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Social Media Marketing Tips from Sonia Simone @ Copy Blogger

Posted on August 31st, 2011 by Joey Donovan Guido

Category: How To Information, Internet Marketing, Small Business, Small Business Trends, Social Media

In her recent copyblogger article, The 7 Essential Elements of Effective Social Media Marketing, Sonia Simone shares some great tips on how improve your social media — from Facebook, to your blog, to your Web site SEO.

The following is an overview of her article, which helps clarify the often confusing and ambiguous world of social media marketing. Click here to read Sonia’s entire article.

“How are savvy businesses using social media effectively to find more customers, boost their reputations and make more sales?

Here are the seven essentials that will turn your social media marketing from an annoying time-waster to an effective bottom-line booster.”

1. Get your home base together: Your home base is your blog or web site. It’s on a domain you own. You control the user experience — from the content to the site design to the user interface.

2. Who’s the face of your business? If you want to use social networking platforms like Twitter, Google+, or Facebook, you need a human face to make your social media marketing work.

3. Who else has your customers? Social networking platforms were designed to make it easy and fun for people to hang out together. That means you’re going to use them to build relationships that will help your business.

4. Pick a primary platform. Again, think about where your customers are. If you love Twitter but your customers spend hours every day on Facebook, you need to recognize that Facebook is probably a better venue for your business. It may not be as fun for you — but that’s why they call it work.

5. Manage your time. If you don’t decide how much time and focus you’ll put into social media, the default will be “all of it.”

6. Content first, conversation second. You’ve been told again and again by social media ‘experts’ that your entire business should revolve around something called ‘The Conversation.’ But if it feels like goofing around all day instead of working, it probably is.

7. Don’t forget SEO. Too many people think that social media sharing means they don’t need SEO any more. The fact is, social media marketing is a superb complement to SEO.”

Copyblogger.com is a great free resource for insight into “online marketing that works.” Check out their blog for articles on copywriting, SEO, internet marketing and more.

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Are You Pushing the Envelope or Pushing Paper?

Posted on August 29th, 2011 by Joey Donovan Guido

Category: Business Inspiration, Goals, Grow a Business, Home Business, Internet Business, Small Business

Whether you’re a huge company, a small business, or somewhere in-between — you’re either pushing paper or pushing the envelope.

A Quick Word on “Pushing”
In the literal sense, we shouldn’t be pushing anything at all, because pushing equals forcing — which can lead to disaster.

But in this article, pushing has a slightly different meaning. Are we status quo, staying within a tiny little paradigm that gets us a paycheck or a modest profit for our business? Or are we pushing the envelope by creating innovation that makes us a leader, a trend setter or a world changer?

What We Choose to Push Affects Our Entire Life
Beyond the business model, pushing paper is a choice that typically brings us no personal satisfaction or accomplishment. Weren’t we put on this earth for more than just going through the motions?

Sure, pushing the envelope can be scary. And if we don’t do our research, learn from our mistakes or ensure the highest quality, it can be fatal. But the rewards are great for those who are brave enough to go into uncharted territory — both personally and professionally.

A true desire for pushing the envelope is the path of high integrity. But it also involves extreme dedication and hard work. Remember, even Michael Jordan (the greatest basketball player who ever lived) was cut from his high school basketball team. What would have happened if he would have walked away and stopped trying because it was too “hard?”

FACT
We’re at work anyway. Why not be the Michael Jordan of what we do? We have a choice, no matter where we’re at in our lives. We can be our best or we can be mediocre.

There may be hundreds, or even thousands of people, awaiting our decision. What’s your choice?

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Business Strategy: Do You Have a Crystal Clear Focus?

Posted on August 26th, 2011 by Joey Donovan Guido

Category: Entrepreneur, Goals, Grow a Business, How To Information, Small Business, Social Media

Looking for a great business strategy?

Look no further than Chris Brogan’s fantastic article, Cut To Grow: Simple Strategies For Building Your Business. This best-selling author (Trust Agents), shares how to cut things out of your business, and your day, in order to help you grow.

I know what you’re thinking: this is about downsizing and cutting corners in order to increase profits, right?

Absolutely not.

Chris’ article is all about assessing what’s working for you and what’s not. It’s about developing a crystal-clear focus so you can do one thing really well — instead of doing ten things poorly. Chris offers an intelligent, “common sense” business strategy that’s based on his own experience and insights.

To follow is an excerpt from the article. Click here to read it in its entirety.

“In reworking my business over the last few months, I’ve had to accept a lot of blame for how poorly I executed things.

I thought, like many fledgling entrepreneurs, that I could do a hundred things at once and do them all well. However, no one does that, nor do they do it even vaguely well.

But I knew that I would succeed. Now, with almost $400,000 fewer of my own dollars to show for my efforts, I must admit: I was wrong.

After this realization, I had to decide how to move forward, and how to make up for the money I lost. We’ve all heard that you can’t cut to grow—I disagree. But that’s because I mean it differently …”

Some may look at Chris’ mistakes as an expensive lesson. But a business strategy that examines one’s mistakes turns short-term failure into opportunities for success. Far more expensive would be having learned nothing at all.

Who is Chris Brogan?
He consults and speaks professionally with Fortune 100 and 500 companies like PepsiCo, General Motors and Microsoft on the future of business communications, and social software technologies. He is the New York Times bestselling co-author of Trust Agents, and a featured monthly columnist at Entrepreneur Magazine. He also has an awesome blog. I first learned about Chris and his insightful business strategy on Twitter.

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Small Business and the Trust Factor

Posted on August 24th, 2011 by Joey Donovan Guido

Category: Customer Retention, Grow a Business, Internet Marketing, Small Business, Social Media

Whether we’re talking about small business, or any facet of life, building trust is the foundation of any successful relationship. Without it, whatever we build will have integrity problems that will fail to stand the test of time.

We all know that trust begins with being honest. Embellishing a product can undermine trust, as can making a promise about our customer service that can’t be kept. These are tangible examples regarding trust. They’re even measurable.

But what about the more subtle ways of building trust or deconstructing it? Ones that aren’t as easy to spot, or to measure?

A good place to start answering these questions is to take a look at a real life example of how a business broke trust with one of their customers (me). While we’re at it, let’s look at the trust factor and how it relates to social media and the success of your small business.

Years ago, I bought an extended warranty for my Hewlett Packard (HP) laptop. When my laptop’s battery died, it was replaced with a third-party EXTERNAL battery that was heavy, ugly and didn’t quite give me the feeling that it was safe.

I inquired about why I didn’t receive an HP replacement battery — one that would reside within the computer like it was supposed to. I was informed that although my warranty included replacing a bad battery, it did not include an “apples-to-apples” replacement. This was the first time I was made aware of this “detail.”

How much less portable did my laptop just become?

In an instant, this business had lost my trust. Why? Because it was never spelled out that I would receive such a replacement part.

Here’s where those more subtle factors come into play when building trust. Was I lied to? The answer is yes, if you consider not being given all the facts a lie. At the very least, I was misled.

This same subtlety is present when it comes to social media. Using social media as a means to an end — in other words, to make a sale — is not going to build trust with potential or existing small business customers.

Viewing a blog post that isn’t interesting or relevant will not compel me to like or follow somebody, let alone make a purchase from them. Yes, a blog post may get more traffic if its SEO is good (a short-term accomplishment), but if you’re not delivering anything meaningful to me, you’ve just wasted my time. Not a good way to build trust.

If you’re not building trust within these social media connections, then you are failing to build your reputation. Even a well written and relevant blog post can hurt you if you hijack your customer with an unexpected sales pitch.

Let them love you. Let them depend on you. Let them trust you.

Use social media to give your customers something special — with no strings attached.

When they need your services or products, you will be top of mind — in essence you’ll make a “sale” without ever having to try to do so. It’s a very different philosophy, one that’s based on giving without expecting anything in return.

When you’re cultivating and building trust, your customers do more than buy from you. They become brand loyal. AND they tell all their colleagues and friends about your small business …

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Google Panda Dos and Don'ts: Is Your Website Optimized Correctly?

Posted on August 18th, 2011 by Joey Donovan Guido

Category: Grow a Business, How To Information, Internet Marketing, Marketing, Small Business News

Google Panda is an algorithm that filters websites into two groups — sites it likes and sites it doesn’t like. The sites that Panda “likes” are upgraded in Google’s search results, while the ones it doesn’t like get downgraded.

Why You Should Care
If your website is breaking some of Panda’s rules your ranking could plummet, making it harder for you to connect with customers. If you adhere to the new rules, and implement an SEO* strategy that Panda likes, you’ll be in much better shape. (* SEO is an acronym for Search Engine Optimization)

Here’s a list of top Panda dos and don’ts:

DO
Make sure you have original content on all your pages. Make sure this content has some guts and passion to it. Original and boring won’t cut it with human eyes or the eyes of Panda. Your content has to be engaging and interesting — offering value and relevance to the reader. If you don’t have someone on staff who can accomplish this, hire a copywriter who can.

Use keywords correctly in each web page as part of your SEO strategy. Keyword phrase choice, placement and density all play a part in where you’ll rank. To learn more about this, read Content Rich by Jon Wuebben, or another book that focuses on SEO.

Since we’re talking about keywords, make sure to utilize two types of keywords and keyword phrases:

First, employ ones that customers are using to find your type of company. For example, a law office or an ice cream shop. I call these “umbrella” keywords because they are an overview of your company and what it does.
The second type of keywords are “organic.” They are the phrases that naturally occur in each web page, and they are more specific to the TOPIC of that particular web page. What type of law office are you, and what kinds of clients do you provide service to? What type of ice cream shop are you — organic, no GMOs, no trans fat? What flavors do you offer, and do you have a party room?

Use Market Samurai, a free SEO strategy tool, to help you choose good keywords and keyword phrases. Make sure you understand how to use this tool by reviewing the videos in their DOJO. Use this for your umbrella keywords and your organic keywords. If you don’t, it’s like throwing darts at a dartboard in the dark, while you’re blindfolded.

Write for the reader, not the search engine. If you have nothing relevant to say on a web page, just delete it! Panda hates pages that have been created for the sole purpose of increasing traffic. Google Panda fancy’s pages that are full of relevant content, written with “passion.” Yes, algorithms are now smart enough to know (for the most part) if you’re posting with sincerity or if you’re just greedy for more traffic.

DON’T
Lift content from other websites. Write your own.

Cut corners on keywords and keyword phrases. A successful SEO strategy entails taking the time you need to create pages that are optimized well.

Be boring. If a web page is boring to you, it’s probably boring to everyone else (including Panda).

Create web pages with the mindset of getting more traffic. Instead, create web pages that people will get excited about. This will get you more traffic AND more business. Plus Google Panda will like you.

The following were gleaned from Beating Google’s Panda Update – 5 Deadly Content Sins, by Cyrus Shepard.

Don’t fill your web pages with ads
Don’t fill you web pages with a “heavy template” that repeats on every page. This leaves not room for original content, and makes Panda want to squash your site down.
Don’t use auto-generated content.

For more information on Google Panda and SEO strategy, visit SEOMOZ, or check out Search Engine Land.

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Customer Retention: When Short-term Gain Equals Long-term Loss

Posted on August 15th, 2011 by Joey Donovan Guido

Category: Customer Retention, Grow a Business, Small Business, Small Business News

Without customers, a business can not survive.

And although customer retention is a key to long-term success, the simple concept of outstanding customer service seems to get lost quite often by small and large businesses, alike.

Customer service, which I refer to as customer care, sometimes means making less money — or even losing money in the short term. But if we don’t take a long view, the results could be a disastrous for our customer retention rates.

For example, I was recently in a supermarket that I frequent on a regular basis. The grocery department was kind enough to hold five cases of Honest Tea that I ordered when the tea was on sale for a dollar a bottle. Excellent customer service, right? Especially when the regular price is around $1.50 per bottle.

When I went to pay, I was told that they were not extending the sale price to me because the sale was over. I explained that I had been told by one of their employees that as long as I ordered the tea while it was on sale, I could pick it up anytime and still pay the sale price. I also explained that I had been doing this for over three years. What changed?

I was given a curt answer: this was simply not their policy, and they were sorry they couldn’t help me.

WOW. They weren’t thinking about customer service or customer retention.

No effort was made to make me happy, or to provide the discount one last time (which would have created a buffer between my current expectation and my future expectation).

My average spending was about $200 per week in this supermarket. Now the thought of going there turns my stomach.

Bottom line? The store made an extra $30 when they sold me the tea. If I never shop there again, they’ll lose $10,400 per year in sales. All because they didn’t understand the importance of customer service.

Their short-term thinking has led to long-term loss. And if they do this to enough customers, they will have no business at all. Many successful businesses have a strategic business plan that’s geared toward increasing their bottom line. The good ones also focus on customer retention.

We need to treat our customers like gold. Not only is it the right thing to do, it’s also the way of integrity. The result is a healthier, more profitable business.

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Presentation Zen: The Cure to Painful PowerPoint Presentations

Posted on August 12th, 2011 by Joey Donovan Guido

Category: How To Information, Promote My Business, Small Business, Small Business News, Small Business Presentations

When facilitating a PowerPoint or Keynote presentation, you may have noticed that presenting can be a painful experience for everybody involved.

PowerPoint presentations with detailed graphs and an onslaught of bulleted sentences do not bring joy to anyone in the room. But with a few zen-inspired changes, your presentations can go from dreadful to delightful.

I’m serious.

There’s a book called Presentation Zen, by Garr Reynolds, that demonstrates exactly how to bring your presentation, and your audience, to new heights.

Here’s what marketing and social media guru Seth Godin has to say about Presentation Zen. “Please don’t buy this book! Once people start making better presentations, mine won’t look so good. (But if you truly want to learn what works and how to do it right, Garr is the man to learn from.”

I have learned so much from this book — from what a slide should look like in Keynote, to how it can complement and reinforce my words instead of simply repeating them.

Garr draws upon the simplicity of Zen to help us build better presentations. But the concepts he shares go far beyond PowerPoint presentations. They make sense in all aspects of our business and our life.

If you’re looking to become a better presenter, and truly connect with your audience, I highly recommend Presentation Zen.

When facilitating a PowerPoint or Keynote presentation, you may have noticed that presenting can be a painful experience for everybody involve d.

PowerPoint presentations with d etailed graphs and an onslaught of bulleted sentences do not bring joy to anyone in the room. But with a few zen-inspired changes, you r presentations can go from dreadful to delightful.

I’m serious.

There’s a book called Presentation Zen , by Garr Reynolds, that demonstrates exactly how to bring your presentation, and y our audience, to new heights.

I have learned so much from this book — from what a slide should look like in Keynote, to how it can complement and reinforce my words instead of simply repeating them.

If you’re looking to become a better presenter, and truly connect with your audience, I highly recommend Presentation Zen.

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Truckers: HVUT Due Date is November 30th this Year

Posted on August 10th, 2011 by The BizFilings Team

Category: Small Business, Small Business News, Small Business Trends, Taxes

With temperatures and gas prices both soaring, it’s been a long, hot summer for independent operator-owners and other owners of heavy highway vehicles. However, the IRS’s decision to move the due date for the Heavy Highway Vehicle Use Tax Return to November 30, 2011 provides truckers a chance to chill out and keep a bit of their hard-earned money a few months longer this year.

Owners of a highway vehicle that weighs 55,000 pounds or more must pay an annual vehicle use tax of up to $550 per vehicle in use during the reporting period. Normally the heavy highway vehicle use tax return (HVUT) is based on vehicles in use during the month of July and is due August 31. However, the HVUT is scheduled to expire on September 30, 2011 and efforts to extend it are bogged down in Congress.

In order to avoid the situation where each owner must file two returns during a single twelve-month period (and where the IRS must process two returns) the IRS opted to move the due date from August 31 to November 30. The IRS cautions that HVUT returns should not be filed and payment of the tax should not be made before November 1.

State DMVs Must Accept Prior Year Schedule 1
When the HVUT is paid, the IRS returns a copy of the Schedule 1. Having this proof of payment is required in order to obtain state vehicle registration for any truck, truck trailer or buses that weighs at least 50,000 pounds. The IRS has told the states that they must accept the prior year’s Schedule 1 as proof of payment for any registration applied for before December 1, 2011.

Vehicle owners who need a copy of their Schedule 1 for the taxable period July 1, 2010 through June 30, 2011, should call the Form 2290 toll free number at 866-699-4096 if they are calling from the United States. Those in Canada or Mexico should call 859-669-5733, which is not a toll free call.

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New Federal Trucking Regulations Could Increase Opportunities for Independent Owner/Operators

Posted on August 9th, 2011 by John L. Duoba

Category: General Contractor, Incorporate a Business, LLC, Small Business, Small Business News, Work For Myself

New federal trucking regulations, aimed at increasing driver and driving safety, are set to take effect soon, possibly by October 2011. Unfortunately for many trucking enterprises, these rules will be extremely costly and disruptive to their operations. But for truck drivers who are independent owner/operators, this situation may present opportunities to capture additional business with these companies.

The proposed Transportation Department rules would reduce the daily driving limit from 11 to 10 hours per day, with a required 30-minute break after 7 straight hours on the road. Other new rules would require drivers to be off-duty for 34 straight hours (covering two nights) once the weekly driving limit is reached. Trucking companies that violate the new rules could be fined as much as $11,000 per incident.

Federal regulators say the new rules are needed to help prevent driver fatigue and accidents associated with it. Recently, a high-profile truck/train accident in Nevada, killing six people, garnered national headlines and calls for increased focus on driving rules. Meanwhile, the trucking industry opposes the new rules, citing the Transportation Department’s own data showing truck fatalities and accidents declining by nearly one-third in recent years under the current rules.

Under the new rules, shorter routes and adjusted workflows will be required to accomplish the same tasks and deliver the same shipments. This also will mean many trucking companies will need to bring on additional drivers to meet the new driving standards.

So what can independent owner/operators do to prepare for these upcoming changes? Here are a few ideas:

Incorporate to make your services more attractive—When these trucking companies look to add drivers, they will likely prefer to work with incorporated entities and not Form 1099 independent contractors. And for good reasons. An independent O/O, formed as a limited liability company (LLC) or corporation, will reduce the trucking company’s liability for your driving, making you a more attractive partner. It also offers you important protections as well. Ultimately, every trucking company (large or small) should form a formal business entity to take advantage of the limited liability protections offered under law. All judgments and debts incurred by the business will be owed by the business alone, and will not be attached to the owner’s personal finances. Further, the use of 1099 independent contractors by employers is closely scrutinized by government authorities, so avoiding this arrangement also enhances your attractiveness.

Update insurance coverage—As your formal business status changes, your insurance needs will likely have to be reviewed. Be sure all new elements of your operations are considered when making insurance changes, so you can maximize your proper coverage.

Network with owners in the industry—All trucking companies will be required to follow the same new rules. So stay in touch with other owners grappling with the same issues. Maybe new partnerships could provide economies of scale, allowing more efficient scheduling and shared resources among companies to meet the limitations in the new rules? At the very least, you may learn some new best practices for dealing with the issue.

Keep everyone informed—Ignorance of the law is no excuse for not following it. So be sure all drivers are aware of the new rules and are following them exactly. Institute internal controls and record keeping, ensuring your company stays in compliance and everyone is safe on the job. As leader of your organization, make sure you set the right example and others will follow.

John L. Duoba is the publisher and managing editor of Business Owner’s Toolkit at www.toolkit.com, and he has been know to frequent a Waffle House or two (or ten) in his interstate travels across America’s highways.

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Archive for August, 2011

Are You Pushing the Envelope or Pushing Paper?

Google Panda Dos and Don'ts: Is Your Website Optimized Correctly?

Customer Retention: When Short-term Gain Equals Long-term Loss

Presentation Zen: The Cure to Painful PowerPoint Presentations

Truckers: HVUT Due Date is November 30th this Year

New Federal Trucking Regulations Could Increase Opportunities for Independent Owner/Operators

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