• 35 YEARS OF BLISSPR – War Stories & Lessons Learned
• FINDING THE WIZARD OF OZ – Public Relations Demystified
• DRIVING THE GROWTH ENGINE – How to Develop New Business
• HOW TO CREATE THOUGHT LEADERSHIP – Online, Offline, Integrated

 Abby Carr, Meg Wildrick and Elizabeth Sosnow take turns in giving the courses with me.  The title of this blog, “Herding Cats,” was the subject of the fifth course, and they thought some of the highlights might be useful to our readers.

First, what’s different about leading a professional service firm?  The obvious answer is that our primary assets – people – go down the elevators every night.  They are fluid, not fixed.  Since our firm deals with very smart people in management consulting, law, accounting, executive search, asset management, insurance and other professional and financial services, our people have to be smart.  And, because our clients occasionally have healthy egos, our people have to have healthy egos too.

In short, the leader of a professional firm cannot treat people the way one might treat a machine that manufactures widgets.  Machines don’t ask “why?”  Our people almost always do, which means you should give them the answers before they ask the question.  Leadership becomes much more an exercise in developing consensus, as anyone who has been in any kind of successful partnership (e.g., marriage) can readily attest.

Second, as a recent president said, there’s the “vision thing.”  Now let me go on record and say that I am not a big believer in VISION STATEMENTS and MISSION STATEMENTS.  I think too often they waste hours of executive time – and lots of dollars – to produce something that is designed not to offend and is thoroughly non-differentiable from the competition. 

But leaders do need vision lest they sound Alice in Wonderland, to whom the Cheshire Cat said: “If you don’t know where you’re going, any road can get you there.”  Or worse they can sound like a long forgotten “leader” in the French Revolution, who John F. Kennedy famously quoted as saying: “there go my people; I must find out where they are going so I can lead them.”

Your people need better, and you need not hire consultants or establish task forces to figure it out.  I do not believe a vision needs to be grand – our vision in our early years was survival.  Once we got some critical mass, the vision had three primary components.  We wanted:

1. Measured growth.  You have to grow to create opportunities for your people, but you want to grow at a pace you can manage, one that will not burn you out or your people.
2. A great place to work.  Check.  We have been voted that in the Holmes Report four of the last six years.
3. To enable individuals to grow – including the management team – which has been together now roughly 20 years.

Our vision was achievable, a critical characteristic, and we communicated it regularly and measured ourselves against it. 

We’ll offer some other thoughts on a leading a professional firm in the weeks ahead.  Meanwhile, what do you think are the critical elements?  What do you think of vision and mission statements?

To reach John:

Phone:  212.840.0444 
Email: john@blisspr.com
LinkedIn:  John Bliss

Spenser Baretz of Hellerman Baretz Communications LLC helped Ford & Harrison start the blog in 2006, and used it as a case study during the recent Law Firm Media Professionals (LFMP) social media panel discussion. Other panelists at the event included Russell Lawson of Sands Anderson (who also blogs about “Progressive Marketing” here) and the ubiquitous Peter Shankman of HARO; both of whom echoed the value of blogs in marketing for law firms and other professional services organizations.

But why are professional service and law firms such good candidates for blogging as opposed to other forms of social media? Lawson used a popular analogy to describe getting his firm started on social media: “it was like trying to drink from a fire hose.” (For more on this, check out the BlissPR blog post from Elizabeth Sosnow: 11 reasons why law firms should experiment with social media). To make the transition more manageable, Lawson limited the firm’s scope to blogs, and added Twitter and LinkedIn once they got more comfortable in the space. In addition to being perhaps the most manageable first step into the social media world, blogging is also a great medium to promote the ideas that are the backbone of what professional services firms are essentially “selling”.

Baretz also reinforced that social media is about promoting ideas and thought leadership that will be valued by clients. A blog is a great way to do this, as Ford & Harrison quickly found out. According to Baretz, associates at the firm were assigned blog posts each week, and were required to make updates immediately following each episode. This allowed them to capitalize on the high search volume for the term “The Office” thereby skyrocketing the firm’s SEO, and showcasing their employment law expertise to an audience of current and prospective clients. 

“That’s What She Said” has been a great success, and its strategy can be replicated for other professional services blogs. There seem to be three key pieces to the puzzle:

1. MAN POWER – A successful blog requires an extensive time commitment on behalf of the bloggers, usually the firm’s leadership. This blog is sustainable because it is driven by multiple associates at the firm, not just one person, and not by the partners who often do not have the bandwidth to regularly update a blog.  
2. FLOW OF CONTENT – Because this blog is linked to a weekly TV show, there is a regular flow of content sparking new ideas and raising new issues to blog about. This makes life a lot easier on the bloggers. What in your industry (or outside of it) could be used to spark regular content?
3. TIMING – Updates were posted immediately following each episode of The Office, keeping the blog relevant and SEO-friendly. Timing is critical across so many channels of media and PR, and linking a blog to something that will be newsworthy and relevant from a timing standpoint can be a key driver of success, as Ford & Harrison have demonstrated. 

Has your firm created a successful blog? If so, does it have any of the components listed above? What else helps to drive your blog’s success?

To reach Emily:

Phone: 212.840.8079
Email: Emily@blisspr.com
Twitter: @eweinman
LinkedIn: Emily Weinman

Why? In the 20 years I’ve spent helping clients develop content, I’ve noticed a critical (though perhaps blindingly obvious) fact. It’s pretty hard to become a thought leader. The hurdles include:

1. Analysis Paralysis: Your need to make something perfect essentially dooms the project.
2. Competitive Distractions: You are so focused on a competitor that you ignore your prospects.
3. Junior Partner Syndrome: You don’t believe your ideas are good enough.
4. Calendar before Content: You keep waiting for the right moment…that never comes.
5. Peer Review Ricochet: You need approval from an internal cast of thousands.
6. Your Idea is About You: Your audience is somehow supposed to “make the bridge” to why it matters to them.
7. You Make an Assumption About Your Audience: But your audience doesn’t agree with it.
8. Burning Wo/Man: You’ve been burned before. (Gentle reminder: That makes you exactly like every great thinker.)
9. No ‘So What:’ Your topic lacks differentiation, making it easy to ignore.
10. Coitus Interruptus: Your observations don’t build towards an actionable climax.

But you can jump over these hurdles. Here’s how:

• Get granular: Steer away from giant sized fears and focus on small do-able projects that build your confidence.
• Get Factual: Nothing beats hyperbole better than cold hard facts. Use research to cut through the emotional clutter.
• Get Creative: There is another way to accomplish your objective. Circle until you find it.
• Get off your High Horse: Compromise. Is there a study you can do to round out your hypothesis or an article you can co-author with a credible third party?

When all else fails, listen. The best thought leaders start by reflecting on the wisdom of others.

Have you encountered another hurdle for this list? How do you jump them?

To reach Elizabeth:

Phone:  212.840.0017 
Email: elizabeth@blisspr.com
Twitter: @elizabethsosnow
LinkedIn: Elizabeth Sosnow

But wait a minute. Let’s put this in historical context. Professional services marketing hasn’t been around very long, only slightly more than 30 years. The critical date is 1977, which is when an Arizona court gave law firms the right to advertise. What was professional services marketing before that time?  Think male partners on golf courses and you won’t be far off the mark.

Ironically, given the green light, much of the legal profession did absolutely nothing. Some plaintiffs firms, such as Jacoby & Meyers, initiated ad campaigns aimed at individuals, but that was about it. The big defense firms hardly noticed. In fact, around 1990 a friend of ours was hired as director of marketing by a good-sized NY firm. We asked her how it was going after she’d been on the job for six months, and she said: “It’s getting better. They just allowed me to pick the firm Christmas card.” She soon left, not surprisingly.

In my opinion, the profession that “got it” in terms of recognizing and seizing the marketing opportunity was accounting. The Big Eight (yes, Virginia, there was such a thing) seemed simultaneously to jump on the bandwagon and begin talking “targeting” and churning out brochures, ads and other collateral. Arthur Young even produced a best-selling tax guide that is published today with its merger partner Ernst & Ernst. Our clients at Deloitte, Haskins & Sells were so proficient with brochures that some people thought they were a publishing company. There were also more than a few humorous moments when the accounting culture clashed with the strategies of the consumer packaged goods wizards who had been recruited to spearhead their marketing efforts.

But the accounting firms moved the marketing ball forward, and eventually other professions followed: management consulting, executive search, actuarial science and, finally, the lawyers. With marketing came price competition that grew steadily cut-throat. Mark Stevens even wrote a seminal book on The Accounting Wars. Professionals found that their technical skills were no longer enough to guarantee employment. They were now (gasp) also expected to sell.

Perhaps the first person to grasp the long-term implications of that trend was Ford Harding, the former marketing director of a relocation consulting firm. He established his own consultancy, Harding & Company, in the early 90’s with one goal in mind: to teach service professionals how to sell. To market his firm, Ford authored three terrific books that I recommend to anyone in this business: Rainmaking, Creating Rainmakers and Cross-Selling Success. His business has been an unqualified success.

That’s a quick summary of the genesis of professional services marketing. Were you involved in it during the ‘80s or ‘90s?  What do you remember about “the early days?”

To reach John:

Phone:  212.840.0444 
Email: john@blisspr.com
LinkedIn:  John Bliss

When I asked him how he markets his firm, he said, “I run a boutique investment bank. Clients come here for two reasons. First, they have a connection, a preexisting relationship with someone at the firm or someone who has been a client, and they see us as a firm they want representing them. Second, they are open to using a boutique instead of a big bank, because of the ‘care’ factor, the quality of the work, and the absence of conflicts.” In other words, if they don’t already know him or his firm, and if they don’t already have a predisposition to working with a boutique, then they may well not bother, and that’s fine with him.   

His comment reminded me that in many cases, services – professional services and financial services alike – are reasonably indistinguishable if seen from the outside. As my colleague and mentor John Bliss has said, “Companies that buy a service are looking for one thing – a predictable outcome.” An error-free audit from a CPA firm, a successful trial from a law firm, a brilliant candidate from an executive search firm. Or, from my friend’s firm, a strategic and profitable merger.

Because services are delivered by people, they don’t offer the predictability of products. That makes experience the key to the buying decision. And, in my opinion, thought leadership – writing, talking, speaking, blogging about the person’s area of expertise in stories, examples and observations – is the best way to communicate the individual’s expertise, as well as his or her care factor. 

Monday, Gartner issued a press release titled: “Once the reserve of Large Consultancy Firms, Thought Leadership Is Rapidly Becoming an Established Field Within Marketing.” In the report,  Gartner stated that:

“An organized discipline of Thought Leadership Marketing (what they short-hand “TLM”) is only now emerging, allowing marketers to use this as a manageable tool to drive business. Gartner defines TLM as the giving — for free or at a nominal charge — of information or advice that a client will value so as to create awareness of the outcome that a company’s product or service can deliver, in order to position and differentiate that offering and stimulate demand for it.” (emphasis mine) 

“Its essence is to show, rather than tell what a company can do, and to do so in a way that positions and differentiates that company’s offering for the chosen target audience.” 

In my opinion, thought leadership for professional and financial service firms – as opposed to IT companies –  is less about differentiating and educating, and more about showcasing wisdom and reassuring the target that the desired outcomes are likely. 

In fact, very few service companies – only those who are investing a new category, or introducing a new methodology or tool – need to spend a ton of time educating. Most of us know what search firms and law firms and investment banks do. But in the trifecta of B2B service marketing – the brand, the service and the people – it’s the people, and their wisdom, who need to be front and center. They don’t need a “unique selling proposition” – they need to communicate what they know, demonstrate how much they care, and, by implication, how reliable their outcomes are. 

Do you agree? What firms do this well in your opinion? Can your firm better showcase its wisdom without becoming pedantic?

To reach Abby:

Phone: 212.840.0088
Email: abby@blisspr.com
Twitter: @abbycarr
LinkedIn: Abby Carr

First, resolve to be specific. Avoid saying nothing – or nothing meaningful – in the hopes of covering everything. For example, take sustainability. Everyone wants to make sure the world knows that their organization is focused on sustainability or “thinking green.” But what does your organization have to say that is truly different from the next guy down the street?  Do you have new information about negotiating green contracts?  Does your technology help to quantify or measure carbon reductions?  Do you have new statistics, research or case studies to drive proof of your “green” accomplishments in your public relations program?  Do you have an opinion that reflects new thinking, and you’re ready to put your stake in the ground in regards to a high profile debate?   If you are a commercial real estate firm, your take on sustainability should be different than the local economic development corporation, which should be different from a law firm or a consulting firm.  Know your niche – and be specific in the information and thought leadership that is shared with the public under the banner of your organization.

Here are five ways to clarify your messaging that could make the difference between common banter and sought-after thinking in the marketplace.

Five Communications Clutter Reduction Tips:

• Define five core messages.  Five is generally enough to cover what your organization can truly deliver.  Be disciplined in paring down broad thinking to meaningful points on narrower topics.
• Support your business strategy.  Make sure your pithy sound bites have actual bite – and will be memorable enough to the right people, to help to drive results.
• Smart does not equal strategic. Lots of smart people contribute great things – but not everything has a role in external messaging.  Look at your firm from the outside in, and make the tough choices about who speaks on what topics to the outside world.
• Know your audience. Know what they read, what they watch, what they click.  Information must be meaningful to the people who will do a deal with you.  Make sure the topics and messages you choose will resonate with top decision-makers.

There are many ways to create and implement strong messaging, including media training to back up a strategic messaging philosophy.

Bottom line:  Escape from the irony of having too much to say – clear the clutter in your organization’s messaging, and let your great thinking shine through.

How do you plan to clear your messaging clutter?

To contact Margy Sweeney:

Phone: 312-252-7314
Email: margy@blisspr.com
Twitter: @margysweeney
LinkedIn: Margy Sweeney

On October 22, 2009 the House Committee approved sweeping new financial industry regulations that if passed will fundamentally change the financial services landscape and the businesses that service these financial firms– particularly the communications industry. The Consumer Financial Protection Agency Act (H.R. 3126) creates a new standalone watchdog agency for the financial services industry, which in theory is responsible for promoting “transparency, simplicity, fairness, accountability, and access in the market for consumer financial products or services.” 

Simply put, this agency is responsible for looking out for the financial interests of consumers by banning unfair and deceptive practices, which regulators hope could mitigate another economic and financial meltdown like the one leading to this recent recession.

One of the biggest points of contention with this bill is the “unfairness” rulemaking authority, which many opposing this bill believe is not only inconsistent with the definition of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), but also goes far beyond the similar authority of the FTC under current law. “Unfairness” has always been highly elusive and vague concept which provides regulators with loose authority when not rooted in more concrete fundamentals.

During a webinar hosted by the Council of PR Firms, Dan Jaffe, Executive Vice President of Government Relations for the Association of National Advertisers, touched on some of the intricacies of this bill as well as the implications for both the financial services industry and communications agencies that work in the industry. According to Jaffe, the House CFPA bill will make four fundamental changes in the regulatory authority of the FTC:

• Expedited Rulemaking Authority
• Immediate civil penalty authority
• No Department of Justice oversight of civil penalty cases
• Expanded liability for “aiding and abetting” an unfair act or practice

The most critical of these provisions to the communications industry of course is the latter – aiding and abetting. This would give the FTC the authority to pursue companies or persons that aid or abet a violation of the FTC Act, which would radically change the business landscape for PR firms, advertising agencies and other media companies that play a role in the communication/sale/delivery process of financial information and services to consumers.

So what does this mean exactly? Well that is something that regulators, policymakers, financial executives and communications professionals continue to hash out at this very moment. Those opposing the bill believe the agency will do little more than enhance the government’s ability to interfere with private business practices, while supporters of the bill see it as a necessary step toward preventing a repeat of the financial carnage witnessed over the past two years.

What we do know is that in its current form, the CFPA bill reflects the largest financial regulation restructuring since the Great Depression. And one thing that most constituents seem to agree on is that if this bill is passed, it will not only reshape financial regulation as we know it, but also have a profound impact on the daily business practices of both financial services companies and the firms that service the industry.

So what’s your vote? Is the CFPA a necessary piece of the financial reform puzzle to protect consumers from abusive financial practices that regulators have failed to reign in during the past decade? Or is this a gratuitous layer of regulation that will reduce financial product choices and stifle innovation – making it difficult for banks to serve their consumer and business clients?

To view the CFPA bill in full, click here.

(photo by Dolceta Online Consumer Education)

To reach Nicole:

Phone: 212.584.5473
Email: nicole@blisspr.com
Twitter: @nicolejleblanc
LinkedIn: Nicole Leblanc

So I was excited last week to ask a dozen people who should know: where is the professional services market going? The reason they should know is because they all sell services into it: sales training, executive search, marketing management, thought leadership, association memberships, compensation strategies, legal counsel and B2B public relations. We are all members of a networking group.

One somewhat surprising conclusion: smaller companies were more likely to buy professional services than larger ones. This was put forward by Tony Tiernan of Authentic Identity, Ford  Harding of Harding & Co., Suzanne Lowe of Expertise Marketing and Meg Wildrick of BlissPR. Why? Some thought smaller companies with venture capital or private equity funding were more liquid. Other said the big companies were still cost-cutting.

On the other hand, Stuart Sadick of Heidrick & Struggles felt most cost-cutting had been done and that a “return to corporate decision-making was at hand.” He has generally seen a higher level of activity in his executive search practice. John Furth, president of the Association of Management Consulting Firms, sees opportunities for his constituents in government and healthcare consulting, adding that the picture in retail, real estate, automotive and financial services was “confusing.”

David Rhoads of DHR Consulting pointed to charter schools as a “market of opportunity,” noting that there were now 4,600 such schools in the U.S. and half of them belonged to networks. “The networks need many of the services that we provide,” he noted.

In sum, the expert panel was decidedly upbeat. That made my day.

Based on your experience, do you concur?

(Photo by catherine.harkins)

To reach John:

Phone: 212.840.0444
Email: john@blisspr.com
LinkedIn:  John Bliss

Pop quiz…what kind of meeting could possibly elicit that level of emotion? Answer: a press interview.  For most folks, public speaking triggers worry, anxiety and self doubt.  Media training is designed to remove the emotion and get clients focused on how to maximize their opportunities with the press.

Our firm has media trained hundreds of B2B executives over the years and certain mistakes emerge over and over again.  Here are our top five:

Mistake #1: You forget to listen:  Many people want to rush the interview. The sooner it’s over, the happier they are. But if you are only paying attention to your side of the discussion, what are the odds that you are satisfying the reporter?

Solution: Remember that you are engaged in a dialogue; you are not a passive receiver of questions. Play detective. What can you deduce about the story direction? Don’t give the “kitchen sink” answer. Ask the reporter if they’d prefer an answer that offers an historical backdrop, future implications or considers gender? In other words, give them options. If your last answer didn’t seem to inspire enthusiasm, ask some questions to get back on track. Get “the ball back over the net.”

Mistake #2: You forgot your ultimate audience: Once you’ve labored to come up with an interesting angle that relates to your firm, it’s tempting to think your job is done. It’s not.  Editors, reporters and bloggers want to write a piece that’s customized for their own unique audience. The Wall Street Journal has a different editorial mandate than The American Banker.  And what interests The Associated Press is not likely to excite HarvardBusiness.com.

Solution: Research audience specifics before the interview. Is it a national or regional story? What is the publication frequency? Is it a B2B or consumer audience? Get your facts straight, then retrofit your story.

Mistake #3: You develop a thesis, not a headline: Brevity is still the soul of wit. Having an MBA does not change that fact.  You may have a complicated message: derivative market fall-out, or perhaps detailed legal precedent. It doesn’t matter. The reporter already believes you are smart – that’s why they agreed to the interview. Now they want you to help them sell the story to their readers.

Solution: Prepare for the interview by streamlining your main messages into succinct headlines. Force yourself to say it in a sentence or less.  If you can’t reduce it, it may be because it’s not a truly differentiated thought. Discard it and pick another idea.

Mistake #4: You fell in love with your brochure or website copy: Did you spend months developing the exact words to describe your practice? Were you leading an initiative to rethink marketing at your company? If so, you may have unconsciously decided that’s the only “script” for your business.  It’s not. Reporters hate boring boilerplate language. They want the story that no one else has. They want thought leadership.

Solution:  You need to develop content that highlights your expertise. What’s likely to impact your end customers in the coming quarter? Will decisions by Congress affect their choices? Who are the likely winners and losers in this economic environment? Use your experience to draw meaningful conclusions that educate others.

Mistake #5:  You Forgot to Illustrate your Point: When we’re young, our parents teach us by using examples.  So, “The Boy Who Cried Wolf” is really meant to show children what can happen when you fib.  Human beings like to learn through stories.  But we forget this crucial lesson when it comes to persuasive professional speaking.  I’ve never had a media training session where this problem did not come up, usually multiple times. 

Solution: Prepare a story inventory that brings your messages to life.  It could take many forms: a recent customer anecdote, a colorful metaphor, a persuasive hypothetical or perhaps a “before and after” description that sets the stage for your point of view. Deliberately set out to interest and entice your interviewer with “ear candy” that persuades them to listen closely.

A successful interview produces lots of emotion, including relief, satisfaction, pride, passion and conviction.  What’s your experience with interviews? Is there a mistake that you learned from?

(photo by Michael Headrick Photography)

To reach Elizabeth:

Phone: 212.840.0017
Email: elizabeth@blisspr.com
Twitter: @elizabethsosnow
LinkedIn: Elizabeth Sosnow

Wrong.  At the moment, Twitter is the easiest and most inexpensive way to test your traditional marketing messages with an engaging and easy to use social media tool.  And your competitors, by and large, are not using it.  What’s more, even fewer consulting firms and other professional services organizations are using it to build an effective dialogue.  Do a Twitter search and count how many firms merely blast out their company news.

For BigLaw attorneys, consultants or financial advisors, this is a rare opportunity to quickly test your emerging messages in a dialogue with a smart, engaged audience.  We recommend the following:

1. Establish a firm account that is staffed by a lead person, possibly you.  The goal is to embody a helpful, responsive brand.  It’s too confusing to have multiple people staffing the account.  It may be that one marketer handles Twitter, while another coordinates the firm’s blog.  This account should offer news and insight on key issues and industry information that’s relevant to your clients.  Secondary mentions of consulting studies or firm cases are fine, but should not be more than 10-15% of your total tweets. See here for more details.
2. Training required:  If you want satisfied consultants, consider starting with a best practices session.  Not everyone who wants a Twitter account should have one immediately.  Put a Twitter 101 training system into place, so that they have a set of standards to consider, similar to media training.  Hold a 60 minute class that gets everyone off to the right start. As a bonus, this effectively becomes a quick introduction to social media strategies and the art of b2b inbound marketing.  For enthusiastic and committed Twitter participants, put together an Advanced Twitter training session that highlights best practices.  Regularly assess individual firm Twitterers and emerging messaging opportunities.
3. Divide and conquer: Reporters operate on a “beat” system, where each person covers different topics such as “leadership” or industries.  Start by carving out Twitter beats for your team.  First, identify a starting list of 5-10 attorneys and marketing staff who either already have a Twitter account or who should have one.  Once you have the right list in place, research and develop a customized follow list and messaging goals for each person.  For example, a law firm devoted to the Pharma industry might have one person focused on connecting with leading Pharma thought leaders while another colleague could reach out to the many legal resources on Twitter such as Lextweet.  By dividing subjects, it becomes easier to develop a growing following and less burdensome to maintain it.  Once the new system starts, don’t forget to feed links and relevant news to your followers in addition to your own thought leadership.
4. Leverage Hash Tags:  Very few professional service firms are using the Hash Tag system effectively.  But it’s an easy way to create or join dialogues/groups that matter to your stakeholders. As you probably know, if you add a “#” accompanied by a group name, Twitter collects all Tweets related to that tag. These are often used to capture real-time feedback to conferences or longer term discussions on key subjects.  As a starting point, develop a conference calendar that selects several events where you plan to have your accountants “live tweet” observations.  Then, actively foster daily participation in hashtag groups. A complete list of current hashtags can be found here and more explanation on the Twitter Fan wiki.
5. The Art of Conversation: Perhaps the most important aspect of Twitter is the ability to develop a dialogue with others, especially when there is nothing “in it for you.”  This is the single most important lesson to share with new users.  Participating in #followfriday, asking someone to explain their POV, linking to information that will help others (or even competitors) do their job better…these are the little gestures that leave communities with a positive impression. In short, if you are a nice and interested human being, other human beings are likely to pay attention to you…and your firm by extension.

What about the Return on Investment (ROI) for these activities? Measuring Twitter largely depends on identifying business goals and correlated marketing benchmarks.  For example, you might initially decide to measure the number of ReTweets in order to understand how often your messages are penetrating a broader “secondary” audience.  Or, you might evaluate the quality of your followers/community vs. competitors quarterly.  Other applications let you look at “signal to noise” ratio, velocity and influence. The point is, invest time to determine what you want to achieve. Here’s more information.

Over time, however, you’ll likely come to the conclusion that sharing thought leadership, building relationships and learning from others is its own reward.  Professional Services firms such as McKinsey are rising to the challenge. But, at this stage, it’s possible for others to quickly catch-up and enjoy the many benefits of the Twitter community.

(photo by Geek and Poke)

To reach Elizabeth:

Phone: 212.840.0017
Email: elizabeth@blisspr.com
Twitter: @elizabethsosnow
LinkedIn: Elizabeth Sosnow