….and I always hated having to put the worm on the hook.
Well, maybe the analogy doesn't EXACTLY hold water, but that's the way it feels to me most of the time.
In the sense that today's fisherman employs ever more technologically-advanced gadgets to find and lure the prey, the analogy works just fine.
Today's freelancer has a host of mostly online tools to get the attention of his/her target, and just as many to reel 'em in.
Take LinkedIn for example. I think my profile page looks pretty "full", but honestly I'm a pup.
I've gone the "LION" route, meaning I've eschewed the LinkedIn rules, and accepted Linked In Open Networking. Instead of knowing who all my connections are, I pretty much blindly agree to all invitations that come in.
I even paid a small yearly fee to join "TopLinked" and have my name appear on a weekly roster of fresh meat (a tasty worm) that anglers can use for invitations. I've built my number of connections to almost 4,000 — many from India, Europe, and Asia. It seems the lion's share of them (couldn't resist), hold jobs in either IT firms, headhunting agencies, or human resources and sales deprtments.
I've been telling myself for months, now, as I add up my connections like King Midas, that every one of them are potential new clients.
A couple of days ago, I decided to finally test my hypothesis.
LinkedIn allows you to send a "Question" out to no more than 200 of your connections at a time. LinkedIn understands it can be a thinly veiled marketing tool. In fact, they'll ask you to click a check-box next to "Recruiting, Promoting Your Services, or Job Seeking" as you send out your question.
The question I asked, was: "How important is it to use a voice or on-cam professional in your marketing campaign?
Sound and Video (with sound). These two conduits to your clients still
garner more attention than anything else in the advertising world. Are
you using a professional to be that voice or that face for your
product/service/company?…Or are you making the mistake of doing it
yourself (you've seen THOSE car commercials, right?)"
I clicked on a random sample of 200, based mostly on their position in the alphabet.
In the next few days, I got a total of three (3) (III) responses!
Here they are:
1) "I feel that it is very important to have a voice or on-cam professional
within a commercial. Sound has the ability to create images in the
mind. A lot of people would not understand the commercial if there was
not some sort of announcer being heard explaining things to them."
2) "Very Important…I can only emphasize how significant it is to engage all the person's
senses to keep the client attracted & interested…& the more
important, is for that to be done by a dedicated professional who is
very well versed on the tricks of the trade, although I must admit I
haven't seen those car commercials ;))"
3) "Great question and point for marketing and videos! I am a former radio
broadcaster and completely understand the power of video testimonials
and the right delivery to compel people to take action. Very important
in this competitive electronic world we live in!"
Well! I guess it's VERY IMPORTANT!!
All is not lost here. I've taken the first step, but obviously the process has to be refined, words chosen more carefully, and names more selectively targeted, but I'm still holding out hope I'm gonna return fRom a long day on the lake, and tell my wife…." YOU SHOULDA SEEN IT. IT WAS THIS BIG!"
CourVO
