Babies, Cats & Dogs...

Have you ever noticed how many businesses sell their products using cute pictures of babies, cats or dogs? While little scientific research has been done to determine exactly how and to what degree these images influence our purchasing behavior, these images do catch the attention of most viewers – a good thing when you have only seconds to grab the prospective buyer’s attention.

Some other ways to grab attention:

• Whether you’re writing a book, article, e-mail or social media post, a catchy headline will encourage readers to stop and look at what you have written. Note that the headline must be related to what you have written; if it’s totally off-topic, the viewer may open the e-mail this time but may discount future e-mails from you or unsubscribe. 
• Your business (or individual) personality should shine through whatever you do. 
• Make your posts timely. Value is lost if the discussion becomes “so yesterday.” 
• Keep your content brief. Everyone is busy and if your content is too long, it’s ignored. 
• Use interesting photos. If you are posting on Facebook, don’t just post a single photo. Add at least three to an album and comment on the photos for more follower interest. 
• Include statistics or numbers (“…90% of people surveyed say our hot sauce is the best they’ve ever had!”). 
• Use humor, if it’s appropriate for your product or service. Don’t try this if your business provides funeral services! 
•  Another option is video. Provide short, educational or informative pieces viewers will be likely to share with friends and associates. 
• Use client testimonials. Real people talking about the benefits they received can be persuasive. 
• Music can also catch attention. Match the music to your product or service. 
•  Try something different. Have you ever looked up at the TV when the chatter stops to see a commercial with only moving pictures or text across the screen?

Finding new ways to catch the attention of prospects is an ongoing challenge and you may need to test various approaches to find out which is the most successful for your business. You’ll also want to monitor the results over time and adjust your approach as your audience changes or grows. Want to learn more? Send us an email at cs@vitalinkweb.com. 

Employee Information Exchange

Many businesses pay for their staff members to attend seminars and conferences with the understanding that they will learn professional skills they can apply on the job. What most businesses do not do is encourage those staff members to share what they have learned with their co-workers and others.

Websites, shared document portals, social media and other tools allow all of us to easily disseminate information. But many times conference attendees return to work only to be overwhelmed playing catch up. Why not permit that employee to take some time upon his or her return to publish some high level notes that others might find valuable and save them on a shared document portal? Or, better yet, arrange a “lunch and learn” style presentation for the conference-goer to share some of what they learned.

Do you have an internal method or knowledgebase for employees to share information? Or maybe you’ve got a closed employee-only Facebook group or a blog that requires a login? Encourage employees to share what they have learned here, as well. Set some overall structure (for example, all information must be dated and placed into high level categories or have post tags applied to make searching easy) and basic rules (i.e., the information must have value, not a forum for complaints, must be verified when appropriate, etc.). Over time as the information base builds, employees will become used to adding new information and searching the site for answers to their questions.

Even better news with this type of knowledge-sharing: those folks in your company who are responsible for creating content will have a great source of new ideas for their future web content, blog posts, social media updates and more! Encourage sharing…you’ll be glad you did.

We Did It Together!

The second annual vitalink coats & blankets drive has officially wrapped up, and we're happy to say we collected more coats, blankets and financial donations than last year. The total number of cold weather items donated was 390 and we collected $725 in cash to benefit the Raleigh Rescue Mission. Way to go, team! Our partners were a big  part of the drive. A huge thank you to our 2011 partners:

• Leone Noble & Seate
• David Allen Company
• Embassy Suites
• Davis Plastic Surgery
• Catalyst Group, Inc.
• Greenscape Inc.
• News & Observer
• Chad M. Richards, State Farm

We hope you all tune in next year for the 2012 vitalink coats & blankets drive. Have a warm and happy holiday!

While We Were Sleeping©

By Guest Blogger Jeff Nischwitz, Think Again!™ Coaching

For years businesses have been searching for what we considered to be the holy grail in business … satisfied clients, and mountains of information, hundreds of books, and thousands of hours of videos have been dedicated to providing the ideas, tactics and strategies for achieving this objective.  While all of these ideas are worthwhile, the problem is that while we were sleeping the target moved. Satisfied clients (or even clients that like us and our work) are no longer good enough; and perhaps were never good enough. In today’s business environment the only “good” client, is a client that loves us and our products or services. Today’s business truth is that if we only have satisfied clients or clients that merely like us, then we’re losing the game.

“In the beginning” (of business thought) the concept of creating satisfied clients made sense because the bar was artificially low due to limited competition, which allowed for easier differentiation. As a result, businesses could just do the bare minimum (and achieve satisfied clients) and rely upon their other differentiators to create and sustain their revenue models. But as competition improved and increased, the prior differentiators became less and less real or valuable. We all started looking alike, which meant that merely satisfying a client was not enough to differentiate our business or to provide a strong foundation for sustainability (let alone growth).

What’s “wrong” with merely satisfied clients? First, satisfied clients “fire” us (often without warning) and leave us wondering “what did we do wrong?” In truth, we often didn’t do anything “wrong,” but we did fail to understand their needs and deliver the type of value and experience that makes us memorable and indispensable. The problem is that because these clients are only satisfied, they are likely to move to one of your competitors who happen along with a better price or which talks about a great client experience. In fact, it’s often the case that merely satisfied clients leave us, while clients that are unhappy or even dissatisfied choose to stay and make our lives miserable, distracting us from our good clients.

Second, satisfied clients are silent – they don’t talk about us with anyone. While we could fashion a story that makes this sound not too bad (after all, it could be worse – they could be proactively complaining about us), a silent client is a hurtful client. This is especially true when they’re silent (or neutral) when our business or our industry comes up in a conversation. Imagine that a group of business owners are talking at a business event and you or your business comes up in the conversation. The good news is that one of our existing clients is a part of this conversation. The bad news is that this client is only satisfied and responds with a neutral and non-committal statement (e.g., “They’re okay,” “They’re pretty good,” “They do a nice job,” etc.) While not negative, these neutral (at best) comments are the kiss of death for our business because not only was the opportunity lost to have a raving fan endorsing you in the conversation, but the neutral response is heard by most people as a quiet complaint.

Being “okay” is not good enough and certainly will not differentiate you or your business. Instead, we must commit ourselves and our teams (in words and actions) to delivering a client experience and exceeding expectations so that our clients actually love us and are “Wowed” by us (which is usually more about the experience than our actual products and services). Clients that love us will pay for our value (often significantly more than the price they could get with our competitors). Clients that love us will talk about us (when asked and especially when not asked) and endorse us to other potential clients. What we call Raving Fans! Clients that love us will also usually stick with us even when we make a mistake or drop the ball because their prior experience (that created the “love”) built up a reserve of good will with the client. Most important, clients that love us will help us grow our business beyond surviving to thriving.

The bar has been raised on the client experience and whether spoken or not, our clients and potential clients are making it clear that they expect to be more than just satisfied. While the bar has been raised by clients, we must continue to raise our own internal bars so that we continue to focus our efforts, energy and tactics on wowing clients and building the “love.”  Like so many aspects of business life in our culture, the game and the rules have changed and we must change as well. Otherwise, we’ll all wake up to find that our clients and our business have disappeared … while we were sleeping.


Jeff Nischwitz is a speaker with The Expert Speakers. He can be reached at jeff@thinkagaincoaching.com. 

Mission MidTown Postscript

From Guest Blogger Doug Austin of WKIX AM-FM after the Raleigh Rescue Mission Radiothon on November 10, 2011.

I don't know why I woke up at 2 in the morning and had to send you this email....but I know I did.

I don't know if my feet have ever hurt this bad after standing for 16 hours on concrete...but I smile when I think about why they do.

I don't know if any number of variables could have changed the success of yesterday Radiothon...but I know I could not be more proud of each of your efforts to pull off what we did.

I don't know know if this group will get a chance to do this again, to change a life....but I know I hope we can.

I don't know if the crazy world we live in, that we see, hear and read about daily will ever settle down...but I know I came home to a loving Family, a warm bed, and a safe place many will not tonight.

I know we did some good for some needy folks, I know we made a difference, I know I'm lucky to be surrounded by people with good hearts that worked very hard, without complaining, and came together with a common goal in mind.

I know that any sacrifice anyone of us made was well worth it when my little girl tucked ME in to bed and read me a story and asked why Daddy had to work so late - and I said that I was helping the homeless, and she said "well,. that's good" 

I know at times as we put this together I felt like the "Our Gang" kids from old TV "puttin' on a show" in the backyard, and I know that all of us together are stronger than any us of individually and we built a team.

From Leslie at Raleigh Rescue Mission.....

Just to give you an idea of what you all helped accomplish today…we raised enough money  to provide 871 meals, or to look at it  another way, we raised enough to provide 69 days of life changing care to an individual.

I know I'm a better person for it, and I know I couldn't have done any of it with you.....Thanks.

Humbly Yours~

Doug

Planning for 2012

November 1. Every year I intend to spend time at the beginning of third quarter planning for the next year. And every year when I flip the calendar from October to November, I recognize that, yet again, I am behind in giving serious thought to what must be done the following year to ensure success. Now, I do push my clients to plan early, but somehow I always end up behind!

When you own a business, it’s really hard to take a full day (or more) away from operations, so here is my plan:

• I am setting aside one afternoon without interruption to brainstorm about next year. Some of the questions I’ll ask:

a.       How successful were we at meeting last year’s goals?

b.      Where do we want the firm to go in 2012 (and 2-3 years beyond)?

c.       Have we integrated our message across all platforms well?

d.      Have we taken advantage of new marketing means and the tried and true?

e.      Do we have the right resources to get there?

f.        What can we do differently to help us succeed?

g.       Are we meeting the needs of our clients?

h.      Have things changed within the firm where we need a brand review (or do you have a brand image and message)?

i.         Without consideration to budget, what would I do?

• After mulling the answers to the above questions over, I’ll dedicate a second session to laying out a high level plan.
• Session three will have to include the budget. Love brainstorming, but not so much the budget process…
• The fourth and final session will be a more detailed planning session based on those pesky budget numbers and key benchmark goals.

Last but not least will be the old company meeting where we talk through next year’s plan and how the team can meet our goals. It’s a big task, but breaking it into manageable chunks works every time. Do you have a process you follow to do your annual plan? I’d love to hear what works for you and what doesn’t!

Our Partners are HOT!

Or maybe warm. At least, that’s the goal of the second annual vitalink® coats & blankets drive, where we and our partners will be collecting coats, blankets and cold weather gear to keep the Triangle homeless and poor warm this winter. The drive benefits Raleigh Rescue Mission.

We’d like thank our partners for their involvement and commitment to this great cause. They are:

• Leone Noble & Seate
• David Allen Company
• Embassy Suites
• Davis Plastic Surgery
• Catalyst Group, Inc.
• Greenscape Inc.
• News & Observer

Items we need include: winter coats, blankets, hats, gloves, grocery or discount gift cards (Sam’s, BJ’s, Wal-mart) and financial donations. If you would like to donate, we are accepting items at our office at 4900 Falls of Neuse Rd, Suite 115 in Raleigh from 8:30-5pm business days from November 1 through November 18. If you can’t get to our offices, our partners are also accepting donations at their locations. Click on the partner name to access their website and location information.

Questions? Please give us a call to learn more at 919.850.0605 or e-mail Mary Ann Grooms at maryann@vitalinkweb.com. Have a safe and warm winter!

Coats + Blankets 2011

As a small business owner, I have learned over the years how important it is to occasionally step away from my own concerns and remember that there are millions in need in the U.S. and across the world. As part of the vitalink® 15-year anniversary, we committed to doing 15 “points of service” – pro bono and volunteer activities – throughout the year.

One of these activities is the second annual vitalink coats + blankets drive! Last year, with seven of our business partners, we collected hundreds of coats and cold weather items and quite a bit of cash to benefit the Raleigh Rescue Mission (www.raleighrescue.org). The economy is still struggling and there are many individuals and families here in Raleigh (as elsewhere) that are homeless or very close to losing their homes. Many are unable to afford to heat their houses or apartments and cannot buy warm coats for their children. Every time I think about my problems, I recognize how lucky I truly am compared to some others who struggle every day with the basics.

I encourage you to find a charity or a cause and donate your money, your time, or both. It can put things in perspective and you’ll feel better about yourself. If you are in the Raleigh area and would like to give to the vitalink coats + blankets drive, send us an e-mail or give us a call at 919.850.0605. If you’re not in the area, search locally for a shelter or other good cause and give them a call. You’ll be glad you did.

Lessons from Tebow

I know not all of you are football fans, but we can all learn lessons everywhere when we look for them. I am a fan of Tim Tebow, the rookie quarterback for the Denver Broncos and Florida Gator (like me). Tebow was a two-time college championship winner and was awarded the prestigious Heisman Trophy in only his sophomore year. In Gainesville and the greater “Gator Nation,” folks thought of him as a kind of football super hero. Great intensity, leadership, and a warrior on the field. He’s also a down to earth person who loves God and his family.


While he has amassed great accolades and went in the first round of the draft, Tebow is far from perfect. Many thought he would go in a much lower round of the draft due to his throwing style. Many questioned if he could play in the NFL at all as a quarterback. Hmmm, I seem to remember some of the same nay-sayers with former Gator and Dallas Cowboy Emmitt Smith (the NFL’s all time leading rusher). They thought he was too small, too slow. He was just determined and set records that still stand today.

Bottom line, Tim Tebow inspires me to accomplish things. One of his high profile team mates commented that his style and delivery may not be pretty, this guy is “magical.” I agree. He inspires his team mates. He inspires followers. The game this past weekend was in Miami and the Dolphins fans were cheering for Tebow (the other team)! His jersey, #15, is the #1 selling jersey in the NFL.

Here are a couple of lessons I’ve learned from Tebow:

1. You don’t have to fit the mold or have the best “mechanics;” be passionate and work hard— don’t let anyone say you can’t do something. You might just succeed and inspire others along the way.

2. In a “bad boy” athlete era, Tim Tebow is respectful talking with the media, respectful of opportunities and of his team. Kudos. Be respectful and you’ll get that back a hundred fold.

3. Being the best (as defined by others) or having the best grades doesn’t mean you’ll be the best leader. It also doesn’t make you the best producer. So what if you are a little different. Play your game. Work at it and play hard and with heart.

4. This guy would literally pick the team up on his back if he could. His most memorable speech came after a loss at Florida when he said he’d let the team down, but nobody would ever work harder than him. He took responsibility and then worked his butt off.

5. Don’t be afraid to be yourself. Share your passion and you will find like minded people and earn respect. Tebow went on mission trips as a youth and still thanks God. Like it or not, you gotta respect him.

6. He is passionate about this game. Find something you love and commit to being your best. It won’t always be easy and you won’t always win, but there is joy in it.

Football fanatic (like me) or someone who doesn’t know what pigskin is, these are some great lessons. What have you learned from someone that you didn’t expect to learn from? I’d love to hear some other words of wisdom from unexpected sources!

BUILD YOUR TEAM

In today’s hectic business environment, managers and employees can lose focus on strategy and long-term goals while fighting daily fires. It doesn’t matter if your business has five employees or 50, a retreat or annual meeting can be a positive, team building experience that can refresh attitudes and renew a common sense of purpose.

Your retreat should always take place away from the office and technology. Depending on the type of retreat you choose and your budget, this can range from meeting in the backyard of a senior manager who lives on the lake to renting space at a local hotel to a full-service weekend “adventure” retreat that includes outdoor team building exercises. The point is that you are away from distractions. Have everyone dress comfortably and intersperse some physical activity with your sit-down sessions to keep people from tuning out. Add a creative session or two to get the juices flowing; this doesn’t have to be anything fancy—you can use something as simple as an opposites word game or simple drawing exercise. And don’t forget healthy, nutritious food to keep everyone alert (okay, and some chocolate for good measure).

There are several types of sessions that may be of value during a retreat:

Social Presence: Get input from your staff on your social media presence and policies, and get them involved in representing the company. In the “Facebook world,” all employees can and should help by watching for comments about the company and sharing the good things you do.

Branding: Do your employees understand the company brand? Engage them on ways to ensure brand consistency and ask them for new ideas that will promote the brand.

Strategic Planning: What is the firm’s strategy? Its goals? Are employees aware of the goals? If the strategy and goals have been defined, involve employees so they understand and can help focus on meeting these goals. If the goals haven’t been set yet, get employee input. Many times people at lower levels have insight into the customers and market that senior managers lack.

Team Building/Motivation: Wrapping up your day with a motivational session sends everyone away energized and ready to tackle the world when they return to work!

Tell clients that the office will be closed that day and provide an emergency-only number for them to call if necessary. The goal is to get your team back on track and focused on the long-term health of the business. Need more information about sessions for your retreat? Give us a call at (919) 850-0605 or e-mail us at info@theexpertspeakers.com.

Post Seminar Engagement

We’ve all been there. You attend a great session with a great speaker and walk away feeling like you’ve been empowered—eager to get back to the office and put your newfound learning to work. Then reality crashes in and when you get back to thinking about the seminar it’s three weeks later and you’ve forgotten much of what you learned.

As a speaker, there are some things you can do to help your audience avoid that post-seminar letdown and remember you favorably. Consider the following:

CRM&M Series, Part 3: Using New Technology

In part 1 of our CRM series, we talked about approaches to relationship building. Part 2 provided tips for making your CRM & Marketing efforts more effective. In part 3 of the series, we follow with ways to incorporate some new technologies into the mix and further engage customers.

Seems like every time you turn around there is some new technology that changes how we market to or communicate with our customers. There is always that first big push of excitement and then reality sets in as we marketers try to figure out how to make the new doo-dad work for us! It is important to remember that while the shiny new penny may be fun to play with, it isn’t always the best tool to reach every customer out there.

CRM & Marketing Article Series - Part 3 provides tips on how you can integrate newer technologies into your marketing mix.

So what does your marketing firm do?

I've had several conversations with different people over the past couple weeks about what our Raleigh marketing firm (aka ad agency) does and what we do best.

My old answer would have been to list our services and talk about how we are great at reasearch and strategy. Not just the dry technical part, but how we make it work for real life marketing campaigns. I might have gone on to talk about how our creative director is amazing at what he does, media buying skills, etc. I'd have had a list of other things. But I'd have put the passion we feel about helping our clients solve problems much lower on the list. I would have been guilty of burying the lead.

There are a number of marketing firms out there that can do great creative, media buying, websites, research, etc, but that is only part of the equation. We tend to go a little deeper to help with business development. Where the magic happens is the thought, planning direction and working WITH the client to get the campaign done in the best way possible. I've realized over the years, while we provide a single source for many clients, there are others who have internal or external resources that can get the job done too. Working with all team members concerned to integrate the campaign and make it cohesive is huge.

Want just an ad? We may not be the right 'vendor' to do it. Want someone who solves problems in a thoughtful and strategic manner? Want someone who cares about your business deeply and works as a brand manager? That is us.

I've learned that I'm OK if we aren't the right firm for every client. That lets us concentrate our efforts on those who fit us the best. Then this amazing synergy happens. We get a psyched and our clients benefit from better results. We love what we do and it shows.

~ Jeanne Frazer

CRM Marketing Series: Part 2 | Relationship Building

In our recent article, To CRM or Not to CRM? Why Market to Current Customers? we challenged you to look at your business and evaluate how your company approaches relationship building and how well your employees build those relationships. We wanted to follow with more tips to make your CRM&M work for you!

Tip #1: Our favorite reminder—avoid the hard sell! If you communication is always about your business and products, people will tune out.

Tip #2: Let your personality shine through. Read the full article…

CRM & Marketing Series: Part 1 | Why Market to Current Customers?

That’s a great question. The best answer I can give you is that it costs 3-8x more to acquire a new customer than to retain an existing one. In today's competitive marketing environment, business owners and managers need every advantage they can get. Customer relationship management and marketing (CRM&M) keeps your business on the top of the mind of your customer. By doing so, customers are more likely to buy again, or upgrade to the next level, and the ‘reminder’ encourages them to be your advocates, and can generate referrals as your current customers recommend you to their friends and families.

There are both newer and tried and true methods you can utilize to stay top of mind with your customers. The channels you use will vary depending on your audience and what products or services you provide. Here are a few of our favorites:

1. Newsletters – newsletters are a popular way to educate and interest your clients. You may want to alternate printed and email versions. Read the full article...

An Intern's Perspective

By Guest Blogger & vitalink Intern Adrienne Bryant

When I began looking for an internship this summer, I was a little nervous from the many stories I’ve heard about interns getting stuck behind a desk and made to do all the grunt work. The first couple of interviews went okay, but nothing jumped out at me until I sat down in the vitalink office and began talking to Jeanne and Mary Ann. I couldn’t have wished for a better company to intern for. Here at vitalink, I’ve been allowed to actively participate in multiple projects for clients including research and creative work.

One of the creative projects I was assigned recently was to take photographs of an automobile accident scene for the cover of a book called Wrecked. The whole process was extremely fun. One of the first things I had to do was find old broken car parts I could use to create the scene, so the morning before the shoot I picked up an old headlight from a local body shop. As I was contemplating how exactly to bust it up, smashing it with a baseball bat kept replaying in my head, one of my good friends texted me. The conversation began with the typical, “What’s up? I’m good, how are you?” and changed when my friend said, “I’m okay, I got in a car accident yesterday and my car is destroyed.” Thinking about it now, I probably didn’t respond in the most thoughtful manner when I said, “OMG that’s awesome! Do you have a broken headlight?” After explaining myself, she agreed to let me have her busted headlight and I was now prepared to set up my accident scene.

When I got home from the office the day of the shoot, I quickly changed clothes and grabbed the headlights and my baseball bat. I set the headlight down in the middle of the front yard and got ready to swing. I was pretty excited since I hadn’t swung a bat since I had stopped playing ball a few years ago. After a few hits, the headlight was busted but not into small enough pieces. I had to think bigger, I glanced over at my car and decided to put all of the headlight pieces in a plastic bag, place it in the middle of the street, and run over it with my car. I probably should’ve done this in the first place because I successfully smashed the headlights into tiny pieces and the momentum from the car spread the pieces out perfectly over the street.

So many cars drove by while I was shooting pictures that I had to continually stop and wave them around. A lot of people looked at me like I was crazy standing in the middle of the street with broken glass, headlights, and a camera, but some people actually stopped to ask if I needed any help. I got tired of explaining and soon adopted the short explanation of, “school project.”

I started taking photographs from multiple angles, but one of my favorites was with the camera positioned low on the street so I could get a longer perspective. I arranged the headlight fragments in a few different ways to get multiple scenes. In one particular series, I used a bigger piece of the headlight in the foreground. I feel like this gave a focal point for the eye and allowed for the viewer to understand and take in more of what was going on in the scene. In some of these shots, I tried to achieve a balance by having the bigger piece in the front left and a shot of the speed limit sign in the back right corner.

Overall, the shoot was a lot of fun and I loved that it allowed me to use more of my creative side. It’s kind of surreal to me that I was allowed to do all of this as an intern and that one of pictures I took is actually going to be used on a published book cover. I would’ve never gotten the chance to do this at a larger company. I’m extremely grateful for all the opportunities I’ve gotten at vitalink; to have hands on experience, learn new things and use the talent and knowledge that I have.

Do Your Press Releases Attract Media Attention?

With the decline of traditional news reporting and the increase in number of individual contributors providing information, it can be extremely difficult to capture the attention of the most influential media players. At vitalink, we write and distribute countless press releases and media kits with varying results.

Over the years, we have compiled some “best practices” that we would like to share. Even for our clients who continue to use our PR services, these guidelines may help you to determine whether or not an event would be newsworthy so that you may let us know to proceed with a PR. Here are some thoughts:

1. Is the item unusual enough to warrant the attention of the public? A milestone business anniversary, revolutionary new product, free seminar offering, acquisition of another firm, or the fact that you won a big case would likely all be of interest. On the other hand, if you write a blog post about a subject that has been covered by a hundred others before you, it is likely not press worthy.


2. Is the notification timely? Many businesses—especially if they are large—struggle with getting communications out the door quickly. With the pace of information flow these days, old news is just that. Plan ahead whenever possible and react quickly if there is no prior notice.


3. Does the item position the firm in a positive light? Ideally you want to showcase news events such that the firm benefits. There are exceptions, however, so if there is a negative item that should be addressed with a public statement, get it out there quickly. Controversy can generate a lot of discussion!


4. Is the news item a “feel good” people story? People like to know who you really are on a personal level. Showcasing employees as they give back to the community or if they have a positive event can help with relationship building.

In short, items that are interesting, relevant—and sometimes even controversial—will generate media attention and, with luck, that elusive notice by (and conversation with) customers and prospects. We'd love to hear what types of press releases you've found generate the most interest. Let us know!

Session Formats + Audience Involvement

When you attend or plan an event, you must consider the presentation format for each session. The overall size of the event, number of concurrent sessions, topics to be covered and location space must all be considered. The most common presentation settings are:

Auditorium: Generally a larger room with chairs facing a stage or podium from which the speaker delivers the presentation. Room size can vary but may include hundreds in the audience.

Classroom: Typically a smaller room with tables. Chairs face a white board or screen for presentation. Hands-on computer or training sessions favor this set-up. Room capacities are usually smaller (up to a few dozen people).

Roundtable: Most roundtables are very limited in size (fewer than 20 attendees). A conference style table with chairs surrounding it is common, though not required. Roundtables are usually highly interactive.

Panel: Panel discussions typically are held in auditorium-style settings, with at least two panelists (experts) who will answer questions and offer opinions during the session. This is an interactive format, but tends to be more structured (Q & A) than a roundtable.

Virtual or Web-based: Virtual sessions have become commonplace as companies try to curtail travel expenses. These can be done through a phone conference, webinar (using web conferencing software like Webex), or using the newer and highly functional virtual trade show software packages (for example, ON24) that have concurrent sessions in different virtual auditoriums, chat rooms, trade show “booths,” etc.

In our experience, the most effective seminars or presentations involve the audience to some degree. How you encourage participation is often dictated by the presentation setting. In an auditorium setting with 200 attendees, asking for and receiving input has traditionally been done by asking participants to hold questions until the end of the session and then having a moderator carry a microphone from person to person so they may ask their questions of the presenter. A current popular option is to ask participants to send (or “tweet”) questions via Twitter using a pre-defined hashtag. In a virtual setting with a large number of attendees, online chat or tweets are also common. The best option for true interaction is still the roundtable. This format encourages back-and-forth discussion that is not as easily accomplished in other settings or using Twitter.

Most event agendas will specify the type of setting for each session. This gives attendees a good idea of what to expect. If you are planning an event, in addition to the factors mentioned above, consider also the style of your speaker and audience expectations. To learn more about our professional speakers, please visit The Expert Speakers website.

Tips for Delivering Bad News

By Guest Blogger Kathy Horn

As the president of my homeowner’s association board, I recently had to deliver news regarding the need for a special assessment to cover unanticipated repairs to our pool decking. Two-thirds of homeowners would have to approve the special assessment for us to be able to make repairs. Given the current economic environment, the timing couldn’t have been much worse. I tend to be very analytical and my approach to problem resolution follows: research the issue, determine options, and select the “best” option from the bunch. Unfortunately, when you ask the owners of 225+ homes for money, their opinions and emotions come into play!

So, what’s the best way to deliver tough news? In my experience, whether you are delivering news that your audience considers negative or simply explaining change (we all know how much most humans like change!), there are some basic protocols that can help:

1. Do your homework! Ask questions of the “experts” you’re dealing with. Don’t be embarrassed if you do not understand what they are telling you or their recommendation. Make them explain. You can’t know everything. The Internet is a great resource to gather information, but you may find that the answers you get conflict by source. Log all your questions and add to the list as you go. Answer the old basics: who, what, when, where, why and how.


2. Lay out all your options. You don’t have to like them, but you should consider ALL options (including “do nothing”—what if we don’t open the pool this year?).


3. Investigate any vendors you deal with. Check the Better Business Bureau and ask for references. Get everything in writing.


4. Be prepared to have your audience question what you did and why you made a particular choice. If you’ve done your homework, you will have most of these answers. The goal is to build your case and show that you have done the necessary due diligence. Several owners came to the open meetings intending to vote against the assessment. After hearing the presentation and getting a better feel for the amount of research we had done, they all changed their minds.


5. Communication is paramount. Communicate early and often, and keep records of everything that is communicated. When confronted with change, people tend to push back. It’s important to give them sufficient information to gain their acceptance and trust that you have made the best decision.Note that you may not want to communicate 100% of the information you have garnered through your research, but you should provide documentation that explains the options you considered and justifies your decision.

If you have to present information that you feel will be negative, controversial or are concerned that people will be upset, plan out how and when you will deliver the news. Ideally you will not deliver the news until you have done your research, but sometimes it gets out anyway; be prepared to hold a pre-meeting meeting. If you don’t know the answer, say so and then find out.

Include in-person meetings whenever possible to allow the audience to ask questions. You do not want to be in the position of answering questions one at a time via email! I have found face-to-face meetings to be much more effective than phone calls, email or video conferencing. When all else fails, a large bottle of Tums just might help!

TV Viewing Habits are Changing

While overall TV Households have decreased (for the first time in years), the Hispanic, African American and Asian TV Households have all shown growth. Check out the latest numbers from Nielsen:

A comparison of the Advance/Preliminary 2012 National Universe Estimates with 2011 National Universe Estimates for Total TV Households, Black or African American U.S. TV Households, Hispanic or Latino U.S TV Households and Asian American U.S. TV households is provided below:

Total U.S. TV Households
• The advance Total TV HH estimate decreased to 114,700 (000) from 115,900 (000).
• Persons 2+ in U.S. TV HHs declined 1.8% to 289,290 (000) from 294,650 (000).
• Overall, we are seeing the aging of the U.S. population, with Baby Boomers “aging out” of some traditional buying demographics and fewer Gen-Xers to replace them.

Hispanic U.S. TV Households
• Hispanic TV HH experienced an increase of 5.2%.
• Growth remains strong at 3.9% for Persons 2+ in Hispanic TV HHs. Strongest increases were demonstrated for older categories where Age 55+ increased by 11.1%.

Black or African American U.S. TV Households
• Black or African American TV HHs experienced an increase to 14,230 (000).
• Persons 2+ in Black or African American TV HHs remained relatively stable, increasing to 37,613 (000) from 37,596 (000). The largest population gains were in 18-34 and 55+ showing increases of 3.8% and 2.8%, respectively.

Asian U.S. TV Households
• Asian TV HH growth saw the largest increase of 9.8%.
• Persons 2+ in Asian TV HHs showed 9.0% growth from the official 2011 Estimates. Gains were predominately in the younger categories, where 2-11 increased by 10.8% and 18-34 increased by 16.2%. While Asian populations outpaced Hispanic populations in terms of total population growth, this should not be interpreted as a single year change in U.S. populations as adjustments due to the integration of the 2010 Census data contributed heavily to the increases in the Asian UEs.

Keeping Customers Engaged

In last month’s article on privacy concerns, we promised some ideas on keeping your customers engaged and ensuring they want to continue to receive your communications. In today’s information environment, marketers are tasked with the challenge of capturing the viewer’s attention while they are being bombarded with messages from all directions.

So, what can you do to be the firm that captures attention? Here are a few tips:

1. First and foremost, ask permission to continue communications. If you are mailing information out, have a phone number or email address for them to contact if they wish to opt-out of receiving mail from you. An easy unsubscribe process is required for email. While it’s great to have a large mailing list, there is a dollar cost associated with each contact. If they are really not interested, you are wasting money and annoying the reader.


2. Educate, don’t sell. Your goal is to provide value. Does that mean you can’t use a 20% off coupon for e-mail newsletter subscribers? Not at all! An occasional coupon does provide value—but there are so many other options.


3. Look for ways to connect on a more personal level. This might be including an employee profile in a newsletter or posting photos of a recent community service project on Flickr and adding a link to view them to your e-mail.


4. Make it easy for people to share. There are free social sharing buttons available. Use them!


5. Provide the information you promise. It can be extremely annoying to see a message that says, “Like us on Facebook to receive special discount offers,” only to be bombarded with other messages that do not meet expectations.


6. Vary style and content – within reason. I say “within reason” because you don’t want to go so far off track on the subject or style that you have loyal viewers unsubscribe. But you also don’t want them to drop off because they hear and see the same message over and over. Keep it interesting!

We hope these ideas help you to capture the attention of your clients and prospects and, ultimately, drive new business to your door. We'd love your feedback on how you keep customers engaged. If you have any questions, feel free to get in touch with us at info@vitalinkweb.com or call 919.850.0605.

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REACHing Out to Help Others

By Guest Blogger Mike Steele, Creative Director, vitalink

Over the past several years, I have done pro-bono creative and graphics work for a number of worthy causes. From a personal perspective, I truly enjoy volunteering with substance abuse programs—especially those that help teens. My most recent project was the design of a new logo for the REACH program in Cabell County, West Virginia. REACH is designed to give those in need of substance abuse treatment one place to go to start. The program is new and is expected to streamline the assistance process.

When I began to work on the design concept, I took into account my own personal experience. The main concept of the logo is to present an outstretched hand—a person reaching for help. The letters REACH as an arm with a handprint/heart at the end convey that help is available and there are those who care. I created both color and black and white options, some of which are shown here.

As a recovering alcoholic, I go back a couple years ago to the time when I hit ‘rock bottom’ and had to ask for help. Admitting we need help is one of the most difficult things for an addict to do. I remember being paralyzed with fear, feeling completely and utterly alone, even when surrounded by people, and feeling like I was the only one on earth who had ever felt this way. I was very skeptical and cynical about recovery programs because I didn’t believe there was hope for me. I chose the tagline, “You Are Not Alone,” to accompany the REACH initials.

While the heart is a “soft” symbol, the overall feel of the logo is a little ‘rough around the edges’ and has more of a ‘street’ feel to it. I wanted to present an image that these individuals could relate to—one that is more real in their world than the “sunset in the distance” concept that sometimes is used. The truth is when you are designing a logo, it does not have to “work” for everyone—it just has to resonate with the target audience.

About the Author

Mike Steele is the Creative Director/Graphic Designer for vitalink and has been with the company almost since the beginning. Most of the logos, newsletter templates, and creative design work that are produced by vitalink for its clients are the result of Mike’s talent and efforts.

Social Sharing During an Event

Beginning a couple of years ago, I began seeing conference attendees using their laptops and smart phones during sessions. I figured they were just checking e-mail, but many of these folks were out on social sites like Twitter and Facebook posting real-time comments about the session itself. The first time I saw this happen, my initial thought was that it was really rude. But then I began to think about the implications. How can a speaker, moderator or host utilize this information?

This practice of sharing during an event has become commonplace. Many conferences and virtual events now provide instructions on how attendees can provide feedback or ask questions during a session. A common example is asking attendees to submit questions for the speaker using Twitter and a pre-defined hashtag. This does require that the speaker have a moderator who can monitor the real time feed and ask the questions. The moderator can also monitor the feed for comments and help direct the speaker if necessary. For example, if someone posts, “audio stinks-can’t hear this guy,” the moderator can intervene and address the problem right then.

We’d love to know what you think! Post your comments and let us know!

Planning an Event? Using Internal vs. External Speakers

Whether you are planning a client conference or putting together an employee retreat, you are probably working to line up speakers and fill the agenda. How do you decide when to use internal or client speakers versus hiring an outside speaker? Here are a few tips:

1. If you do an annual client conference and you have internal resources that are subject-matter experts AND are good speakers, add them to the agenda. Okay, you should probably ask them first!


2. Have a client who is knowledgeable AND a dynamic speaker? Invite him or her to speak.


3. We recommend you mix up internal and external speakers – it adds depth to the agenda. Do make sure you have a large number of sessions that add value for the attendee. They should leave the event thinking they got more than their money’s worth!


4. Bring in an outside keynote speaker to either do a motivational address or hire an expert speaker to talk about industry trends that your attendees might not have learned. Get them excited about the future and thinking about what your firm should be doing now to plan for the future!


5. If you are doing an employee retreat, you may also want to bring in an outside speaker—either on some specific topic as an educational speaker or as a motivational speaker. It’s a change of pace from listening to the same internal folks year after year, and can bring new perspectives. It can also tell employees that you think they are important.

No matter what, do your research on your presenters—nothing is worse than an interesting topic delivered by a boring speaker! Tell us about the best (or worst) speaker you've ever heard. We'd love to hear your story! If you have questions, feel free to contact us at info@theexpertspeakers.com.

Email Still Outpaces Online Networking

Internet users spend about 4.6 hours a week on social networking, a survey from global market research firm TNS reports, but e-mail is what they use the Internet for most often. The survey found that users spend about 72 percent of their time every week reading and sending e-mails, which accounts for about 4.4 hours of activity.

Checking their Facebook and LinkedIn profiles and related activities takes up about 46 percent of their weekly time. Almost 75 percent say they check their e-mail every day, but fewer than half visit their social networking sites as frequently.

Given these statistics, it makes sense for you to have email as a component of your marketing plan. This may consist of monthly newsletters, coupons, invitations to special events or for free whitepapers or books. If you are not doing email now and need some help, give us a call at (919) 850-0605 or send an email: jfrazer@theexpertspeakers.com.

Spring = Beautiful Weather & Increases in Outdoor Risks

Spring has officially arrived. There are robins in the yard, daffodils are out, new green grass is starting to come up and the trees are budding. The nicer weather weather draws folks outside and into activities like walking and biking. Unfortunately, sometimes as we enjoy ourselves outdoors, we end up at risk.

A friend missed work yesterday. This morning, he limped in wearing a cast on his arm and hand and a knee brace on one leg. Turns out he decided to ride his bike to work to enjoy the nice weather and save money on gas. He was hit by a car on his way to the office. After a short hospital ride and fun day in the ER, he was sent home to recuperate. Fortunately his injuries were not too severe. Unfortunately, this type of accident is all too common during nicer weather.

I just read an interesting article on bicycle accidents by attorney Annie Reynolds that offers some statistics on bike accidents and some safety tips. I thought I'd pass it along to you all. Be safe out there!