.

I should not be surprised, especially as a partner in a communications firm told me that he had never seen his company's Twitter account. Imagine this! It is his company's reputation on the line, and he doesn't know what is being said publicly in the company's name.



Bottom line? Your company needs to consider the risks of having your lower-level employees doing your social media.

I recommend that, if your company truly cannot allocate resources to have more senior employees doing social media as part of a strategic company plan, at the very least conduct periodic training sessions for the lower-level employees doing the company's social media.

And regardless of whether you yourself know how to use these tools, at least once a week check your company's social media activities on Twitter, Facebook, etc. to ensure that these activities are in line with your company's reputation and goals.

Otherwise you may be very surprised when your company gets in trouble because of something tweeted, for example, in your company's name by a low-level and untrained employee.

© 2011 Miller Mosaic, LLC

Phyllis Zimbler Miller (@ZimblerMiller on Twitter) has an M.B.A. from The Wharton School and is the co-founder of the marketing consulting company www.MillerMosaicLLC.com that helps clients effectively use social media and other online marketing strategies.

You can learn about Phyllis' fiction and nonfiction books – including her ebooks – at http://budurl.com/PZMbooks

Social Media Comes of Age in Academia

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You know social media has come of age when:

The Nov/Dec 2011 alumni magazine "The Pennsylvania Gazette" from the University of Pennsylvania features an article by Maanvi Singh (College 2013) titled "@Penn Engineering: #Majoring in Twitter."

According to the article, there are approximately 10 freshmen in the Engineering School's new Market and Social Systems Engineering (MKSE) major, and that this is "the first academic program of its kind anywhere."

The article says:

Among other things, students who complete the major will be able to understand how Facebook determines whom to recommend as "friends," how Google makes money by selling search terms, and how the Internet itself manages to stay so reliable and robust.

Right after I read this Penn article, I received two Chicago Tribune articles published October 4th (and thus more than a month old) mailed to me by my father Al Zimbler (the author of the new humorous book THE LOVE LIFE OF HOWARD HANDSOME AND OTHER SHORT STORIES).

Apparently "Focus: Social Media Jobs" is "a new page added to the Chicago Tribune Business report."

The article titled "Online community managers riding high – and getting paid" by Shan Li says:

Academia is starting to take the field seriously too. Birmingham City University in England offers as master's degree in social media. Beginning this fall, Northeastern University in Boston will offer a specialty in social media for master's students studying corporate communications.

I am personally very excited about these developments. Way too many people think they understand social media marketing simply because they can use the tools of social media.

Yet effective social media marketing requires marketing professionals who understand marketing principles as well as strategic social media principles.

I was pleased to also read in the Chicago Tribune article about the person who handles social media for insurance group USAA, of which my husband I have been members since 19790.

Augie Ray was quoted as saying: "As a social media professional, I am personally embarrassed by all the wizards and gurus and ninjas. It's a serious profession."

In addition, Kristin Samuelson's Chicago Tribune article of the same day — "Position becoming integrated at all levels" – featured an interview with Leah Jones, account director of emerging media in the Chicago office of Olson PR.

I thought this quote from Leah Jones about social media marketers was particularly compelling: "You are always looking forward and should never be comfortable with what you're currently using."

If in your business or professional career you are not yet effectively using social media marketing to get in front of your targeted audiences, what is holding you back?

Get a copy of Carol Dweck's book MINDSET: THE NEW PSYCHOLOGY OF SUCCESS. Devour her wisdom. Then start your journey along the learning continuum for effective social media marketing.

If you would like help on your journey, contact us at marketing@millermosaicllc.com to learn how we can help you.



© 2011 Miller Mosaic, LLC

Phyllis Zimbler Miller (@ZimblerMiller on Twitter) has an M.B.A. from The Wharton School and her company co-founder Yael K. Miller (@MillerMosaicLLC on Twitter) has a B.A. from the University of Pennsyvlania. Their social media marketing consulting company is www.MillerMosaicLLC.com

The company offers consulting on Internet marketing – see www.millermosaicllc.com/ – as well as builds WordPress websites for clients – see www.millermosaicllc.com/call-to-action-websites

You can learn about Phyllis' fiction and nonfiction books – including her ebooks – at http://budurl.com/PZMbooks

Words Can Hurt: Be Careful of the Online Comments You Post

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Remember the childhood rhyme "Sticks and stone may break my bones but words will never hurt me"?

It is NOT true. Words can be very hurtful.

Twice in the last few days I have been sent private LinkedIn messages asking me to deal with hurtful comments on two separate discussion threads on the LinkedIn group that I founded and manage.

In one case it was a matter of perspective. The offending comment that referred to "morons" appeared to me not to refer to a specific person although

I understand why that person thought the word did. Yet regardless of who the word referred to, it is not a nice way to refer to others.

In the other case the comments attacked someone's opinions rather than politely disagreeing and giving the opposite opinions.

Regardless of who we are, all of us should be careful of what we write on discussion threads or blog post comments.



Here is my quick guide for writing non-hurtful comments:

1. Before posting, read over your comment to make sure that you have expressed your opinion in a positive rather than negative way.

2. If you have used any words that could be deemed by others to be offensive, such as "morons," find a better way to express what you mean.

3. Be careful about making sweeping statements, such as saying "there is no …." or "everyone believes …."

4. Remember that comments should be helpful to others and not hurtful.

When you post comments, do try to remember the saying "do unto others as you would have done unto you." As thick-skinned as you may believe you are, you really do not want people saying offensive things to you. Try not to say things to others that can be perceived as offensive.

© 2011 Miller Mosaic, LLC

Phyllis Zimbler Miller (@ZimblerMiller on Twitter) has an M.B.A. from The Wharton School and is the co-founder of the marketing consulting company www.MillerMosaicLLC.com

The company offers consulting on book publishing and book marketing – see http://www.millermosaicllc.com/book-m... – as well as builds WordPress websites for authors – see www.millermosaicllc.com/call-to-action-websites

You can learn about Phyllis' fiction and nonfiction books – including her ebooks – at http://budurl.com/PZMbooks