Deborah Corn

Do not try this at home, or in your Marketing efforts

Deborah Corn — Tue, 24 May 2011 20:10:43 +0000

One of my marketing pet peeves is the “do not try this at home” disclaimer that sits in many TV commercials. Sometimes its “professional stunt person, or professional driver on closed course” but the inference is still the same no matter how unlikely or humanly probable that anyone could recreate these “life threatening” scenarios.

I saw a commercial last night where a guy is standing on a rooftop and huge, tentacled CG power lines shoot up from below to one antenna and get plugged in to create a giant power source that shoots up to the heavens. I don’t even remember the advertiser (I think it might have been a mobile network), because I was too focused on the “do not try this at home” message. Seriously… do not try this at home? Now what will I do with my giant self-propelling power chords gathering dust in my garage?

Cut to that Gossip Girl – girl Rachel Bilson, in what appears to be either a terrible traffic jam or a horrific pile up on PCH1. Spying an ice cream truck ahead she takes the quickest path out of her car and onto and over each one in front of hers to get her treat – essentially breaking into the truck and stealing it. Again we are reminded – do not try this at home. Now, I could argue there maybe some good points to this one: stealing is bad even if you are pretty and hip, jumping on cars in traffic that could start moving is dangerous, and it’s probably best to call 911 at the scene of an accident before thinking about ice cream… but it’s a fantasy – and since when is home not a good place to try out a fantasy, especially one involving ice cream!

Ok, I digressed a bit… but now I will come around to my point. Moving your marketing efforts into the multi-channel realm does not mean forsaking ink on paper. There is no better delivery device, or foundation for your campaign. For example, according to QRaware, a Mobile Barcode Study – of those surveyed (out of 100% for each category), 48% had seen QR codes on Printed ads vs 40% on the Internet, 12% on TV vs 42% in Newspapers/Magazines, and 45% saw them in Brochures/Collateral. That is almost half of all category QR scans generating from Print!

Augmented Reality has similar stats. In the Infographic: Marketing with Augmented Reality - the top uses for AR are Brochures (19%), Pitches (18%), Events & Conferences and Online (16%) and so on. Even in the augmented world people gravitate to the tangible, what they can hold in their hand and see with their eyes, before needing any devices to elevate that experience, and that is why it is delivered that way.

As marketing evolves and new technologies emerge, keep this in mind as you plan your next campaign… Tradition is why we eat Turkey on Thanksgiving and Traditional Media is what has gotten us to this point in time with proven results. Commercials may warn us to “not try this at home” – but in multichannel marketing, I would offer “do not try this without Print.”

Do you have a bucket list for Print?

Deborah Corn — Thu, 03 Feb 2011 00:30:04 +0000

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I was tooling around Facebook and all of these “bucket list” things to do before you die ads were on my sidebar. First, I started wondering if Facebook knew something that I didnt regarding my expiration date. I mean they track your every move – did my behavior pattern indicate my days were numbered? Since I use the PrintMediaCentr Page only for work, and I have another account I only play poker with, I tossed it up to a trending phrase and breathed a sign of relief. However, it was in my head and it started to make me think about what my “bucket list” for print projects might be.

Here are five that popped into mind:

Brad & Angelina’s REAL Wedding Invitations

The in-flight magazine for Virgin Galactic, or anything Sir Richard that would bring me to his island in the BVI with proofs to approve

Life’s Year in Pictures – Im not sure if they still publish this (how sad), but even the online gallery would be an amazing experience to work with some awesome photographers and retouchers

Anything for Pixar just to be in there – but preferably their movie posters, or product packaging

A Hammacher Schlemmer catalog (love the gadgets and gifts for people who REALLY have everything)

What are yours?

Use code XPLOPMC and you can attend XPLOR 2011 for FREE!!!

Deborah Corn — Sat, 15 Jan 2011 20:47:11 +0000

The Xplor International Conference & Vendor Forum can best be described simply as a “one of a kind” event. It is the perfect blend of information, knowledge and networking, integrating both the end user and vendor communities in a three day, intimate format April 5-7, 2011 in Tampa, Florida.

This year’s theme is The Next Generation of Customer Communications and will once again bring together leading edge end users, analysts, industry experts, and vendors who will share information, best practices, trends and the latest in technology.

Document Professionals: This is a must attend event and opportunity to attend educational sessions, expand your network and find solutions.
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Use your network and spread the word! You have a one in 15 chance of winning, as 1 winner will be selected for each 15 people who use the code to register. The odds are in your favor to attend a great event for FREE!

The Apprentice Strikes Again (aka Thank God for Printers)

Deborah Corn — Wed, 22 Dec 2010 19:05:37 +0000

Donald Trump and I have a relationship, but I am positive he is unaware of it. Besides his show The Apprentice being the inspiration for my “Win a Career Coach Contest,” I also spent a year doing a radio bit on KRAK in Sacramento, CA called “Debbie does Donald” posing as his secretary during his very public divorce from Ivana (that’s the original and a few wives back if you are under 30). I would call in from my office in NYC every Friday and give a report on the latest Trump saga with my exaggerated Nu Yawk accent and some humor tossed in. It went pretty well, many listeners actually though I was his secretary, but as in most things including their divorce it ended and we all went our merry way – Ivana merrier than the rest of us with her multi multi-million settlement of course.

So, back-story in mind, a few weeks ago The Apprentice finale aired. Clint, one of the final contestants had a printing EMERGENCY. He had misspelled Liza Minnelli’s name as Liza Minelli on all of his printed material and had just hours to rectify a mistake that would certainly end his chances of winning the show. He contacted the Printer, made a plan, and then crossed his fingers. Cut to minutes before the event – his phone rings – it’s the Printer – they are at the entrance with his re-printed materials. Cut to Clint’s camera interview regarding the situation to which he says, “The Printer shows up… and Im thinking thank you, thank you, cause if that didn’t happen we’d be toast.”

I cant even recall how many times Ive said that out loud as there have been so many. When the s#!t hits the fan, and it often does in advertising, your only defense is the person on the other end of the line making things happen for you. It’s so important to have relationships with your Printers, and I don’t mean just being Facebook friends. They will move mountains for you, make the impossible possible, and do everything they can to help you perform Production Miracles!

Since it’s the season for giving – I wanted to give a big SHOUT OUT to every Printer who has helped me be successful in my career, and equally to all the photographers, pre-press, retouchers, mail houses, shippers – the list goes on and on through the Production chain – so if you service Print Production in any manner you are included in my sincere and most humble THANKS FOR ALL YOU DO and have a wonderful and prosperous 2011.

E.T. Blogs Home

Deborah Corn — Tue, 16 Nov 2010 19:13:14 +0000

Greetings to all following my intergalactic travel blog.

I have finally made my way back to planet Earth after stopping for a little R&R on Europa. Boy, there have been may changes since my visit almost 30 years ago. The humans have increased their technology quite significantly for their species. While they are still light-years behind us, I found 10 examples of things I could not do during my last visit that are now possible and you might find interesting…

1. Communicate with people on the other side of the world in real time from virtually anywhere
2. Write something and make it available to billions of people for free without any technical knowledge
3. Search billions of pages of information and find almost anything in less than a second
4. Watch world events unfold in real time independent of traditional media organizations
5. Stream & download music, tv, and films over the internet from anywhere free of schedule limitations
6. View products, compare prices, make purchases and buy tickets without leaving my chair
7. Surf the web, make calls, send emails, listen to music, watch movies, record photos & videos, know where you are and a million more functions all using a single device which can fit in your pocket
8. Start a business without relying on the traditional costly overheads of office space and infrastructure
9. Translate text between languages at a touch of a button with passable results
10. Store massive amounts of information in a very small space (remember encyclopedias?!)

Amazing when you consider I had to make a transmitter out of children’s toys back then to get a lift home!

What is really amazing however, is that with all that progress the same technology that has freed their borders, imaginations and the unhindered flow of information is now under siege by corporations who are trying to control it. This thing called Net Neutrality allows all humans to be part of the system and contribute to it without any interference. The companies that own the telephone and cable lines which enable access to this system have decided there is more money to be made, and have challenged the governments of many nations to allow them to make the humans pay more for access to certain sites, control access to which sites they can visit, and set the speeds at which information flows to favor sites they support. You would think that all the humans would band together and stop it from happening, but the phone and cable companies have made this issue very difficult to understand when they speak about it, and most humans seem content to ignore it until of course they cant access their email, or their favorite social media platform, or bank, or airline without paying additional fees per month.

: Image via Wikipedia

Where is stands now is that principle of Net Neutrality has been abolished in the United States. The US Congress will vote on whether it is put into law and the internet remains as they see it now. Many countries are waiting to see what happens there before they make decisions, but other countries like Japan have already put net neutrality into law. There is more to this issue of course, and information is readily available on the same system they are trying to break into pieces, but one of the most compelling arguments to restore Net Neutrality is regarding something they call free speech.

At this point, any human can go into this system and say whatever they want, read whatever news and information they want, and choose what platform they use to access this information. Without Net Neutrality, that will all be restricted to the rules and affiliations of the corporations who supply the lines for the internet. There are many sources for information on this argument such as: CNN, and the ACLU. There are also sites where you can sign petitions to keep Net Neutrality before it’s too late: Save The Internet, MoveOn.org, AlFranken, CommonCause, and PetitionToCongress to name a few.

I would hate to come back in another 30 years to find that the freedom of information, speech and innovation that an open system allows and that connects all humans had been left in the hands of those who care more about a bottom line than the advancement of the human race. I am going to sign some of those petitions and make my way towards the West Coast of the United States to discuss a new venture called GallacticBook with a human called Mark Zuckerberg. He invented something called Facebook which is used by over 500 million earthlings and would not have been possible without Net Neutrality.

Net neutrality expert calls Apple the number one threat to Internet freedom (tuaw.com)
Art Brodsky: Net Neutrality And The New Congress — Meh (huffingtonpost.com)
With GOP Gains, What Next for Net Neutrality at FCC? (pcworld.com)
Net neutrality: Job-killing zombie (politico.com)
Privacy and the Net Neutrality Summit (bigbrotherwatch.org.uk)
Commission urged to force transparency on network traffic shaping (go.theregister.com)
How new Congress will tackle privacy, Net neutrality (news.cnet.com)
Commissioner: Competition May Not Provide Net Neutrality (pcworld.com)
Comcast CEO: Let’s Move Past Net Neutrality (techdailydose.nationaljournal.com)

Was EW Magazine Production Asleep at the Wheel?

Deborah Corn — Mon, 08 Nov 2010 17:54:45 +0000

I am a bit baffled regarding the situation I am about to describe… I received my EW (with Captain America on the cover) and saw that the back cover, and ad for an upcoming TV show on TBS was upside down. My automated address was also upside down on the right side up cover. I looked carefully to see if perhaps it was some gimmick – like “this show will change your perspective” or if there was some reference to why it was placed this way – but there is none.

I flipped over the mag, and saw that the back inside cover was also upside down, as were the last 2 text pages, also ads for this show.

Now that is certainly strange – but here is why I am baffled – the front and inside front cover, and the first two text pages in the magazine of what would be the other half of the printers spread are facing right-side up!!

If this wasn’t intentional, (and if it was it is surely a BAD idea since I cant find any reason its upside down) how does this happen? Was Production at an extended happy hour and missed 4 pages printing upside down? If something were to be bound incorrectly wouldn’t that affect all 4 pages of the spread? How does only one-half of a spread print upside down in a saddle stitch magazine and no one notices? Perhaps Im just too amazed at what Im seeing to be rational – so I’d love to hear your thoughts on how something like this slips by, or if you know why it was done intentionally I’d love to know!

Chris Evans’ Captain America Covers EW! (justjared.buzznet.com)
More Photos Of Chris Evans, As Captain America, In ‘Entertainment Weekly’ Magazine (pinkisthenewblog.com)
New ‘Captain America’ Image Shows Chris Evans Suited Up as Cap (slashfilm.com)
‘Captain America’ Update: High-Res Image Of Chris Evans As The First Avenger! (splashpage.mtv.com)
More Photos from EW of ‘Captain America: The First Avenger’! (firstshowing.net)
Chris Evans heats up EW cover as Captain America! (pinkbananaworld.com)

Digital is not a four-letter word!

Deborah Corn — Sun, 10 Oct 2010 20:07:09 +0000

The Number 42…
Today is 10/10/10, and in binary code 101010 represents the number 42. Why is that important? Well, if you are also a fan of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (HGG) you may recall that 42 is the answer to “life, the Universe, and everything!” So on this day, which serves as a numerological alignment between a printed book and its digital significant other, I take it as a sign to post about this relationship and fit in some HGG references since this may be my only chance.

So long, and thanks for all the Fish…
Let’s start with Print isn’t going anywhere. What we print, and how much we print may fluctuate with the times, but Printing has been around since Mesopotamia 3000 BC according to WikiPedia. In the Mid-15th century the printing press came along and made things easier for everyone, and has continued to evolve into and beyond the present day. That’s a pretty long run to be simply wiped off the earth with the advent and purchase of some iPads and Kindles.

Mostly Harmless…
Having used my Point of View Gun, we hopefully agree that Print is part of our lives and here to stay, I now turn your direction to technology… and the “D” word. For every road that closes in the universe, a hyperspace bypass opens. Sure, some things must be torn down to make way for the improvements, but it doesn’t change the base concept that things move from one place to another. We are in the transfer information business. You can take the slow lane, the fast lane, or combine your effort to cover the most ground and still have time to stop at the Restaurant at the End of Universe for lunch. Whether you call it Cross-Channel or Multi-Channel, its time to stick out your thumb and take the ride.

Knowing where your towel is…
In HGG, somebody who can stay in control of virtually any situation is somebody who is said to know where his or her towel is. We are masters of Marketing, and that includes marketing our businesses and ourselves. Digital Media provides so many opportunities that it surprises me how many Printers have not reached for their towels. You already have my Print work, why not expand and offer the Digital services to complete my needs? Create Apps, e-books and FaceBook pages. Develop Digital Asset Management platforms and Cloud based services for your clients. You have Pre-Press departments that are perfect places to hire Production Artists who can also create basic websites for the non-Advertising Agency crowd. Become Multi-Channel resources in the Multi-Channel world. And the same goes for Production Managers and Creatives. Integration for us started years ago and yet there are still some who cannot manage or create a Digital project. Your current position may not require it but believe me if that changes you will really need your towel to use as a security blanket.

Don’t Panic…
Ok, I admit I got a bit fire and brimstone in that last paragraph but as HGG teaches us, the most important lesson is Don’t Panic. Digital media is enveloping so much of our world that it’s actually becoming easier to use. Two years ago you couldn’t have a website without a programmer or some pretty good HTML skills, but now with WordPress you can have a site in 10 mins that you can manage yourself for FREE. Yes it’s basic, but you’re present and searchable and with the proper care and effort to create content you can push that out into the SocialMediaVerse and establish yourself or your business on another Marketing level. As business picks up, you can revisit your site and upgrade and get the Pro’s involved. Production Managers and Creatives have even more options, especially if you work at an Advertising Agency that already covers these projects. Some will offer classes; others will pay a percentage of continuing education. Get a group together and ask a Digital or Integrated Project manager to run through the process and give them a nice gift card or make it part of a dinner party. Show your artwork or copy to your Digital counterparts and ask them for a critique on what works and what doesn’t for different platforms and devices. If you don’t have access to any internal resource, you have the Internet, which is the greatest resource of all. Join groups on LinkedIn or other professional communities. Read the relevant blogs and articles and keep up on current Multi-Channel trends. Learn the terms, understand the goals, be able to have a conversation about QR codes, TransPromo and Augmented Reality and the rest will follow.

Total Perspective Vortex…
In HGG, the Total Perspective Vortex is the most horrific torture device imaginable as it gives the one who enters a momentary glimpse of the infinite universe, and how everything is connected and affected by every other piece. Eventually it leads to a small microscopic dot that says, “You are Here” resulting in a sense of proportion. Having just exited the Vortex, I acknowledge my thoughts above may not be new ideas, but perhaps presented in this way we can all get from here to there with our towels and a different perspective on the role Digital Media plays in our lives. If not, we can always engage the Infinite Improbability Drive and take a ride.

1/1: Interview with Larry Bauer Owner, Bauer Associates: Marketing for a New Age

Deborah Corn — Sun, 10 Oct 2010 14:59:29 +0000

Hi Larry and thanks for taking the time to answer a few questions for us. I follow you on Twitter, and we are also connected on LinkedIn. I think you have a proactive and positive approach for keeping Print relevant in the emerging Print Media market, and I hope the readers of this interview will agree…

So, with that being said…

DC: Who is Larry Bauer, and what does he do?

LB: I own an integrated marketing and creative consultancy, Bauer Associates, that mainly targets the graphic arts industry. Over the past 20 years, I’ve served clients as large as RR Donnelley, Quebecor and Banta as well as smaller printers with just a few million dollars in sales. For some companies, I am their virtual marketing department while for others I might provide a specific service ranging from managing a customer education program to writing their newsletters.

My objective is always to provide high-level strategy and services at whatever level the client requires. I hit the ground running and require little of the client’s time to get up to speed.

Continues at: 1/1: Interview with Larry Bauer Owner, Bauer Associates: Marketing for a New Age | PrintMediaCentr.com.

1/1: Interview with Brian Solis, Principal at FutureWorks, Blogger & Author of Engage! | PrintMediaCentr.com

Deborah Corn — Wed, 29 Sep 2010 17:12:40 +0000

Hi Brian. Thanks so much for answering a few questions. Your reputation and credibility in the New Media arena placed you on the top of my interview wish list, and I am very grateful you were able to find some time to respond. I have spent extensive time on your website and I encourage anyone reading this post to visit there as often as possible.

So without further adieu…

DC: Who is Brian Solis and what does he do?

BS: My name is Brian Solis and among many things, I’m the author of the new book Engage! The Complete Guide for Businesses to Build and Measure Success in the New Web. I also run my website BrianSolis.com and contribute to Fast Company, Harvard Business Review, BusinessWeek, and others. My research and writing is dedicated to analyzing, interpreting and surfacing trends in new media, business, and technology. I also am the principal and founder of FutureWorks, an agency that helps businesses lead creative digital and influence campaigns as well as working with leaders to adapt to the social (R)evolution.

continues at: 1/1: Interview with Brian Solis, Principal at FutureWorks, Blogger & Author of Engage! | PrintMediaCentr.com.

LinkedIn Logistics: Tips & Tools

Deborah Corn — Sun, 19 Sep 2010 18:28:20 +0000

As the owner and manager of the Print Production Professionals Group on LinkedIn, I receive quite a bit of email from members asking me for some advice on the best way to navigate through this networking world. The following information is based upon my personal experience, and a few good tips I received along the way…

Your Profile – fill it out to 100%. Use a current photo of yourself (not your pet or your company logo, or a sailboat). Try to get recommendations for as many positions that you list. NEVER write looking for a job or any other type of “seeking” information as your title. Use that space to market yourself – ie Award Winning Print Production Professional, Results Driven Sales Specialist – etc – and you can write that you are seeking a new opportunity in your summary. The goal is to get people to your profile page so they can read WHO you are, and WHAT you do, not deter them by presenting yourself as NEEDING something from them. As well, don’t put contact info, url’s, or anything other than requested information in your name field. LinkedIn frowns upon that and has restricted or removed accounts of repeat offenders.

Your Status – yes, its a bit Facebooky and nobody really wants to know that you are getting into the shower or eating grapes, but here is another place to market yourself and its visible to all your contacts and group members. Posting an interesting news article link, or some cool project you are working on, or announcing your updated website, or anything that will garner you comments or profile/url hits is the goal. I recommend posting something new in the status area at least 1x a week – but remember overkill status posting will get you ignored just as fast as “I need a job.”

Connecting – I have found the best way to do this is by joining relevant groups. Once a member, you can request to connect with anyone in that group using the “we share a group” option.

Networking – The advanced people search is my best friend, and should become yours as well. You can search by location, industry, in your network and out of it. I have done this type of search for Recruiters, HR in Ad agencies, Printers in a certain state and once for SEO companies near me. You can basically find anything you are looking for here, and also see how you are connected to them. 98% of the time you are connected through someone in your personal network if you are searching within your own industry. You can send an introduction request through LinkedIn down the line until you get to the person you wanted to contact. It is up to each person whether or not to pass it along, and your email to that target is visible to everyone. If you send these requests, you can monitor the status from your sent mail folder and see the progress. I also believe in the free accounts you can still have only 5 of these out at one time, so if time has elapsed on a few, you can withdraw them to send others and try again at another time. If your target person is out of your network, then you either need their email address or have to wait until they are in it somehow.

Groups – Just joining is a great way to connect as Ive said, but participating is a great way to share your voice and make a virtual name for yourself. Salespeople especially can benefit so much through participation by becoming an “expert and helpful voice” and leaving the equipment list out of it. Ultimately, we are all on LinkedIn selling something whether it’s ourselves or our products and services. There are over 12,000 people in my group but I “know” maybe 100 or so because I interact with them through the discussion board on a regular basis. So whom am I going to seek out if I need a vendor or a freelancer or even just some advice on how to best print something? The only line not to cross here is posting for the sake of posting – aka the ones that answer their own questions or aren’t really written for comments but rather backhanded solicitations or information about their companies or something else related to them. Needless to say you can see through them as clearly as I can and their names and reputations go in the mental trash quicker than I see and delete the posts. Overkill posting, even if relevant and topical can have the same negative results and end up getting you ignored more than read.

Navigating the New LinkedIn Group Interface – LinkedIn recently updated the look and functionality in groups and gave members more tools to actively participate. Now that most of the kinks have been worked out and some modifications have been made at the request of many of the larger group owners like myself, things have smoothed out enough to share some tips and review those updates. There are many so I’m going to list them in the order they appear on the Group home page. Managers can turn off and on some of these features so I am only referencing how my Print Production Professionals Group functions.

- Under the Group name and logo is the top line navigation. There is a new tab called Promotions, and News has been removed. My group uses this section for posting news, blogs and articles and it functions as News did. The only problem is that anything posted in Promotions doesn’t show up on the Daily Digest of Group Activity email, so I allow the most Group and Industry relevant posts on the main board so people who don’t check LinkedIn frequently but receive the digests can still get that information.

- In the same top line navigation is a tab called Search. Clicking on this from the Group’s home page will bring ALL the Group’s discussion to one list and resembles what the home page used to look like. However, from this view you cannot see if any of the discussions have comments.

- In the far right corner of the top line navigation, under the LinkedIn search tool are two new links: Invite Others, which allows you to invite any of your connections to the group, and Group Rules, which explains the protocol for posting on the discussion board.

- Under those two links is a box called Manager’s Choice where featured discussions can be found and Group Managers have control of what is placed there.

- The newest posts can be found in the scrolling box. You can click to view from there or click See All New Discussions, which is basically the same thing as #2 above. They are placed here automatically.

- Under that is Most Popular Discussions. No matter when they were posted, the topics with the most comments show up here, and under those the new posts are listed again whether they have comments or not. They are placed here automatically.

- All group members now have the ability to “like” or “flag” discussions. Like might come in handy if you don’t feel like responding but still want to acknowledge the post. Flags on the other hand alert Group Managers that a post is not where it should be, or is “inappropriate”. I manage my board pretty tight so my group members can flag posts, but only I can move it or remove it based upon the settings I have chosen. In other groups, enough flags will move or remove the post and all its comments, and in some cases people who flag too often can be removed from the group. I have found most of the time flagging or moving posts has been done in error, and its easier for me to just watch over that then have to explain why a post was moved or flagged by someone else in email then put it back and so on. In the Group’s where Managers don’t moderate everyday, or are so large they cant get to every post, this could be seen as a useful feature.

- On the right side of the home page is another new box called Top Influencers This Week. Group Managers have zero control of that and it basically shows whose post has the most comments, or who has posted the most whether there are comments or not. It holds no weight, and certainly posting and sharing knowledge or information is not a competition. However, if you want to know more about those people you can click their names and that will show an overview of their activity.

- Moving to LinkedIn’s navigation in line with their logo on the very top of any LinkedIn page is a tab called “More”. It’s pretty self-explanatory once you are in there, but I would like to point out the “Tweets” option. If you are on Twitter, you really should invest the three minutes to set this up. You can run a Twitter feed on your profile, in your status, and on your home page or any combination. On the Tweets home page you can view your feed without signing into Twitter. In the Connections tab, you can see all of your 1^st degree LinkedIn connections who are on Twitter, their Twitter name, and can choose to follow them. It’s just a simple feature but saves tons of time compared to searching for people and adding one by one Twitter proper.

- There are other new features in the Contacts tab, and new Applications you can add from your profile page, so you might want to look through all the navigation if you haven’t in a while. Some of the functionality will require upgrading accounts. Personally, I have used a FREE account since I signed up, and have had measurable success within those parameters. Occasionally I am unable to contact someone directly via InMail, but my network is large enough that 99% of the time I can send an Introduction Request through a connection to offset that.

The Bottom Line – The LinkedIn platform perfectly exemplifies you get out of it what you put into it. There are blogs dedicated to formulating sales strategies, job-hunting advice, and how to become a social media expert, but the thing I think they are all missing is that behind the profile and the computer screen is a person. If you share yourself, the rest will follow. When I started my group I was mortified as I had only 5 members for about a month or so, and there was my NAME as group owner for all to see. So I began creating something that I knew I would like to be a part of and stopped waiting for people to just find me. I posted and replied to discussions in my group and others, and used my status to market the group. I created a space where solicitations weren’t allowed, but people could ask for help and get a plethora of responses. Someone once told me that being in Print Production Professionals was like having 5000 colleagues down the hall – and that was the greatest compliment and a reflection of the group I wanted to have, and was able to create by being ME, and letting people know who that was without any fear.

I’m sure that many of you have some great advice to add to this list and I hope you will feel free to post your comments