'Care to partake in some Networking Etiquette?'

Especially when heading into the world of advertising, marketing or business/entrepreneurship in general you will constantly hear the word... NETWORKING. But what does networking really mean?

Dictionary.com describes networking as... 

1. a supportive system of sharing information and services among individuals and groups having a common interest: Working mothers in the community use networking to help themselves manage successfully. 

2. cultivating people who can be helpful to one professionally, especially in finding employment or moving to a higher position: His business lunches were taken up with networking.

Basically networking means that you go to various business gatherings (like your local Chamber of Commerce MEGAMIXER) and shmoose ('talk idly or casually and in a friendly way') your way into professional friendships - primarily with the exchanging of business cards, to be called upon at a future time. These relationships can be future clients, partners, investors or just supporters.

Networking can be done in person or online through social media like Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn (I call it 'business facebook.') But with all this new networking availability, do we really know the proper formalities to use it? In a world of abbreviations and lack of grammar due to technology fads and fast-paced lives are we really being as polite with our networking as we should be as 'business professionals?'

Here are some of my rules for proper Networking Etiquette;
Some of you may practise these already and some of you may think or do other tasks that I haven't listed - if so please feel free to leave a comment :)

IN PERSON NETWORKING

1. Always give a firm but NOT bone-crushing handshake when giving a greeting, introduction or salutation. No one feels overly confident about a persons leadership (or possible insecurities) if their shaking a hand as limp as a spaghetti noodle. That being said, no one wants to become partners with a person that needs to try to prove to you how good a leader they are by how many of your knuckles they can crack.

2. It goes without saying to always be polite when introducing yourself. If you have trouble making small talk then canvas the patrons once or twice to see their displays and booth, that way you have a conversation starter. I purposely go to booths that are busy so that it doesn't look awkward when I'm 'waiting to introduce myself' when really I'm checking out their booth.

3. Always shake with one hand and accept business cards in the other (unless that hand is full) like when you have to do that silly pose while your standing on stage at graduation - holding your certificate in one hand and shaking your principals hand with the other while everyone takes pictures... Anyways its important to at least skim the front side of the card when you get it and NEVER put it in your pocket or wallet and DO NOT fold or crumple it up.

4. Always make eye contact; no you don't have to look creepy and never blink... when you take the time to nod your head, laugh, agree, or move out of someone's way behind you take the advantage to blink (or remember to breathe if your nervous.)

5. To keep the conversation going, ask them about their business, not about their benefits or income, but about their skills, experience, insight, products/services, placement opportunities, contributions to society..etc.

6. Always exit with thank-you's and handshakes; thank them for their time and for giving you such insight about themselves or their company.

7. I probably should have stated this one earlier... but when conversing try to say their name at least 3 times. Our teacher explained to us the more you repeat something aloud in your head hte more likely you are to remember... "Hello, ___ it's nice to meet you..." or "So ___ I seen on your website a few days ago that... could you explain that to me please?" or "It was very nice to meet you ___ thank you again for your time."

8. Do not wait more than 2-3 days before sending a thank-you email (or card if your feeling really ambitious) to the new connections you made via business cards. Remind them again who you are, what you do and how you met. It helps if you thank them for some big piece of knowledge or express what a great conversation you had with them about a specific topic. Thank them again for taking the time to talk to you. Also if you talked about a placement opportunity or anything else of a business-nature thank them again for considering you for the opportunity (and also to remind them so they don't forget.)

ONLINE NETWORKING

When connecting with people you may or maybe know online you must always remember SPELLING AND GRAMMAR. That being said if you know the person from past events or chapters in your life it's easier to virtually introduce yourself.

 

1. As you greet them and introduce yourself (or re-introduce yourself) job their memory of who you are, what your doing now, and where/when they would remember you from. If you have any mutual friends or connections than it would be a good time to remember them that it was that friend that introduced you both together in the first place.

 

2. This is the MOST important. WRITE YOUR OWN MESSAGE! For example LinkedIn offers it's own connection invitation messaging with your signature added at the bottom so all you have to do is click 'send.' If you have enough time as a 'busy business professional' to be browsing online in the first place than you have enough time to customize the phrase "I'd like to add you to my professional network. - Jessica Dunning." Even if its only adding in a personal greeting and salutation, or just change the sentence each time... "Hello, my name is __ and its an honour to meet you. I was wondering if you could like to become business connections?"

 

3. If you don't like to write emails, create databases or send cards/letters after going to a networking event in person, use this opportunity to connect with them online (then you kill two birds with one stone.) Now a days everyone's business card comes with their online presence so find them and type your thank-you email into your invitation message.

 

4. When someone decides to follow, like, or subscribe to you online, take the time to view their profiles and do the same back (even if they don't introduce themselves or answer you when you introduce yourself first - at least you can feel like the bigger person because you did so.)

5. Finally, (this is the HARDEST I find to practise) keep in contact with your connections. Even if it's a tweet asking how business is going, or an email about an article you think they would like. Or browse through their websites..etc (most developers/profiles have trackers to see who exactly look at their page anyways, so it's better than nothing right?)

The 'Challenge' of Marketing

At the end of this school year our Direct & Integrated Marketing teacher told us about an annual competition hosted by DMEF the Direct Educational Foundation.

They work to attract, educate and place college students in direct/interactive marketing careers, thereby expanding and enriching pool of trained, market-ready marketers. 

The DMEF brings direct/interactive marketing instruction to the college campus, while helping students learn about marketing career opportunities. The DMEF publishes teaching resources, career information and the academic research publication, Journal of Interactive Marketing®. 

The DMEF Collegiate ECHO Direct/Interactive Marketing Challenge was started in 1986 in the name of Leonard J. Raymond, the 'founding father' of direct marketing agencies. Over the years they have had clients sponsors such as Ford Motor Company, American Express, Hallmark Cards, Microsoft and Mazda just to name a few.

This year our client was dELiA*s Inc. an American retail store focused on direct and traditional marketing. The point of the competition was to create a campaign that focused on dELiA*s' objectives for 2013-2014...

1) Target potential new customers and drive them to our web or store channels and entice them to make a first purchase.

2) Target existing customers and entice them through various marketing methods to buy more.

The campaign required a written proposal including:

• an executive summary
• market research
• marketing strategy
• media plan
• creative strategy
• budget
• visual summary (of your proposal)
• appendices (creative samples, campaign forecast results, consumer video advertisement & a strategic summary chart)

All of this within a 10-page double spaced report (excluding title page, Strategic Summary Chart, bibliography/references and appendices.)

Our strategy was to have roughly 1-1 1/2 pages per section, See our full report here...


Our campaign is called 'Snip to be Cool' and to sum it up, consumers receive or download a cut-out 'model' and use pictures (from online or catalogue) to dress their model. They glue her onto a contest entry form, fill it out and either mail it to their local dELiA*s or upload a picture online. Twice a week a draw for prizes will be held and judges will pick one winner per select store (1-2 stores per state.) Prizes include free items, discounts and coupons or exclusive new items not advertised yet.



Check out our Creative Samples (advertising and promotional posters) on my Facebook Page, or our Television Commercial and Campaign Visual Summary on Youtube!

The hardest part of competing in this challenge was time management.

I worked with one other partner (and our teacher could be our 'Faculty Advisor' only.) Not only did she work full-time and couldn't start any work until 5:30pm every night while I worked from 9am-12pm every day, but we were only 3 weeks to complete our entire campaign while other teams had been notified of hte competition when at the beginning of the year!

While the three of us did collaborate on the research, campaign concept and creative ideas... I ended up completing all of the creative samples, half of the company research along with writing the entire report and developing both videos.
My partner focused on the other half of company & competitor research, our budget, consumer data (research) along with our strategic summary chart.

I was also in charge of spelling/grammar check for all our work, editing my partner's work, fixing any revisions our teacher suggested along with keeping track of our bibliography/references.

For any group of 4 students this wouldn't seem so daunting, but for 2 people when one is 50% more available to work than the other it is 3 weeks of hell. And WHY would I put myself through all of this trouble?

• 1st prize is $2000 to be split between the partners, a gold place trophy & $5000 to be given to the school's marketing department to be added to their award/bursary funds.
• 2nd prize is $1000 to be split between partners, a silver place trophy & $2,500 for the school's award/bursary funds.
• 3rd prize is $500 to be split between partners, a bronze place trophy & $1000 for the school's award/bursary funds.
• Not to forget the Honourable Mentions for...
  - Most Innovative Marketing Strategy
  - Best Media Plan
  - Creative Execution
  - Smartest Budgeting Approach
  - Best Market Research

My advice for anyone who wants to compete in this campaign next year would be to START NOW so that you have time to properly allocate tasks, workloads and give yourself enough time to think of a good strategy. Our team started our 50/50 and with time running our and my partner more concerned about research and fully understanding the consumers I had to take initiative completing the report and creative so that we wouldn't run out of time.

Another piece of advice I would give is to keep at LEAST one of your school textbooks, even if it is the one you paid for and didn't use at all... *ahem* It has proven to be the most useful outside of school giving us the examples and definitions we needed to complete this competition with our heads held high.

Also, even through splitting $2000 seems nice with only two people, I would have LOVED a 'third wheel.' The work would have been divided more fairly and hey, $666 as a reward with a lower stress level would be better than $1000 and a mental breakdown any day...

My last pieces of advice are the most obvious, but the most important (other than taking one class in Accounting couldn't hurt your budgeting skills,) pay attention to your teachers and don't take their wisdom for granted. Take the time to become friends if not 'more than aquaintences' with them. It's because of this 'acquaintship' with my teacher that compelled her to tell me about the competition and help me. She knew how high my professional standards are and that I would work hard to try to win Canada (and our school) that first place trophy.

More 'McMagic' going on in advertising...

We all know the best creation in today's society among other things has been Creative Suite - most importantly Photoshop. Variations of this program (such as CorelDraw & PhotoImpressions - my personal favourite) have been dominating the way advertisers, marketers, fashion models and everyday community members can show themselves to the world. Whether that be sprucing up your head shot for an interview or making your new product line look brighter and more efficient than it really is.

Some people so a little overboard, like fashion models, celebrities and food manufacturers, but have any of us really sat back and paid attention to how much big corporations stretch the truth?

Take McDonalds for example (or any other big fast food restaurant with enough money to have consistent television, online or outdoor advertising.) Their burgers always look flawless, fluffy buns, the perfect amount of sesame seeds, perfectly melted cheese, the right amount of ketchup, mustard & onions... excuse me for a second, I've made myself hungry!

 

When it comes to getting your 'hot and fresh steamy Big Mac at the cash register does it really look like the advertisements say? Did you get hooked in by the appealing words and perfectly placed steam and grill marks? I found a video tonight that shows just how much McDonald's photoshops their images.

... makes you wonder if you really want to eat there again?



Welcome to Youtube!

As companies and entrepreneurs around the world jump on the 'online marketing' band-wagon I have decided to join in the adventure.

Having awareness & preference to your brand or company within online, mobile, print, broadcast & outdoor advertising is a very daunting goal to achieve. It's hard to tweet once a day, post videos once a week, post blogs 2-3 times a week along with keeping your websites and Facebook pages up to date. Not to mention any other online platforms available all the while keeping up with your traditional television, radio and newspaper advertising.
But through all that tedious work the rewards are consistent brand loyalty from your customers and clients and a respect among the business community.

I'd like to announce the opening of my new Youtube channel 'CreativeDunning'

www.youtube.com/CreativeDunning

This channel will be an extension of my blog, marketing advise/experimentation, allergy awareness & Disney International adventures. I will be making videos on interview tips, business attire, surviving college and more!
I'm always up for ideas so please comment if you have any and I will do my best. :)
I will also be blogging about my video uploads for anyone who doesn't have the time to watch them.

Why Disney? ... Why!?

When I explain that I'm doing an internship at Disney this summer I usually get reactions like this...
"THAT'S GREAT! ... What does that have to do with advertising or the course your in right now?"
The Disney program is ONLY open to full-time St. Lawrence College students enrolled in either Business, Hospitality, or General Arts and Science. Advertising is a business course, therefore I am eligible to apply - I was accepted!

Most everyday people don't think of Disney as a business but simply an entertainer. The truth is they are one of thee most successful entertainment business in the world and have mastered it on a global scale. Who wouldn't want a chance to learn from them?

"Participants will take a complete course of study while participating in academic training related to their field of study. International students will take classes and earn academic credit from their U.S. host college or university while they gain real-world experience. In addition to classes taught by the U.S. college or university, students may have the opportunity to participate in academic classes or a seminar series hosted at the Walt Disney World Resort."

This program gives us a great opportunity to see prime business strategy at work. We get to study from the best at Florida State University about hospitality, tourism, leadership and communication. We get to understand what it is to be business professionals out in the real world and then put our skills to use at Disney World. How many people do you know can proudly say they have worked or studied at Disney?

PROGRAM BENEFITS
• Gain valuable work experience in a world-class organization.
• Discover why Disney’s high customer service standards and philosophy make it the greatest entertainment company in the world.
• Acquire personal and professional skills which could boost any career prospects.
• Experience at an American university.
• Work, live and socialize in a multicultural environment with participants of many different nationalities.
• Create lifelong relationships with other students from all over the world.

Disney is more than an entertainment business; they have succeeded in bring education and joy to children and adults across the world. Everyone knows their name and their prestigious reputation. To learn how they conduct their customer service and business strategies would be the biggest honour possible. Wouldn't you jump at the chance to work for Google? Or Coca-cola? To be the best you have to learn from the best!
Here's what some past participants have to say about the program...