CONVERSATION
STARTERS
Ideas for finding and converting strangers to extraordinary clients and partners
Conversations Starters is written and edited for B2B consultants and coaches who want to build more and better business relationships, achieve visible thought leadership roles and serve more of the clients you deserve.
There are no hacks or gaming of the system here.. If you want sound ideas and advice about how to look good, sound good and fill your sales pipeline, you’ve come to the right place. Welcome!
Why Do You Want to Use Social Media?
When business execs and subject matter experts ask me for help with a social media program, my first question to them is: Why? What is it you want to use social media to do?
Are Employee Advocacy Programs Helping Employees Get Poached?
Employee advocacy is a hot topic for businesses, and both marketers and business leaders are asking more questions about designing and implementing employee advocacy programs. Your company may be missing a huge opportunity to increase the organic reach of your social media and marketing efforts without one.
How to Ace Your Meetings with a LinkedIn Pre-check
These days most professionals take at least a cursory look at a LinkedIn profile before meeting with someone they don’t yet know.
7 Reasons Why LinkedIn is the Best Social Media Network for Professional Services
While social media has long been prominent for business-to-business firms in industries such as tech, telcom and media, many professional services firms are just now beginning to embrace this powerful business development channel. One thing that holds many firms back is not knowing on which network to start.
What can go wrong with social media management tools?
Have you ever used a social media management tool that promised to deliver magnanimous results “on autopilot”? Who doesn’t want to try the latest social media management tool? What these tools don’t tell you is that things can go terribly wrong. And when they do, you’ll have a lot of explaining to do.
3 LinkedIn Profile Mistakes that Will Cost You Money
Have you been meaning to update your LinkedIn profile and just haven’t gotten around to it? You’re not alone, and I hope this article will lead you to rethink that position because the simple act of ignoring your profile incorporates three mistakes that can cost you new business opportunities.
What Is a B2B Influencer Marketing Program?
Influencer marketing programs are becoming one of the most powerful ways to reach your audience, increase thought leadership, raise brand awareness and help you develop relationships. Your audience is listening to a group of someones, and those someones are the influencers you should include in your influencer marketing program.
Why B2B Marketers Need a Brand Strategy & How to Do it Right
When we think of brands, we think of Coca-Cola, Nike or L’Oreal. Brands are part of our daily lives. We are loyal to the brands we favor. When we make purchases, we stick to our favored brands, often not even considering rival offerings.
Hubspot - Please Stop the Spamming!
Everyone I know who has decision-making responsibility in a marketing agency receives cold email messages and phone calls from Hubspot agency partner reps on a recurring basis, whether we like it or not. About every six to nine months, they crawl out of the woodwork.
How To Get Better Results from your LinkedIn Groups
Jeff Simmons joins us to discuss the do’s and don’ts for salespeople and marketers who want to use LinkedIn Groups effectively. He’s a master when it comes to building sales funnels, and his B2B Sales Funnel Library is a valuable resource for any B2B marketer intent on generating leads.
What Bacon Sandwiches Have to Do with Social Media
I’m visiting a friend in Seattle, helping her recover from surgery – the 3rd since she broke five foot bones in what must have been a spectacularly inelegant leap from a boat to the dock.
How CEOs Can Use Twitter to Improve Visibility and Brand Awareness
Before you start exploring how to use Twitter for raising brand awareness and improving visibility, I strongly suggest you solidify your approach to using LinkedIn. Finished? Read on.
9 Ways CEOs Can Use LinkedIn to Build Brand Awareness
9 steps CEOs (and Partners, marketers, subject matter experts and others) can take to expand and promote a brand. I’ve divide them into two groups.
B2B Sales and Marketing Highlights from the 2016 LinkedIn User Survey
Wayne was a skeptic before he became an outspoken proponent of LinkedIn and is passionate about helping business professionals use LinkedIn more effectively to build their businesses and personal brands.
Why You Need to Expand Your Networking Strategy Now
I recently witnessed two very different views on network building offered by high ranking partners in well-known accounting firms.
Are Sales and Marketing People Ruining LinkedIn?
Not too long ago, LinkedIn was a haven from spam. Messages came only from people you knew or who had taken the time to learn something about you. The times are changing — and the news is not good.
Why You Should Spend More LinkedIn Time Researching Potential Clients and Customers
Jim Duffy, founder of Social Selling Inc. and maker of over 400,000 cold calls in his career, uses LinkedIn extensively before reaching out to a prospect to schedule a meeting.
Why some people should not be part of your LinkedIn program
Individuals in the first group – those who are uncomfortable because it’s new – can often become LinkedIn power users with a little time and experience.
10 Best LinkedIn Secrets & How You Can Leverage Them
With all the LinkedIn changes recently, even a full-time LinkedIn guy like me can get confused. Thus, I think it’s time to share with you ten of the best and oftentimes hard-to-find LinkedIn features.
What Your Social Media Program Is Missing Without Employee Advocacy
One way to maximize your return on investment in your social media program is to explore the benefits of an integrated employee advocacy program.