You might be wondering, “Can Twitter actually help me generate leads and close business?”

My answer is a resounding YES.

And here’s just one of the many stories I could share about how Twitter has helped my business close a deal.

And it just wasn’t ANY deal, it was the world famous Anthony Robbins, famous for his Unleash The Power Within events.

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Wondering how to grow your popularity in the social media world? Then watch this video…

I recently sat down with social media guru Jason Falls (SocialMediaExplorer.com) to talk about how he grew in popularity using good old fashioned networking.

In this video, Jason talks about:

• How he strategically grew in popularity on the social media frontier
• Social media tips for PR professionals
• Measuring return on investments with social media

Are you leveraging the power of white papers? Today, they are one of the top lead generation vehicles. There have been tons of recent studies confirming this.

And now, media companies are turning to white papers—and that’s a big deal for all of us…

The cover story in the April edition of Media Business Online (a B to B Magazine supplemental) is entitled “Taking The Leads.” Here’s an excerpt from the article:

Economic downturns always place renewed emphasis on lead generation.  This time around, marketers have gravitated to the Internet and its ability to deliver extremely measurable return on investment.

“They’ve taken a hard right turn toward everything that can be seen as raising their ROI,” said Chuck Richard, VP-lead analyst at Outsell.  To meet the demands of their marketing clients, b-to-b media companies have reacted by beefing up their online lead-generation programs. “It’s webinars and white papers,” said Outsell’s Richard.

The Opportunity

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Ok folks… It’s time for our seventh caption contest. The last time we did this, we had 130 entries!

Take a look at the picture below…

Your task: Create a killer caption for this image.

I would like to reward the person who comes up with the best caption by giving him or her a free copy of my book Writing White Papers: How to Capture Readers and Keep Them Engaged in e-book format.

I will annouce the winner on Friday April 24th, 2009.

THE WINNER:

Liz Donnelly: “Dang! I thought my escape plan worked great but I forgot to tell my partner to release the YELLOW ducks!”

Does your business rock and roll like a bad roller coaster ride? When you’re up, you’re doing great, but then business seems to dry up like the Sahara…

Watch this little video I put together on the topic:

How do you prevent your business from going through the feast to famine cycle?

BTW, Happy Easter to all my Christian friends!

I recently came across a rather sly press release indicating that April was “Write a White Paper Month.”

Considering how odd that was, it got my attention.

The fellow who crafted the release has a link to his website where you could download his “ThisIsNotAWhitePaper” report.

What grabbed me were these opening lines of his non-white paper:

…[this project] began as a simple Google search and series of keyword alerts over a week’s time. I wanted to compare the outside world’s perspectives with those of clients and colleagues, most of whom are small business owners in technology sectors or professional services.

The comparison validated what I assumed. There are no standards, no guidelines and no definition. A “white
paper” is as varied in format, approach and content as a jar of Jelly Bellys.

Do you agree that there are “no standards, no guidelines and no definition?”

I’d like to hear from you…

Recently received an email from someone needing help.  And frankly, these “types” of messages are not all that uncommon.

But this one grabbed me.  How would you respond to this?

Good day,

Thanks for your information on White Paper writing.  Please, I need your help. Am writing a white paper on Contract Growing but I don’t feel confident with what I have written so far.
Please, find attached the Contract Growing White Paper.

Kindly make/add the necessary corrections.

Thanks (name omitted)

How would you respond?

When I first saw this, I simply could not stop laughing.

This is the “perfect” satire on Twitter.

What do you think?

By the way, follow me here on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/Mike_Stelzner

InformationWeek recently released a report titled, “Tech Marketing: Best Practices Research Series: White Papers: How to Maximize the Use of White Papers in Your B2B Marketing and Sales Process.” Yes, that is a mouthful, but so is the report. It full of great facts about the marketing power of white papers.

Here is my summary:

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Google just announced a new service called Google Voice (click here for Mashable’s story).  According to Mashable:

The service looks a lot like Gmail for voicemail, although you don’t have to be a Gmail user to use it. It lets you retrieve transcripts of your voicemail, archive and search all your sent and received SMS messages, and you can make calls directly from Google Voice’s interface. The calls are free in the US, and cost a small fee internationally.

Watch this video from Google:

So here’s the really cool part for us writers…

You can call Google Voice and leave yourself messages.  Google will automatically transcribe the messages into text and email them to you!

So, next time you’re in the car or you just don’t feel like typing, you can simply call Google Voice and you’ll get your words emailed back to you.  How cool is that!!