Recently I was on a call with a new JibberJobber user (and good friend) who had a lot of questions on how to use JibberJobber. I’ll call him Brad.
Like many of my users, Brad is good with technology but not an IT guy. This means he has a lot of smart “how do I do this? “ questions… things that I don’t think about. Also, Brad is an entrepreneur and is using JibberJobber to manage professional relationships (customers, prospects, etc.).
I call JibberJobber a tool to organize your job search but really it is a relationship manager. Some call it a personal relationship manager but it is really, essentially a “customer relationship manager,” or CRM – that’s what we modeled it from.
So back to my call with Brad… one thing he said is that he LOVES LOVES LOVES the inline help videos we have for users to understand how to use various parts of the system. He asked me to make a lot more. “Spend a day and just do a lot of recorgding,” he asked.
It occurred to me that even though I, and many users, know about many of the rich features of JibberJobber, there are many more who don’t.
I have to educate them, continually!
And you, as CEO of Me, Inc., have to educate YOUR audience.
You think they know, but they don’t.
Yes, you have told them a me-in-30-seconds, but that doesn’t quite do the job!
My point is this: YOU have to communicate what you do, your brand, etc. to your network/audience regularly.
HOW are you doing this?
I won’t say this is easy. If you meet just one new person a week, that’s 52 new relationships a year you can cultivate.
I’m no expert, but I find a common social network we share and connect with them there. Often, since I deal mostly with professionals (or the professional SIDE of a person), this is LinkedIn. Fine with me. I tell them, “Do you mind if we connect on LinkedIn? I only connect with people I know there, so if you ever bump into someone in my network you’d like to know, please ask me for an introduction.” They usually are amazed that I offer to connect so freely, and sometimes ask, “Really? Only people you actually know? I just connect with everyone I can… isn’t that networking?” which leads me into a whole other conversation about what I do (Senior Recruiter) and why I do it (I am a g33k).
Robert – good thoughts – let me comment on a few points you make:
>> I won’t say this is easy.
Totally NOT easy… and it’s worse than the number of contacts you are meeting…
>> If you meet just one new person a week
We could take out that factor and say that even the 100 people you know, and you think know you, don’t know what you do or how they can help you…
>> I find a common social network we share and connect with them there.
The thing is, just connecting either doesn’t let them know who you are, OR it might mislead them (if your profile stinks, or is misleading, or something like that).
I think the key is to educate them continually, but that assumes you (a) know who you are and (b) know how to communicate it and (c) are communicating the right thing…
Like you said, it is not easy 🙂
>> just connecting either doesn’t let them know who you are
Good point, Jason. I didn’t explain that I try really hard to ensure that I connect with them in the way that makes the most-sense for them–whatever paradigm they know me from. My LinkedIn profile will have nothing about my personal life (though it is linked to my personal/professional blog and my twitter feed).
My twitter feed, for example, is generally geeky and techno-nerdy or full of recruiter sarcasm, so connecting there with someone may confuse them if they don’t want to know everything about Android or hear my rants on how it’s not MY job (as a recruiter) to find someone a job.
Good Points, Jason! I was consulting with a client this morning and reviewing my packages. I found myself first building the relationship with the client and then explaining my services. When we got to talking about JibberJobber, at first she told me she was not sure what it was but as I explained it (and I always tell the back story of why you started it) she said that she could see it as a very useful tool.
I think we think we know who we are and what we do and everyone else should too. Just throwing up a website should give people plenty of information but then as you start connecting with people, you realize how much you have to build common ground and explain the details to get to a real understanding of how we can work together.
Good point, Jason! To answer your question, I try to Tweet consistently, every day. I also am always on Linked In and BrazenCareerist. Every day. If I’m not, people will forget me!
@Julie – I appreciate you evangelizing JibberJobber, and I wonder if there are things you offer that she doesn’t know about yet (perhaps you said them, but it didn’t click at the time).
@Kate – AND you leave comments on blogs 🙂 That’s a great tactic… just to say it, though (I know you already know, but for others), you need to make sure that your messaging (tweets, comments, etc.) not only has frequency but the right branding/message. It’s more about frequency+rightMessage than just frequency.
So, how do you recommend striking a balance between being “all business all the time” and letting your personality out in your blogging, tweeting, etc?
@Robert, interesting, and different, topic. I’m sure you have an idea of this… you are more savvy than I am :p
I think it’s important to not overdo either one… hopefully people find a groove and figure it out. Sometimes I sway too far towards one or the other but I try and have a happy middle ground. I’m not there for love/romance but I don’t want to be too dry/businessy. I tend to recommend 7 to 9 business posts for every 1 – 3 personal posts (on Twitter, for example).