How to Engage Anyone....

In business you will have to engage and charm anyone and everyone. You have to know how to speak with people. You have to get employees to follow your vision. The media to pick-up your idea. You have to sell clients your concept or products. There is a lot of work to be done in the person-to-personal intercommunications realm. So, how do you do this effectively? 3 simple steps.

1. Treat others as they want to be treated. Don’t treat everyone nicely or how YOU want to be treated, treat them how they want to be treated. If someone hates candy, why send a box of candy to all of your clients during a holiday season? Be personal. Call people by name, remember minor details and use them.

2. Say goodbye to your smartphone for two days straight. Yes, two days. Why? It will help you focus on people. When you do this, you will see exactly what I mean. After you do this, and you see the positive results, you will be able to tuck that phone away during meetings and other important events. Showing up is important and you can’t fully do this – or engage anyone- if your head is engaged with your own phone as the primary distraction.

3. Know the difference between a fact and an opinion and use this properly. Don’t talk about people using opinions and don’t talk about business without incorporating facts. Only offer your opinion when you feel it will help someone and never say anything negative about anyone to anyone. It will come back and bite you. Be factual and helpful, not a gossip or a know-it-all.

Until Monday,

Twyla Garrett

Natural Disasters Defined

What qualifies as a natural disaster?Many of you know what a disaster is. But, do you really know what qualifies as an actual disaster? Disasters include everything from terrorist attacks to traffic accidents, floods to fires. The key to navigating a disaster (with as little loss possible) is to be prepared. Being prepared means having a plan in place for your home, family, business (employment), and your pets.

I know this seems to be common sense, but in a time of crisis simple things can become overlooked.
For pets make sure you have proper identification and that the animal is actually wearing it! Invest in good transport kennels before a disaster hits. Keep a stock pile for extra food and gallons of clean water.

If your pets take medication, keep a spare prescription in an emergency kit. If you have a diabetic pet make sure to discuss a pre-disaster plan with your vet at the next appointment.

Never ever evacuate a home or business and leave a pet behind. If you are told to evacuate, leave early and take the animals with you, even if you think you'll be gone just a few hours. It is a good idea to Google in a list of hotels that take animals in your area and two hours outside of your area. Jot down the phone numbers and put them in your wallet. Even if you put the numbers in your phone, keep a copy in your wallet because the disaster could interrupt cell phone service.

Until tomorrow,
Twyla Garrett

Marketing “WOW” Moments.

Every company alive wishes they had a Super Bowl budget when it comes to marketing. Realistically, most of us business owners barely have a local magazine advertising budget. The truth is, simple and low-cost marketing efforts can have big results- you just have to know how to navigate your demographic and social media properly.

One thing I tell all my peers is to market as if you were having an honest conversation with someone. Don’t throw out “buy me” or “sham wow” content all over the internet. It doesn’t work. Most of us know of the Sham Wow, but how many of us bought the product? Exactly! Write like you are speaking to your customer without using the voice of a used car sales person. This trick will help you engage your demographic, not SPAM them.

You also want to seek out consistency. Don’t post to FB or Twitter only when you have something to sell. Provide funny MEMEs or viral videos to show your customers that your company is human, not just a promotion machine on social media. Engage with people, too. If someone asks a question on FB, respond right away. Offer tips and ask to follow up via email or phone. Adding a personal touch to your customer service, even online, is important.

I truly hope you utilize these techniques when starting to market your company and products. You don’t have to have a multi-million dollar budget to make a big impact. In fact, all you really have to do is put some time and effort into your writing and social media communication labors.

Until tomorrow,

Twyla N. Garrett

Company Email and Abuse

Employees are going to do it. It doesn't matter what document they "forgot" they signed with Human Resources, employees will send a personal email at least once from their company email address. This is, at least, according to the statistics. So, how do you write a great email policy for your company? Below are my tips.

1. Be clear. The policy should list email risks to make users aware of the potential harmful effects of their actions. Make sure employees are signing this policy when they get the log-in to the company email system. And, make sure you speak directly with the employee upon hiring him or her about the policy.

2. The policy should state whether personal emails are accepted and if so, to what extent. I don't condone allowing any personal emails to be sent from a company computer. Liability issues can arise if your company's name is attached to anything personal that is threatening, explicit or can cause harm in anyway. Some companies are more liberal so speak with your legal counsel if you are considering allowing personal emails to be sent from your company's domain.

3. If you are going to monitor your employees’ emails, you must state this in your email policy. Warn that employees should have no expectation of privacy in anything they create, store, send or receive on the company’s computer system and that the company may, but is not obliged to monitor messages without prior notice. If you fail to mention this, and have your employee sign that he or she understands this, you can be SUED. Yes, you can be sued because of FCC and other privacy regulations.

There are many rules associated with giving an employee access to email. If you are starting a business make sure to include this topic on the list of "to review" with your legal counsel. You, your company and your employees can all be liable for any type of misuses.

Twyla