(Image: “Be prepared”, by pink hats, red shoes on Flickr)

In January I am flying to Latin America to conduct a week long workshop on social media marketing and sales strategy. There are many differences in language and culture and research and preparation is more essential than ever.

Here are a few steps I am taking to ensure the presentation will be helpful and relevant.

1. Do.  After listening to your talk, what do you want members of your audience to do? Conduct a meeting? Ask their customers a question? Read a book? Use analytics tools to determine what consumers are saying about the brand? The action you want your audience to take will inform your presentation content and structure. Start there.

2. Expectations.  What does your audience expect to hear? If you’re an established speaker, the expectations will come from your brand. If you are an unknown speaker, the expectations will come from the title of your speech. Before you focus on wowing them beyond their wildest dreams, start by delivering the content which brought them to your talk and captured their interest in the first place.

3. Confirming expectations.  When I am invited to speak to clients, I always confirm the three outcomes I am aiming to achieve with my presentation. I do this by emailing the client, asking them to review the outcomes I have selected and provide feedback. This makes sure you don’t show up to talk about “how something works,” to an audience that wants to know “how to make it work better,” or “why consumers use social media,” when the client really want to know “how their company should use social media.”

4. Be relevant.  Know to whom your audience is primarily held accountable and to what they are held accountable. Shape your presentation accordingly. If you are in a room of CEOs who believe marketing should be the first expense cut in a recession, you have to not only address why social media marketing is effective, but also justify the broader category of marketing as well. When possible, I conduct brief discussions with people of a similar backgrounds to my audience to understand what they are thinking.

5. Ask the simple question.  If the audience only understood one point from this presentation, which one would it be?

6. Be proleptic.  What are the three most likely questions your audience will ask about the presentation? Make sure you address these questions early in the presentation

7. Say the unsaid.  Your presentation just ended. Your audience files out of the room. What comments are running through their minds? While you may never know, this exercise helps you see things from their perspective.

What has worked for you?  Please leave your speaking preparation tips as a comment below.

(Image from Flickr: “Business Meeting in Coffee Shop with Windows Mobile devices” by gailjadehamilton)

What I look for in a face to face meeting with a vendor depends on the context of the meeting.
If I am calling a business meeting with you, I am likely doing so because you can solve a problem I can’t solve, or you can increase my efficiency.

1. The first thing I look for is whether we are in agreement on the purpose of the meeting: Do we both want the same thing from our conversation? That’s the “what.”
2. I next evaluate “the who.” If the meeting is important, I’ve searched online to know who I am meeting with and what matters to them.
3. If the what and who check out, I’m on to “the how.” I want to see clear examples that demonstrate that you can do exactly what you say you can do.
4. Next,  “when and how much.” I am looking for transparency and candor here.
5. If I’m really interested, I’ll want it faster. And if we’ve never worked together, I will look for ways to mitigate risk.

This post was inspired by Andrew Clark’s comment yesterday: “So you’ve covered ‘online…’ Where (or what) do you look at when meeting someone for the first time (face to face)? Where do you keep your “About me” page?”

For a blog post on great meetings see this one.

I am interested in great “About Us” pages. Every time we craft one for a client, we access so much about the company, both about how they perceive themselves and about how they want others to perceive them.

When I evaluate a company’s “About Us” page my two criteria are credibility and personality.

For credibility, I scan bios of their leadership team to see where they’ve worked, attended school and when they’ve spoken at conferences. What makes them uniquely qualified?

Evaluating personality, on the other hand, is more of an art than a science.
I start by seeing whether the company has a clear vision, expressed as a story, which I can easily follow.
Why was the company established and what is its mantra?
Then I look at how effectively their design brings that story to life.
I next scan for involvement, and this will vary depending on the industry. For instance, if I am on an agency’s website, I want to see what social networks their employees are on and how they are using them.
Finally, I look for the personal touch: Who are the principals as people? Do I want to work with them? Video interviews, quotes, funny and intriguing stats help here.

I have shared a few examples below that illustrate intriguing about us pages:

1. Meebo – Instant messaging site

A nice mix of credibility and personality with short, descriptive bios visible when you click the arrow.

2. Zappos – The customer service company that happens to sell shoes

A good example of the use of narrative and intertwining the company’s initiatives into the overall story

3. Design Continuum – A design & marketing company

A good example of personality. Reading these pages gives me a sense of who they are—as people.

4. Headwaters – A Merchant Bank

The “About Us” page is a clear cut example of credibility, and the site exemplifies personality. It’s a gem amongst financial services sites.

5. Elastic Lab – A marketing agency

Although their video bios aren’t complete at the time of this entry, I like how they have positioned them on the site. If I want to learn more, or see their people, I can do so with one click.

6. Forty Media – Another marketing agency

Their whole site lives on one page, and their credibility derives from their involvement. Click under any of their team’s photos to see where they are active online. I love it.

I asked friends on Twitter for their feedback on about us pages. Here’s what they said:

@central_nm  on about us page – what is look and feel? does it convey a sense of person/company/service in honest & authentic? current?

@solobasssteve context, background info, links, credentials, personal info, photos, interests, friendliness.

@nwjerseyliz If biz, a BRIEF statement about goals whether that is a mission statement or a promise to customers to provide good service

@kirbstr I look for the 5 w’s. Who are they? Where are they? (this sticks in my mind even as it seems less relevant) what, when, why

UPDATE: @solskinner Check out DanSko’s “About Us” page. http://tinyurl.com/6pghnk

I have an idea for an “About Us” page I am considering for my agency’s website. The page would have two buttons. The first would be called “Just the Facts,” and the second, “Our Story & More…”

This would give visitors the ability to select how much information they want to know.

Want to read more on the subject? Check out:

The Power of the About Us Page, ClickZ, by Bryan Eisenberg
Your About Page is a Robot, A List Apart, by Erin Kissane
Calling for a Ban on “About Us” Pages, AdAge, by B. L. Ochman

Do you have an “About Us” page you love? Please leave it as a link in the comments below.

I am interested in great “About Us” pages. Every time we craft one for a client, we access so much about the company, both about how they perceive themselves and about how they want others to perceive them.

When I evaluate a company’s “About Us” page my two criteria are credibility and personality.

For credibility, I scan bios of their leadership team to see where they’ve worked, attended school and when they’ve spoken at conferences. What makes them uniquely qualified?

Evaluating personality, on the other hand, is more of an art than a science.
I start by seeing whether the company has a clear vision, expressed as a story, which I can easily follow.
Why was the company established and what is its mantra?
Then I look at how effectively their design brings that story to life.
I next scan for involvement, and this will vary depending on the industry. For instance, if I am on an agency’s website, I want to see what social networks their employees are on and how they are using them.
Finally, I look for the personal touch: Who are the principals as people? Do I want to work with them? Video interviews, quotes, funny and intriguing stats help here.

I have shared a few examples below that illustrate intriguing about us pages:

1. Meebo – Instant messaging site

A nice mix of credibility and personality with short, descriptive bios visible when you click the arrow.

2. Zappos – The customer service company that happens to sell shoes

A good example of the use of narrative and intertwining the company’s initiatives into the overall story

3. Design Continuum – A design & marketing company

A good example of personality. Reading these pages gives me a sense of who they are—as people.

4. Headwaters – A Merchant Bank

The “About Us” page is a clear cut example of credibility, and the site exemplifies personality. It’s a gem amongst financial services sites.

5. Elastic Lab – A marketing agency

Although their video bios aren’t complete at the time of this entry, I like how they have positioned them on the site. If I want to learn more, or see their people, I can do so with one click.

6. Forty Media – Another marketing agency

Their whole site lives on one page, and their credibility derives from their involvement. Click under any of their team’s photos to see where they are active online. I love it.

I asked friends on Twitter for their feedback on about us pages. Here’s what they said:

@central_nm  on about us page – what is look and feel? does it convey a sense of person/company/service in honest & authentic? current?

@solobasssteve context, background info, links, credentials, personal info, photos, interests, friendliness.

@nwjerseyliz If biz, a BRIEF statement about goals whether that is a mission statement or a promise to customers to provide good service

@kirbstr I look for the 5 w’s. Who are they? Where are they? (this sticks in my mind even as it seems less relevant) what, when, why

UPDATE: @solskinner Check out DanSko’s “About Us” page. http://tinyurl.com/6pghnk

I have an idea for an “About Us” page I am considering for my agency’s website. The page would have two buttons. The first would be called “Just the Facts,” and the second, “Our Story & More…”

This would give visitors the ability to select how much information they want to know.

Want to read more on the subject? Check out:

The Power of the About Us Page, ClickZ, by Bryan Eisenberg
Your About Page is a Robot, A List Apart, by Erin Kissane
Calling for a Ban on “About Us” Pages, AdAge, by B. L. Ochman

Do you have an “About Us” page you love? Please leave it as a link in the comments below.

(Packed House at SMB10 by Bob Collins on Flickr)

The theme of Social Media Breakfast Boston 10 was “ Getting ROI Out of Social Media.”
HubSpot’s CEO Brian Halligan discussed their method for measuring how social media conversations translate into sales.
Marketers at the event suggested that hiring good content people is a more attractive alternative than buying advertising.
Matt Cutler, Vice President, Marketing & Analytics at Visible Measures, presented on the ROI of viral video.
Visible Measures has powerful tools for measuring viral impact, a database of millions of videos and criteria to evaluate what makes videos “go viral.”
Matt drew a comparison to how much Nike would have had to spend on TV commercials to create the same impact that one of their viral videos had (with 16M views).

He calculated that broadcast TV CPMs are apx. $25 and online video CPMs are apx. $50-75, and he created an estimate.
His formula needs to add one critical consideration: context.
Watching a viral video forwarded to me by a friend, posted in a favorite blog or on a social network is worth much more than a tv spot that interrupts my show.