Getting Product Testimonials

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I have a buddy who is looking at developing a very cool new business offering and wanted to see if JibberJobber, as a CRM,  was good enough to be a part of the offering.  After spending hours on the system this is what he wrote to me:

Even though I have played with JibberJobber for quite a while, I never really dug deep into how I could use it to grow my biz. I just used it as a place to store contacts – but now that I have a focus of how I should be using it, I have to say that you have done an incredible job with it.  I just played with the quick add from Twitter function which is way cool.

What a super compliment.

And a great testimonial.

This just came from him after he’s spent hours on MY product.  He’s known me for years, he’s known about JibberJober for years, and he’s even had an account for a while.

But he was playing around with it, not serious, not understanding how it could meet his needs (not really understanding his “needs,” until recently).

It made me wonder: how many of the people we know, who know us, really know what we do and what we offer, and have an appreciation for our services?

I bet it’s less than 5% or 10%.

How to get that number higher?  Well, maybe it is in your communication. Maybe it is just a matter of time, and waiting until the sun (your product), the moon (their needs), and the stars (their understanding of your offering) align.

When it does align take the sweet opportunity to ask, like I did: can I use that as a testimonial?

Yes, they’ll say, and they are happy to help you because you’ve made them happy by providing them a terrific solution.

I love these types of testimonials.

Job Search Book + LinkedIn DVD Special

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job_search_now_whatIII have 10 I’m in a Job Search — Now What??? books that I’ll bundle with my LinkedIn for Job Seekers DVD for only $40 with no S&H.

Total spend is $40.

When they are gone, they are gone. (I have other books I can substitute…. I’ll let you know if we’re out when you order)

First come first serve – take advantage asap before the book is gone.

To pay, go to this payment page and fill out the form (put $40 for the purchase and make sure to put your mailing address in the comments).

How to NOT Pitch a Blogger

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Check out the intro in this email I got:

blogger_pitch

Are you serious?  The first sentence says he’s been following my blog.  Dude, my name is all over all my blogs.  It’s not that hard to figure out.

And am I a blogger OR an expert?  I’m still trying to figure that one out…

You have to get a little more personal to pitch me… my name is (well, you’ll have to figure that out for yourself).

I swear I don’t teach her this stuff – LAME

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On Saturday I had three of my kids and we were escaping to Costco for a bit. I called my wife and asked her to look for an address for a store… I wanted to get her two end tables but didn’t want her to know about it.  This was going to be my valentines present to her.

End tables aren’t the most romantic things, but we’ve been wanting real end tables for a while and I knew the kind to get (real wood, sturdy, new, etc.).

Anyway, I got off the phone and stated “we’re going to spend a few hundred dollars today guys!”

“Why?”

“To get mom’s valentines day present!”

My six year old then says “ah come on Dad, why don’t you just get her something lame?”

I was cracking up, wondering what the heck that meant.  I asked “Like what?”

She said, “something lame, like flowers and candy.”

And then, after a short pause, she sincerely asks, “what does lame mean?”

ROFL — that was too funny :p  Ah, the joy a six year old can bring.

“I don’t do much with dogs”

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This is what I wrote when my JibberJobber developer asked me a question about a certain part of JibberJobber.

He asked me something that had to do with the Jobs section of JibberJobber.  In my mind I starting thinking of my response:

“I don’t do much with jobs.”

(I use JJ more as a business CRM, since I’m not in a job search).

While I was typing that I started to think:

“I have to eat my own dog food. In fact, any business owner, designer, product manager, salesperson or product advocate has to eat their own dog food… if they don’t eat their own dog food then….!”

I went on a mental rant… and instead of typing what I wanted, I combined both ideas and produced this sentence:

“I don’t do much with dogs”

To which my developer had to ask “I’m sorry, what do you mean by that?  What do dogs have to do with anything?”

LOL – sometimes, I swear I need a new brain…

Choose the Right

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Along the path to becoming better parents we came across Nicholeen Peck’s stuff, which is best summarized as “teaching self government” to kids.

The idea is to help kids understand how they can govern themselves, their actions, their emotions, etc.  I’ve blogged about Nicholeen here and here.

One of the things she teaches us is how we can teach our kids to “accept a ‘NO’ answer.”  That is, when they ask something, and we say no, they can respond by saying OK with (a) a calm face and (b) a calm voice and then (c) dropping the subject.

If you think about it, it’s a brilliant thing to learn (many adults need to learn this).  Of course, they can “disagree appropriately,” also, so it’s not all about accepting our NO.

Usually when our 3 year old asks a question and we say NO, she is thrilled to say okay in that way. And then she immediately says “dad, I accepted a no answer with a calm face and a calm voice!” with the cutest smile and sense of pride you can imagine.  It’s really cute.

A few days ago she said something equally cute… we also hope our kids make right decisions… even though nobody always makes right decisions we want them to know they can CHOOSE to make a good (or right) decision – they are empowered to make decisions that will impact the consequences.

The three year old was talking to my wife and said very simply, and with a very serious face:

“I  choose the right, not the left“

It was good to hear her clarify that she had made a right decision, not a left decision :p

How to write a FREAKING AWESOME blog post

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There are probably a million ideas on how to write, and how to write a blog post, and how to write a freaking awesome blog post.

I’ll share just one… since it’s on my mind. I don’t remember where I heard this but it made a ton of sense to me.  Before I share it I want to say why I think it is brilliant.

One reason I write is to develop a community. One measure of community is the discussion.  A way to gauge the discussion is by the comments.  A “comments” metric is “Number of comments.”

I think blogs that have comments show they have (a) readers and (b) a community.

So, how do you write a blog post that gets comments (perhaps that should have been the title of this post, which really should become a series)?

WRITE ONLY 80% OF THE POST.

Let your readers finish the other 20% in the comments.

Think about that – if you write enough of the post, but leave it open for discussion, as opposed to making a super-tight conclusion, you don’t give your readers much to comment about.

When I heard this I thought it was absolutely brilliant.  It takes skill to write that 80% and not sound aloof… and I think by nature we want to complete things, but if you want to generate discussion and create community, make sure you don’t say all that should be said.

I’m wrapping it up here – tell me in the comments what YOU think a FREAKING AWESOME blog post entails 🙂

Want more info about blogging?  I do a monthly coaching thing – learn more here.

What Makes A Blog Suck

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I pick up a little side work as a social marketing consultant here and there.  Today I was working on a project looking for relevant bloggers to network with in a niche space. I went to alltop to find the blogs they have listed for this topic and opened all of them in tabs so I could see if I liked them.

I was specifically looking for people who had street cred as a blogger in that space.  I found a bunch that I liked. I was also reminded of things I hate.  Here’s my hate list:

  1. Very dark background, very light font. Think black background, white font.  IT SUCKS.  I hate this. I have bad eyes, and I’m in front of a computer about 10 hours a day.  When I get to a site that has black background with white font I find my eyes hurting pretty quickly and I just have to go away.  (surprisingly, many people have this sucky color scheme on their Twitter bio area.  Do they not realize it SUCKS?)
  2. Funky font.  Bright colors. Really big text.  Different font types throughout a post.  Look, I get it… you want to somehow accentuate something, right?  Bring out a big idea, or whisper or something… my heavens, don’t do it by making the font 8 times bigger than what it should be.
  3. Too many linked distractions. I like to read blogs without a lot of noise.  Don’t have dozens of links all over the place. Here’s an example – don’t put a link to a community or forum unless you have enough people (that is: more than you) in that community and forum.  Work up to it, but don’t lead me all over your site to places that have tiny bits of information, but none of them have any real substance.
  4. Too little information. I want to know about YOU or the topic.  Don’t doodle in blah blah blah.  I’m amazed at the contrast between a very strong, on-topic blogger compared to a blogger that wanders all over Boringville and never makes a relevant point.
  5. Lots of off-topic posts. I know you like your kitty cat.  I know you like your spuds, flowers, car, favorite pair of jeans, etc.  But if you have a topical blog (that is, not a personal here’s-what-i-ate-for-lunch-this-last-month blog, then severely  restrict your off-topic posts.  If you want to have a following for your topic and you talk too much about junk you’ll lose people.
  6. Cussing. You are a big boy or a big girl, I get that.  But the more strong language you use on your blog the more you are going to turn people off.  Or maybe you don’t care… that’s fine.  Your blog is more about venting your feelings than about developing an audience and a community – that’s fine.  But I can’t follow you much if you are constantly offending me.  Prude, I know.
  7. Link bait, or dropping a lot of keyword searchable words. I don’t want to read your blog because I’m a search engine, I want to read it because I’m a human being.  It’s okay to put the link stuff in there, and put keywords in there, but can you at least work it into proper grammar and have it relevant to what you are writing?
  8. Widgets. Kill most of them.  If you are widget crazy I won’t even wait the three minutes it takes for your blog to come up… I’ll just close the tab and not come back.  Seriously, don’t YOU have something more value-add on your blog than 18 widgets?  You are better than that (I hope).  Don’t distract me with useless crap.
  9. Google Ads, if you are a legitimate business/blogger. I’m amazed at the sites that have Google ads on their site.  I’m quite biased against google ads because the goofballs at Google shut down my ad program (lame story).  But here’s why I don’t recommend it: (a) it is a distraction that you can’t really control, (b) if I click on the ad, I GO AWAY from your site, and (c) I wonder why a business or legit blogger would ever sell valuable real estate on their blog for $18/month (what I’m guessing most bloggers are getting).  Seriously, figure out something more value-ad to give to your audience.  Google ads to me says “I don’t care to build a community, I’m just hoping the brainless drone who happens to come to my site will be dumb enough to realize I don’t have any value for him/her and they’ll click on the Google ad so I can make five cents.”
  10. ______________________________________. What’s the thing you hate to see on a blog?

It’s Time To Shake Up The Email Signature Again

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I have a think for optimizing my email signature… so here we go again.

Yesterday it was this:

email_signature_jason_alba

Today it is this – because I am not emphasizing my product lines enough:

email_signature_jason_alba_jan2010

I think I like this better. I need to get a real site for the social marketing thing, so it’s not a tinyurl… we’ll see how long I keep this one.  But it’s pretty clear now (a lot more clear than before) that I have something for:

Thoughts?

Are You A Speaker? Here’s A Group To NOT Join

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I started my speaking career shortly after my book came out.  I didn’t think I would become a speaker, but the first money offer was a real eye-opener.

I learned about the International Speakers Network from… I don’t remember. I probably googled something about speakers and found them.  I was intrigued, got on their mailing list, and thought they provided good stuff.

I was particularly encouraged by a list of speaking opportunities they were looking for speakers for.  Each time I saw the list I thought “man, I gotta be an insider here – these guys are obviously finding good jobs, and I might qualify for one!”  I also thought that my topic was unique enough (it isn’t anymore) that they might be able to drum up business just for me.  I remember in their emails they had lists of companies that I thought they were prospecting, or marketing their members to.

I eventually decided to join their organization. At the time $525 was a big investment for my new company, but I knew that one gig would pay that back tenfold.  I knew it was one-time, lifetime, and probably non-refundable.

Shortly after I joined it seemed the nature of the newsletters stopped.  Since then I remember ONE email that had speaking opportunities, and I don’t remember any more that had lists of “here’s the conferences or companies we are prospecting.”  Instead, every email seems to be a reminder to sign up for one of their conferences (in Tennessee) or buy their marketing services (to make a one-page or other marketing material speakers use).

It just isn’t what I thought it would be.  I know they’ll see me forever-more as a thorn in their side, but I have to say it, and if any speaker asks me, I’ll tell them:

“Don’t spend money on an ISN membership.  It isn’t worth it.  I’ve gotten zero value out of it.”

Have you had a different experience ?  I’m happy to let you share yours.  When ISN reads this they are welcome to send their members here to leave their own testimonials of the value of ISN.  I’d like to hear them.