I was recently quoted in an article by Investor's Business Daily (along with networking guru Ivan Misner). I commented about strategies for online visibility -- a short excerpt from the article follows:

Networking Will Go Where No One's Business Card's Ever Gone Before
BY MOREY STETTNER
12/29/2006

One time-honored business practice that will really morph in 2007 is networking....

"Another tactic to bolster connections is through reverse networking. Instead of contacting others to pitch yourself, let them come to you and judge for themselves whether they want to contact you.

An emerging strategy to bring others to you involves "demonstrating your credibility and expertise online," said Steven Van Yoder, author of "Get Slightly Famous."

He foresees more networkers employing this three-step process in the years ahead:

• Identify Web sites that serve your target audience. If you want to network with insurance brokers, for example, get familiar with Web sites for agents' professional associations and trade groups.

• Write informative articles and get them posted on those Web sites. Your articles, which should be no longer than 750 words, must provide valuable content. Avoid a promotional tone. You don't want those articles to "read like advertisements," Van Yoder said.

• Dangle an incentive for readers to contact you. In your bio at the end of the article, offer something of value that people can receive free if they get in touch with you. For instance, provide a link to your Web site so that readers can download a free booklet or resource guide.

"Entice people to drop into your world where you offer them a solution," said Van Yoder, owner of Get the Word Out Communications, an online marketing firm in San Francisco."

Early in my career, I wrote an article for a small business magazine about self-publishing as a marketing tool for businesses. Because I specialize in helping businesses get into print, the article only took a few hours to write. A few months later it was published. Almost immediately, my phone began to ring and my email box filled up with inquires.

As a result of “Be An Expert, Get More Business” I landed two clients, submitted several proposals, and added dozens of names to my mailing list. Later I used the article in my email newsletter, made glossy reprints for my marketing materials, and arranged to reprint the article in other magazines targeted at potential clients.

Years later, the benefits continue to roll in as prospects read my article on the Internet, recommend it to associates, and hire my firm because I'm an expert in Slightly Famous marketing strategies.

In one instance, a reader became a client even though her company had almost finalized a decision to hire a competitor. "We came across your article, and it made all the difference," she said. "We knew from your article that you could help us."

You might be thinking that success came easily to me because I am a writer. But you don't have to be a professional writer or seasoned journalist to get your name in print. Whether you're a management consultant or a masseuse, you can learn how to pursue print media exposure and succeed. And with more than 10,000 publications in print today, opportunities are virtually unlimited.

Visibility + Competence + Word of Mouth = REPUTATION

Getting Slightly Famous in print media means reaching a larger audience, rather than relying entirely on human contact. After all, there is only one physical you. No matter how much you network, get around, or attend meetings, YOU can only go so far.

Appearing in the media is the equivalent of expanded networking. You reach a targeted audience of people who might buy from you, and you build a relationship with your target market that can lead to sales. Even if you have a small local business, media exposure helps you establish a regional or national presence without leaving your desk.

Media exposure works because it associates your name with the authority of the media. When you read about a business in the newspaper or hear about it on the radio, chances are you immediately elevate that business above its competitors. It has solidity and credibility.

Appearing in media that reach your target market establishes a bond of trust upon which future sales are possible. Ultimately, your Slightly Famous media strategy will develop your reputation as a business of choice in your market niche. As more prospects run across your name in publications targeted at them, you will acquire an aura of expertise that will get you more business with less effort.

If you have every considered writing a book to promote your business, here's an interesting study that might move you in that direction. It comes from RainToday.com, an online content site focused on marketing and selling for professional services firms.

In the survey, RainToday found that writing a business book is an incredibly effective way of establishing oneself as an industry expert. They surveyed author’s of over 590 business books and published the results in the report, The Business Impact of Writing a Book: Data, Analysis, and Lessons from Professional Service Providers Who’ve Done It.

Some interesting results include:

    * 98% of authors reported at least some brand improvement as a result of publishing their book
    * 74% of those same authors reported a ‘strong’ or ‘very strong’ influence on publicity and PR for their practice
    * 95% of authors said that writing a book had at least some influence on their ability to generate more speaking engagements

And from the authors themselves:

“It established me as a guru in my field” – Bob Bly, The Whitepaper Marketing Handbook

“Just do it! The spin-off business makes (writing a book) one of the most productive things you can do to build you practice” – C.J. Hayden, Get Clients Now!

I'll be posting more about the business benefits of writing a book in the coming weeks. Stay tuned!

Few things can have greater impact on your personal brand and your organization's brand recognition than developing and sharing your expertise with the world. Whether you call it becoming a thought leader or a public expert, or, as marketing guru Steven Yoder's book espouses, Getting Slightly Famous, you should do it. Trust me. I'm living proof that it works.

This is the introduction from an article by Inc Magazine columnist Keith Ferrazzi. I discovered it only after  a collegue brought it to my attention. It's obviously exciting when a major publication mentions my business in such a praisworthy, prominent way. It delivers tremendous credibility that adds to my overall reputation in my marketplace.

How did I get such a prominent mention/endorsement by an Inc columnist? Is this a fluke? A stroke of luck? No way!

This happens to me all the time. And it's no accident.

Today, for instance, I was asked to submit a short article for Home Business Magazine about the role of online thought leadership in becoming a more successful salesperson. Last weekend, I was asked to speak at the Institute of Management Consultants about Thought Leadership Marketing, which enabled me to address over 100 potential prospects.

How did this happen? Why do these opportunities come to me without my asking?

Because I make a committment to put my expertise out there consistently, in many forms, and it attracts high-credibility opportunities that put me in front of my buying public. These opportunities come to me -- I don't have to chase them down -- and they can come to you, too.

It starts by regularly and widely promoting your expertise, in the form of media interviews, articles, blog entries, teleseminars and other thought leadership marketing strategies. You, too, can practice online thought leadership, and watch the PR opportunites come in. Ferrazzi sums it up nicely:

This simple formula -- 1) Build expertise, 2) Get people to recognize it -- is one I have used throughout my career.

Read the entire article at Inc.com

Nancy Marmolejo helps creative and entrepreneurial women hone in on their core strengths to turn ideas into action. She helps both the wildly creative and the mildly creative launch innovative ideas, enter new markets and build upon natural talents. She faced a common problem, getting targeted prospects to her web site.

Nancy had several articles that she had written which showcased her expertise. She determined that she could reach her target market of creative women and Latina business owners by placing her articles on web sites visited by her target market. Nancy used our Online Article Placement Program to reach this tightly targeted marketplace.

Within a couple months, her articles were appearing on web sites that reached her target market. The results were immediate and profitable.

"Getting my articles out on the web leveraged my visibility faster than anything I could've done on my own. It's had a viral effect, with more and more publications running the articles months after we first put them out there.

"One article was translated into another language, others have been requested by print magazines and other websites. My web traffic has increased, new people are contacting me, and the investment paid for itself quickly."

Nancy Marmolejo
Comadre Coaching- Where Creativity and Success Meet
www.ComadreCoaching.com

Resource: Online Article Placement Program

Comedian Woody Allen once said that 80 percent of life is showing up. This attitude goes to the heartof how you should approach your Slightly Famous marketing plan.

Recently,  a prospective client came to me looking for help promoting his new book (which I'll leave unnamed). At first, I was excited about working with this client. He had a great book, and his subject matter was in need of promoting -- I believed its message would make the world a better place. It was a based on a compelling topic. The book was timely.

Moreover, he had a considerable reputation in his industry and was well regarded among his peers, and had grown a broad grassroots following for his ideas.

So far, so good.

Then, I heard him ask a fatal question, "Can you make a make sure that a primary goal of our work together will be to get my book into the New York Times book review?"

I explained that it was something we could try, but that he had to realize it was a long shot. For one, there are over 100,000 books submitted each year to the New York Times, and less than 500 make it into the coveted Review.

I then explained that we could promote his book in many other attainabl ways that would drive sales, increase public awareness, and build a real following around his book. I discussed public speaking, author reviews, a blog, getting quoted in the media as an expert, contributing articles to any of the thousands of trade magazines that would love to learn about his book and topic.

Yet, he was undaunted. The New York Times was his measure of success. The odds didn't matter, and the endless other opportunities I'd presented to him were less important. He measured success based on that one, big media splash.

I chose not to work with the prospective client. And here's what you can learn from this story.

Too many business people make the mistake of pursuing their first media splash in The New York Times, Forbes or Fortune. This is unrealistic, and in most cases these are not even the most effective places to gain exposure that will directly benefit your company.

If your goal is to get Slightly Famous, you need to pursue attainable goals when developing your media strategy. You want to target media that reaches and directly influences your clients, customers and prospects. And you want media that provides a forum for your message.

Forget long shots, and don't lead with vanity. Your media marketing strategy should be something you can replicate to create ongoing media awareness over time--where you form relationships with editors, journalists and media that reach your prospects--and where you are not competing against million dollar firms and highly paid PR practitioners.

Forget the general or business press, major business publications like Business Week and top consumer magazines like Better Homes and Gardens. They are the hardest messengers to convince, as well as the least effective or cost-efficient to pursue.

Often, the most effective media venues are not the most obvious. Though you may have visions of a popular media campaign that seeks the glitzy consumer magazines, your company's interests might be better served by appearances in the trade press -- in articles, not ads. What could be more reassuring to potential customers than to see your name among those of the experts?

Marketing your business used to be characterized solely by strategies to brand your company and get in front of many customers. In the twenty-first century, business success is influenced by its findability. It's about creating an online and offline presence that helps ensure your customers find you and are impressed by your Brand.

Search engines now play a growing role in helping your customers find, evaluate and decide whether to do buy from you. A recent study by Internet research firms Marketing Sherpa and Enquiro called, "The Role of Search in Business to Business Buying Decisions" strongly demonstrated that search engines are now the dominant force driving most business buying decisions. A key finding indicated that 93.2% of respondents based their buying decisions according to their online research.

Right now, go to Google. Search for your product or service, but not by using your company or first name. Instead, use common words and phrases your customers might use when searching for your Web site. (For example, a tile worker from Denver might search for “custom tile work” and “custom tile work Colorado.”) Try it!

Did your business come up in the results? But if you did not show up, or are invisible beneath a list of your competitors, you need to improve your online findability.

This is the age of the virtual customer. Yet, although the Internet has made it perfectly reasonable to land a major client you've never met in-person, it has also created new expectations among consumers.

Today, you must include the online world into your overall sales program. In the old days, people might have formed their first impression by the clothes you wore. In the Internet age, first impressions are formed with the click of a mouse.

The Internet has increased the expectation among consumers that businesses will have a credible online presence. This goes to the heart of selling successfully in a virtual world.

You must factor in online visibility. In the Internet age, the buyer/seller roles are reversed. The prospect now makes cold-calls on the seller. The state of today’s online world and its role in driving purchasing decisions dictates positioning your business for online credibility, while also mastering all the other stages of the selling process.

In the Internet age, the selling process starts much earlier than through traditional selling. It can happen in a web browser when someone looks you up, within an email newsletter that mentions your name, or increasingly on blogs.

Many of us now form our "virtual first impression" of people and companies via our Internet browsers. When you are considering buying from a vendor, many of us will use the Internet to research that company or professional service. If the web site creates a positive first impression, the client is predisposed to considering you from your many competitors. If your website looks like a messy ill-prepared showroom window, the customer is likely to move on to the next ether show room display.

Internet first impressions are not just influenced by how your Web site looks, but also by number of references in the search or how high it ranks a web browser.

You can evaluate your own virtual first impression by typing your name into a search engine. See how your business looks to a potential sales prospect, from the moment your name appears in a Web browser to the moment your Web site loads.

Does your web site load quickly and communicate a positive image graphically and with valuable content? You never get a second chance to make a good impression, and your virtual first impression often means the difference between a shot at your prospect's business, or being shut out.

I just returned from a 2-week trip in southern France's Provence region. The highlight of my trip was the town of Arles, which is situated on the Rhone River not very far from where it meets the Mediterranean Sea. This is the town where Vincent van Gogh lived, painted, and eventually cut off his ear while on an absinthe binge.

Arles is an ancient town that was established by the Greeks as early as the 6th century BC, and later by the  Romans took the town in 123 BC and expanded it into an important city.

Today, though the modern world has clearly arrived in Arles, history is alive. Not only in its mix of buildings ranging from 400 to almost 2000 years old, but in its traditions -- especially, its strong, enduring community spirit that lives most vividly in its festivals.

I accidently came into Arles during one of its most passionate festivals--the Feria du Riz – the Rice Harvest Festival. For three days the cobbled streets of the city are home to the most spectacular Spanish fiesta in France. Every cafe concocts its own huge pan of steaming paella, bulls are set loose for a ritual running every night, and the famed Arene d’Arles coliseum hosts the best matadors this side of Madrid.

Putting aside the (justifably) controversial nature of bullfights, what I witnessed in Arles was the expression of a passionate sense of community that is missing in much of the modern world, and notably in the United States.

The festival was ostensibly about bulls, eating and partying, but it was really about something much more profound: the need of human beings to feel connected to one another.

"Many people never go to to see the bullfights. But everyone enjoys the big party," one local explained to me. "Things are fun and crazy...people dance. We just want to be in the streets with everyone together."

Though it may be a far-from-home example, Arles reveals something more fundamental than we might think. The need for human connectedness is a universal human desire, and it's in somewhat short shrift these days.

Consider ways to create meaning, community and dialoque among people in your marketplace. It's not just a smart marketing strategy, but one that can deliver an emotional payoff too.

Resource: Own Your Niche by Building a Niche Community  (4-Part Blog Series)