The message model is a getting-to-know-you process and not simply a product. Being completely familiar with the client, the brand, the product, and the services, before moving forward with the pitch is essential. Image by Sean MacEntee via Flickr. Over the last five years that Abraham Harrison has been pitching bloggers on behalf of clients, we have learned a thing or two about how best to reach bloggers, how to engage them, how to get them to carry our client’s message to their readership. Please let me know if you have any questions and if you are able to help. Chris. MORE >>

Basically, what it says is that a well-qualified lead has all of those qualities–the budget to make the purchase, the authority to do so, a proven need for what your product or service does, and a timeline in which to take action. Photo credit: eric.delcroix. I’m old. 30 years ago, I learned how IBM qualified leads for sales. At the time, I know now, it was unusual to even have a process for such a thing, but that is how IBM worked (and still does). Whatever you do is your process. Please sign up if you are in town.) So budgets emerge only after people think there is a need. MORE >>

Enterprise microblogging and status updates tend to not be as timely or frequent as those posted during the Academy Awards ceremony, but they may be very efficient in providing praise for a job well done or to share snippets of knowledge that can those around you more engaged or productive. Photo credit: Serolynne. In my last Biznology post, “Social business, the forest and the garden: Your intranet is not the Internet” , I wrote about why patterns that are so successful over the Internet often fail inside corporate firewalls. Well, not exactly, or at least not always. MORE >>

Are people discussing your company, your product, your services, or you? I recently received a comment chastising me for suggesting that your web site should be a trap from Peter Johnston , who said, “This attitude has no place in modern marketing. In a social world, trapped customers scream loudly enough for everyone to hear. The short term gain and the thrill of ‘we got one’ is rapidly replaced by a dearth of future prospects.” Firstly, Social media is people and not a pit full of vipers. Or your village. Or town, city, region, state, or country. Make it you. MORE >>

If you can identify a passion player, someone who is already talking about you, your products and services, or products and services you, too, offer, and you can woo them into becoming citizen brand ambassadors, and if you are their “first kiss,” then you’ll be able to develop a very large pack of proponents and passion-players who will be loyal and will have safely imprinted on your attention, your acknowledgement, and your generosity. My expertise, however, is online community outreach and engagement. Before long, hundreds of email replies stream in. MORE >>