Some people weren’t made to network

This week, I was talking to someone at a networking event, when another person butted in and joined our conversation. A general rule of networking is that you leave two people alone, and that faux pas should have warned me about how rude this person was. After I nicely introduced myself to him, he mentioned his company already has a relationship with another agency, and that he wouldn’t be a good candidate for my business. WOW.

I’m about building relationships at networking events, not doing hard sales. I don’t see many other agency people at events, and the few that are there follow the same rules I do. Thus, I don’t know what would make this guy say that, other than he was just an asshole. Here’s to hoping karma comes back to haunt him.

Heard of spell check?

Spelling and grammatical errors- there is nothing less professional when it comes to emails sent to a client (well, unless you drop the f-bomb, which is never a good idea!).

Intra-office communication generally has a more casual tone then emails sent to clients, but sometimes it can go too far. I’ve made some pretty embarrassing spelling errors in my day, but when did we get so lazy that people don’t read over an email briefly before they send it? We are all guilty of getting sloppy in communication when it is between friends and co-workers, but habits breed habits! If on a daily basis you send emails that are poorly written and contain errors, you are more likely to do the same with clients.

No one is perfect, and spelling/grammar errors are bound to happen. However nothing is worse than receiving an email from someone you are trusting with your money and time, and they do not even value you enough to check for spelling errors.

Why not get in the good habit of always writing professional, edited emails? That way you are guarunteed not to turn off a client simply because you spelled guaranteed wrong!

Now for some Charlie Brown…

What a year

On Jan. 4, Revelation PR, Advertising & Social Media celebrated its anniversary. I don’t mean “celebrated” like we had a party or anything. Nor did we gloat about it to our peers or through outlets like social media.

Instead, I quietly reflected while sitting on the newly installed futon. I remembered the ebbs and the flows throughout the year; now in the past month, it’s been a flood of new business and new business opportunities–a lot of it is due to my wonderful network.

I’m growing, the staff is growing and the business is growing. Heck, maybe I should replace the word “growing” with “evolving.”

Here’s to an exciting 2012. Let’s hope the Mayans are wrong.