Separating professional and personal social media

One of the developments in social media I've been watching over the past year is that the line has become blurred between the personal and business aspects of their lives.

Here’s a good example of a bad example. A friend of mine is very active on Facebook and he uses it to generate leads. No subject is off limits and he has no filter. There is no doubt about his political point of view, his relationship with his ex-wife, which basketball team he likes, and which one he hates.

The issue is that he uses his personal Facebook page to post for his business. Unfortunately, as active as he is, he drives very little business for his efforts. My opinion is that people block his feed, manage to ignore his rants, or have stopped following him.

Maintaining personal and professional social media

If you still feel that you need an outlet to vent about the hot-button topics, start a Twitter account that is anonymous. Don't use your name anywhere and don't post anything such as pictures that would connect you personally to it.

Facebook is a little trickier, but you can still maintain a professional and personal presence by creating a business page. You can then drive your business contacts to that page and offer engaging content. One caveat: you will need to upgrade your privacy settings for your personal page so that only friends can see your posts and to make it as difficult as possible for clients and potential clients to search for your personal Facebook page.

What to avoid

If you choose NOT to separate your personal and professional accounts, here are some hot button topics to avoid:

• Political
  If you are a political animal, your posts supporting one point of view can potentially alienate a big audience.

• Sports teams
  It's fine to post positive things about your favorite teams, but if you post particularly vehement content about your arch rival, you've just lost alumni of that institution.

• Relationship
  It is a good idea never to post about things that are going wrong in your relationship

• Religion
  Although it may be important to you, some people find it off-putting. Tread with extreme caution.

10 things to remember about posting on social media:

1. Keep it positive!
2. If you won't say it to a customer with whom you're sitting face to face, don't post it. 
3. Do not over-post or over tweet.   
4. Do not post anything when you are angry, tired or inebriated. 
5. Social media is forever. 
6. Avoid personal attacks of colleagues and competitors.
7. There is really no such thing as privacy online. 
8. Offer information of value.  
9. Make your posts about your audience, not yourself. 
10. There should never be just 9 things in a list.

Thinking outside the box?

One of the campaigns I see a lot of lately is for LaQuinta Hotels. The heroes of the spots are effective in business because they stay at the hotel. They get their ducks in a row, bring home the bacon, and think outside the box.

That's my favorite. Not because it's better than all the others, but because it's ironic on so many levels. The visual is amusing, with all the other executroids crowded into a huge box, unable to come up with an original big idea. The suit in charge says "We need ideas, people. Think. Think!" (It's the second "Think!" that gets me.)

Jerry's suggestion is "synergistic integration." It makes me laugh, not only because he makes the visual for it by interlocking his fingers into a double fist, he drops a marketing speak bomb that these executroids supposedly haven't heard of, he offers no explanation of what it is, the suit in charge calls him a genius, and it's obvious that the actor has no idea what synergistic integration is.

All these bad elements combine to make to make an amusing commercial. Usually, I'm not a fan of badvertising. This is the exception to my rule.

Using poker skills in the business world

Reading clients' non-verbal clues

 

I play poker. I'm working on a novel that involves poker. I even watch poker on TV. Don’t judge me. 

One of the segments they showed during the World Series of Poker last year utilized a retired FBI agent named Joe Navarro to break down the clues he saw to determine whether or not the player was bluffing. 

In addition to his segment on reading hands, Navarro has been hired by some of the top poker players to help them with their game. Reading non-verbal clues is vital to their success.

He pointed out details of their body language, facial expression and even voice clues to analyze the strength of each hand. Amazingly, he had a very good read on each player.

I found it incredibly interesting because I realized that this is something that I can use in my professional life. I think back to those meetings where the client said they liked what we'd produced, but for some reason, we just couldn’t close the sale. 

How many times have you heard "We'll get back to you," only never to hear back. The reason is simple: People are basically nice and don’t want to hurt your feelings.

There are several pieces of non-verbal information you should look for when talking to clients to gauge if they’re interested in what you’re showing them.

Eye contact

Are they making good eye contact throughout the conversation? Or are they looking around to avoid your gaze? Even if they are telling you that they’re interested, if they’re not making eye contact, it’s probably not completely true. You might be better off taking another tack and bringing up another campaign idea if you have one, even if it's not polished.

Arm movement

Look at their arms. If they’re folded, they are probably not really interested. However, tucked behind their back indicates a significant level of interest. If their arms are moving a lot, they’re either very interested or very upset. That's a call you'll have to make.

Posture

Take a look at your client's posture. Are they slouched? That indicates boredom. If they're sitting bolt upright, it's a good indicator that they’re taking everything in.

Voice

Listen to their inflection. If their voice raises a bit and they speak quickly, chances are they’re interested and they like what they see. If their voice is even and quiet, it indicates they’d probably rather see something else.

Most people think poker is a card game played with people. Really successful players will tell you it’s a people game played with cards. If you get a chance, check out Joe Navarro’s books about poker tells to help you improve your ability to tune into non-verbal clues.

Open mouth, insert foots

I'll make this quick. I hate when people take credit for something and you know there's NO FREAKING WAY they did what they say they did.

I found this statement ironic. It's from a conversation on LinkedIn regarding the existence of a "copywriter's code of ethics."

This guy claims credit for a sweeping change affecting copywriters in advertising and writers the world over, for that matter. In some way, it also stemmed the tide of journalistic sexism.

While I can't say who was responsible for the change, I'm sure it's not this guy. The example doesn't make sense at all. That statement - "If customers want a mobile solution, we can help him." - would never make it into an ad. Latent sexism has nothing to do with it.

Any copywriter worth their salt (see what I did there?) would change it to "them." It's grammatically correct, chucklehead. Always has been. Always will be.

OK, I feel better now. Stepping down from the soapbox...