Last week, I received John Jantsch’s new book, The Referral Engine for review.

While my complete review (with Ideas and Resources you won’t want to miss!) will hit my blog in two weeks, on Monday May 10th, to coordinate with John’s launch of The Referral Engine, today and next Monday, let’s kick off one of John’s ideas in the book:

Make a Referral Monday  (Twitter hashtag #marmon)

To get started, to coin a classic line from Jerry Maguire…

Help Me… Help YOU!

4 Key Questions to Ask Your Contacts to Teach You about Their Business

Since I have a very specific target niche of clients with whom I work, (more on this in a bit…) I run into many prospects who may need YOUR services… yes, even if’ you’re in the Marketing Game like me.

Now, to introduce these prospects to you, I’d like to know more about you, your business, and your marketing.

Here are the 4 Things I’d like to know:

1. Who is your Ideal Client and how will I spot him/her?

2. Tell me about your unique benefits, approach, products, services, and describe your value proposition.

3. What might prospects say to trigger me to know they need to be referred to you?

4. What’s your marketing process for prospects I refer to you?

Now to help you complete this survey, let me share with you my answers to these 4 questions. This isn’t about me getting immediate referrals from you; (but if you have a qualified prospect, please don’t be shy ) my intention is to first build relationships with my network and explore ways we can help deliver value to clients.

Here ya go…

1. My Ideal Client is a Financial Services Professional— independent Insurance Agent or Broker, (any line of insurance- Property & Casualty, Life & Health, personal or business) Financial Planner, Advisor, or Investment Specialist, Accountant,CPA, or Tax Advisor. He/she is 35-50 years old, in business 5+ years, earns $150,000+ annual personal income, and practices in a Metro area. (versus a small town)

2. Unique Benefits I Offer my Ideal Clients: I help these Financial Services Pros leverage their Offline Marketing Assets (typically using Online Systems) to become more productive, increase sales and profits, and maximize the long-term Equity Value of their practice. Through a comprehensive Marketing Blueprint I build Marketing Processes and Systems without spending a dime more on advertising (typically, advertising expenses are reduced) I 100% Guarantee my ideas, techniques, and approach work- or your money-back.

3. Trigger Statements or Questions: Financial Services Pros who have concerns about lack of time, missing a son’s or daughter’s activities, inability to take vacations, complaints about too much paperwork or compliance. Any complaints or questions about how to generate leads or get more referrals in their practice.

4. My Marketing Process:

• Blog posts and articles
• Free Weekly Newsletter
• Special Reports and e-Courses
• Webinars and Tele-Seminars
• Marketing Information Kit
• Financial Services Marketing Assessment- No-Cost for qualified professionals
• Comprehensive Financial Services Marketing Blueprint- a customized Mind-Map and either in-person, or online consultatio
• Marketing Plan Agreement
• Marketing “Getting Started” and Implementation Guide.

Use and share this post with your contacts and Centers of Influence. Ask them the 4 Questions and have them teach you how you can best help refer business to them… and in turn, teach them about your business.

Why not devote a portion of Make a Referral Monday to build relationships and explore how you can work with your network of contacts?

Finally… Help Me, Help YOU!

Go ahead… share your answers to the 4 Questions here.

Or, hook up with me on Referral Key.

Make it a Referral Monday!

Photo Credit

More on The Referral Engine:

• Weekend Reading: The Referral Engine, by John Jantsch (Preview) (readwriteweb.com)
• The Referral Engine (800ceoread.com)
• Learn to Build a Referral Engine (conversationagent.com)
• Making Referrals as a Small Business Job Creation Engine (prweb.com)
• Can you return the favour? (theengagingbrand.typepad.com)
• Making it Easy to Do Business with You is Hard (newspapergrl.com)
• On Giving Referrals (newspapergrl.com)
• Bake a Referral Engine Into Your Business Model (ducttapemarketing.com)

As a financial services pro – insurance agent, financial planner or adviser -, online reputation management is now one more hat you need to wear.

With the Internet, the power to publish or broadcast to large audiences has passed irrevocably from a select few to virtually everyone. This applies not only to you the local business owner, but also your clients.

Now, Google is giving your clients an even bigger voice.  Mike Blumenthal, a local search expert, wrote about Google’s recent changes to Google Maps and Places Pages:

Google Maps is now using the new capability of sentiment analysis to better understand content and add “reviews” from non traditional sources like newspaper articles and single blog entries that appear across the internet. This new capability will dramatically increase the reach of hyperlocal blogs, change how businesses manage the review process and could, over the long haul, change how and where reviews are generated and aggregated.

Let’s not forget  Google’s “almost deal” to buy Yelp, an online review site primarily for restaurants and local retail shops. While the Yelp/Google deal didn’t happen, in the meantime Yelp continues to tweak their online review process. Google obviously sees User-Generated content, in the form of reviews, as an important piece of  content which will determine winners and losers in local search.

Help… You’ve been Yelped!

With the power to publish and spread their message to thousands online, local businesses must pay attention to these online reviews and pro-actively manage and respond to them.

Customer online reviews DO have the power to make or break a local business. While the positive reviews out number negative, a negative online review can get real ugly… if level-headed thinking isn’t used.

5 Simple Steps to Protect Your Online Reputation of Your Financial Services Business

1. Register- Open a Busines Account on Online Review sites: Yelp, CitySearch, and without question, Claim Your Google Local Business Listing. Make sure you monitor and listen to reviews of your business. (and maybe even keep an eye on what folks are saying about your competitors)

2. Count to 10 Before You Respond- Remember if you blast a response online, it stays online for all to see. If it’s a sensitive issue, use private email, or even encourage a phone call.

3. Go On Record. Make Things Right- Likewise, you have the opportunity to shine a light on your responsive client care. Thousands of potential clients are watching to see how you do business.

4. Take It Upstairs- If the Review is fake, malicious, or you suspect it’s written by a competitor to harm you, work with the Review Site to remove the review.

5. Don’t Call Your Attorney- The laws favor the consumer and the Review Sites.

Here’s the link to the Inc. 5 Steps that I’ve paraphrased here:

Take a Deep Breath

Flickr Photo Credit: w2scott

Here’s a quick and simple way to kick start your social media marketing, using your Facebook Fan Page for your Local Business.

Have you heard of Tim Ferriss and his smash best-selling book, The 4-Hour Work Week?

Well, here on his blog, Tim recently announced a  Facebook Fan Page Give-a-Way to spread the word on his new and improved 4-Hour Work Week:

Thank You, Facebook Bankruptcy, and Late Christmas Presents

Now, think for a minute…

Yeah, I know you’re not an author of a best-selling book, and you can’t afford to give away 600 items of your stuff…

Scale it down and apply it to your business.

Let’s explore an example:

You’re a local pizza delivery restaurant…

1. The first 10 customers who order a large delivery pizza during the upcoming weekend, snaps a picture with an open box of the pie and all their friends gathered around ready to dig in, posts the pick on your Facebook Fan Page.

2. Next, you instruct them to tag 1-3 fellow pizza eaters in the picture.

3. Finally, you tell them to post in addition to the  Photo they uploaded, add  Quotes and a Link on your Facebook Fan Page. Here’s what you ask them to do: Along with the Photo you post to the Romo Pizza Facebook Fan Page Wall, please share Quotes from your friends: What did they like best about Romo’s Pizza? And, then link back to our Discount Coupon page to encourage them to experience Romo’s Pizza again.

Here’s an example of the Wall Post Message:

“Hey Guys, Great having everyone over for the Game on Saturday night. Nothing beats great friends, a good game, cold beer, and the best pizza in town, huh?  John claimed Romo’s the “Cheesiest stuff… and I love lots of cheese.” Mark thought Romo’s combination of crust, sauce, and topping was “Pizza Perfection”  Anywho… I want to give you guys your own Free Romo’s Pizza. They’re giving away a bunch Free pizzas all over town this weekend. In the meantime, save a couple bucks on your next Romo’s Pizza… Here’s a Link to their Discount Coupon.    Enjoy!”

The Pizza Give Away Facebook Fan Page Contest runs over a busy weekend, let’s say from 5 PM Friday till 11PM Sunday, so you’ll get lots of people already ordering, gathering with friends and family over pizza, checking out Facebook Fan Pages…

Do you realize that when Facebook Users “Tag” a Photo in Facebook, that Photo automatically appears in the Friend Feeds of that person’s network? As a result, you have your customers spread the message about your Local Business far and wide on Facebook… Free advertising. Your investment: Up to 40 pizzas.

Then what happens?

Monday morning you check your Facebook Fan Page. You find 35 people posted pictures and quotes and links to your Free Coupon… all free User-Generated Content. All you did is announce the Contest on your Facebook Fan Page… and printed up a bunch of inexpensive flyers that you stuck on all your pizza boxes and handed out all over your neighborhood.

Now, you email a Special Coupon to the first 10 responses and the additional 10-30 friends they tagged in their Facebook Photo. You’ll probably also want to send a Thank You and a Discount Coupon to the other 25 responses plus the friends they tagged too.

Of course, a local hair salon and spa, clothing shop, plumber, heck, even the local insurance agent with a bit of imagination could run a Facebook Fan Page Contest.

Are you using free social marketing tools like a Facebook Fan Page and Online Coupons to create buzz, have customers spread the word about your business, and delivering Coupon Specials online in your Local Business?

Why not figure out how to use Facebook to promote your local business this upcoming week and test a Facebook Fan Page Contest?

Got questions?

Flickr Photo Credit: Ol Slambert

More on Facebook Fan Pages:

• Facebook Evolution: Business Communication Tool to Viable Conversion Platform (kylelacy.com)
• Zach Braff Tells Facebook Fans That ‘Scrubs’ is Done (tvsquad.com)
• How to Build Engaging One-of-Kind Facebook Fan Pages (techcrunch.com)
• HOW TO: Create a Kick-ass Facebook Fan Page (thoughtpick.com)

Each Saturday, we’ll Hit the Links.

As your Marketing Caddy, I’ll share with you some of the best “Holes” I discovered during the past week stumbling around the “InterWebs” to help you Build Your Business Online.

Enjoy your Round!

Front Nine

Hole #1: Par 4 The Blogger’s Guide to Brain Surgery A mild Par 4 Opening Hole…  Michael Martine  explains in simple language how a business blog works.

Hole #2: Par4 George Vs. The Dragon In this brutal Par 4, Rick Reilly wakes you up to reality … Some days you just don’t feel up to the effort and working? Denver Nuggets Coach George Karl starts his day with 15 minutes of torture… then he goes to work.

Hole#3: Par 3 Whose Shoes Are You Wearing? A short, but tricky, Par 3  from Ken Mueller of Inkling Media. Social Media listening with a perspective from your customer’s view.

Hole #4: Par 5 Breaking the Scarcity Mentality: How to Afford Anything You Want A confidence-boosting Par 5 from Dave Navarro.

Hole #5: Par 3 The Difference Between Recipe and Restaurant Chris Brogan’s challenging long Par 3… it’s one thing to talk about social media, it’s another thing to DO it.

Hole # 6: Par 5 5 Easy Steps to Creating Reuseable Social Content Jay Baer’s guest post at Social Media Examiner… a short Par 5 on getting the most out of your Social Media Marketing Game.

Hole # 7: Par 4 Online Identity Calculator- make sense of your Google results Are you “Digitally Distinct”? Find out here.

Hole #8: Par 3 Improve Your Site’s Page Rank in 30 Seconds Brian Horn’s short lesson at DanKennedy.com on how to plug those Google Juice Leaks on your site.

Hole #9: Par 5 10 Dead Dudes Every Entrepreneur Should Follow (but, not on twitter) A fun (but enlightening) Par 5 from Jonathan Fields

Back Nine

Hole #10: Par 4 Content Creation Tools for the Average Person A meaty, straight-forward Par 4 to open up your Back-Side from Terry Dean

Hole #11 Par 3 The World As We Know It Is (Not) About to End Cool video find from Pamela Wilson at Big Design Systems

Hole #12 Par 4 When to Respond to Negative Reviews (and not) Lisa Barone delivers  sound advice (as usual) on managing your online rep at SmallBusinessTrends.com

Hole #13 Par 5 Talk Biz News: What you really need to succeed online Yep, it’s an Opt-In, but every online marketing pro wants to tee it up with Paul Myers

Hole #14  Par 4 What the hell can social media do for me? From his island paradise small business in the Caribbean, Mark Hayward shares how he uses social media

Hole #15 Par 3 Entrepreneurs Question Value of Social Media … meanwhile at the Wall Street Journal…

Hole #16 Par 5 30 Valuable Lessons Learned Using Social Media for Small Business Mark Hayward again… this time at ProBlogger.net

Hole #17 Par 3 Is Social Media Worth Your Time? A quick blurb at Inc.com

Hole #18 Par 5 5 Ways to Use Social Media for Things You’re Already Doing Swing easy, let it fly… John Jantsch of Duct Tape Marketing brings you to the “House” with how to do more with less effort.

19th Hole: Lancaster Spring Home Show Franklin & Marshall College Follow Up with a pint of Belgian Pale Ale at Iron Hill Brewery

Have a Fantastic Weekend!

Photo Credit: Flickr

Fire ball, Energy Ball—Brenda-Starr (Flickr.com)

Social Media Marketing offers you the opportunity to Blow-Up Your Business.

Both in a good way… and a bad way.

Blow-Up Good:

Building long-term relationships with prospects and clients that positions your business for exponential growth.

Blow-Up Bad:

Spreads the word fast about how much your business sucks.

Social Media, no matter how you define it, no matter how much everyone hypes it, is simply another from of communication, another tool to build relationships. To paraphrase David Armano, Social Media shifts the way we communicate. Don’t confuse shift with salvation.

If you’re already good at communication, if you’re already good at building relationships, it gives you a tool to scale your communication and your relationships. If you suck at communications and building relationships, social media ain’t gonna save ya. In fact, it will reveal your flaws faster and to more people.

Social Media Marketing: Do NOT

Don’t Be That Guy (or Girl)

Social Media Marketing: Do’s

Success in using Social Media Marketing really boils down to three key elements.

Kudos to Phil Dunn for revealing these to me in his lengthy, but spot on post:

Beyond the Smoke,Hype and Fanfare- What is Social Media? … really

1. The strength of your connections. Connections result from your ability to listen and respond appropriately. It’s how you demonstrate your caring.

2. The level of your engagement. Do you bug your prospects and clients and friends with too many messages… with messages that don’t add value?

3. The quality of your message. Does your message Educate, Entertain, and Engage before you start reaching for your prospect’s wallet?

DO:

1. Listen

2. Care

3. Engage

4. Share first, before you ask.

If you’re consistently practice these four steps, in this order, now in your offline social approaches with prospects- for example, at networking meetings, Social Media Marketing has the potential to Blow-Up your sales in a good way. (but, don’t expect it to explode instantly)

If you’re “That Guy” (or Girl) leading with a pitch for your product or service, you run the risk of Blowing Up, destroying your marketing and business as a result. Expect Social Media to spread the word about you instantly.

Your thoughts?

Photo Credit: Flickr

Related articles on Social Media Marketing:

• 4 Ways to Effectively Use Social Media as a Catalyst (fredzimny.wordpress.com)
• Social Media & Marketing: Personal or Impersonal? (lafondwinery.com)
• Top 500 Social Media Marketing Blogs (ecairn.com)
• What’s the fuss with social media marketing? (mediapress.co.za)