Growing up, my father would ask me to interpret for him when he met with our local insurance agent. My father was profoundly deaf, and while fluent in English and fully capable of communicating in writing, American Sign Language (ASL), not English, was his native language, and his preferred language for discussing business.

Unfortunately, even today, deaf parents being forced to use their own children as interpreters when professionals don’t provide them, is an all too common trend. Would you want to rely on a 12-year old with hearing aids [due to his own moderately severe hearing loss] to understand your customer, and be understood by him/her?

I am proud of the trust my late father put in me, but this was a horrific FAIL by our insurance agent. By not hiring a certified sign language interpreter, our agent lost thousands of dollars in business when my father left him for another agent who had the business sense to use an interpreter.

Your ability to service your customers depends directly on your ability to understand their specific needs and communicate how your products and services address those needs. You already know customers will not buy from you if they don’t trust you. You may not know that they will never trust you if they can’t freely communicate with you!

Think of the incredible investment you make in your sales, marketing, and communications efforts. Don’t throw away this investment, especially when it is easier now than ever to communicate with your deaf and hard of hearing customers.

Unfortunately, in many industries, including insurance, companies are not familiar with how to effectively communicate with prospective and existing customers who happen to be deaf and hard of hearing.

There are many different degrees of hearing loss so always ASK your deaf and hard of hearing customers for their preferred language/communications method.

The communications disconnect is most severe with the estimated two million people in the U.S. who use ASL to communicate. Unless you happen to be fluent in ASL, you will require a certified sign language interpreter to effectively and clearly communicate with people who use ASL.

What about lip-reading you ask? Lip-reading is unreliable as only 30% of spoken English is distinguishable on the mouth and lips. How successful do you think you will be if your customers consistently miss 70% of everything you say to them?

Another option, the “paper and pen” method, is not comparable to using a sign language interpreter. This is because ASL is a visual-spatial language with its own grammatical structure; for example, the English phrase “I give to you” is one word, or sign, in ASL. Additionally, as ASL is often deaf and hard of hearing individuals’ first language, this makes English a second/foreign language to many of these individuals.

Recent advances in technology provide you with some great options to communicate with deaf and hard of hearing individuals. When calling deaf and hard of hearing individuals who use ASL, they may use video and text relay services so you can understand them. Some people may also use captioning services to see and capture everything you are saying.

Video Remote Interpreting (VRI) is another emerging technology gaining traction among deaf and hard of hearing consumers, and is a service we provide to businesses here at Communication Service for the Deaf (CSD). VRI is a sign language interpreting service where a remote sign language interpreter is available with short notice 24 hours a day, seven days a week through video communications software on an Internet-connected device with speakers and a video camera.

VRI is a great complement to CSD’s on-site interpreter services due to its convenient, instant availability and placement at any location, as well as its short time minimums. The service works equally well for one-on-one discussions and group meetings. While a live interpreter is always best, VRI is a great solution to discuss with your deaf and hard of hearing customers who use ASL.

Had VRI been available and used by our insurance agent, I would have been out of my interpreting job for my father, and my insurance agent would have kept our family as a customer!

As technologies emerge and eliminate communication barriers, we can only think to the future. This is why I was delighted when offered a position with CSD – I knew I would be a part of an organization focused on improving the quality of lives for people who are deaf and hard of hearing by driving positive change and innovation. On a daily basis, I’m given the opportunity to ensure the community I am a part of has access to communication, and I welcome you to join me in ensuring your deaf and hard of hearing clientele has full access to communication.

Disclaimer: This post was originally posted on InsuranceFiles.com. For the original post, visit http://www.insurancefiles.com/blog/losing-deaf-customers-revenues/.

The post Are you losing out on deaf customers and their revenues? first appeared on Corey Axelrod.

I trust you will evaluate the thoughts I share and recognize the value in them. I’ve sat on these thoughts for a very long time, and for the first time, publicly shared some of these thoughts during my ‘Online Advertising And Marketing: A Powerful Tool’ workshop at the National Association of the Deaf (NAD) Conference this recent July in Louisville, Kentucky. During my workshop, I mentioned the deaf community needed to reach out to the hearing community. An attendee of my workshop, Ted Holcomb, took note and mentioned this in his latest blog post, ‘Will Deaf Community Take Responsibility?’

In wanting to respond to his thoughts, I decided this would be the appropriate outlet for me to continue the discussion initiated at the NAD Conference.

To borrow a line from Trudy Suggs, my goal is for you, the reader, to be open to “uncomfortable topics, uncomfortable truths, and uncomfortable analyses—whether they apply to you or not.”

I’m a firm believer the best way to advocate is to look within and analyze how the outside world perceives you as a being, collective group of individuals or culture, and then shape messages to respond accordingly.

I say this because upon reading Ted Holcomb’s post, I squirmed a bit. Not because I disagreed with what he had to say, but because he brought up valid questions that were thought provoking and encouraged a healthy discussion.

In replying to this post, I’d like to do so in the context of one of the areas I know best: marketing.

Small business owners have often asked me this question: what do I need to do to get over the hump? My answer has often been straightforward – you need to understand your market and market to them effectively and efficiently.

Yes, it’s that simple!

Unfortunately, businesses are often stuck in a rut and follow their business and marketing plans point for point. This is a double-edged sword as technology and the overall business landscape are continually evolving, making an already difficult venture even more difficult. As a result, regardless of whether one knows their business inside and out, the onus is on decision makers to review and adjust strategic initiatives accordingly.

This merely prefaces one of the main points of this article – to be successful, you as a business owner or marketer need to market your messages effectively to the masses, including people who may not necessarily serve as a customer, but as an influencer.

I’m not saying you should generalize your messages to resonate with every single individual – that’s merely impossible – instead, what I am saying is to make sure everyone has access to your messages.

So for example, if you are a deaf business owner serving primarily deaf customers, you should be making sure any videos (i.e. Vlogs) you make are captioned. You may be thinking… well my everyday customer is a deaf individual. So what?

While there is nothing wrong with a business serving a niche client base by selling products for the deaf and hard-of-hearing, there is something to be said if your marketing collateral is not accessible to all within this market segment. If you’re not captioning your videos, I would like to point out you probably just lost out on the 80-85 percent of the market segment you aimed to serve. This is because these individuals often are not culturally deaf and consequently do not know or are not fluent in ASL.

At the same time, you also possibly missed out on a great opportunity to educate the general masses about your products and services. These individuals may end up becoming customers and/or can serve as brand advocates/influencers. It’s very likely they may know someone who could use your products or services.

In essence, you cannot expect to successfully market your company if your messages are not equally accessible to all.

One can look at Russ and Melody Stein of Mozzeria in San Francisco, California. I personally had a chance to talk with the both of them when I was at their restaurant several months ago. The two of them reiterated the point of not only needing to understand the market they serve, but also not limiting themselves because of their deafness.

The two garnered positive PR from both deaf and mainstream media, a feat that doesn’t surprise me. While there is the bit to be said about the owners being deaf, there is much more to Mozzeria than the deaf owners. It’s the food, oven, ambiance, service and much more that make Mozzeria what it is. Russ and Melody Stein understood this and decided to capitalize on the unique dining experience they offer patrons.

Making business accessible to all individuals is a sensible, pragmatic approach to business. It is not impossible for businesses to do, but yet, many businesses often do not realize the wealth of opportunities they are presented with.

To see how easily one can make an influence on the general public, one can look at the impact Adam Jarashow and Megan Malzkuhn made when launching the #captionTHIS social media movement for online accessibility. One can also look at a much more recent example, Adrean Clark’s petition to President Obama to officially recognize American Sign Language as a community language and a language of instruction in schools. These are two prime examples of the deaf community banding together to push a social agenda.

Simply put, the words were heard, felt and understood through accessible communication that reached out to not only within the community, but also transcended beyond.

Now let’s think back to your business and think about how you can maximize your business’ return on investment (ROI).

The obvious solution is to maximize your marketing communications effectiveness and efficiency. One way to do this is to add captioning to all videos. In turn, you will attract a larger population of people. If everything else holds constant, you’ll be generating incremental income that you can in turn reinvest in the deaf community. With this said, I would like to challenge those who preach about needing to up the standards of deaf economics to step up to the plate and lead by example.

If a small company like DeafTechNews, one that was started and is currently run by an RIT student, can afford to outsource captioning services to CaptionASL, why don’t bigger companies and organizations caption their videos?

It shouldn’t be considered an expense of time and money, but rather an investment.

Anyways, back to the point of Mozzeria – not only has their business thrived, but they’ve also been able to give back to the deaf community in numerous ways, including employing deaf individuals. The #captionTHIS social media movement for online accessibility and ASL petition are proof of concepts that deaf people are capable of not only being heard, but understood.

They serve as the reason you should not be afraid to reach out of your comfort zone – you may have an ally who believes in you and wants to support your journey.

The post Breaking Down Barriers of Success first appeared on Corey Axelrod.

I had the privilege of being interviewed by Deaf Social Media about my experiences with Synergetic Business Solutions. Below is the transcript of the interview (can also be found here):

DSM: Tell us a bit about yourself and your role at Synergetic Business Solutions.

Corey: I was born and raised in the suburbs of Chicago. After graduating from John Hersey High School, I attended the Rochester Institute of Technology and earned my bachelor’s degree in business management and master’s degree in business administration (MBA) with a concentration in marketing and sales management. After working for several years out of Rochester, NY, I decided to return to my roots in Chicago and focus full-time on Synergetic Business Solutions.

As the owner of Synergetic Business Solutions, I work with my team to tailor marketing strategies to help businesses connect with their customers. The focus is on integrating different components of businesses to increase profitability and efficiency. These include, but are not limited to the following: social media and search engine marketing, online advertising and branding.

DSM: How did you get started running your own digital marketing agency?

Corey: The decision to start my own digital marketing agency was quite simple – I saw a need and decided to tackle this by offering services I had a passion for. This need was explicit within the Deaf and hard-of-hearing community, and I was strongly encouraged to initially offer my services on a consultative basis. Since starting the business, we’ve created more than 15 multi-channel integrated marketing campaigns for a portfolio of business-to-business and business-to-consumer clients. I’m truly excited to see where the company will go in the future!

DSM: What are some areas in social media that you noticed most companies have been struggling with these days?

Corey: Engagement is critical. A number of companies struggle with this concept. It’s not about putting out information that is interesting to the person posting on social media, but rather posting content that is relevant and interesting to the target audience. Essentially, your customers are your brand. If you fail to deliver content they want along with the product or services they want, they may quickly go elsewhere.

DSM: What will it take to become a “Best in Class” digital marketer?

Corey: This is a great question! I think that in order to become a ‘Best in Class’ marketer, one needs to be able to be a Jack of all trades. While digital marketing is constantly changing, one should understand the intangibles associated with marketing and evolve with the emerging trends. All components of digital marketing work together and if one does not understand how one component affects the other, they can severely hinder their organization’s success.

DSM: NFL’s regular season’s starting tomorrow, how do you think your Bears would do this year?

Corey: I should have known you would ask me this question! I really think that if Brian Urlacher is healthy, the Bears have a chance to go deep into the playoffs. You heard it here first – Super Bowl Champions!

Thank you Deaf Social Media for this opportunity!

The post Exclusive Interview with Deaf Social Media first appeared on Corey Axelrod.

Last Wednesday I had the privilege of being on the LinkedIn Lady radio show. While regular host Carol McManus (@linkedinlady) was away at a conference, a friend and former colleague, Ken Herron (@KenHerron), was the guest host. I couldn’t turn down Ken’s request that I be his special guest on the show.

Ken and I talked in lengths about how small businesses need to incorporate social media as part of their integrated marketing mix, and I’m writing this blog post as a summation of the conversation we had during the show.

Ken opened the discussion by asking me which social media platform a small business should be on. Unfortunately, there is no right answer. Social media is not about you or your business, it’s about your customers, audience, and whoever you are trying to reach. Simply put, you go where your customers are. If your customers are on Facebook, you should be on Facebook. If they’re on Twitter or Pinterest, you should be as well.

Communicate with your customers to find out which networks they are on, as well as the type of content they want from you on social media. This will enhance engagement, a process critical to your success on social media.

The next portion of the show focused on standing out from the competition on social media. While one can go the route of focusing on the ‘trends’ (YouTube or other video platforms) or on ‘conventional’ social media platforms by going with Facebook and Twitter, my professional recommendation is to be on multiple platforms and simultaneously utilize video. Part of video’s appeal for social media is that it lets your potential customers see, hear, and “touch/feel” your business. These are all important ways that people can learn about you and your business. From there, you can take your videos and cross-promote these videos on other social media platforms. It’s essentially about tying all the social media platforms together while maximizing the tangible components of your brand.

With your presence on social media, it is always important to measure success. My definition of success is not measured by the number of followers I have. Instead, it’s how many people I engage with on a daily basis. It’s how many people are retweeting what I’m saying or responding to a tweet I’ve sent out.

Success on social media does not come overnight, instead, it’s a process that requires commitment and dedication to the craft, at least fifteen minutes twice a day to grow your business by interacting with your customers online. Small business owners are their own brand, and they should share their expertise with customers regardless of the social media platform they are on.

One way to measure impact on social media is by looking at one’s Klout score – Klout basically takes different components of your digital influence and tells you how much of an influence you have on your audiences. There’s a lot of back and forth between supporters and naysayers, but the algorithms Klout uses provides insight into your online presence.

While there are no magic tricks to improving your Klout score, there are a number of ways small business owners can be effective on social media. The first is to take their time to learn the different platforms. Take whatever time you need to learn a given social network before worrying about being on multiple sites. The savvy will come, just be patient and learn all the different ways to maximize the effectiveness of the network.

This experience can be enhanced by joining Twitter chats and reading blogs to learn from social media experts. Twitter chats are beneficial to users worldwide as they are a two-way street: either you learn or strut your stuff by sharing what you know. Twitter chats are essentially what you make out of them, and can help increase your company’s visibility. Here’s a list of 15 Essential Twitter Chats for Social Media Marketers: http://mashable.com/2012/04/11/twitter-chats-social-media-marketers/. Continuing on with the train of thought of learning, reading blogs are another critical component of being successful on social media. Below is a link to a list of some of my favorite social media blogs: http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/top-10-social-media-blogs-the-2012-winners/.

Before we concluded, Ken and I quickly touched on GM pulling their advertising money from Facebook and the implications this has on online advertising from here on out. The one important nugget I’ve taken away from all of this is that you need to ask yourself the question of whether paid advertising will work for your business to reach your customers, regardless of whether it is through Facebook, Google AdWords, etc. You cannot answer this question without trying, and it is worth your time, money, and effort to determine if paid advertising is worthwhile for your business. GM determined that it was best not to pay the $10 million towards Facebook and instead continue to grow the presence of their branded pages on Facebook, an initiative they’ve poured more than $30 million into during the last year. GM found something that worked better for them and it’s important that you do the analysis and allocate monies/time towards something that will maximize the effectiveness of every dollar invested.

To listen to the free LinkedIn Lady Show podcast featuring Ken Herron and Corey Axelrod, visit iTunes at http://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/the-linkedin-lady-show/id433664232.

The post LinkedIn Lady Show Guest Appearance: Streamline Small Business with Social Media first appeared on Corey Axelrod.

Yesterday made for an an interesting day for Facebook. First, technical glitches delayed the start of Facebook’s trading by half an hour and then the company didn’t perform as well as expected in the stock market as it closed at $38.23, a 23 cent uptick and an increase of six-tenths of one percent.

I believe the reason the stock did not perform up to expectations is deeply entwined within investors’ fears of companies pulling their advertising money from Facebook, much like General Motors (GM) did earlier this week.

GM spent an average of $30 million yearly to build and maintain their pages on Facebook compared to $10 million for advertising on Facebook. Now that GM has pulled the money from Facebook, Facebook won’t see a piece of the pie. If other companies follow suit, this will be an issue severely hindering Facebook’s growth projections and is another issue Facebook faces, especially as they have not found a way to capitalize on mobile advertising.

While Facebook attempts to figure out what is wrong with the system they have in place for advertising and why GM pulled out, my inclination is Facebook will start charging companies of all kinds to have brand pages on Facebook. This is something I believe should have been done a long time ago regardless of the risks associated with charging for ‘real estate’ on Facebook. Facebook is losing money from GM and needs to find a way to minimize investors’ concerns.

The Axelrod proposed plan for branded pages on Facebook:

Companies should be charged for their usage of branded pages. This rate should be a fee combining companies’ levels of engagement with fans and the amount of pages companies have on Facebook.

The reason I propose this combination is because Facebook needs to focus on giving businesses an incentive to interact with their customers. The longer people stay on Facebook, the better it is for brands and Facebook. For the latter, the longer people stay on Facebook, deductive reasoning suggests a higher propensity of clicks on ads. Nonetheless, as I’m not privy to internal information, this is something Facebook needs to analyze.

In the midst of all of this, the one thing Facebook should keep in mind is that they cannot jeopardize their small business segment. It’s a fickle balance between making money from branded pages and advertising. Hence, this is where the levels of engagement factor comes in – the more companies engage with their fans on their branded pages, the more they should pay. As these calculations can be derived from branded pages’ insights, this tiered plan should be a formidable approach that can help offset Facebook’s losses in advertising and ensure Facebook continues to get its piece of the pie.

The post GM Pulling Ads from Facebook: Implications first appeared on Corey Axelrod.

I attended Imagine RIT: Innovation and Creativity Festival, a campus-wide event that showcases the innovative and creative spirit of Rochester Institute of Technology students, faculty and staff. More than 30,000 people were in attendance to see the various exhibitions, demonstrations and live performances – at times, there were so many simultaneous displays, it was actually a bit overwhelming! But, it’s important to note that each of these technological advances is an important stepping stone in pushing the technological advances envelope.

I remember saying to a friend during the festival, “They can make these things, and I’ll just put them out on the market and sell them.” Spoken like a true sales person, right? I’m not an engineer, a chemist or an artist. I’m not going to come up with the next revolutionary piece of technology, at least not in the near future. Instead, I’m like the majority of Americans, using the technology invented by these fine people.

Take Twitter, for example. For me, a person that likes to consume technology and is a sales person/marketer by trade, daily personal interaction with others is very important. That’s why I’m a big fan of this social media site, using it on a consistent basis. In fact, I actually handle several different Twitter accounts – one for personal use and a number for the rest of my clients.

On a personal level, Twitter offers instant emotional gratification, one that can be shared by micro-blogging in messages containing 140 characters or less. People say I can get the same type of interaction on other forms of social media like Facebook, but I really can’t. This is because juxtaposed alongside Facebook, Twitter is a sophisticated, scaled-down version of Facebook. Twitter drives the notion home that you need to be precise with your messages, and takes the conversation to the next level. On the other hand, Facebook’s “like” feature takes just seconds for a person to click, and does not encourage intellectual stimulation and conversation.

On a more professional basis, Twitter enables me to put meaning and a personality behind my clients’ brands. I have found business to business marketing to be especially intriguing, and Twitter has been a platform that has enabled interaction with many people at one time, instead of one by one. While this type of inbound marketing has been proven effective, I’m excited about what the future holds as there is so much potential that hasn’t been tapped into or explored yet.

Last, but not least, I do want to point out that while I understand there are negative implications associated with social media, I don’t feel the need to hide behind a smoke screen. I’m grateful Twitter allows me to put myself out there and interact with people on a daily basis. Twitter has essentially become like a pair of glasses, I’m lost without mine.

***Disclaimer: This post is a re-posted blog post written by Corey Axelrod on June 15, 2011 for the Purple Communications blog.

The post Making a powerful, positive impact in 140 characters or less: Why I love Twitter! first appeared on Corey Axelrod.

PPC advertising on search engines work.

If you have an online marketing strategy, there’s a good chance Google AdWords or other search engine advertising initiatives are an important part of it. You’re probably carefully monitoring, and hopefully optimizing, your performance.

The advantages with search engine advertising are aplenty as campaigns can be adjusted immediately, ads can be tailored based on keywords, and  ads can drive immediate action. Another advantage is that search engine advertising is cost friendly – only you can set the budget for what you’re willing to pay.

While there are numerous advantages, search engine advertising isn’t for everyone. Just because it’s hot doesn’t mean that it will make business sense for you. A number of companies dabble in Google AdWords and shortly after, throw in the towel. The reason? They don’t believe they get the return on investment they think they should.

In order to decide if Google AdWords or other search engine advertising initiative is for you, consider the following criteria.

Set aside a budget

In order to really benefit from a search engine advertising initiative, you need to be prepared to spend spend what it will take to get the clicks.

In Google’s latest search engine marketing study, Google revealed one of the benefits associated with increasing a budget for search ads is that websites achieved approximately 78% of an increase in average clicks. This increase in clicks may be beneficial to your business, only if the benefits outweigh the cost.

This analysis includes an in-depth analysis of your competitors to evaluate what they are doing with PPC advertising. This is because your competitors may have bigger ad spends, and price you out of your ballpark. On the flip side, it is possible that you may be a first mover in the advertising space. This is beneficial for you as you can build a reputation with search engines by maximizing your ads’ quality scores – this is a direct indication of how Google assesses the relevancy of your ads, keywords, and landing pages to a person seeing your score. Higher quality scores typically lead to lower costs and better ad positions.

Make the time to track performance

The catch 22 associated with search engine advertising is that these initiatives have an unmatched ability to adjust to market conditions. You can adjust most pay per click campaigns and your changes are rendered almost immediately. The other side of the coin is that you need to commit the time to continuously measure the success of your search engine advertising campaign(s) and make changes when appropriate.

Think like a customer

Your customers are probably using search engines to find you or companies that provide similar products and services. In order for customers to find you, you need to place keywords that they are typing when doing a search. One of my favorite places to find popular keywords that are searched is Google’s AdWords: Keyword Tool. There you can find keywords to further optimize your search engine advertising campaign(s).

Is it for you?

As I wrote previously, advertising on search engines isn’t for everyone. If you decide to utilize this initiative as a part of your online marketing strategy, you may reap the associated benefits. It is important, however, to remember one thing – don’t throw in the towel if things aren’t going the right way. Evaluate consistently and adjust accordingly, and then repeat.

The post Search Engine Advertising Works first appeared on Corey Axelrod.