Posted by barbarahales

This past week I had the privilege of being a poll inspector for the Republican primary in Florida. Ironically, it seems that I turned away just as many people wanting to vote and make a difference as those that did.

You see, only Republicans can vote and choose the Republican candidate. Unfortunately, people who were declared Democrats or unaffiliated showed up to elect a candidate. Worse yet were those who stated that they meant to officially declare themselves in a specific party but never got around to it.

Unfortunately this is a reflection of why people do not succeed at professional writing or other businesses. They may have a goal but the way in which to achieve it is fuzzy. There is no business plan, no marketing, no research. They just jump in. Yet even professional writing needs marketing and a plan to succeed. There must be an approach to getting clients on a sustained basis or a way to market the books that one writes.

Remember- a plan for success is a successful plan!
Do you have one?

Posted by barbarahales

A crucial part of your online and offline marketing is the use of press releases. Being picked up by media with a run on your story, increases your visibility and gets you free publicity.

However, if the press release is a “chore and a bore”, it will die on the vine.
PR web has some good advice on this one. Check it out…

Remember these 3 press release ideas you can’t do without:
1. Perfect Isn’t Just Acceptable, It’s Essential
You may not have control over how readers respond to your content, but you do have control over how it’s presented. Few things hurt your credibility more than simple grammatical errors.
Don’t just rely on a one-time click of your auto spell check button as your safety net. Check the document again and recruit another set of eyes to determine if your content fits the grammatical bill.
2. Metaphors Can Be Messy
So you start off comparing your industry to sky diving. You’ve begun the metaphor with a catchy phrase, such as before you leap into the social media sky, be sure your rip cord of relevance is handy.
It’s a clever connection to the reader’s imagination – one that will hopefully keep them interested. Before you go on to add falling, landing and fear references, ask yourself or someone else if you’ve stretched the metaphorical parachute too thin (we couldn’t resist).
In addition, take care not to mix your metaphors within one piece of content. The reader will be less inclined to stay with you if you jump from sky diving to deep sea fishing.
3. Active Is Everything
We’re not talking about your lifestyle here; we’re focusing on the use of active language. You want to entice readers to read beyond your headline, so do it with compelling words. Follow these simple tips to spice up your content:
Use active verbs rather than just relying on the old standby variations of to be:
Change “XYZ’s road bikes are proving to be consumer hits” to “Consumers can’t get enough of XYZ road bikes”

Shorten sentences by saying more with less:
Change “People shouldn’t wait to visit our tax service locations to prepare their taxes” to “Get a jump on your taxes at our 7 locations”
Incorporate emotional language to tickle our ears:
Change “Credit card users are losing billions each year to fraud” to “Credit card fraud steals billions each year from our pockets”
Don’t back into sentences, use direct language:
Change “While the statistics which reflect mobile usage in the U.S. are growing rapidly” to “U.S. mobile usage continues to explode”

Have you ever watched a presentation where the speaker nearly bored you to sleep? Don’t do the same to your readers.

If you find content that really grabs your attention, use it for inspiration. Does it motivate you? Make you laugh? Startle you? Incorporate those elements into your own content and then read it all over again. If you don’t find your press releases captivating and interesting, your audience won’t either.

Still need help with your press releases. Let me know- I’ll be glad to assist you at: Barbara@TheWriteTreatment.com

Posted by barbarahales

Google is changing its policies. Check out what they say:
“We’re getting rid of over 60 different privacy policies across Google and replacing them with one that’s a lot shorter and easier to read. Our new policy covers multiple products and features, reflecting our desire to create one beautifully simple and intuitive experience across Google.

We believe this stuff matters, so please take a few minutes to read our updated Privacy Policy and Terms of Service at http://www.google.com/policies. These changes will take effect on March 1, 2012.

If you’re signed into Google, we can do things like suggest search queries – or tailor your search results – based on the interests you’ve expressed in Google+, Gmail, and YouTube. We’ll better understand which version of Pink or Jaguar you’re searching for and get you those results faster.

Easy to share and collaborate
When you post or create a document online, you often want others to see and contribute. By remembering the contact information of the people you want to share with, we make it easy for you to share in any Google product or service with minimal clicks and errors.”

Have you wondered why they will be able to easily share and collaborate or suggest products and services that you are looking for? Yup- because they will be following your every move, watching you from afar (actually not too far) They will know you better than you know yourself!

Big brother is here and his name is Google!

Posted by barbarahales

This is a great marketing ploy.
Jonathan Sprinkles, a motivational speaker and leadership mentor writes his sayings to create positive anchor instead of just his information. Then people enjoy looking at and sharing his card. Here are some samples (to make a connection)

*Sometimes you’ve GOTTA DO what you’ve GOTTA DO, until you GET TO DO what you WANT TO DO!
*Uncommon success requires uncommon sacrifice
*Behavior tolerated is behaviour encouraged.
*Influence is about the person you are, not the position you hold
*It takes the same energy to say I CAN that it does to say I quit
*Every setback is either an excuse to quit or an inspiration to get back up and try again. The choice is yours!

Here are his “strong Presentation Tips:
*Passion persuades
*Points are powerful but connection is key
*They won’t hear you until they know you
*Don’t just tell them, show them
*Start strong, finish stronger
*First move them then educate them
*Everyone is motivated by something
*Do your homework!
*People won’t care how much you know until they know why you care.

These are great tips. How many can you incorporate into your business and your life?

Posted by barbarahales

Here is a great exercise that Steve Jobs used to turn your idea into reality or take it to the next level:

Imagine you are going to be exiled on a desert island
You can only take your top people (in his case, 100 – in yours could be your top 5)
With your top people make a top 10 list of what you have to accomplish now

Now take your top 10 list less (eliminate) all but your top 3 items on your list – you can only focus on your top 3 at one time:

You may plan for your other items so you know where you are going.
This top 10 to top 3 exercise by Steve Jobs gets you to focus and prioritize your resources and the action steps to reach your tasks, milestones and goals. To accomplish your goals, break them down into a series of small or baby steps called tasks. After you finish a certain number of these small steps, you will reach certain milestones on the way to your overall goals.
Break down your business idea or plan into 7 Steps: idea, design, discovery, development, pre-launch, launch, and post-launch. Then take each of these 7 Steps and view them as a goal to be broken further down into tasks and milestones.

To make sure you focus your resources, use the Steve Jobs top 10 to top 3 exercise.

Posted by barbarahales

When marketing yourself or your services,whether it is as a health writer or any other field, a crucial tool in your bag to reach your target is the art of story telling.

The most important aspect of story telling is to be authentic and have your passion show through. Don’t take someone else’s story. The tale must be who you are. Dig deep and look at who you are and your experiences that brought you to this point. Touch others emotionally and those hearing your story will pass it on.

Share the benefit by sharing your experience and evoking emotion.
Motivate yourself and the enthusiasm will not only be authentic but infectious.

Who are you talking to? Is the crowd that you are talking to, people who have something to gain by the story? If the people you are talking to do not have any vested interest in the points within the story, there will be no success or interest in the story itself.

Each story has a goal- it is to market or promote goods or services. But the story must be engaged with the crowd. There must be interaction for engagement. You need a dialogue and you need to be a participant. Otherwise, you are merely dictating your thoughts.

Make sure that your story or dialogue has a call to action at the end. This way when it goes viral, the intended action will be passed along as well.

Posted by barbarahales

These days it seems that all you hear about social media centers around Facebook and Twitter with celebrities gleaning thousands of followers. But in terms of business, LinkedIn wins, hands down.

Did you know that you can search a company or keywords and find just the right person to contact for your proposals? Not only that, you can get referrals or introductions to prospects. By answering questions posed in various groups that you share a common interest or goal in, you create an image of authority, visibility and personal branding. Valuable network opportunities abound within the group and future joint ventures are distinct possibilities.

By being “a fly on the wall” and viewing comments and conversation threads, you can pick up the latest trends.

Not only can you discover the relationships between prospects and departments with colleagues but with prospects. When your clients link up with sales agents from a company that deals in the same field or service as yours, you know they are interested and thus it creates a hint that now is the time to contact them again.

If a client that you have been working for changes jobs, you can stay in touch and possibly get business from the new company.

An additional great feature is the analytics that one can view. Did you know that when an individual views your profile, you can be notified? You can then see what company that person is associated with and what about you attracted that person. This makes reaching out a snap instead of those cold calls that never seem to get you anywhere.

Got a project that you would like to propose but not sure of the pricing that would be appropriate? Your LinkedIn buddies can give you advice.

With all these benefits, it seems short-sighted not to sign up.
What are you waiting for?

Posted by barbarahales

Google retires its Health program as of Jan.1,2012. This is sad, not just because we are losing a helpful program, but because of what it represents. Google misread the impetus for the American people to put their health records in a secure database system. Eventually this will happen. Why it has not happened yet maybe fear of the unknown, or fear of security breaches, or laziness or lack of technology. Take your pick.

See what Carole Flagg has written about it:
“Data will then be available in a zip file to download through January 1, 2013.The reason Google gave was that it “didn’t catch on the way we would have hoped”. I don’t know about you but doesn’t that sound like something you would say about a pet rock or the slinky?

Personal Health Records (PHR) are an integral part of the future of health care along with EHR adoption. Currently less than 10% of Americans use PHRs but when all health care providers can actually provide our records to us electronically, a PHR will be as common as our driver’s license or iTunes account.

In a study this year, the independent National Opinion Research Center at University of Chicago focused on consumer/patient attitudes towards health IT and electronic medical records. While 78% of the people favor the use of electronic records and believe they could improve care, 79% thought PHRs would help patients to be better informed about their health, and 72% support sharing health care information between providers.The study believes this shows clear support of the federal initiative on EHR adoption.

In a post on The Health Care Blog after Google’s announcement last June, Missy Krasner, founding member and former product marketing manager of Google Health and senior adviser to former ONC David Brailer, wrote, “Because health care is not a true market-based commodity in this country, patients end up being lousy health care consumers. Unlike the banking, airline and retail industries, this makes it much harder to convince a broad array of consumers to engage in a service that helps them organize, manage and share their medical records online.” Is this really a good analogy? Unlike the banking, airline, and retail industries, the health care industry doesn’t give you the tools along with the data you need to organize your health records online. Just because you have a PHR doesn’t mean your health records are available electronically. For most Americans, they are not.

If you have a Google Health account and actually have current health records there, here is what they are saying to do:

go to the Google Health site at https://health.google.com
log in with your Google account
click on the link in the yellow bar at the top of your screen to start the process of downloading your information and closing your Google Health account.

Microsoft on the other hand is staying committed to their PHR, HealthVault and want the Google Health customers. You can automatically transfer your personal records to Microsoft HealthVault which uses the Direct Project messaging protocols. Here are the instructions.
How to Transfer Data to Microsoft HealthVault
Using Google Health’s data download feature, you can easily export data from your Google Health profile and import it into other third-party personal health services. This page illustrates the process for transferring data to Microsoft HealthVault; for other services, see this article. Be aware that HealthVault may offer different privacy protections than the Google Health website, so make sure you’re comfortable with those protections before proceeding.

To transfer data:
Make sure you’re viewing the profile you want to transfer in Google Health. Note that you will need to repeat these steps for each profile you want to transfer to Microsoft HealthVault.
Click the Download drop down to the right of your profile name, then choose “Send profile to another service…”.
If it’s not already selected, select “Microsoft HealthVault” as the destination service.
After reading the instructions, click the “Send a copy of my profile” button. Your profile data will be sent in a secured message to Microsoft HealthVault via the Direct Project protocol.
In a few minutes, you will receive an email from Microsoft HealthVault in the email inbox associated with your Google Health account. This is the email address displayed at the top of the Google Health window in the upper right.
Follow the instructions in the email to complete the process of transferring your profile to Microsoft HealthVault. Note: if asked for your email address during the process, use the same one that is associated with your Google Health account.
That’s it! Your Google Health data should now appear in your HealthVault profile. Note that if you make any further changes in Google Health, those changes will not automatically appear in HealthVault, and you’ll have to repeat the download and transfer process if you want your changes reflected in HealthVault.
_______________________________________________
Note also that this process transfers your health records and uploaded files, but not any medical contacts, service links, or sharing settings. You’ll have to manually transfer or recreate those in HealthVault.”

In order to capitalize on “storing” health records, companies are springing up whereby you can store all your information to your own computer and then download it onto a medical alert bracelet- one that has a USB port.

This hybrid makes sense for 2 reasons- EMTs can instantly download the important information in an emergency (i.e. the patient is unconscious). The second is that a large segment of the population may feel more seure I having their information under their direct control where hackers may be less likely to have access to the information (or at least that is what an individual may think) which prompts more people to take action in this regard.

Posted by barbarahales

According to David Sifry of Technorati.com, the magic middle is the sites having between 20 and 1000 inbound links. This is the ideal spot to find building links. They are not quite in the top tier of sites but have a lot of clout. You are not jumping into the deep pool of A-list sites which are flooded with pitches for links so you stand out. So, the “magic middle” gives you the most success for your link building efforts.

Link Building sites in the Magic Middle provide:
*A chance to submit articles and guest posts
*Fans
*Quality links

The people managing the magic middle sites tend to be niched, easy to work with, very approachable and easy to contact.

To get the attention of these sites, look to see how they want to be contacted. The site will usually specify if they want to be contacted by email (and what it is) or by phone. You will stand out as a writer or reporter, providing important news or making a great offer.

By digging a little to unearth the magic middle, you will find link prospects that larger companies or competitors haven’t taken the effort or time to discover. These prospects are ripe and waiting for you!

Posted by barbarahales

Okay, you’ve been to a conference or a networking event. You made great contacts and gathered a slew of business cards. Everyone seemed like-minded and jovial. Quite a few people you met seemed like they would be good for a joint venture or prospective client.

But what have you done about that stack of cards after you have gotten home and back to the daily grind? If you are like many people, the stack of cards languishes on a desk corner or in a draw until you think about it again or decide how they can benefit you. After a while, you forget who they are and the stack becomes just a bunch of meaningless cards.

In order to maximize your networking experience, there are 10 steps that you can take.

1) Establish the means of later contact
Lack of further contact strongly suggests indifference but no one wants to be a nuisance either. Ask whether a person prefers follow-up contact in the form of email, texting or phone calls.

2) Have patience
If the prospective client tells you to call in two weeks or next month, don’t call in the next two days instead. This will only make you a pest and will not be appreciated.

3) Drop your “business-buddy” a note
A thank you card or note to say how much you enjoyed the encounter goes a long way to stay in a person’s mind in a positive way.

4) Send out pertinent information
A great way to stay in a person’s thoughts is to sporadically send helpful or pertinent information regarding the field that the prospect is in or a solution to a pain that the prospect is struggling with. When interested in doing business, you will be uppermost in his/her mind.

5) Be timely
If you have promised to send information to the prospect at a given date, make sure that you do (or earlier which is always appreciated and duly noted). Being late shows a lack of respect as well as a lack of interest.

6) Send a follow-up letter
Just like you, your prospect has spoken to many people and collected a stack of cards. You will only be a face in the crowd by tomorrow. Sending a note with specifics as to the conversation you had or a joke (or story) you shared will go a long way to keep you remembered.

7) Fill a need
Do some research before your networking event and learn what the key pains are in the profession. Come up with at least one solution to address this problem and you will shine above all other attendees.

Leverage who you know
If you have contacts within the organization or company, have them “drop your name” with the prospects.

9) Make a date
Invite your prospect to lunch or a cup of coffee to “touch bases” and be thought of in a friendly manner. After all, more people do business with those that they like, know and trust.

10) Re-event
Invite your prospect to a new similar event or conference to reinforce your business relationship with topics that your prospect is interested in or focused on.

11) Connect where they are
Find out if your prospect is active in social media. Are they on facebook, twitter or linkedIn. Contact them and “befriend” them or “follow” them on their sites.

Taking these steps will put those cards out to work for you and not just collect dust. The event will truly be empowering.

For further help, feel free to contact me at:
Barbara@TheWriteTreatment.com