A little manners goes a long way in business.
How many of you work in a capacity of sales, business development, fundraising, sponsorships, etc? If so, you all know the feeling of waiting for a response to people you have reached out to. Sometimes you’re lucky enough to get a contact who you were referred to, but most times you’re in a situation where you have a name, title, phone and/or email.
I ask this because I have a little pet peeve—people not responding! We all get busy in our worlds, but I honestly have a new appreciation for responding ever since I was laid off last year and now find myself working on more and more projects that are requiring me to go after something from a company.
Lets face it, whether in the business world or our personal lives, we expect people to respond to our calls or emails. When they don’t we try again, and again. Obviously, no response usually means one thing—not interested. However, is it so hard to respond and say that? We are all grown ups and can take no for an answer, but help us out people–just tell us.
It may take a few seconds to hit the “reply” button and paste some canned response (i.e. “not in the budget this year”, “does not fit within our strategy “or best case–”I’m sorry for not responding, but I’m still waiting for my senior management to get back to me. I’ll get back to you as soon as I hear. Thanks for your patience”). Honesty goes a long way and actually saves you time by getting people to go away or have a little patience.
Look, I’ve been on both sides and most recently I was the one getting the phone calls, so I understand. I’m just hoping that if you are the person to get a proposal or request sent to you and you know it does not fit–tell the person. If the proposal or request is of interest, but it is just taking longer than you expected—again, tell the person. In the end we will all appreciate the honesty. As your mom probably told you growing up, “a little manners goes a long way”.
Why are most sports marketing agencies not being social?
I have spent most of my career in the sports marketing world and during that time I’ve worked for some of the top sports marketing agencies. This post is not to point fingers or name names, but I do not need to tell anyone how social media has become a major component of the marketing mix and if these agencies are not “walking the talk”, I fear that they are setting themselves up to loose business. By this I do not mean loosing their current clients, but rather prospects. I say this because have you ever heard a speaker talk about how important social media is and then you went to their twitter account, either to find 1. there was no twitter account or 2. they had a very low number of followers—-huh??
Now, I’m not saying that sports marketing agencies should also become social media agencies or claim to be social media experts. However, there is no way that an Account Director at a sports marketing agency is not developing a program, promotion, event, etc for a client that doesn’t include social media or at least recommending it to clients to get the most bang for the buck. So to see the majority of the sports marketing agencies not having their own facebook or twitter accounts is shocking. I applaud the employees within these agencies that have their own accounts or some of the senior staff that have blogs related to the business or divisions within the agencies that have set up social media accounts. However, I still see majority of these agencies not promoting social media accounts off their home pages.
Back in February 2008, AdWeek did a story on agencies not getting social media http://tinyurl.com/2cojp5. Fortunately I think most agencies now “get it” and thankfully most have come a long way, especially PR agencies. I realize each agency has their own specialty, but sports marketing agencies really need to get in the game and start promoting themselves and show their clients that they too see the benefits of social media. Just saying!
Spring Cleaning
Spring is in the air and besides the green coating everywhere (aka pollen), there are tons of things going on. Personally I love spring. Not only for the fantastic weather, but for so many other things such as:
1. Festivals almost every weekend
2. The flowers–ahh my favorite, Tulips!
3. The blooming trees
4. Patio dining
5. Running without all the extra layers of clothes on
6. Long walks
7. Concert announcements for the “summer line ups”
Above are just a few of my favorite things, but with spring comes “spring cleaning” and I don’t mean just switching out your clothes from winter to summer, but really taking this opportunity to purge some things in your life that have been holding you back and looking for new opportunities.
Spring is a great time to take inventory of our lives. Time to take chances and embrace change. For most people in the country, it has been a long winter. Luckily I live in Atlanta and we escaped a bad winter–although we had a few snow “storms” (remember we’re not used to snow, so for us 6 inches is the equivalent of a foot of snow in some places). We’re all ready for spring and excited to see the economy slowing coming back. Now is the time to take a breather and ask yourself, are there things in my life that I have been wanting to change and just have not had the time to address? It could be personal like weight loss or professional with a change in your career.
Whatever it is that you’ve been holding off this past winter, embrace spring and take hold of your life and be the person you not only want to be, but know you can be.
Paying it Forward
In today’s crazy world it’s so easy to get caught up in our own lives. We tend to focus on all of the ways that people can help us vs. the benefits of helping others. Remember the movie “Pay it Forward” with Helen Hunt and Kevin Spacey? Do you remember the feeling you had when you left the movie theater? For me I instantly starting thinking of ways in which I could Pay it Forward. However, like anything else, we all start off with great intentions but then life gets in the way and we get distracted.
Mentoring is one of the ways in which we can participate in this concept. By doing something helpful/beneficial for someone, chances are they will do something good for someone else. We may not think our little piece of advice will go far, but one should never discard the impact it could have. I’m fortunate to be part of a national mentoring program, but even if I did not have this program I now make it a point to take the time to offer my help/assistance to people as often as possible.
This “Pay it Forward” concept also holds true with networking. If you go into it with the sole expectation of “what’s in it for me?”, then you’re missing the point. Network with the intention of “how can I help others?” and you will quickly be surprised on how it will come back to you.
I’m not perfect and I still get caught up in the “how can she/he help me”, but I consider it a good day if I do at least 1 good deed for someone. A fun simple way to do this and feel great all day is the next time you go through a tollbooth—pay for the person behind you. It’s such a simple thing, but I can attest that if this ever happens to you, you’ll never forget it. Remember…Pay it Forward. In the end you’ll be a better person for it.
What’s keeping you busy?
I don’t know about you, but during my unemployment I’ve never been busier. Right now I’m on two fundraising committees, one marketing committee, board member for a foundation and I’m on a national committee for a nonprofit women’s mentoring program.
I’m also working on a paid project for a global start up company that is headed by a former boss of mine. Additionally I’m working on two commission only projects, which some people may look at as a waste of time. However, both projects keep me connected within my industry and if I land any of these sponsorships, I could make some good money.
It’s also important to remember that not only are we working on our own job searches and doing anything we can to stay networked, but also a lot of us forget what we are doing for our families, friends and significant others on a daily basis. Do not discount the time it takes to keep these relationships going. Not to mention that my family has had a lot of medical problems this year, so between my sister and me (btw- she is a paralegal who also lost her job last year), it has been non-stop juggling of our time.
Some people on the outside may look at us and think we have so much “spare time” or assume we are doing minimal to get that job. To those that say that, I hope you never end up in this situation and any time you want to trade places with me, let me know!
Check out this post from “Please Feed the Animals”
What’s the Worst That Can Happen?
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Stress during unemployment
As we all know, unemployment is among the most stressful events a person can experience. It not only effects you, but all the people you have in your life. Initially everyone goes into it thinking, “we will get through this”, “everything happens for a reason”, “we will survice”, blah, blah, blah.
What people don’t think of is, what if this goes longer than we expect? Are we prepared to handle this? As the old saying goes, “you either make it or break it during tough times”. Unfortunately I am dealing with this right now. Change is difficult, but the relationships that survive will be the ones that pull together.
Some of the keys to survival for people going through this are:
1. Communication- not only with your loved ones, but if they cannot be there for you it may be best to seek a trained counselor.
2. Maintaining a healthy lifestyle (i.e., Exercise)
3. Getting enough sleep
4. Allowing time for yourself. There is only so much time in a day to look for a job. Give yourself a break.
5. Try something new. You may never get this time back again.
6. Tell the people in your life that you love them and appreciate their support.
Not all relationships will last, but in the end you will know who your true friends are and who should be in your life.
Pairing the young with the “seasoned” staff
I just read a great blog article on hubspot http://bit.ly/d0rBqP that discussed the current state of a lot of agencies and marketing firms. One of the points that really stuck with me is how traditional marketing and advertising are rapidly dying and how it is time for a rebirth in the industry. In my opinion, this translates to “get on the digital/social media bandwagon!”
The good news is that it was not saying that these firms would not survive, rather they just need to adjust and stay current. Additionally, they need to align the young, “digital natives” with the “open minded senior people”. I loved hearing this because I’m one of the people that come from the more traditional marketing side and employers are quickly realizing that these young digital natives may be technically talented, but they lack years of people/client experience and in the end this can cost them.
The Future of Advertising in 2010- (it’s all about real time)
Check out this SlideShare Presentation:
Pink slip or blank page?
I just watched a short film called “Lemonade” with the subtitle “It’s not a pink slip, it’s a blank page”.
Think about it…how great is that—really think about it. It is not as if this was the first time I heard this, but in the past I used to get so intimidated about knowing what I should do now vs realizing all that I am doing as I evolve. For instance, my uncle died 2 days after I was let go on January 15th and then 2 family friends (a couple) died within weeks of each other. THEN my aunt died a few months later in March. Not to mention my father was dealing w a wound that would not heal due to his diabetes. Fast forward to November and he had his leg amputated.
Now…am I telling you this to bring you down…no. It’s just that it took me almost a year to realize that, although I am still looking for my “next move” in my career, I can tell you that it has been really great to be able to be there for my family during this time. In addition, I have made amazing new connections, my network has expanding two fold and I’ve volunteered for numerous non-profits and projects to help people.
Although the film seems to depict agencies as a bad place to work, I still believe in them and I truly believe that in 2010 you will see agencies grow. The great thing is that agencies have grown stronger and are a lot smarter and right now I’m ready for the ride!
