Do you have this feeling that you should get involved with it but just aren’t sure? Well, here are…

3 Ways to Know Whether or Not You Should Get Into Social Media

1.    Are your customers using it?

First and foremost, you have to think about your target market and your goals. You should not get involved with social media just to “jump on the bandwagon.”

Before starting a social media process, conduct some research and set goals. What will your customers gain? What do you want to accomplish? What kind of content will you provide? These are just some of the questions to answer prior to starting your social media process.

2. Do you have time to stay connected?

Social media is about interaction and communication. If you don’t have time to post valuable information every day, provide feedback and offer different information on your various, social media channels, your efforts can completely backfire and make your business look stale and out of touch.

To be successful in social media, it’s essential to be present, talk to customers and really communicate with them regularly. Social media can be a full-time job, so if you don’t have time to do it yourself the right way, hire someone who can.

And if you really want to be a part of social media but can’t afford to hire someone to handle it for you, start small. Perhaps, you can start with a facebook page and move up from there? It all depends on how much time you have to devote to your social media efforts to make it a positive experience for you and your customers.

3. Will you track results?

Once you start your social media process, it’s essential to track the results regularly. Otherwise, how are you going to know if your efforts are working or not?

You’ll want to see what content is most popular with your audience so you can provide valuable information, what links people are clicking on most, how different entries relate to sales, and more. The information you track will depend on your specific goals for your social media program.

Once you have this information, you can work on constantly improving your processes to meet customer needs and business milestones.

Ready to move forward?

Yes, social media offers a huge opportunity to reach new customers, increase brand awareness and beat the competition. But if you don’t have a social media plan, and the time to implement and track it the right way, you may waste a lot of time and money. Even worse, you may make a bad impression and end up dealing with a PR nightmare rather than good communications that lead to long-term customer relationships and sales growth.

Do you need help with the way you communicate with your target market via social media, PR and SEO copywriting efforts, please write to me below or at www.rembrandtwrites.com.

ShareThis

I hear this all the time, and it breaks my heart. As a fellow entrepreneur, I know how important it is to get value out of all the services you purchase.

How about you? Have you paid a large amount to be at the top of the search engines only to lose thousands of dollars with zero results?

Well, I know it’s time-consuming to pursue search engine optimization efforts, and it’s easy just to hand it over to a specialist. But before you do, here are…

The Top 10 Things to Ask When Starting Your SEO Activities

1.    Do I really need an optimization program, or are there other ways to reach my business goals?

2.    Am I just looking at this because everyone else is using it, or am I really missing out on an opportunity to bring in new customers?

3.    Do I know what SEO is and what I really need, or should I do some research?

4.    What is this search engine optimization service promising me, and is it too good to be true?

5.    What exactly are they going to do for me?

6.    What kind of monthly reports are they going to show me about our activities?

7.    What kind of results has this SEO service had in the past?

8.    How much am I paying and exactly what am I paying for?

9.    Am I stuck in a contract if I don’t see results?

10.    Do I feel comfortable working with this team?

Take some time before starting SEO efforts.

I know you are busy and just want to outsource your optimization activities to a specialist and be done with the matter. But before you do, think about this. If you don’t choose the right firm and get ripped off, how much is it going to cost you in money, time and effort?

With this in mind, take some time to speak to various, SEO specialists. Have them explain the SEO process and answer your questions. Do your due diligence. This way, you’ll both know what the expectations are and avoid costly surprises. Plus, you’ll feel confident in your SEO activities and be more likely to get the results you are looking for!

Do you need more information about this? Please write to me here or at www.rembrandtwrites.com.

ShareThis

To avoid any scary surprises, here are three tips to help you keep your SEO program on track:

1. Do your due diligence.

If you are hiring a firm to help you, check out their results with previous clients. Create a plan, know exactly what they are doing for you and communicate your expectations.

Also, know how you can end your contract if things don’t work out. Otherwise, you may end up with a huge bill and very little site traffic. Even worse, you may find that you have to start all over again with your optimization efforts.

2.  Measure results.

Once your SEO practices are in place, it’s essential to track results. What’s working and what’s not? Are you meeting your site traffic goals? If not, make changes.

After all, one of the great things about search optimization is that you can test different keywords, landing pages, links, and copy to see what brings in the best results. It’s an ongoing process so be sure to monitor your activities on a regular basis.

3. Be patient.

While some businesses see site traffic increases right away with their SEO efforts, others do not. Depending on the keywords you’re using, the size of your site, how long it takes to register with the search engines, and other factors, you may need to wait to see results.

In the meantime, try posting an SEO press release, article or blog and continue to monitor your activities.

SEO Success Awaits.

Search engine optimization can be a vital part of your business success… or failure. With this in mind, create a plan in advance and know exactly what you want to accomplish. Then, find the right team to help you accomplish your goals. Test and monitor results, and if you are not seeing results, make changes to your copy and keywords. Then, test and monitor again.

It takes time, patience and expertise to have a successful, search engine optimization program. However, if you create a solid plan for your SEO efforts and review your results regularly, you’ll take a lot of the fear out of the process. Plus, you’ll spend less money and be more likely to reach your site-traffic goals.

For additional help with your SEO activities, please write to me here or at www.rembrandtwrites.com.

ShareThis

1. Thanksgiving Cards Make a Difference

Send out a Thanksgiving card to clients & potential clients. You can go the catalog route… or send a series of personal notes. One previous client had his kid draw something and he made copies…depends on your style. But I guarantee your card will stand out since Thanksgiving is traditionally not a card-oriented holiday.
Rita Kueber

Beaumont School

2. Rubber Stamp It

When I was a caterer, I used a rubber stamp on every piece of mail, every check, every bill that went out of our office; it said (in big red letters….) ‘who’s catering your Christmas party?”

Celia Milton

www.celiamilton.com

3. The Early Bird Gets The Worm

In a nutshell; we believe that the early bird gets the worm. At Medelita, we begin planning our holiday sale in June and begin promoting it in early to Mid-October. We are currently building up interest on Facebook, for our upcoming sale, and a recent post asking who planned to shop the sale got a lot of positive feedback. As we grow closer to launch, we’ll expand to include emails, ads, etc…

Our holiday sale starts on Thanksgiving Day, offering our customers the ability to pre order at a 20% discount for the upcoming holidays. This ensures they don’t miss out on popular sizes or styles of our lab coats and scrubs that frequently sell out.

80% of our orders also get customized with embroidery, adding a personal and professional touch that our customers love.  Knowing this, we offer free expedited shipping and embroidery up until December 20th.

Angela Sherlock
Medelita.com

4. If you Sell It They Will Come

We are a small computer company located in Middletown CT. What we did last year that worked really well was a “Black Friday” special. We ended up selling all of our equipment at cost which really brought in tons of traffic and more sales after the special was completed. We advertised the sale over all social media outlets including Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Blogger to generate buzz. We also sent out a specials press announcement and released information on the sale a couple months prior in our monthly newsletters. We are planning on doing something very similar this year to once again bring in a great amount of traffic to the site and increase sales for the future.

Shane Hardy
All Star Software Systems

5. Themed Holiday Events

Here are a few themed holiday marketing ideas from Le Potager Décor in Fullerton, California.

• Fall Open House: With this event, we posted a page of a few of our recently acquired items that we bought on our summer road trips. People came specifically to buy a certain item they saw on this page. This was our best event (money-wise) yet.
• Annual Paris Flea Market: People love this event! They call the store all year long, asking when it will be taking place. It’s an outdoor event where
• vendors come to set up their wares, and the store is open as well. That day we offer 15% off in the store.
• A Day of Pampering: We will be having an esthetician give 15 minute mini facials. A local business will be setting up to give mini foot massages. A
• vendor will be having a trunk show with her soap line.
• French Apple Harvest: A day where will be offering sweet and savory dishes made with apples and using items from our pantry. Also being served: Calvados brandy and French apple cider.

John Reed and Jennifer Owens
Le Potager

6. “Best Darn” Contest

I have a line of fine glass Christmas ornaments with a Latino flair. Since tamales are very popular during the Christmas season I started a Best Darn Tamale contest with a list of locations to purchase tamales across the USA as a cheap, let say, clever way to draw people to my website during the holidays. I figured that if people love Mexican cuisine they will also probably love my ornament designs. Ads for my ornaments are of course sprinkled down the sides of this popular web page.  In fact the tamales are so popular we started doing tamale workshops last year and it has grown into a whole subcategory for my business.

Darlene Tenes
CasaQ

7. Holiday Gift Guides

We are a retail home furnishings, accessories and gift boutique in Fairfax, Virginia. One of the best holiday marketing practices for our business has been to develop an online gift guide slideshow. We send the slideshow link via press release (attached) to local media outlets and have had good success with getting our ideas picked up in publications. We also send it to our customers via our email newsletter. It allows us to present our customers with images, details and pricing of our top picks for holiday gift giving at very little cost. Our clicks through rates are extremely high as customers love being able to browse from home. It entices them to then come into our store to purchase and see what else we have to choose from.

Ann O’Shields
The Nest Egg

8. Holiday Cards With a Twist

Christmas cards are almost mandatory nowadays. However, most people get inundated with an avalanche of cookie-cutter Christmas cards that might be “pretty,” but few people take a second glance at them. Christmas cards are a fantastic way to bring you attention, but only if you do it right. Add a personal flair, make it humorous, and stop taking yourself so seriously.

Last year, some lawyers and their staff sent a Christmas card from their criminal alter egos. The resulting card was unique, stood out from the sea of cards most people got that year, and allowed them to show a side of themselves that no one would otherwise know. Not only was it great for personalizing and marketing their firm, but the photo shoot itself was great office bonding.

Tripp Watson
The Watson Firm

9. Holiday Gift Guides on Blogs

My business has received the best return on investment from blog holiday gift guides. I simply submit a product or a small fee and my award winning learning kit series gets promoted to my target market, parents! Small businesses should target blogs that reach the same market, research the blogs stats to be sure the audience is wide reaching and form an alliance. It may not be for long but blog gift guides are still a fraction of the cost of an advertisement in a print magazine!

Christy Cook
Teach My
www.teachmy.com

Have more ideas?  Share them here in the comments section.  I will pick a random winner to get a copy of my book “How to Build Buzz for Your Biz- Tap into the Power of Social Media, Publicity, and Relationship Marketing to Grow Your Business.”  Contest ends midnight Nov 5th, 2011.

Want to get more inexpensive and practical small business marketing ideas?  Sign up for my free marketing newsletter and grab your free download of my eBook at http://23kazoos.com.

ShareThis

I’ve been working with the creators of StartUpNation since 2001 when I was hired to shoot Rich Sloan doing yoga on the conference room table in the Birmingham Michigan office of the up and coming StartUpNation.  I was recently offered the opportunity to blog about photography if I thought I could contribute to entrepreneurs and start ups. I think I can so I’ll give it a shot.  I’ll be talking about all things photography, from how to do a shoot in the office, to what’s the best stock agency for what your needs are, to rights and usage contracts.  I’ll be answering questions about any thing relating to the business of photography and photography in your business. If I don’t know the answers I’ll look to the vast knowledge base of my peers and will share what I learn with you, so post your questions and comments about you’re photographic quandaries here, and I’ll help you along the image driven super highway of successful businesses.

I should tell you a bit about me.
I began my career as a photographer early in life.  My brother had a darkroom in a closet at our house when I was a sixth grader.  It didn’t take long for my teachers at school to see an opportunity to recruit the next news paper and yearbook photographer.  That’s when I learned that you can have fun and provide a needed service at the same time.  I could get credits for graduation if I work on the year book and news paper staff!  Life was good.  Then one day I was handed a press pass to cover the cheerleaders for a story for the news paper, that was all the motivation I ever needed to pursue my career.  When I was a senior in High School I was introduced to an advertising photographer in my home town of Detroit named Ameen Howrani.  He let me watch him work one day, he was shooting a news crew for the local ABC affiliate.  It was very glamorous, they had food there!  I was face to face with the local anchor man!  That’s when I decided that advertising was where it’s at.  Fast forward 25 years.  I have photographed some really great people, some incredibly beautiful places, and some of the most interesting stuff you’ll ever see.  I picked up a few professional sports teams along the way as well.  Namely the Detroit Red Wings, Detroit Tigers, Detroit Lions, and currently Tampa Bay Ray’s as well as the NHL, NFL, MLB and other editorial venues related to sports. I’ve had unprecedented access to closed door behind the scenes events in the NFL, NHL, and MLB to name just a few. I was given the opportunity to shoot a book for the Detroit Red Wings called “48 Hours with the Detroit Red Wings”. Its a chronological documentation of what happens in forty eight hours in the world of the Red Wings Hockey team.  I was able to travel with the team to photograph players, coaches, and staff. We took two days to shoot the book so we could show the travel aspect of how the team lives on the road (and above the clouds).  During that shoot I was given access to coaches meetings that had never been photographed before.  One of the best experiences I had with the Red  Wings was Flying on the team jet to Washington DC to the White House to meet President George W Bush.   I was given an assignment by the Detroit Tigers Baseball team to shoot an eighteen page photo essay of Tiger Stadium during the final home stand ever to be played there.  The parting shot was Al Kaline in his nineteen sixty eight world series uniform (it still fit), pondering his days playing in that historic stadium.  The cover shot was of the stadium from the corner of Michigan and Trumble on a Friday night with fireworks lighting the sky.  I was able to get images never before captured, such as the neon Tiger Stadium sign from the roof of the press elevator.  I’m currently team photographer for the Tampa Bay Ray’s Baseball team, and have a nice client list of local and national companies and agencies as well.  I live in the St Petersburg area of Florida where I’ve lived for the past six years.  Before that I lived mostly in the suburbs of Detroit with a few years in New York city.  Please feel free to see some of the photographs I mention here at www.kovich.com

ShareThis

Internet bubble? What internet bubble?

Yesterday, Groupon filed the paperwork to become a publicly traded company.  Sometime this year, you will be able to buy stock in Groupon and join the other 500 million people making Groupon stock discount jokes.

Last year, Groupon turned down a $6 BILLION offer from Google.  Laughable, right? Well guess what:  Greed is still good.  Yesterdays filing valued Groupon at around $20 billion.

Here are the best of the fun facts about Groupon that we’ve learned in the last 24 hours:

1.  Groupon LOST over $400 million last year

2.  Groupon’s CEO Andrew Mason takes and annual salary of $575.00.  Poor guy - I hope he’ll make it. Mason holds 7.7% of the companys stock.

3.  Mason is NOT the largest shareholder.  That honor belongs to Eric Lefkofsky, who owns 21.6%…of $20 BILLION dollars.

4.  In the last 2 years, Groupon has grown over 20,000%

5.  Groupon has 83.1 million subscribers in 145 US markets

6.  Groupon has over 7,000 employees

7.  Groupon. Is. THREE. YEARS. OLD.

Personally,  this company and IPO remind me a lot of the “Irrational Exuberance” days of 2000 when any company with a .com in its’ name shot to the moon.  I have 2 concerns with Groupon:

1.  They just bleed money.  They’ve lost $114 million in Q1 of 2011 alone.

2.  Their model is easy to duplicate.  With competitors like LivingSocial, Google, Facebook, and other very large fish jumping into the space, Groupon is in no way an island.

What do you think?  Would you buy Groupon stock?

Kevin Harmon

CEO Red Shorts Media

twitter:  imadness

linkedin: THEKevinHarmon

kevin@redshortsmedia.com

Coolest DVD CD and Video Game Buyback Site Ever: MightyBuyback.com

ShareThis

As I wrote a while ago here in my blog about the Twitter squatter who was trying to extort StartupNation, there are definitely systems in place at the social media companies that support ethical companies and certainly intellectual property rights of individuals and companies. Twitter worked on our behalf to wrestle away the /startupnation account for us given that it was a registered trademark owned by our business and was obviously strategic to us as well as a source of confusion in the marketplace under the squatter’s control. They quickly moved the account into our control.

Now through the encouragement of Daliah Saper of Saper Law, we’ve done the same thing at Facebook. In less than 24 hours, by following their simple, clear instructions, we were able to pull www.facebook.com/startupnation away from the squatter and now have that username as our own, appropriately so.

Here’s the simple, step-by-step process we followed in case you have a squatter issue and/or trademark issue as it relates to a Facebook username:

1. Go to the bottom of any Facebook page. Click on the link called “Terms.”
   For your convenience, that link is here.
2. Scroll down to #5, “Protecting Other People’s Rights,” and select “How to Report Claims of Intellectual Property Infringement”.
   For your convenience that link is here.
3. For copyright infringement, scroll down to “How to report claims of copyright infringement by users” and select the link.
   For your convenience, that link is here.
4. For trademark (or other intellectual property concerns), which was what applied to our situation given our registered trademark for StartupNation that the squatter was unethically using for their benefit, scroll down to “How to report other claims of intellectual property infringement by users” and select the link.
   For your convenience, that link is here.

We are always looking out for you and hope that you find similar success and satisfaction in the process, which is set up and well enforced by Facebook.

We hope that you can soon make your own blog entry titled, “Me 1, Facebook Squatter 0″!

Rich

ShareThis

Small Business Public Relations – What Is It?

When many entrepreneurs think of public relations (PR), they
think about sending out a press release.

But PR is so much more…

It entails all of the communications you have with the media,
customers, employees, partners, etc.

Why Do You Need It?

By communicating with your customers and the media, you
can share your message, build word-of-mouth buzz and bring
in new sales and site visitors without paying for advertising.

Yes, obtaining publicity is free, but it will cost you time and
effort.

However, when outside sources talk about your products
and services, you receive third-party credibility you cannot
purchase or obtain anywhere else.

How Do You Start?

Begin your public relations’ efforts by writing down your goals and
action-plan to reach these goals.

What do you want to accomplish and when?

Next, make a list of the people you need to contact.

Which media members will find your story interesting?

Then, call these reporters, editors, bloggers, and producers.

Introduce yourself.

Send them pertinent story ideas and news about your company to create a
working relationship. Let them know you are a resource with valuable information
to share.

You can also start communicating with your customers and
partners with a monthly newsletter, e-mail auto-responder campaigns,
free eReports, social media, and more.

And don’t forget to take advantage of search engine optimization (SEO)
copywriting to gain attention online.

Small Business Public Relations – A Golden Opportunity

Remember, PR is all about communication. It’s
not about sending out a press release to the masses and hoping for the best.

Focus on  providing valuable information and letting customers know
what you have to offer that benefits their needs.

By taking the time to review goals, research, create an action plan, and
communicate your targeted message to a specific audience with SEO, you will boost
sales, awareness and credibility quickly and cost-effectively.

And once things starts to build, you can hire an expert SEO copywriter and
publicist to help you keep the momentum going while you concentrate on
core, business responsibilities.

Public relations and SEO activities are the key to entrepreneurial success on a budget.
Yes, it’s a lot of hard work. But the results are well worth the effort.

Do you need help with your publicity and SEO copywriting activities to boost sales,
awareness and credibility fast? Please visit http://bit.ly/FREEReports for free
information or contact me at www.rembrandtwrites.com.

ShareThis

Addoway: An online marketplace for fashion, collectibles and more that integrates with Facebook’s social graph to recommend merchants your friends have bought from, know personally or have identified as having great deals they want to share with their friends. Addoway rewards shoppers for sharing deals they like on social networks with a virtual currency called “Addo Bucks” that shoppers can cash in for discounts on Addoway purchases, free gift cards from popular retailers like Starbucks and Best Buy or access to limited-entry giveaways of popular products like an Apple iPad or Nintendo Wii. Addoway offers a free online storefront for merchants with easy importing and inventory management that syncs with eBay and its recommendation engine and social sharing platform provides merchants with an easy way to spread their products virally.

BigCommerce: Robust online selling solution that provides merchants with a handful of tools, including drag and drop design, simple distribution to eBay and shopping comparison sites, automated email marketing and mobile commerce features. On the social side, BigCommerce provides subscribers with a way to distribute their inventory into a shop on their Facebook fan page. When shoppers visit the fan page and click an item they like, they are redirected to the merchant’s BigCommerce store off Facebook to complete the purchase.

Payvment: Shopping cart solution tailored to selling on Facebook. Payvment’s system allows merchants to set up a free online shop on Facebook. Payvment’s Facebook stores are searchable, allowing shoppers to search all Payvment stores from within one seller’s fan page at once. Unlike a lot of other Facebook store applications, Payvment allows shoppers to purchase right on Facebook without having to redirect to a third-party website to checkout. Payvment uses PayPal to process payments.

Sellit: An embeddable “mini-shop” that can be distributed across the web and on social networks. Sellit’s social turns stores from online marketplaces into a pretty cool flash mini-shop with a sample of that store’s best products. The mini-shop can be displayed directly on blogs, social networks and more. Sellit offers “Ad Paks” that enable merchants to have their mini-shop distributed to thousands of locations on the web as an advertisement for the store. Sellit has established partnerships with some of the most popular online marketplaces like Etsy and Cafepress.

Wildfire: Promotion builder for social networks. For quite a while Wildfire has been providing small and large businesses with promotional tools for social networks, and recently launched a self-service platform to enable merchants to run their own “Group Buying” promotions from within their Facebook pages. The deals work similar to Groupon. Merchants can set up a special promotion (i.e. $20 for $40 worth of merchandise from their store) and then require that a certain number of people buy the deal in order for everyone to get it (which encourages buyers to share the deal with their friends). Wildfire charges a fee per campaign and per day that it is run.

Have comments on one of these tools or any others? Tell us in the comments below.

(Disclosure: I am a partner and advisor to Addoway)

About the Author: Corey Kossack is a Managing Partner at Game Change Ventures, focusing on partnering and consulting with startups in the areas of social media, consumer Internet and e-commerce. Corey is also an Operating Partner at Game Change Ventures’ first Internet startup, Addoway, a social marketplace that helps you buy and sell with your friends and the people they know. Formerly Corey was one of the world’s largest retailers on eBay, built a $1M company from scratch at age 23, has led multiple startups and received numerous awards for his entrepreneurial achievements.

ShareThis

Of the three, the most successful so far has been group shopping sites like Groupon and LivingSocial. Why? The answer is pretty simple. Group deal sites give users a clear value proposition (50-90% off something), with a clear incentive to share with friends through social media (if enough people don’t buy it, you don’t get the deal).

While it has been and will continue to be quite effective, the popularity of group shopping has distracted us from what I believe is the bigger future of social commerce: the power of the personal referral.

In “real life”, what factors help you make decisions about how to spend your money (like what restaurant to go to this weekend, which mechanic to take your car to, or just generally what to buy and where to buy it from)? You might do a Google search, but what you’d probably like to do most is ask people you trust. How do you go about doing that? Do you post a status update on Facebook asking your 500 friends where to find a great deal on designer jeans? Maybe - but for most people maybe not.

What if you could automatically ask all of your friends what to buy and where to buy it from based on their own experience, without actually taking the time to ASK?

For merchants, marketing their products online compared to marketing in the “real world” is quite different. Merchants in the real world build their reputation by providing quality products and great service to their customers, who spread the word to their friends about their experience. As the number of satisfied customers increases, the merchant’s natural word of mouth marketing presence grows along with it. This is how good companies build a brand and a loyal following.

But the e-commerce environment has primarily become a price war among both large and small merchants selling common products, and a difficult place for merchants selling unique or handmade items, struggling to find ways to acquire customers who aren’t searching for their exact product (because they don’t know it exists), and then leverage those new customers to evangelize their largely unknown brand.

Unlike the real world, the advantage of the Internet is that everything can be found and organized quickly in a structured way unavailable in the offline world. But now that our offline relationships have been enriched and expanded online (primarily because of Facebook), the two worlds now have an opportunity to merge. The merging of these two worlds means that we can use our offline relationships to effortlessly get recommendations from our friends, in a seamless and structured way.

That’s the future of social commerce, and it will be here before we know it.

Corey Kossack in an Operating Partner at Addoway, an online marketplace where people buy and sell with their friends and the merchants they trust. Corey is also Managing Partner at Game Change Ventures, a venture development firm focused on Internet startups that utilize social media.

ShareThis