ARE YOU A VISIONARY?

Are you a visionary?

If you were, would you call yourself one?

Who would believe you? Are they credible or gullible? We're judged by the people around us.

Titles are earned and require signs of ongoing merit to maintain. There's no rest for the worthy. Think of a hot air balloon in flight. You've got to keep adding fuel and take time to refuel. Regular maintenance is a good idea too.

Pompous self-aggrandizement flops like the ears on a bored bunny. Whatever. Ho hum. La di da. Rather than impress, you might achieve the opposite result.

Claims

If you are a "visionary", what's your vision?  Who's following you (voluntarily)? Who's spreading the word (without getting motivated by self-interest)?

If you're a "leader", what have you accomplished and who has followed you (voluntarily). Who has vouched for you (voluntarily)? Where's the evidence?

If you're a "best-selling author", have you done anything except make money or buy your books yourself? If you were well known, would you call yourself a "best-selling author"? Or would you say you're the author of The Hunger Games or Blink? If we don't recognize your name or your book titles, we don't know you. What does "best-selling" mean anyway? If that means #1 in sale of books, your name would be known.

If you're "award winning", have we heard of the award? Did you face real competition? How recently did you win? Is the award relevant?

If you're a visionary leader and a best-selling author of an award-winning book, congratulations. You're beyond the scope of this post.

Actions

Rather than make claims, act.

Describe what you've done (if relevant) and what you do. Be factual. Let people make their own judgments. They will anyway from the clues you provide and the ones they find.
Speaking of visionaries, I'm reminded of Minutes To Memories by John Mellencamp:

The old man had a vision but it was hard for me to follow.
I do things my way and I pay a high price.

If you're making grand claims about yourself, you're paying a high price in lost credibility. How do you meet or exceed expectations when you've inflated them? That’s not very visionary.

Links

• We see as we are
• How does anyone know you’re good?
• Expectations change: what do you call yourself?
• Three ways to beat the market leader
• How to make your message stick
• What’s better: “ultimate” or “pure”?
• image courtesy of Angelika Bentin

PS Do you make pompous claims in your LinkedIn profile or biography? Get outside opinions.

TIPS TO MODERNIZE YOUR WEBSITE

Old cameras become antiques. Old websites become embarrassments.

A website remains essential for small business. An outdated website is better than no website but not by much. An outdated website is an easy-to-spot sign of neglect that you're condoning. Clients might wonder what other shortcuts you've taken.

This post has ideas to freshen your website.

Life

A static website looks dead or neglected. Add life. Embed your Twitter feed. Have a plugin to show your latest blog posts.

Remove notices of upcoming events which took place last year. Post back issues of your newsletter so that visitors know what to expect before they subscribe.

Depth

Stop teasing visitors. They don't want to fill out forms to get contacted by you at your convenience. Tell them what they want to know. Post a price list or typical price ranges or your hourly rate. Give estimated completion times. Explain your satisfaction guarantee. Describe your process.

Don't worry about your competitors finding out. They may already know or can guess. Don't worry about potential clients balking. They'll find out eventually. Why not deal with the objections online? You'll save their time and yours.

Stock

There's nothing wrong with stock photos unless they look like standard stock photos. Avoid predictability. On your contact page, why show a too-staged-to-be-real smiling woman wearing a headset? We've seen that too many times before. Use real photos instead.

Size

Don't say "we" if there's only you. Use your size as an advantage. Tell visitors why smaller is better. Exude your personality. Leave bland for the big businesses.

You

Keep in mind that for visitors, "you" (meaning them) is powerful. Rather than saying "Our clients choose us for speedy service" how about "You get speedy service from ThisCo" or "ThisCo gives you speedy service". If your competitors also give comparable service, you'll need to come up with something that's different (and still true).

People

Your company has people. Show who they are with a photo and description. Include their contact information too. You want to be easy to reach. In the biographies, include links to LinkedIn for testimonials given and received. Embed their business-related Twitter feed, rather than having a link.
Use the same head-shot on LinkedIn and Twitter. Consistency helps with branding.

Design

"Most websites suck because HiPPOs create them."
--- Avinash Kaushik, Google Analytics

HiPPO means "highest-paid person's opinion". The design you like may not suit your clients. Don't give undue weight to your personal preferences. Use a professional web designer and pay some attention to their recommendations. Your site is not for you.

If your website gets lots of traffic, you can use real-time A/B testing to identify what works best (see Inside the technology that's changing the rules of business, Wired, Apr 25, 2012).

Mobile

Some visitors will visit your website on a mobile device like a smartphone or tablet. How does your site look? If you're using Adobe Flash, parts of your site won't function on iPhones or iPads.

Templates

You can create a business card using templates. You can also create websites with blogging platforms like WordPress or Blogger. You could even do the work yourself. Possible doesn't mean ideal. Your site might look generic and imply your work is too.

Contact

Make your contact information easy to find. Post real clickable email address like myname@domain.com rather than "myname [at] domain.com". With good spam filters, you won't get deluged with spam.

Overall

Appearances matter because clients and potential clients can't tell if you're good at what you say you do. Maybe you were, but are you now? Maybe you can still do good work, but will you for them?

You can provide content to allay the fears. If you claim to offer an excellent seminar, show live video clips. Show samples of the handouts. Consider video testimonials from attendees. There's lots you can do without much effort. 

Links

• How to make your “cherry farm” worth picking
• Seven questions to describe your business
• Create your web presence in three easy steps
• Improving Google’s “Get Your Business Online” initiative
• How can your clients find you?
• How to hire a social media expert
• The step before your marketing
• Do you annoy your clients without knowing?
• image courtesy of Enna van Duinen (Holland)

PS When was your website last updated?