Summer

Illustration copyright 2006 van Schouwen Associates, LLC

My husband looks forward to having his kids at the house. Fresh from their mother’s, his ex-wife’s, arms and passionate goodbyes, they arrive. The youngest, a boy, age nine, is particularly revved up.

“Why don’t you have air conditioning?” he begins.

“We do.”

Central air, which we have, apparently doesn’t qualify.

“You need a BOX. Window air conditioning is better. You can cool one room,” he sniffs.

The same goes for the food (too healthy) the club pool (nothing to do but swim) and the house (not a mansion).

“Has my mother been to your house?”

“No,” I say uncertainly. Has she? Have the bigger kids let her in when she last sailed through town?

“Hmmm,” says the child.

It has been five years now and I haven’t made a dent, haven’t left a trace of myself or my step-motherly value in their sturdy little hearts. Reports of no-ice-cream-five-minutes-before-dinner are texted home to Mom to become fodder for a protracted tween-rant about unsated appetite, and their school-assigned summer reading becomes a suggestion so vile that it could have come only from, well, me. The volume on the video game system creeps up as August approaches.

Finally, I begin to claim the territory of scorn. So now there will be only whole wheat bread. Educational movies. Does anyone recognize that I have planted my flag in the quinoa?

©2013 Michelle van Schouwen, Longmeadow, MA
All rights reserved.

You Like Sailing

"You said you liked sailing," he reminded me. 

The boat was in fact not sailing, but moored, if you could call it that. We were going around in circles at the mooring, with occasional variations in movement just to keep it fresh.

North wind in Vermont during what the rest of the country calls "early September" feels as though it could carry Santa effortlessly with it, frost gleaming from his beard. I wished I had a beard, which would be warmer than my bare skin. I wished I had fur.

The New Wife generally tries to be pleasant and amiable, so as not to appear too much like the Old Wife. I was having trouble doing so today. I was very cold and the boat lacked toilet paper. Since I was the only woman on board, this appeared to matter more to me than to anyone else. I tried eating for comfort, but a diet of corn chips and cheese does not agree with me. Still morning, it seemed a little early for wine and I was dizzy anyway. 

I had indeed stated that I liked sailing. But I should have been more specific, numerically speaking. I like sailing when the wind blows no more than eight (8) miles per hour, when the temperature is between 75 and 95 degrees Fahrenheit. I like to sail for as little as one and as much as four hours, and to be off the sailboat by 8 pm. If necessary to stay on the boat for an extended period of time (24-plus hours), I like there to be no less than one (1) roll of toilet tissue available. 1/8 roll is not acceptable.

Accuracy and precision are important tools in communication. As a New Wife, I will take that under advisement in future declarations about Things I Like.

©2013 Michelle van Schouwen, Longmeadow, MA
All rights reserved.

Yugoslavia

"I'd like to wear a bikini. I mean, I wish I could," I say. That was my first mistake.

George glanced at the passing parade of pinks and yellows and impossible suntans and navel rings three feet in front of our sensible camp chairs. It was as crowded as Coney Island. It was as crowded as Mumbai.

Finally he said, “You could go to Yugoslavia.” Then, because this seemed unclear, he added, “They don’t care what they look like there. You should see…”

He trailed off. Perhaps because another floral tattoo on Amazonian hips has sashayed by on its woman, the woman dipping her silver-ringed toes into the foamy water near shore. Her toes missed the floating Kleenex by inches. In any case, George seemed distracted.

“I could wear a bikini,” I resumed stubbornly. “But I think you should look great in it if you’re going to wear it,” and here I sucked my stomach in discreetly, “not just okay.”

Then, slowly, I realized. “Fine,” I said nastily, “I’ll go to Yugoslavia.”

“That’s not what I meant. Is there another sandwich?”

My point is, it is nice to be a man. Generally speaking, a man does not shave his legs. His bathing suit does not send squashed wads of flesh blopping out from its armholes or crotch.

He looks great. He is certain of it.

He does not consider going to Yugoslavia.

©2013 Michelle van Schouwen, Longmeadow, MA
All rights reserved.

Quick mix for B2B social media - taking first, important steps

Social media has become increasingly important in business development and communications. This includes business-to-business, where the trend toward communicating through social channels has arguably been slower than in more broadly recognized consumer products and services.

Now, B2B has clearly entered the fray. If your company is just beginning to get involved in social media, consider becoming active on the following four sites right away: LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, and Google+.

Here's a quick rationale for each:

LinkedIn: LinkedIn IS business, and having and actively using a company page provides you with ready access to the people, groups, discussions, and community that are your "conversational backyard". We predict that LinkedIn will continue to grow in influence.

Facebook: First, it's just so big and so popular... and so clearly making it big with business. Plus, Facebook is a great and (somewhat) easy way to communicate with your individual customers and to humanize your company and its activities. Remember that being involved in Facebook is much like attending a social gathering. Show interest in others, do not talk solely about yourself and talk about matters that may be of broad or deep interest to others. And did we mention, respond to the conversation-starters promulgated by the other attendees? Oh, and have some appetizers and a drink while you're here.

Twitter: Social media sophisticates, including editors and influentials, like it and use it often. It's brief, informative and to the point. Your company should be here, and should let these influentials know "what's news", from marketing launches to management changes. Again, good communication "manners" dictate that showing interest in what others have to say behooves you.

Google+: Because it's Google, because your active presence positively impacts your SEO and because it is slowly making a play for business involvement, with venues such as hangouts, allowing meaningful discussions. That's why. Some people argue that Google+ can be ignored. We disagree.

There is much more to discuss about best practices, benefits, venues, and tactics for B2B social media, and we will do so in future posts. In the meantime, go forth and socialize!

Too late to launch? Not necessarily.

More often than you might imagine, customers ask our vSALaunch team if it is too late to launch (or relaunch) a product or service that has been on the market for a year or more - albeit languishing or not reaching its full potential.

Also more often than you might imagine, the answer is a resounding "NO, it is not too late". Here are a few basic questions that will aid in deciding if your offering merits a "the-right-time-is-now" launch:

-Have you promoted the product or service through advertising, media relations, trade show exposure or other broad outreach? For how long, how heavily, and with what reach?

-Is your offering unique, or is it in fact a "me too" product or service?

-Do you believe there is significant upside potential for sales growth?

-Have you reached out to every major market segment you can realistically expect to serve?

If there is untapped potential, consider your "the-right-time-is-now" launch. Your product or service launch can be as broad or as focused as needed, can address the sales messages that haven't yet reached your prospects and can capitalize on whatever degree of success you have built with your offering to date.

Nice to know that for once, time is on your side. Happy launch.

Launch your new product, don't torpedo it.

Since you asked (and even if you didn't) our vSALaunch team wanted to share its top four observations about marketing for product launches.

1. Early marketing planning is good. Please don't wait until the 11th hour to start planning for your marketing launch. If the product is important, its marketing is, too, whether your budget is $10,000 or $1,000,000. While social media and interactive marketing offer great opportunities for on-the-spot announcements, many aspects of your launch, from product naming to trade shows and distributor relationship management, take longer.

2. Early (premature) announcement is not so good. Hey, what could go wrong in letting your key audiences know you have - or will have - an innovative new offering? Product engineering, testing or manufacturing problems often cause delays in product availability. The early product sometimes performs less perfectly than envisioned. You may have trouble meeting initial demand. Cats are notoriously hard to put back in the bag. Make sure you are ready before you make the big announcement.

3. The choice between a big splash and a soft launch deserves careful consideration. The big splash has the advantage of taking the market by storm, creating an impression of leadership and making it harder for competitors to say they got there first (unless, of course, they did). The soft launch lets you tread carefully, adjust your messaging as you get early feedback and gradually secure a market foothold as you gain confidence that the product is indeed performing as planned and getting positive reception as hoped and anticipated.

4. Do not invest, invent and then sit on your product. Timely, targeted marketing is critical to making the most of any important new product. No matter what your budget, get the word out and keep on doing so as long as there are new prospects to court.

 

Should your prospects and customers trust you?

“Well, of course they should trust us,” you may respond with some annoyance.

Let us rephrase the question. DO they trust you, and have you given them ample reason to do so?

We work in an era in which it is more than a little hard to trust. Our email is rife with phishing schemes and spam. Our online accounts get hacked. Companies with whom we work may make promises they can’t keep.

And yet, trust is extremely important in business relationships. People prefer to work with companies they trust… companies they like.

So, how to build trust among people who (let's face it!) may hardly know your company?

Communication is key.

And since you probably cannot meet with or even talk with all your prospects and customers as often as you like, it’s important to use the best communication strategies and tactics available to support your trust-building efforts. Here are just a few:

Content development: You hear about it all the time. Good content development is simply talking about the things you know and believe in, the ways you help, the resources and insights you can share, and more. Blog, use social media, write articles, speak at a meeting… and keep it coming. Consistency and frequency are key, as is relevance. Finding the balance between “getting out there” enough and running out of new things to say is important!

Editorial endorsement: Public relations, specifically media relations, in which you get your news and stories in the press, brings with it the benefit of implied editorial endorsement (and thus believability).

Connecting your leader(s) with the brand: In all of your outreach, it helps to take a “top down” approach. An admirable, accomplished or charismatic leader can speak for your brand, your commitments and the ways in which your company stands out from others. Select a thought leader to speak for your brand.

Brand building with demonstrated expertise or problem solving: Tell your story everywhere from your website to your webinars to your online videos, calculators and apps: “We solve a problem. Here is the problem we solve. Here is why you may care.”

Show that you are “good”: We have become advocates of cause marketing and active sponsorships, in which your company partners with a non-profit whose mission is aligned with your values. What a way to build trust while doing good!

Finally, be patient. Neither Rome nor Reputation, nor the trust that goes with it, is built in a day. Start now!