Daria Steigman
Washington, D.C.
- 59 comments
- 18 likes given
- 33 likes received
Business-savvy communications strategist | Independent Thinking author | former IABC/Washington president | runner | Nationals fan.
Hi Christina,
I'm not sure I would have removed the review. I think there's something akin to emotional blackmail when a business owner calls and asks a customer to remove a review -- and I think it would irk me. It's a bit like the (apparent) trend of late to tell customers to give 5 star survey results or else don't fill it out. It's not accurate, and if it ruins your business then your business has real issues.
Having said that, I might be inclined to post a follow-up -- if a business calls me to find out what went wrong, offer an apology (if appropriate), and try to resolve the issue.
And I completely agree: unceasing rave reviews doesn't mean a company is perfect. I'm far more likely to "buy" reviews when I see both the good and the bad. In other words, a more accurate picture.
Hi Christina,
I love your three words, and that they are applicable to both work and life. Just don't censor all the bluntness. I think a combination of bluntness and tact can be a very good thing. (Either that, or I've told myself that over the years...)
Wishing you much comfort and glee in 2012 + 1.
Hi Justin,
Welcome to the life of a (former) Redskins fan. After Dan Snyder sued fans who couldn't afford their tickets (after the 2008 economic meltdown), a lot of angry fans -- the ones who still had tickets -- had a lot to say. But not at the stadium, because he had his security people confiscate every sign. Unless it said something nice about him, of course. Or was making him ad dollars.
Cheer up: Synder's Act 2 was to sue a journalist. Hopefully your ownership team isn't this bad.
Hi Christina,
Yes, this is aggravating, isn't it? I long ago stopped getting group discussion notifications, even the weekly ones, from most of my groups for this reason. What amazes me more than the "here's my blog post, please read it" stuff is that most people are too lazy to even post a question or start a discussion that might actually pique my interest in clicking through and reading it.
The best discussions are the ones that are intended to spark discussion. Sadly, I think far too many LinkedIn groups are started with a mailing list mentality rather than an engagement one.
I have to agree with @karenswim and others who say that it isn't so black and white.As a rule, I try not to lead with my political perspective (of course I have one). I've worked for clients who share my politics and some who do not -- and some about whom I have no idea their political POV.
There are a lot of people who I like a lot personally (and/or make great clients) that have different political positions. Why lead w/ the things that divide us rather than the ones that forge relationships?
That said, I do break my own rules occasionally (like a few election-night tweets)... But hopefully not in an asshat kind of way.
PS: Looking forward to meeting you in Atlanta in February.
@Ike , I agree with you. This is a VERY disturbing legal precedent. I'm really not sure how a mention of a historical event in the public sphere could constitute advertising in this case. From @ginidietrich 's post, it sounds like they were referring to the event to create an analogy (something everyone does every day--though I guess I won't use the angry pilot dude to do it), and not intending to sell off his name. Hmm...
@stephsammons I understand the concept behind "thought leaders," but I'm going to have to see how it actually shapes out. A lot of so-called influencers really aren't--and the challenge is to showcase the content of those people who might be relevant to you but whose ideas and smarts you aren't already seeing elsewhere. Otherwise it's going to just be more "stuff."
Hi Liam,
I like the face lift analogy. I really dislike the concept of "endorsements." The conundrum right now is that you're either left accepting endorsements (and endorsing your colleagues) or you risk looking like no one really values your expertise. It's a nasty trap and a Klout-lite game. And, i agree with you, it's distracting from doing business on LinkedIn.
Hi Christina,
For someone who works for myself, I've turned down a lot of work over the years.
My own feeling: if you're not comfortable, just say no. You don't have to give a reason; it's just not right. (I used to tell friends who wanted an excuse not to go somewhere or on a date that "I'm busy" can mean I'm painting my toenails tonight or I want to watch TV.
Here are some reasons to consider the gig:
1) You like the people you would be working with (I've taken work with companies I'm not so crazy about because I liked my client, and they've always worked out okay)
2) You want the cash (nothing wrong with that)
3) You want the consulting quals, and to be able to say "I've consulted for..." (also nothing wrong with that)
Reasons to Say NO (but not the reasons you have to give them for saying NO):
1) You don't think you can help (if you really think the product won't succeed, can you really help them sell it?) -- this is a big red flag, because you don't want to take a gig and then have no success
2) You don't like the people you'd have to work with (why work with people you don't like, especially part time?)
3) This just isn't the right opportunity, and you'd rather be watching Mystery (okay, channeling a friend of mine years ago on a date, but you get the point).
Good luck. Call me if you want to bounce any of this off me. Lots of expertise in picking & turning down consulting gigs.
Congrats, Christina, on the new direction. Looking forward to the results.
Pushing Social sounds really interesting, and perhaps it's time to think about getting someone to look at what I'm doing and what I could tweak. (Yeah, video is in there, I know...) Would love to chat with you about your experience if you have a few minutes.
(PS: Yes, I had to delete & repost my comment. Couldn't mis-type your name now, could I?)
Hi Christina,
Well, this brings back memories. In the early days of desktop publishing (and my business), clients expected me to do both the writing and the design. And then they expected lots of design elements in everything. One client actually demanded to have bold, ALL CAPS, italic, underlined captions on all their photos. I said, just because you can doesn't mean you should. I lost the argument (and their newsletter looked crappy as a result).
No, I am not a designer either.
I actually think, however, that we benefit from having at least once done stuff that isn't in our wheel house and shouldn't be. Sometimes you have to go through that to really appreciate your core strengths--and other people's--and the value of different kinds of jobs. It definitely helped me at another point when I interviewed for a job as a communications director at a small organization. The description was all over the place, and they told me at the interview that one of the "tasks" would be to take pictures at events. I pointed out that I was not a photographer; this also didn't seem to be an appropriate use of a communication director's time and/or expertise (since they also expected that person to network at those same events--like you'd be taken seriously if you were the "girl" running around taking pictures). Needless to say, I took myself out of contention for the position.
Hi Danny,
Your key point is "social currency" It's about being "you" and being generally consistent about what you do and don't share, but it's also (most important) about reputation. If you have a good one, people will think you've either gone off the deep end or have been hacked. Sorry you had to deal with this, but appreciate that you're sharing the lessons learned so quickly. I've gone in and tweaked my security settings (though I still need to do the phone part).
This post has been sitting, tagged in my Reader until I had a couple of minutes at desktop to read AND install the plug-in. Wow! Over 4,600 revisions gone in a flash -- and instant speed improvement. Thanks, @SarahArrow.
Hi Christina,
I tried to drill this into the head of my manager when I was president of my condo board. He was telling me that the weekend desk staff was calling him (and interrupting his weekend) to ask questions or get an okay to do something. I keep telling him that he needed to triage the requests and figure out which ones he could--and should--empower the staff to make decisions about on their own.
Sadly, he never quite got it.
One of the reasons I love Whole Foods is that the company empowers its employees to make decisions on the spot. So you rarely (if ever) have to "call a manager."
Hi Christina,
I agree with you: why wouldn't you want the information on what piqued a prospect's interest? Seems that would make the sale a lot easier. If you're just going to sell to a generic customer, why bother with the lead gen. activities in the first place?
Reading through my RSS while waiting to go out to dinner. What a lovely story... Happy Birthday Kelly! I'm sure Gini has a wonderful weekend of celebration planned (aren't Friday birthdays the best?).
@C_Pappas @margieclayman I actually think the "how to use Twitter" and "How to generate leads on LinkedIn" posts are a great example. While WE think everyone knows this stuff--I still talk to a lot of people who are looking to understand the basics. Sure there's a library of that stuff out there -- but there's no reason why it can't be in your "library" of resources as well.
Hi Christina,
Your post is spot on. I think the problem is that people within the "social media echo chamber" all read the same blogs, are in the same "tribes," and tweet out the same posts (and iterations on those posts) over and over. So it's a bit of blah, blah, blah.
However, most people aren't subscribing to 100+ blogs or reading dozens of marketing, or social media, or small business, or [pick your topic] posts daily or weekly or even monthly. They're maybe reading 1 or 2--and maybe it's yours. Plus if you're picking your own topics wisely, you have a perspective, a POV, based on your experiences and expertise.
There's always something more to be added to a conversation.
Hi Christina,
I wonder sometimes if people defer to the "adjective soup" because it's easier than actually trying to define what your value proposition really is. As in, what's in it for me? (employee, vendor, customer/member, and so forth.)
Good suggestions here for how to provide a proof of concept for why English not jargon should be your first choice.
I once worked with a law practice that was describing everything in very legal terms. They kept saying that their messaging was fine because they were typically recommended by the general counsels (e.g., more lawyers) at the companies who become their clients. Finally, I asked, Who makes the decision to hire you: the general counsel or the CEO? Then they got it, and stopped resisting my questions about why certain cases were so important, and what the main business value was to their clients from the results they had achieved.
I agree with 3HatsComm : spare me from phony personalization.
I think, at some (big) level, the collecting/selling data piece has left the station -- and not just with Google, which is pretty upfront about it. All the "free" platforms are doing it, it's just a question of openness and degrees (e.g., Pinterest just got in trouble because it was creating affiliate links from user posts without telling its users). So as a user, it's about understanding this, understanding what data you are providing, and knowing when to hop into incognito mode to execute a search.
As a marketer, C_Pappas , I think it's still the wild, wild, West. There will be guidelines (rules? not so sure), but we're still figuring them out.