How to Network When You're Shy

I am hosting a networking skills workshop on Monday for The Community Cup here in Ottawa and so I thought I would share a few of my thoughts on how you can be an effective at networker despite being a shy person. 

Most people who know me believe that I'm a extrovert and that might be true to some extent but I have always felt that I am really a shy person that simply learned how to overcome it.  I learned how to confront my shyness and overcome it by developing skills and a system that worked for me yet I still find myself sweating before I walk into an event.  Here's how I have learned to network despite being a shy person. 

Prepare Yourself: Take the time in advance of any networking to really work on how you describe yourself and your experience.  Practice out loud and even spend time recording yourself.  Listen back to your recordings and figure out the best words and combinations of words that make your description pop.  Having the words handy to introduce and describe yourself gives you the confidence you are going to need to talk to people.  

Research: I could write a whole post on this alone but use Google, LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook to learn more about the people and companies you want to meet.   Here's a little nugget for you: do some work to find out who is going in advance to an event and arrive with some idea of the people you might want to talk to.  This has never been easier because events often use online registration tools (like EventBrite or Meetup.com) that generate a list of attendees and people often tweet about an event they are going to. Spend a few minutes looking around or even ask the organizer if you can get a list of attendees before you go.  Doing some research will help you be familiar with people BEFORE you meet them. 

Be Active on Social Platforms:  This might not work for everyone and apply to all communities but based on my experience, one of easier ways to get over being shy and doing network is to be active on social platforms like Twitter and LinkedIn.  For Twitter, make sure your username is your real name and your picture looks like you (this isn't Plenty Of Fish, you want people to recognize you easily not think you're hot).  If there is an event hashtag, watch for it and participate in advance.  If you did your research, retweet people going to the event and get on their radar.  For LinkedIn, see if there is a group around the event and participate in the discussion.  The goal here is to have people come up to you at the event and introduce themselves to you.  Trust me, this actually happens and it works.  I can't tell you how many times I've walked into an event sweating with nervousness and somebody has come up to me to introduce themselves.  If you are able to get really good at doing this, you have won the war before the battle even starts. 

Start and Screw Up Early: Would you rather have a bad interaction with John Doe or Bill Gates?  Make your mistakes early and with the "little fish" because, trust me, you're going to make some mistakes and it's easier and less costly if you make those mistakes early so you can learn from them and that you don't do it with CEO's or other power players at a time when it could really hurt you.  When I was doing my MBA, I did informational interviews with recent grads and I screwed up a few of them.  I also went as many networking functions as I could (even if they weren't the best events) so that I could get some practice.  If you start your networking practice early then you'll be rocking when it really counts.  I have heard that it takes up to 150 connections to make one quality connection so the sooner you meet more people, the more likely you are to make important connections. 

Set Goals for Events: Before you go to an event, set a few goals for yourself like meeting three new people and helping to connect two people.  Having goals like this will help you focus your energy and avoid being stuck in a corner the whole time.  This was a big part of my success in networking because it pushed me to get over any initial reservations or shyness.  After a few months of events, you get used to the cadence of networking and it becomes much more natural. 

Get Over Yourself: Sure, your ultimate goal is to sell yourself but people love to talk about themselves so the best way to get to know somebody and get comfortable is to ask them a bunch of great questions about themselves.  The best way to start a conversation is to ask somebody about what they do.  I always know I'm doing this right when the other person asks me "so tell me about yourself" because it means I'm not blabbing on about things that I'm doing. 

Bonus: Watch the booze.  If you're shy, you might be tempted to have a few drinks to loosen yourself up but there is a really fine line between having a drink and having too many drinks and it's easy to cross it if you're nervous.  I will say that there are some less formal events that I go to in the tech/startup community where people are drinking.  People in these communities work hard, know each other personally and often get together at events to blow off steam, celebrate success and see friends.  However I believe that only an experienced networker is sharp enough to know when they are at these types of events so I recommend you stay off the sauce until you're good enough to know when the time is right. 

Photo credit: Grant Wickes

New IABC Ottawa Podcast: Does your organization have a proper content strategy?

My latest podcast has been posted for IABC Ottawa.  This episode talks about content strategy and my guest is Kristina Mausser from Digital Word. 

I wanted to talk about content strategy not only because it's a really important topic in 2012 but because I think there are a number of concepts and elements of content strategy that marketers and communicators don't really understand.  We often hear about something and we keep hearing about it but we never take the time to think about it strategically.  I saw this episode as an opportunity to pause and do exactly that.

I did a few things differently for this episode.  This was the first time I recorded the podcast with with a live guest in the MediaStyle studio.  Every other episode that I did was over Skype and I found it very helpful to have my guest in the same room as me so it was very much like a conversation because the MediaStyle studio is really comfortable.  You may have an image of a radio type studio but the studio is actually a room with comfortable chairs and we are wearing microphones on our lapels.  

It was also the first time I had a more detailed script with me.  In the past, I had notes on who my guest was and what questions I wanted to ask but I found that when I listened back to my recordings, that the intro and outro could have been more polished.  I have to thank Bob Knorpp, host of The Beancast (marketing and advertising podcast) for the advice on having a more detailed script.  I have always admired how smooth and polished his podcast sounds without sounding overly scripted, which is actually my goal in terms of being a podcast host. 

Enjoy the episode and let me know what you think.

New IABC Podcast Up: Email Marketing

I started my "marketing career" working at an email service provider (a company that sends emails for marketers) and so it was great to be able to come back to email marketing in my latest episode of IABC Ottawa's podcast "The Voice".   Listen and learn more here. 

I wanted to talk about email marketing because I don't feel that it gets enough love.  Back in 2000, it was all the rage and was very much the "you gotta be doing it" marketing tactic so business was good for anyone in the email marketing field.  I used to help my clients be better email marketers and in doing so, developed and published many of the best practices still being used today.

Over the years, those best practices seemed to become written in stone and I was really enjoying DJ Waldow's recent thinking on how we should look to break those rules so I decided to invite him onto The Voice (the podcast, not the TV show) to talk about the relevancy of email in 2012 (it's as relevant as ever) and how to break the rules to get better. 

3 Ottawa BBQ Places in 1 Day

Ottawa is lucky to have at least four authentic BBQ restaurants in the area:  D&S Southern BBQ on Russell Road in Carlsbad Springs, Fatboys Southern Smokehouse on Murray Street and The Smoque Shack on York Street.  There is also a new place on Bank Street in the Glebe, Annie and Clyde's Southern BBQ. 

As my fiance was spending Saturday with her bridesmaids getting their dresses sorted out, I decided to grab a few buddies and see if I could visit D&S, Fatboys and Smoque in the same day.  It turned out to be quite the adventure.  Each BBQ place is different and if you know BBQ, then you know there are many different preparation methods, sauces and rubs that go into BBQ, making it a very personal thing.  If you're not sure which one you'd like to visit, do what I did - visit them all. 

D&S Southern BBQ 

D&S brisket

D&S is about 20 minutes East of Ottawa but it's not that hard to find.  Get off the 417 by making a left on Boundary road and follow it until you get to the junction with Russell Road and you'll see it.  They have ample parking for cars and snowmobiles.

The restaurant is large with lots of comfortable seating for families and so I'd say that D&S is really the best option for people with family because the combination of parking and seating make it perfect for people with children who can't afford to spend the time it takes to get the minivan parked downtown.  If you are bringing kids, be sure to have something to occupy them as our food did a bit of time to arrive.  But hey, if you want fast food, go to McDonald's. 

The food at D&S is really good.  Everything is big. They even have a 5.5 pound "burger" called "The Determinator".  If you eat it in 1 hour, you'll get yourself on the D&S Wall of Fame.  We had brisket, pulled pork, ribs and wings with sides of coleslaw and cornbread.

The brisket was really good.  The sauce you can see on it in the picture was really tasty.  They slice their brisket thinly and there is a nice layer of fat (flavor) on it.  The pulled pork was sweet and juicy and the ribs were tasty and tender.  Now, some people will say that D&S' ribs aren't fall of the bone and that's the way they designed them but that doesn't mean they aren't tender.  The cornbread was amazing.  It's not as "mealy" as other places, more like a muffin but still, it was really good and worth ordering for sure.

Fatboys Southern Smokehouse

Located on Murray Street near Sussex you'll find Fatboys Southern Smokehouse.  I should start by saying that I went to Fatboys on the day that it opened wasn't overly impressed.  The brisket was dry, the ribs were small and the sides were dry and unimpressive. Here's Ottawa Citizen restaurant reviewer Ron Eade's thoughts on Fatboys at opening. 

Fatboys brisket and cornbread

I was pleasantly surprised to find out upon my most recent visit that they fixed all of these issues, and then some.  The brisket was nice and thick with a huge layer of fat on the top, the ribs were juicy and tender and the sides were really good.  They also have amazing little cornbread bites that are addictive.  One my buddies said the ribs were the best he'd had since The Salt Lick in Austin Texas.  That's high praise for sure.  Fatboys also has amazing sauces and if our server wasn't 6'5'' and over 300 pounds, I would have stolen some as the store won't be up and running until the Spring. 

Fatboys is a large open space with plenty of TV's, tables and beer paraphernalia.  The decor and the details are really impressive and you can see that they spared no expense renovating the space that used to be a flower shop.  Fatboys is the place you go with a group of friends to drink beers and have fun watching some sports or, if you're there on Friday or Saturday nights, the live music.

The Smoque Shack

The final stop on our tour was The Smoque Shack.  It's on York Street, East of Dalhousie.  I have been to Smoque a few times before and I knew it was good so it served as my "safe bet" for a place I knew we'd love.  If D&S is a place for families and Fatboys is a place to party, Smoque is a place for those of you who are serious about food.

Warren Sutherland who used to be at Sweetgrass knows his way around a kitchen and despite being a super nice guy (he had seen that we were touring BBQ places on Twitter before we arrived) he cooks up some mean BBQ in his smoker.

You guessed it.... brisket at Smoque Shack

The first thing you need to know is that anything jerk at Smoque is off-the-charts good.   We had jerk wings and jerk pork, both of which were simply amazing.  Of course, I had brisket and it was also really good.  Smoque does brisket a little different than everyone else.  First, they chop it up and then they finish it off with a coffee BBQ sauce.  The best part is the small bits of burnt crust (called bark in BBQ circles) are to die for.

Smoque has an atmosphere that is a mix of traditional and modern and the bar is stocked with amazing local microbrews.  Many thanks for the bartender for pointing us towards Mill Street's seasonal 9% Belgian hopfest that is called Beetlegeuse.  

Conclusions

Eating BBQ is fun and we had a great time visiting each of these establishments.  Ottawa is in a great place right now.  There's an epic battle going on for our BBQ hearts and minds and we are ultimate winners.  Even mediocre authentic BBQ is better than what you'll get at the large franchises so I would encourage you to get out and try these places.

Just do me one favour - don't complain about the lack of place ware to your server.  BBQ is a contact sport and so it's not about forks or plates.  In fact, I prefer mine without either of those things.

My First IABC Ottawa Podcast Episode is Up!

It's been a busy 2012 so far for me and I'm really happy to announce that the first episode of IABC Ottawa's podcast "The Voice" that I am hosting has been posted on the IABC website. 

I have always been a fan of podcasts and listen to upwards of 5 to 10 of them a week, so it was a no-brainer when IABC Ottawa asked me to take over co-hosting duties from Jud Rasmussen who didn't have time to give it the attention it deserved.  Jud is a close family friend of mine and I wanted to make sure that I tried to keep up the amazing quality he established over the past year. 

For my first episode, I decided to talk about Peer to Peer Marketing with my buddy Jackson Wightman.  

Give it a listen and let me know what you think.

What the #1 Google search in Canada says about how people use the web

I'm a big fan of using search data to gain marketing insights so when I saw the most popular Google searches for Canada in 2011 come out, I couldn't wait to see the news.  When I did, I was somewhat shocked. 

If you haven't seen them yet, here they are:


1. www.census2011.gc.ca
2. Skyrim
3. Canada Post Strike
4. Rebecca Black
5. Ryan Dunn
6. Japan Earthquake
7. Game of Thrones
8. Jack Layton
9. Royal Wedding
10. Google Plus

Other than the fact that Rebecca Black is so high (btw, she's #1 worldwide) I was really surprised to see a web address at #1.  While I wouldn't be surprised to see a web address in the top 5 because I see this often with some of the websites that I manage, I was taken aback to see a web address at #1. 

This highlights a few important points about web marketing and usage:

1. Not everyone is as web-savvy as you are.  I NEVER type web addresses into Google but this tells that many other people do.  
2. If you're monitoring your organic search volume you MUST remove any branded searches from your analysis.  If you don't do this, you'll think you are doing way better at organic search than you really are because your organic search results will include people who already know your web address and would have been direct traffic if they typed the address in the right place. 
3. If your web address isn't a trademark, be careful that competitors aren't outbidding you for paid traffic that you could be getting.  However, even if it is, you should watch this anyways as Google may not catch it and prevent somebody else from bidding on your trademark. 

 Pretty interesting stuff isn't it?

It was 35 years ago today...

Today is an important day because it was 35 years ago today that The Band held a concert at the Winterland in San Francisco called "The Last Waltz". 

The Last Waltz was so much more than a concert or a film directed by Martin Scorsese.  It was more than a Thanksgiving feast where the 5,000 people in attendance were treated to dinner and dancing prior to the show's 9pm start.  It was also much more than The Band's last concert together (except for reunions shows with various formations).

The Last Waltz is an important milestone in the history of rock and roll and a key moment in the history of Canadian music. 

I suspect many people aren't aware of The Band's connections to Canada, in fact most of the Band was born in Ontario.  Robbie Robertson was born in Toronto, Garth Hudson was born in Windsor, Rick Dank was born in Green's Corners and Richard Manuel was born in Stratford.  Only Levon Helm was born in the USA, having been born in Arkansas in 1940.  The band spent many of their early years backing Ronnie Hawkins, playing clubs up and down Yonge Street in Toronto.  They had strong connections to other Canadian musicians and those are evident in The Last Waltz.  In fact, many other Canadian musicians including Neil Young and Joni Mitchell performed with The Band during The Last Waltz.  Here's a great example of that, Acadian Driftwood. 

The Last Waltz deserves to be remembered today for a number of reasons:

1. It was a celebration of the impact Canadian musicians had on rock and roll from it's ascent in the 1950's to the mid 1970's. 
2. It showed that bands could to go out while still on top and do it with grace and tact instead of fiery theatrics and sub-par music.  
3. Many of the performances recorded at The Last Waltz are some of the best versions of those songs ever recorded.  (Who Do You Love with Ronnie Hawkins in particular and Van The Man's Caravan to name a few)
4. It spawned a concert movie that is still today thought of as the best concert films ever made.  

I own a copy of The Last Waltz on vinyl and listen to it often.  I also own the original concert film.   If you're interested in the The Last Waltz, I'd suggest picking up the 4 CD box-set that includes the concert in its entirety.

Why Marketing People Need to Understand Communications/PR

In case you haven't noticed, the world of marketing is changing and if you don't change with it, you risk finding yourself in a real bind the next time you need to find a job.  And given the state of the economy and the high-level of economic uncertainty we face, I think it's a great time to rethink marketers plan on "winning the future".

I say that marketers need to understand is the world of communications/public relation better and here's why

1. As budgets shrink, companies will not be able to afford seperate marketing AND communications departments so as they look to do more with less, resources in both departments may be called upon do to both sets of tasks. 
2. In case you hadn't noticed, marketing people and communications people are switching sides.  If you think the competition for your role or any job your are applying for is only going to come from people in your specific field, you're kidding yourself.  Read any marketing job description these days and note the requirement "Degree in Marketing, Communications or any related field..."
3. The importance of social media is bringing together marketing and communications roles as companies struggle to figure out who owns what and how it is best managed.  If you understand what everybody touching social media does, you are well positioned to help your company tell its story. 
4. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) might be a primarily marketing function but media coverage is a great way to get high-quality back links to your site.  Also, if you are employing an effective listening strategy (something communications and PR people are good at), it's easy to find stories about topics that relate to your company/product/customers and join the conversation and get high-quality back links. 
5. Having great writing skills is important and you learn many things about writing great content from communications, public relations and marketing writers. 
6. I believe our future is going to be determined by how successful our entrepreneurs will be at growing companies that hire people.  To me this means that we all need to get better at wearing more hats and doing more than just one thing.  In short, I think the day of the one-trick pony is over.  

What do you think? 

My next post is going to cover a few tips and resource that I think are great for marketers looking to understand communications/PR better. 

image credit: bgottsab

Is it OK to promote ____________ through my personal social media accounts?

One of my least favorites things about social media is when people mindlessly promote things through their personal social media accounts.

I know what you're thinking "Danny, isn't this exactly what social media accounts are for?".

The right answer is "not really".  Social media are for connecting and helping people but this isn't a post about what social media are/aren't good for.  Sometimes the best way to help people and make connections is to promote things, but everyday I see people who seem to have to no idea when it is or isn't appropriate to promote things through their personal social media account.  On a bad day, Twitter looks like a bunch of people promoting whatever it is they are doing at that moment.  I have lots of theories on why this happens but I'll save those for another post....

I hate to answer a question with more questions but I think people need to ask themselves a few things before they promote anything through their personal social media accounts?

1. Is anybody listening? If you have no followers, no connections or no fans, then you are simply wasting your time.  
2. Is anybody going to care? Think about your audience.  Who are you connected to and who are they connected to?  I often see people promoting events for their company when all of their connections are friends.  If you aren't sure if people are going to care, why don't you put some thought into what social media platforms you select and how you present your offer.  
3. How often am I doing this?  Look at the ratio of your promotions vs. interactions.  If you're the digital equivalent of a person standing on a street corner with a megaphone then maybe you should reconsider. 

I'd like to suggest that if the answer to either of the first two questions is "yes" then you shouldn't promote whatever it is to your personal social media connections.  If the answer to the last question is "more than once a week", I'd also suggest you seriously reconsider.  There are people who can get away with it more often than others but chances are you're not one of them.

Thoughts?


image credit: ehnmark

My Tips for Creating Killer Marketing Videos

My company recently went through the process of creating a short marketing video to help prospects understand why they need our product and what they need to do.  We worked with Simple Story Videos and here's the video:

I learned a few important lessons during this project and I'd like to share them here. 

1. Understand your goal: This goes without saying but invest the time up front to make sure that everyone on your marketing and management teams are clear about what the goal of the video is so that you can focus your efforts and feedback.  For us, the goal was to motivate people to download the product and try it.  By taking the time to understand what our call to action was and how we wanted the audience to feel after watching the video, we were able to stay focused because you can create many different types of videos. 
2. Keep it short: The shorter the video, the more likely the viewer is to watch it.  I hate seeing people invest time and money in long videos assuming the audience is going to watch it.  Creating a short video is really difficult because every word and image is critical in helping to convey your message but you need to be very strict during the development of the script and storyboard in order to pull this off.  Always ask yourself "is that really necessary?  Can I do that with images instead of words?  Is there an easier and clearer way to get that same message across?".
3. Know your audience: Be very clear on who the audience for your video is and be sure to always look at the content from their point of view.  If something isn't going to make sense to your audience then you need to deal with it ASAP.  Always critique your video from the point of your of your audience and what you want they to do or feel. 
4. Work your script and storyboard: Script and storyboard development are the most important aspects of the creative process so be sure to spend the time working and refining your script and imagery during storyboarding.  Doing so will help you make sure your don't waste time and money changing something later.  I also recommend making sure you document everything during these phases and that you take the time to make sure your feedback is incorporated into each iteration.  

 Have you ever created a marketing video?  If so, what did you learn?