Today I took a giant step forward, thanks to the expertise of a friend with great entrepreneurial, computing and teaching skills. When we concentrate on doing what we do best and then seek help for tasks we do not know how to do or to do well, success is within reach. Personally, I find it thrilling to learn something new as often as possible. With the ever-changing landscape of the Internet, Facebook, Twitter and cloud computing, you can bet that there is always a great new skill to acquire, not to mention exchanging ideas about best practices for public relations, marketing and the future of communication.

As I kick off 2011 with goal setting exercises, organizing tasks and tutorials for different projects I want to execute,  my productivity roadmap is taking shape. I am in the process of setting up guideposts for myself all along the way so that a year from now I can look back and easily see where I prevailed and where I missed the mark. But this is nothing new – experts have been advocating productivity tools for decades. The new productivity gurus like Tim Ferriss and David Allen are masters at explaining how and why to put these ideas into practice. Chris Brogan is pretty darn good at it, too (see his annual “My 3 Words” posts).

Turns out, productivity is a hot topic. How lucky to tap into the advice of so many experts since I find myself tripping into these productivity pitfalls:

1) Allowing distractions – When you spend a great deal of time online as many of us do these days, you have to be mighty disciplined not to fritter away time on Twitter or zone out on Facebook news feeds. That doesn’t even begin to address the inbox or the many wonderful blogs and newsletters to be digested. UPSIDE: By exposure to an abundance of information we may stumble upon a gem of insight that inspires us or leads us to a path of discovery.

2) Going off task following a tangent – When I’m researching a particular topic for a blog post, article or client, I’m often following one link after another trying to gather information and resources. Once in a while I find myself so far afield from my original quest that I am momentarily adrift. UPSIDE: I keep a file of new ideas and often send myself e-mail reminders to go back and revisit a particular topic or bit of information I’ve found while searching for something else. It opens the door to creativity and reinvention.

3) Being overwhelmed by choices – Both the curse and the blessing of the Internet and search engine age, there is more information available than ever before and more ways to do everything. There are multiple tutorials, experts, platforms, ideas, methods, etc. a click away. Name it and I can find a dozen ways to do just about anything under the sun. UPSIDE: If you try one method or product or service or concept and it doesn’t work, you can find a different, newer, better, faster or easier way.

4) Under-preparing for a task – Like the best cooks I know who practice mise en place, preparing ahead of time by laying out a game plan and assembling materials needed to accomplish the task at hand is essential. Time is precious and while we may think the clock is unlimited, some work must adhere to schedules. UPSIDE: One possible upside is learning how to deal with frustration, disappointment and crises. Often missed deadlines result in missed opportunities but every now and then something good happens. However, we have to see it. Being able to find the silver lining in any situation isn’t a bad skill to possess.

5) Overdoing a particular task – Like an artist knowing when to apply the last brushstroke or a writer knowing that the story has reached its satisfying conclusion, a business person has to know when the task is complete. The spectrum of effort ranges from excellent to good enough. However, to keep reworking and revising can be a waste of time. UPSIDE: After repeating this pattern a few times and seeing how far back it puts you rather than ahead, we’ll wise up and change patterns. Learning to let go is a good thing.

The wonderful news is that everyone has his or her Achilles heel and I’m not alone in my attempts to find a better way forward. There are answers to every question and solutions to every problem if only we are creative, persevering and able to ask for help when we need it. Here’s to a year avoiding productivity pitfalls.

What hinders your productivity?

There seems to be a whole lot more personal interaction. Do people still have face-to-face meetings? Of course. I’m sure the three-martini lunch lives on somewhere. And, people used the telephone then and now, although the technology is vastly advanced. However, because businessmen couldn’t rely on the speed and instant results that dominate today’s work environment, there was a slower, steadier pace to developing relationships.

And many of us believe that successful relationships are at the core of successful businesses. What makes for a successful relationship? Good communication, pure and simple.

Dealing with one another face-to-face demands a good grasp of verbal communication as well as being able to read someone else’s body language. Some might argue that video-conferencing and Skype have replaced the need to be in the same room with someone, but that plays right into my next point.

Much of business was done on a handshake back when. A handshake that men (and pioneering women) offered as a bond of good faith. Nowadays, I often think we offer our words but not necessarily our integrity. Integrity is Old School, along with handshakes.

Old School also implies patience and good manners. Sometimes I think people rush to be rude or to quickly make a point because today we reward brash, bold, noisy, flashy, trendy, and slick. (Questionable ingredients for good communication, by the way.) Quiet, conservative, classy organizations end up being up-ended and remade. They’re considered outdated, old-fashioned and stodgy.

Mad Men has reminded me of the strengths of Old School – the quiet confidence of someone who knows what he or she is doing, of companies that stand firmly by their longtime values no matter what the newly-sliced-bread-crowd is hawking. I believe in the sincerity of sketching an idea on paper or scribbling a concept onto the back of a piece of cardboard.

Don’t get me wrong. I think innovation is fantastic and trends are fascinating. The internet, social media, and mobile everything creates excitement and new opportunities for millions. I’m not against a new way of looking at the world, but do we have to sacrifice what has worked in the past as part of the process?

Those old days were not perfect. Far from it, especially for women in the workplace. But look me in the eye, shake my hand and build a relationship with me that is not only based on Twitter, Facebook or another form of media. Does that still have a place in today’s business environment? I sure hope so.

There are very few instances where ten words work better than two. Fewer instances when the wrong information is acceptable. Would you put something out there that people don’t understand or that doesn’t fit your brand? So whether you are a freelancer, work for an agency (ad, pr, consulting, whatever) or  you are part of the product or service team, this message is for you. No excuses.

Right now my focus is on the footwear business. I have been impressed that most of the companies I have come across in my research are nailing their messages. The companies targeting youth are hip, cool and use slang (some of which I don’t get, but then again, it probably means I’m not supposed to understand it because I’m not their demographic). The elegant, upscale shoe companies use more refined language, graphics and photography. My two examples on either end of the spectrum are HeyDay Footwear and Stuart Weitzman.

I like what I’ve seen. The bottom line  - know yourself and your brand and learn everything you can about your intended audience. Then create around that information and you are sure to come up with a winning strategy and campaign. People resonate with authenticity. Imagine for a moment if you took the Stuart Weitzman images but paired them up with the hip-hop vibe of HeyDay. Would that work?

And that brings me to the most disappointing commercial I have seen in a while. The product is for Trop50 – orange juice with less sugar and calories in a slimmer bottle. The only thing that stands out for me in this ad is the terrible use of the word “gooder.” A group of women in their mid-30′s using the word “gooder”? Are you kidding me?! Our kids are dumb enough, why make them even dumber?! ( I’m not even offering a link to the ad since I find it so insulting.)

While there is no need to be pretentious unneccesarily, it’s also a shame to dumb down. My advice: be clear, concise,  and precise. Know your audience and address them without talking down or putting on haughty airs. Stay true to your company’s mission and values and always be authentic. We are all sophisticated consumers and know when a message sounds artificial. Or plain dumb. Shame on you, Tropicana. Good for you, HeyDay and Stuart Weitzman.

In my enthusiasm to help a friend with a Facebook fan page for the launch of his company’s new product, I may have naively invited people too soon. Sort of like extending an invitation to a friend’s party and then when some of your friends show up, they realize there are only three guys there with a six-pack and lonely looks on their faces. OK. Not quite that pathetic but you get the idea. Let’s say you knew the party was just getting going and asked anyway. Kosher or not?

On the other hand, every party gets rolling with a few folks in attendance and then picks up steam as the gathering grows. If it is a great party, word spreads and a lot of people start showing up.

I think Facebook Fan pages are like that, too. Or, at least they should be.

Can you only play the game if you know all the rules? I guess so, because I was called out on my actions by a few people. One of my critics has a lot more knowledge and experience than I have in PR and social media (and I actually appreciated the “teachable moment”). On her Facebook page she posted the question “Do you fan brands on Facebook that you haven’t actually tried – just because your friends do? What other reasons do you fan a brand/co?”

So I want to know the answer to that question and mine – When is it okay – or is it never okay – to ask your friends to fan/like brands/products/services on Facebook they haven’t tried because you ask them to?

See, I think of social media and Facebook in particular, as one of those photos that grows exponentially from six-degrees of separation to 36 to 1,296 and so forth (like the last scene at the airport in Love Actually).  In the beginning you have your set of friends and then you expose them to something and if they like it, they expose that to their set of friends (who may or not become your friends-of-friends), who keep the chain of connections moving along. Isn’t that the beauty and magic of social media? Being able to reach hundreds, thousands, maybe even millions of people you don’t know personally? And among them, some pretty influential people at that. Folks at the top of the social media food chain…

Back to my friend, I don’t think any harm was done. And based on research I have read, many fans become loyal customers. So whether your fan page is gaining supporters like a boulder barreling down a mountain or a pebble slowly meandering down a hillside, in the end that’s not what really matters. What is important is that whether you have 50 fans, 500, 5,000 or 50,000 – you know how to communicate with them and offer something that makes them want to be at your “party.” And that’s another subject for another time.

Tell me, honestly, do you ask your friends to fan/like brands/products? If so, when is it appropriate? If not, why not?

Vintage Telephone by Daniel St. Pierre

What do smart phones, e-mail, Facebook and Twitter have in common with telegrams, letters, smoke signals and hieroglyphics?

Communication methods

Obviously they are all forms of communication. The major difference is that everything is instantaneous now whereas in the past we waited for – and anticipated – telegrams, letters and smoke signals.

So we know what the tools are, but what is the purpose of communicating? To connect with other human beings, whether for personal reasons or professional ones. We all want to make connections with the next client, the next friend or the next person who will bring us closer to our goals.

Keeping in mind the 24/7 accessibility of current media, are your messages hitting the target? Do they effectively convey the concepts and points that will bring you the next client, project, friend, or 15 minutes of fame?

To get your message heard in 2010, it has to be succinct yet substantial.

Here is a brief snippet of an interview Guy Kawasaki gave to the New York Times (referred from The Downtown Women’s Club) speaking to my point:

Q. What should business schools teach more of, or less of?

A. They should teach students how to communicate in five-sentence e-mails and with 10-slide PowerPoint presentations. If they just taught every student that, American business would be much better off.

Q. Why?

A. Because no one wants to read “War and Peace” e-mails. Who has the time? Ditto with 60 PowerPoint slides for a one-hour meeting.

Communicate with Goals and Strategies in Mind

Tailor messages to your intended target and therefore, understand your audience. My father once gave me a piece of advice in college. He said to be successful, “Don’t write the paper you want to write, Cheryl. Write the paper the professor wants to read.”

It boils down to communicating with purpose and having a plan. Always keep your mission in the back of your mind so your message can be consistent – that is, find your unique voice or style and stick with it, if it works. If it is not bringing your desired intent – new clients, sales, personal growth, tenure or whatever you have set as your goal – re-evaluate and change tactics.

The plan is two-fold:

1) goal-setting and checking off milestones as you achieve those goals.

Print out your mission statement or list of objectives and keep it within sight whenever you are writing a blog, white paper, press release, article, book, speech, or even just e-mails. Make sure whatever you produce has a purpose and fits in with your plan.

2) a strategy for all of your messages.

For example, learn how to use Facebook and Twitter to maximize your connections with others. Be mindful of content you post and how often. You do not want to irritate or turn off potential followers who could become powerful customers or friends.

Synthesize Communications

In the end, you are looking for synthesis in your communication. That is: the combining of separate elements to form a coherent whole. If you keep your messages on target, you should experience successful outcomes.

OK. So let me know, am I on target? Do you agree or disagree with my premise?

Working by Michelle Meiklejohn

There are so many blogs and gurus to follow, how does one decide? Between Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and searching the Internet for specific topics, there is more great stuff to consume than ever before.

Here are a few practical ideas as well as suggestions for how to handle the deluge.

Lately I have begun making my own checklist of criteria for whether a blog remains on my reading list or not:

1. Content

• Is the blog informative? Relevant?
• Does the blog offer content new to me or the latest research?
• Are expert opinions or facts presented?
• Is the copy interesting or entertaining? Are there good (legally used) photographs or illustrations?
• Is the content well-written?
• Does the blog offer good tips? (Or simply a constant barrage of sales come-ons?)

Why take the time to read a blog? Well, I want to hear an expert point-of-view or learn something I don’t know or confirm something I suspect about a trend. For as many readers there are  in the blogosphere,  there are probably as many reasons for wanting to read blogs. Make it relevant and informative as well as entertaining and interesting.

2. Presentation

• Is the blog attractive?
• Easy to use?
• Well written and produced? Concise?
• Strong links that work?

I have to be honest. As soon as I see several typos or bad grammar, I’m done. I have very little patience for people who do not take the time to proofread, edit, and, sometimes re-write when necessary. If a site is difficult to navigate, chances are I won’t return. And, if the links are always problematic, I do not want to deal with obstacles in the short period of time I have to devote to reading someone’s blog or tweet or newsletter.

3. Make Your Blog Worth sharing

• Learn how to build traffic to your blog.

When I come across a well-written, attractive blog with good information then I am much more likely to forward it on to someone else or link to it in something I am writing and posting. If the goal is to have as many people in the universe know about your enterprise, product, service or whatever it is you are bringing to  people’s attention, then make it worth sharing.

One of my favorite bloggers is Chris Brogan. Why? Because his philosophy is to give away some of what he knows to invite people into his world. Smart marketing gurus know how to hook us into sticking around to hear the next message.

Tools to Help You Sort Through the Growing Influx

Organize your blogs by categories to easily access them. I have a friend who is a photographer and she mainly follows photography blogs. Right now I am following blogs, tweets and Facebook Fan pages about marketing, women’s issues and writing (professionally). There are several different applications for sorting and organizing the people you follow on Twitter such as HooteSuite or Tweetdeck.

You can be old school and create your own folders or Bookmarks on your computer. There are even more applications for sorting and feeding your daily blog intakes, among the most popular are Netvibes and Pageflakes. You can Google so many more.

For finding new favorites use top blog directories such as The Blog Catalog, Blogarama, Bloggapedia and Blogging Fusion.

Finally, save time and energy by subscribing to blogs you highly regard. Many of my favorites come through e-mail so I can easily find and refer back to them. Again, old school but it works for me. Create whatever system will work for you!

I’m always interested in hearing other people’s tips. Please pass one along…

And firing synapses in my brain like crazy because I know there will be tons of information to take in and process. Women to meet. Stories to hear and share. Connections to be made.

Wake up call #4,978. We all get them from time to time (or should I believe). I consider a “wake up call” to be when you first become aware of something happening or when someone important comes into your consciousness. Lately I have had several of these moments, discovering many gurus in the social media and internet marketing fields. I will discuss these folks in upcoming posts.  But what really heightened my awareness was the California Conference for Women a few months ago. So many voices of women on many different important topics were suddenly being heard above the constant roar and influx of information we take in daily.

So when I saw an advertisement for the upcoming Massachusetts Conference for Women taking place in my home state, I decided that it might be worthwhile for me to go check out what is happening in my own backyard. The conference is taking place tomorrow in Boston and I am looking forward to it with great excitement. I love meeting new people and hearing wonderful news ideas.

As I truly begin to envision the next chapter in my professional life, tomorrow’s conference will be a great opportunity for me to interact with other women, practice some skills I need to hone and connect with some women I know and some I haven’t met yet. I recently read a great blog post from Diane Danielson of the Downtown Women’s Club on how to make the most of our networking opportunities.

Downtown Women’s Club DWC Tip of the Day: Networking is about finding ways to collaborate and create “win-win” situations for everyone. But, these ideas won’t come to you if you’re sitting home. Get out of the house and meet people and you’ll be surprised at what can happen! Click the link below to see how two of our DWC members/supporters met at a DWC-Brooklyn event and are now working together.

Also, check out this advice from Chris Brogan about how to make a great impression and what not to do!

Stay tuned…

There are thousands and thousands of resources online and off for learning what we need to learn. Find a class or a mentor and you will be on your way to success! I have found the latter and will now find the former online. There are several websites and programs that make acquiring all the skills we need easy and inexpensive (if not free).Let’s say you have some basic skills and/or knowledge but need an upgrade. Again, find a class or a mentor. Check out the learning opportunities online and take the tutorials that come with most software programs.  One of the best websites for this purpose is Lynda’s library.

The world is an interesting and complex place to navigate on and offline. Dive in and find the tools to do it!

SW+

First of all, you’ve got to GET IN THE GAME! Do you have a website? Are you blogging? Are you sending out Tweets? Are you on Facebook? PRWeb?  If not, get there NOW!

But once there, be creative. Check out your competition always and when they zig, you zag. And if you need help, find an expert. If you’re good with words but not pictures or graphics, hook up with a graphic designer like I have with Barbara Guthrie or a great photographer like  Janet Wolbarst. If it is word spin you’re after, visit my website soon (under construction) www.savvywordsplus.com.

In the meantime, whenever I come across a great marketing idea, this is where I will share it. This is a forum for great exposure (but not the naughty kind).

Back soon!