Are you wasting time on social media? Could be, if you’re not spending your time on the right social media tool. In this episode of Power to the Small Business, we discuss the different social media options and the best return on time spent, including;

• Facebook
• Twitter
• Blogging

Guests: Bryan Person, Social Media Evangelist at LiveWorld, and founder of Social Media Breakfast
Length: 28 minutes

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Wasting Time on Social Media Show Notes

Bryan Person – Social Media Evangelist, LiveWorld

You have a finite amount of time to create content. Where is the best place to spend that time?

Choose the social media channel that is best for you based on;

• Your marketing purpose
• Your marketing challenge
• Where your customer will be
• How much time you have to spend on social media
• The strength of each social media tool

Twitter is the lazy man’s social media tool. It’s easy to post 140 characters and amass a lot of followers. It takes more time and thought to maintain a blog.

Blogs may be the most powerful social media marketing tool for small businesses. This is especially true if you customers will go to search engines to search for your type of business.

Blogs give you credibility, authority, and search engines like blogs.

Find Bryan on the web:
Bryan Person’s Blog on LiveWorld
BryanPerson’s personal blog
Twitter: @BryanPerson

It’s time to take the mystery out of email marketing because it just might be the most cost-efficient marketing tool for small businesses. For this episode of Power to the Small Business, we’ve assembled a panel email marketing experts. They will share their advice on email marketing best practices.

• How to get started.
• How to collect email addresses.
• What to say in your email.
• What service to use.

Guests: Stephanie Miller of ReturnPath.net, Chad White of Smith-Harmon.com, Julie Niehoff of Constant Contact
Length: 31 minutes

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You can also download the mp3 file here: Download Power to the Small Business #29 (for personal use only)

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Email Marketing Show Notes

Stephanie Miller – VP, Global market Development, ReturnPath.net:

“Email is the backbone of most of the work we do in the business world. All of business starts and ends in the inbox.”

“Here is why email is really alive. Because it generates the highest return of anything in your marketing tool kit.”

“With email marketing you are making a commitment to a communicate and have a dialogue with your customers. You can’t blow it.”

Julie Niehoff – Regional Development Director, Constant Contact

“(Email) has really become a marketing lifeline for many small businesses across the country.”

“The purpose of email marketing is to set the rhythm of the relationships you already have. It’s not about a massive cold call to say “come buy my stuff” to people who don’t know you.”

“Define one objective for each email marketing message you send.”

 

Constant Contact & Julie’s Event Schedule: Email Learning Events

Chad White – Research Director, Smith-Harmon.com

“It’s (email) the most powerful way of communicating with existing customers.”

“Email marketing works. It’s not super sexy but it generates money.”

“Email generates $43 in return for each dollar invested.”

Chad’s blog: The Retail Email Bag

Congratulations! You’re a new entrepreneur. Now what? Best-selling author Jason Jennings says you should get after it, Hit the Ground Running. In this episode of Power to the Small Business, Jason Jennings shares his rules for new entrepreneurs.

Guests: Jason Jennings – Best-selling author of Hit the Ground Running: A Manual for New Leaders
Length: 26 minutes

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Hit the Ground Running Show Notes

Jason Jennings’ Rules for New Entrepreneurs:

1. Make your value proposition incredibly simple.
   – This is the business we’re in.
   – This is what we do.
   – Here’s who we bring value to.
   – Here’s how we positively impact lives.
   – Here’s how we monetize that.
   – Here’s how it’s good for everybody. 

   If you cannot answer these questions within 60 seconds, Jason says “You don’t have a business model worth sneezing at.”

2. Everyone must know your strategy
   – Employees don’t know why they do what they’re doing.
   – They allow corners to be cut and illegal/unethical activities to be engaged.
   – They offer no accountability.
3. Don’t waste time studying the competition.
   – Instead, study your customer.

Buy the Book: Hit the Ground Running
Jason Jennings Website: www.jason-jennings.com

In the online world, Internet riches are often talked about, but rarely achieved. The conventional wisdom is to tell your story and to tell it loudly. Websites and social media channels are filled with gurus, experts and blowhards trumpeting their own greatness. And that tactic fails miserably. So what’s a business to do?

Best-selling author David Meerman Scott says people get it backwards. Rather than raving about yourself online, create a World Wide Rave. The most powerful way to get your story out there is to let people tell your story for you. If you people are going to talk about you, you have to be interesting and create content that people want to talk about.

In this episode of Power to the Small Business, David Meerman Scott tells us how to get a world-wide rave started. He also shares examples of local businesses that have authentically tapped into online riches.

Guests: David Meerman Scott – Best-selling author of World Wide Rave
Length: 28 minutes

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World Wide Rave Show Notes

Selected quotes from David Meerman Scott:

“What people care about are themselves. And they care about their problems. And they care very deeply about solving their problems.”

“If you want people to tell your ideas and spread your stories, you have to give them something interesting to talk about. And your product isn’t that.”

“If you have the guts to lose control of your messages, your content, and the ways people talk about you, they will talk about you.”

“You don’t go there (online communities) to sell. You go there to participate and provide valuable information. And people will learn your affiliation.”

 

Buy the Book: World Wide Rave
David’s Blog: Web Ink Now
David on Twitter: @DMScott

We are marketing in a great period of transition: a digital divide. The abandonment of traditional media and the adoption of new media in small business marketing is in. Or is it? So what should you do? Jump wholeheartedly into social media and online marketing? Are traditional media like newspaper, TV and radio dead? Is Facebook and Twitter the magic marketing answer?

To determine the state of small business marketing, I asked four small business marketing practitioners to give their opinion. Where should entrepreneurs do? What’s working right now? What does the future hold?

Guests: Rod Sloane, Drew McLellan, Becky McCray, Matt Foster
Length: 28 minutes

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Show Notes on the State of Small Business Marketing

Rod Sloane – Author of 121 Marketing Ideas to Grow Your Business

1. Do the simple things and get back to basics.
2. Always do what your competition is not doing.
3. The future is about you as an individual and what you stand for.

Rod Sloane’s Blog: No Bull Business
The Book: 121 Marketing Ideas to Grow Your Business

Drew McLellan – Top Dog, McLellan Marketing Group

1. Pick one thing that you should be doing and commit to doing it for six months to a year.
2. Your marketing is not about you, it’s about your customer.
3. Don’t put too much information in your marketing message. Choose one key message.
4. It’s ok to use a blend of old and new media.

Drew McLellan’s Blog: Drew’s Marketing Minute
Drew’s Company: McLellan Marketing Group

Becky McCray – Small Town Entrepreneur

1. Reach beyond your community.
2. Use traditional marketing tools to build awareness
3. Engage customers. Don’t just advertise.
4. Have a plan.

Becky McCray’s Blog: Small Biz Survival
Becky‘s Business: Allen’s Retail Liquor Store

Matt Foster – CEO of ArteWorks Search Engine Optimization

1. Having a website without having at least some basic search engine optimization is pointless.
2. Consider having some off-site search engine optimization such as blogs or a social media presence.
3. Get a 5-6 page website, add contact, build links and start making a name for yourself.

Matt Foster’s Company: ArteWorks SEO
Matt on Twitter: @ArteWorksSEO

Small business owners often play a dual role of both marketer and manager. That can rip your marketing mind in half. Left-brain management thinking is at odds with right-brain marketing thinking. Best-selling author Laura Ries says to be a good entrepreneur you need to be a right-brainer.

In their new book: War in the Boardroom, Laura and her father Al Ries tell you how to win this war and revive your marketing program. In this episode, Laura Ries says that “The key to success for any entrepreneur is going to be marketing.” You have to understand these forces that bog down your marketing program. She offers advice on how listen to your gut and encourages you to embrace your right-brain marketing mind.

Guests: Laura Ries – Author, Marketing Consultant
Length: 27 minutes

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You can also download the mp3 file here: Download Power to the Small Business Episode #25(for personal use only)

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Show Notes: Laura Ries – War in the Boardroom

Selected quotes from the episode by Laura Ries:

“What makes a good entrepreneur is being a strong right-brainer and not listening to your left-brain friends and advisors”

“In general, you have to go with your gut. That’s the whole idea of being a right-brainer.”

“It’s all about perception. That’s what really matters about building a brand.”

“What doesn’t work in marketing is common sense”

Take the Brain Quiz: Are You a Left or Right Brainer?
Buy the Book: War in the Boardroom
Laura Ries’ Blog: Ries’ Pieces
Al & Laura Ries’ Company: Ries & Ries

The neat thing about delivering a remarkable customer experience is that it can be the foundation of a strong brand. Or a community of brands. Unless you live in Ann Arbor, Michigan, one of the best experiences you’ve never had is from a community of businesses you’ve never heard of: Zingerman’s

Zingerman’s Deli is a featured company in Bo Burlingham’s Small Giants: Companies That Choose to Be Great Instead of Big. Co-founders Ari Weinzweig and Paul Saginaw have grown a community of businesses in Ann Arbor founded on the mission of delivering a great experience. That community is now nine businesses strong and will probably swell to 13-14 by the year 2020.

Ari Weinzweig is Co-founding partner and CEO of the Zingerman’s Community of Businesses. In this episode of Power to the Small Business, Ari shares how Zingerman’s explored their mission to discover a brand based on experience. Ari says real mission statement contain the answers to four questions.

Guest: Ari Weinzweig – Co-founding partner and CEO, Zingerman’s Community of Businesses

Length: 19 minutes

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Ari Weinzweig: Show Notes on the Zingerman’s Experience

Building a Brand on Experience:

Experience is everything. Build a culture where your employees will break the rules in favor of the customer. Then recognize and reward that behavior of breaking the rules.

Start your brand by visioning. Look five years down the road and describe what the experience is like.

Then build a mission statement that answers these four questions:

1. What do you do?
2. Why do you do it?
3. Who are you, that’s doing it?
4. For whom are you doing it?

Links:

1. Zingerman’s Community of Businesses – Nine different businesses in the Ann Arbor, Michigan area.
2. Zing Train – Learn the Zingerman’s way. Don’t forget your free samples.
3. Zingerman’s Guide to Good Eating – Ari Weinzweig’s guide on choosing the best foods.
4. Zingerman’s Guide to Giving Great Service – Ari Weinzweig’s shares his secrets on world-class customer service.

The social media evangelists are preaching: “Social media is the way, the truth, the light!” But is it right for your business? And if it is, how do you get started?

David Berkowitz is Director of Emerging Media & Client Strategy for 360i, a social media marketing company based in New York. In this episode of Power to the Small Business, David explains how get a social media program started and how to analyze whether or not a particular channel is for you. David says that while most of these tools are free, the time commitment can be enormous.

Guest: David Berkowitz – Director of Emerging Media & Client Strategy, 360i
Length: 24 minutes

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David Berkowitz: Show Notes on Social Media

Starting a Social Media Program:

Social media is a broad term. Some companies may have social media programs without even realizing it. If you have a Facebook or MySpace page, You have a social media program.

Important Considerations:

• People are already participating in social media. You should know if your customers are participating.
• Have a sense of how you approach all the areas where consumers are actively participating and sharing content.
• Make use of the avail public tools. Most of the information is available is free.
• While many of the tools are free, the time commitment can be enormous.

Social Media Program Tools:

1. FaceBook – Useful for letting customers write comments and solicit feedback.
2. MySpace – Excellent for reaching students and younger demographics
3. Twitter – A good channel for brief communications, sharing links and having quick exchanges.
4. Blogging – Tools such as Blogger, WordPress and Typepad are a cornerstone of social media programs. A good choice for broadcasting your ideas, start conversations, and get search engine results.
5. YouTube – Video hosting solution. Good for product demos or if you have a passionate personality. You can also produce content about your business or industry.

Your website traffic should not be a mystery. There are tools to help you track and analyze website traffic. Those tools are called web analytics.

Tina Bean is Sales & Marketing for VisiStat, a real time website visitor tracking service. In this episode of Power to the Small Business, Tina Bean explains what web analytics are and what they can do for your small business website. Tina says that, “everyone with a website needs web analytics.”

Guest: Tina Bean – Sales & Marketing Director, VisiStat

Length: 23 minutes

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You can also download the mp3 file here: Download Power to the Small Business #22 (for personal use only)

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Tina Bean: Show Notes on Web Analytics

Web analytics: The process of monitoring and tracking the activity on your website, presented in a simple and intuitive format.

These powerful tools allow you to measure, analyze and track everything that goes happens on your website. You can actually track all visitors back to their point of origination:

• Referring links
• Search Engine referrals
• Geographic location of visitor
• The physical location of each visitor’s computer
• How site visitors move through your website
• Quantify and measure advertising campaigns

How do you get web analytics on your website? By simply installing a tracking code on the website.

One of the best applications of web analytics is search engine optimization.

1. Learn which keywords are driving traffic
2. Receive trending reports on the performance of your keywords over time.
3. View page-rank reports – Which keywords appear on page 1, 2, 3 of the search engine results.

Show Links

VisiStat

Google Analytics

Lijit

Marketing Seminars, Workshops and Conferences

How do you solve the branding puzzle, especially if you’re an existing business? Your brand is your company’s most important asset, so you need to do it right.

Alina Wheeler is the author of Designing Brand Identity, now in it’s second edition. In this episode of Power to the Small Business, Alina Wheeler gives us four simple questions to answer. Answering those four questions is the start to designing your brand identity.

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Guest: Alina Wheeler – Author, Designing Brand Identity
Length: 23 minutes

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Alina Wheeler: Show Notes on Brand Identity

The Four Branding Questions:

1. Who are you?
   – Seize every opportunity to tell your story.
   – Convey why you are the choice the customers should make
   – Be clear about what it is you have to offer.Understand your identity, reaffirm your uniqueness, share your passion. Go back to why you became an entrepreneur in the first place. “If you are not different (than your competition) then you don’t deserve to have a brand.”
2. Who needs to know?List all the people in your universe that affect your success: Your best customers, vendors, communities, competition, media, advisors.
3. How will they find out?Take an inventory of all touchpoints. Which are the most important for who needs to know. Website, blog, face-to-face.
4. Why should they care? Is your business really filling a real customer need?

There is a lot of misconceptions about what it is. Brand Identity is a tangible expression. You can see it, touch it, hear it.

The Book: Designing Brand Identity
A step-by-step guide to creating dynamic mobile marketing campaigns.

Show Links
Alina Wheeler – Alina Wheeler’s website