Had some really interesting feedback from a journalist today who said she had searched all of the “Work At Home” websites and chose to interview me today because I had put my picture on my website and because I’d provided multiple ways to contact me and not just a form. So, take that is a big fat tip from me to you…. personalise, be personable on your website and not just on social media. Do you have just a form or do you put a phone number or email address too? I’d love to know!

Hi Cas,

Congrats on the interview! And nice job taking this opportunity and putting it in lesson-form that people can learn from! 

On my corporate website, I have every possible way to get in touch with me that there is! (including Skype)

On my social media crisis academy website (for different reasons), I have just an email, Twitter and Facebook, but once they email me, all of my contact info is in my signature.

We put all our contact info: phone, address, email, facebook, twitter, etc.  It lets the customer choose what method they like best.

It always amazes me at how few people do this though. We run a peer review every Wednesday on our Page Wall and more often than not, people fail to put an “About me” page on their website, put a name to their business or provide a phone number or email address as an alternative to a form. Why do you think this is?

woohoo, Cas, congrats on the interview! Hope the IWAH is going well. Thanks for bringing this to our attention. I’m in the middle of moving everything online to a new host and need to remember this point.@casmccullough

@casmccullough @mike-stelzner

While I agree that having just a contact form isn’t a great idea (we have snail mail, social media icons and a phone number), I strongly recommend people not put their email on their websites.

Why?

Reason 1: email harvesters scrape email addresses off the web and deliver them to spammers world wide. Fastest way to get deals on Natural Cialas, Russian Brides or Texas Hold-Em is to put your email address on your website. (Learned that the hard way.)

Reason 2: When people (prospects) fill out your contact form they invariable provide a lot more information than they would have in an email, and you can help direct and lead the conversation.

Agreed, that it might slow down reporters, although I find I still get many who do fill out the minimum required info on our form (name, email, phone) and others can always pick up the phone.

@rich-brooks Thanks Rich! A good reminder to remove my email address from posts etc. I usually use [at] instead of @ so the email can’t be followed. Is that not advisable too?