Hey Everyone,
I recently did two former business colleagues huge favors with absolutely no thank you at all. As a huge fan of business etiquette (being humble, grateful, and thankful got me where I am today), I’d like to share my recent experiences and make the case to think twice about the "small" stuff. Rising fast in the world of online marketing requires etiquette. If you master the numbers and the game, your online marketing career will seriously thrive.
Bad Business Etiquette: New Job, No Thank You
It’s all about your network. I have invested substantial time over the years building my network, both in person and also on LinkedIn. Why is my network so strong? I like to do favors for other people and help them out. The more you give, the more you receive – It really is as simple as that! I truly care about others and enjoy growing careers in this great industry.
So, when I noticed that one of my bright former business colleagues was out of work, I went out of my way to leverage my network to help them out. I ended up landing them a really sweet job! Here’s the problem: I got absolutely zero thank you. Can you believe it? I sure find it hard to believe! No thank you note, no dinner, no lunch, no thank you at all. My advice to you: Never take a favor like this for granted. No matter how busy you may be, take the time to really say thank you.
Bad Business Etiquette: Letter of Recommendation, No Thank You
I recently spoke about online marketing at Stanford GSB. I was thoroughly impressed with the strong caliber of students at Stanford. As a Stanford Computer Science major, I aspire to attend Stanford GSB one day. As a fan of business school and higher education in general, I always am more than happy to write strong letters of recommendation for old reports and co-workers!
This year, I have enjoyed writing several letters of recommendation. Most of the time, I will get a sincere thank you note, lunch, dinner, or at least an in-person thank you. Recently, however, I wrote a really strong letter of recommendation and got absolutely no thank you! I really can’t believe it, can you?
My advice to you: Always take the time to write a heartfelt thank you note. We’re in a crazy industry where time is at a premium. However, I can tell you for a fact that the leverage of focusing on etiquette is extremely high. I always place etiquette at the top of my list because it has totally fueled my career. I now have an army of friends and colleagues ready to help me out. Focus on the small stuff and your network will propel your career to the next level.
Bad Etiquette Has Negative Leverage
It’s important to really focus on leverage in online marketing. Getting more done with less will exponentially impact your career. However, leverage works in both directions. Bad etiquette can really add negative leverage to your career. Just think about it: Not only will I be reluctant to help out these individuals again, I’m sure their bad etiquette has also impacted other situations with other people. People like to talk in general and this type of stuff can really start spreading! My advice: Be humble, grateful, and thankful – It will work wonders for your SEM career!
All the best,
PPC Ian (Ian Lopuch)
P.S. My blog commenting contest is almost over! However, it’s definitely not too late to enter. You have a few more days and I’ll announce the winners on June 30th. The comments have been amazing and I can’t wait to review the winners.
Image of Thank You Note © iStockPhoto – DNY59
Posted in: The Game | Tags: business etiquette, online marketing career |
Blog Commenting Contest Winners!
Posted by: Ian Comments: 9 comments so far
Today is the day you all have been waiting for: I’m about to announce the winners of PPC Ian’s first ever blog commenting contest! The contest was a huge success with the top three commentors generating 83 insightful comments. That’s quite amazing considering my blog has a grand total of 351 comments since its launch in October, 2009 (including my own comments as well)! In just two short weeks, I was able to leverage a simple contest to rapidly accelerate my comments and take my user engagement to the next level. The takeaway: A blog commenting contest is a great way to drive your blog to the next level.
The Purpose of My Blog Commenting Contest
Why did I run this contest? It’s simple: Comments are the most interesting part of blog posts (at least in my opinion). Posts without comments simply aren’t as interesting. Moreover, comments tell both humans and search engines that your blog is good and worthy of traffic. If it weren’t interesting, there wouldn’t be any exciting comments. In short, I ran the content to increase user engagement while drawing in new PPC Ian readers. It definitely worked!
You may recall that I linked to 10 posts in the contest that previously had 0 comments. I’m now pleased to announce that all of these posts have comments. Excitingly, my post about leverage and my post about eBay’s quality click pricing each have 10 comments now!
Contest Winners: Profit Addiction, Dino Vedo, and My 4 Hour Workweek
Without further ado Here are the winners:
Jeremy, Dino, and Eric, I sincerely thank you for your comments! I learned a huge amount from your insightful comments and questions. It’s really quite funny: Jeremy from Profit Addiction originally inspired my blog commenting strategy. This strategy received a ton of interest, became one of the most popular posts on my blog, and even got featured on Jonathan Volk’s Week In Review. My blog commenting strategy in turn inspired my blog commenting contest. Coming full circle, it’s absolutely no surprise at all that Jeremy won the competition, he inspired my original strategy after all.
As promised, I will be reviewing the blogs of the three distinguished winners (Profit Addiction, Dino Vedo, and My 4 Hour Workweek) in my next post. One thing is for sure: All three of the winners are expert commentors and have incredible blogs. I have been frequenting all three and can’t wait to review them! Stay tuned…
Image of Thank You Note © iStockPhoto – Graffizone
Posted in: Blogging, Contests | Tags: blog commenting, commenting contest | Comments: 9 comments so far, join the discussion!