Tiniest iPod Yet?

This has been around for a while now, so you may already have seen it. If not, and you have broadband, I hope you’ll at least get a smile out of this iPod Flea Ad Spoof. Enjoy!

Seth Godin: Flipping the Funnel

You may have read the irreverent and terrific marketing book, Purple Cow by Seth Godin. Godin’s brand new e-book, Flipping the Funnel, is 18 pages, free to download, and worth the read if you’re interested in leveraging technology to build business. Yes, he’s using the book in part to promote his own new business venture, Squidoo, but that doesn’t water down the primary message or the good strategies he suggests. And, consistent with his past approach, he’s demonstrating his marketing strategy by writing and releasing the book this way.

Other Sources to Help You Build a Thriving Practice

While I’ve been consulting with and advising new and experienced mediators informally for a long time, there are others who put themselves out on the web for other mediators long before I did. Whether you’re new to the profession or a long-time practitioner, I highly recommend these colleagues’ blogs for sound advice and excellent information. I read these folks regularly and think you should, too:

• Diane Levin’s Online Guide to Mediation
• Perry Itkin’s Florida Mediator (read it even if you’re not in Florida!)
• Bill Warters’ Campus-ADR Tech Tools
• Dina Beach Lynch’s Mediation Mensch

I have a few others I’ll share down the line, but start with these fine sites first.

Virtual Assistants: Support without the Staff

When I left my post as a college dean to found my private [tag]ADR[/tag] practice almost a decade ago, I was thrilled not to have staff anymore. I’d worked with a large staff of fabulous folks over the years, yet I yearned for freedom from hiring, training, supervising and occasionally, firing. Frankly, I’ve never looked back. I still don’t want employees. But as business grew, I found myself yearning for the terrific executive support provided by my former assistant, Ann.

At some point you may find your practice has grown sufficiently that you start to yearn for quality administrative support, too. But, you may not want an employee, have the space to accommodate one, or the steady income stream to support that kind of commitment.

A [tag]virtual assistant[/tag] is an excellent option for independent service professionals like mediators. Virtual assistants are highly skilled administrative and executive assistants who provide their support to your business via telephone, computer and fax. Like you, VAs are micro-business owners with their own home or private office.

AssistU, one of the leaders in training VAs in the U.S., has an excellent FAQs page where you can get more information about how VAs work and the benefits of contracting with one. They’re also a source for locating a VA, as is the International Virtual Assistants Association.

How to Know If You Need a Website

It seems a sacrilege even to ask the question—do you need a website for your ADR business? These days, websites are as ubiquitous as dogs on Church Street in Burlington, VT (my old digs…at the time I lived there in the late 1990s, Burlington had more dogs per capita than any other city in the country).

The general answer is yes, you do. But here’s a better question: When do you need a website?

If you’re in start-up phase, then you don’t need a website yet. Put your money and energy into good business planning, office systems, clarity on market niche, development of a professional image in your print materials, etc. Here’s why a website shouldn’t be at the top of the list for new practitioners:

• You probably don’t yet have readers to direct to your site. If it’s your intention to use a website as a sort of online brochure, then you first need a substantial client or prospect base to refer there.
• You are unlikely to be found via the web. Unless you’re very tech savvy, have tons of time to teach yourself SEO (search engine optimization) or pay substantive bucks to have someone do it for you, it’s unlikely searches by potential clients are going to find your site. There are exceptions, of course, but most of you won’t be those exceptions.
• Now brace yourself: Is it possible you’re using the development of a website as a way to put off going out there and actively getting clients? Ouch! Sorry to have to ask the hard question.

If you’ve already set a good foundation for your practice, then you do need a website in order to:

• Continue to build your professional image and credibility.
• Give your prospective clients a way to get to know you and you work with a depth of information that a brochure or packet just can’t provide.
• Help you get the word out for announcements and press releases.
• Convert your print newsletter (costly) into an e-newsletter or blog, assuming your clients and prospects are web-oriented.
• Provide value-added services and support for your clients.

Create a strong foundation for your practice with sound business planning first. Then, when you do build a website, make sure it projects the kind of image you’d want prospects to see, and make sure it’s written for your target market.

Leverage Technology to Build Business

You’ve no doubt seen the tagline for this site: Helping mediators leverage technology for a thriving practice [update: that was the original tagline for Mediator Tech, back in 2005]. I want to talk more about this with you—how can you leverage technology to build business?

You don’t need to be a tech wizard to capitalize on technology to promote and manage your business. I know lots of [tag]mediators[/tag] who aren’t especially “into” technology beyond email and the web, and I write this blog with the assumption that my readers are all along the tech-usage continuum. And perhaps it goes without saying, but I chose the words “leverage technology” instead of “use technology” because a lever is a tool to accomplish more with the same amount of energy.

I also know a lot of mediators who aren’t making a living doing this thing they love. Are you one? For some, it’s not intended to be a living. For others, though, there’s a fervent wish to do meaningful, important ADR work and make a real living. It’s possible—I do it and so do others. I found that technology makes this easier if you know what’s available and how to best use it to your advantage.

Leveraging technology to promote your ADR practice. When I attend ADR conferences and meetings, talk inevitably turns to marketing, promotion and educating the public. I believe that technology not only makes some part of this work easier, but also reduces the pain of self-promotion for some. Here’s a quick list of a few possibilities: Build an online presence that attracts attention and interest from your market. Use your phone system passively to promote your services. Tap into online social networks to get referrals. Offer tele-trainings. Use a brand new online service to buy extraordinarily low-cost television ads in any market around the country. Offer weekly or monthly podcasts aimed at your target market. Use free services that convert your blog into an email sent automatically to subscribers. Phew! And that’s just my quick list.

Leveraging technology to manage your ADR practice. If you’re newly in business and still have a small client base, then this is a great time to get good systems in place. If you have a steadily growing client base, then you want systems to help you manage administrative details efficiently. There is technology that can help: Services that forward calls to any number or ring several numbers to locate you. Software that integrates with MS Outlook and other packages to better manage your tasks and client database. Financial software that can automate some tasks, such as reconciling your credit card statement with your own records. Virtual assistants who can help manage administrative tasks on a per-hour or per-project basis. E-zine and blog services and software that allow you to distribute a newsletter or post on a specific future date, freeing you from your desk at that time. And more.

The best part is that many of these services and technologies are no- or low-cost and can fit well into a mediator’s budget.

5 Questions Before Starting an E-Zine

E-zine. E-newsletter. Online newsletter. Whatever you call it, a ‘zine can be an extremely effective marketing tool. With some of the free and low-cost web-based email campaign services out there now, ‘zines can also be simple to produce, even for tech neophytes.

They’re also a commitment of time and energy to make them work for you. Before diving in, take the time to evaluate whether or not an e-zine a good marketing tool for you and your particular market. Consider these five key questions:

1. Have you clearly identified your target market or niche? Try this exercise: Take out a piece of paper or open a text editor in your computer. Then write a list of 10-15 article ideas for your e-zine—be diligent and get a good long list. Done? Now look over your list. Do the topics consistently speak to a particular audience (or could they with some re-working)? If not, then you have work to do before heading down the e-zine road: Either you’ve not narrowed your focus sufficiently or you don’t yet know your intended audience well enough to write effectively for them. Doing this work thoroughly will make a significant difference in the success of your e-zine as a promotional tool.
2. Is your target market wired? How widely accessible is the Internet for your audience and do they use email regularly? There’s still a “digital divide” between information haves and have-nots, the latter group including some minorities, those with certain physical disabilities, the economically poor, and elders in the U.S. (for more information on the digital divide, I recommend the Pew Internet & American Life Project). If your target market is wired, you’ll also want to know if their primary access is dial-up or broadband, since that has implications for the e-zine design you choose.
3. Do you like to write? This one seems obvious, but believe me, if you don’t particularly care for writing or aren’t a decent writer, taking on an e-zine will be a painful task. If you’re not sure, try this exercise: Over the coming week, write one article every day or two (about 250-300 words per article). Have a candid friend or colleague read them. Would they seek out these articles? Do they say something valuable? How easy was the act of sitting down to write under time pressure?
4. Do you have the time and willingness to commit to a regular writing schedule? Sporadic e-zines are ineffective. If you don’t think you have the time or the drive to write one on a regular schedule, it’s probably not the right vehicle for you.
5. Do you have a mailing list or an effective way to build one? While you may not have an extensive e-mailing list at the outset, you’ll need a way to build one, such as a website where you can collect visitors’ email addresses via opt-in forms. Other methods include speaking engagements where you gather business cards, or drawing information from former and current client lists. And remember, to stay in compliance with spam laws, you need to be sure to get permission before adding someone to your e-mailing list.

If an e-zine does look like it would be an effective tool for you, watch for my upcoming review of several web-based e-zine services.

Mediator Tech Is Live!

Welcome to Mediator Tech, which is now live! Mediator Tech helps mediators and other ADR professionals build, promote and manage thriving practices by leveraging technology to make those jobs easier.

I hope you’ll subscribe to the RSS feed (don’t know what that is? Fear not, I’ll be discussing RSS in an upcoming post) or sign up to receive the blog by email. I also hope you’ll visit often and sample the guidance, advice, tech reviews and tips.

How to Teleconference for Free

If you’re like me, you have occasions when you need several people on the phone line at once. You may have three-way calling from your phone company, but what about times when you want a simple solution for three or more?

I’ve experimented with several teleconferencing services that offer online sign-up, clear instructions for use, and no- or low-cost features. While this list is by no means exhaustive, here are my top three:

FreeConference: I’ve used FreeConference for several years now and have had a very good experience. After signing up for a free account, users can schedule and manage telephone conference calls from any web browser. While there are premium services that offer more call features, the free services fit the bill in many circumstances: Up to 100 callers and 3 hours, a toll number that’s the designated call-in number, an access code (you can choose your own), organizer control settings, automated email invitations with the conference call information, automated RSVP. The one little caveat: Callers need to call in from a landline phone; cell phones and sometimes even cordless phones create an unpleasant and unwelcome echo.

MyFreeTeleconference: This service works much like FreeConference except that there’s no call time limit and up to 99 participants for the free service. As with FreeConference, you can purchase low-cost toll-free service to be used for a specific conference call, thereby saving your callers the toll fees. These folks don’t actively discourage cell phone use for the calls, but do emphasize the potential impact on sound quality.

FreeConferenceService: A reservationless service for up to 50 callers using a toll number, FreeConferenceService seems a little less developed than the other two but provides the same basic features, including recording of the call (also available from the other services). The user interface is more streamlined and basic (potentially a good thing) but provides less support detail in the event you’re new to this kind of thing (potentially frustrating).

If any of you have used any of the above services and think others might be interested in your experience, please be sure to leave a comment!

Think Blogging Is for You?

If you’re considering a blog as a way to build and communicate with your client base, then you might be interested in this good advice posted by MicroPersuasion’s Steve Rubel:

• Maintain a consistent tone
• Have strong and newsworthy content
• Disclose intentions and sources
• Post frequent updates
• Deal with comments
• Keep innovating

Not sure if an e-newsletter or blog is the right vehicle for you and your niche? Watch for a post I’ll write about this soon.

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