Revisiting: Is Word of Mouth Free?

May 12, 2017 by  
Filed under Featured Articles, Front Page

I used to talk to a lot of people who said they did all their advertising word of mouth and that they didn’t spend any money on ads. I would remind them that effective word of mouth is not free. If you think word of mouth is free, you don’t understand word of mouth. Word of mouth has evolved a lot since I first wrote this article. Word of mouth at it’s best is now influencer marketing. Influencers work well to get people to your page or event. It worked so well that in April 2017, Instagram Influencers got many rich kids to pay around $10,000 per ticket to a music festival in the Bahamas. The young organizer ( he was 25) was inexperienced and things did not go well. See #fyrefestival on twitter for the details. He spent money on Influencers and got a packed house, only to be unable to spend money on infrastructure. It was a huge fail but pure proof that Influencer marketing works.

Many of you think word of mouth is free advertising. One person tells another person and it grows exponentially. What examples can you think of that worked like that? All of those big word of mouth successes started with a good infusion of cash to get the campaign started.  People who have no budget for marketing and advertising. It starts with a sample. If you can not afford to have people sample your product, it’s hard to make any kind of word of mouth happen.Word of Mouth happens when people get your book, or item and get to use it. Company’s spend millions making sure people sample their products. Online marketers spend lots of money on online and offline ads to get to you take a free ebook/report.I love it when I talk to people who do not do advertising, they are going to make it by word of mouth. I ask them about their goals for their company, and to name a company that made it to that size with word of mouth. No one has come up with a name yet.If you are reading this because of the note I sent you in my auto-responder, guess what? The auto-responder costs money! The good ones are NOT free.Yes, word of mouth is a great tool for promoting your business, however word of mouth is not free.

How do you use word of mouth?

Do you use influencer marketing at all?
Name a huge company that made it on word of mouth only?
Is word of mouth enough to make YOUR company grow?
 

Top 5 Most Effective Business Leadership Development Methods

3D Team Leadership Arrow ConceptTop 5 Most Effective Business Leadership Development Methods

Few people are born leaders. In most cases, leadership skills and qualities are developed through hard work and persistence, but there’s no point putting in all that effort if you’re not must utilizing the most effective learning and development methods.

Leading a team is about more than simply achieving milestones and goals. It is about inspiring, problem-solving, and ultimately leading a group of people towards a common goal.

There are many different ways of turning an ordinary employee into a great leader, but here are five of the most effective methods.

  1. Workplace developmental assignments

As a new generation of leaders prepares to take their places as managers, more time and effort is being directed at training leaders, mentors and managers within organizations, from global corporations to local businesses.

One of the most effective methods for developing leadership potential within any sized organization is by giving aspiring managers on-the-job assignments that allow them to experience key challenges they will continue to face as professionals.

In an interview conducted by GovLeaders, Cynthia McCauley suggests that as many as 70% of the experiences that they felt contributed to their development as leaders were work-based challenges.

Developmental assignments allow professionals to learn key skills before they become a formal part of their regular workplace responsibilities. Giving your senior team members developmental assignments will also help you to identify your emerging leaders.

Those who are ready to step up and lead will adapt their skills to various situations throughout the assignment, showing they can put two key leadership qualities into practice – flexibility and initiative.

  1. Formal Training Courses

Formal training courses are effective for disseminating knowledge and motivating groups of people, as well as providing individuals with the opportunity to receive a qualification or certificate upon completion. The information offered in a formal course should be up-to-date and relevant to the participant’s work challenges, so they have the chance to benefit in a professional capacity while contributing to their organization’s success.

Organizations will get the best return on their investment by choosing a management training provider, such as Leadership Directions, that is willing to work in a face to face environment and offer post-course support to their employees.

  1. Coaching from the current manager

There are few people who understand the unique challenges and needs within a professional setting more than the current managers. This insight makes them perfectly suited to coaching up-and-coming leaders.

According to the Institute of Leadership and Management, as many as 80% of organizations now use coaching as a training tool. The likelihood that coaching will be utilized increases with the number of individuals within an organization.

While managers tend to receive the majority of coaching opportunities within organizations, team members can benefit too. Currently, it is rare for companies to provide internal-based coaching opportunities to non-managers, which is something that could be hindering many organizations – after all, who knows a business better than the management?

  1. Coaching from external mentors and coaches

One of the greatest benefits of utilizing the resources of an external coach or mentor is that these professionals have been trained specifically to coach or mentor. It is one thing having the knowledge to share with others, but having the skill to share the information in the most beneficial way is an entirely different story.

Effective coaching is not about instructing or teaching – it is about guiding, questioning and facilitating the learning process. It is a skill that needs to be learned, just like leadership itself.

Furthermore, while most organizations focus on coaching as a method of improving professional skills, they often overlook the benefits that come from focusing on the personal development of qualities such as self-awareness and confidence.

  1. Mentoring from other internal sources (not their direct manager)

Coaching from a direct manager is a common way organizations develop their people. However, a company can increase the sharing of knowledge and experience further by allowing other mentors from within the organization to provide input.

The mentoring relationship requires a sensitive power balance and, according to Forbes, it should be mentee-driven, with the mentee becoming the driving force in terms of the direction and focus of the relationship.

Leadership is something that can and must be developed. Opting for the most appropriate development strategy is not only sensible but ensures that organizations and the individuals that make up their ranks will continue to benefit long after training has been completed.

7 Necessary Abilities of an Electrician Melbourne

June 24, 2015 by  
Filed under Featured Articles, Front Page

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A homeowner may not be able to handle every major or minor duty in their homes due to their tight schedules or lack of skill power. These calls for the homeowner consider hiring several skilled personnel to handle various duties. For instance the homeowner is expected to look for a plumber to handle the craft duties in the home, electrician Melbourne to handle all electrical duties and gardener just to mention a few.

Electrical jobs need to be handled by a skilled person since electrical faults can cause huge losses and damages. A good electrician Melbourne should have some added abilities to enhance their working proficiency. Below are the abilities an electrician Melbourne should have;

  • Speedy Fingers
    This line of profession requires one to have the ability to make exactly coordinated movements of the fingers of one or both hands to manipulate, assemble and grasp very tiny objects. Most activities that electrician Melbourne handle include finger dexterity, for instance screw driving calls for finger coordination between the thumb and a few more fingers.
  • Stamina
    This is the ability for the electrician Melbourne to exert themselves physically for quite long periods of time without running out of breath. Some tasks require the electrician to stay inclined to one position for long periods of time. This will lead to someone losing their breath or getting winded if they don’t have proper stamina.
  • Oral Comprehension
    The electrician Melbourne must be able to listen and also understand the piece of information or ideas that are presented to him by the client through oral form and sentences. The homeowner may not be well conversant with the electrical terms so the electrician Melbourne should be able to link up with the shallow electrical knowledge of the homeowner.
  • Oral expression
    Self-expression comes as a major ability in any job. This is the ability to communicate ideas and also pass information through speaking so that the other people can understand. An electrician Melbourne will be required to make oral statements while conversing with a homeowner in order pass some information or make some ideas that may work best for the homeowner. The ideas must be well laid out in order for the homeowner to understand.
  • Multi-limb Coordination
    In electrical jobs more limbs may be required to be used in coordination. This calls for the ability to coordinate two or more limbs. An electrician Melbourne may be required to coordinate two arms, two legs or even one arm and one leg while sitting, lying down or standing. Multi-limb coordination does not involve performing the activities while the whole body is in motion.
  • Perceptual Speed
    A good electrician Melbourne must have the ability to quickly and accurately compare similarities and differences among sets of objects, patterns, numbers or letters. The comparisons being made may be made one after the other or all of them at the same time. This ability also extends to one comparing a presented pattern with a remembered pattern.
  • Fluency of Ideas
    Fluency of ideas shows flexibility of the mind which every electrician Melbourne should bear. This involves coming up with a number of ideas about a certain topic. The more the ideas are, the better despite their quality, creativity or correctness. This gives one a huge working field.

Conclusion
These abilities not only give you the most skilled electrician Melbourne but one with the ability to work with you without any shortcomings. You need an electrician who can change the picture you have in mind to reality.