4 Senses of Character-based Leadership

Too often, I read blog posts or engage in discussions where different definitions of leadership are present.

One definition of leadership implies position. It states that the person in the position of leadership is the leader.  If they’re “in charge” or “at the top” or “where the buck stops,” then they’re the leader.  Their position is the reason we grant them influence over us.  That’s positional leadership.

Another type of leadership; my favorite type, is no respecter of position. I call this character-based leadership. Character-based leaders are people who have chosen to adopt a leader’s mindset, regardless of their position in the organization.  Anyone can be a character-based leader. Their character, their “who-they-are” will not let them simply go with the flow or “do whatever.”  They decide they will be a leader to the extent they are able.

It takes a number of talents and, possibly, a great deal of luck, timing and positioning to be a position-based leader. You have to get a position. Many people work years to achieve a position. Someone must put you in it or you simply take it.  But either way, a number of factors impact your ability to get a position of leadership.

To be a character-based leader, you only need four things I’d call senses. Any one of these senses is proof that anyone can be a character-based leader. If you have two or three, you may even have some influence in your homeowners association or in your workplace.  But to be a great character-based leader, you’ll need all four.

4 senses of character-based leadership

Sense of mission: What are we trying to accomplish? Without accomplishment, there is no need for a leader. Leadership implies motion. Motion without direction is wasted. Your purpose will pull you into your future. A great mission calls you to its hope.  Your efforts will affect, maybe even create, the future.

Sense of urgency: If there is no urgency, if the thing can be done “whenever,” then there is little need for leadership. Great missions are those that must be done and they must be done soon. Great causes must be achieved as soon as possible. Without a sense of urgency and you may never reach your goal. Urgency is the key to great customer service.  Check out “A Sense of Urgency” by John P. Kotter for a wonderful book on the topic.

Sense of responsibility: Responsibility is the understanding not only that something must be done, but also that you must do it.  Often, we’re not very accurate or wise when it comes to what we must do. We delegate too little or too much. We give people the power to make us fail, or we withhold the resources necessary for others’ success. An objective sense of responsibility is necessary to good leadership.

Sense of service: If your mission serves only yourself or a small crowd, you have no chance of becoming a great leader. Great leaders serve great people in worthwhile causes. Great leaders often must overcome great difficulty to achieve great service.  There is no great work unless it benefits others. Include just one other person in your objective, do something simply for their benefit, and in that moment you elevate your own mission, leadership and responsibility.
If you don’t have all four senses, don’t worry. You can develop them. In fact, I bet those closest to you can already see signs of all four (or they wouldn’t stick around). Find your greatest mission, focus your energy toward that mission, and you will develop the other senses. Don’t let anything stop you. You can make 2014 the year you develop all four senses and become a great character-based leader.

Mike Henry Sr. is the chief instigator of the Lead Change Group, a global non-profit community dedicated to instigating a leadership revolution. He’s also one of 21 co-authors of “The Character-Based Leader: Instigating a Leadership Revolution… One Person at a Time.” Connect with Henry on Twitter @mikehenrysr and on LinkedIn, Facebook or Google+.

The 30-Second Rule: How to Create Unforgettable Presentations BY Peter Economy

You want your audience to hang on every word. To make that happen, you have to be sure you win them over in the first 30 seconds of your presentation.

Whether your audience is your boss, your banker, a small team of direct reports, a ballroom full of conference attendees, or thousands of people worldwide connected via teleconference, your success depends on being able to make a great presentation.

Great presentations are well-organized, flow logically from one idea to another, and ultimately leave the audience leave feeling rewarded and enlightened. All well and good, but if you don’t hook your audience in the first 30 seconds, all your careful preparation may be for naught. Therefore you have to begin with a bang! A television commercial has only 30 seconds to grab your attention; the same is true for you and your presentation.

The following steps will help you up your game:

Brainstorm Ideas

Start building your presentation by brainstorming. Share ideas with co-workers, draw flow charts, or talk with relevant customers or vendors. Make time to write down your initial ideas without concern about how they flow, or if they even seem to connect. As a way to start, consider your audience. Who will be there? What do you want them to understand at the end of the presentation, and what impact do you want have? How long should you talk? How detailed should you be? Brainstorming is an important step to begin building a good presentation, because although your ideas are not refined during the process, it helps you focus in on the details you need.

Write a Basic Outline

Once you have a general idea of what you want, create a foundation for your presentation by writing an outline. This outline forms a basic structure for your presentation; with it you list and build upon your ideas. The outline should include an introduction, three to five important points that elaborate on the main idea(s), and a conclusion that recaps what you’ve just covered.  of your introduction. Conclude your outline by telling your audience what you just showed them.

This outline format, although simple, forms the basic structure of a well-organized presentation. More complex and longer presentations can be easily created by multiple, simple outlines like the one described above and then piecing them together with transitions. The outlines are building blocks, and their brevity permits you to string ideas together and present more complex material in concise, understandable pieces.

A completed outline can help you conceive an optimum opening “bang” that you will hook your audience. It can be a funny cartoon, some amazing statistics, a dramatic personal story, a good joke, or a pithy quote. Some speakers have found that starting a presentation with silence can be quite effective. Whatever you do, remember that you need to get the audience hooked in 30 seconds or less!

Connect Ideas Together and Fill in the Details

After completing your outline, write as many outlines as you need to cover the scope of your presentation. Connect your outlines with transitional words and phrases like, “Expanding on this point…” or “As a result of….” Use pictures, graphs, spreadsheets, samples, or other props as you see fit to help you illustrate your points. According to research, when information is presented with vivid images, people will remember 95 percent of what they see and hear. Remember to specifically tell your audience what to look for in the props and how these further prove or demonstrate your main theme. 

Polish and Practice

Once you’re satisfied with the structure of your presentation, practice by reading it aloud. You may find that areas that are well-written sound awkward when read aloud. Refine as needed, and also look for portions that could be deleted in the interest of clarity and brevity. If your presentation is long and complex, consider how you might break up your ideas so you keep your audience focused on your main points. Think about how to smoothly transition between topics (sometimes revisiting or referring to the source of your opening bang can be a good way to link one section to the next).

Turn Up the Energy

Deliver your presentation with personal energy and enthusiasm. Remember that the final product should reflect your unique perspective, insights, and energy. Illustrate the key points with flair, by showing rather than simply reading from a script. And remember: the last 30 seconds of your presentation are almost as important as the first 30. Summarize your points clearly and succinctly, and leave your audience with a brief, inspiring or uplifting message to take with them after the presentation ends. 

From 0 to 27,000 Fans: 6 Ways To Engage Followers On Facebook by Dawn Papandrea, Freelance Editor, Writer, Content Specialist, Freelance Services

These proven tips provide easy and fun ways to help you attract more customers on Facebook ... and keep them coming back. When Cory Schifter, owner of Casale Jewelers in Staten Island, New York, took over his family-owned business a few years ago, he wanted to create buzz and excitement about the store. He tried placing ads in local papers, but nobody came in as a result. That’s when he developed a company Facebook page and invited everyone he knew to “like” it.

“It was a challenge at first to get people to the page,” Schifter says. But when he launched his first “Race for the Ring” contest, in which the couple with the most votes would win a $10,000 engagement ring, the page exploded. As couples begged their friends and families to vote (after liking his page, of course), suddenly all of Staten Island was seeing Casale Jewelers pop up in their feed.

Fast forward to present day, and Casale Jewelers has close to 27,000 fans. He also was last year’s winner in the nationwide “Big Break” contest from American Express, which was based on garnering the most Facebook votes.

Through trial and error, Schifter has learned how to engage customers, build an online community and become top of mind for locals who want to purchase jewelry. While contests and giveaways have given him big boosts, it’s the daily exchanges that have really paid off, he says. From jewelry cleaning tips to sharing photos of newly engaged couples to product spotlights, Schifter posts every day, and responds to comments in a timely manner.

Keeping new followers engaged over time after the initial capture is the true test, however. Let's take a closer look at how Schifter did it.

Provide incentives. While small businesses rarely have the time and resources available to dedicate to full-blown social marketing strategies (or $10,000 ring giveaways), there is still a significant opportunity to grow your following and boost sales on Facebook with coupons and discounts, says Aaron Everson, COO & president of Shoutlet, a social media management company. “Incentivizing consumers via Facebook with an offer like $5 off a weekend purchase is a great way to encourage likes and shares, as well as build customer loyalty.”

Do good. After his “Big Break” win, Schifter decided to ask for votes once again, only this time he asked fans to choose which three local charities would receive $1,000 donations from Casale. He decided to repeat the contest again this year (as part of his ongoing commitment to giving back to his community), and says in just three days, he’s gained 1,000 new fans.

Be part of a movement. You’ve probably seen companies create special posts and promotions for everything from Veterans Day to the Super Bowl. The upcoming Small Business Saturday initiative, which encourages shoppers to support small businesses the day after Black Friday, is the perfect opportunity for local businesses to be a part of a larger conversation, Everson says. Last year, Schifter used the “Shop Small” Facebook tools and shared facts about small businesses in the days leading up to the shopping event. “Our business was up over 200 percent from the 2011 Small Business Saturday to 2012,” he says.

Post regularly, and give fans something to look forward to. Latch on to the “throwback Thursday” trend or find a funny meme to share, and make entertaining posts work for you. “It takes some time to build and maintain a consistent social strategy,” says Antonia Genov, social media professional with Clearpoint Agency, which manages Facebook accounts for small- to mid-size companies. “Posts like 'caption the image' or 'finish the sentence' usually generate tons of engagement, and reach three times more than a regular post. It’s worth a try,” she says.

Get your fans involved. Take a page out of Dunkin’ Donuts’ Fan of the Week promotion, and put your customers in the spotlight. “Many times, it may seem hard to come up with content on our own, but remember that social media is a dialogue and you can let your customers participate more and drive the conversation,” Genov says. Stay on top of comments, and respond. If your customers connect with you, they will feel appreciated if they get a reply from you as well.

Captivate with your cover photo. Your main image is the first thing your audience will see, and can help them decide whether they want to stick around and explore your page, or leave, says Ingrid Kibler, social media account supervisor for HCK2 Partners, a public relations agency. “Your photo should be relevant to your business, have strong branding elements, and easily identify with your audience,” she recommends. If possible, switch out cover photos at least every quarter to keep things fresh.

Developing a legion of fans on Facebook will take time and persistence, but it is doable even for smaller establishments. Think of it as amplifying the friendly conversation you’d have at the register, and bringing it to a larger online forum. Be friendly, consistent and customer-driven on Facebook, and your customers will “like” you for years to come.

Dawn Papandrea is a freelance writer, blogger, editor and content marketing writer specializing in personal finance, parenting, women's lifestyle, careers, higher education and more.

5 Ways to Give Your Brand Personality by Angela Stringfellow, Consultant, SeniorHomes.com

If you spend hours on marketing efforts, only to find you're not connecting with customers, it might be time to pump up your brand's personality.

Does your brand have a personality? If your customers were asked to describe your business, would they include human traits as a part of that description? 

If not, you’re missing an important component of branding, and you’re also failing to make a deep connection with your audience. But how can you bring life and personality into your brand? Here are five easy-to-apply ways to give your brand a shot of personality:

1. Understand Your Identity And Beliefs

“People connect to the people and things they believe in,” says Detavio Samuels, president of marketing agency GlobalHue-Detroit and author of Exist No More: The Art of Squeezing the Most Out of Life. “So, as a brand, you are either connecting based on showcasing a similar belief system or you are providing them with new beliefs based on a better future they choose to embrace.”

The first step is figuring out your own beliefs. “Once that's achieved, then it's simply about finding innovative ways to bring that belief system to life,” Samuels says. “Apple believes in the notion of simplicity in design, so their products are designed to be as intuitive and efficient as possible.”

2. Give Back To Society

Solutions by Scott & Company, a professional organizing company, established a brand personality by having a passion for giving and then demonstrating it through volunteerism and other social efforts. Scott Roewer, the company's founder and chief organizer, traveled to Haiti in 2011 and 2012 to distribute shoes to orphans and earthquake victims with an organization called Soles4Souls, and his team regularly participates in charity drives and other events to support those in need.

“Our clients know we care more about the world than just making the next dollar or organizing the next home,” Roewer says. “All businesses should be adding value to their clients in goods and services, but also adding value to the world.”

3. Show Off Your Team

You’ve spent a lot of time carefully screening candidates and forming a team that, collectively, is a powerhouse. The success of your company is largely dependent on the success of each individual, so why not let them shine?

“People do business with people, not companies. Humanize your brand by making your employees visible. Include staff photos on your website, blog and social media channels, and use them in your videos and marketing materials,” suggests Jason Robbins, CEO of ePromos Promotional Products. “Your brand personality naturally emerges when you bring your employees to the forefront.” This also emphasizes the importance of hiring not just for a resume but for a cultural fit.

4. Use Storytelling

It’s difficult to create a personal connection with customers with a list of features and bland statements. “Brands often get sidetracked by bullet points, facts and the end result. Instead, we need to remember that audiences react to emotions, and to accept or refuse a statement, humans need to be told a ‘story’ so they can rationalize and understand emotions,” explains Gabrielle Boko, executive vice president of marketing at business management software firm Sage North America.

Over time, consumers start to associate your brand imagery with the same emotions you create through storytelling. If they evoke positive emotions, those subconscious associations make them feel good about your company—and everyone wants to do business with companies that make them feel good.

5. BE CONSISTENT

Thriveworks, a counseling and life coaching business, started out with a consistent visual—a couch—that would appear across all its marketing collateral. But the real magic happened when the company created its own mobile app that allowed clients to record sessions and take notes, offering it free to clients. The app’s casual name, Therapy Buddy, solidified the brand’s identity as fun, friendly and helpful.

“The lesson we learned is that we can have bright colors, a fun logo and a nice website, but our brand wouldn't have a personality unless it was engaging and actually provided a tangible use for [people] who aren't our clients yet,” says Jon Negroni, public relations specialist for Thriveworks.

“Consistency is key," Negroni explains. "You can come up with countless ideas that are creative and will capture the attention of your audience, but if they don't connect well with what your brand literally is, people will miss the message that would've resonated with them. They'll just forget.”

There are a lot of tools at your disposal to help you solidify a positive brand personality for your business. Make sure that everything you do is in line with your beliefs and goals, from making the right hiring decisions to delivering value to your customers. If you lose sight of your identity, your customers will, too.

Angela Stringfellow is a freelance writer, social media strategist and a complete content marketing junkie obsessed with all things Web, marketing and the written word.

Photo: Getty Images

4 Surprising Business Statistics You Can Act On

Don't go into information overload when reading the latest business statistics. Instead, use the data to improve your business.

Mark Twain famously described three kinds of lies: "lies, damned lies and statistics." A newspaperman, Twain clearly understood how the unscrupulous can twist data or use impartial sampling to make numbers say what they want rather than reflect the truth.

With that understood, statistics properly derived and accurately reported can give small-business owners the information they need to make smart strategic decisions. It's why you keep track of your important performance numbers. Other statistics, like these four surprising facts, tell us things we need to know—or may have forgotten—about business and consumers in general.

1. Word of mouth is responsible for 50 percent of all purchase decisions.

This information comes from research by McKinsey & Company, as reported in Robbin Phillips and Greg Cordell's The Passion Conversation. If you take that to mean that half of everything anybody buys from you is because somebody else recommended it, you read it right. In this age of mass emailing, SMS marketing and increasing depersonalization, you still owe half your revenue to people who are talking about you and your business.

Is your business giving 50 percent of its marketing budget to keeping existing customers ecstatic? If not, your priorities aren't in line with the facts.

2. Fifty-two percent of all small businesses are home-based.

Forbes.com recently reported this statistic, which came from the Small Business Administration's Office of Advocacy, in a list of less-surprising statistics. The number is from 2012, and it represents the highest percentage of home-based businesses ever, a growth that comes almost entirely from changing technology in communication and publishing. The fact is, it's simply more possible to work from home now than at any other time in history.

As a business owner, this means you have an unprecedented opportunity to cut costs and assemble the best possible team. Costs go down as you outsource tasks to a small, home-based business instead of keeping a full-time employee on your payroll. Your team selection broadens because geography is no longer a barrier to working with somebody.

3. Online banking fraud costs about one-ninth the cost of fraud that comes from in-person or mail banking.

According to a report by Javelin Strategy & Research, the average loss to fraud for online banking victims is $551, while paper and mail banking fraud results in an average loss of just over $4,500. This lower risk comes from two factors. First, online bankers check their activity more often and can thus spot fraudulent transactions faster than those who still bank only via paper and people. Second, data on a server is more secure than paper statements in your desk or trash. Despite fears of electronic identity theft, fraud is much more likely to come from a physical source. The lesson here is all about adopting new technologies. Although most people use online banking now, initial acceptance was sluggish because people didn't trust the idea of putting their financial information online. Their mistrust was misplaced. Is your company missing out on any opportunities because there's a useful technology you don't understand?

4. Twenty-seven percent of small businesses lost employees in 2012.

Despite an overall increase in employment over the past year, this statistic from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce simply points out a fact of doing business: that losing an employee is just part of your job as a small-business owner. The study didn't delve into the reasons for the loss—quitting, firing or a "no fault, no foul" situation like moving away or getting married, but it's clear that more than one-quarter of businesses go through this. As a business owner, it's easy to take it personally when an employee leaves, whether somebody exits on their own terms or makes you encourage their departure. But these numbers should simply remind you that it's part of what you signed up for when you decided to be in charge, and losing employees doesn't make you a terrible person or a bad boss. What business statistics, either in general or from your own business, surprised you the most recently? Tell us about them in the comments below.

Jason Brick has contributed more than 2,000 blog and magazine articles to local, regional and national publications and speaks regularly at writing and business conferences. You can find out more about Jason at www.brickcommajason.com.

The difference between creativity and innovation

The terms "creativity" and "innovation" are often used interchangeably, but they do not mean the same thing, writes Jeffrey Baumgartner. "Creativity" refers to the process of developing new ideas, whereas "innovation" involves the implementation of those ideas, he writes. Too many firms focus on creativity and ignore innovation, which is like coming up with a lot of cake recipes and never actually baking anything, he writes.

The One Easy Way To Never Forget A Password Again

Make your life easier, and your online presence more secure, by downloading a password keeper app.

Are you still using the same memorable passwords over and over again in 2013? If so, I want you to open a Google Doc right now and type, "I will download a password keeper and change all my passwords," one hundred times. And no copy-and-pasting.

If you're using random passwords but storing them in your browser's default password system, you're not much better—these systems are not very secure and they're certainly not as convenient.

What you need is an app to generate random, impossible to break passwords and store them for you, all while making them as quick and easy to access as possible. The good news (and the bad news) is that there are now a lot of options to choose from. I'm slightly obsessed with this problem, so I've tested a lot. These are my recommendations.

Winner: Dashlane

Dashlane, like the others tested, is available on just about every platform and integrates with just about every browser. It also stores and generates passwords as well as autofills personal information and payment info.

Dashlane offers the best user experience, in my opinion. The interface is the most attractive and simple, but it's really how elegantly and simply it integrates with your browser that makes it my top choice.

There's a dashboard that shows you all your weak passwords and alerts you when a service you use has been compromised. Even though I've been managing my passwords for security for a long time, when I first set it up, I found that I actually had 94 weak or duplicate passwords! Yikes! A tool is only as good as the user who wields it, and this feature makes sure you're using the tool most effectively.

Dashlane syncs in the cloud and offers mobile apps that also make your passwords (and personal info) accessible—though you'll have to constantly jump over to the app and copy and paste, at least on iOS. That's a result of Apple's architecture, so every password keeper is like that.

The only feature it doesn't have, at least the way I'd like it, is sharing. Dashlane lets you "share" a password, but all it's really doing is sending an email with a secure link to your info, which someone can either read and enter manually or add to their Dashlane app at the click of a button. This is an okay solution, but I would rather be able to passively sync entries with other Dashlane users. I have certain entries that I'd like to share with my wife or assistant and I don't want to have to resend them every time I change them—nor do I want to have to remember which entries I've already shared.

Some users have reported instability, but so far I have not experienced any issues myself.

Runner Up: 1Password

1Password is also an excellent solution—and the one I used until I switched to Dashlane. It has many of the same benefits, and the design and user experience are second only to Dashlane. The design is a little overdone (big lock graphics, logins depicted as items on shelves, etc.) and the integrations are good, but not quite as tight, generally, as Dashlane's. It also syncs over Dropbox, rather than its own sync service, which is somewhat less secure. 1Password has the same sharing mechanism as Dashlane.

The biggest reason 1Password didn't beat out Dashlane is because of Dashlane's security dashboard, which shows you your weak passwords and reports when a service you use is compromised, and that makes all the difference in your actual security in practice.

Second Runner Up: Passpack

Passpack makes the list because it's very secure and it has the ideal (if somewhat cumbersome) sharing mechanism—it lets you sync individual entries with other users. It's not the only service with this feature, but it offers the best user experience for doing so. Unfortunately, while its own interface is fine, its integration is not nearly as deep and it offers no apps, only a buggy mobile site. As a result, you end up manually copying and pasting a lot, and you simply cannot get to your logins on mobile much of the time. Still, if syncing is your top priority, then Passpack is probably your best bet.

So Many Options, So Few Good Ones

As I said, I tested numerous, countless password applications. The only two other password applications that I found which offer the sync feature are Keeper and LastPass. That said, they have a pretty dated user experience, LastPass is like, Windows 95-ugly, and doesn't look like it's being very actively maintained, and Keeper's website doesn't offer a lot of information, so on principle I refuse to download or use it. Two others worth mentioning, only because they're so bad, are Roboform and KeePass—the user experience is poor and they don't have any syncing features.

Now you have no excuses. My recommendation: Download Dashlane and reset your most critical accounts now. I bet you can do that in half an hour or less. Then, replace two to three weak passwords every day until your online identity is locked up tight.

5 Rookie Home Page Mistakes You're Probably Making

Your website is one of your biggest marketing opportunities. Don't let it fall victim to these 5 home page missteps.

It's all too common for small-business owners who build their own websites to make a handful of rookie mistakes. Unfortunately, it's not unheard of for hired professionals to make errors when designing websites, too.

Your website is one of your most important marketing tools, so whether you're taking on the creation and design of it yourself or you're hiring someone else to do it for you, make sure you avoid these all-too-common home page mistakes:

1. Too Many Choices

People won't actually read your home page. They'll scan it, looking for the information that's most immediately relevant to them. If they can't find it quickly and with minimal effort, they'll visit a site where they can.

Your site should be designed to guide new eyes exactly where you want them to go, even if they don't know for sure what they're looking for ... especially if they're not sure what they're looking for. Simple navigation with clean lines is the way to go. If your business requires that you offer robust, complex choices, do that on a deeper page. Your home page should be simple and easy to navigate.

2. Wall Of Text

A few years ago, a multimillion-dollar ad campaign from five major magazine publishers who were touting the power of print stated "We surf the Internet. We swim in magazines." To do that surfing, people will interact with, share and return to websites that have pages with: 

• Short paragraphs
• Bullet and numbered lists
• Lots of white space
• Images and other graphics
• Sections with subheadings

Anything that breaks up the information you're presenting means people will read more about your company, your products and services, and why they want to do business with you.

3. No Blog

Blogging for your business doesn't mean you have to post something every day, but it does give your website dynamic, rather than static, content. Dynamic content means something on your site changes often enough that people will come back to see what's new. More important, it engages Google in a way that unchanging pages don't.

Even one post per week, or two each month, will be enough to get the attention of Google and other search engines. To attract the attention of human readers, be sure to announce the newest blog updates on your social media platforms and encourage subscribers to sign up for your blog.

4. No Optimization

Yes, there's a lot of voodoo feel to search engine optimization (SEO). Yes, there's a larger-than-is-reasonable group of charlatans pretending to provide good SEO advice without actually helping your business. No, this doesn't mean you shouldn't build your site without sound SEO practices in place.

A full discussion of SEO could fill several books, which would then need new editions fairly quickly because of how rapidly Google changes its algorithms. A short list of essentials includes:

• Identifying three to five keyword phrases for your site to aggressively pursue
• Including keywords in metadata, URLs and similar "behind the curtain" aspects of your home page
• Avoiding "black hat" SEO methods like keyword stuffing and courting unrelated links
• Using smart, natural instances of your keywords in your blog and on the static pages of your site

5. Neglecting The Obvious

Google gives bonus points for including a handful of simple page components on your website, which will help your site perform better in searches. Including "Privacy Policy" and "Contact" pages with specific data about your company, information about how to reach you and what you'll do with customer information takes no more than 30 minutes per page, but it's been shown to give sites preferential ranking over similar sites that lack those pages.

Face To Face: The Forgotten Social Network

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These four acts of real-life social networking can help bring in new leads and loyal customers. Better yet, mix the real-life social network with the one online for an even bigger boost.

In a decade where everybody is on at least one social network, it's easy to forget that once upon a time people did their social networking face to face. That's a bad thing to forget, since a Forbes study reveals that people found face-to-face interaction more persuasive and trustworthy than interaction via the Internet by a margin of 80 percent.

This isn't to say you should abandon your online social media platform. It's still the most cost-effective way to reach new people. You just need to remember that it's best used as a means to get face time with new prospects, not a replacement for it. Ready to get out from behind your computer screen and meet some people? These tips can help.

1. Join the Chamber of Commerce

Your local chamber of commerce hosts multiple classes, meetings and presentations every month, attended by your peers in the community. This is indispensable if you offer business-to-business services and still highly valuable if you do most of your business with the public. In either case, you'll be forging those closer relationships and establishing the trust that makes face time so powerful.

Bonus points for not only attending a class, which most chambers offer, but also teaching one. Attending builds your skills in areas you're not yet an expert. Teaching shows everybody why they need to buy from you.

2. Break Out Your Dating Moves

No, that doesn't mean putting on your v-neck shirt and trying out cheesy new pick-up lines. But meeting and creating relationships with new prospective business partners can be a lot like meeting and creating relationships with a new prospective romantic partner. Use all the best practices you use (or used to use) on a first date. Be polite. Talk more about the other person than you do about yourself. Never wait for a "second date" to show off your best talents, because without them, that second chance won't come.

Bonus points for not using the classic "wait three days to call" dating doctrine. Follow up with an email or social media ping that day, or the following morning at the latest.

3. Dress the Part

Every face-to-face meeting has a dress code, and the dress codes differ. A business insurance conference in New York City requires different dress than a writers' conference in Eugene, Oregon. The more you "go native" for whatever kind of mixer or meeting you attend, the more comfortable your fellow attendees will be with you. If you're not sure how to dress, check the event's website for photos of the last event by the same group.

Bonus points for dressing the "part +1." Dressing slightly better than everybody else gives you an air of authority and success ... but only go slightly better, otherwise this will backfire. Wear slacks and a polo to a casual event, not a suit. Wear a suit to a business casual event, but not a tux.

4. Go to the Other Conferences

A writer who goes to a writer's conference will meet a lot of peers and learn some valuable things about the trade, but very few people, if any, will need his skills. That same writer who goes to a trade conference for self-employed plumbers will be the only writer in a room full of people who need his skills. The same goes for whatever your business offers. 

Bonus points for presenting at that other conference. Even things that are trivial to you and your competitors or peers will be new and exciting to people in other fields. It makes you look smart, and introduces you to everybody in the room all at once.

When you get home from your face-to-face networking time, jump into social media to make the connections that let you capitalize on what you accomplished in person. Neither sort of social networking is better or worse than the other, but the combination of the two is more than twice as powerful as either one alone.

10 Siri Tricks To Help You Be Your Most Productive Self

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Apple's sassy assistant Siri can be the biggest productivity booster ever. Dial up your patience for a few days, and try these easy tips. Once you do, you may never go back to life without Siri.

There are literally thousands of commands you can issue to Siri, the “intelligent” voice-activated assistant built into Apple’s iOS. I say “intelligent” in quotes because for many people Siri is anything but. Siri can be, in fact, completely useless.

The first couple of times Siri stumbles on a command, or simply times out, you cuss it out and never launch it again. At least, that was my experience. That’s until I wondered whether the problem was actually me, and not Siri. I know this sounds like a bad breakup line, but I’ve been spending some time trying really, really hard to make it work. I’ve been tweaking settings, learning commands and patiently correcting Siri when there was a hiccup.

The results have been pretty good. It's not perfect, but it is a lot better. I found that keeping it simple is the best approach. Nothing too ambitious. Siri can find flights or book restaurants, but I tend to use her for everyday tasks—the productivity stuff, in other words.

And for a lot of it, Siri is simply the best. There is no easier way to set a reminder, add a meeting to your calendar, start calls or send messages. You speak, she does it. For example, after you park your car and feed the meter, try saying “Set a one hour timer.” It’s much, much easier than doing it manually.

A small commitment spent learning how to use Siri can pay off big dividends. Siri has lived up to its promise and truly made me more productive.

If you've dismissed Siri due to frustration, or never even gave it a shot, I have 10 simple tips to help get you started. Try them. Once you work out the kinks and get in the habit of using Siri, you'll wonder how you ever got by without it.

1. Make Siri A Habit

The biggest hurdle was forcing myself to use Siri. Every time she failed, I just gave up and did whatever it was I was going to do manually. However, by forcing myself to launch Siri every time I went to type something, I soon got into the habit.

Instead of opening the Messages app, I now say “text my wife,” and I’m usually done in a fraction of the time this used to take. Next time you start an email or search for a contact, force yourself to use Siri instead. It takes about a week to get into the habit, but it’s worth it.

2. Use Raise to Speak

Most people hold the Home button for two seconds to bring Siri to life, but there’s a better way to use Siri in public. Raise to Speak launches Siri when you lift your iPhone to your ear, and you are "not" making a phone call. Her voice comes out of the earpiece, not the speaker, and you look as though you are making a regular phone call when you speak to her.

If Raise to Speak is off, go to Settings > General > Siri and scroll to the bottom. There you’ll see the “Raise to Speak” button, which you can switch to "on."

3. Set Up Your Contacts

Make sure to tell Siri about all your most important relationships. You can do this manually in Contacts by selecting your own contact information and filling in the slots for “wife,” “daughter,” and so on. A quicker method is to tell Siri directly: "Joe Bob is my brother.” Just make sure the name is already in your contacts. Say “Yes” when Siri asks you to confirm. This is a great and natural way to contact people: “Call my boss” or “text my assistant I’ll be 20 minutes late.” You can even add custom labels like “accountant” or “lawyer.”

4.  Add Phonetic Spellings And Nicknames

Siri stumbled over my daughter’s name until I added a phonetic spelling to her Contact card. In Contacts, find the person with the troublesome name. Hit “Edit” and scroll down to the bottom. Hit the button that says "Add New Field” and select "Phonetic First Name" or "Phonetic Last Name," depending on which one Siri can’t recognize. Now when you ask Siri to say or recognize a name, she'll get it right. You can even do this for place names, like favorite restaurants or places with hard-to-recognize names. Palace of “Ver-Sigh,” for example.

Another useful trick is to add nicknames to contacts. Using a nickname to call someone or send a text is a great, natural way to do things. Again, find the contact, hit “Edit” and “Add New Field” and select “Nickname.”

5. Calendar

It takes some getting used to, but using Siri to manage your calendar can be a big productivity boost. Adding new events, for example, can be a lot easier with Siri than any other method, including typing on your computer. The main trick is to include as much information as possible in the command. A rookie mistake is to say, “Schedule a meeting for tomorrow,” to which Siri responds with a query about what time? Better to say "Schedule a meeting with Joe Bob tomorrow at 11a.m." If Joe Bob is in your contacts, he will even receive an email invitation.

Siri has quite a lot of smarts. If you make a mistake, you can easily fix things by saying "change the time" or simply “cancel.” If there is ambiguity, Siri will ask questions to clarify the time or location. She is aware of conflicts with events already on your calendar, and can respond intelligently if you say “Cancel the 5 p.m. appointment” or “Reschedule my meeting on Thursday.”

Siri is good for searching your calendar or changing specific events. She understands “What appointments have I got tomorrow?” as well as “Cancel my doctor’s appointment on Friday.” 

6. SMS

I use Siri a lot for sending texts, my preferred way to communicate these days. Again, the rookie mistake is to say simple, “Send a text.” If you don’t specify, Siri will prompt you for a name, phone number or email address. Better to say, “Tell Joe Bob I’ll be 20 minutes late,” or “Text my mother that we arrived safely.” The keywords are “Tell” and “Text,” which alerts Siri to send an SMS message. In the car, you can ask Siri to read arriving texts out loud, and then respond: “Reply that I will be there shortly,” all without taking your eyes off the road.

7. Email

Using Siri for email is a bit more involved than sending SMS texts, but again it’s useful for situations like driving. Siri understands “Check Email” and will respond with a list all of your latest messages. You can respond by saying “Reply to saying .” You can even email multiple recipients.

When using Siri to send an email, the important keywords to use are: “send”, “about” and “say.” This way you can rattle off the recipient, subject line and message body in one go: Send email to about and say . So, to send an email addressed to “Joe Bob” with the subject of “Las Vegas” and the body message of “You up for a trip to the desert this weekend?” you would simply say: "Send email to Joe Bob about Las Vegas and say You up for a trip to the desert this weekend?"

Siri will confirm if the message is ready to go, and you simply respond “Yes” or tap the “Send” command on screen.

It can be quite a mouthful, but it is considerably faster than the laborious question and answer method of using Siri with a standard “Send email” command.

8. Location-Aware Reminders

To-do lists never work for me because I always forget to check them. Not so with a reminder that pops up at a particular location. It’s dead easy to tell Siri: “Remind me to get milk when I leave.” And when I step out of the door, the reminder pops up. There’s no need to tell Siri my location thanks to GPS.   

There are lots of situations you can use location-aware reminders: “Remind me to feed the fish when I get home,” or “Remind me to say happy birthday to my boss when I get to work.”

I find it useful for errands: “Get coffee at Martha Brothers” (my local coffee shop) or “Drop clothes at Locals Dry Cleaners.” Then when I pass the dry cleaners on the way home, a reminder pops up. Of course, you have to put the addresses of the coffee shop and dry cleaners into your contacts and turn on Location Services in Settings > Privacy Location Services.

To add addresses to your contact book, say “Find Walgreens,” then hit the red pin in the map and select the “Create New Contact” button to add it to your contacts.

9. Use The “Information” Button

When Siri is invoked, there’s a small “i” icon (for “Information”) in the bottom left corner of the screen. It’s very easy to overlook, but tap it and you’ll discover a big and useful library of tips for using Siri. They are arranged by App or task: Phone, Messages, Calendar, Restaurants, Movies, Notes and Settings. It’s well worth spending some quality time here, familiarizing yourself with features like finding the easiest way to get a trivia answer—simply by saying, “Google the war of 1812.” 

10. Fix Mistakes And Keep Going

Perseverance is one of the keys to getting Siri to work over the long haul. Apple claims that Siri gets better the more you use her. She does this by listening for your dialect or accent, and categorizing you against all the accents she understands. The more people use it, the more accents she understands and the better she is able to understand you, the individual. Or so Apple claims.

On a personal level, you can help her better understand commands by manually correcting mistakes. After issuing a command, check the speech box showing what you said. Siri frequently underlines in blue any words she misheard or can’t understand. Hit the underlined word and a dialogue pops up with some alternatives, which are often correct. I found that Siri often stumbles on the same commands and that training her to recognize correct words pays off. Of course, it’s inconvenient, but her transcription errors are far more infrequent after a little training.