Found Your Voice Yet?

A few months ago, I had the pleasure of meeting Alan Weinkrantz as he and Jeff Pulver were touring the nation on their 140 Character Conference, and they came back through Kansas City. We had an intimate little group from the Social Media Club of Kansas City meet up at the 810 Zone in Harrah's Casino, for some drinks a few laughs.  The beautiful part was... getting some one on one time with these amazing social media guys.


Alan said he'd heard I do social networking for some mid to large size businesses in Kansas City and was intrigued.  Then asked me a question that has resonated with me ever since.  Seriously... I think about it often and have since asked my clients the same question.


"What is your voice?"


Did that mean "what is the personality, the persona, the feeling we leave people with after each tweet or posts or blog?"   Well, yeah.  I think it does.  


Shortly after that meeting, I met up with social savvy sales guy Ken Miner, of Spiral 16.  We talked about how companies spend crazy amounts of money and time on training their employees to correctly translate the company's culture. Whether you communicate with them via phone or in person.  Is it a friendly company in person? When you walk through their doors, are you greeted with a warm smile and do they look you in the eye and welcome you in?  Do they ask how you are?  Do they really seem to want to help you?  Are they genuine?  How's their tone and inflection on the phone?   Are they trained to make you feel good before, during and after you communicate with them? 

How many of them have an accurate portrayal of their culture through Facebook, Twitter, community chat rooms, blogs, etc... ?


A great example of a company culture being portrayed from start to finish was, Longbranch Saloon, on the Plaza in Kansas City, MO.  It was the first snarky and sarcarstic sports bar restaurant I had ever been to, (1980's thru the 90's) that announced it from the moment you walked in the door. "Home of the meanest waitresses in Kansas City".  The atmosphere was fun and you got great food and good service, mixed in with comments like "You don't need one more French fry" "Stop talking so I can concentrate and write your order down" to "Now, get the hell out of here" after you've paid.  That was the reputation they wanted and you knew what you were getting in to the minute you arrived. You also left feeling slightly insulted and laughing hard about it.  I can't help but think the fun they could be having on Twitter... where snark is a value.


So now, I'm thinking about every connection my client's make online and about how you feel when you speak with them... and beyond.  Is it the right voice?  Have we found our voice yet?


What is your voice for your client or better yet, your own personal brand?  Think about it.

Smart Women at the Helm!

I saw a tweet about Dianna Huff's B2B blog today... 25 Smart Women in Social Media to Follow on Twitter. Having met some amazing people already through social networks, about social media, I just had to take a look. Some I knew of, or I was already following and most I did not know at all. But I want to.

These women have many common threads... they are all go-getters, they are entrepreneuers, some are Chiefs of Marketing and Content and some are VP's or Directors of Social Media. One is a wardrobe consultant, a few are best selling authors, some are in public relations while others are doing analysis for companies... but one thing they all do is... BLOG. Not blogs about trying products companies paid them to write about for them... but blogs about us. Blogs about the perspective of consumers, like us, navigating our way through this new technology. Blogs about businesses trying to manuever with us and somehow get ahead of the game. No fear though... we consumers are in the drivers seat and we're steering the reactions of business for the first time... maybe ever. It's nice to know so many thoughtful women are at the helm on the business side... listening. I mean really listening and nurturing these relationships between the hard cold business world and the real world now.

Please click the link above and give these women a quick read... then read more if you so desire. They are what I think we all want to be associated with: They are clever, well spoken, enthusiastic, passionate, educated, compassionate and pioneers with a boat load of moxy. What's not to love about that?