Lost in CyberSpace?

 34 Responses »
Aug 182011
 

Who Are You and Why Should I Care?

who cares?Do you know how many businesses, both small and large are marketing their products and services on the web? Do you know how many articles and blog posts are written around the same content in various places on the Internet? Have you even wondered how and why there are a finite number of topics one can speak or write about yet an infinite number of discussions about them?

I read somewhere that it would take 57,000 years to read the entire Internet and then of course, once you were done, you would have to go back and start all over again because the web is dynamic and constantly changing. Now I don’t know about you, but that is way more time than I have so the challenge becomes how do YOU get your website, articles, blog posts, etc. read?

There is no easy answer but there are a few simple things to keep in mind. First of all, if you are a small business owner and can’t answer the questions “who are you?” and “why should I care?” – you better either figure out a way to answer those questions or find another career.

Your brand, your product or service, and your online personal and business reputation make up who you are. You need to be able to clearly define exactly what your offering is. If you are selling a specific product or line of products, the answer is fairly straightforward. But if your business is service-oriented, it might be a little more difficult to be able to clearly capture your service(s) in one phrase (your tagline). Keep in mind that if you as the business owner can’t summarize your service(s), your potential customers certainly won’t be able to either.

Next you need to be able to answer the question “why should I care”. What need does your business fill? What makes you better or different than your competitors?

Armed with these answers, you are in a better position to be “heard”.

Keeping up with the Jones

 2 Responses »
Jul 142011
 

Help! Which Way do I Turn?

overwhelmedHow many emails do you get every day? How many email accounts do you have? How many social networks do you belong to? How many invitations to join new social networks do you get per week? How many directories are you listed in? How many newsletters do you subscribe to? How many groups do you belong to on Linkedin and Facebook? How many new products/technologies do  you try for free to see if you want to purchase the upgrade? How many different ways do you market your business? Are you getting dizzy yet?

The Internet has opened up amazing exposure opportunities for all businesses, however, there is a down-side. In order to keep up with the latest and greatest, we might find ourselves joining and jumping on the bandwagon to keep up with what “everyone else” is doing. In the case of our competition, if THEY are “there” (wherever “there” is) we need to be there too.

Products/services/novel ideas come and go in this new world of the World Wide Web. For example, QR codes came out in the US with a vengeance. I was just getting used to the idea of using these cute little images, and was surprised to read Death to the QR Code and even more surprised at the reference in this article to Google’s dropping them. Of course, just because Business Insider wrote this article doesn’t mean everyone is going to stop using them.

One trend that has been growing and isn’t going away is video. Video is changing the way the world communicates and the way businesses brand themselves. Using video to promote your website, services, or products has become an integral component of online advertising. With the explosive popularity of sites such as YouTube (now considered the number two search engine online), Vimeo, and others – it’s time to embrace video and make it work on behalf of your company and your website.

Helpful Tips When Using Video

  • Be creative – be compelling. Give your audience a reason to WANT to watch your video and to share it with others. Be funny, different, unique, or even a little off-color – create that “spark” or “hook”, evoke some type of emotion, and grab their attention.
  • Showcase your brand! Include your brand’s colors and logo(s) to increase brand awareness.
  • Use video to SHOW your audience what OTHERS say about you and your brand. They carry much more weight than what you have to say. These video testimonials don’t have to be perfect – the more real and genuine they are – the more believable they will be.
  • Use video to show how your product/service works. Many people are visual learners and would prefer to SEE what your brand is than read about it.
  • Create a FAQ video about your product or service. If you have been in business for a while, then you already know what questions have come up about your brand from your current customers. Be proactive and answer these questions for potential customers BEFORE they ask. If you have a customer service department, creating FAQ videos can even cut down on the number of calls coming into your customer service department because you have already answered those questions in video.

For more examples of how to use video in your business, check out Say it With Video Web TV.

Facebook TV?

 16 Responses »
Jul 052011
 

If You Can’t Beat Them… Join Them!

Join themSo the WHOLE world is on Facebook right? I heard on the news a few weeks ago that in the US, 6 million people deleted their Facebook profiles. According to Facebook’s statistics, there are over 500 million active Facebook users and 30% of them are in the United States. Although 6 million sounds like a really HUGE number, in perspective of total users, it is a drop in the bucket. Take a quick look at a few more statistics:

  • There are over 900 million objects that people interact with (pages, groups, events and community pages)
  • More than 30 billion pieces of content (web links, news stories, blog posts, notes, photo albums, etc.) shared each month.
  • Entrepreneurs and developers from more than 190 countries build with Facebook Platform
  • Every month, more than 250 million people engage with Facebook on external websites
  • There are more than 250 million active users currently accessing Facebook through their mobile devices.

What Does This Mean?

There is a heck of a lot of activity going on in the Facebook World – period!

Introducing iFBtv

“What is iFBtv?

Julie Weishaar's iFBtv channeliFBtv is an entertainment & broadcasting platform on Facebook that is ABSOLUTELY FREE to users on Facebook. While iFBtv appeals to everyone, it is broken down into two specific models, to help better understand how iFBtv can benefit YOU specifically. Those two models are “Channel Content Providers,” & “Network Partners.” As a “Channel Content Provider,” you are given a platform to reach the world via the iFBtv Network. So, if you’re a Celebrity, a motivational speaker, a Guru of some sort, or simply a person who has valuable content that you wish to share with the world, you can become a Channel Content Provider & broadcast yourself to the world on YOUR OWN CHANNEL (eg. The Tony Robbins Channel, NASCAR Channel, The Martha Stewart Channel), through the iFBtv Network Partners, ABSOLUTELY FREE! Simply provide your content in a video format. As an iFBtv “Network Partner,” iFBtv streams a wide variety of programming, such as Current Events (News), Educational, Shopping, Motivational, Inspirational, Category Specific & Paid Event– right into YOUR fan page. A great deal of this is streaming LIVE! The iFBtv Network fan page is ABSOLUTELY FREE for all Facebook users, all you have to do is CLAIM YOURS! It’s their way of saying “Thanks” for telling your friends about iFBtv! Get YOURS TODAY!”

Why Not?

So what does this all mean? This means that we could all be sitting on the beginning of something really big :) iFBtv is new and looks to be offering some really neat “stuff” to help us connect, engage, and develop relationships. Remember, Don’t Underestimate the Value of a Relationship. As an aside, the powers-that-be behind iFBtv are great guys! You know, that “relationship” thing!

Don’t Underestimate the Power of Relationships

To Everything – Turn, Turn There is a Season – Turn, Turn, Turn…

 20 Responses »
Jun 162011
 

Everything Changes: Is Your Business Keeping Up?

keeping up with the changesThere are only a few sure things in life – death and taxes are two of them. The other thing is change. Everything changes: The economy, markets, business needs, technology … Is your business keeping up with these changes?

If not, you will be left behind. Reinventing your business and making your business model dynamic rather than stagnant is the only way you will be able to remain competitive and be successful.

Keeping up with Technology these days is no easy task. For those of us non-techie types, it is sometimes very difficult to ride the waves of new technologies that are popping up every day. The World is going Mobile and I have a feeling that it won’t be long before we will all be able to do almost everything from the comfort of our cell phones. What about Facebook? Facebook is Taking over the World. I don’t know about you, but this concerns me. There is not a day that goes by when I don’t hear about someone’s Facebook account being hacked (mine included), suspicious links are posted on our walls, and spamming runs rampant. BUT because our competitors are on Facebook, after all, everyone is, we need to be there too. As Facebook continues to offer more and more functionality, the lines between OUR brands and the Facebook brand will start to merge together.

Think about the Ma and Pa businesses that have been around for 20+ years reaping the rewards of word-of-mouth advertising alone (which is still THE best form of advertising even in today’s world of the Internet) but because the business world of today dictates that for a company to be seen as legit it needs to have a web presence, many of these smaller local businesses are feeling compelled to create a website. Keeping up with technology and business trends…

Now to my favorite subject – video. There is no question that video is changing the way the world communicates and the way businesses relay their messages. Even the search engines love video. Are You Using the Power of Video to Promote Your Brand? If not, you really should consider using it in some form as part of your marketing strategy. Below is a video about using video. Which stands out more – the written word or the video?

The World is Going Mobile …

 10 Responses »
May 202011
 

Guest post by Katie Goggans from GetYourBusinessMobile

Why Have a Mobile Website?

Mobile WebsiteMobile Websites are an abbreviated version of your .com, .net. .org or .co site with information that has been created specifically for your mobile phone users.  These mobile sites contain pertinent information for users on the go like:  an icon to call you, an icon that will put their phone in navigation mode to direct them to you, an icon that allows them to email you, an icon to forward your information to their friends and colleagues that will need your service, and a multitude of other options.

Mobile users will find your mobile site when they are on their mobile device and they type in your current URL.  How does this work?  When you have a custom mobile site created, a script on our .com website is placed so that it redirects all mobile device users to your mobile version website.

Google Analytics can be placed on your site so that you are able to track your visitors.  Your keywords that you use to attract visitors to your current .com site can be added to your mobile site in order to boost your traffic.

Have you looked to see if your competitors have mobile websites? Now would be a great time to do that as it is important to review the market, as what is working for your competition will work for you.  If none of your competitors have a mobile website, then you can be the first and gain the competitive edge over them. There are currently 3 billion mobile phones being used for internet searching, which for the first time has exceeded that of the desktop search.

Free or Me? A Real Case Study

 13 Responses »
May 152011
 

You Get What You Pay For

pricing value

 

It is always a difficult task to decide what to charge for your products or services. You need to make sure you provide enough value, that you are priced competitively, that others will pay for your value, etc. As business owners, we are all familiar with the process; it is not an easy one and one that requires a lot of thought, research, objective reasoning, and common sense.

I am currently working with a client where this specific topic came up. The client is Yardsales.com and has just recently re-launched/re-branded their business model and website in some very exciting ways. One of the revenue streams comes from their Premium Membership which provides customized email/text message alerts about yard/garage/estate sales happening in the subscriber’s area according to their specifications/preferences.Decision

As is to be expected in any industry niche, there is competition. What happened in this case is that as the business model is new, the question came up – since there is another company “out there” offering FREE alerts, do they change their direction and also offer their alerts for free, thereby eliminating one of their main revenue streams?

In this type of situation, a business owner has two choices – react or respond. Reactions can be impulsive, emotional, and oftentimes based on fear. Responses are more rational, involve more thought, include weighing the pros and cons, and are generally a better direction to move in when it comes to such important business decisions. Look at this way, did McDonalds start giving their hamburgers away for free when Burger King opened their doors?

Yardsales.com chose to respond rather than react. The business owners looked closely at the offerings of the company giving their alerts away for free and their offerings. They did side by side comparisons by literally putting in a zip code in the search field to see how many alerts came up on both sites. Guess what? Using the same zip code, the competitor pulled in FOUR sales in a 40 mile radius while Yardales.com pulled in ONE HUNDRED AND FORTY FOUR. Okay, right there, it is obvious to anyone that the databases where the information is being pulled from are NOT equal. Clearly, Yardsales.com has a much more complete database. That alone, to me, is worth the $29/year. But it gets even better than that. This competitor does not send alerts to one’s mobile phone. Another biggie – especially for the target market of those who really need and want to “get there first” and find out about the yard sales in their area before someone else does. There are hundreds of thousands of people in the world who make a living buying things at yard/garage/estate sales and selling them on sites like ebay and Amazon. These people are not carrying around their laptops in their cars as they are rushing to get to the best sales as soon as they open. They NEED to have this information available to them via their cell phones. Point closed :)

Guilty – sort of – as might be charged that this is a sales pitch for Yardsales.com. It isn’t because this case truly points out what I consider to be very valid choices, directions, and challenges many business owners face. It isn’t because it brings up the important difference between reacting and responding. With that said, if you know of anyone who DOES need to “get there first” – please do tell them about Yardsales.com. You will actually be doing them a favor :)

Are You Using The Power of Video to Promote Your Brand?

 18 Responses »
Jan 312011
 

Why is Video for Business so Powerful?

videoThe business climate today is all about how to make your marketing message heard above all the “noise” of competing marketing messaging in an age where we are all faced with “information overload” to the nth degree. Business owners are always looking for ways to maintain a competitive advantage and to be able to connect with their customers and potential customers in an effort to create a personal connection.

With the increased usage of the latest technologies, if also becomes a challenge for the business owner to figure out how to use all the technology that is available to increase brand exposure and deepen relationships with customers and potential customers.

Online video is the future, the latest trend, and continues to rise in popularity. Key indicators point to corporations embracing online video as an essential marketing tool. In a 2008 Interactive Marketing study, Forrester Research predicted a compound annual growth rate of 72% through the year 2012 – the most robust of all interactive investments. Online video is expected to grow significantly more than search engine marketing, display ads, and email marketing.

When you see an interesting video on the Internet, you tend to post the link on Twitter, Facebook, or share it by emailing it to friends. They pass it on to their friends and the effect multiplies spreading your message quickly, resulting in massive exposure. This is called viral marketing and carries tremendous power via brand exposure at very little cost. Using video helps others connect with your brand because it now has a face that others can identify with and adds that personal touch that is so important in establishing, maintaining, and enhancing relationships.

Online video is going to increase in popularity according to a study by eMarketer that reported 152 million people were watching online video in 2008. By 2012 that number, according to the study, is expected to soar to 190 million.

Video adds a new dimension to the written word. If one uses videos of themselves speaking their message, they are able to use humor, physical expression, and eye-contact adding a totally new layer of personalization. If one chooses to use an animated video, the element of entertainment is added and with a musical background, adds an emotional effect as music brings out emotions in people.

Using video turns a static website into a dynamic, interactive destination. Video requires the viewer to use more of their senses making your message more memorable.  

You can use video to demonstrate a product that will educate your customers, show your product or service in action, save time and money on customer service by being proactive, train clients remotely saving time and money on travel expenses, and expand your target market beyond your local geographical area

Businesses who use video to promote their brand are giving a human face to their corporate website. You can include a short video welcoming visitors to your website, introduce yourself and other members of your company, or record a customer testimonial to show your value to others.

Using videos encourages engagement with your brand and in this day where relationships carry so much weight this is a very important aspect of video marketing. If you regularly provide valuable video content, you will be encouraging repeat visits to your website.

Even though the use of video is increasing and studies indicate it will continue to increase, there are still many industries that don't use video as a common practice. If your competitors don't yet use video, you'll be able to set yourself apart by using video on your website.

In this age where people want instant gratification and easily accessible information, videos provide an easy method of relaying information to others. At the click of a button, you can promote your brand, advertise a special, make an announcement, sell your service, etc. rather than requiring your target market to read text.

When compared to traditional methods of promoting products like text ads, banner ads, and printed promotions, videos are more cost effective and provide a much more valuable and memorable experience for the end-user. 

Triple Threat

 15 Responses »
Jan 092011
 

Today You Have to be the Jack of ALL Trades AND the Master of ALLtriple threat

I recently posted a link on Facebook to an article and photo from the local newspaper about a show that my daughter was in. A gal I went to high school with made the following comment: "I told you she was a triple threat". This comment started me thinking about how much times have changed not only in the entertainment industry but everywhere else – including the business world.

The entertainment industry of yesteryear was completely different than it is today. MGM Studios dominated the industry in the 1930s. MGM was known for having many big names in showbiz under contract such as: Clark Gable, Myrna Loy, William Powell, Judy Garland,  Deborah Kerr, Ava Gardner, and Spencer Tracey.

MGM cast Deborah Kerr as the lead role in the motion picture The King and I but rather than using her own singing voice, they opted to dub her voice with Marni Nixon. Marni was also used to dub Audrey Hepburn's voice in My Fair Lady. Ava Gardner's voice was dubbed by Annette Warren's in Showboat. Ava Gardner had a lovely voice but obviously not what MGM was looking for. (Ava Gardner sings "Bill").

In recent times, stars like Nicole Kidman in Moulan Rouge and Catherine Zeta Jones in Chicago surprised many by their vocal talents. I, for one, never knew Nicole Kidman could sing. But these stars and other contemporary performers become well-trained in singing, acting, and dancing; in other words, they know they need to be "Triple Threats". 

Business owners today need to be at least Triple Threats. It is no longer good enough to have just a great product or service. Having the right message delivered to the right audience at the right time is still not enough. In order to be effective, the relevant message to the correct target needs to be compelling enough to be heard above the "noise" caused by information overload.

Below is an example of how to make your message a triple threat. Powerful messaging with clear examples, great products and services, AND a message medium that compels the viewer to watch and hear the message – the power of video!

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