Pat Iyer’s Guest Post: Why use social media for marketing a legal nurse consulting practice?
A guest blog from guru Pat Iyer.
Four Things to Change About Your Website in 2012.
4 Key Things You Can Do To Help Your Website in 2012.
Today’s blog article was created by Dean Rieck. These tips are essential to any and every LNC that takes on writing their own copy, blog or marketing materials.
1. Have something to say
This makes writing easier and faster. When you have nothing to say, you are forced to write sentences that sound meaningful but deliver nothing.
Read widely. Take notes. Choose your subjects wisely. Then share your information with readers.
2. Be specific
Consider two sentences:
- I grow lots of flowers in my back yard.
- I grow 34 varieties of flowers in my back yard, including pink coneflowers, purple asters, yellow daylilies, Shasta daisies, and climbing clematis.
Which is more interesting? Which helps you see my back yard?
3. Choose simple words
Write use instead of utilize, near instead of close proximity, help instead of facilitate, for instead of in the amount of, start instead of commence.
Use longer words only if your meaning is so specific no other words will do.
4. Write short sentences
You should keep sentences short for the same reason you keep paragraphs short: they’re easier to read and understand.
Each sentence should have one simple thought. More than that creates complexity and invites confusion.
5. Use the active voice
In English, readers prefer the SVO sentence sequence: Subject, Verb, Object. This is the active voice.
For example:
Passive sentences bore people.
When you reverse the active sequence, you have the OVS or passive sequence: Object, Verb, Subject.
For example:
People are bored by passive sentences.
You can’t always use the active voice, but most writers should use it more often.
6. Keep paragraphs short
Look at any newspaper and notice the short paragraphs.
That’s done to make reading easier, because our brains take in information better when it’s broken into small chunks.
In academic writing, each paragraph develops one idea and often includes many sentences. But in casual, everyday writing, the style is less formal and paragraphs may be as short as a single sentence or even a single word.
See?
7. Eliminate fluff words
Qualifying words, such as very, little, and rather, add nothing to your meaning and suck the life out of your sentences.
For example:
It is very important to basically avoid fluff words because they are rather empty and sometimes a little distracting.
Mark Twain suggested that you should “Substitute damn every time you’re inclined to write very; your editor will delete it and the writing will be just as it should be.”
8. Don’t ramble
Rambling is a big problem for many writers. Not as big as some other problems, such as affordable health insurance or the Middle East, which has been a problem for many decades because of disputes over territory. Speaking of which, the word “territory” has an interesting word origin from terra, meaning earth.
But the point is, don’t ramble.
9. Don’t be redundant or repeat yourself
Also, don’t keep writing the same thing over and over and over. In other words, say something once rather than several times. Because when you repeat yourself or keep writing the same thing, your readers go to sleep.
10. Don’t over write
This is a symptom of having too little to say or too much ego.
Put your reader first. Put yourself in the background. Focus on the message.
For example:
You can instantly and dramatically improve your blog writing skills and immediately explode your profits and skyrocket your online success by following the spectacular, simple, and practical tips found in this groundbreaking new free blog post.
11. Edit ruthlessly
Shorten, delete, and rewrite anything that does not add to the meaning. It’s okay to write in a casual style, but don’t inject extra words without good reason.
To make this easier, break your writing into three steps: 1) Write the entire text. 2) Set your text aside for a few hours or days. 3) Return to your text fresh and edit.
None of us can ever be perfect writers, and no one expects us to be. However, we can all improve our style and sound smarter by following these tips and writing naturally.
About the Author: Dean Rieck delivers brilliant writing to his clients and shares copywriting tips for smart copywriters like you at Pro Copy Tips.
For more help building a remarkable Legal Nurse Consulting practice or Life Care Planning practice, subscribe to the RSS Feed for the Blog and our Email Newsletter. Follow us on Twitter, join our LNC/LCP Group on LinkedIn, or friend us on Facebook. We also offer one on one practice coaching as well as amazing LNC/LCP marketing materials, website design and social media page designs. Email us or call (317) 426-1170.
Feb 12
1
Pat Iyer’s Guest Post: Why use social media for marketing a legal nurse consulting practice?
All month long we are devoted to finding the best in the business to blog and share their insights regarding Legal Nurse Consulting Marketing. Today’s Post is from Pat Iyer, a guru in the industry certainly a delight to read.
Why use social media for marketing a legal nurse consulting practice?
Stripped apart, the term “social media” has two different pieces you’ll need to understand: the social aspect, and the media aspect. Most people know that the term social refers to interaction with others, including developing relationships and cultivating new connections. The term media, in this instance, refers to the way social information is exchanged.
There are quite literally hundreds of social media networks out there. You could spend a lifetime developing profiles and engaging with connections both old and new on these networks. You need social media in order to present yourself in a certain way to legal professionals, as well as to help you make connections that allow you to succeed in your industry.
Who Can Use Social Media?
Whether or not you’re currently using social media in a personal capacity, or you are trying to make a legal nurse consulting business profile, there’s no better time than the present to jump on the social media bandwagon. You can rest assured that your competitors have already considered the importance of social media and networking, and may have already created profiles on various social media networks.
The longer you wait to create profiles and begin to develop business connections, the more “behind the times” you’ll find yourself. It’s important to utilize social media because it’s 100% free, far-reaching and effective in developing a stronger client base. You’ll see the value of social media once you learn to effectively brand yourself professionally.
How Can Social Media Benefit Your Business
?
Other forms of digital or print marketing may cost you hundreds or even thousands of dollars to execute, while pretty much 100% of the basic functions of any social media network come at no cost. Social media can serve as incredibly effective, cheap marketing for your legal nurse consulting business.
Social media also allows you to reach a new audience like never before. While your ambitions may not include interacting with professionals in other countries, social media gives you the ability to do so if you desire. Using this type of marketing, you’re able to reach out to folks who would’ve been impossible to connect with 20 years ago. Plus, you have the capacity to vastly increase your social network within your own country, or even local area. Just a few hours a day using social media tools will result in connections you never thought possible. Regardless of whether or not those connections are down the street or across the globe, you never know who you’re going to meet, or what effect your new connections will have on your legal professional networking.
Direct Marketing
What about the things social media can’t do? Many people using social media make the mistake of expecting direct marketing relationships or sales to result. Direct marketing is a way to reach customers that will result directly in a sale. Many people expect that they’re going to go out, create social media profiles, and begin selling their products or services immediately online.
Unfortunately, social media marketing isn’t a direct sales marketing technique. If you’re becoming involved in social media, patience should be your first virtue. Social media marketing is all about establishing relationships and developing connections with potential clients. For you, this means social media networking is going to serve as a way for people seeking your services to find out more about you, learn about the services you offer and what your business is like, and even see testimonials or interactions with previous legal professionals who have been happy with your services. You’re not necessarily looking for a lawyer to view your social media profiles or Facebook business page, and get so excited about what you do that he or she contacts you and immediately engages you in business. In an ideal world, this would be the result – but unfortunately, social media doesn’t work that way.
What you are looking for is efficient and low-cost branding that will make you look like you know what you’re doing. If a social media profile seems too simplistic a method of displaying that information, you’re not really thinking about social media the right way. There are particular methods in which you can make social media profiles extremely effective advertisements for your business, and we’re going to teach you those methods in this book. It’s important to learn how to develop that sort of on-point advertising for yourself without expecting a direct sale.
Patricia Iyer MSN RN LNCC is president of Patiyer.com and has been tweeting, blogging, using Facebook, connecting on LinkedIn and posting Youtube videos for over 2 years. Learn how you can benefit from using social media in your business by checking out Social Media for Legal Professionals, available at www.patiyer.com.
Special thanks to Pat for taking a few minutes to be our guest blogger this week. For more information on building a remarkable Legal Nurse Consulting or Life Care Planning practice, subscribe to the RSS Feed for the Blog and our Email Newsletter follow us on Twitter, join our LNC/LCP Group on LinkedIn, or friend us on Facebook. We also offer one on one practice coaching as well as amazing LNC/LCP marketing materials, website design and social media page designs. Email us or call (317) 426-1170
Posted in Blogging Guide to Social Media Marketing for LNCs Mobile Marketing Writing by .
Jan 12
29
Six Common Talking Mistakes
As much as we are taught to network in the business world, I find that people often make crucial errors when learning how to “work a room.”
Here are six of the most common ones:
1. Blabbermouthing. Talking too much. Going on and on without giving another person a turn. If you’re the one who hogs the talking platform you will soon frustrate others and they tune out the blabbermouth. If you are a blabbermouth who is wringing out the patience of other’s you will be labeled as such. Don’ t be fooled.
Just because your job requires you to speak for a living that everyone wants to hear your opinion on every subject. Professors, clergy, professional speakers who are all paid for a living pay special attention.
2. Grab the talking stick and go. A talker begins a topic and the listener grabs it away and opens a me-centered monologue. You say, “I saw a great movie last weekend . . .” and the listener-soon-to-be talker says, “Oh? I saw one, too . . .” and begins to describe their experience. The person who brought up the topic is unable to complete their thought because it’s been high-jacked. This is a very childlike and frustrating behavior, and eventually drives people away.
3. Unsolicited advice. You know ‘em. We all have them in our lives. Some people are quick to give advice as soon as the other person mentions a problem. “Have you thought of . . .? “Why don’t you . . .?” erupt quickly from their overflowing volcanoes of counsel. Men seem especially prone to this tendency, although women are not immune from it.
4. Interrupting. Butting in before your partner has completed the thought. Usually this is done because the interrupters are impatient and are afraid of not getting their thoughts expressed. Many of these interruptions occur when Legal Nurse Consultants are trying to meet all the people in the room and kind of talk and dash. The guests butt in, over-talk, and then walk away after leaving you with their “very important thoughts.”
5. The Word BUT. One of the ultimate conversation-blockers. Simply said, in conversation means I don’t believe anything you said before the word but. It sounds like a simple concept, yet you would be surprised at the number of times clients will say, “Yes, but….” There are alternative ways that you can disagree with a point in the conversation, yet still remain professional.
6. Stingy and gruff. Listens, receives, and takes, but doesn’t give. This type of conversationalist is difficult to deal with because it often leads to mistrust of the stingy person. If you are the only one giving information, eventually you stop giving it.
Conversation is skill that is learned, much like learning to draw blood. You may have to practice a while on each other, but eventually a rolling vein ain’t no big thing! For more help building a remarkable Legal Nurse Consulting practice or Life Care Planning practice, subscribe to the RSS Feed for the Blog and our Email Newsletter. Follow us on Twitter, join our LNC/LCP Group on LinkedIn, or friend us on Facebook. We also offer one on one practice coaching as well as amazing LNC/LCP marketing materials, website design and social media page designs. Email us or call (317) 426-1170.
Take five minutes and learn a new way to make your practice remarkable!