Weir'd Marketing

Aug 6

My Aunt Rox

Pamela Weir | icon2

Writing |

08 6th, 2008| icon3

4 Comments »

Mom and Aunt Rox

Today would have been my Aunt’s 53rd Birthday.

If anything, my aunt was the main reason I decided to start my own business.

She was always thinking up crazy plans. She never doubted her ability to conjure up a good idea and create success with whatever resources were available to her. Even if the idea turned bad, she stuck with it. She made it work, and she became stronger and more educated by the experience. She was an inspiration.

She was like a second mother to me. The other half of my own mother. In childhood, they had been abandoned by their parents and gained strength in their shared determination to stay together no matter what happened to them. They were two very opposite people who were entirely lost without each other. She is wrapped up in all of my childhood memories. On the good days, I can still hear her laugh, and then I remember the days we spent talking about life and drinking tea in my mother’s living room.

I never truly believed that cancer could take her from us. She was too strong. It seemed impossible after all that she struggled through that her own body would rob her of the life she fought so hard to build. During her treatment she would become very ill, but she would always get better and come back to us. We always had hope that she would conquer it and stay with us until she had a chance to grow old. I think we were all in denial.

In December, the doctors said that she had three more months, but she was gone on January 4th, 2008. Her daughter was holding her when she passed.

And now, we’re still picking up the pieces. We’re trying to figure out what life should be like without her. It has been difficult.

I’m not doing her justice here. I can’t find the proper words to express the loss we feel. I’m too wrapped up in images of her illness to describe her life as it should have continued.

We should be calling her today, wishing her a happy birthday, talking about all the things she’s done to the house and figuring out the next time we will be able to get together.

It’s no longer a day of celebration. Instead, it’s a day of silence and remembrance. A day of writing.

Pamela

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Jul 31

Interaction Builds Business Communities

Pamela Weir | icon2

Marketing, Social Networking | icon4

07 31st, 2008| icon3

4 Comments »

Business Interaction

As I discussed in The Future of Public Relations, blogs, social networking, and podcasts have changed the way people get ideas, share information, communicate, and respond. The web’s interactive communication style has changed how people want to learn, connect, and build relationships. Conversations are crucial to growth and the development of innovative ideas.

There are a couple of easy ways you can provide interaction on your website without having to invest in, build and maintain a forum or membership site.

Create and Maintain a Blog

Blogging forces you to analyze and organize your ideas, beliefs, and opinions, and how they are relevant to your business and market. Researching topics and developing relevant posts gives you the opportunity to evaluate current trends and design solutions for your customers.

Hosting a blog allows clients to pose questions about business topics, provide input on developing issues and engage others in conversation. Clients and prospects have the opportunity to hear new ideas not only from you, but also from others who are involved in the blogging community.

Comment sections are critical to a blog’s success and are a feature that not only allows but encourages people to post their own ideas and replies. If you reply to everyone who comments, visitors will be more likely to leave new comments or continue the conversation. Analyze your most popular topics and pay attention to statistics that show you where people are coming from, and factor all of it into your marketing planning.

It can be hard to sustain a conversation, especially on a blog, when you don’t have anything interesting to say. If you find you are getting stuck and are groping for something to write, it may be a signal that you need to draw ideas from other industries, or ask others to post their own ideas to your blog. Consider asking some of your clients to post their own topics. Not only will this give them some free publicity, but it may entice their own readers to visit your blog as well.

Develop Free Teleseminars or Webinars

If you don’t have the desire to post regularly to a company blog, you may want to consider hosting remote seminars.

Organizing and running regular interactive seminars for clients and prospects enables you to learn what is on your clients’ minds and demonstrate that you are concerned about recent industry issues. You can host and direct each session yourself, or you can invite other industry experts and speakers to come and discuss important issues that will add value for your clients.

You can start the sessions by posing what-if questions that challenge people’s assumptions, and let the conversation develop and take on their own direction. To promote real discussions, use themes that center around “Why?” and “Why Not?” questions. Encourage debates centered around new ways of understanding client issues.

Wrap up by asking your clients if they think you should spend time developing one or more of the ideas that emerged from the session. Ask whether that would be of value to them. Consider recording each session and offering the audio files as an incentive for joining your community.

If your participants know that they are involved in developing solutions they are more likely to become loyal members of your community.

The Point: Add More Value

Nothing builds relationships better than regular, meaningful conversations. Initiating and deepening relationships is more important than conventional marketing’s goals of pushing “awareness” and generating “sales leads.”

To have these interesting, meaningful conversations, you must have something to say. Develop fresh points of view and create new metaphors and language to express them. The message itself is only the beginning. Its value exists only if you dedicate yourself to initiating conversations with clients and prospects.

Pamela Weir is a freelance copywriter. If you are looking for a writer with experience in creating blog posts, newsletters, coaching manuals, and seminar scripts, please visit her website Market to the Moment for information about her services.

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