ZKQ Blog

Friday Follow-up

Recently, Mary Miller, president and founder of Interactive Design & Development, Inc. in Blacksburg, Va., and I were discussing what the work week means to entrepreneurs. The paraphrased version of what she said went something like this: "Entrepreneurs are not about TGIF. We always want one more day in the week!" She's right, of course. I feel it today, this last Friday of the month: August 28, 2009.

I, too, wish for one more work-day this week but since Friday is here, I am using this post as a follow-up to the many smart, talented and good people who, in the past two months, took time to share their insight, knowledge and good will:

Many, Many Thanks Go Out To:

Margo Carlock, executive director of the Virginia Association of Museums for giving Larry Bechtel, sculptor extraordinaire, and me a slice of her time to brainstorm an idea we have for a sculpture we see as significant on a national level. Her insight was right on target, as always.

To Mack Collier for introducing me to #blogchat. You could spend hundreds of dollars to attend a conference and be gone for three days, or sit at your computer for a couple of hours on a Sunday evening and come away with enough "take-aways" to keep you busy for months. I'm still working on implementing changes to my web site based on input from the session hosted by AmyAfrica in July. Lee Odden's chat on search engine optimization in August was equally enlightening. What I learned from Lee now impacts how I choose to write. Next month, you'll have the chance to compare SEO techniques in upcoming posts.

Jim Flowers (VTKnowledgeWorks), Kami Razvan and Jim Barney (Click&Pledge), Jim Jarrett (Jarrett Interaction Design), Tom Markiewicz, and Mildred Johnson (Virginia Tech Admissions) for listening to my idea for a new business and believing that I can do this.  Their encouragement and technical advice was needed and greatly appreciated. 

To Anne Giles Clelland, founder of Handshake 2.0 for taking me on as a freelance writer almost a year ago and giving me the tremendous opportunity to write about my passions: the fascinating people who live, work, and create opportunity for others as entrepreneurs in the New River Valley, how we learn and integrate new technologies into our businesses and lives, and especially for the exposure that comes from being on Handshake 2.0.

To Gary Mortensen, president of FonWallet Transaction Solutions, who gave me the opportunity to share the news of their new technology with the world, and to Jay Kinghorn for his terrific interview on headshots and our on-going conversations related to photography and business. 

It's been quite a week...month...summer...what else is there to say but, "I can't wait for Monday!"

Selling Lesson Number Two: There are no Dudes

My second lesson in selling was also taught to me by my mother: There are no "dudes," only customers.

I was somewhere between the ages of 12 and 14 years old. Old enough, my parents thought, to let me help with gift wrapping in the jewelry store my father ran. It was a week or two before Christmas and the store was packed with shoppers. People were popping in and out of the store to browse, shop, or just to get in from the cold. A mixture of cigarette smoke, cologne, and bursts of fresh air wafted throughout the store as the radio blasted out Christmas tunes. It was the late 60's, when downtowns were still thriving centers of community and economy.

Sales men and women rushed to the backroom where the wrapping station was set up. They handed-off ring boxes, watches, bracelets, Cross pen sets and other finery for Mom and me to giftwrap. I had just finished wrapping a birthstone ring when my mother asked me who the gift was for. "The dude in the brown jacket" was my snappy answer. Mom stopped wrapping and looked me straight in the eye. "We don't have 'dudes,'" she said sternly, "We have customers."

I felt as though the wind had been knocked out me. I had crossed a line I did not know existed and, to top it off, I was the boss' daughter -- the same standards applied to me as they did to each and every employee regardless of their role in the store.

The door to the sales floor was ajar. I glanced through opening and saw the man in the brown coat patiently waiting for the lovely ring he had selected for someone special in his life. Embarrassed by my slang, and humbled by the elite status my parents placed on everyone who entered the store, I carried the small packaged wrapped in gold-foil paper topped with a small, perfectly shaped green bow as if it were the most prized possession on earth and placed in the customer's hands. I thanked him and returned  to the wrapping station to serve the next customer. 

My parents are no longer living and their downtown store has long been a distant memory for many, but every now and I then I meet someone who grew up in Martinsville, Va. and shopped at the Jewel Box. Every single one of these encounters ends with statements like "Your Dad was great! I loved shopping at his store! You Mom was so nice! They always took care of me!" Then we part, smiling, each knowing we had been part of something special.

Selling Lesson Number One: Knock on Doors

The first lesson I learned as a salesperson, was that you have to knock on a lot of doors if you want to hit your sales goal. I was 11 years old and my job was selling imprinted, personalized Christmas cards door-to-door in my neighborhood.

Selling is selling, at any age, and regardless of the product. I had a quota, a suggested script, a product demo, and a target audience.

My goal was to sell enough cards to reach the Gold Level at which time I could choose to get paid by check or make a selection from a list of products as my payment. At that age, I was not terribly motivated by money. A quarter could buy enough bubblegum and candy to keep me happy for at least a week. At the movie theater, 50-cents covered a box of popcorn and a Coke, but when I laid my eyes on that shiny, blue and white Schwinn bicycle, my goal was set.

I come from a selling family. Along with good manners, I had been taught a smile and clean appearance would help open doors. Mom called it “putting on a fresh face.” I had a lovely book of sample Christmas cards to select from and, my-oh-my how beautiful the gold, embossed lettering would look when printed with your name on the card and a “think of the time you'll save” pitch.

Each day, after school, I'd hit the streets, revising my pitch as I went along. If something I said worked well with one homemaker, I'd try it on another. Before long, I had exceeded my goal. I not only earned the bike but received a bonus check to boot!

The next time I hit the streets, I was coasting down the hill on my bike with my braids, flying out past my head, like two little flags, flapping in the breeze.

I did not think about the lessons I learned from that experience until I started working exclusively in sales and a colleague said to me, “You have to knock on a lot of doors, but eventually someone will answer.” How true.

#Blogchat on Maximizing SEO with Lee Odden: the condensed transcript

On Sunday night, August 9, at 8 p.m. Central, Mach Collier hosted "How to Maximize Your Blog's SEO Efforts with Lee Odden (@leeodden)." The complete transcript contained over 700 posts. Below is a condensed version of that transcript organized by general topics. Continue reading this post to learn more about the "how" and "why" I culled the data in this manner. Is this useful? Please use the comment form or tweet me (@zkellyq) to let me know.

Condensed #Blogchat Transcript, Click here -->  Blogchat SEO with Lee Odden 080909

This was my second #blogchat event and it was just as lively the first which featured @AmyAfrica on how to use your blog to generate sales and leads. I continue to explore the best tools for extracting the valuable content exchanged in the chats. I came into the SEO chat using only Twitter and quickly found that to be a laborious way to keep up with streaming content. I'm going back to using Tweetdeck for the next chat (see earlier post for info on the tools I used for @AmyAfrica chat).

That said, it's still a challenge to capture all the good stuff from a blogchat. Mack and other bloggers provide terrific recaps, but if you're really detail oriented like I am, then you may want to dig deeper into the content. This time I took a data management approach and pulled the transcript into a spreadsheet (I use OpenOffice Calc).

My goal was to delete redundant and non-relative chatter to produce a content-specific transcript. I culled the tweets and added categories so I could sort the data by topic. There is till some redundancy, as there were over 700 posts to scan, however, if you want to review by topic, this should help.

Condensed #Blogchat Transcript, Click here:  Blogchat SEO with Lee Odden 080909.

If you participated in #blogchat and tweeted something that I overlooked as a critical piece of content, please feel free to add it as a comment to this post. I welcome your comments and I'd like to know if having a condensed transcript in PDF format is useful. If not, what format would work better?

Related articles:

#Blogchat August 9, 2009: SEO/Lee Odden
@mackcollier (Monday's recap):  #Blogchat 8-09 Recap; How to Maximize Your Blog's SEO Efforts With @LeeOdden
@zkellyq: Optimize for People First: Lee Odden on SEO

#Blogchat July 26, 2009 Sales & Leeds/Amy Africa
@zkellyq: How I Survived Blogchat with Amy Africa
Complete transcript of the blogchat, click here now!
@mackcollier: Mack's top 10 take-aways: #Blogchat 7-26 Recap; How to Use Your Blog to Generate Sales and Leads With @AmyAfrica
@zkellyq: 11 take-aways, posted on Handshake 2.0: Drink Up - The Morning After Blogchat with Amy Africa
@stuartfeigley: Boosting leads and sales with your business blog.

Your Image Your Brand: The Perfect Headshot

Anyone with a digital camera can take a headshot, but not everyone can create an image worthy of your personal brand. Whether you're a beginning blogger or CEO of an established company, a quality headshot will add value to the image you portray.

Jay Kinghorn, Olympus Visionary Photographer and co-author of Perfect Digital Photography, recommends working with a professional photographer. “If you were getting ready to impress a future client, would you cut your own hair, or have a professional do it?”

According to Kinghorn, image and composition are important when it comes to sending the right message visually. “Photographs communicate to your audience in both subtle and obvious ways. A photographer who understands what you are trying to achieve with your portrait is invaluable. Bringing a photographer in to shoot your headshot will help you convey the professionalism you bring to your work.”

Kinghorn shares these tips for DIYs and those planning to work with a photographer:

Setting
Choose a setting and background that is simple and will not detract from the subject.
The setting should reflect who you are. (Chef/kitchen. CEO/office. Hair stylist/salon.)

Full color, grayscale or B/W
This should be dictated by your profession. If you are a clown who performs for children, color is a must. A high-powered corporate lawyer might opt for the seriousness black and white can convey. Ideally though, the photograph will work well both in color and black and white. A good head shot will work in a variety of situations.

Photo sizes/resolutions
It is ideal to have a 5x7 inch print resolution version for advertising and promotion along with smaller, 600x800 pixel images in JPG format for the Web, blogs, Twitter, etc. Your photo should be simply composed to work effectively at a small size.

What to wear
Dress in an outfit you're comfortable wearing. You'll be more at ease and smile more naturally in your photos. Avoid busy patterns. They are distracting to the viewer and can create technical problems when printed.

Take your time
Allocate sufficient time to get a great shot. Most people aren't particularly comfortable in front of the camera. After the first dozen photos, you'll begin to relax and you'll appear more at ease.

Keep it fresh
Update your photo annually unless you have a new hairstyle, have added glasses, etc. within the year. You can always ask yourself, "If someone viewed my headshot, then later met me at a cocktail party, would they recognize me?"

 To learn more from Jay on how to create perfect digital photography, visit his web site at RGB Imaging. You can also follow him on Twitter @jaykinghorn. 

Related article: Making Connections that Click: Jay Kinghorn, Olympus Visionary

Optimize for People First: Lee Odden on SEO

Another fascinating Sunday evening with Mack Collier and #Blogchat has come and gone leaving us with more great advice on fine tuning the business of blogging. Lee Odden, founder of Top Rank Online Marketing, hosted last night's session on search engine optimization (SEO). Odden's blog, Online Marketing Blog, appears in Technorati's top 50 favorite blogs and holds other top rankings and nominations as noted by Advertising Age, Onalytica, Marketing Sherpa and others.

The top five tips Odden tweeted on how to improve SEO for blogs were:

1. Research keywords and make a glossary. http://bit.ly/BhD3G #blogchat

2. Use keywords in blog title, tagline, title tag, categories, post titles, body copy, links between pages, image alt text, tags #blogchat.

3. Get links from other relevant sites! #blogchat

4. Wait, did I mention Get Links?! Create content worth linking to. Grow a network that notices & links your content. #blogchat

5. Absolute most important blog SEO tip I can give you. Ready? Optimize for people first, then search engines. #blogchat

To learn more from Lee Odden, follow him on Twitter @leeodden or subscribe to his blog for daily SEO news and tips.

To keep up with upcoming blogchats, follow host Mack Collier on Twitter @MackCollier.

   

Making Connections that Click: Jay Kinghorn, Olympus Visionary

Jay Kinghorn is a visionary, as in an Olympus Visionary,” a title he embraces with passion—passion for photography and for Olympus cameras. The Olympus Visionaries program was established in 2003 as a venue for select digital photography professionals to share their work, knowledge and passion with the public while also creating an on-going dialog between Olympus and the professional photographic community. 

Kinghorn, who is also an Adobe Photoshop Certified Expert and a full-time digital workflow consultant and trainer, joined the program in 2005. He notes that his primary role as an Olympus Visionary photographer is to serve as a brand ambassador so he can demonstrate the caliber of work that can be created with the Olympus cameras. “I comment and answer questions on the Get Olympus Facebook page, share my tips and favorite photos and text chat with Olympus users periodically. Last week, I chatted with a photographer in Malaysia who loves his Olympus cameras.”

Through his company, RGB Imaging, he specializes in streamlining corporate workflow processes and improving employee skills using Adobe Photoshop.

Kinghorn is co-author of “Perfect Digital Photography” and author of two Photoshop training DVDs:  “Beginning Photoshop for Digital Photographers” and "Photoshop CS3 New Feature Training."

In his role as a digital workflow consultant, he stresses the importance of integrating social media into a larger strategic plan. “Once we began building a strategy around social media tools, and identifying the types of content appropriate for each tool—useful links and quick updates via Twitter, more thoughtful observations on the blog, deeper analysis in the newsletter—we began connecting with clients in a more meaningful way.”

Making connections that click is Kinghorn's specialty. “Whether I'm speaking as an Olympus Visionary photographer or a digital workflow trainer, the material is presented differently to suit the needs of the audience. The same holds true with social media tools. Understanding what the audience is looking for is critical for framing the way I approach and present any content.”

You can connect with Jay on his web site: RGB (www.prorgb.com), on Twitter: @jaykinghorn, or through email: jay@prorgb.com.

An online gallery of Jay Kinghorn's photos can be found here.

BlackBerry Wisdom from 88owls

Allan Tsang is the founder of 88owls, a referral network made up of independent business consultants with expertise that includes, at the very least, accounting, franchising, manufacturing and strategic planning. Even though “BlackBerry” does not appear on the expertise list displayed on his web site, Allan proved himself a knowledgeable and worthy master of all things BlackBerry at a recent workshop hosted by Handshake 2.0 in Blacksburg, Virginia.

According to Allan, “People who are efficient are kind of lazy,” which is exactly why shortcuts matter.

From customizing ringtones to signal specific callers, to hiding rarely used icons, to strategically placing the most frequently used apps in each of the four corners, Allan shared important tips to improve BlackBerry efficiency with the class.

 “The four corners are very precious.” Allan uses the top right corner for his calendar, his phone book in the lower left. This way, no matter how bright or low the light level is on the display, he knows exactly where to go to place the cursor to select the app.

He also suggested configuring the two convenience buttons on either side of the BlackBerry. He recommended programming one button for the camera so you can take a photo with one-click and suggested the other button for voice-recording or some other frequently used feature. (Options>screen/keyboard>change convenience key )

Other Time-saving Tips

2 spaces = period
Press and hold = caps
Alt+Shift = number lock

Reset device without removing battery:  ALT+RIGHT SHIFT+DEL
Your screen will go black for about 2 to 4 seconds. Be patient. In about 2-5 minutes, reboot

Enable autotext for texting – corrects “hte” to “the”

Options >SMS text >enable autotext
As well as go to Options>Autotext (edit and add your own)

Web Resources and Products

Blackberry User Training (all courses $30 - $999 each)
http://na.blackberry.com/eng/support/programs/training.jsp#tab_tab_user_courses
Blackberry Forum
http://www.blackberryforums.com/

Virtual keyboard  www.virtual-laser-keyboard.com/
Traffic.com now features a mobile web version of their real-time traffic alert system located at mobi.traffic.com

Ascendo DataVault - Password Manager for BlackBerry at www.handango.com/

BeamReader – full fidelity PDF viewer www.slgmobile.com/

Impatica Showmate Presentation Device for BlackBerry® (project PowerPoint Presentations right from your BlackBerry www.expansys.co.nz/d.aspx?i=147494

For more information on how Allan can help your business, visit him on the web at www.88owls.com, email: allan@88owls.com, or call 540-392-4668.

Related articles on the ZKQ Blog: I Drive a Subaru. I'm a Blackberry.